Milton Train Works™

Custom kits and custom models

A proud member of

Image credit:
Kellogg Company

Image credit:
Kellogg's Cereal City USA

KCCUSA was founded in 1998 as a non profit museum, as a way to share the wonder of cereal production via interpretive exhibits, and to make a selection of the historical artifacts accessible to the public. As a way to increase interest, each year KCCUSA chooses a theme or area of specialization. For example, in 2004, the area of focus was tractors, with the theme of "Tractor Days of Summer".

For the 2005 season, KCCUSA decided to focus on building and interpretive play, and chose the theme "Summer Block Party" with the idea that they wanted to involve LEGO somehow. In late 2004 they carried out a search to see who might help them, and MTW, partering with a number of MichLUG members, submitted a proposal to create a number of statues and displays for use during the season, and was selected.

Image credit: Kellogg Company

Tony the Tiger® The signature character of the Kellogg company, Tony The Tiger has a name and face recognition around the world. Tony has a number of distinctive features including his orange body with black stripes, his white ruff, his very buff musculature and his red kerchief. His facial features include distinctive ears, expressive yellow eyes, a blue nose, and a big grin.

We knew it was important to capture these features and give the impression of size while still retaining approachability so kids could meet their hero… KCCUSA wanted Tony to be the centerpiece of the statues we did for them, and we think we've succeeded. At over 6 feet, Tony dominates the room he's displayed in!

• Click here to see more information about the Tony statue and the build process.

• Principal Builders — Spencer Rezkalla with help from Dave Laswell and Jim Garrett.

Image credit:
Kellogg Company

Snap!, Crackle! and Pop!^®

These brothers, representing Rice Krispies^® Cereal, are among the oldest corporate icons in the US. At around 3 feet in size, they're kid friendly and approachable.

As brothers it is important that they share a family resemblance, but each has a distinctive appearance and trademark clothing.

Image credit: Kellogg Company

Froot Loops® Box Kellogg's® Froot Loops® brand is a leader in the Fruit and Color Segment of the cereal category and the mascot character, Toucan Sam®, is instantly recognizable. KCCUSA asked us to do a 5 foot Froot Loops box with a mosaic front panel. The box chosen is a classic pose for Toucan Sam, he's swinging in on a vine, bringing a bowl of his cereal to the fore.

Image credit: Kellogg Company

We knew that a box that large would be viewed both up close and from far away so we had to get to a final image that worked at both viewing distances, and use enough colors to be attractive while not using so many as to be impractical.

• Click here to see more information about the box statue and the build process.

• Principal Builders — Chris Leach with help from Ken Koleda

We did 4 display cases for KCCUSA. We chose to focus on a different theme for each one. The themes are as follows:

• Castle — This horizontal display of a typical medieval village conforms to the "Classic Castle City" (CCC) standard, has a large number of townsfolk about their business including a sheepherder with his sheep, and has two features, a windmill, and a waterwheel, activated by momentary contact pushbuttons.
• Town — This horizontal display of a bustling city scene features a hospital (with rooftop helicoptor with rotors activated by momentary contact pushbutton), restaurant and several multistory buildings. Many townsfolk and vehicles are active on the street in front.
• Space — This vertical display of a moonbase module landing tower features a large number of personal flight and ground vehicles, robots interacting with spacemen, and a rotating radar dish activated by momentary contact pushbutton.
• Undersea — This vertical display of a joint Aquazone/Sea Monkey underwater base under construction features a rescue scene, crane sub, exploration of a sunken wreck and lots of human and Sea Monkeys at home in their underwater environment.

• Click here to see more information about the displays.

• Principal Builders — Jason Spears with help from Larry Pieniazek, Nik Pieniazek and Colin Spears.

Back Row: Spencer Rezkalla, Jim Garrett, Larry Pieniazek, TONY!, Ken Koleda, Allison Tribul (KCCUSA)

Front Row: Jason Spears, Trevor Koleda, Chris Leach, Steve Ringe

Not Present: Dave Laswell, Nik Pieniazek

About the Builders

A great many people helped make the KCCUSA project happen. Meet them here.

Taken at KCCUSA, Tony watches installation of a trimmer, buffer Tony…

Photo credit: John Grap/The Battle Creek Enquirer
Photo caption: Allison Tribul, marketing manager at Cereal City U.S.A., plays with a Lego car from one of the displays that will be part of their Summer Block party.

Publicity

• The project has received publicity in the Battle Creek Examiner, the local paper, in the Friday May 27, 2005 edition. The full text of the article is here in text form and here in scanned form.
• The project was announced on LUGNET where the post received a fair number of spotlights.
• Jake McKee, Community Relations Manager for LEGO mentioned the project in his blog.
• The project has also received publicity from WOTV (channel 4 in Grand Rapids MI) and you can see a clip on this page.

LEGO^® is a trademark of the LEGO Company, which does not sponsor, authorize or endorse this site.