finnbricker

At €70, the bike shop is actually cheaper than in the US, where it is roughly €72 with tax. I don't think there are many sets that are cheaper in Europe than in the US! Then again, for some reason, the Creator houses (not counting modulars) tend to be on the expensive side in the US. Wonder why. Anyway, for us in Finland it will surely be more expensive than for the rest of Euroland. €85 maybe?

To call this awesome would be an understatement. Absolutely wonderful! I'm out of words. If this were a real set, I would buy it immediately. And i'm sure so would all AFOLs that had this iconic set back in the days. Actually, I would suggest you put this on Ideas. The piece count can't be that high and Lego could simplify it a little, should they so wish, so this might have actual potential to become a set. No licences, no rivals in existing themes, a great and true spirit Lego nostalgia and a set that would surely sell well, not only among AFOLs but among kids as well.

I guess I got really lucky with this one! I managed to find a couple at a toy store, bought two and turned it into a 16-wide modular. So far, there's only one floor but I'll probably add two floors later on. However, I couldn't resist it and went back to buy two more, which I thought I could sell to sponsor this crazy hobby. I've been buying stuff from Bricklink, but never selling. Will have to familiarize myself with the conditions and concept and then try to sell them there...

The bike shop seems available in the US but not in Europe. Does anyone have an idea of the eurozone pricing? To me, it seems that these Creator houses tend to be on the expensive side in the US compared to City, Friends or Expert.

Wonderful MOC! I'd appreciate a close-up on the pavement mosaic. It looks really nice and I'd like to use it in some way in my city as well.

I like your idea a lot! The ground floor is superb! The Karate studio would, in my opinion, benefit from some more details on the facade. I'm currently working on a MOD with two 32 x 32 baseplates, with two juice bars on the ground floor and a medium blue second and probably third floor, as well. Probably a discotheque on the second floor.

Has anyone bought this set on the aftermarket? What do you consider a realistic price? Ebay and Amazon have these on sale for more or less $100. Is this really the going value for an unopened set? I realise this is the first Friends shop and it had a relatively short shelf life, at least compared to the City Park Cafe, but nevertheless, the aftermarket price seems really high.

What is DS?

I guess I was just being optimistic. Plus the blurry preview pic and my observations at the London toy fair gave me hints in this direction. Nevertheless, when the disapppointment slowly wears off, as it surely will by June when this will be released (?), this will serve as a nice MOC/MOD pack. The scale is about the same as in last year's 60026 Town Square and I managed to combine two of those into a neat modern modular.

What a disapppointment! 1000 pc and this is the result? Two really small, albeit cute, buildings. I was anticipating something more along the modular line. Okay, architecturally they're sort of in line with the PS. And they look nice. But the scale is all wrong. Not only is it wrong when comparing to modulars, it's also wrong compared to past Creator houses. Way too small. More like detailed City houses. Not only is the width and length lacking, also the height is too small. 6 studs for one floor is like a 1980s City house. Since I like the looks of the second floor of the bike shop, I'll probably have to buy at least two, probably three sets and turn it into a modular. But the cafe doesn't really offer anything. And no cool yellow, either. Sad.

The mall is a disappointment. Even if some nice details seem to be included, it is not a mall, more like an open-air market with simple stalls. No roofs, no walls... It's not a building. I had expected this set to include a couple of shops resembling the previous Heartlake shops.

If the preliminary box art is anything to go by, the white building (bike shop) is 24 wide (and easily moddable to 32). The cafe is trickier to measure, but it doesn't look 16 wide to me. More like 12–14?

31025 Creator Mountain Hut and 60047 Police Station would be my wishes.

Yeah, I wonder what the secondary and tertiary builds will look like, or how well-made they are. Usually I only find the main build really well designed, the others are basically just something that can be created with a very limited assortment of bricks available and they look, well, just like that. "I give you these bricks and you make something out of them."

Yeah, I paid attention to that as well. They sure take their time planning and preparing these sets! I wonder if they have the whole of 2015 already sketched out?

Actually, I think the box reads Boy, not Troy. And does it call the adult figure Woman? A very preliminary pic...

Looking at the prelim picture, it once again appears to me that the cafe is cool yellow, not tan. But at the London toy fair, it definitely was brick-built in tan. Is it possible that they had brick-built it in tan only because not all bricks are yet available in cool yellow? A cool yellow building would be so much, well, cooler! OTOH, the windows of the medium blue ground floor of the bike shop look more or less the same colour as the cafe walls. Tan after all?

If this set is as popular as one tends to believe right now, then what excites me even more than this one set is that it could get sequels — a sort of "light modular" once a year to complement the actual modulars. This light modular probably draws attraction from kids as well, the price is lower and the set is playable, in particular thanks to the 3in1.

That would be me. I'm currently working on a 48-stud wide Friends-based modular, where the ground floor consists of two 41007 Pet Salons and the two upper floors are light yellow with big white windows. The bricks come from two 41037 Stephanie's Beach Houses. It looks very art decoesque IMHO. I should make a Flickr account to be able to post some pics. However, you will need more bricks than what you'll find in the sets themselves since the sets don't have any back walls and have only very limited side walls as well. 60026 Town Square also makes a really nice modular. I got two of those and built a three-storey building with a pizza place downstairs and two white-with-black-windows office floors. I didn't need too many extra bricks, mostly basic white and lime green bricks which are readily available at PAB walls.

Many of us are excited about the upcoming Creator Bike Shop and Cafe 3in1. It's being discussed both in the City 2014 topic, where it doesn't belong, and in Creator 2014, where it technically belongs but somehow feels lost anyway. I believe this set deserves a topic of its own, a little like modulars and other main sets. I am in London right now and yesterday, I went to the Toy Fair just to see the Lego stand. However, they have a closed stand, by appointment only, which was a disappointment. I managed to catch a glimpse of 31026 from far away, though, both the box and the built-up set. Here's what I found out: The main build has two buildings: one where the main colour is tan and another where the main colour is white with a dark red roof and dark (black?) windows. No light yellow here, which is a pity. The buildings seem to be attached by hinges, so you can either have them right next to each other or turn them to a 90 degree angle to form a corner (or any other angle for that matter). They look sort of like smaller modular buildings with a narrow sidewalk in front of the buildings. The architecture is varied and detailed, a lot more so than with City buildings. But they don't come on baseplates and they are not as deep or high as true modulars. From far away, I could not make out which one is the bike shop and which one the cafe. My guess is the tan building is the bike shop and the white one the cafe since the white one, especially the upper floor, resembles a residential building. I can't really say anything about the alternative builds. I would say that with two sets and some modding, this will fit in very nicely with the modulars and is definitely something to be excited about!

The bike shop & café sounds really exciting and even more so now that's it's been verified that it's a 3-in-1. I have never built the alternative builds of the Creator houses since I haven't found them too well done, only the main build seems to appeal to me... But in this case I really hope that the alternative builds don't look just like something that has been assembled out of a limited set of bricks. Heck, I could even buy three of this set and add all three to my city! The flower shop is something I have wanted to MOC for some time now, inspired by the new flower molds in Friends. I guess I'm a little late on that one now. I wonder if Modular in this cases means that this set goes well together with the Modular Buildings even if it is less detailed (and probably more modern). Or does it only mean that it is modular in the sense that 60031 is modular?

Oh my, really nice! I love the idea of using the brick-bricks as a path. The roof of the café is also really neat – mine has a medium stone grey roof, which looks kinda boring. I did add a chimney, though – they bake their own cakes there!

One great thing to do is to modularize City buildings. This will give your modular city some variation since the City buildings tend to be modern whereas the modulars are older architecture. Two 7498 Police Stations (and a lot of Bricklinking) resulted in a great 32 x 64 modern Police Station with four floors for my Modular city. In this case, I was able to use the interiors of the original. Also, two 60026 Town Squares have given me a nice 32 x 32 three-storey office building with a Pizza Place on the ground floor. The second floor currently houses a WIP night club with live entertainment (3932 Andrea's Stage and the drums from 3939 Mia's bedroom). The third floor is the location of 3936, Emma's Fashion Studio. All minidolls are in a plastic bag waiting for me to decide what to do with them – I buy the Friends interiors but use minifigs instead. Modularizing Friends buildings, especially the shops, is also a great thing to do. I managed to find the 3187 Butterfly Beauty Shop at a toy store only two months ago, and just yesterday I turned it into a 16 x 32 modular. Currently, there is only one floor. Also 3061 City Park Café has been modularized on a 32 x 32 baseplate including some nice outdoor seating. I have turned two 41006 Downtown Bakeries into a 32 x 32 corner modular with a heavily modded 3315 Olivia's House on top, so this is now a three storey building. The second floor houses 41002 Emma's Karate Class and the third floor is the cramped apartment where poor Olivia had to move with her family from their posh suburban home after her dad lost his job... I have also combined two GEs into a big one (with the interior still a WIP). I made the brownstone from the PS into a rowhouse with two similar buildings next to each other and a third one planned. The second sand blue PS is currently unopened as I'm trying to find a nice and doable color to substitute it for – then my city will have one sand blue Pet Shop and a similar building, on a different block, with a different color for both walls and windows. Maybe a mirrored image of the original, mind you. As for whether the Friends interiors are too girly – I don't really think so. You can change some colors if you like, and moreover, it's likely that around 50 % of the inhabitants in your city are females anyway, so let them enjoy their girly interiors. :)

41058 Heartlake shopping centre! Wow! Considering the price this will be a big set. Sounds really exciting and I hope it can be easily modded to Modular standard.

I bought the 4956 complete and assembled, with six pieces missing and substituted with other colours (no rare ones), for 35€ shipping included on an Ebay style site here in Finland. A real bargain! I had to take it apart to wash the pieces, some of which were dusty, but I would have wanted to build it myself anyway, so not the slightest problem! Sometimes, one gets really lucky!