Modular Building Sets - Rumours and Discussion

[Lyichir]

18 minutes ago, RichardGoring said:

Lovely MOD of the Boutique Hotel using two sets. An extra middle floor, double sized art gallery, pool, and cool lighting.

https://zusammengebaut.com/lego-news-beleuchtetes-hotel-blumen-139132/

(It's not mine).

Oh that's lovely! And a good way to make use of some of the other extra parts if you buy a second set to add a floor.

[Elysiumfountain]

Heck yeah! That's the type of MOD of that building I've wanted to see! I really like the addition of an extra floor, that's the sort of thing I'm planning to do with it eventually. 

[BrickFit26]

On 1/15/2022 at 3:29 PM, RichardGoring said:

Lovely MOD of the Boutique Hotel using two sets. An extra middle floor, double sized art gallery, pool, and cool lighting.

https://zusammengebaut.com/lego-news-beleuchtetes-hotel-blumen-139132/

(It's not mine).

Wow! Amazing!

[just_one]

on bag #9 of the Boutique Hotel and im just amazed , this might be the best modular since Assembly Square.
Amazing techiniques , very detailed interiors(always a big plus for me in modulars) and a love letter to all the modulars that came before

not to spoil anything but there is a piece that its just amazing , also the colours of the exterior are very pretty

[crowe-k]

7 hours ago, just_one said:

on bag #9 of the Boutique Hotel and im just amazed , this might be the best modular since Assembly Square.
Amazing techiniques , very detailed interiors(always a big plus for me in modulars) and a love letter to all the modulars that came before

not to spoil anything but there is a piece that its just amazing , also the colours of the exterior are very pretty

I am in full agreement with your comment. I built the BH over the weekend and it was a great build. Some of the techniques are amazing the colours are definitely different but fit well with this design. I think this is in my top five modulars in terms of overall design/look with the GG, GE, PR and AS. 

[LegoDW]

On 1/3/2022 at 7:16 PM, AFOLguy1970 said:

Yes, however I think that the highest floor is very short, even compared to the middle floor.  If the upper two floors were comparable in height, I think it would look fine.  

Yes, the 3rd floor is a brick shorter then the 2nd which is shorter then the ground floor.  I believe it was designed this way to give prospective.  I plan on adding another brick to the height of the 3rd floor, don't like the doors coming right the the tiles, need another brick between them to look right in my opinion.  

Overall like the set, not a fan of the new the flesh colored bricks.  Sure it will grow on me after a while.

 

[Aanchir]

On 1/18/2022 at 5:25 PM, LegoDW said:

Yes, the 3rd floor is a brick shorter then the 2nd which is shorter then the ground floor.  I believe it was designed this way to give prospective.  I plan on adding another brick to the height of the 3rd floor, don't like the doors coming right the the tiles, need another brick between them to look right in my opinion.  

Overall like the set, not a fan of the new the flesh colored bricks.  Sure it will grow on me after a while.

For my part I am a big fan of Light Nougat becoming a more common color for building elements, since it nicely fills in the gap between pastel colors like Light Purple/Bright Pink and Cool Yellow/Bright Light Yellow. And this set's Mediterranean-inspired color palette is a great illustration of a "real-world" context where that can be useful.

It's also nice to finally do away with the weird "double standard" in which lighter shades like Nougat and Light Nougat are treated almost exclusively as "flesh tones" (with uses in other contexts like building elements, clothing, hair, or accessories often regarded as strange or offbeat exceptions), whereas darker shades like Medium Nougat, Dark Orange, and Reddish Brown are treated as all-purpose "earth tones" suited to any context, and ONLY regarded as "flesh tones" when they're specifically being used as such.

After all, nobody batted an eye at the heavy use of those darker "skin tones" in sets like Pet Shop, Town Hall, and Detective's Office. And I suspect that a big part of why this set's use of Light Nougat seems weird or off-putting to a lot of people is that in the context of LEGO, we haven't really been conditioned to think of it as more than just a symbolic representation of human skin.
 

In real life, of course, there are numerous "peach-colored" materials and objects that can occur in colors closely resembling Light Nougat bricks (fabric, wood, paint, plaster/stucco, stone, animal fur, flowers, etc). Most of the time, however, builders like us tend to default to a drab color like Brick Yellow/Tan for these sorts of things, both because we're so used to it representing things other than human skin, and because even today, it offers a useful variety of building elements than Light Nougat ever has.

Tellingly, though, a very different picture emerged when LEGO Digital Designer's "Universe Mode"/"Extended Mode" was launched, giving builders free rein to color bricks in any color of their choosing. A lot of digital builders who weren't familiar with LEGO's official color names would default to the warmer-looking Light Nougat in places where they clearly intended to use Brick Yellow/Tan (or at least, places where official sets would have used Brick Yellow/Tan instead).

Some of this could be attributed to the imprecise ways that LDD rendered brick colors and lighting on-screen, but I think it also demonstrates how often many builders might naturally opt for a "rosier" color like Light Nougat over a drab color like Brick Yellow/Tan if given the option and not trained to think of either color solely as a skin tone. As such, I'm hopeful that as more and more non-figure parts appear in Light Nougat, we'll see more and more builders (LEGO designers and MOCists alike) learning to recognize and embrace its broader potential.

Edited January 20, 2022 by Aanchir

[Blazej_Holen]

Still no designers video to the Boutique Hotel set? Weird… Sonic has its own like 1 day after release… Strange indeed. 

[Jiesdeo]

1 hour ago, Blazej_Holen said:

Still no designers video to the Boutique Hotel set? Weird… Sonic has its own like 1 day after release… Strange indeed. 

Soon promoted to Count I see.

[Blazej_Holen]

2 hours ago, Jiesdeo said:

Soon promoted to Count I see.

How is this relevant to my question?

[Lyichir]

Finally got around to building my family's copy of the set this past week. We did take the suggestion from this forum (I forget which specific member made it, apologies for not giving credit!) of adding an exterior door under the grand staircase so that the hotel staff can take trash out to the dumpster without going all the way around the building. I used a brown door frame (which works well with the visible brown bricks above it where the staircase connects to the wall) but haven't quite decided what kind of door would be best for an unassuming exit like that—perhaps something like a featureless door in a color like grey? Either way I'll probably have to order something since I don't actually have a ton of 4x6 doors that aren't currently built into MOCs or sets.

Overall I'm still really impressed with this build, its architecture, and the geometry that makes it work. I'm not totally without criticisms (the addition of a back door was an easy fix, but that corner where you can see the interior wall color on the roof level could still use a little work), but all in all there was never a dull moment in the build and I felt like I learned a lot of neat techniques building it. We'll probably keep it displayed on its own for a while before moving it to the living room to connect it with some of our other recent modulars.

[Jiesdeo]

7 hours ago, Blazej_Holen said:

How is this relevant to my question?

Not at all. Just fun to see you were on 999 posts.

[BrickFit26]

18 hours ago, Blazej_Holen said:

Still no designers video to the Boutique Hotel set? Weird… Sonic has its own like 1 day after release… Strange indeed. 

Seems like it happens year after year. The designer video comes late even as LEGO releases other designer videos only a few short days after revealing a new set. It's almost as if the modular designer videos are an after thought. 

[Blazej_Holen]

3 hours ago, BrickFit26 said:

Seems like it happens year after year. The designer video comes late even as LEGO releases other designer videos only a few short days after revealing a new set. It's almost as if the modular designer videos are an after thought. 

My thoughts exactly… what message Lego gave to Modular fans? Like its not as important line for them as other themes/projects? My initial thought was that they dont do it now because of covid or whatever, but then Sonic came out… just curious about their pattern releasing those vids…

10 hours ago, Jiesdeo said:

Not at all. Just fun to see you were on 999 posts.

I hvent even notice, since I was here through mobile app 😀

[Maple]

I think people here over think everything. LEGO clearly hates the modular by releasing at least one every year for the last 15 years.

For all we know the designer got covid and it out of the office.

[NoOneOfImportance]

Promobricks just posted some news about the Taxi promo. Looks like it's coming on the 28th.

Edited January 23, 2022 by NoOneOfImportance

[RichardGoring]

1 hour ago, NoOneOfImportance said:

Promobricks just posted some news about the Taxi promo. Looks like it's coming on the 28th.

Sounds good. Another high threshold though. Erik there be enough in stock to get one? 18 items in my wishlist and most are out of stock...

[mark1991t]

Pictures of it are on Instagram

[alvinofdiaspar]

57 minutes ago, mark1991t said:

Pictures of it are on Instagram

It looks pretty good - maybe I can pick it up on BL since Lego doesn't have I wanted in stock right now.

[Maple]

Vintage Taxi is looking nice. I fully expect it to be a $225 GWP the way LEGO is going. 

[Bainter-ban]

The vintage taxi looks great! I'm glad I waited a bit to buy the new modular. 

However, I'm disappointed that the minifigure is just the same donut thief as the one in the Police Station-set...

[Rotbart]

3 hours ago, Bainter-ban said:

However, I'm disappointed that the minifigure is just the same donut thief as the one in the Police Station-set...

Actually it's not. Look closely. Both the jacket and the face are a little different. Maybe they are brothers. Or the Beagle Boys.

Edited January 24, 2022 by Rotbart
spelling

[Blazej_Holen]

20 hours ago, Maple said:

For all we know the designer got covid and it out of the office.

Really? :D

9 hours ago, Maple said:

Vintage Taxi is looking nice. I fully expect it to be a $225 GWP the way LEGO is going. 

Actually it will be $200. But still... 

[Maple]

1 hour ago, Blazej_Holen said:

Really? :D

Actually it will be $200. But still... 

Which is insane! Does LEGO just get drunk and throw darts at price points for GWP amounts? Teal car a year ago was $85. That's better than this GWB and had two figures. The awesome sailing boat was $200 GWP but had twice as many pieces, many printed, two figures, including an exclusive torso, and two dolphins.

[RichardGoring]

7 minutes ago, Maple said:

Which is insane! Does LEGO just get drunk and throw darts at price points for GWP amounts? Teal car a year ago was $85. That's better than this GWB and had two figures. The awesome sailing boat was $200 GWP but had twice as many pieces, many printed, two figures, including an exclusive torso, and two dolphins.

While I agree that in a comparison it's crazy, but LEGO has a stock shortage and loads of customers wanting to buy stuff. From a short-term monetary position this strategy gets them the most money for the least cost. Whether that impacts long-term brand perception or customer loyalty, I don't know. It may also stop people getting loads of the GWP meaning others don't get it at all, which is somewhat easy to do if you're going to buy a load of 18+ sets anyway, most of which are over $200. And possibly the threshold was set when they thought it was to release with the Boutique Hotel at $200?