Do you collect Town sets according to a theme?

[David Thomsen]

For a long time I held off on city sets because the theme is kind of big and rambling and duplicates a lot of emergency facilities without having many civilian buildings. I didn't want to set up two giant police stations with a small pizza parlor in between.

When the farming sets came out I had an epiphany - I didn't have to buy all the city sets, just the ones that fit in with a particular type of city. Ever since then I've been collecting according to the rule of 'a small, old, inland farming village between larger cities'.

It made things much simpler. Coastal sets were right out, but all the farming sets were in. Large police stations didn't fit in, but the small outpost from the Police Command Centre worked perfectly. Large planes are out, but the small postal plane and the air ambulance are fine. Their airfield doesn't have a large tower, just the wind sock from the Seaplane set. Lots of trucks are passing through all the time. The yellow bus doesn't have any place there, but the coach from City Public Transport stops off every day to give the passengers some refreshment. The retro look of the Town Plan buildings and the yellow train station fits in with a place that hasn't had much modernisation, and so on.

Does anyone else have a particular city type in mind that helps them decide which city sets to buy?

[Peppermint_M]

I am building a town based upon my local area, so it is a small village that sits between rural and suburban. I bought the city scene and I am collecting some cars and farm bits and bobs and I am looking to MOC some classic-like shops and houses, maybe altering to modular build in a classic town scale. Then again I could change my mind (my town is a very small street currently) and end up with something different.

[The Penguin]

I usually collect sets that may fit into a large megapolis. Such as Gotham!

In that case the new sets are relatively good, with a bit of modding, the'll fit perfectly. )

Good day, ladies and gentlemen! )

[Jargo]

I didn't to begin with but one night i couldn't sleep and started looking at the sets and decided to plan. Main town/city, outskirts, countryside leading to coastal village. then I added a river running past the town down to the village and the other half of the town/city on the far bank.

I drew all sorts of plans for streets and where was best to situate specific buildings and now I'm just building up from the bottom. starting with municipal services and emergency services. then stuff like communications and public transport. civillian transport. the last thing I'll add is houses. I'll fit those in wherever there's space. mostly scratch built.

I amend my plans whenever new sets appear and look at stuff from other themes that will help bring architecture styles or items of interest. such as museum exhibits or civic space statues.

I mix old and new styles in to give a sense of how my town/city grew but I've ignored the large modular buildings like cafe corner. I've also picked a colour scheme for the buildings to give a sense that a lot of them were built in the same time frame. I have pages and pages of lists for brick type and colour relating to individual services. so when I come to build the hospital for example I know It's going to be mostly white with accents of green and blue and not a hint of red anywhere as hospitals don't use red because of it's association with blood and death. The fire service will have a tan building to house the red engines. The police station will most likely be a grey building.

the airport will lie between the outskirts of the town and the coastal village buffered on all sides by farm land and woodland.

So I'm gathering all the sets and parts to fulfill specific jobs and needs and stock piling them ready for the day I can put it all together. my loft is groaning under the weight.

[Commodore Hornbricker]

I am building an 18th Century (early 19th Century) Caribbean Port City. Castle, Pirates, Town, Modular Buildings, IJ, POP, Creator have all been pretty great theams for providing parts.

[chillgoose]

Yea I am, but not intentionally.

I was usually a Town/City collector but just a few months ago a friend of mine gave me 6292 Enchanted Island for free. It was in mint condition and had all the pieces. After building it I decided to get back into Lego after a long hiatus.

Having the beautiful 6292 set all looking pretty and built I decided to make my towns theme of an modern encroachment onto a native settlement.

So I have started collecting houses, and then infrastructure will pop in as the town grows. Im also quite excited for the new train sets. Will definitely have to get those sets. The native Islanders wont be to happy about the freight or passenger trains!

[lightningtiger]

Well there are two things I do, one is a few actual city sets to make small scenes for my son to make up his minifig plays and stories with. Two, is myself buying sets now and turning them into MOC's for my town New Mannum.

It's up to you 'David' if you want a whole city, or just roll with a police or construction theme, what ever sails your boat I guess, we are all different as you can see from our replies.

I'm a conformist! !