ReplicaOfLife

I have to say that the Ghostbusters building news didn't get me excited. I'd love for lego to put out some more buildings that are compatible in size with the modular line, like they did with the Haunted House. But as others said, the GBHQ will propably be more comparable to the Simpsons stuff in terms of size, so it would look horribly out of place next to the modulars... And personally I have to say, 350 bucks sounds way too steep for me. I have some fond memories of watching Ghostbusters as a kid, and also got the Ecto-1, but wouldn't ever consider myself a fan, so I don't see myself paying that kind of money for it. At the light of day, for me it'll be an oversized Fire Station that I can't display together with my modulars... and I already have the Simpsons House and Kwik-E-Mart sitting around MISB because of that (and lack of display space, obviously). Of course, all of this is pure speculation as no one (afaik) has seen pictures of the GBHQ...

Thanks you guys I did some experimenting on the color for the bay window, but white just worked best, so white it is.

Part 9: Newspaper Agent, Third and Fourth Floor (final part) I finally finished this project this weekend. I had lots of fun building these mpdulars after having spent so much time designing them in LDD and aquiring the bricks. Most of the building process was pretty smooth. I discovered a few instable connection, but it was always easy to mitigate the flaws. For whatever reason, apparently I didn't order 1x1 tiles in dark bluish grey, brown and white, so I had to improvise a bit where those were needed. I suspect some import error as the reason for that as they're common parts and they were the only ones missing. Thanks to all of you who watched this topic and commented on it - it has been a pleasure. If you have any questions about this build, feel free to ask anytime 10_Newsagent_Third+Fourth_Floor_01 by Tobias T., auf Flickr Starting on the third floor, we see a living room with sofa and a desk 10_Newsagent_Third+Fourth_Floor_02 by Tobias T., auf Flickr At the back, there's also a fully furnished bathroom under construction. 10_Newsagent_Third+Fourth_Floor_03 by Tobias T., auf Flickr Exterior walls have all gone up. 10_Newsagent_Third+Fourth_Floor_05 by Tobias T., auf Flickr The big white bay window continues on this floor. 10_Newsagent_Third+Fourth_Floor_06 by Tobias T., auf Flickr Again a small balcony, this one with a deck chair. 10_Newsagent_Third+Fourth_Floor_13 by Tobias T., auf Flickr We'll continue directly with the fourth floor. This one houses the bedroom. Interior features large bed, two nightstands, wardrobe, dresser and an old chest. 10_Newsagent_Third+Fourth_Floor_14 by Tobias T., auf Flickr Slowly nearing completion... 10_Newsagent_Third+Fourth_Floor_15 by Tobias T., auf Flickr The building features a mansard roof 10_Newsagent_Third+Fourth_Floor_16 by Tobias T., auf Flickr 10_Newsagent_Third+Fourth_Floor_17 by Tobias T., auf Flickr The small roof section is detachable 10_Newsagent_Third+Fourth_Floor_18 by Tobias T., auf Flickr Finished top floor 10_Newsagent_Third+Fourth_Floor_20 by Tobias T., auf Flickr The finished modular building 10_Newsagent_Third+Fourth_Floor_22 by Tobias T., auf Flickr Looking up at the Newsagent building from the street. 10_Newsagent_Third+Fourth_Floor_24 by Tobias T., auf Flickr The back view shows the different floor heights and building depths. 10_Newsagent_Third+Fourth_Floor_26 by Tobias T., auf Flickr The entire ensemble integrated on modular street. Plenty more pictures on flickr this time: https://www.flickr.c...157655071930083 It has been great sharing this with you. Again, I'm looking forward to your comments very much!

I didn't do much with the roof of the Barber shop, apart from the offset of the facade it's pretty much the same design aas in the original set :). Or did you confuse the two? Btw, I didn't forget about this... the last two weeks were really busy for me, but I hope I'll finally finish this project by Sunday

Brilliant!

Nice work, cool detailing inside. And for once a Lego helipad that has enough space around it!

Outstanding as always. Excellent detail, brilliant building (love the sideways stuff) and overall nice composition.

Uhm, no, we still have PS because it sold very well and got additional production runs.

Thanks, guys Glad to see yopu're getting something out of this! Yeah, that's a minor downside. Doesn't bother me much, though, I planned these as one and will be displaying them together. Time for the second floor! Part 8: Newspaper Agent, Second Floor 09_Newspaper_Agent_Second_Floor_01 by Tobias T., auf Flickr Second floor interior features a kitchen & dining area and a cupboard 09_Newspaper_Agent_Second_Floor_02 by Tobias T., auf Flickr Didn't take any more shot during the built, so here's the finished exterior for this floor right away! 09_Newspaper_Agent_Second_Floor_03 by Tobias T., auf Flickr The building features both a bay window and a small balcony 09_Newspaper_Agent_Second_Floor_04 by Tobias T., auf Flickr Coat rack right at the top of the stairs. 09_Newspaper_Agent_Second_Floor_05 by Tobias T., auf Flickr 09_Newspaper_Agent_Second_Floor_06 by Tobias T., auf Flickr View from the back. 09_Newspaper_Agent_Second_Floor_07 by Tobias T., auf Flickr And another view from the front. What do you think? Continue reading in the final part!

Part 7: Newspaper Agent MOC, Ground Floor Let's get started on the (to me) most interesting part of this build! To cover the empty lot besides Al's barber shop, I designed a 14-wide MOC. Taking cues from the original DO, this building will be a brownstone with a small newspaper agent/news stand and an alleyway on the ground floor. Here we go! 08_Newspaper_Agent_Ground_Floor_01 by Tobias T., auf Flickr The ground floor of the newspaper agent is elevated by one brick. I used old bricks that were already old when I got them as a child as filler material here. Most of the white ones are from the "Pat. pend." days... 08_Newspaper_Agent_Ground_Floor_02 by Tobias T., auf Flickr The filler bricks need to be covered, of course. 08_Newspaper_Agent_Ground_Floor_03 by Tobias T., auf Flickr The building features a covered alleyway, providing access to the back (and thus the rear stairs of the Detective's Office) 08_Newspaper_Agent_Ground_Floor_04 by Tobias T., auf Flickr Walls and interior going up. The newspaper agent also sells refreshments, as is common for small kiosks in Germany. 08_Newspaper_Agent_Ground_Floor_05 by Tobias T., auf Flickr His small business space features a big shelf with assorted refreshments, a small desk with lamp, and a big cabinet, presumably to store files. 08_Newspaper_Agent_Ground_Floor_06 by Tobias T., auf Flickr At the back, there is a small enclosed stoeroom with a bike, a trashcan, broom and shovel. 08_Newspaper_Agent_Ground_Floor_07 by Tobias T., auf Flickr Finished ground floor 08_Newspaper_Agent_Ground_Floor_08 by Tobias T., auf Flickr The storeroom has a barred window. 08_Newspaper_Agent_Ground_Floor_09 by Tobias T., auf Flickr At the entry to the alley, there's a sign/glass case showing the way to the entrance of Ace' office 08_Newspaper_Agent_Ground_Floor_10 by Tobias T., auf Flickr The opening in the sidewall matches up with the side window of the pool hall. 08_Newspaper_Agent_Ground_Floor_11 by Tobias T., auf Flickr I'll try to get a bigger variety of newspapers with future BL orders. Right now, this selection is all I've got. 08_Newspaper_Agent_Ground_Floor_12 by Tobias T., auf Flickr Still some way to go to cover the empty space! 08_Newspaper_Agent_Ground_Floor_13 by Tobias T., auf Flickr The building has a slightly dilapidated feel. As usual, I'm really looking forward to your thoughts on this! Let me know what you think!

I still have a huge pile of reddish brown bricks lying around here... and there's still a 14 studs wide space on the baseplate of the DO What I'll put there will also add some depth, but won't have anything in common with the brown section of DO...well, apart from being brown and a building, of course

Be sure to take some pictures & post them, then! It's always interesting to see everyone's ideas on how to mod this set

September is nigh... still no reliable information. I'm starting to wonder wether the next modular will be released later in the year than its predecessors. Maybe a March release? That would at least explain the lack of news around it.

Part 6: Barber Shop, Third Floor and roof Slow progress right now due to work, but I finished the Barber Shop building now 07_Barber_Shop_3rd_Floor_03 by Tobias T., auf Flickr Interior for the third floor of the Barber Shop. Bathroom and bedroom with small desk. 07_Barber_Shop_3rd_Floor_04 by Tobias T., auf Flickr Finished bathroom 07_Barber_Shop_3rd_Floor_10 by Tobias T., auf Flickr 07_Barber_Shop_3rd_Floor_09 by Tobias T., auf Flickr 07_Barber_Shop_3rd_Floor_08 by Tobias T., auf Flickr Finished Barber Shop. The wtaer tank from the DO now sits on this building. 07_Barber_Shop_3rd_Floor_11 by Tobias T., auf Flickr View from the back. 07_Barber_Shop_3rd_Floor_12 by Tobias T., auf Flickr 07_Barber_Shop_3rd_Floor_16 by Tobias T., auf Flickr Together with the Detective's Office. Plenty more pictures on flicks this time: https://www.flickr.c...157655071930083 This concludes the MOD portion of this build. Next up is a MOC to fill up the empty lot to the right of the Barber Shop Please let me know what you think Read on in the next update

Thanks you guys :) Part 5: Barber Shop, Second Floor The work continues with the second floor. As I already hinted at in my last post, I made a small but imo very effective change here. Most MODs of DO just extend the barber shop part to one side, creating a wider building. To me, most of those conversion look a tiny bit bland because there's not much going on in terms of detailing there - which might be realistic, but I prefer livelier facades. So here's my take on this side of DO... 06_Barber_Shop_2nd_Floor_01 by Tobias T., auf Flickr Starting in on the second floor with the interior. The upper storeys of the building will feature a full fledged apartment. 06_Barber_Shop_2nd_Floor_02 by Tobias T., auf Flickr Walls going up. My small but really effective change to the front facade slowly becomes eminent. 06_Barber_Shop_2nd_Floor_03 by Tobias T., auf Flickr Finished second floor. I decided to have the middle two windows protrude a bit (or rather, I set back the two outermost ones by one stud). The varied depth lends more life to the facade, methinks. 06_Barber_Shop_2nd_Floor_06 by Tobias T., auf Flickr View from the back. The 18-wide build allowed an unusual window arrangement. 06_Barber_Shop_2nd_Floor_07 by Tobias T., auf Flickr First and second floor together. 06_Barber_Shop_2nd_Floor_08 by Tobias T., auf Flickr 06_Barber_Shop_2nd_Floor_09 by Tobias T., auf Flickr Other views of the first two floors. 06_Barber_Shop_2nd_Floor_10 by Tobias T., auf Flickr ..and from the back :) A few more pics from yet more angles are available on flickr: https://www.flickr.c...157655071930083 Looking forward to read your thoughts on this modding idea

Thanks for the feedback! Glad so many of you like what I did with the third floor. I put a lot of time into designing it - I still have an older LDD file with two alternate versions for it - all follow the same principal idea, though. Anyway, time for the next update! Part 4: Barber Shop, Ground Floor Next building is the barber shop. There have been many attempts at enlarging it, and most people went with just extending it upwards or sideways or both. I pretty much ended up doing something along those lines, but again added my own little twist to the upper floors - no change in architectural style this time, though! But first things first - those upper floors need a ground floor to sit upon, after all 05_Barber_Shop_1st_Floor_01 by Tobias T., auf Flickr The Barber Shop basically is a completely new build. Only very few pieces stayed in their original place. 05_Barber_Shop_1st_Floor_02 by Tobias T., auf Flickr The Barber Shop got an even bigger expansion then the DO (relatively speaking). The floor size of the shop was more than doubled and there's a small back room with back entrance now. 05_Barber_Shop_1st_Floor_03 by Tobias T., auf Flickr First walls going up. I replaced the white 1x2 bricks with groove with regular bricks, freeing them up for use in another project where they won't be wasted on the inside. 05_Barber_Shop_1st_Floor_04 by Tobias T., auf Flickr Slowly taking shape. In case you're counting studs - my MOD is an 18-wide building! 05_Barber_Shop_1st_Floor_05 by Tobias T., auf Flickr A lot more space to move around inside, even with two places for customers. 05_Barber_Shop_1st_Floor_06 by Tobias T., auf Flickr Finished ground floor. 05_Barber_Shop_1st_Floor_07 by Tobias T., auf Flickr Small door leading to the backroom 05_Barber_Shop_1st_Floor_08 by Tobias T., auf Flickr Read more in the next update! As usual, I'm looking forward to reading your thoughts, critique etc! Enjoy!

Hoping for that aswell. I was even shortly contemplating getting that Friends set just to get those pieces, but I wouldn't have known what to do with all the pieces in (to me) useless colors that set also has, so the price per usable piece ratio was too low for me. I'll definately get some of these from BL though.

That's a part very high on my wish list as well. I also wish that the next corner modular doesn't use the 1x4x2 tan arch those windows fit in - so far all the corner buildings used that, and it's getting stale.

I'd like the spikes to be way closer to the facade so they'd look more like a part of it instead of hanging in front, but couldn't find a way to make that work. Having no detail there somehoq looked too plain, I need some type of transition from the simplistic facade of the second floor towards the richly detailed gable. I'm going for a Art Nouveau/Jugendstil type of architecture with the third floor. The idea is that the whole building used to have a far more intricate facade, but most of it got removed in renovations later on - a fate that many buildings from that era shared in the 60ies and 70ies of the last century. Typically a lot of detail, especially around windows, would be removed, while other parts remained completely untouched. Sometimes parts got rebuilt in a simpler style to repair war damages, too. I played around a bit with the coloring in that area, mainly with the cheese slope above the fists - I had a hard time deciding between black and dark bluish grey, but settled for black, because the dark bley made it look more uneven. Maybe I'll take a picture of how it looks with the bley, it surely should mitigate some of the weight-lifting-association

Thanks guys, glad to see there's some interest. I enjoy this a lot Time for the next update Part 3: Detective's Office, third floor and roof 04_Detective's_Office_3rd_Floor_01 by Tobias T., auf Flickr Starting on the third floor, Ace's desk is put in 04_Detective's_Office_3rd_Floor_03 by Tobias T., auf Flickr 04_Detective's_Office_3rd_Floor_04 by Tobias T., auf Flickr Next the exterior walls go up, plus a small cupboard towards the front. 04_Detective's_Office_3rd_Floor_05 by Tobias T., auf Flickr Never forget the time... 04_Detective's_Office_3rd_Floor_07 by Tobias T., auf Flickr BAM! Finished front of the building! 04_Detective's_Office_3rd_Floor_16 by Tobias T., auf Flickr Detail shot of the gable. Some interesting work with snot and offsets in play here :) 04_Detective's_Office_3rd_Floor_13 by Tobias T., auf Flickr Angled view of the building. 04_Detective's_Office_3rd_Floor_14 by Tobias T., auf Flickr View from the back. Still rather plain, but I tend to display my modulars with the front facing, well, towards the front 04_Detective's_Office_3rd_Floor_15 by Tobias T., auf Flickr The Hero Factory hands are an iconic feature of DO. I decided to keep two of them, and give them my own personal twist. 04_Detective's_Office_3rd_Floor_17 by Tobias T., auf Flickr The building looks right at home next to the pet shop... 04_Detective's_Office_3rd_Floor_18 by Tobias T., auf Flickr ...or the right half of the original DO. I guess if the set had had a comparable size, the complaints about it would've been a lot less vocal... I added some more pictures to my flicks account, so be sure to check those out as well: https://www.flickr.c...157655071930083 Read the next update for the ground floor of the barber shop MOD Cheers!

Thanks guys, glad to get some feedback :) Good idea, will have to think about that, thanks. I'll rpopably change around the ground floor a bit before I'm finally finished. Also, does anyone have good ideas on how to build bar stools? Anyway, time for...: Pt. 2: Second floor of the Detective's Office 03_Detective's_Office_2nd_Floor_01 by Tobias T., auf Flickr First order of business: make it bigger! The footprint got enlarged by 6 studs. 03_Detective's_Office_2nd_Floor_02 by Tobias T., auf Flickr All walls except the front wall were removed and rebuilt. 03_Detective's_Office_2nd_Floor_03 by Tobias T., auf Flickr The safe got moved to the side, a shelf with a coffee machine took its place. 03_Detective's_Office_2nd_Floor_04 by Tobias T., auf Flickr 03_Detective's_Office_2nd_Floor_05 by Tobias T., auf Flickr Off to one side there's a small toilet. It's pretty much the same build as the one from the blue building of the original DO. 03_Detective's_Office_2nd_Floor_06 by Tobias T., auf Flickr Second floor almost finished. Stairs leading up go over the toilet, and the 'mysterious woman' has taken seat at the desk. Not so mysterious anymore, she could either be a working as a second detective, or maybe she's Ace's secretary? 03_Detective's_Office_2nd_Floor_07 by Tobias T., auf Flickr Cupboard at the backwall. 03_Detective's_Office_2nd_Floor_09 by Tobias T., auf Flickr View from the back. The front is still pretty indistiguishabe from the original set at this point. That, however, will change with the next update. Change big time Continue reading with the next update Be sure to leave a comment and/or critique. Cheers

Hi, I'm in the process of finally building my MOD of 10246 Detective's Office. The MOD will include three full buildings. Two are MODs on the DO; the third is an original design. I planned the entire thing in LDD starting in late February and ending at the end of May. I collected the required pieces in June. I will document the building process in this thread, so if you're interested be sure to check in regularly, or follow this topic . I'll try to update it every 1-2 days, but it may take a bit longer sometime. I won't post pictures of the LDD model to keep this thread more interesting. I have some unique ideas for the MOD I haven't seen done before, and I don't want to give it all up right away. Every step will be documented in a new post, I will put direct links to those posts here: Part 1: All the parts and first floor of the Detective's Office (this post, see below) Part 2: Detective's Office, second floor Part 3: Detective's Office, third floor and roof Part 4: Barber Shop, Ground Floor Part 5: Barber Shop, Second Floor Part 6: Barber Shop, Third Floor Part 7: Newspaper Agent MOC, Ground Floor Part 8: Newspaper Agent, Second Floor Part 9: Newspaper Agent, Third and Fourth Floor (final update!) I'll also update the 'Last update:' tag of this thread whenever I post an update. Be sure to check out my Flickr account, as I'll be posting some more pics there that aren't on here occasionally (usually detail shots and different angles) Part 1: All the parts and first floor of the Detective's Office The MOC uses pieces from 2 10246 Detective's Office, one 31025 Mountain Hut plus another ~1000 pieces. The total piece count will be just a few bricks shy of 5000 bricks. Loose parts and my original DO. The Mountain Hut and the seond DO (most of it in bags). That one I bought used off Ebay. This explains its sorry state - this is just how the groundfloor looked coming out of the box. All the parts are there, though. The Detective's Office will become a standalone 16 wide building in my MOC First walls are going up. The ground floor got expanded. With help of Rainbow Construction, Inc. almost the entire baseplate gets used. Finished ground floor. Now contains a small bar at the back. I'll propably add a small booth or two in the corner, as it feels kinda empty. Would have to move the dart board to the other side of the bar. What do you think? At the back there's now a stair leading up to the second floor The stairwell also provides protection from the elements for the backdoor. Artsy shot through the window to finish this first part of my building. Read on in the second update Right now I'm already well into building the second floor, so be sure to check in again soon Hope you'll enjoy this! Roger

Kinda irrelevant, but could you also change it to say 'Bricklinking' instead of 'Brinklinking'? That's been bugging me for a while now...

Great review, thanks!

Excellent point. I was a little shocked at the small number of actual bricks in the bags of the DO when I built it, even though I already knew what to expect (I started planning an intensive MOD/MOC based on it before that). Starting next week, I'll take it apart and build that MOC. It will use up most of two DOs plus another ~1000 bricks...all of which I have lying around here, looking forward to start in on that In the meantime, I'm debating with myself wether I should get another Pet Shop before it's retired... other purchase options are another Simpsons house and a second PR. Simpsons house propably should have priority for collection purposes, since I already have three PS and PR popably will be around a bit longer.