ibecks

One very minor point which someone might find useful - you can only claim VIP points through online PAB, not through the replacement parts service. If this is important to you, it might be worth ordering the stuff you can get through online PAB before you do a replacement parts order... although P&P was £3.75 for online, £2 for replacement parts service. Also, I was told that each replacement part order has a 15-lot limit with 200 items per lot. Since I'd bought most of my lots through Bricklink, I'd got it down to a list of about 13 lots to get from Lego.

This is a great little build. I especially love the dumped washing machine - nice touch! :)

You can put items in your Wanted List and then see your list by shop, so you can see which shops have most of the things you need. The key to it is learning to use the catalogue and wanted list features.

Inspired by this conversation...

I've just put the last order in for my Cafe Corner. Just in case anyone else is looking for them, I ordered from Lego today (via the replacement brick service) and the dark red slopes are back in stock. I only got the 36 I needed, so there should be plenty left for everyone else. ;) I also got most of my dark blue bricks from there. The only thing I had to start with was a couple of baseplates and the leftovers from GG and the VW camper. I bought everything new from Bricklink wherever possible and it ended up costing around £135. Off the top of my head, the swaps I made were: White 1 x 2 x 3 panels replaced with the side support version Dark Blue 1 x 6 Supports replaced with dark bley (or maybe reddish brown - I've ordered both and I'll see what they look like) Dark Blue 1 x 8 x 2 Arch replaced with dark bley (sorry but £21 for a single brick is where I draw the line!) Dark Bley Birds replaced with Dark Red scorpions as a temporary measure/in-joke. Reddish Brown 2x10 bricks replaced with 2x6 and two 2x2 (Lego said these were showing as 'due in stock 17th Feb) The process was made a lot easier by finding a great Bricklinker, Gizmocom, who managed to find all but a few of the parts I needed. Now I'm really looking forward to being able to build it and have it on display next to my GE and GG.

One word: Bricklink

Given that I'm about to put scorpions on it, I'm not sure 'making sense' is an essential part of this conversation! I think the zookeeper's chimp might have escaped and climbed up there, then she could be trying to tempt it down with a banana.

Thanks so much for trying that and posting pictures. It's really useful to see the scale of it. It does look a little bit too small in there, doesn't it? I think I'm going to go with some dark red scorpions and wait for something else to come along, unless anyone else has any bright ideas.

I have that set and the camera in mine is the old-style one. Maybe they were transitioning to the new mould while that set was in production?

I should have mentioned that I'm trying to get them from UK stores wherever possible, especially now I don't have many more lots to get. Nobody in the UK seems to have them at the moment. I've got some of the old gray birds but I don't think they'd fit in as well, colour-wise. I've actually found the baby T Rex in LDD and it looks like he won't fit :( I've been playing around with some other possibilities... Scorpion (in-joke with my running buddies) Standing Rat (I think I like him best) Micro Figure I'm also considering the minifig trophy/statuette, but I can't find that one in LDD. Anyone know how to find it or whether it would fit?

I'm getting very close to having all the parts for Cafe Corner, but the dark bluish grey birds are proving tricky to find. I've been looking at potential replacements, preferably available in dark bley, and I came across the baby T Rex which I thought would look pretty awesome on a building. The problem is, I don't know the stud dimensions so I don't know if he'll fit. The space it needs to fit in is on a jumper plate with a 2x2 corner brick either side, then a 1 x 2 x 4 arch on top of those. Any alternative suggestions are very welcome! :)

Fire Brigade will probably be discontinued in the next few months, while Pet Shop was only released last year so probably has another 2 years-ish to go. I'm still debating FB as I don't like it as much as the 'everyday' buildings like shops, houses and cafes.

Yes, Fire Brigade is the oldest and likely to be discontinued pretty soon. I'm still undecided on it as I prefer the more 'everyday' buildings like Cafe Corner, Green Grocer, Grand Emporium and Pet Shop.

This is pretty disappointing. I don't collect this series, but when I saw the name of the set I expected a much better representation of it than this. Not sure how you could do the sails better... maybe there should be a Eurobricks competition to design a better one!

My first Lego video, just for a bit of fun... I shot this using iStopmotion for iOS, and it taught me a few things: 1. When making buildings, I need to plan ahead to move the camera as the height of the building increases. 2. I need to remember to reset the focus point when I change models/camera angles. 3. The process of making the movie will totally destroy any common sense I would normally have when building a set (no idea what the hell I thought I was doing with the doorway!

My Lady Liberty and mechanic have the same dot code as on the published dot guide you linked to, but my butcher, skater, Sleepyhead and robot are different. To be honest I've pretty much given up on the dot codes now - bag-feeling is the way forward for me. I picked out the ones I wanted (and those my friend wanted) before any feel guide was available and had a 100% success rate.

To help drag it back on topic... I only buy the minifigs which will fit into my theme (modular buildings), with a few exceptions for the ones I think are just plain awesome (robot, Liberty etc). For this series, the bride will be trying on her dress in the Grand Emporium (I may get a second one and swap the dress in GE's window for this one); the geek will have a little studio apartment above the Green Grocers; the hippie will probably buy the City camper van from the surfer dude and his girlfriend; female rocker will team up with punk rocker to form their own band who will practice on the floor above the geek's studio apartment and irritate him with the noise they make and tennis player will be shopping in the sports department of GE. As for Bunny Suit guy/girl, they'll be going to the same fancy dress party as Gorilla Suit Guy and Lizard Suit Guy. Shame he's not a pink rabbit, otherwise he could get involved in a Press Gang MOC.

Lego geek humour at it's finest.

I'd like to start reviewing at some point soon. Could you sign me up please?

I asked a friend to try putting the Gorilla Suit Guy's head piece on a Friends figure. Loved the result.

I'll remember my first post-dark-ages visit to a Lego store, AFOLCON in Manchester and the awesome VW Camper (and the entertainment it gave me and my friends building it).

The date on S@H now says 1st Feb.

Completely awesome. I wish I had the space to do something like this. I particularly like the airport brick (I had an 80's airport with that) and the shark on top of the building.

I'm so glad you said that! I can't imagine handing that over to a courier - I'm not sure they'd understand the importance of being gentle with it!

Yeah, when you're bricklinking a set, you realise how good the value of official sets is. And it would be nice as a Christmas display. Fear not! I bought a couple and I'm now continually refreshing the tracking page in anticipation of their arrival. (and a couple of Bricklink orders towards CC!) Thanks for your advice, both of you.