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ReplicaOfLife

Eurobricks Knights
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  1. ReplicaOfLife
    So just swap the Record Studio with the apartment, too :) Diner / vet / apartment and garage / gym / record studio go together pretty well. The first three are all quieter establishments, while the last three are not, or at least aren't negatively impacted by noise (I imagine there'd be music playing in the gym).
  2. ReplicaOfLife
    Yeah, some of the combinations they do are a bit weird. But to be honest: I think they mainly do it to avoid repetition. Just looking at the exterior of many modulars, you'd expect the upper floors to be taken up by apartments or offices (regular or doctor's). But just imagine what it would be like if they actually did that - having one or several apartments in every modular would be extremely repetitive. Adding in a business of any kind makes it much more interesting, and who cares if the arrangements aren't realistic? I quite like the route they've taken with the last three. Finally, we get three full floors again, and the buildings mostly make sense in the way they are laid out (unlike DO & BB, which don't). Now just get someone on board again for the next one who likes to do interior detailing, and we're all set .
  3. ReplicaOfLife
    Downtown Diner hands down. It's actually one of the best of the entire series (top 5 for me), and propably was the most fun building experience of all. I just loved how all the Lego geometry worked out, especially one the ground floor.
  4. ReplicaOfLife
    Very good looking building! Exterior doesn't really scream justice palace or court house for me (I just don't envision that as a standard corner building, I always see something grander when thinking of it), but who cares, it looks rather good!
  5. ReplicaOfLife
    Not just the AFOLs - he often relates experiences he often has with his customers, which of course include many 'regular' parents and kids, and relays the questions they ask him, all of which point to blatant holes in Lego's product strategy. Stuff that - from the requests he got in his store - would be very solid selling sets, if only they were available. Examples are: Why is there no way to purchase just straight railway track pieces? Why do they no longer offer individual train cars people can buy to expand their trains? Why don't we have a proper train station? etcpp. Why didn't Lego have Light & Sound in the City line for many years? Apparently, kids love a police/fire vehicle with flashing lights and a siren, who would've thought? Why are there so few Friends sets that include horses? OK, no one ever heard of small girls liking horses (apparently, they all want racing themed sets ), but still, it might be worth a try... Why are they so few basic boxes avaiable nowadays that contain a good (!!!) selection of bricks? Turns out, parents want to buy boxes full of standard Lego pieces for their kid who loves to build with Lego. Again, totally surprising, kids wanting to use a construction toy to construct something... he actually mentioned repeatedly that he recommended Minecraft sets as the best source for traditional 1*x and 2*x bricks... Why don't we have a generic Castle or Pirates theme anymore? and many, many more...
  6. ReplicaOfLife
    He ONLY sold Lego in his store. ...and teacups with the Logo of his store, which may or may not be the cause for all of this. Nobody has enough information to properly judge that. And it should be said that he only started selling those cups after a fan of his channel sent him one, which he then used in his videos, which led to hundreds of people asking if they could buy one. Considering he had already used that logo for 5 years by then, it propably never crossed his mind that Lego would object to it. In the interview on rp-online someone posted here, he also said that he already received the letter in early January, and actually tried contacting someone at Lego to talk it over - he has no objections to the actual issue at hand (Lego objecting to his logo), but he objects to the way this whole situation was handled. All he got in response to his attempts to talk to someone was "Yes, that lawfirm is representing Lego". And he is in no way acting childish. It may seem that way if you put it like you're putting it, but in fact, he's the exact opposite. By his nature, Thomas is one of the most positive, cheerful people you'll ever see on youtube. In a lot of his longer videos (e.g. his 'Bauen mit dem Helden'-Videos ('Build with the hero'), where he builds sets in real-time and talks about whatever is on his mind throughout) he often mentioned his general approach to life, which can be roughly summarized with "Have a great time, do things you enjoy, and if something annoys you, change it!". He is in no way petty or small-minded, he disdains such behaviour and abstains from it, and from people behaving that way. He already was annoyed with many aspects of Lego's business and managing decisions, both from a general point (set design, focus or lack thereof on specific themes, etc.) and also from his personal experience dealing with them as a knowledgable owner of a toyshop that only sold Lego. So this letter was basically the straw that broke the camels back - dealing with Lego directyl annoys him, and thus he'll now change it. To be perfectly honest, I don't even think he expected the magnitude of reponse this is generating right now.
  7. ReplicaOfLife
    Solid build with briliant details inside & on the ground floor. To be honest though, the upper stories don't work that well for me, for three reasons: I'm not a big fan of buildings that are dominated by that kind of american style cornices with a flat roofline. I like it if used for variety, but having it over the entire width of a larger building just feels a bit boring to me, unless it's broken up by some aditional detail. I'm also a bit on the fence regarding the color scheme of white, sand-green and medium dark flesh (? is it? It's kinda hard to tell from the renderings), though that might very well work. I'd have to see it in real bricks . Lastly, the angled bay window on the third floor feels out of place and a bit nonsensical to me. But it's something different for sure . Needless to say, that's all down to personal taste, and what you did objectively is damn good - it just doesn't do as much for me as some of your earlier builds. On to the stuff I like: The exterior of the ground-floor is brilliant and has lots of great small details throughout. The awning at the back is simple but extremely effective - that's such a great piece. The use of the corner panels as facade detail on the mock-tudor sub-build is also a nice touch. And as I already said, there's lots of great detail inside. The MOCer in me wants to add some tiling everywhere, but of course I see why you left it out . Btw, would be cool if you linked to larger resolution versions of the smaller pics. I found them all on flickr, but not everyone knows where to look.
  8. ReplicaOfLife
    Great build! Love all the details & general building style of the two main buildings!
  9. ReplicaOfLife
    That looks pretty good. The right-hand entrance to the service bay might be a bit too tight a bend, though.
  10. ReplicaOfLife
    @cimddwc: That looks rather brilliant, great work!
  11. ReplicaOfLife
    Stunningw ork on the facade. Love the decayed effect with the medium dark flesh & dark orange. The sand green also works well on the ground floor and the roof. I'm on the fence with its use on the sceond floor though. On the one hand I think the arches & tiles stand out too much there, but on the other it just fits.
  12. ReplicaOfLife
    In my experience, peeron inventories are a lot more unreliable than bricklink's (peeron as a whole also hasn't been updated since 2012...). When I got back into Lego, I used peeron to piece together some of my old sets, and more often than not I was missing pieces despite having the exact number listed on peeron when building them. Only had that happen once with bricklink so far. In this case, peeron lists every gray piece in 10221 as OldGray / OldDkGray, which, again, is implausible and points to an error during entry. If Lego had released a set using the old grays in 2011, this would be widely known. Just imagine the buzz that would have created in the AFOL community. Brickset also has that wedge plate down for first being released in 2006. Btw: I already posted this in the 'identifying parts' thread a long while back, but since it fits here as well: Take a look at the clip in the middle of this picture: What color is that? It's equally far off old gray and light blueish gray. The pieces in this pic are (from left to right) dark blueish gray, dark gray, ??? gray, light gray, light blueish gray. I'm not sure where that particular piece came from. But this seems to happen from time to time - some of the light blueish gray clips in my Palace Cinema show similar color variations.
  13. ReplicaOfLife
    Of course there are pieces in existence that were never in a production set. However, those either are rare prototypes/test runs, or they hail from one of the Legoland building shops. If there had been mixed stock during the production of a set, those pieces would be rather common. And, yes, obviously you were likely to find pieces of both colors in sets produced during the transition period, like the one you linked to, which was in production when the change occured. Stuff like that also happens with different moulds of the same piece - e.g. my Fire Brigade has jumpers in the same color both with and without groove. But: The set in question here was released in 2011, seven years after the change happened, and some of the pieces it uses didn't even exist before the color change. So, for example, even if we assume that they made a preliminary production run of that wedge plate in the old light gray more than two years before it was first introduced in a set, I still would say it's extremely unlikely that some of that stock remained 7 years later and found it's way into sets in 2011 - together with a high number of other pieces in old gray. There's just no plausible scenario in which it make sense for that to happen. That wedge was in a number of sets between 2006 and 2010, so surely any stock produced in the mid 00s would've been long gone by 2011.
  14. ReplicaOfLife
    That is very likely a case of age-related yellowing (pieces can yellow even when misb) and/or the usual color variations we get in Lego sets nowadays. I have some light gray pieces that match neither old gray nor light blueish gray. One of the side effects of the color change was and is that Lego sometimes has propblems keeping the colors consistent nowadays. Why I am so sure that that's also the case here? Simple: The 6x3 wedge plates were NEVER even made in light gray - they first came out in 2006, 2 years after the color change. (See here & here). And the 8x8 plate also was never released in light gray.
  15. ReplicaOfLife
    Downtown Diner did not have it showing through, too.
  16. ReplicaOfLife
    Thanks for that spreadshee, and also thanks for your other writeup detailing the various items missing from the modulars. It's extremely hard to do a fully furnished apartment within the limited floorspace a modular offers. Having built several MOCs with apartments in them - and always trying to include every basic necessity - I usually ran out of space quickly. Thus some of my MOCs are missing stuff like a fridge or a bathroom, too. What Lego usually does (since they really started on interiors) is to try to include enough detail to make it look 'full', and enough possibilities to keep the minifigures occupied. The interiors Lego does usually represent backdrops to scenes you could play out rather than fully detailed, realistic renditions of the subject matter. A common criticism of pretty much all the modulars is the lack of walls separating the stairwell from the apartment/business on the respective level. And while I fully understand that that feels odd, I absolutely get why Lego does that: Having separated landings takes up a lot of space, without offering additional value whatsoever. You need a bunch of bricks and an additional door for, and you basically get nothing in return except for the added realism (of course, you could pose minifigs walking along the hallway, which would be very exciting...or maybe the opposite) For example, in the Corner Garage, look at this pic of the first floor with the vets clinic, and try to work out where a wall separating the stairway from the clinic would go: https://c1.staticflickr.com/5/4811/44343921830_2ab3098dc5_b.jpg Notice how they conveniently placed sofas next to the stairway on both floors in this modular? This means they gain a stud of floor space that otherwise would have had to used for a banister. Having sofas in hallways makes no sense, so in our hallway we'd need a banister, which would use the first row of studs besides the stairs. The hallway itself would need at least three studs if you wanted it to be big enough to realistically pose minifigs in there (even with three studs they would have to raise one arm above the banister, though, unless you also put in some jumpers on the floor). So an interior wall separating the stairway from the vet would be located on the fifth stud counting from the stairs up (that's where the right half of the small table is)! And where it turns towards the down stairs, you would move the existing interior wall two studs towards the stairway, matching it up with the existing corner of the exterior wall. Basically, you would lose most of the space that is now used for the waiting area. You could still squeeze in a smaller waiting area, but it would be hard to reach in there. Of course, you can get away with the hallway being just two studs + the banister (as I have done in my Outdoor Store, for example: https://www.flickr.com/photos/131278188@N08/29445711430/in/album-72157672774050580/), but doing that means that you can only ever pose minifigs in there sideways... I think that's also the reason why Lego likes doing exterior staircases so much: You don't need the bricks to enclose the stairs AND having the staircase outside actually allows for play. You can have figs walking from floor to floor easily, while with interior staircases you have to get the next floor to do that...
  17. ReplicaOfLife
    Two ways to look at this: Brick Bank covered the entire surface of the baseplate, and every last visible stud of the baseplate was tiled. So Lego can do it - and where the exterior walls are located doesn't matter that much regarding the amount of tiles necessary to fully cover the ground floor (though CG has more open space left, due to its lack of interior walls) On the other hand: Brick Bank actually was the ONLY corner modular thus far that had interior tiling on the ground floor! And they've gone back and forth on this before: GG was tiled, GE wasn't, FB wasn't (except for the 8 x 16s indicating the interior driveway), PS was, PC wasn't. The following five then had a tiled ground floor, and now we've gotten one without one again.
  18. ReplicaOfLife
    Ah, thanks for clearing that up I haven't read the interview, only the paragraphs that were quoted here (btw: is that available online somewhere?), so I was going from that. Still... I think most people actually will have seen an old school American Diner, and if only in a movie or TV series, or maybe even that one famous painting ("Nighthawks" by Edward Hopper - thanks, Google ). And obviously everyone has seen a gas station / garage. So I'd say the themes of the main business of those buildings are indeed recognizable. The specific design of the rest of the building may not, especially for the gas station, as - while those exist in multi-storey buildings - they usually are stand-alone structures. But then, we all wouldn't wnat a single storey modular But as you said - the buildings themselves often aren't recognizable as anything special: DO could house any businesses, PR, GG, CC, PS and AS aswell. Thinking about it, the only buildings in the line you would propably recognize without being told what they are supposed to be are the Fire Brigade, Town Hall (as a US-style government building) and maybe the Grand Emporium.
  19. ReplicaOfLife
    Yep. Unfortunately, people often tend to lash out with unsubstantiated claims when something isn't to their liking. If the Diner isn't one of the most recognizable buildings in the modular line, then what is? It's perfectly fine if you don't like it, but saying it's not recognizable is steep.
  20. ReplicaOfLife
    Having slept over it, I actually feel slightly more positive towards it than I did yesterday. One thing I really like about it is that the building feels pretty realtistic from an architectural standpoint. Yes, it may not be the prettiest, but it doesn't want/need to be. It depicts that certain utilitarian, almost industrial style of architecture that you saw a lot in the US in the early 20th century. With lot's of straight lines and a kind of economic approach to details (they were there, but they were rather repetitive and kept rather simple). So even though it's not the style I would have wanted the new modular to have, that's a huge plus in my book. It has a bed, a toilet, a kitchen, a sofa, a TV and a shelf. But it's not as densely detailed as, say the apartment in AS (top story of the right building), which offered a kitchen, a toilet, a convertible sofa, two shelves, a huge Lego display and some more small details in a much smaller space. The reason I think people say that the interiors look a bit unfinished here is that there is a lot of open space left on every floor, while in all the previous modulars since the PR pretty much the entire space was used in some way or other. And I agree with that.
  21. ReplicaOfLife
    To me it looks good, but, as others have said, it somehow feels more like an above average MOC than an official set. The bump up on the price is harsh (+30€ at once, at just 90 more pieces than the diner), but to be honest, I've been expecting the modulars to get more expensive for years. The standrad size ones have been stuck at 150€ for as far back as I can remember (Fire Brigade was my first one). 170€ would seem more fair, though, and they really could've shelled out the few cents i would've cost them to fully tile the ground floor. Will wait for 2x or even 3x VIP points to get my first copy, and will get spares only when it hits the few retailers that get exclusives, which usually grant nice discounts from time to time (e.g.: 115€ for the Diner just a few weeks back). But on to the set! When I first took a quick look at the pics on my phone this afternoon, I was a bit disappointed, because I thought that there were hardly any special techniques used. Looking at them on my PC now, I had to go back on that - especially the bay window on the right is pretty nice. Pros for me: - A SINGLE building taking up the entire baseplate! Glad they really seem to have gone back to that! - three full stories. Overall height should be on par with the older buildings, AS and DD - dark orange makes a return, and also we get a brilliant selection of sand blue and dark green windows. - no far-fetched story to excuse some stupid megablocking stuck on play features! Everything feels organic and leaves it entirely to you to make up your own stories based on what is provided. Nice! - the asymmetrical build is nice - while not groundbreaking or, there's some nice SNOT construction in play here - interior stairs Contras: - as already stated, feels a bit like a better MOC. - Aside from not looking THAT great, the cut corner makes the building smaller than it could be - inside of the gas station / work shop seems mostly empty - another US-style build. Come'on Lego, there's other areas in the world with other architectural styles. Out of the last five (inl. this one), only the sand green building in AS (and maybe the bakery) are not clearly american. They used to have a better balance there. If PR wasn't such a success and had been retired in order, there'd be no distinctly non american set left. (Note, before anyone feels offended: this is an argument for a more even distribution of build styles, not against american-inspired architecture!) - price bump is too huge / not justified enough by the slightly increased piece count
  22. ReplicaOfLife
    That might be cool. Who told you that?
  23. ReplicaOfLife
    Sorry, thought you were alluding to the famous quote from Game of Thrones, so I built up on that. I mean, come'on, we're discussing what we want or don't want from our favorite toy company. Might as well have some fun doing that.
  24. ReplicaOfLife
    If you say so, Ygritte I pointed out that the points you use to argument against a Police Station can just as well be used to argument for one. No reason to get your panties in a wad over that. Why shouldn't we? Why wouldn't they? There've also been hundreds of MOCs of restaurants and cafés, and yet we get one in the modular line every few years.
  25. ReplicaOfLife
    A modular Police Station surely would be a special building as well, and not comparable to the playsets in the City line. Fire Brigade was the first big seller of the modular line, the first to get multiple production runs. So far, only Pet Shop and maybe Parisian Restaurant are likely to have surpassed it. Oh, and not to be nitpicky, but Brick Bank didn't feature an apartment at all, and DO had a toilet and a kitchen, which doesn't exactly qualify as an apartment, too. Two words: Fire Brigade. They also regularly release a fire station and fire trucks in the City line. Yet Fire Brigade became the best selling modular, and propably the one that 'made' the entire line, as in it brought the most fans to it. And it didn't hurt City sales at all. And... Yes! Exactly! The modular line isn't aimed primarily at kids, and the City line isn't primarily aimed at adults. Thus there is little chance of one cannibalizing the other - the vast majority of City sets is bought by or for kids. The vast majority of modulars is bought by adults. The few AFOLs that buy City sets for themselves are a small minority - and Lego would actully shoot themselves in the foot if they passed up the chance to sell them a 150€ set instead of a 100€ set. Same goes for the few parents who buy modulars for their kids (and just for them, without any interest in them themselves). Sorry to say this, but it seems like you don't like the idea of a modular Police Station at all (which is fine, everybody's got their own opinion) but are just trying to justify that. Oh yeah: Looking at some of Lego's business decisions, I highly doubt that common sense plays much of a role there
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