Modular Building Sets - Rumours and Discussion

[Bricked1980]

10 hours ago, AllanSmith said:

It could be a corner petrol service station. Was told it also had a vet or pet shop on the next floor and a bachelor pad / apartment on the top. Will have to wait and see :)

If the person told you it would be a garage I guess that could mean a petrol station. But maybe it could also be a repair shop style garage without any petrol pumps. A few years ago Lego released the Creator 3in1 Bike Shop and Cafe. One of the secondary builds was this small corner garage.

I'm thinking if Lego did a corner Modular using the same concept of a garage as this then it could work very well. I can easily imagine a large scale version of something like this with other businesses working on the upper floors..

Edited September 27, 2018 by Bricked1980

[Jasper Joppe Geers]

1 hour ago, Bricked1980 said:

If the person told you it would be a garage I guess that could mean a petrol station. 

 

 

Petrol station plus car wash i guess.

[paupadros]

16 hours ago, AllanSmith said:

It could be a corner petrol service station. Was told it also had a vet or pet shop on the next floor and a bachelor pad / apartment on the top. Will have to wait and see :)

I can already kind of envision this. I couldn't pinpoint an exact example, but in many italian towns there's garages/mechanics on ground floors. This sounds a bit like the evolution of Mike's design that didn't quite work for DD, that maybe they've found a way to round off this time. First floor garages is not something I'd personally ever envisioned in a modular setting, but it's less probably less restictive than a Diner. I mean, a flamboyant diner kind of needs as flamboyant of a building to match it. A garage on the ground floor can have anything on top of it, interior and architecture-wise. I'm curious how they'll tie it up if this rumour's true. A vet seems like a nice choice too 

[TheLegomane]

A petrol station doesn't make any sense: they are investing so much money and energy to demonstrate that they are ecologists. A modular gas station would be a contradiction

[Jasper Joppe Geers]

A petrol station has always been part of Lego city, zo i can't see why not.

Perhaps the designer should include a charging station. 

[paupadros]

9 minutes ago, TheLegomane said:

A petrol station doesn't make any sense: they are investing so much money and energy to demonstrate that they are ecologists. A modular gas station would be a contradiction

I can't see it either, but I see no reason a mechanic with rusty tools and cars stacked one on top of each other shouldn't be a thing. 

[Bainter-ban]

You also have the fact that the designer of DD originally planned to make a car dealership, but made DD instead. Being so open about it makes that unlikely as a set, as they probably would have kept it a secret if that was to be released in the future. And a petrol station/garage is quite similar.

[The_Nev]

11 hours ago, Bainter-ban said:

You also have the fact that the designer of DD originally planned to make a car dealership, but made DD instead. Being so open about it makes that unlikely as a set, as they probably would have kept it a secret if that was to be released in the future. And a petrol station/garage is quite similar.

Yeah, I wouldn't expect their thought process to be something along the lines of "Hey, we should do a garage!" "Garage isn't going to work, lets turn it into a diner instead!" "Hey, let's try a garage again!"

I can see a garage working really well, but wouldn't expect it to come so soon after they were almost doing one. Surely they'd move onto other options that they have, rather than keep trying with the one idea.

Edited September 28, 2018 by The_Nev

[kiwinewt]

3 minutes ago, The_Nev said:

I can see a garage working really well, but wouldn't expect it to come so soon after they were almost doing one. Surely they'd move onto other options that they have, rather than keep trying with the one idea.

Unless it was specifically initially scrapped in favour of the DD as the DD/garage wasn't as good a set idea as the potential garage? So went with DD and a future garage vs not-so-good-garage and scrabbling for future ideas?

[Fenghuang0296]

Makes sense to me. 

I'm just curious what they could possibly do with a garage to make it have 3500 pieces like the leak suggested. 

[TheLegomane]

9 hours ago, Feng-huang0296 said:

Makes sense to me. 

I'm just curious what they could possibly do with a garage to make it have 3500 pieces like the leak suggested. 

Where did you see this leak?

[danimarroquin]

I'm down for the garage/gas station with apartments on top from the 70s era , so meaning that this would be the first time that octan would be on a modular creator set building .

Edited September 28, 2018 by danimarroquin

[DeanLearner]

To be honest, I just don’t think there’s any chance of a garage happening. The mock-up of a MOC that “leaked” last year was a bit of a mess, and demonstrated how unnaturally a modern style petrol pump would fit within the modular standard (besides that version was essentially just a mod of the recent City petrol station).

I know people will cite the designer interviews about them having considered a car showroom, but I we don’t know how many unusual/crazy ideas the designers consider and dismiss in the process of coming up with final designs. Either way, I also don’t think that there is any chance Lego would make a car showroom as a modular set, for the simple reason that you can barely fit any minifig-scale vehicle within the standard footprint of a modular building, and accommodating a vehicle would create too many limitations for the style of the rest of the building.

[Bricked1980]

31 minutes ago, DeanLearner said:

The mock-up of a MOC that “leaked” last year was a bit of a mess, and demonstrated how unnaturally a modern style petrol pump would fit within the modular standard

I agree. Overall I reckon a Lego set featuring a petrol station forecourt on the ground level and then 2 other floors plonked on top would look pretty forced and unnatural. Although it has been pointed out in this thread before that Petrol Stations like this do actually exist in continental Europe.

I reckon a more likely scenario would be a workshop/repair shop concept of a garage. I'm finding this easier to imagine in the usual format of a modular building.

Edited September 28, 2018 by Bricked1980

[badbob001]

11 hours ago, Feng-huang0296 said:

I'm just curious what they could possibly do with a garage to make it have 3500 pieces like the leak suggested. 

A gas station won't fit the modular building layout, but a multi-story car park (attached to shopping center) could work. Perhaps with a car elevator, but that play feature seems a bit too matchbox/fisherprice.

[Boettner Builds]

I’m hopeful that it will be a museum or a school.

[Jasper Joppe Geers]

2 hours ago, badbob001 said:

A gas station won't fit the modular building layout, but a multi-story car park (attached to shopping center) could work. Perhaps with a car elevator, but that play feature seems a bit too matchbox/fisherprice.

you might say that, but if done and designed well, the idea of a gas station with car park on top could be great!
Although a 32 x 48 footprint seems nescessary to me to work for a drive through gas station.

[Vindicare]

4 hours ago, Bricked1980 said:

 

I reckon a more likely scenario would be a workshop/repair shop concept of a garage. I'm finding this easier to imagine in the usual format of a modular building.

They could start with something like what they have in 10194 Town Plan’s garage, minus the pumps section. If it is a corner building, it could have a bay for cars on each side. 

[DeanLearner]

I would happily put a large sum of money on Lego never building a multi-storey car park. 

Firstly, as before, you can’t build a space that would fit in cars without it taking up an enormous amount of space (or vehicles at essentially a Smart Car scale).

Secondly, it would look terrible at the benefit of only a fairly poor play feature. Enough people were outraged when Lego jumped forward in time to Streamline Moderne architecture for Downtown Diner. There is no chance Lego are going to build some Brutalist monstrosity (as all such car parks are).

I do think that a repair shop could work well though, especially if combined with something like a hardware store. It would give lots of scope for the sort of small details that Lego excels at, and maybe even have a bit of the vibe of the Old Fishing Store interior.

[AnnaBuildsLego]

I don't think it will be a garage either, but I do think that vehicles are going to be a mainstay in the modular line now. It was mentioned that in testing, kids loved when vehicles were included with the buildings (I think that was in the DD designer video). So I think, no matter what building we get, it will come with a vehicle of some kind for the sake of play.

That doesn't necessarily take previous guesses off the cards --- A hotel could come with a taxi; a school could come with a small school bus; a museum could come with some kind of van delivering a priceless artifact, and some bandits trying to steal it. 

[Aanchir]

On 9/26/2018 at 11:20 AM, Eaglefan344 said:

It was also age 9+ back then too. Now it's 12+. I guess kids 10 years later aren't quite as smart.

Or LEGO just has a clearer idea of what people of different ages tend to enjoy. Recommended age ranges aren’t always based on complexity — even the earliest, mind-bogglingly simple Architecture sets of 2008 like https://brickset.com/sets/21001-1/John-Hancock-Center and https://brickset.com/sets/21000-1/Sears-Tower were recommended for ages 10+.

And anyhow, if it were just about ability to build the set, no set would need an UPPER limit on age recommendations. Yet LEGO knows that a 10-year-old is unlikely to get the same enjoyment out of a Juniors set as a 5-year-old, and that a 20-year-old might prefer a Creator Expert building over a Creator 3-in-1 set.

As for the Creator Expert branding, that’s more or less just a rebrand of the once-nameless category of sets that Brickset calls “Advanced Models”. It’s less meant to suggest you need to be an expert builder to make them than that they have a level of complexity and/or detail that older builders tend to enjoy more than the expressly kid-targeted builds in themes like Creator 3-in-1, Friends, or City.

[chorus]

On 9/29/2018 at 3:29 PM, Aanchir said:

Or LEGO just has a clearer idea of what people of different ages tend to enjoy. Recommended age ranges aren’t always based on complexity — even the earliest, mind-bogglingly simple Architecture sets of 2008 like https://brickset.com/sets/21001-1/John-Hancock-Center and https://brickset.com/sets/21000-1/Sears-Tower were recommended for ages 10+.

And anyhow, if it were just about ability to build the set, no set would need an UPPER limit on age recommendations. Yet LEGO knows that a 10-year-old is unlikely to get the same enjoyment out of a Juniors set as a 5-year-old, and that a 20-year-old might prefer a Creator Expert building over a Creator 3-in-1 set.

As for the Creator Expert branding, that’s more or less just a rebrand of the once-nameless category of sets that Brickset calls “Advanced Models”. It’s less meant to suggest you need to be an expert builder to make them than that they have a level of complexity and/or detail that older builders tend to enjoy more than the expressly kid-targeted builds in themes like Creator 3-in-1, Friends, or City.

Never understood Legos age recommendations. My then six year old son built Assembly Square on his own last year, and he hasn´t really needed any help with any of his sets the last 2-3 years.

[Bainter-ban]

On 9/29/2018 at 3:29 PM, Aanchir said:

Or LEGO just has a clearer idea of what people of different ages tend to enjoy. Recommended age ranges aren’t always based on complexity — even the earliest, mind-bogglingly simple Architecture sets of 2008 like https://brickset.com/sets/21001-1/John-Hancock-Center and https://brickset.com/sets/21000-1/Sears-Tower were recommended for ages 10+.

And anyhow, if it were just about ability to build the set, no set would need an UPPER limit on age recommendations. Yet LEGO knows that a 10-year-old is unlikely to get the same enjoyment out of a Juniors set as a 5-year-old, and that a 20-year-old might prefer a Creator Expert building over a Creator 3-in-1 set.

As for the Creator Expert branding, that’s more or less just a rebrand of the once-nameless category of sets that Brickset calls “Advanced Models”. It’s less meant to suggest you need to be an expert builder to make them than that they have a level of complexity and/or detail that older builders tend to enjoy more than the expressly kid-targeted builds in themes like Creator 3-in-1, Friends, or City.

I don’t think he actually meant that LEGO thinks kids now are dumber than kids ten years ago. 

Edited October 2, 2018 by Bainter-ban

[lifeinplastic]

On ‎10‎/‎2‎/‎2018 at 1:41 PM, Bainter-ban said:

I don’t think he actually meant that LEGO thinks kids now are dumber than kids ten years ago. 

Yes, this was evidently intended as a joke by the OP, so not really any need for 'I know better than you' comments.

I personally hope we don't see any more vehicles in future modulars - as an AFOL the playability of these sets isn't a crucial factor but I have no doubt Lego do enough market research to know what will sell

 

[Brick Dangerous]

Yes, it's interesting how little it takes to trigger some people.

Re: cars: I thought the pink one was actually a nice addition to the Diner, but in general I agree. Less side builds, more substantial main builds.