TheLegoDr

I prefer to shop exclusively from bricks and pieces, if I can. Sometimes the prices are higher than bricklink, but the shipping is lower, so it has some give and take just like bricklink.

LEGO can do anything they want to. It doesn't have to be what we want, unfortunately. Just look at The Avengers Hulk set. Hawkeye is flying that little jet, when in reality it wouldn't be that tiny. You have to consider scale. It is very possible they would do an X-Jet on a small scale. I would imagine they wouldn't make Mr. Fantastic rubbery. They may consider one longer arm than the other, but I doubt that all the time. They may include a brick inbetween his legs and torso to look like he is stretched in the middle, but more than likely he'll be a normal minifigure in his uniform. I can't imagine they do anything too special, although I hope I'm wrong.

That building is gorgeous. My only concern is the figures having to go through the first floor apartment to get to the second apartment, instead of having back stairs go to every floor. I guess, maybe trying to copy Green Grocer's ladder system to allow access to all the floors without privacy concerns? I realize, that is silly since most buildings from my youth didn't have stairs at all. They just had to "fly" up there somehow. I don't particularly love the double height, unless all of them were that way. Although I do want a slightly taller PR, just not double the middle module. I know skylines have different heights, but I like them a little closer together. It just makes this building feel so much smaller with it narrower left-right to give room for the patio, and then also shorter in height compared to most of the modulars.

The PAB does come from their factory in Billund, I believe, so that is why it takes longer and that could explain part of the shipping costs. It usually takes about 1-2 weeks to get to me when I order, depending on the volume of the season. Around holidays, it takes much longer. I hadn't seen those pieces in Bricks and Pieces go for that cheap. I ordered mine from there and they were about $0.40 or so apiece. Whatever the cost, it was about half the cost of bricklink, so I'm more than okay with that. I try to order from LEGO directly as much as I can. I'd rather they get my money. I believe the bricks and pieces catalog will be back after tomorrow. It was on hiatus over the holidays and I'm sure they were updating their inventory with the new year. I luckily got an order in before it shut down mid-December, but I've been waiting for it to come back up. It was supposed to only be down for a few days per the website and per the CS rep, but it turns out it was much longer. I can understand spending a lot on these modulars with no substitutions and all the figures, but I don't particularly care for the exact figures most of the time, unless it is a neat torso/hair piece. And I figured I might as well create builds I like to look at instead of only sticking to the official set. I like MOCing, but I tend to MOD more than MOC it seems. Once I get done with my exteriors, I wonder if I should post pictures, or just wait until I'm done with the interior too... Edit: Looking at the website, it doesn't list a date that it will be back online. Now it is missing altogether. That is unfortunate!!! They kept pushing the date to sometime in the future, so maybe that feature is gone???

They changed the entire horse mold, so the helmets had to be molded differently too. I guess when they did that they either didn't take into account existing pieces OR they never intended those pieces to fit into it and will possibly come out with new unicorn horns in the future. It is also possible the new mold doesn't have the room to accommodate the length of the horn? I don't know why TLG does the things they do, but that is disappointing they don't fit. I had never tried since I don't own any of the new horse helmets/barding.

You have some nice builds on there. I like the interior. That will be another thing I mod on cc and gg. If I can find the time for pictures I will get some of my cc. I like the police academy MOC. Very funny. I met Michael Winslow a few years ago. Really nice guy in real life.

I agree about those extra pieces in sets..sure they may be small, but they can add up to not needing them for a future MOC. With Cafe Corner, as much as I love staying true to the source material, I am making a lot of changes it seems. I am keeping the original color schemes, but I ended up not using the 1x4x5 doors and instead modified the doorway to accommodate a 1x4x6. That way it is cheaper, plus it keeps it in scale with the rest of the newer modulars. since the 5 height went bye-bye. And since I'm changing my CC to the L shaped corner instead of the traditional corner, I am using a lot more bricks, so I can't say for sure how much it has cost me so far and how much it will end up costing me. But I would definitely recommend picking up the dark red roof slopes and the dark blue arches while you can. I bought enough to build Market street also, but then I realized they are only on the alleyway courtyard area which I don't particularly care for anyway, so I have a lot of extra dark blue arches I guess.

So the remaining 2000 pieces are in your last 7 + PAB orders?

That's true, part of the fun is the hunt!

^ are you talking to me? No, I don't have a market street. I've considered doing that one as well, but with heavy modifications. It looks really amateur compared to the rest of the series. So it didn't blend in as well in my eyes. So I will change it up. The color scheme is decent but looking at the medium blue near that beautiful sand blue, it makes me want to change the color.

I'm glad I picked all of these up when they first came out otherwise I probably would have missed the whole theme. It seems like no sites had that many of the sets anyway and I had never seen the train in a store until I saw it at tj maxx recently.

Another modular worth drooling over. The white does really pop. I think it is hard to work with white on the exterior, but it works nicely here. The flooring is neat. Maybe I'll try that someday. Where do they make the cupcakes? The kitchen is well done. And the bedroom furniture is neat. Keep up the great work. I think the more impressive thing is you have multiple MOCs still built to display next to each other. Most people build one, take pictures and destroy.

I am currently working on green grocer and cafe corner simultaneously, but that is because I just started green grocer. Otherwise I hadn't considered working on multiple sets to save on costs. I guess depending on order sizes, it may save on shipping if certain shops have a lot of the pieces you need. I've been sorting out pieces from my collection and I basically just need the sand green. Everything else is available from my collection. So that helps a lot. There will be a few small orders needed, but shouldn't be too bad.

^Yes, it is an L shaped corner instead of an exterior corner. It'd be as if the block wasn't a through street, but instead looped around. It is really neat looking and different enough that it caught my eye. The downside with any of these mods is finding the right pieces to fill in the rest. As far as Palace Cinema, mostly you'd need extra dark tan bricks for the back. So just find out how much you need to get the shape right.

That sand blue grocer looks awesome. That is such a pretty color. I may like that more than the official set! But I planned a large purchase of sand green bricks, so I'll stick with that. Maybe I'll build another sand blue building sometime. Thanks for keeping us updated. It's always interesting to see how these creations take shape. I really need to sit down and organize my pieces so I can start this project too. I am planning a big order here in the next few weeks, so outside of the sand green, hopefully I can find something that will come in handy.

For the above, toothpaste does have different grit levels, much like sandpaper. Too high of grit in the toothpaste and it removes the stains from the teeth, but it also can remove the enamel..so it would probably work the same way for LEGO. I know Arm & Hammer toothpaste has high levels, whereas most Colgate brands are really mild (which are actually better for your teeth in the long run, fyi). Just what I've read. I've never thought to use it on a LEGO figure. I have used acetone before on an old castle figure and naturally it ate through the plastic haha. I haven't worked with brasso yet, but I will definitely look into this magic eraser type of sponge to see how that works.

^^If only LEGO females looked like that! I'd love Mariachi figures for sure. Then I can start MOCing the Three Amigos! The Taco Tuesday guy is interesting, but definitely not mariachi related. I suppose that is true, other countries would see caricatures of Mexican culture and associate that with them, just like in the US, we will see caricatures of other countries without experiencing it fully (at least on a general basis).

I'm more of a Modular builder, so the Parisian Restaurant wins hands down. Even though I love the Simpsons, and I love pirate ships, I'd rather have the building. I don't love the Sea Cow set. It doesn't look like the type of ship I'd want to display, even though it does look wacky and fun, just not what I would want. The Simpson's house is really neat with the interior details they showed, so that should always be in the running I think, but it isn't at the top for me. Keep in mind pricing (in USD since that is what I know). Parisian Restaurant $160, Simpson's House $199, and I heard from a LEGO store manager the Sea Cow will be $250, but they haven't had a press release yet I don't think. So it also depends on how much you can spend on these sets. And thanks Faefrost for the response. I'm sure I will end up bricklinking first. I have all the rest of the Super Hero sets, so I know the sets are meh, but I love those figures. Maybe I'll wait until I see a good sale on them.

I suppose you could saw that happened to me with Star Wars. I saw the movies in order Phantom Menace to the rest, even though I'm older than what the original prequel target audience is. I was in high school when it came out, so if that says anything. Anyway, I had very little interest in it, even though I didn't mind Space related stuff growing up. When I came back from my DA, I still had no interest in SW LEGO, but I picked up a few sets for the pieces because they were on clearance. The figures were neat enough, then 2012 hit and they had some great System scale sets in SW, so I had to pick them up. Since then, I haven't purchased a ton of SW, but usually enough to get the free May the 4th figure. As for the rest, I tend to only buy what is appealing to me for pieces or figures. If the figures aren't good, but the pieces are at a good price, I may consider buying that. One example would be Minecraft. I have zero interest in that theme, but I like microscale building, so some of those pieces actually would come in handy. Especially with the new sets with good colors, like dark tan/dark green 1x1 tiles.

I loved classic castle growing up in the early 90s, so it's hard to beat them, just for nostalgia purposes. And coming back to LEGO in 2010, I absolutely loved the Kingdoms line. I obviously missed out on Fantasy Era, but I didn't particularly care for most of them, so that doesn't bother me. There is something off about the new Castle line though. I don't like the color scheme or the insignia or something. But I loved Kingdoms. With that said, LOTR is one of my favorite themes (if not my favorite), so I have loved all of those sets. The figures, of course, are a huge draw and they look great. But also the piece usage is great. The color scheme is well used and can be used for many builds, instead of a more "cartoony" feel I get with the Castle line. I prefer the Licensed skin tone over yellow, even though I love the classic Yellow figures. Although, I do like putting the classic smiley on random figures. It is interesting how the lack of details/features changes how a figure looks. As in, put that smiley on the Roman or something from CMF line. It's quite humerous. So to add to that, I haven't (and won't ) purchase any of the Castle line, even though I really want that dragon. But I have purchased ALL of the Hobbit/LOTR sets and will continue to do so as long as LEGO makes them. It's one of the few guaranteed purchases every year, along with the Modular buildings and the Winter Village. Basically sight unseen I will buy them just because of the theme it is in.

I agree with the above. think if it was/is an official set, it will always be a MOD, unless the final result shows no similarities to the original set, then it could be a MOC, but it would be a MOC with just the pieces from that set I guess. If you only change the colors or a minor tweak here and there, I would call that a MOD only, not a MOC. I want to say if you build it without instructions based on images in your head or that you've seen somewhere, it is a MOC. However, you can certainly buy other people's MOCs with instructions and those aren't official sets. I'd still call those MOCs. So I think it all depends on official set to begin with and branch out from there.

I never had one growing up, yet somehow I never chewed on my bricks either...hmm, so not all kids damage their toys. My childhood LEGO is in great condition outside of the yellowing. As far as brick separators, I think I have 15+. I know I've counted that many, but I haven't paid as much attention lately. And with the inclusion, I'll keep receiving them. I like having extras because I will need one sometime and can't find it so I grab another one. They are really handy and I'm surprised I never had one as a kid, although my first LEGO store visit was a year ago, and we never ordered anything from the catalog.

^How are you so sure on the timelines? Monster Fighters Zombie set only had a 2 month release window, so there is no guarantee to how long sets will be available. Some of the larger exclusives you can expect to last longer, but with all of these sets out now you aren't guaranteed a 2 year window. LOTR wave 1 has been discontinued for a while and that only came out summer 2012, so it mostly had a 1 year run (not including the hard to find Orc Forge). I think Harry Potter Diagon Alley exclusive only lasted about 1.5 years even though it was a D2C exclusive which normally last 2 years minimum... Anyway, back on topic.. I was lucky enough to receive some money from my wife's stepfather's mom for Christmas. She sent out money to every member of the family, so that was nice of her. With that $125, I've spent probably close to $50 or better on LEGO Movie figures, so with the remaining $75, I'm torn on either some massive Bricklink orders for Green Grocer/Cafe Corner, or some of the new Super Hero sets. I will do both eventually, but I guess which to first...

Sand blue is such a pretty color. That looks good. Interesting compromise with the door and tiled sides. Since I am modifying mine (but trying to keep the same overall look), I have been switching out some pieces. I've mostly been focused on my CC redux, but I should start focusing on this since this is more favored by me in the looks department. With the switches, I actually want to lower GG one stud in height. Eliminating the row of sand green right below the black roofing to make that blend a little better with the other modulars. I love the size of this, but I also want it to be a little smaller to fit in with the rest. I've also considered narrowing the rightmost side with the white windows so only 1x1 sand green is showing on both sides instead of 2x2 groove brick. I will need to play with it a bit to see if I like the end result. It only came to me just now when I was looking at pictures. By narrowing that, I eliminate a lot of cost, plus I would widen the main portion so it is more even. 1x3 on all sides of the windows instead of 1x3, then 1x2, and 1x2 from left to right. It would look more symmetrical which is big in my OCD for some reason. Otherwise, I will definitely do 1x4s instead of 1x8 because things like that don't matter to me. I've noticed a few other rarer pieces that I wasn't expecting, so I may have to switch them out too (OR) wait until they become available again like the dark red roof slopes... I don't love the Viking tiles, but normal tiles don't look right there either, and those aren't exactly cheap to come by. I'm still debating on how I want to handle that part. Any tips for those not going 100% exact?

For sure purchases are a few exclusives that I want to get before they are retired (Arkham, UCS R2-D2, Palace Cinema). Definitely all Super Hero sets and then all Middle Earth related sets that may come out this year. Summer Star Wars AT-AT and Mos Eisley are both possibilities. And any CMF lines that come out. It will still add up to quite a bit, but maybe not as high of quantity as normal. There are pieces/figures I will want from the LEGO movie sets, but I don't really want too many of the actual sets. The Simpson's house is questionable. As much as I love the show, I don't know if I can get the set. It looks rather bland for the price. But I may end up getting it in the end. It will just have to be put on my Exclusives list with the rest and hope I get to it before it is retired.