49 replies to this topic

[gotoAndLego]

B-OM-21B

My original idea was for the most masculine/macho building in town. With a garage, steak & bbq restaurant, kick boxing studio, gun range, and a Jacuzzi on the roof; but I decided to simplify so here we have a motorcycle dealership.

Lets start with the female manager doing a smokey burnout and a punk kid at the only working payphone in town. The utilities control box is to its right.


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Now for some exterior shots, this building was an old warehouse that's been rennovated. The service bay, with brick build doors, is down a narrow alley. The alley isn't in the best shape (looks like someone has been doing burnouts in the alley as well); the city's budget is stretched so there is no money to repave it. The alley also has two dumpters, which are usually full of rusted parts, boxes, and also meet the rules requirements of having technic connectors on both sides. The brick-built shutters do close when pushed together.


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Around back we have the stairs leading up to the second-floor showroom and the HVAC system that feeds the first-floor service bay. There's also a small patch of wild growth outback with Mickey-the-rat, the shop mascot. The new owners wanted to brick in both sets of windows on the side, but the Fire Marshall said they had to have fire escape access so they left two alone (the fire escape windows are offset in half a stud and align with the vertically-striped interior walls).


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Lets take a look at the service level, clockwise from the left we have the elevator used to move bikes from the service bay to the second-floor showroom (you didn't think they would hump them up the stairs did you?); a dyno to tune the bikes; emergency fire equipment; vents for the HVAC I mentioned before; a poster of a cute girl on a Guzzi cafe racer; a back room under the stairs for Harry Potter... I mean the coffee maker and bathroom; the workbench with tools, drill press, radio and service manuals, and a coke vending machine (although you can't see it, I'm using a string-piece and a jumper plate to simulate the vending machine being plugged in). I removed parts of the overhead door rails for this photo. The interior walls still have their original brickwork even though the outside of the building was repainted. You can see the blue bricks that give the back of the phone booth its color.


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On to the second floor showroom. We have two more brick built bikes, bringing the total to four. You can get either the regular two-up version, or the racier sportbike with the solo seat. The red display platforms are on turntables so you can angle them any way you want. You also have the manager's office with table, clock radio, and register. Being that the manager is female, she decided to put up pleasing wallpaper, if she had left it up to the men the walls would have been covered with newspaper clippings and old Farah Fawcett posters.


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The third floor is where the real money is made...accessories. On the wall there are different handlebars, exhaust pipes, and custom bodywork. On the floor is a high performace front end so you can upgrade your suspension and some helmet displays.


While I didn't intend this to be a corner building, with a little modification it could. In my gallery you can also see how the alley and the dumpsters integrate with other modulars. Even though it is a little taller than the Grand Emporium, its still shorter than the Town Hall. I have more and bigger pics on the Flickrs.

Fun Fact: I was going to use BrickForge scooters until they said no 3rd part bricks; which is why I brick-built the bikes.

PS. On Cuusoo.

Edited by Phred, 23 June 2012 - 04:42 AM.

[streifen]

wow!! that is 1 nice bike shop!

I like the custom-built motorbike! the phone booth looks great!!  

[moctown]

This is really cool!! I'm lovin' the richness of detail inside & outside - great job!  
Wish you good luck in the contest!  

[cimddwc]

Great building with these not-so-shiny areas, great interior and brick-built motorcycles!  

[Cunctator]

Very original building with lots of details to look at!
My favourite ones are the grille used for the floor and that delicious motorcycles  

Really a great entry: good luck in the contest!

[gedren_y]

Wonderful build with lots of visual interest. One question though; why did you choose to make your motorcycles with the chain drive on the right?

[LegoJalex]

Nice design and colours and lots of interesting details! I think this is my favourite so far.  

[gotoAndLego]

gedren_y, on 18 June 2012 - 05:51 PM, said:

...One question though; why did you choose to make your motorcycles with the chain drive on the right?

There are some modern bikes, like the Triumph Bonnevilles, Buell XBs, and BMW F800s, that have right-side chain, some vintage bikes had them as well, and I suppose this shop could be selling those bikes. Now that you mention it, I'm not sure why I didn't put the pipe on the right and chain on the left. Just something that slipped through production. I guess that's why Lego employes people to check stuff like that.

Edited by gotoAndLego, 18 June 2012 - 06:17 PM.

[Cara]

I adore the front of this. That big window that shows a peek of the activity inside really draws you in. I love the details and colours on the front and side. And I really like that its a corner building without facing diagonally. I don't like the back, all the mixed colours on different levels, but when I see the inside I understand why and the inside works really well. Lots of detail in the wall patterns without having to have fussy furniture. It screams show room to me  . I think the double wide walls to get the details on the sides worked better than the single depth back wall. If you pushed everything back one stud to get the double side back wall, then the stairs sit on perimeter and instead of the garden could maybe put a dumpster in the back corner?

Interesting how you've removed some of the walls to photograph it. That has made it photograph really well. How does each level attach to the one above it, it all looks like smooth tiles?

Definately my favourite so far and those brick build bikes are wonderful.

[gotoAndLego]

I agree about the front window as I've always been fascinated by modern renovations of old buildings; where the two styles are integrated.

As far as how the floors connect, there is a L-shaped 2x2 dark blue plate at each of the front corners, which also secures the top of the removable facade in place. I also have some 2x? plates bracing the undeside of the floors and they are 2 studs away from the sides and 1 stud away from the back. Both methods do a good job of locking everything in place.

I decided that since I hardly look at the back I would accept a bit of a messy color combination in exchange for the interior working well with the wall bricks matching the wallpaper colors.

I didn't intend for it to be a corner building, but it could be one, I like the way the alley looks as opposed to an open side. But as you said, if you wanted it as a corner building you could move one dumpster to that open back area. It would even give Mickey, the shop mascot, a place to sleep.

Edited by gotoAndLego, 18 June 2012 - 08:39 PM.

[LegoSjaak]

I love your style and the use of colors!!!

Greetz, LegoSjaak

[TheLegoDr]

The color usage is well done. I like the scattering of bricks to add in some change from the solid blank wall syndrome. The front tan with dark tan plates in random areas looks superb.

The use of the dumpsters and creating an alley is brilliant. I like how the dumpsters maintain the technic piece to connect modulars. Very clever thinking there.

The interior really steals the show. Very clever built bikes.

Keep up the good work.

Good luck in the contest. I see I need to step up my game to compete.

[LEGO Train 12 Volts]

streifen, on 18 June 2012 - 03:33 PM, said:

wow!! that is 1 nice bike shop!

I like the custom-built motorbike!

I can only agree ...this MOC is a masterpiece!  

[soccerkid6]

Great MOC! The brick built motorcycles look very realistic, and the MOTO sign works nicely  
The interior is very well done with more details than I want to count  
Excellent work  

[gotoAndLego]

TheLegoDr, on 18 June 2012 - 08:53 PM, said:

...Good luck in the contest. I see I need to step up my game to compete.

Thank you. I've been plesantly surprised by the entries thus far. Its going to be a hell of a competition.

[AllanSmith]

gotoAndLego, on 18 June 2012 - 03:29 PM, said:

The alley also has two dumpters, which are usually full of rusted parts, boxes, and also meet the rules requirements of having technic connectors on both sides.

Great modular. My favourite so far.  

BTW. The technic connector bricks have to sit on top of the baseplate to join with another modular. Yours are 1 plate too high.

[gotoAndLego]

AllanSmith, on 18 June 2012 - 09:15 PM, said:

Great modular. My favourite so far.  

BTW. The technic connector bricks have to sit on top of the baseplate to join with another modular. Yours are 1 plate too high.

Thanks, I'll fix that. The other side is fine however.

Edited by gotoAndLego, 18 June 2012 - 09:39 PM.

[lightningtiger]

'gotoAndLego' you have done an AWESOME job on this modular......dare I say best one so far !
The detailing is beyond awesome, interesting payphone, cool workshop and sweet showrooms !
I know which one I'm voting for when the time comes around.
Brick On 'gotoAndLego' !

[The Blue Brick]

This is awesome. I love the old run down feeling of this building. The interior is fantastic.

The snot makes it even better, and those motorcycles.  

Good luck in the contest.

[L@go]

This is wonderfully detailed, and that's rarely a bad thing as long as the details are as well-built as here :) I think what I like most about it is that it's different from other modulars I've seen. I also like the general idea of a motorcycle shop and the built-in elevator. It's possible that it'd look even better if you had removed an accent colour or three, but overall it's a great build and one that's surely going to do very well in the competition :)

Edited by L@go, 19 June 2012 - 12:56 AM.

[Dakar A]

This looks amazing! The masculine part is definetly noticable, and the dilapidation is appropriately used. Whe I get the chance, I'll blog it!

[Legocrazy81]

I really like how this fits with other Modulars. Simple, yet really creative. Great building, hihly detailed nterior. Love this brick built bikes. That owner isn't very safety orientated, doing a burnout like that. Great job and good luck!

[mrlegoman]

Nice looking bike shop! I like the SNOT MOTO sign!

[bootz]

I can't express how much I love this build. The details are superb, the building looks amazing, and the brick built bikes are enviable. This is easily my favorite contest entry to date. I would pay $200+ to have this in my town. It's given me a few ideas for my car dealership, which I would enter but it currently sits on a 48x16 space. I wanted to build up with mine, but I'm not sure how cars would get to a second floor showroom without the hand of god.

[gotoAndLego]

bootz, on 19 June 2012 - 12:51 PM, said:

...I'm not sure how cars would get to a second floor showroom without the hand of god.

From the minifig's perspective, I'm sure that's what I appear to be while operating the lift.

I was planning on fudging and either not having the lift or not having the stairs but figured that would be as weird as a building without a bathroom. I tried several solutions for the lift and this was the one which used the least amount of space. The elevator doesn't stick out as much because the channel is built into the 2-stud thick wall.

An earlier version had bricks at the outside corners to hold the floor in place, but those occupied too much interior space; this one uses to stay in the 1x4 channel I created and the red 1x8 tiles fill up the additional space. It stays in place due to friction, the weight of a fig and bike is enough to press the handle against the tile. This provides enough of a lip so I can move the lift up and down.

With your larger footprint, I'm sure you could make a more robust elevator that works for larger cars.

Edited by gotoAndLego, 19 June 2012 - 01:29 PM.