ER0L

In my opinion the best supplier for devices to lighten up your Lego city is - Lego. Also because it's, well, Lego. Especially the Light & Sound stuff (high quality electric parts still working well today which don't even cost much, see Bricklink) is quite helpful here. This way you don't need any third party parts (and definitely no modified bricks). I'm using a combination of PF LEDs and L&S lights for my City layout, even for vehicles. If you're interested in such things, you may want to take a look here: https://www.flickr.com/photos/er0l/albums/72157646066952981

@peedeejay Thanks for the mention. Yeah, I guess police vehicles are quite important in a Lego city - also because they are (often, not always, alas) where the action is. You might want to take a look at the Dodge Charger from SharpShot which I guess might fit in very nicely here, also because it's got a kind of Town-ish approach, whereas I would probably have something larger in mind. Great Police Station btw., I had already seen it on Flickr. I especially love the atmosphere of the interior which for whatever reason reminds me of "The Wire". I also like the exterior - this is "moccing in modular style" at its best (would fit smoothly in any modular street), and there's some really nice stuff going on.

@SharpShot With permission from Ben I'm uploading his 2019 rendition of your Charger here (more pics on his Flickr): 2019 Dodge Charger Pursuit by Ben, on Flickr

Emergency Vehicle 2019 - Ambulance with emergency lighting Ambulance with working emergency lights (1/40 scale) by ER0L, on Flickr Hi all, I'm changing the title of this thread to "Emergency Vehicle of the Year" - there are enough cop cars now, I guess. 7w/8w. 100% Lego. Here you can see the ambulance in action: https://www.flickr.com/photos/er0l/49248900118 There was no time for Lego in the last few months. However at least the annual emergency vehicle had to be built - which was also motivated by another visit to the Miniatur Wunderland in Hamburg some weeks ago (biggest model railway worldwide). There you may learn a lot about conceiving a model layout, also regarding the necessity of having as many emergency vehicles as possible (and with working lights, if that can be achieved somehow). Also, an Ambulance was still missing on the Route 66 layout, and I had wanted to build one for a long time. The vehicle is based on some actual specs I found on Demers Ambulances (https://www.demers-ambulances.com/model-comparison-chart/) which is a great thing. Scale is pretty much exactly 1/40 (meaning I found suitable measurements for most aspects on several prototypes) with the exception of width (8w is a bit too wide) and probably the height of the cab (though there is this type of heavy duty pick-up truck considerably taller than a human being, I guess). Of course, the design possibilities were a bit restricted by the necessity of including the light gear, but the design does its job, I guess - like on the vehicle it is supposed to mimic. Still no fan of the SC wheels which look too big (and too sporty) on practically everything - but well, there aren’t many alternatives for this kind of vehicle if you want to avoid the usual tire stretching. Another restriction were the parts at hand since I’m trying more and more not to purchase a few missing parts just to finish a MOC. The lower section is blue just because I didn’t have two of the white arch bricks - I think it looks nice as well. In any case it’s great to see that Lego parts of several decades can still be put together smoothly to create something working nicely: Take an old battery box, some L&S lights (working perfectly in spite of their age), some cables plus an adapter cable (!) to connect the PF LEDs for headlights and rear lights. No need for the more modern stuff. Also, no need for third party lighting stuff at all. Thanks for reading all this. Merry Xmas and a Happy New Year to all of you! Hopefully there’ll be more MOCs coming from me in 2020.

I really like the design of these - they somehow look like enhanced and highly detailed versions of City vehicles, as if there were a product line of vehicles made especially for, say, modular purposes, yet very playable. Also the built stripes are a great touch. My only complaint would be that I think the 6w ladder is too narrow compared to the 6w/7w ambulance and looks a bit tall, also when the wheel size is taken into account. I guess 7 or even 8w (and maybe larger wheels) would look better on this one. (However, I'm glad not to find a link to Ideas here - not because they aren't better than at least 95 percent of similar stuff there, but just because such sets don't have a chance anyway and it is nice to see that there are still moccers on EB pursuing their own ideas instead of looking for potential buyers of their works. But that's just me.)

By setting down the Mini (smaller wheels, flattened roof) and making the figs a little taller you get a much better ratio between fig and car (see below). Regarding buildings and trucks: I don't think you can because then you get giant scales which don't match anything in larger surroundings (thinking e. g. of joint layouts) and which are much too parts consuming. Au contraire, I would say (see above). The only exception I can think of are US landyachts of the Seventies and Eighties (which also are much more difficult to replicate than one might think). In another sense it may be correct to say that older cars are easier to replicate than modern ones because they have a certain shaping to them at all - whereas modern designs often are absolutely interchangeable, at least in my opinion.

For newcomers (and children, of course) it might be a good idea - the models as such look much better than before. However it's obvious that all SC 6 collectors will be very disappointed when placing the new SC 8 models next to the old cars - the latter will look even uglier than they did before with their 4w canopies combined with 6w bodies which never worked in my opinion. Be it as it may - the disproportioned SC 6 design scheme is history now, which is a good thing in itself. But instead of opening a completely new chapter and taking odd widths into account like they did on the Mini they just went the easiest way by making the SC line completely uninteresting for City builders - at least scalewise. 8w (plus mudguards, to be correct) is a width I have chosen (after long considerations) for trucks and buses. And boy, those are large vehicles. An 8w+ Ferrari would look absolutely ridiculous next to, say, an 8w Greyhound Bus - the more so combined with a 6w+ City truck.

This looks great indeed, even in terms of a 6+ building style which I prefer. And do I really spot a 6 to 4 windscreen part? Never expected them to do that. That would mean a completely new era of minifig scale sports car building. Hopefully this part will be available unprinted, too. However, that's great news for all minifig scale car moccers.

Some of my assumptions seem to be correct, some not so much, see https://www.flickr.com/photos/er0l/47965799562. However, we know now that both cars stem from designer Adam Grabowski (= Misterzumbi; if you're interested in minifig scale car moccing and you don't know who that is you should quickly look up his MOCs) The bad news is (if I understand correctly) that there won't be a "Bandit" Trans Am set, neither as a Speed Champions set nor in another range (which so far doesn't even exist). Too bad!

Scale Check: Chevrolet K5 Blazer from set 75810 (design by Misterzumbi) I'd like to draw your attention to this vehicle since I think it is one of the best stock minifig scale cars of at least the last few years: I don't own the set thus I threw together a civilian version with what was at hand to check the scale and to take a further look into some design aspects. There are only a few minor changes, thus it can't be even called a MOD. The original design of this part of the set stems from Adam Grabowski (= Misterzumbi) which at least for me also explains why it's that good - as a car aficionado the K5 Blazer was the first thing catching my eye when I first saw the "Upside Down" set (in spite of the other eye-catchers the set definitely has). There are several aspects to be pointed out - first of all the overall scale which isn't too far from what can be used in a proper Town surrounding (see the scale breakdown above). Another aspect is that typical minifig scale vehicle elements like mudguards or large wedge parts are missing completely which makes the whole thing more individual. Finally, the subtle half-plate offsets at the frontend and hood plus those nice angles at the hardtop give the car some fine lines and make it easily identifiable. Compare this to your regular Speed Champions ride ... Anyhow, if you're interested in having a really cool K5 Blazer within your town (and you're not as picky regarding scale as me who thinks a full-size SUV like a Blazer should be a 7 studs wide vehicle) you should build one of these.

It's the exact setup as shown above. The "newer" (in fact produced for 6 years now) 21 x 9.9 Town tires had a big impact on Minifig scale car design because of the much more realistic (which at this scale means: hardly visible) profiling. However, the "older", more profiled 21 x 12 Town tires (which - for whatever reason - are still being produced by TLG and used in City sets) aren't obsolete: You may very well use them on 4x4 vehicles where a "rugged" look is more desirable:

That's a great concept, it's similar to the "City Champions" setup I came up with some years ago, see e. g. this "Lambo"-ish racer: Regarding the wheels you may get a better result by combining SC hubcaps with the newer Town tires (though this might not get through on an Ideas model): Anyhow good luck with your project!

I have: https://www.flickr.com/photos/er0l/43929027925 Pretty sure I didn't invent it either though. However, it's a very minifig-friendly kind of staircase that can be actually used by them. Regarding the build I really like it, shaping and colour design are very nice. The 1x1 modified bricks with adjacents studs are put to a good use here. The door doesn't match the minifig scale in my opinion (as it hardly ever does) - I tried the same on my model but ended up with a brickbuilt one. In any case this would make a great set in my opinion, I'd definitely buy it. However I think it will need a lot of promotion to get the 10.000 votes done. Maybe chances would be better with a matching vehicle next to it, but that's just a guess. Good luck!

Regarding the wheels I don't think it's an SC model, though it's quite difficult to identify in the Video. But usually City scale and SC models don't go well with each other scalewise, so far I haven't seen an official pic where the two vehicle styles get mixed (correct me if I'm wrong). However the Trans Am reminds me a lot of Lichtblau's model, see https://www.flickr.com/photos/42874449@N08/8349093187/. Of course, the headlights are different, and for obvious reasons it has a 4w instead of a 5w windscreen, but the whole setup is quite similar. Not sure what that means, maybe he's behind this model in some way, but that's rather a speculation.

Yeah, that's why I didn't touch it. That's the idea of the whole thing: Keep what's actually working and change what's necessary to match the builds you already have or the setup you're aiming at.