[MOD] Laundromat Modular 16-wide from Brick Bank

[koalayummies]

The Brick Bank got raided by federal agents after a tip from the laundromat owner after it was discovered that an intentionally disabled laundry machine was being used to funnel cash through a false wall to the bank's vault. Agents later arrested all the bankers and uncovered a vast scheme involving predatory lending and a wide range of financial fraud that helped perpetrate the worst financial crisis since the Great Brickpression. 

The Laundromat has since reopened in its very own building with new and donated furnishings and machines. 

 

 

 

Washers (bottom) and driers (above):

Ironing boards and community information board:

 

Two new industrial double washer double dryer machine stacks:

Combination ATM/change machine:

 

Second floor has the laundromat office with bed for weekends when its most busy, the furniture was donated after the Brick Bank raid:

Even after building purchase and renovation there's still a sizable amount of the reward money left over for the information given to the authorities and with no bank in town best to just sleep with it:

Relax on the roof and enjoy the view of the city:

 

The minifigures have seen enough of what big banking can do to their town so they've decided to get together and form a credit union financial cooperative to replace the Brick Bank, coming soon. 

Edited September 5, 2017 by koalayummies

[paupadros]

Quite a quirky little modular! Has rather nice personality

[Bricksmith]

Very nicely done! Lots of interesting detail in there.

[snaillad]

Very nice work!

[Only Sinner]

Looks great! I like the new size and the appliances inside. The owner should seriously watch his back because those corrupt bankers can afford some dangerous hired muscle.

[peedeejay]

Good job giving the laundromat its own personal build!

[Blazej_Holen]

Nice build, and I like thet 32x16 studs footprint, but that dark/light bley zig zag is quite weird to my taste...

[AnkTales]

Good Job! 

[scottwb2010]

A decent size laundromat you have made, unlike the one that comes with the brick bank. Nice touch having the ironing boards and good sized Washing machines too. Brings back memories of going along to the local Laundromat with my mum back in the 70's before we had our own washing machine and getting a hot chocolate from the vending machine that was always way too hot to drink. 

[Xon67]

A great MOC and a great story to go along with it!  Very entertaining!

[Digger of Bricks]

I love the repurposing of the Nexo shields as ironing boards! Maybe it's just the lighting, but are those shields in Sand Blue or is that just Light Bluish Grey? 

5 hours ago, Blazej_Holen said:

Nice build, and I like thet 32x16 studs footprint, but that dark/light bley zig zag is quite weird to my taste...

I think Lego really should do 32 by 16 footprinted modulars for one year, perhaps two of them at a $70 to $90 range.

[koalayummies]

On September 5, 2017 at 0:28 AM, paupadros said:

Quite a quirky little modular! Has rather nice personality

Thanks Paupadros, you've got quite the MOC modular collection so I'm humbled you like this. 

 

On September 5, 2017 at 5:16 AM, Bricksmith said:

Very nicely done! Lots of interesting detail in there.

Thanks Bricksmith! Pieces to spare are limited at the moment so I'm glad you feel it has a good amount of detail. 

On September 5, 2017 at 11:58 AM, snaillad said:

Very nice work!

Thank you for the compliment, its nice to have a Master Builder like yourself enjoy my work. 

On September 5, 2017 at 2:13 PM, Only Sinner said:

Looks great! I like the new size and the appliances inside. The owner should seriously watch his back because those corrupt bankers can afford some dangerous hired muscle.

LOL Thanks Only Sinner. They'll have to keep that in mind and the local Police have been notified to keep an eye out for hired goons. Good looking out 

On September 5, 2017 at 2:41 PM, peedeejay said:

Good job giving the laundromat its own personal build!

The legendary modular builder Peedeejay, thank you!

On September 6, 2017 at 1:30 AM, Blazej_Holen said:

Nice build, and I like thet 32x16 studs footprint, but that dark/light bley zig zag is quite weird to my taste...

Thanks! 16x32 is a fun and challenging size, less bricks required but more creativity with regards to interior space. 

On September 6, 2017 at 1:31 AM, AnkTales said:

Good Job! 

Thanks AnkTales. 

On September 6, 2017 at 4:42 AM, scottwb2010 said:

A decent size laundromat you have made, unlike the one that comes with the brick bank. Nice touch having the ironing boards and good sized Washing machines too. Brings back memories of going along to the local Laundromat with my mum back in the 70's before we had our own washing machine and getting a hot chocolate from the vending machine that was always way too hot to drink. 

Thanks Scottwb2010. Yeah brings back fond memories for me as well having to go to a community coin laundry, always a bit of an adventure just to get clean clothes. 

On September 6, 2017 at 6:20 AM, Xon67 said:

A great MOC and a great story to go along with it!  Very entertaining!

Thanks Xon67. Had to come up with a decent excuse to completely dismantle an official modular.

On September 6, 2017 at 6:44 AM, Digger of Bricks said:

I love the repurposing of the Nexo shields as ironing boards! Maybe it's just the lighting, but are those shields in Sand Blue or is that just Light Bluish Grey? 

I think Lego really should do 32 by 16 footprinted modulars for one year, perhaps two of them at a $70 to $90 range.

Thanks Digger of Bricks. The Nexo shield pieces are in fact Sand Blue and the Brick Bank comes with 4 of them: https://brickset.com/inventories/10251-1

And I totally agree, a couple of 16x32 modular sets would be awesome as thats one of the things that makes Pet Shop so cool allowing for a breaking up of the uniformity that results from many having the same sets and layouts. 

[greg3]

That looks great!! Love the interior detail and the background story is clever too!!

Nice work!!

[ReplicaOfLife]

The interior is great, lots of nice details throughout. I quite like the story you've come up with, and how you used it to add details to the two buildings.

If I may offer some critique: The exterior doesn't work for me, unfortunately, the proportions seem a bit off - the ground floor is way, way too high in relation to the upper floor & roof. The facade of the laundomat already looked a bit weird on the official set, and by raising the groundfloor and making it even higher, you've amplified the problem. It gets especially obvious when put next to your other MOCs, or the Brick Bank mod in the other thread.

Just my 2 cents :)

 

Keep up the good work!

Edited September 10, 2017 by RogerSmith

[carebear]

Love the look of this

- it gives me a lot of idea's

thanks for this

Greetings

[koalayummies]

On September 9, 2017 at 1:11 PM, greg3 said:

That looks great!! Love the interior detail and the background story is clever too!!

Nice work!!

Thanks Greg3!

On September 10, 2017 at 2:17 AM, RogerSmith said:

The interior is great, lots of nice details throughout. I quite like the story you've come up with, and how you used it to add details to the two buildings.

If I may offer some critique: The exterior doesn't work for me, unfortunately, the proportions seem a bit off - the ground floor is way, way too high in relation to the upper floor & roof. The facade of the laundomat already looked a bit weird on the official set, and by raising the groundfloor and making it even higher, you've amplified the problem. It gets especially obvious when put next to your other MOCs, or the Brick Bank mod in the other thread.

Just my 2 cents :)

 

Keep up the good work!

Thanks RogerSmith.

Floor height differences are normal in modern cities. On my block alone (in real life) the building floor heights differ by as much as 6', more than the average height of a western male. Pretty common in cities that never had building floor height or structure height restrictions, the disparity between new and old buildings is even greater with higher and higher ceilings/floors becoming the norm so a room in one building is able to look down into the one next to it despite being the same floor number. Nothing wrong with wanting every modular staying as close to ~10-brick floor heights but many places have large floor height differences. Many have commented (and even complained) that the official Modular building sets are getting smaller and smaller as well. 

The height difference is also present in the official modulars:

Town Hall vs Parisian Restaurant big floor height disparity (this shelf is a little warped from all the weight):

 

Brick Bank's 12-brick floor heights vs Detective Office's 7-brick floor heights, almost double:

 

This Laundromat next to Town Hall:

Some buildings and their respective floor heights just dwarf others, my city has no legal restrictions a la Kyoto or defunct gentleman's agreements a la Philadelphia, regarding structure heights (and thus no need to try and squeeze as many floors into that restriction). 

On September 10, 2017 at 2:20 AM, carebear said:

Love the look of this

- it gives me a lot of idea's

thanks for this

Greetings

Thanks as always Carebear! 

Edited September 12, 2017 by koalayummies

[ReplicaOfLife]

4 hours ago, koalayummies said:

Thanks RogerSmith.

Floor height differences are normal in modern cities. On my block alone (in real life) the building floor heights differ by as much as 6', more than the average height of a western male. Pretty common in cities that never had building floor height or structure height restrictions, the disparity between new and old buildings is even greater with higher and higher ceilings/floors becoming the norm so a room in one building is able to look down into the one next to it despite being the same floor number. Nothing wrong with wanting every modular staying as close to ~10-brick floor heights but many places have large floor height differences. Many have commented (and even complained) that the official Modular building sets are getting smaller and smaller as well. 

The height difference is also present in the official modulars:

Some buildings and their respective floor heights just dwarf others, my city has no legal restrictions a la Kyoto or defunct gentleman's agreements a la Philadelphia, regarding structure heights (and thus no need to try and squeeze as many floors into that restriction). 

Thanks as always Carebear! 

That wasn't my point, though I see why it may have come across that way. Differing floor heights in different buildings are normal (near me, there are two buildings next to each other of about the same age with the exact same height, but one has four, and the other has three floors).

What I meant was that the ground floor is too high in relation to the upper floor and roof. it feels out of proportion and makes the building look 'bottom-heavy' (if that's a word), with the ground floor being higher than the first floor and roof combined. It just feels as if it needed one or two additional floors to justify the high ground floor (like the Town Hall has, for instance). Don't really know how to put it better.

But as I said, just my opinion - it's your call, after all ;)

[AFOLguy1970]

Nice job of separating out the laundromat and making the structure its own modular.  I like the Brick Bank, and I like the laundromat, but I do not like the laundromat as part of the Brick Bank.  Good job with the apartment and rooftop area as well.  You can never have enough living space for all of the townsfolk.