Origin at the Lego Store

The inspiration for Lady Scarlet initially came from a trip to the mall. We took the kids to the Lego Store - alright, my wife took us to the Lego Store - to look around and maybe pick up a set or two. While the kids were looking around, I wandered around myself.

They have a deal there where you can create your own mini-figures. Grab whichever body, legs, head, hair, and one accessory you like to create each unique figure. The deal is for three.

I began messing around at the mini-fig display, not intending to get anything. I was just seeing what there was. Soon, I had created a guy in a waistcoat, with a sword and bowler cap. He looked like fun, but he needed a sidekick.

Two if I was going to take advantage of the deal.

What sort of people would go on adventures with this man?

I let the pile of plastic body parts lead me on. Soon I had a jester-looking guy and started working on a gunslinger.

But I changed my mind. It seemed like this bowler hat guy would be all brawn and no brains. His companions would have to cover the slack and clean up his messes.

Soon I had a figure in a set of work overalls. While I was looking for just the right hat or hair, I found a woman's hair do in red. That changed everything.

Now, instead of my hot-headed action guy leading the way while others pick up the pieces, I had the brains operating behind the scenes and...with a couple of more pieces, the third member of the team.

I saw it working like this:

The red-headed lady was the brains of the operation, working as a part-time spy/private investigator type to fund her real job, inventing. She'd have crazy flying contraptions, superboats, souped-up motorbikes, and tricked-out cars that were always malfunctioning at just the wrong time. Action Hero Guy was the face of the operation - the one that ended up in the papers (and answering to the police) once things had been solved. Other guy was our leading lady's romantic interest and would often be the 'don in distress' whom she has to rescue.

I saw the whole thing as working something like Remington Steele, where Leading Lady let Action Hero Guy steal the show. Distressed Don would be like Murphy from the first season of the show.

But as I got to working out the details of a first adventure, things got a little muddled. I had each of them saving the other two at various points, eventually letting Leading Lady's cool wit solving the problem, even if Action Hero Guy's fist actually stopped the threat.

It morphed into the story of a woman who was unsatisfied with life even though she was about to marry into a perfect life. I liked having the different personalities being the key to individual parts of the story, or causing bits to happen. I kept that, but closed the focus from different individuals to aspects of Leading Lady's personality.

Eventually, Leading Lady became Vivian Hawthorn. Action Hero Guy became Jack Durnham, and Distressed Don became Benjamin Gilles. Here they are in their container from that day at the Lego Store. They look like children to me after all this time.