Modular Building Sets - Rumours and Discussion

[Jasper Joppe Geers]

And why would they release the GG again while so many people would like the CC even more?

[AFOLguy1970]

Green Grocer might be more believable as an April Fool's joke because it does have somewhat of an interior, while CC is currently empty on the inside.  I am also sure TLG has an idea of how much everyone likes sand green.  Not that I think they would re release either one their present forms, but GG would need less tweaking for sure.  

[LegoModularFan]

On 4/1/2018 at 4:40 PM, Bricked1980 said:

Which do you prefer? Personally I'm happier having a slightly smaller building but with more details inside.

It's difficult to choose one but I'd like to see a bit more size variation as when you look at the latest modulars they seriously lack some height variation IMO. 

Spoiler

 

 

 

[Agent 86]

On ‎2‎/‎04‎/‎2018 at 12:40 AM, Bricked1980 said:

Which do you prefer? Personally I'm happier having a slightly smaller building but with more details inside

I personally prefer larger exteriors, with more minimal ... "suggestive" interiors. The Green Grocer is pretty much the perfect amount of balance for me. The lower floor is most detailed, due to the large windows which easily allow you to see the contents of the grocer. The upper floors are simply suggestive of the purpose of the apartment.

Basically, once built, I never really see the "interior" ever again, except through the windows. So, the detailed interiors are ... "wasted" on me. And I generally find innovative details for the façade / exterior to be more interesting than a well-built pool / snooker table, ping pong table, refrigerator, ceiling fan, grandfather clock, etc.

[Bricked1980]

For me Assembly Square is just about the perfect mix. It has an insane amount of interior detail but is also a big model from the outside as well.

[Yeow]

11 hours ago, Agent 86 said:

I personally prefer larger exteriors, with more minimal ... "suggestive" interiors. The Green Grocer is pretty much the perfect amount of balance for me. The lower floor is most detailed, due to the large windows which easily allow you to see the contents of the grocer. The upper floors are simply suggestive of the purpose of the apartment.

Basically, once built, I never really see the "interior" ever again, except through the windows. So, the detailed interiors are ... "wasted" on me. And I generally find innovative details for the façade / exterior to be more interesting than a well-built pool / snooker table, ping pong table, refrigerator, ceiling fan, grandfather clock, etc.

I agree with this as well. The Grocer part of the Green Grocer is the important part and it was fully furnished. The amount of play features packed into something like the Detective's Office was just too much for me. Combined with it's small size, it really rates as one of the lowest modulars for me, despite some of the nice things inside.

I really dislike the addition of cars into the series as well. The one in Palace Cinema was straight up awful and while the Diner's car is better, I'd rather those pieces be used to improve the building more. They release enough cars in City anyways.

[Lego Conductor]

I can’t recall the last time I removed the floors to access the inside of my modulars once there built and displayed.  I much rather the piece count go to exterior detail and not play features.  I also echo the sentiment of having the ground floor detailed as we can usually see into more than the top floors.  Lastly in regards to the vechiles, Fire Brigade set the gold standard and more importantly the Fire Engine was part of the bdlg!  Palace Cinema and Downtown Diner vechiles are in my opinion supbar and worse can’t be displayed inside their Modulars but rather only along side it!  My continuing hope for a Police Station Modular is because they can include a nice period style paddy wagon that can access the station via a garage like Fire Brigade, hint hint Lego Designers!!!!

[koalayummies]

I prefer extremely detailed interiors and extremely detailed exteriors. What's the point of having a cake if you can't eat it too?

There is an erroneous perception that there has been a gradual exchange of exterior detail or overall size for more interior detail. I don't see that as the case; exterior detail has remained fairly consistent with an increase in interior detail, complexity of building techniques and fairly steadily increase in pieces as the series has progressed. Building sizes vary and architectural styles differ in terms of embellishment and accoutrements. The buildings are based off of real life architectural styles so naturally the complexity of the exteriors is going to vary.

Edited April 3, 2018 by koalayummies

[Overcold]

On 4/1/2018 at 10:40 AM, Bricked1980 said:

Which do you prefer? Personally I'm happier having a slightly smaller building but with more details inside.

Interiors are a necessity for modular buildings, in my opinion. I believe Jamie mentioned somewhere that the reason the Cafe Corner and Market Street were empty was due to higher ups having concerns that they would be too dollhouse like, and therefore not sell as well to the target male audience. Green Grocer was a compromise between the two, and after continued success the Fire Brigade was fully furnished and it has been that way since. I don't think we will ever see an empty shell again and I personally think that's a good thing.

Exterior: Recent modular buildings starting with the Parisian Restaurant have had a noticeably reduced scale in favor of a far more complete interior. The scale for me is not a problem, in fact, I really like the diversity instead of everything being 32 studs wide (I even think that the width of Al's Barbershop looks great in my setup too, as long as they don't get thinner than that!). The variety of widths has allowed for multiple buildings in the Detectives office, Brick Bank, and Assembly Square, creating awesome compositions that were not possible before 2015. The heights of the buildings have not suffered much, only being slightly lower if not remaining about the same height as the Cafe Corner, Pet Shop, and Grand Emporium (I can't recall which specific building have what heights off the top of my head yet). The Detective's office portion of the set is two floors tall and the lowest building (other than maybe the covered market). I like that the office is short, for the sake of variety and the composition next to Al's is awesome for that. I'd be concerned and upset if all the buildings started to get that short, but the designs usually have a decent sense of verticality. The post-2013 buildings don't reach the same heights as the Green Grocer or Town Hall, the two largest structures. It would be nice to see something as tall as the grocer in the future, even if it was a 3/4 width building, as it would help my town have an extra touch of height variation. I love the direction Lego has taken, but although I shower the designers with well deserved praise, I would love future buildings to occasionally fit the entire base plate width like old times, perhaps every third or fourth building even. I am concerned that we will not see a newer style design as a full scale building. A newer full width building, even if the price had to take a 10-20 dollar hike for those particular models, would help my layout and the modular building lineup as a whole to feel more well rounded, plus newer post-2013 collectors might also appreciate the extra variety of width that an occasional 32 wide building would provide.

Interior: It's no surprise that newer models have more refined interiors. Gone are the single rooms with clutter, as some of the more recent ones feel more like realistic blueprints (The town hall was the first building that I remember being excited about the interior walls and layout, which hadn't really been done since the bottom floor of the grocer). Having studied architecture myself for a period of time, I really appreciate the direction of the interiors. That isn't to say I don't appreciate the older ones, which are still great and mostly hold up over time. The interior details have always been well built, but the newer ones seem to work in harmony in a way that had not been done in the past. Interiors in the pre-2014 buildings often felt underdeveloped to me in a certain way, as if the furniture and props were simply tacked on after the building was finished rather than working together with the building itself. The Grand Emporium looks rather bare, as does the Palace Cinema. Neither of the interiors are bad (though they do have a fair share of flaws), but they don't take advantage of the space in the same way a newer one would. The Brick Bank has a superior interior, I can point at details and designs and talk about it for perhaps hours if there was nothing better to do, like the spare paper, candy, falcon statue, and so on. None of the details feel out of place, and they make the building and inhabitants feel so much more alive. I really enjoy the abundance of detail, plus it helps that I'm the kind of person who constantly looks at the insides and moves the figures around (what fun! ).

Story: On a similar note, more details means more story! At first this was a part of my interior discussion, but I decided it would be better to break it up. As far as I have seen, there are two types of stories seen in the modular line: The more common one, which I will call ambient, and the other I would call linear. Pretty much most of the buildings feature an ambient story of some extent. Linear stories are far less common, but can be seen strongly in the Detective's Office. Linear stories for modular buildings have specific plot points and vague ways of how the characters will reach these points, it is LEGO after all, so the story building on the part of the audience is critical for an enjoyable product. In the Detectives office, the linear plot is the strongest showing of the entire line, with specific motives, villains, and a protagonist. Ace Brickman even has a love interest that may or may not be working for the bad guys (the promotional pictures indicate she's a villain), and leaves the specifics up to the audience. For example, Ace Brickman is wooed by the lady in red, she is a distraction and works for the smugglers. The officer could be a secret admirer of Ace, which is why she pities him and helps with the case when the rest of the police department considers Ace to be a fraud and joke. Lots of possibilities there. So that's a 'linear' story. Meanwhile, an ambient story is less about a specific plot structure and more about the mood and interaction of elements. It's pretty much impossible to explain without an example, so here's one: The town hall has a powerful ambient story, in a time where a surplus little details to help the story weren't commonplace. It's a hot summer day, we know this because the boy has an ice lolly and the girl has a magnifying glass to roast ants on the pavement. The beige backyard also indicates heat. The boy is the embodiment of cold, he is wearing cool colors and has a frozen snack. The girl is a fiery redhead, with warm colored palette and the heat magnifying lens. It also could influence their personalities. The clock tower is symbolic of time, with young adults being wedded below. Middle aged and elderly people work in the town hall, resulting in mini-figures from all walks of life. Childhood, marriage, career, and inevitable death, as the bell can be both a wedding and a funeral bell. The Town hall, as a result, is a symbol for the lives of all the citizens in the town, which I find very impressive. There's no specific plot points, there's no villains or heroes, but there is a story. Most modular building have an ambient story to a certain extent, whether it's small ideas or themes that may or may not be explored in detail. The buildings with linear stories have both types, in fact. Brick Bank for example has the bank robbery, plot point and a villain, as well as money laundering. But at the same time the bank has a personality of it's own built through ambient storytelling. The falcon as a symbol of foreboding power, the luxurious windows and fancy black steel on the bench, clock, and windows show wealth. And the painting of the father shows that the bank manager (and by extension the bank) has motives of living up to his father's legacy, a reputation to uphold. A reputation that is jeopardized by the money laundering and robbery. It's a good blend of both story types discussed. I could talk about all those stories forever, such as the dentist above the bakery, but I'll try to keep if brief (not that this post is brief )  I think the point I was getting at is that more details means more opportunity for stories, but I got lost along the way. Oops.

Vehicles: I haven't heard many people stand up for vehicles, but I know I do. I love the occasional inclusion of a vehicle, and there's only one that disappoints me: the limo that continues to get flak for seemingly rushed design. The fire station needs a fire truck! And the heavily foreshadowed inevitable police station (just release it already!) will likely have a cop car, which is great! Those are the %100 necessary vehicles, but I also support the limo and the pink car that Mike say isn't a Cadillac, but everyone including him knows it is :) . I said like the inclusion of the limo, but the design is shaky at best though. I wouldn't cut the limo from the set, just simply fix the design a bit. Someone mentioned City vehicles being a stand-in, and I disagree (feel free to do whatever you want with your layouts, I'm simply considering mine at the moment). I don't collect city, it doesn't appeal to me anymore, I grew out of it. Plus, City cars don't match my layout too well, they are modern vehicles whereas the buildings are pre-modern. The vehicles included in the sets match the buildings and layout well, and help imply and use a street space in front of the building. In the case with the Downtown Diner, the car helps with the defining of the era, as cars normally do. The Cadillac is also very well designed, and color balances with the pink neon of the diner. The civilian cars such as the limo and Cadillac also help the modular building lineup feel more lively, which is very useful for my setup. Vehicles are a very important part of the line, and I feel cutting them out for a handful of bricks is a waste. The diner profits far more for using those brick on the vehicle in my opinion, especially since the rest of the set uses the allotted parts in an excellent way. I can understand why some would not like release of a vehicle, but I personally enjoy them very much and would hate to see them go extinct.

I do agree with the direction that LEGO designers have taken with the series for the most part. The variety of building forms is better than ever, and the details are simply amazing. The occasional vehicle every 4 years is very welcome for me, I wouldn't even mind if we got 2 sets in a row with vehicles. My only concern at this particular moment with the future of the line is the lack of 32 wide buildings, though it was incredibly enjoyable to see what the designers are capable of once they broke free of that  convention. Maybe every 3 or 4 buildings we could see a full 32 wide, for reasons I mentioned in my first paragraph.

Thanks for spending a considerable amount of time reading this wall of text about the best LEGO franchise!

Summary:

I enjoy the more detailed buildings at the expense of the size. The heights are usually on par with the Pet Shop and Cafe Corner, though it would be nice to see Green Grocer height ones once in a while. I would love to see 32 wide buildings cycled into the mix every so often for variety, the width variety of the buildings has been awesome recently. I also enjoy buildings having vehicles every so often, I really enjoy them. :) I also rambled about storytelling in the buildings if you want to read that.

Edited April 4, 2018 by Overcold

[LegoModularFan]

Well, good luck to the people who are enough courageous for reading @Overcold‘s comment!  Maybe you could summarize it a bit?

[Overcold]

6 minutes ago, LegoModularFan said:

Well, good luck to the people who are enough courageous for reading @Overcold‘s comment!  Maybe you could summarize it a bit?

I'll do a quick summary, I forgot about that.

Edit: Done :)

Edited April 4, 2018 by Overcold

[alsielou]

I thoroughly enjoyed reading all of @Overcold‘s post ?, especially the bit about the storytelling. Your description of the ambient storytelling of the town hall set is ... beautiful...!

Edited April 5, 2018 by alsielou
Accidentally double posted

[Honbushu]

 @Overcold‘s post is one the most interesting things I've read here. I completely agree with what you're saying. I don't have Town Hall, but you sure make it sound attractive. 

[Withacee]

No idea why it should take courage to read longer posts; I think it's great that people take the time to write an elaborate reply, especially if it's well thought-out.
I guess nowadays people have no time for what one calls "long reads" any more.
I appreciated your effort, @Overcold, and enjoyed reading it.

On the topic of interiors and size: Interiors are important for our city (around 30 modulars + roads + square, and counting).
We (my wife and myself) always make a point of creating an interior for any modular that does not have one, like MS, CC, GG and a lot of custom buildings by ourselves and others.
Agreed, it's not like we open up the buildings every day to see what's inside, but even though it's only on display, the fact that we know the interior is there is enough for us. And sometimes we can see the interior through the windows, which adds to the dynamics of the display.
So we'd take a smaller building anytime if it means it improves on the interior details.

[koalayummies]

On 4/4/2018 at 3:27 PM, Overcold said:

 and the girl has a magnifying glass to roast ants on the pavement.

Where in official imagery is that? Is that the story you've given it? Because the girl is holding the magnifying glass to her face looking at the light pole, not killing small organisms . On the back of the box she's looking at the flower planter next to the custodian.

On 4/4/2018 at 3:27 PM, Overcold said:

Plus, City cars don't match my layout too well, they are modern vehicles whereas the buildings are pre-modern.

This always comes up but the age of a building or its style has little to do with the current year or era (except for very modern architecture). There are some very old buildings still standing and in use in 2018. No one stands outside Independence Hall or the Parthenon and says "oh it must be 1776" or "460 BCE" respectively. One can park an old Cadillac outside a retro diner or Grauman's Chinese Theater but that doesn't mean its suddenly 1950.

Edited April 6, 2018 by koalayummies

[x105Black]

I like the variety in size and shape in the Modulars subtheme.  I really don't care for structures that have no interior builds, both official and MOC.  It bothers me when a build is not functional, even if the functions aren't used.  And I've always hated having a smaller build because of a small side build eating up the piece count.

So, I like detailed interiors and exteriors, and I don't care for the inclusion of vehicles.

[3797]

I like the modulars as they are. In my opinion, the interior details are part of the experience. If you don't like them, then feel free to sell them in order to regain some money for a second set and use those pieces for making a bigger building.

Not really a fan of the XXL mods myself. My first modular was the Grand Emporium and I really like to display that building without the first floor.

[jdubbs]

I think we see more multi-structure modulars lately because they give the impression you're getting more buildings for your money. Detective's Office and Assembly Square look like you're getting 2 or 3 buildings versus 1 with Parisian Restaurant, Palace Cinema, etc. (Granted, Assembly Square does cost 50% more so it's not a fair comparison.) Even Downtown Diner, which is essentially one building, gives the impression that it's two because of the streamline moderne fascia set against the underlyingy brick and mortar building.

The multi-part modulars also provide more opportunity for plot/story since there are more settings to work within.

[Overcold]

On 4/6/2018 at 12:15 PM, koalayummies said:

Where in official imagery is that? Is that the story you've given it? Because the girl is holding the magnifying glass to her face looking at the light pole, not killing small organisms . On the back of the box she's looking at the flower planter next to the custodian.

This always comes up but the age of a building or its style has little to do with the current year or era (except for very modern architecture). There are some very old buildings still standing and in use in 2018. No one stands outside Independence Hall or the Parthenon and says "oh it must be 1776" or "460 BCE" respectively. One can park an old Cadillac outside a retro diner or Grauman's Chinese Theater but that doesn't mean its suddenly 1950.

When I saw the children minifigures in the Town Hall set, that's what I figured the magnifying glass was used for other than observing, the set itself doesn't actually show that on the official images so I may have misinterpreted it, but it seemed right enough to me for me to share anyways.

I agree with you about the cars/era thing (and you make very good points), I just personally prefer my setup to be early 1900's and focus more on the modular building franchise than a hybrid city layout, which is why I claimed the city vehicles wouldn't match my layout. Looking back at my post I didn't make that clear enough for that specific argument. That isn't to say I don't like other certain city setups; I've seen plenty of awesome layouts that mix and match the city themes (and sometimes other themes too!).

 

Edited April 9, 2018 by Overcold

[ReplicaOfLife]

On 6.4.2018 at 2:00 PM, Withacee said:

No idea why it should take courage to read longer posts; I think it's great that people take the time to write an elaborate reply, especially if it's well thought-out.
I guess nowadays people have no time for what one calls "long reads" any more.
I appreciated your effort, @Overcold, and enjoyed reading it.

Yep, same here.

In general, the tl;dr-culture you see at most places nowadays really took away a lot of what discussion boards once used to be. Which I find pretty sad.

 

Anyway, regarding @Overcold's post, I agree on most parts, with the exception of:

- too small buildings like Al's or the laundromat are not ok in my book - they have laughable interiors/interior space and thus shred any sense of realism the modulars usually manage to evoke

- I don't like the linear stories at all. I love the ambient ones, though. But I also think that pretty much all modern Lego sets are scripted way too much, thus disencouraging children from making up their own characters, stories and little worlds...but maybe that's just me.

- and all cars that aren't strictly necessitated by the building (i.e. the Fire truck and a potential police car, if we should get a police station some day) imho are a waste of parts that had better gone into more structure/more details.

 

 

Edited April 11, 2018 by RogerSmith
spelling

[Kalahari134]

5 hours ago, RogerSmith said:

- too small buildings like Al's or the laundromat are not ok in my book - they have laughable interiors/interior space and thus shred any sense of realism the modulars usually manage to evoke

- I don't like the linear stories at all. I love the ambient ones, though. But I also think that pretty much all modern Lego sets are scripted way too much, thus disencouraging children from making up their own characters, stories and little worlds...but maybe that's just me.

- and all cars that aren't strictly necessitated by the building (i.e. the Fire truck and a potential police car, if we should get a police station some day) imho are a waste of parts that had better gone into more structure/more details.

Hear, hear. In my view, buildings need to be a minimum of 16w to function (unless anyone can come up with a narrower one that still manages to have a proper staircase etc.). When I can, I'll be getting hold of a second BB to make it into a proper corner building (it has this impressive facade and yet you go around the corner and the rest is tiny. Having done this, I'll be rebuilding the laundrette.

Stories should certainly be left to the end user. The proposal in PR is fine as you can always just leave out the ring part if you don't want to do it, the minifigures can have other uses. The cheque in the BB is OK too but the robbery thing is pushing it. The PC premiere theme is a bit borderline too, I'd rather just ditch the car and have a generic night at the movies.

Talking of cars, I quite agree that unless a car is essential, it should be left out. I'm not really sure that a hypothetical police station needs a car either as unlike a fire engine these are usually kept outside.

[LegoModularFan]

On 4/6/2018 at 2:00 PM, Withacee said:

No idea why it should take courage to read longer posts; I think it's great that people take the time to write an elaborate reply, especially if it's well thought-out.
I guess nowadays people have no time for what one calls "long reads" any more.

 

2 hours ago, RogerSmith said:

Yep, same here.

In general, the tl;dr-culture you see at most places nowadays really took away a lot of what discussion boards once used to be. Which I find pretty sad.

I apologise for my comment, was viewing @Overcold's post from my mobile, that's why it seemed me extremely long. I should have written it more kindly though I didn't mean to be rude, was just surprised. 

I read your post @Overcold and I need to say - it was very very interesting! I agree with most of the points. The points with which I don't agree with you are only some personal opinions such as your point of view on the vehicles. I of course don't dislike them all except the limo but I prefer bricks going for more details as @RogerSmith. However as long as Mike continues designing modulars, we're more likely to see vehicles with modulars as he says it's always fun to include cars in modulars. I'm of course not opposed to this at all. I just think it may be nice to create a new Creator Expert sub-theme for very detailed minifig-scale vehicles to go with each modular, so every fan could be glad!

On 4/5/2018 at 12:27 AM, Overcold said:

It would be nice to see something as tall as the grocer in the future, even if it was a 3/4 width building, as it would help my town have an extra touch of height variation.

I completely agree here, I'd like to see a taller modular without less interior details however. Maybe a modular with some more pieces?

On 4/6/2018 at 2:00 PM, Withacee said:

a lot of custom buildings by ourselves

Hey, do you have MOCs other than your Modular "Alsterarkaden"? Would really love to see them! 

[LegoModularFan]

I am considering not buying anymore MOC instructions and even the official modulars to make a completely custom city, some really inspirational modulars I've discovered, especially thanks to my Inspirational Modular and Non-Modular Building MOCs topic and Jang who is replacing every official set with MOCs in his city is convincing me to go with a completely custom city. I saw that some great MOCers build in a bit larger scale than minifig-scale in order to make more detailed buildings such as @snaillad, that's also something I may consider to try especially for Art Nouveau buildings and those of course wouldn't fit with the official ones. On the other hand, I really love some modulars. I can't decide, I have still some time but I'd like to start thinking about it. Any opinions? 

[Digger of Bricks]

27 minutes ago, LegoModularFan said:

I saw that some great MOCers build in a bit larger scale than minifig-scale in order to make more detailed buildings such as @snaillad, that's also something I may consider to try especially for Art Nouveau buildings and those of course wouldn't fit with the official ones.

What if you tried building a city made up of modulars which had a Retrofuturistic, Art Nouveau style, something perhaps in the aesthetic of Belgian artist François Schuiten's work? In a way, it could be the Art Nouveau counterpart to something like @castor-troy's Steampunk Paris! 

 

Edited April 13, 2018 by Digger of Bricks

[Bricked1980]

8 hours ago, LegoModularFan said:

I am considering not buying anymore MOC instructions and even the official modulars to make a completely custom city, some really inspirational modulars I've discovered, especially thanks to my Inspirational Modular and Non-Modular Building MOCs topic and Jang who is replacing every official set with MOCs in his city is convincing me to go with a completely custom city. I saw that some great MOCers build in a bit larger scale than minifig-scale in order to make more detailed buildings such as @snaillad, that's also something I may consider to try especially for Art Nouveau buildings and those of course wouldn't fit with the official ones. On the other hand, I really love some modulars. I can't decide, I have still some time but I'd like to start thinking about it. Any opinions? 

It's your choice. I suppose it depends on how much you mind having differing styles of buildings alongside each other in your city.

Personally I think it works well to have a street containing a mixture of official modulars and mocs as well. It doesn't bother me too much if the styles of mocs and official lego sets clash as you could argue that many of the official modulars don't work all that well with each other anyway.

You mention that you might consider designing some mocs in a bigger scale to capture more detail. Bare in mind that if you do this though that everything else, vehicles, roads etc will need to be made in the same bigger scale too.