Modular Building Sets - Rumours and Discussion

[Agent 86]

13 hours ago, Bricked1980 said:

For me these sets always satisfied the need for smaller and cheaper buildings to go with the main Modulars. I know they are much smaller and not even "modular" in their format. They do have a similar look and feel to the modulars though and some pretty interesting build techniques considering their size and the fact they are aimed at a younger audience.

I have and enjoy all of these sets. They make for nice size variance with the Modulars (or can be combined to make smaller Modulars). It's a shame that Lego has stopped making this style of Creator buildings in favour of the (confusingly named) "Modular" Creator sets, which are open-backed, relatively small and predominantly consist of pre-built wall sections which can be re-arranged in a "modular" fashion.

[fred67]

I like those small shops, also - the current crop of little houses are just plain terrible. I guess they are going after the market looking for "play features," which ruins most sets for me (curmudgeonly old man).  I often just build out the play features of sets.

[Fenghuang0296]

2 hours ago, Agent 86 said:

I have and enjoy all of these sets. They make for nice size variance with the Modulars (or can be combined to make smaller Modulars). It's a shame that Lego has stopped making this style of Creator buildings in favour of the (confusingly named) "Modular" Creator sets, which are open-backed, relatively small and predominantly consist of pre-built wall sections which can be re-arranged in a "modular" fashion.

I somewhat agree. While it has to be said that the Modular Building system has potential, the big draw of the sets is supposed to be that you can combine them to make bigger houses.

And yet out of the five so far (six counting the "Pastry House" that's coming in summer), not a single one looks anything like the others. Which means that the only way to combine them without it ending up looking like a ridiculous hodgepodge (which, in all honesty, has its appeal, but it's not the sort of thing that Inthink the majority are looking for) is to get multiples of the same set. And maybe combine the different 'builds' of a single set together. 

It's silly, and I hope that they go back to the much-preferable older style for 2019 and beyond. Of course, considering that the new "Build'N'Swap" system that the Disney line is using uses what's basically the same system, and I have no doubt that the prospect of combining sets from both lines appeals to both kids and producers, it's unlikely. 

Edited February 22, 2018 by Feng-huang0296

[Bricked1980]

9 hours ago, Agent 86 said:

It's a shame that Lego has stopped making this style of Creator buildings in favour of the (confusingly named) "Modular" Creator sets, which are open-backed, relatively small and predominantly consist of pre-built wall sections which can be re-arranged in a "modular" fashion.

I'm not a fan of those new style buildings with "modular" elements that can be swapped around. I imagine having to incorporate this modular style to the sets must be pretty limiting for the designers and as a result we end up with sets that look a bit of a mess to be honest. The subject matter they choose doesn't help either. This year we've had a house with a skate board ramp running up the side and another one with a ski slope built across the roof of a building.

Most of them look as if they've been plucked straight out of a child's imagination. I think that's probably the whole point though, they've altered the direction of Creator 3in1 sets slightly to ramp up the play features and make them more attractive to young kids. 

7 hours ago, fred67 said:

I like those small shops, also - the current crop of little houses are just plain terrible.

For me Creator has always been the best source of little buildings to fill up a town layout and compliment the Modulars - apart from City if you don't mind having a layout filled with Police and Fire Stations . With the old style of realistic Creator sets being abandoned in favour of these new "wacky" modular designs it doesn't leave us many options apart from the main large Modulars. I'm holding out hope that the "Modular Pastry House" or as Brickset are calling it - "Modular Sweet Surprises", will be a decent enough set. I don't think it's intended to be compatible with those other Creator shops from past years, but hopefully it will still look decent in a town layout.

[LegoModularFan]

While searching for new modular MOCs, I discovered some discussion about 16-wide modulars which has been held here on this thread some time ago:

24 April 2017

7 January 2017

4 January 2015

There are also some posts about 16-wide buildings but they didn’t have enough interest so didn’t become discussions...

BTW, found another great 8-wide modular by @SollX

Spoiler

 

 

Edited February 27, 2018 by LegoModularFan

[AFOLguy1970]

4 hours ago, Bricked1980 said:

 

For me Creator has always been the best source of little buildings to fill up a town layout and compliment the Modulars - apart from City if you don't mind having a layout filled with Police and Fire Stations . With the old style of realistic Creator sets being abandoned in favour of these new "wacky" modular designs it doesn't leave us many options apart from the main large Modulars. I'm holding out hope that the "Modular Pastry House" or as Brickset are calling it - "Modular Sweet Surprises", will be a decent enough set. I don't think it's intended to be compatible with those other Creator shops from past years, but hopefully it will still look decent in a town layout.

I never really got around to getting those nice 3 in 1 Creator builds with the exception of the Lakeside Lodge.  The smaller Creator sets can be useful in a town setup, and I do not mind the open backs so much.  I just bought the Mountain Police Headquarters because (a) I have yet to buy a police set of any kind for my eventual layout (b) I love the outdoors, and a set that appears to meld into a hillside is interesting, and (c) a mountain lion is one of my favorite wild animals--just hope I never stumble on one when solo hiking.  It took a while, but I finally got around to supplementing a town with Creator and City sets.  I also agree that the latest Creator sets leave much to be desired and seem to be more aimed at the younger crowd--looking at you, skate ramp house!  Also hoping that the pastry house and/or the sweet surprise might be something that can incorporated into a display.  If not, at least I have a modular MOC to work on.  

[Faefrost]

On 2/20/2018 at 7:21 PM, Digger of Bricks said:

Particularly, I could see the Daily Planet, the Daily Bugle, the Avengers Mansion, and the Sanctum Sanctorum all being done as modulars to fit within the Creator Expert line, while the others you mentioned probably are best done as standalone buildings only built within the modular standard.

With both the Daily Planet and the Daily Bugle specifically, I'd imagine that they be done as four story tall, twenty-four stud three quarters width modular buildings to roughly convey the slender profile of a skyscraper without actually being one.

Oh man, I so wish I could find this picture. Lego themselves or the group that produces the Lego Club Magazine took the little Bank in the Batman 2 Face Chase set and expanded it to create a Modular Daily Planet building, complete with Clark Kent's apartment. For a 1 page DC Super Heroes ad in the magazine, a number of years ago. It looked gorgeous. I have never been able to find a copy of the picture online. 

[LegoModularFan]

On 22/02/2018 at 10:57 AM, Bricked1980 said:

For me Creator has always been the best source of little buildings to fill up a town layout and compliment the Modulars

These buildings never interested me before. I always preferred their big brothers but strangely I just start to like them! The only problem for me is they don’t fit with the modulars - two solutions: putting them in another district or MODing them. I searched for some MODs and alternative builds of the Bike Shop and Café, there are so much of them but there are only three I really liked (personal taste). So here are my favorites:

Jewelry Store, Pizzeria, and Bricklyn Bike by @sonicstarlight

Spoiler

 

House Church by @alanboar HK

Spoiler

31026 Alternate by Inyong Lee

Spoiler

 

 

Edited February 27, 2018 by LegoModularFan

[Bricked1980]

12 hours ago, LegoModularFan said:

These buildings never interested me before. I always preferred their big brothers but strangely I just start to like them! The only problem for me is they don’t fit with the modulars

They are a lot smaller than the modulars. There is a good photo showing size comparison on the eurobricks review page for 30136 toy and grocery shop. I've copied the picture below.

Despite the size difference I think they do compliment the big modulars very well. If you put them side by side they look a bit too small but I think if you put them on opposite sides of the street they work really well. If you look at my homemade road plates topic you will see some pictures of these creator buildings displayed alongside a couple of the modulars.

Although they've now all been retired it's still fairly easy to get corner deli and park street townhouse. Both are really nice and fun little builds.

By the way I think that alternate build of bike shop and cafe that you posted by Inyong Lee is fabulous. 

Edited February 23, 2018 by Bricked1980

[Agent 86]

1 hour ago, LegoModularFan said:

These buildings never interested me before. I always preferred their big brothers but strangely I just start to like them!

Thanks for ALL of your links to various sources of inspiration.

I've got quite a backlog of design ideas now! I'm just lacking the requisite skills to actually put them into practice as I'm quite the amateur MODer / MOCer.

[Digger of Bricks]

7 hours ago, Faefrost said:

Oh man, I so wish I could find this picture. Lego themselves or the group that produces the Lego Club Magazine took the little Bank in the Batman 2 Face Chase set and expanded it to create a Modular Daily Planet building, complete with Clark Kent's apartment. For a 1 page DC Super Heroes ad in the magazine, a number of years ago. It looked gorgeous. I have never been able to find a copy of the picture online. 

You know, I think I remember which image you may be talking about. Wasn't Superman seen in the window of his apartment playing videogames? It must have been in an issue dating from anytime in 2012 or early 2013 around the time that set was still for sale.

[Faefrost]

24 minutes ago, Digger of Bricks said:

You know, I think I remember which image you may be talking about. Wasn't Superman seen in the window of his apartment playing videogames? It must have been in an issue dating from anytime in 2012 or early 2013 around the time that set was still for sale.

That’s the one. 

[LegoModularFan]

8 hours ago, Bricked1980 said:

They are a lot smaller than the modulars. There is a good photo showing size comparison on the eurobricks review page for 30136 toy and grocery shop. I've copied the picture below.

Thanks! In the Designer Video is the Bike Shop and Café, there is a size comparison with the PR.

8 hours ago, Bricked1980 said:

If you look at my homemade road plates topic you will see some pictures of these creator buildings displayed alongside a couple of the modulars.

That’s where my interest about these buildings came from...

8 hours ago, Bricked1980 said:

By the way the way I think that alternate build of bike shop and cafe that you posted by Inyong Lee is fabulous. 

Agreed. I didn’t write as it has a proper name but the House Church is also an alternative build.

8 hours ago, Agent 86 said:

Thanks for ALL of your links to various sources of inspiration.

I've got quite a backlog of design ideas now! I'm just lacking the requisite skills to actually put them into practice as I'm quite the amateur MODer / MOCer.

You’re welcome! Here are some topics that may help you:

I also created similar topic but the difference was that I mentioned my favorite MOCers specifically. Quite a number of them responded to me! I also discovered some great new MOCers as the people not mentioned on the list was very welcome to share their experiences. Be sure to check out the works of all the people there, they have amazing MOCs! Some of them posted only very few MOCs on EB so look at their Flickr. Hope that helps as it helped me  

[LegoModularFan]

Hey guys, @Murdoch17 found and shared in his topic a very interesting picture! Here it’s:

And here’s the description of the photo: 

Quote

At Comic-Con 2009, LEGO designer Mark Stafford showed photos of possible themes that were explored by LEGO but never developed into products. These were shown as part of a slide show at the BrickJournal panel. Original photo by the LEGO Group - I received this from Joe Meno of BrickJournal with permission to post on-line.

That sounds quite interesting. I searched a bit and found this, this, this photo and a discussion on a website.

It would have been so nice if this theme had become an official theme... What do you think about it?

[alsielou]

On 2/22/2018 at 8:57 PM, Bricked1980 said:

I think that's probably the whole point though, they've altered the direction of Creator 3in1 sets slightly to ramp up the play features and make them more attractive to young kids. 

I agree that that is clearly what TLG is aiming for, but curiously enough my three kids aren't remotely interested in them.  They much prefer the type of building that looks a bit more realistic.  They all love the earlier ones (bike shop and cafe, toy shop etc.).  My son would \ probably like the skate ramp house though given that he has spent literally hours snowboarding people up and down the roof of the Winter Village cottage :-)

3 hours ago, LegoModularFan said:

Hey guys, @Murdoch17 found and shared in his topic a very interesting picture! Here it’s:

It would have been so nice if this theme had become an official theme... What do you think about it?

Yes, yes, yes!  This looks amazing!  My kids would absolutely love a theme like this, and so would I!  Especially because those cars would fit right into the winter village.  My kids might not really get the whole gangster thing per se and I really can't see TLG releasing a gangster theme now, but a theme with small (ie. affordable), realistic, historical buildings and cars would be a dream come true.  

[Faefrost]

6 hours ago, LegoModularFan said:

Hey guys, @Murdoch17 found and shared in his topic a very interesting picture! Here it’s:

And here’s the description of the photo: 

That sounds quite interesting. I searched a bit and found this, this, this photo and a discussion on a website.

It would have been so nice if this theme had become an official theme... What do you think about it?

It looks nice from our narrow POV. But it was still a 1920’s gangster theme. Which unsurprisingly playtested poorly. 

Edited February 26, 2018 by Faefrost
Typo

[Bricked1980]

On 2/22/2018 at 3:43 PM, Faefrost said:

Oh man, I so wish I could find this picture. Lego themselves or the group that produces the Lego Club Magazine took the little Bank in the Batman 2 Face Chase set and expanded it to create a Modular Daily Planet building, complete with Clark Kent's apartment. For a 1 page DC Super Heroes ad in the magazine, a number of years ago. It looked gorgeous. I have never been able to find a copy of the picture online. 

 

On 2/22/2018 at 11:31 PM, Digger of Bricks said:

You know, I think I remember which image you may be talking about. Wasn't Superman seen in the window of his apartment playing videogames? It must have been in an issue dating from anytime in 2012 or early 2013 around the time that set was still for sale.

Think I've found the picture you were discussing a few days ago? Is this the one? It's from the October 2012 Lego Club magazine.

Edited March 6, 2018 by Bricked1980

[LegoModularFan]

1 hour ago, Bricked1980 said:

Think I've found the picture you were discussing a few days ago? Is this the one? It's from the October 2012 Lego Club magazine.

This looks great, seems that the photo is just as they described it! How did you find it?! Is there any link to see it in higher resolution?

Edited February 26, 2018 by LegoModularFan

[Bricked1980]

On 2/26/2018 at 11:01 AM, LegoModularFan said:

This looks great, seems that the photo is just as they described it! How did you find it?! Is there any link to see it in higher resolution?

I found it here. http://lego.wikia.com/wiki/Magazine:LEGO_Club_Magazine_September-October_2012_(US)

It looks as if somebody had scanned the page from the magazine for this web page so I downloaded the pic and straightened it out and cleaned it up as best I could.

I do have a higher resolution copy. I've added it below.

Spoiler

 

Edited March 6, 2018 by Bricked1980

[LegoModularFan]

9 minutes ago, Bricked1980 said:

I found it here. http://lego.wikia.com/wiki/Magazine:LEGO_Club_Magazine_September-October_2012_(US)

It looks as if somebody had scanned the page from the magazine for this web page so I downloaded the pic and straightened it out and cleaned it up as best I could.

I do have a higher resolution copy. I've added it below.

Thanks! Also it’s strange that there’s the ground floor of the GG next to this building!

[Digger of Bricks]

3 hours ago, Bricked1980 said:

Think I've found the picture you were discussing a few days ago? Is this the one? It's from the October 2012 Lego Club magazine.

Yep, that's the one! Thanks for digging that up! 

[Bricked1980]

35 minutes ago, Digger of Bricks said:

Yep, that's the one! Thanks for digging that up! 

No problem. It's a great looking building, it's surprising they'd go such great lengths to create this only to use it in a single advert.

1 hour ago, LegoModularFan said:

Thanks! Also it’s strange that there’s the ground floor of the GG next to this building!

You're welcome. Oh yeah, hadn't noticed that about GG.

[dkorr]

I heard they're doing a flea market modular.

[Nexogeek]

15 minutes ago, dkorr said:

I heard they're doing a flea market modular.

That would be pretty interesting to see but how would they do it? I have been to so many flea markets and everyone is typically just tables, clothes racks, tents and maybe a barn style buildings with vendors, unless they go the indoor flea market route but even then the buildings they are normally held in aren't anything like what would fit into a modular from Lego imo unless they are different elsewhere. Where did you hear that rumor anyways?

[Bricked1980]

Just noticed Jangbricks has posted his review of the Avengers Sanctum Santorum. I bet it wont be long before somebody mods this in to a Modular building.

Spoiler