Bricklinking Modular Buildings

[Alpinemaps]

I've been following this thread with great interest. It's been really insightful, thank you everyone for sharing. I have plans to put together a couple of different retired sets, and I've been trying to figure out the best, lowest cost strategy.

I'm curious - the initial route I considered taking was to buy some bulk Lego sets from Craigslist, sort through them, find elements that I needed, and then part out/sell the rest. Is there a reason why any of you didn't consider doing it that way? Obviously, some of the parts are going to be harder to come by (and perhaps in the case of GG, too hard to come by), but curious to know if this ever factored into your decision.

[sin]

I'm curious - the initial route I considered taking was to buy some bulk Lego sets from Craigslist, sort through them, find elements that I needed, and then part out/sell the rest. Is there a reason why any of you didn't consider doing it that way? Obviously, some of the parts are going to be harder to come by (and perhaps in the case of GG, too hard to come by), but curious to know if this ever factored into your decision.

For one thing, I only want to use new parts in my sets. Bulk lots from Craigslist or ebay are generally going to be well loved, nicked up, sun-bleached/faded etc. Apart from that I really don't want to invest the time in trying to sell loose parts via bricklink or any other way. It would be just too time consuming to justify for myself given work, wife and kids. Even employing this strategy the likelihood of getting the parts you need in the quantities you need would be pretty low unless you bought a ton of bulk lots, and with that kind of cash expenditure you may as well just buy the parts you need.

Edited January 16, 2014 by sin

[TheLegoDr]

Yes, I meant 40 different parts. I am unsure of a limit pet part though. They have tried directing me to pab if you order too many just because they have different limits.

As far as craigslist goes, I think that pretty much sums it up. If you are okay with selling the rest, go for it. You may be able to cover your initial investment. A lot of that is based on who is selling and who is buying. I've seen lots for really cheap that were a goldmine and some that were expensive that had zero interesting pieces. Plus, not everyone has bulk lots listed on Craig's list. I look there quite often and there just isn't much in the way of what I would want, but rarely ever a bulk lot. Usually old star wars sets with a high Mark up.

But I'm in the same boat I want new parts for my MOCs, so I go that route.

[Wodanis]

As a Lego purist I have to have new parts. I've never tried to buy anything off Craigslist or Kijiji. I agree with Sin, it is a very inefficient method of acquiring parts for a project. Buying in bulk you really just don't know what you are getting. My mistake was not directly buying from Lego and using Bricklink. Sure I was able to get the unique parts I needed but the costs of shipping really counteracted any savings I was making on parts. Least when I am dealing directly with Lego I may pay more at times but I'm assured quality and have reduced shipping costs. Every order over $75 nets you free shipping, I can easily spend that much on PAB orders.

[billyneon]

I've been following this thread with great interest. It's been really insightful, thank you everyone for sharing. I have plans to put together a couple of different retired sets, and I've been trying to figure out the best, lowest cost strategy.

I'm curious - the initial route I considered taking was to buy some bulk Lego sets from Craigslist, sort through them, find elements that I needed, and then part out/sell the rest. Is there a reason why any of you didn't consider doing it that way? Obviously, some of the parts are going to be harder to come by (and perhaps in the case of GG, too hard to come by), but curious to know if this ever factored into your decision.

I went with this method in part when it came to building Cafe Corner.

Here in the UK I had lucked out in finding a few big job lots via charity shops and classifieds ads. From that I had sifted through pulling out plates, things like 1x1, 1x2 and 1x4 (etc) in various colours, and smaller quirkier pieces for other projects. I resold the bulk parts (or sometimes, parted out sets) that I didn't want to cover the costs.

I ordered a mix of parts direct from LEGO or via Bricklink for CC (specifically the roof bricks, tiles, pillars etc etc), but the rest were all second hand pieces from my batch buys (and most of them were in good condition, if not near perfect). It's a bit random, and your mileage varies, but the total outlay in the end for my (MOC-meets-MOD, given its mix of substitutions) version of CC is about £80. Yet the facade is near enough the same.

Like the comments above say, used pieces have the potential to be marked or have some wear, but if those bricks (eg brown walls or larger plates for the floor) are unseen, it's not necessarily a big deal. I find it a good way to get through an other wise expensive hobby!

[sin]

Well I received my largest BL order today, almost 1000 parts, and I am getting close! Now I have 2128 out of the 2405 parts for my build

I decided to occupy myself during this waiting period by building spreadsheets for CC and MS. I finished entering all of the PAB pricing into them and now I will just have to decide on which substitutions I will be making for the ultra rare 5 high doors. Prices for them are really crazy, some are listed up to $89.99 each.

As close as I am I'm afraid it's going to take a while for my PAB order to arrive. It only shipped out on the 14th so worst case - another 10 days to wait...

[elleana]

Sorry for the ignorance - just finished ordering parts for green grocer and moving on to cafe corner - but whats the part number of the doors that everyone's price gouging on?

[sin]

Sorry for the ignorance - just finished ordering parts for green grocer and moving on to cafe corner - but whats the part number of the doors that everyone's price gouging on?

There are two that are pretty expensive::

Part # 4258477 4 x 5 right shop door - current ranging from $33 to $90 on BL

Part # 4255318 4 x 5 right with 6 panes - $13 to $20 on BL

I don't plan on buying either. My plan is just to mod the doors a bit in LDD to fit in the current 4 x 6 door frames before I get heavy into buying parts for this.

MS is even worse with the doors - it has a right shop door, a left shop door and a 3 pane 4 x 5 door all of which are pricey.

[elleana]

Thanks. Exceeding odd - the first part doesn't appear on the parts list on rebricable???

http://rebrickable.com/sets/10182-1/cafe-corner-café-corner-modular-buildings-2007

[sin]

Thanks. Exceeding odd - the first part doesn't appear on the parts list on rebricable???

http://rebrickable.c...-buildings-2007

I'm not well versed with rebrickable but here it is on brickset

http://www.brickset.com/parts/?part=4258477

[TheLegoDr]

At least for CC, the doors were really easily modifiable. I haven't attempted market street at all, but I'd modify those too if/when I build it.

I think the next question for you will be, do you want to use the old or new panels for the Windows. I again modified them to use actual 1x2x3 Windows to match the rest of the series. Plus, then the minifigures won't get cold.

[sin]

At least for CC, the doors were really easily modifiable. I haven't attempted market street at all, but I'd modify those too if/when I build it.

I think the next question for you will be, do you want to use the old or new panels for the Windows. I again modified them to use actual 1x2x3 Windows to match the rest of the series. Plus, then the minifigures won't get cold.

Haha, yeah I noticed when first going through the build that the second floor windows are actually 1 x 2 x 3 white panels turned sideways. These can still be easily purchased but I am not sure how I feel about it. I haven't taken the time to look at how it is from the inside but I will definitely consider going with 1 x 2 x 3 windows with panes instead.

[TheLegoDr]

The only downside of doing Windows instead of panels is the entire front is 2 studs deep to accommodate the panels. When switching to Windows it doesn't need to be 2 studs deep anymore. That would be something to look into. Plus, since I'm modifying mine, I'm not doing the medium blue tiles or the dark blue wall on the inside.

If you look at the instructions, they show a building made out of all of the blue bricks from the set. Look above the doorway and you'll see the same decoration life in the pet shop town house. Kind of funny seeing that happen in the future.

[sin]

Hrm...

Thanks for mentioning this. I had assumed that the wall may be two bricks thick but I had not looked to see what colors were involved. Chances are I may stay close to stock on that wall as I will be buying a ton of blue bricks for MS at some point, currently they can be picked up from BnP so it shouldn't be a massive cost (BL gets a premium for those right now). I need to work out all of these kinks before I end up buying stuff I don't need haha...

[Wodanis]

The way I look at it, even if I changed the front windows in CC to panel ones I still have the 'original' parts.

If you look at the instructions, they show a building made out of all of the blue bricks from the set. Look above the doorway and you'll see the same decoration life in the pet shop town house. Kind of funny seeing that happen in the future.

I had not noticed that before. Very perceptive.

[TheLegoDr]

I think the only difference between the panels are the old had side supports and the new panels do not. So it isn't super noticeable. I think the old dark red roof slopes didn't have a recessed stuff and the new do or something, so that is all anyone would notice of they took it apart. I prefer the Windows in mine. I'm factoring in the double width in the bedrooms. I'm still working on it. I haven't touched my CC in quite some time.

[Wodanis]

Ugh, I can't wait for my parts now so I can start building them. My only drawback at the moment for CC is that I want to build the interior but I have not figured out the cost of my design yet. Watch out for the top floor. They designed the roof differently with the CC and it doesn't leave much room to place your hand in there while building.

[TheLegoDr]

I was hoping to wait to start building until I had 100% of the pieces, but I started to build the main floor with what I had. Part of me wanted to see how my modifications would look. So far so good. I'm surprised by how much I have just from other sets.

I've heard that about CC's top floor. In my version I will have lots more room since it is more open, so that won't concern me here. Typically I would want to build the inside after the fact only do I can still have a finished building to look at. But if it is too hard to place the interior with all of the walls up, maybe I should do the interior as I go. I have no idea on a floor tile design yet. I think that is what will trip me up the most considering I don't have a ton of different sizes in that many colors.

Edited January 19, 2014 by TheLegoDr

[The Jersey Brick Guy]

I was the same way when I built mine. I had to wait 2 weeks to finish certain parts when I was waiting on some of the parts from Europe. It's such a nice build.

[sin]

I was hoping to wait to start building until I had 100% of the pieces, but I started to build the main floor with what I had. Part of me wanted to see how my modifications would look.

I am stuck waiting for a few orders for my GG, one of which includes all the the light bley 1 x 8 bricks. Without those there is no point even attempting the ground floor.

I hear what you mean about trying out changes to CC. Over the last couple of days I built my version of CC in LDD. I made a number of changes:

• front and side door changed to 1 x 4 x 6 frames with transclear doors
  
• second floor windows changed to 1 x 2 x 3 frames with glass
  
• third floor box windows changed to 1 x 4 x 3 frames with 2 piece shutter (I don't like the look of the 1 piece shutters at all)
  

There were lots of details to work out for each of these changes and I wanted to revise my parts list to reflect them so I wouldn't buy pieces that I didn't need. Building in LDD was pretty fun too once I got the hang of it.

The only real issues I came up against building CC in LDD:

• front door ornamental piece with the skis - the correct length tube in LDD cannot be bent, I had to use a shorter one and thus couldn't fit all 11 skis on it
  
• The arches placed on the underside of the blue arch above the side door - try as I might I couldn't place these, it became quite frustrating and I gave up after about 30 minutes of trying.
  
• The blue pillars one either side of the front door couldn't be placed on the correct stud due to a collision issue - I doubt this is an issue in the actual build, for my LDD build I just moved them one stud forward which required me removing a couple 1 x 2 tiles.
  

It's pretty cool to see what the end result will be at such an early stage in the process, I think I will do the same thing for MS at some point.

The end result looks good to me

Edited January 19, 2014 by sin

[The Jersey Brick Guy]

Looks nice, now to start planning the interiors!

[sin]

Agreed, the ground floor cafe will be fun to design. I'm think about a nice wooden bar and booth tables with a paneled floor.

[Wodanis]

How did you get to bend the pipe in LDD? Whenever I try I can only bend one side and not get the other to connect to the piece. Yea I found the same issue with the blue column not waiting to sit next to the sides of the door frame in LDD.

[sin]

How did you get to bend the pipe in LDD? Whenever I try I can only bend one side and not get the other to connect to the piece. Yea I found the same issue with the blue column not waiting to sit next to the sides of the door frame in LDD.

It took a little tinkering...

I believe I used the 64mm version of the pipe, First I placed it upright into the round 1 x 1 brick on the left. I then placed one ski onto in so that I could easily copy it to place the remainder. Lastly I used the flex tool to bend the top of the pipe down onto the round 1 x 1 brick on the right side. I had to try quite a few camera angles before I was able to get it into place. Once it was connected on both sides I selected it and moved it just a little bit - this gave it a uniform curve.

Edited January 19, 2014 by sin

[TheLegoDr]

That looks really good! I used to do LDD when I had a computer. Now I only use a kindle, so I don't have time or access to a lot of stuff.

I like the top Windows changed to the other style. I purchased the original Windows a few years ago, so I am still using them, but I may want to switch to this other style.

One disappointing thing is they switched the skis to a new version without the hinge. You can get them on bricklink, but not lego. The new mold doesn't look as good.