Modular Building Sets - Rumours and Discussion

[jonwil]

8 hours ago, Maple said:

I wouldn't put and stock into retiring rumours

This isn't a rumor, it supposedly comes from some kind of official database. But yes it could change if LEGO decides to change the retirement date of a set at some point (which they have done in the past for modulars)

 

[Maple]

9 hours ago, jonahtron said:

here you go...

 

Thank you so much. You are awesome! 
I really like that. Now I'm more annoyed that's not what we got. However I do like the dark blue first floor and dark red top floors. No matter what when the designers agreed to change the color they needed to change the sign. The dark blue anywhere else makes the sign so much better. The sign doesn't fit with the final colors.

3 hours ago, jonwil said:

This isn't a rumor, it supposedly comes from some kind of official database. But yes it could change if LEGO decides to change the retirement date of a set at some point (which they have done in the past for modulars)

 

Supposedly = rumours.

Do you have a link to share? If not then it's a rumour. 

[jonahtron]

2 hours ago, Maple said:

No matter what when the designers agreed to change the color they needed to change the sign.

I totally agree, The sign being dark blue makes no sense with the rest of the palette, makes you think that perhaps this printed tile piece went into production before they switched the colours. If they had just made the tile black in the first place, it would have been more seemless with the rest of the palette regardless. 

Ah well, I do love the building at the end of the day, I just wish it could have been a bit less 'safe', and had some more interesting build techniques. The aspect of the hobby I enjoy the most is modding official designs, I don't have a modular that I've not spend the extra £££ on to modify. It makes it a lot more fun when the original building has some design flare rather than being as simple as the JC, but I've had fun with the interior in making room for the piano/ trumpet player etc. 

On a positive note, as we speak, the 2024 modular is already being finished up, and the design team will likely be aware of the many mixed reviews the JC has received and hopefully it'll take some bigger risks despite not being a corner plot. The 'icons' design team are well aware of the often requested business' like post-office/ Hospital etc and they did give us the PS in the end, so perhaps there's some momentum to give the fans what they want rather than slightly less requested things like a pointlessly tiny bookshop with no books... 

[Lionbear8]

21 hours ago, jonwil said:

The current date I can find for the retirement of the Assembly Square is Dec 31 2023. Although its entirely possible it may be extended again.

The Bookshop and Police Station also have end-23 as their retirement date with the hotel having end-25 and the Jazz Club having end-26.

 

Well I guess I better start to save for this set! Thanks!

[fordtruckin]

16 hours ago, jonahtron said:

here you go...

 

Well you have ruined this set for me....not really, but I didn't have any complaints about the color until you posted this rendering. This is incomparably better than the official set colors. Thanks for sharing though. I wish I knew how to do these kinds of renderings. I could spend hours seeing buildings next to other ones and swapping out colors, etc. I will still buy the set at some point because I love the Modular Buildings.

[DeanLearner]

17 hours ago, jonahtron said:

here you go...

Thank you for that! Is that in Stud.io then? I was hoping to make up the set there myself, but don’t think I’ll get the time.

It is an interesting demonstration of the impact of “cold” and “warm” colours.

To that end, I’ve been reading up on colour theory. There is an excellent article by Tom Alphin on the Brick Architect https://brickarchitect.com/color/ that makes explicit reference to the Lego colour palette.

I can now articulate my discomfort with the colour selection a little better!

The dark red is a shade (i.e. a hue darkened with black), while the bright yellow is a tint (a hue lightened with white). In each case, the luminance is either decreased or increased so as to give a less “bright” appearance (though confusingly this is distinct from saturation). The same can be said for many of the accent colours (E.g. the earth blue, earth green, and medium nougat).

By contrast, the dark azure is a both highly saturated, and with a neutral luminance, so that it appears very bright. Other accent colours in this bracket include the red, coral, and bright light orange.

My contention isn’t with the use of different hues, but rather too broad a range of brightness. The bright colours make the dark red and yellow look too “washed out”, and this is why changing the dark red to earth blue (navy) doesn’t help that much.

The warm/cold colour thing is a slightly different question, but the colder blue hues within the dark red colour washes out the light yellow in a way the similar (but warmer) dark orange would not.

Examples of colour theory done most effectively (for me) in the modulars include the Detective’s Office and Police Station. In each case, there are some very varied (even “unrealistic”) colours chosen, but the slightly muted colours (shades, tones, and hints) mean that the colours clash less than a “pure” blue/orange, or purple/green, otherwise would.

The Friends comparison is also good. Historically they were occasionally eyesores, not because of the range of colour, but because of the clashes in brightness, however they have generally got much better over time.

[Legodt]

I wish I knew how to render the Jazz Club  with Dark Blue on the bottom, with tan on top + all Dark Bluish Gray for the Pizza Restaurant.  I intend to place the Jazz Club / Pizza in between Boutique Hotel and Brick Bank.  If anyone can easily make this render, I'd love to see it before I start building.  I have all of the pieces ready.

[Maple]

7 hours ago, jonahtron said:

I totally agree, The sign being dark blue makes no sense with the rest of the palette, makes you think that perhaps this printed tile piece went into production before they switched the colours. If they had just made the tile black in the first place, it would have been more seemless with the rest of the palette regardless. 

Completely agree. Which if they couldn't change the color of the sign, which should have been black like you said, then they needed to change the bottom floor to dark blue. The sign with the set we got makes no sense at all and really bugs me. But the renderings here show it's not the sign at all, just the colors used.

[jonahtron]

9 minutes ago, Maple said:

Completely agree. Which if they couldn't change the color of the sign, which should have been black like you said, then they needed to change the bottom floor to dark blue. The sign with the set we got makes no sense at all and really bugs me. But the renderings here show it's not the sign at all, just the colors used.

Totally! when I first saw the leaks I thought that the sign was the problem, the issue that the bottom fascia of the club ought to be dark blue. Luckily it's not more than a handful of pieces!

Meanwhile, my alterations for the restaurant are coming together, here's my WIP...

I can't quite get the colonnade with balcony looking aesthetically pleasing yet Any thoughts appreciated...

Other changes are not too substantial, ; 

• added an extra floor, (which immediately improved the silhouette) 
• Made the roof more 'Tuscan' looking.
• Green shutters which are a must on many of this style of building- i'm not entirely satisfied with my solution at the moment.
• Added Grape vines, though I need to make these a bit more organic looking IMO.
• As you can tell, i've not shied away from the fact that this restaurant is Friends-style. It's an exact colour match for 41379. (I'll probably use the sticker sign from that set and call this restaurant "La Locanda"

[antp]

6 hours ago, DeanLearner said:

By contrast, the dark azure is a both highly saturated, and with a neutral luminance, so that it appears very bright. Other accent colours in this bracket include the red, coral, and bright light orange.

I wonder what it would look like with standard red instead of the dark azure. Would it go better with the dark red? Or be too red?

[jonahtron]

4 hours ago, Legodt said:

I wish I knew how to render the Jazz Club  with Dark Blue on the bottom, with tan on top + all Dark Bluish Gray for the Pizza Restaurant.  I intend to place the Jazz Club / Pizza in between Boutique Hotel and Brick Bank.  If anyone can easily make this render, I'd love to see it before I start building.  I have all of the pieces ready.

Here you go, I'm not sure if this is what you meant. It looks a bit like a converted police station to me.

[Silverhurst]

49 minutes ago, jonahtron said:

Here you go, I'm not sure if this is what you meant. It looks a bit like a converted police station to me.

OMG, that is great looking too, even though the grey doesn't really fit the pizzeria concept. This picture got me thinking that maybe I should be looking at all the pieces I got out of the two QE sets I got for $35 each for modding this building, replacing the tans with white (and LBG for the end stones). Only problem would be the contrast with the white roof facades on the pizzeria, so I'd probably separate the building onto their own baseplates like others have done. I even think the greenhouse fits in better in this image.

What does it say when every pallet shown looks better than the original set?

[DeanLearner]

3 hours ago, antp said:

I wonder what it would look like with standard red instead of the dark azure. Would it go better with the dark red? Or be too red?

I think bright red would run into the same problem in standing out too much from the other colours. A more balanced solution would be a pastel tint, one of the sand tones, or one of the earth shades (though two dark colours would likely be too much).

I have the bricks to try medium blue and sand green; I think the latter may look best.

[DeanLearner]

2 hours ago, jonahtron said:

Here you go, I'm not sure if this is what you meant. It looks a bit like a converted police station to me.

Wow, good work! It’s really interesting to see that alternative. I do like the light tan for the upper floors of the Jazz Club and it helps to make the sign stand out (I agree that leaving it navy without including at least some navy accents elsewhere in the design was a major oversight).

I guess one problem is that tan has been used quite commonly for both MOCs and official modulars, and so it risks repetition.

Ultimately I plan to keep the dark red, and try to make it work; partly because I agree that it’s a pretty uncommon colour within the modulars, and partly because it would be far too expensive (and colour options may be limited by part availability).

Grey for the pizzeria really doesn’t work. The style of building most fits a pale or pastel colour. I think the light yellow works well, but would look better by replacing the medium nougat around the windows with yellow, but making the pillars white.

Edited January 12, 2023 by DeanLearner
Additional comment

[BrickFit26]

15 hours ago, jonahtron said:

On a positive note, as we speak, the 2024 modular is already being finished up, and the design team will likely be aware of the many mixed reviews the JC has received and hopefully it'll take some bigger risks despite not being a corner plot. The 'icons' design team are well aware of the often requested business' like post-office/ Hospital etc and they did give us the PS in the end, so perhaps there's some momentum to give the fans what they want rather than slightly less requested things like a pointlessly tiny bookshop with no books... 

Just thinking about the 2024 modular already and what it could be.

[fordtruckin]

Anyone have an image of the Jazz Club next to Fire Brigade or GBHQ?

[hikouki]

17 hours ago, fordtruckin said:

Well you have ruined this set for me....not really, but I didn't have any complaints about the color until you posted this rendering. This is incomparably better than the official set colors. Thanks for sharing though. I wish I knew how to do these kinds of renderings. I could spend hours seeing buildings next to other ones and swapping out colors, etc. I will still buy the set at some point because I love the Modular Buildings.

IIRC, in one of the interviews, the designer said that they had originally wanted the building to be predominantly blue, but other staffers felt it was too 'cold.'

I actually think the dark blue building with that brighter blue ground floor facade looks really good, and tied in really well with the theme of 'Blues'

[Aanchir]

On 1/11/2023 at 11:55 PM, Maple said:

Thank you so much. You are awesome! 
I really like that. Now I'm more annoyed that's not what we got. However I do like the dark blue first floor and dark red top floors. No matter what when the designers agreed to change the color they needed to change the sign. The dark blue anywhere else makes the sign so much better. The sign doesn't fit with the final colors.

Why would you expect the sign to match the building? The point of this sort of flashy commercial signage is to stand OUT from its surroundings — same as how Palace Cinema uses Medium Blue for its sign and marquee, or how Corner Garage and Grand Emporium both use Bright Yellow for their signage. Frankly, I feel like if the designers HAD gone with Earth Blue instead of Dark Red, they'd have also used a different color for the sign out front, since it's not meant to match the walls or be made of the same material.

It'd be a different matter if the neon lettering were mounted directly onto the building's walls, rather than onto an electrical fixture in front of the building's windows. In that case, I could see the logic of having the letters' background color match the rest of the building. But at that point you'd be requiring major changes to the building layout, not just color changes.

[jonahtron]

13 hours ago, Aanchir said:

Why would you expect the sign to match the building? The point of this sort of flashy commercial signage is to stand OUT from its surroundings — same as how Palace Cinema uses Medium Blue for its sign and marquee, or how Corner Garage and Grand Emporium both use Bright Yellow for their signage. Frankly, I feel like if the designers HAD gone with Earth Blue instead of Dark Red, they'd have also used a different color for the sign out front, since it's not meant to match the walls or be made of the same material.

It'd be a different matter if the neon lettering were mounted directly onto the building's walls, rather than onto an electrical fixture in front of the building's windows. In that case, I could see the logic of having the letters' background color match the rest of the building. But at that point you'd be requiring major changes to the building layout, not just color changes.

I respectfully couldn't disagree more with this. As a Jazz fan who regularly goes to gigs and makes travel plans around jazz bars when I travel abroad I am confident that one would struggle to find any example of this in the 'real world'. Neon signs that attach to a mounting (i.e not freestanding or mounted to a brick wall) are generally either black or mirrored or transparent perspex. And in the examples below of some of my favourites, all match the colour scheme of the building.

In London we have the famous Ronnie Scott's, Jazz @ Pizza Express in Paris; Le Caveau de la Huchette,  In Detroit; Bakers Keyboard Lounge, in Chicago; Green Mill Cocktail Lounge

[jonahtron]

On 1/13/2023 at 4:25 AM, fordtruckin said:

Anyone have an image of the Jazz Club next to Fire Brigade or GBHQ?

This is the best I could rustle up:

[Lion King]

Not sure if this has been discussed beore but are Houses of the World collection “mini Modular” series so they will go with Modular series?

[DeanLearner]

6 minutes ago, DBlegonerd7 said:

Not sure if this has been discussed beore but are Houses of the World collection “mini Modular” series so they will go with Modular series?

From what’s been released so far they look to be an entirely different scale to the modulars. If there is to be a specific Jazz Club GWP then it’s going to have to be a significant improvement.

[Lion King]

3 minutes ago, DeanLearner said:

From what’s been released so far they look to be an entirely different scale to the modulars. If there is to be a specific Jazz Club GWP then it’s going to have to be a significant improvement.

Yeah that’s what I am hoping for.  Vine gage Taxi GWP goes with Boutique Hotel so well with a thief minifigurefrom Police Station. I’must wishing they would include Andy Sax or saxophone in GWP.

[DeanLearner]

2 hours ago, jonahtron said:

This is the best I could rustle up:

That looks pretty good. The lower height of the pool hall/detectives office fits in nicely with the pizzeria.

In terms of architectural style, I think the doughnut shop from PS may be a better fit on that side. I think that Corner Garage may work quite nicely next to the Jazz Club (though there is a chance they may be too close in appearance).

[RichardGoring]

3 hours ago, DeanLearner said:

That looks pretty good. The lower height of the pool hall/detectives office fits in nicely with the pizzeria.

In terms of architectural style, I think the doughnut shop from PS may be a better fit on that side. I think that Corner Garage may work quite nicely next to the Jazz Club (though there is a chance they may be too close in appearance).

I'm going to put the Jazz Club between Corner Garage and Detective's Office in my setup. They all feel like they'd fit in the seedier end of downtown, and with Corner Garage on the right, and Detective's Office on the left, you get a mix of colour blocking and heights.

Of course, I still need to build Corner Garage (and Jazz Club for that matter - but waiting for the GWP).