Modular Building Sets - Rumours and Discussion

[nikhkin]

So, an existing modular will be retired in january 1st too?

pd: loved your brick bank review.

It doesn't work that way. Sets can be retired at any time. It isn't a one-in-one-out kind of thing. Pet Shop has been around the longest, and is older than the Town Hall, which retired back in 2014 IIRC. However I do not think any modulars have retired since then.

Edit: I could be wrong about the order of retirement, as Grand Emporium retired sometime around then too

Edited August 28, 2016 by nikhkin

[BlockLogo]

GE and TH retired pretty much together.

[nikhkin]

GE and TH retired pretty much together.

At a time that was, rather infuriatingly, a couple of months before I got into modular buildings :-(

[Rick]

Based on demand, TLG decides to do additional production runs. The modulars have sold out roughly in order of release, with Pet Shop being a notable exception as I believe it got more additional production runs than some later modulars (Town Hall and Palace Cinema). TLG strive to always have at least three modulars available. A modular street, consisting of the three most recent modulars, always features prominently on the back of the box.

[sebitsena]

I wonder if Jamie will be the designer of the next modular?

I think Marcos Bessa could do a good job in this line too. But please keep Astrid away from modulars ^^.

What do you think about that?

[CM4Sci]

I wonder if Jamie will be the designer of the next modular?

I think Marcos Bessa could do a good job in this line too. But please keep Astrid away from modulars ^^.

What do you think about that?

Who is Astrid and why can't she design modulars..?

[sithewok]

Astrid designed the Palace Cinema, right? That's the modular that convinced me to start collecting them and it remains my favorite.

[nikhkin]

Astrid designed the Palace Cinema, right? That's the modular that convinced me to start collecting them and it remains my favorite.

And the Town Hall. I don't see what people have against her. People complain the current modulars are too small, because they put too many pieces on the inside. Hers were both the bridge between "almost completely empty" and "loads of detail inside". So they maintain the large structure whilst having some decent level of detail.

Personally I love the little details in the newer ones and the apparently smaller size doesn't bother me. If it can stand next to the others and not look odd, it's big enough.

[cosmolon]

i really like astrid`s modulars, palace cinema is way too amazing, i need to buy it like right now before its gone. and town hall was great, such a shame i didn´t bought it.

jaimie is a great designer, very creative but DO is not that a good, looks kind off ugly, but it has a very detailed interior.

i would like to see maybe a casino, like montecarlo in monaco, but well im dreaming so much hahaha.

[sebitsena]

Who is Astrid and why can't she design modulars..?

Her productions feels too "Friends" IMHO, not a lot of interesting building tips.

Astrid designed the Palace Cinema, right? That's the modular that convinced me to start collecting them and it remains my favorite.

The roof looks quite unfinished when looking from the back and the limo is not well designed, looks ugly from both sides.

And the Town Hall. I don't see what people have against her. People complain the current modulars are too small, because they put too many pieces on the inside.

The Town Hall is big, but building is boring and the end result is ... just correct. You get walls, and walls, and walls again! When you build the roof, it starts to be amazing! But the roof was not designed by Astrid.

They are less interesting, it's only my opinion. I understand some people appreciate her modulars, especially when getting the first ;)

i would like to see maybe a casino, like montecarlo in monaco, but well im dreaming so much hahaha.

A casino sounds very cool! Hope we will get one ;)

[nikhkin]

The roof looks quite unfinished when looking from the back and the limo is not well designed, looks ugly from both sides.

The roof is supposed to be a facade - inspired by the Chinese Theatre in Hollywood. If you look at that in real life you'll see that the actual roof is just a grey slab.

I agree about the limo. It's just a bad build

[lifeinplastic]

I didn't like the stickers in Palace Cinema and I don't really like vehicles in modular sets either. Jamie does a great job with giving us printed tiles and existing parts in new colours. I think a hospital wouldn't suit a modular as they are quite realistic about sizes in a street. A doctor's surgery would be great (although I'd like an opticians eye chart tile).

Edited August 28, 2016 by lifeinplastic

[BrickJagger]

Is there a list of which designer created each set? It's pretty easy to get lost in this discussion.

[cosmolon]

I didn't like the stickers in Palace Cinema and I don't really like vehicles in modular sets either. Jamie does a great job with giving us printed tiles and existing parts in new colours. I think a hospital wouldn't suit a modular as they are quite realistic about sizes in a street. A doctor's surgery would be great (although I'd like an opticians eye chart tile).

are there stickers? where?

god, those are so annoying, i had several sets with stickers and through the time, stickers get very ugly

[AFOLguy1970]

In PC, the stickers are used for the marquee title, the movie posters on the inside and outside walls, and the movie screen itself.

[cosmolon]

does someone had issues or problems with those stickers???

printed pieces are much better

[BrickFit26]

I think Jamie's modulars have more detail than Astrid's modulars, way more detail. Plus, I'm not a big fan of stickers.

[Terrasher]

I think Jamie's modulars are way more interesting and detailed than Astrid's.

Astrid designed the Town Hall and Palace Cinema, my two least favorite modulars. I don't really like them because they look too boring and simple when compared to masterpieces such as the Green Grocer, Parisian Restaurant and Detective's Office (which were all designed by Jamie, I believe).

I just hope next modular is comparable, in size, to the Green Grocer or Grand Emporium.

[Athos]

I think Astrid did a good job on both. I don't like the limo, but the rest of the Cinema is very nice. My only complaint about the town hall is that it is a little too tall next to some of the other ones.

I am not sure it is fair to blame her for the stickers...

Steve

[Roebuck]

Where did you manage to get it cheap? I know Lego never put sets on sale unless it's something that isn't selling and has been retired

This time last year it was "an 80s style arcade" (what a terrible idea to go with the early 20th century style of the street they've been making so far). The Brick Bank info didn't come out until October/November time.

Toys r us in Norway they have a sale once or twice a year

[Faefrost]

Based on demand, TLG decides to do additional production runs. The modulars have sold out roughly in order of release, with Pet Shop being a notable exception as I believe it got more additional production runs than some later modulars (Town Hall and Palace Cinema). TLG strive to always have at least three modulars available. A modular street, consisting of the three most recent modulars, always features prominently on the back of the box.

Lifecycle for any of the D2C's can be hard to predict. They normally have a fixed or intended date of eol. That can come early if the product sells out before reaching the expected date, but they don't anticipate enough future sales to warrant another production run. But sometimes if a D2C set is selling much better than expected they will add on one or more production runs and keep it going. The Death Star was the king of that, lasting years longer than anyone expected, and now being resurrected in a new set. For Modulars the king was the Fire Brigade, which similarly lasted years longer than expected, was the top seller to the end, and went back to production at least twice. Pet Shop is probably the number 2 behind it. GE also may have gotten an extra production run. TH pretty much saw its natural lifecycle. I would expect the same for PC and DO. PR I think will or has gotten an extra production run.

[cosmolon]

what does D2C means? thanks

[nikhkin]

what does D2C means? thanks

Direct to Consumer - basically a set sold directly from Lego rather than going to all the toy shops and supermarkets. They do tend to show up at big retailers like Smyth's and Toys R Us (in the UK) but won't be at supermarkets or Argos etc (again, in the UK).

[TheLegoDr]

I thought I heard Astrid also helped with some of the Winter Village sets?? I could be wrong though.

Either way, there are pros and cons to ALL modulars, so it seems silly to bash just one person.

At the very least, dark orange wasn't a very common color (and still isn't 4 years later). So Town Hall at the very least gave some great colors. The design looks great from the front. The only downside, to me, is the height. It is supposed to be an imposing building, but with the 32 width it feels too tall and not wide enough. But I've seen people who extended the Town Hall into wider and that doesn't look good either. There has to be a balance somewhere.

[ReplicaOfLife]

Town Hall just doesn't work for me. The facade tries to look grand, but pretty much fails on every level. The portico is oversized for the overall size of the building, and the upper floor details are both too simplistic (seen by themselves, especially on the topmost floor) and too different from each other (being different on every floor). The tower looks a bit too square aswell.

Someone did a MOD that was increased in width and height AND added wings to the side, that version looked great. The official set does not, imho.

I decided I'll propably never open my copy of it. I just finished a dark orange MOC, so I now have the color on my modular street, and there's pretty much nothing else the TH has to offer that I'd want.

I read and watched several in-depth reviews, and apparently it even scores below Palace Cinema in terms of interesting building techniques aswell.