Modular + ebay instructions + wheres all my money gone?

[funkdis]

I'm not sure how keen I am to smash up all the old shell/octan/fire stations/police etc for the sake of rebuilding modular buildings, I'd like to keep them for the nostalgic reason. Wondering how some of you oldschool collectors mix and match your old system lego with the modular setups? The modular sets seems to be a brick or two higher in scale than any of the old sets :/

Only building that just may suit this modular style would be the 4554 Yellow 1990's train station, I'm heavily considering to do this to turn mine it into a modular in some way

http://brickthorpe.f...low-station.jpg

What is everyones experience purchasing modular instructions off ebay?

Edited November 29, 2012 by funkdis

[sgeureka]

Personally, I'd save the money and simply take the modular instructions from http://service.lego.com/en-gb/buildinginstructions/ .

[LEGO Guy Bri]

I agree, unless you're like me, and have to have the actual set booklet, you should just save and use online. Some of those books get very expensive. I've purchased a few sets of instructions, for a truck, on eBay. One was a .pdf file, but only cost about tree-fiddy ($3.50); I liked it. The other two were for a Batmobile and Tumbler my friend gave me with his collection back in '09. I found out on here, after returning to LEGO, that they were not an actual set, but sold by a guy on eBay (and on here as well). They look almost like LEGO instructions. I was very pleased. As for combining regular City/Town, checkout this guy on Brickshelf. He did a pretty good job of creating a layout combining the two, that I, one day, hope to do.

[eurotrash]

Only building that just may suit this modular style would be the 4554 Yellow 1990's train station, I'm heavily considering to do this to turn mine it into a modular in some way

http://brickthorpe.f...low-station.jpg

I've got the 4554 and, like you, was wondering what to do with it. It didn't really fit in with the MOCs I've got and it just looks 'old', small and primitive when compared to the current Modulars, and it looks very, very yellow. So I built a modern waiting room extension onto it, raised the height up a couple of bricks (DrkGrey at the base so that it looks more industrial), changed the doors to a taller door, extended the roof line and made it deeper. It still needs some internal finishing, but it looks way better and more in keeping with the current Lego design ethos. Here's a couple of quick pics but I think it's definitely worth re-engineering some of the older structures to make them look like they belong in the current layouts.

Edited November 29, 2012 by eurotrash

[Martin_B]

I just ran up against the same problem as you: when I put my old Metro Park & Service Tower (6394) up against the new modular GE the top deck of the car park barely reaches the second floor!

The only way around it is to somehow 'modular-ify' the old sets to give them a similar size and level of detail.

I'm not keen on the idea of dismantling old sets, but rebuilding them to the newer 'modular' standard is the only compromise I came up with. Hpefully it'll mean I can enjoy the aesthetic of the modular stuff while paying homage to the old-school faves.

I'm currently working on 'modularifying' my old 1484 Weetabix house to the new dimensions, albeit in LDD at this stage. I'll post pics!

[funkdis]

Personally, I'd save the money and simply take the modular instructions from http://service.lego....nginstructions/ .

Got them , confused why there are two copies for some, darker scans and lighter scans, ohh well got them. One problem is there is no XML sheet added so hard to import into bricklink to get the parts :(. none the less, cheers amte.

I agree, unless you're like me, and have to have the actual set booklet, you should just save and use online. Some of those books get very expensive. I've purchased a few sets of instructions, for a truck, on eBay. One was a .pdf file, but only cost about tree-fiddy ($3.50); I liked it. The other two were for a Batmobile and Tumbler my friend gave me with his collection back in '09. I found out on here, after returning to LEGO, that they were not an actual set, but sold by a guy on eBay (and on here as well). They look almost like LEGO instructions. I was very pleased. As for combining regular City/Town, checkout this guy on Brickshelf. He did a pretty good job of creating a layout combining the two, that I, one day, hope to do.

I may take a shot at at $10 instruction/xml package of a modular set I fancy. Since I havnt played with lego for over 14/15years it may be a good idea.

That guys layout is nice i admit, some structures will fit right in if I adjust the height of the old lego and add abit to the back of the structure to fill it up (sort of looking at "lightningtiger'S" direction with his Munnun setup. (http://www.eurobrick...ic=71177&st=400)

I find having the old light gray road plates both with the walk way a challenge, seems like $200-300 will need to be dropped to get the darker colors for the modular setup and sell me old gray road plates to somewhat fund it. I'll think about that when i eventually get back to Australia and have a place to build my lego city

I've got the 4554 and, like you, was wondering what to do with it. It didn't really fit in with the MOCs I've got and it just looks 'old', small and primitive when compared to the current Modulars, and it looks very, very yellow. So I built a modern waiting room extension onto it, raised the height up a couple of bricks (DrkGrey at the base so that it looks more industrial), changed the doors to a taller door, extended the roof line and made it deeper. It still needs some internal finishing, but it looks way better and more in keeping with the current Lego design ethos. Here's a couple of quick pics but I think it's definitely worth re-engineering some of the older structures to make them look like they belong in the current layouts.

http://www.flickr.co...in/photostream/

http://www.flickr.co...in/photostream/

I'm sold on your pictures, I will definetly extend it in some ways, and add a rear wall to it to give it a nice 360deg/ modular look to it. You're right in the yellow looking somewhat odd. Since I come from Melbourne Australia (http://www.gerasimon...eet_station.jpg) I would like to keep it somewhat Yellow, but adding some gray/tan perhaps may also work to give it a Modular look/feel along with extending it to perhaps a third level but still keeping it with the 4554 style lego released it with. Looks like this set will stay with me :)

I just ran up against the same problem as you: when I put my old Metro Park & Service Tower (6394) up against the new modular GE the top deck of the car park barely reaches the second floor!

The only way around it is to somehow 'modular-ify' the old sets to give them a similar size and level of detail.

I'm not keen on the idea of dismantling old sets, but rebuilding them to the newer 'modular' standard is the only compromise I came up with. Hpefully it'll mean I can enjoy the aesthetic of the modular stuff while paying homage to the old-school faves.

I'm currently working on 'modularifying' my old 1484 Weetabix house to the new dimensions, albeit in LDD at this stage. I'll post pics!

The 6394 is definetly one of my top 5 sets. I remember scrolling through someones flickr set and he had a ferrari modular building, I would like to consider making an addittional Shell & Octan petrol(gas) station modular set. Dont know How it would come out but using some old elements would be sweet.

Regular Lego City sets dont make the old system look that much outdated I find, other than the vechiles being 6stud. But the modular buildings really bring Lego out to a new era.

btw, anyone have XML for all the modular sets? well the first 3 ever released at least?.

Tim.

Edited November 30, 2012 by funkdis

[PsyKater]

To get the parts from bricklink just use bricklink ;)

a) Login

b) Wanted -> Part set

c) Insert set no. and preferences (part conditions etc)

d) follow the next steps

e) Wanted -> By shop

Go shopping ;)

[TheLegoDr]

I only use free instructions online. It saves money mostly and I don't mind looking at the computer screen. Although you can print them off yourself from the LEGO website as noted above. There are two different versions depending on where you live/what paper you will use to print them off. I've heard of some people saving the file and taking it to a FedEx Office location to have it printed professionally. Might be pricier than just normal paper, but saves tons over the actual thing (depending on set of course).

There really isn't a need to import a piece list into Bricklink since you can use Bricklink for that very purpose. Create a wanted list by set number and it will give you all of the pieces the set has. Then you go through and see which pieces you want and which shop has the cheapest/most items available. Sometimes one store may have a lot of what you want, but another store may be cheaper on certain elements. So it all comes down to shipping/location probably. I'd recommend looking and comparing a few different shops to see what will be the best deal.

[funkdis]

To get the parts from bricklink just use bricklink ;)

a) Login

b) Wanted -> Part set

c) Insert set no. and preferences (part conditions etc)

d) follow the next steps

e) Wanted -> By shop

Go shopping ;)

This is dangerous... Seems like I'll be backtracking some sets from the 90's now :(

Thanks PsyKater

I only use free instructions online. It saves money mostly and I don't mind looking at the computer screen. Although you can print them off yourself from the LEGO website as noted above. There are two different versions depending on where you live/what paper you will use to print them off. I've heard of some people saving the file and taking it to a FedEx Office location to have it printed professionally. Might be pricier than just normal paper, but saves tons over the actual thing (depending on set of course).

There really isn't a need to import a piece list into Bricklink since you can use Bricklink for that very purpose. Create a wanted list by set number and it will give you all of the pieces the set has. Then you go through and see which pieces you want and which shop has the cheapest/most items available. Sometimes one store may have a lot of what you want, but another store may be cheaper on certain elements. So it all comes down to shipping/location probably. I'd recommend looking and comparing a few different shops to see what will be the best deal.

The whole Shipping/location will be a challenge, I may just get lazy and have to pay the price with 2/3 sellers rather than 6/7 sellers.