Eilif

Thanks, I had completely forgotten about a post office. Maybe another municipal building also, like a police station. As for fencing, there originally was a fence, but I decided to go for the more open boarwalk look instead. It does pose a potential danger to the citizens however...

Again, great job. Definately a good example of the Cafe Corner style. It is a great looking bulding, but it doesn't look like a hardware store to me. The glass front, marquee like facade over the door and some of the vertically oriented pillar like features make the building seem more like a theater. You mentioned purchasing this one. It seems that 2 Market Streets would get you nearly all the pieces you need (except for the 1x2 dark red plates for which you would have to go to bricklink) and you would have alot more pieces for less cash than buying it from Factory. I use PAB online for a few select pieces that are more expensive or hard to find elsewhere, but for the most part, Bricklink and sets are a cheaper way to acquire brick.

Some of you may remember the recent thread where I was introduced to the fact that there are many definitions of Modular besides "Market street modular". I was looking for inspiration for adding a "downtown" to my seaside module for my part of the Northern Illinios Train Club display at Brickworld 2008. I got some great ideas from that thread and your suggestions, and here are the results. My original module ( http://www.brickshelf.com/cgi-bin/gallery.cgi?f=309896 ) was 40"x40", so this addition doubled the size of my layout section. closeup You can see a bit of it during setup from the rear here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/nannanz/25940...pool-brickworld Unfortunately there aren't many other pictures available at this time, I didn't take any myself, so I have had to rely on the other's pictures. I will take much better pictures and in process pictures at our show at the end of the month and add them then. Some information about the Layout: Almost all that you see here is Modular to Market street specs. Each floor is separate, each roof removes, even the "Double-Shark Bar" is modular. There are 18 movable and removable modular sections. only the docks, supports for the Bar, and the ground floor levels of the two rear buildings are non-removable. Additionally, many of the buildings have sides that are different from the fronts, so that the buildings can be turned sideways to reveal whole new facades. For example, the Italian restaurant can be turned to make a more simple greek styled apartment building, and the surf shop has 3 sides of picture windows so it can be placed at either corner or midstreet. I made every effort to ensure that anything that sticks out further than the 16x16 base is easily removable should that side need to be turned and placed next to another building. Thus, nearly every sign, awning, even the decorative SNOT tiles on the sides of the building, are mounted on headlight mounting bricks and can be removed to leave a wall with no protrusions. Some of the roofs, and the base level of the Chineese restaurant are exceptions to this. Future improvements will be the addition of a few third floors, and the possible lenghthening of the street section by 16 or 32 studs. I may also build a couple of buldings with at least one side that mirrors the facade of another so they can be combined into a 32 stud long building. A more detailed marina with better boats is also planned. I'd welcome comments and critiques. Also, if there are any suggestions for what kind of shops or buildings to add.

I really like this. It's very similar to the asthetic I have been developing for my modular seaside village. The way you combined the more ornate styles of Cafe Corner with a scale that is closer to traditional "town" is very effective at proving that you don't need a large building to show alot of detail. Nice variety of buildings also, I like the mini in the middle.

Airport monorail Pharohs Forbidden ruins Black Seas Barracuda It's a tough quesiton, because there are 3 swaths of LEGO that I really regret missing. Early Classic Castle, Adventureres, Harry Potter (mostly the smaller interesting buildings) and ninja.

Well, 9V is officially a thing of the past now, but at least I have enough stock to last me for the forseable future. I'm not a huge train head, but I wanted to have extras, so I picked up 10 boxes of strait, two boxes of curves a set of connector wires and 3 motors. I'm thinking maybe I should have gotten another cross and another regulator, and a few more motors but after this and my Brickworld 1/2 off spree, my better half is gonna murder me if I make another LEGO purchase.

Good to meet you at brickworld, congrats on the well deserved win for Final Dual. I checked out walrus and Wacker, this week, and I'm sure I would have gotten more out of your display if I'd read it before hand. If you want to display your stuff more often, NILTC doesn't have a fabuland module yet... Karl

Thanks for putting this up. Nathan Sawaya continues to amaze. I passed up a chance to see his work in Dekalb (about an hour or so outside of Chicago) and I have been kicking myself ever since.

I've been considering this set for a while, but I really don't see the point when you could have the original versions of all the sets for considerably less. Also, doesn't something have to be 20 or 25 years old to qualfy as "Vintage" If that's the case than only two of these figs count as vintage. Definatley a pass for me.

Frosting!?!? That would make me furious. One of the only things that really frustrates me is parents who don't discipline their children. There is no way my folks would have let me get away with that kind of behavior. I hope the parents are at least appologetic.

I see why you are feeling space constraints, but I am jealous that you have as much room to display as you do. Your city really reminds me of the great big city scenes in the late 80's and early 90's catalogs. Well done.

After this weekend I had to add another post to this thread. Brickworld had two special after-hours events at 2 local LEGO stores. Supposedly the main attraction of the first night was a special pick-a brick selelction and the second night was all about damaged set sales. I attended the first one, but as it turned out, I wasn't particularly impressed with the PAB and only got one cup. Unexpectedly, however, there were alot of 1/2 off damaged box sets! I've been saving money for a few months from side jobs for LEGO, and I spent it all. I got all the following at Half Off: -A bag of large pine trees -Green Curved roadplates -Tie Tank -Republic Cruiser -Indiana Jones Temple escape (the only set I got that had actually been opened) -Cafe Corner -Town Plan -Death Star II (1/2 off $200 marked-down price!) The final total, with tax was $400.16 USD!! My other find for the Brickworld was a dealer selling minifigs from a bin (there were literally thousands in there) for a dollar a piece. I bought 76, including: 9 forestmen (and the forestman princess), 4 stingrays, 8 wolfpack, 5 ninja, 9 samurai, and others. I estimate that I acquired 10,000+ LEGO elements this weekend!

Simply Brilliant! I've been wanting to build a minifig scale double bass for a while, and I think I've found it. Perhaps my brickworld seashore module needs a jazz combo...

6373 all the way! I was in early grade school, and my parent's friend's older son had this set. I wasn't allowed to play with it, but I stared at it forever, with much jealousy.

Nice article, it clearly shows the tie-ins between the LEGO modular standards, and the AFOL standards which are more inclusive, and definatley more usefull for colaborative displays with more architectural variation. Please understand, I'm niether complaining, nor suggesting that folks are doing it wrong, just trying to clarify the issue in order to find inspirational examples of the specific style I am working with. I've enjoyed seeing all the works noted here, even the ones that aren't what I was looking for.

Fonix, Great little stackable houses you have there. That's precisely the size and concept I'm going with. I'm not doing a residential section, but there's alot of transferable ideas. I'm hoping to make the buildings different enough to be a viable commercial district, but simlar enough that they can be stacked like yours. Very Cool. Ralph, Thanks for that, I'll do some searches for "market street modules." I've only got two modules built of the 12 or so that I will need, but I'm getting very excited about this project!

On two separate occasions/locations, I got a LEGO Store employee to let me fill a small pick-a-brick cup with last season's "build-a-minifig" parts. 1st Cup- all legs 2nd Cup- Mostly torsos and heads, with some accessories and headgear. I didn't get enough headgear, but I've made about 40 minifigs so far, and I still have tons of as yet unused parts. not bad for a cash outlay of about 9 bucks USD. (I spent a gift card for the second cup) Other deals that I got at my favorite resale shop: SW Droid Tank for $25 (missing 7 pieces) SW 6 wheel clone tank for $25 (missing Mace fig) Ninja fortress (white and black one) for $3.94 (90% complete)

Nice job, I like the use of the hexagonal handle/hatch, and the radar dishes as wheel housings. This is one of those mocs that looks exactly like it should.

Thanks for the replies everyone, there's some really neat buildings you all posted up. Definately inspriational stuff, especially the Eurobricks thumbnail page which I refer to often for inspiration! However, as I mentioned above, I'm looking for stuff built in the official LEGO 16x16 Modular style . As in buildings made up of single floor 16x16 "modules" that can be switched and swapped which I think is different from the "Cafe Corner Compatible" that alot of folks think of as modular. I realize that it's a bit limiting but that's what intrigues me about it. I like the challenge of seeing what can be done within certain parameters. Also I'd like to have a Brickworld display that can be switched about from day to day. Modular style has taken on alot of different meanings among AFOLs, so I was hoping that you all would have some links to "Modular" examples because searches for "modular" reveals alot of stuff outside of the LEGO Modular standard. Anyone have some?

This depends entirely on how you want to organize your LEGO, and how big the boxes you have are. That said, If you have 4 boxes to sort, here are some techniques that have worked for me as I sorted my collection over the past two years. Alot of this is stuff you probably know, or is told elsewhere, but here goes. 1) Sort each box individually. This will make the project more manageable, and give you a real sense of accomplishment with each box you sort. I prefer to do the first sort into temporary containers: shoeboxes, freezer bags, etc. 2) Sort by color, then separate into bricks, plates, and "other". From there you can decide if it is necessary to subidive further. 3) After step 2, look at what you have and only then decide what kind of container/storage system to use based on your collection. 4) Some people have hard and fast rules to sort by, but the standard for sorting should be what makes it easiest to find the items. For example, you may end up with all your brown pieces together if you don't have many, but you may have so many red pieces that you may end up sorting them right down to the individual piece type. 5) don't be affraid to have radically different storage systems within your collection if it helps. For example, I have: -Buckets and tubs filled with freezer bags of bulk basic bricks and plates, sorted down to individual piece with each tub having a different color. -A bookshelf of dollar store fake rubbermaid microwave containers organiced by color, and piece (or similar pieces together) for pieces that I don't have enough of to keep in bulk tubs. -6 Akro Mills style organizers to keep "special" and extremely usefull pieces sorted by whatever seems to be most logical. All the best. Sorting is a pain in the rear, but it is definately worth it!

Isanyone building stulff in a "true modular" building fashion? I've seem alot of stuff marked as "moudular" but alot of it is more Cafe Corner styled, or market street sized, but not the Market street stackable modular. I built one house to this standard previously ( http://www.brickshelf.com/cgi-bin/gallery.cgi?i=3076819 ), but now that I am expanding my train club section for Brickworld to include a marina-side urban strip, I have space for 4-6 Modular buildings. Even though I probably won't mix the modules around too much, but, I think it would be a neat excercise to build them all to the 16x16 stackable Market street standard, minus the center mounted stairways. I look at the LDD designs at LEGO.com, and occasionally surf Brickshelf, but does anyone else have notable "true modular" designs I should see for inspiriation.

Nice job, I like the underwater gear exhibit. As for suggestions for improvement, I would add a roof, or some roof level detail. Also I'm not sure if you're going for uniformly grey walls, or mixed grey walls, so I would make the walls either more uniform in shade, or more variety in shades of grey.

I just saw this for the first time today. Excellent Job! Is it really going to make the trip to Brickworld? If so, I can't wait to see it in person. As for the color scheme, I actually like it. It reminds me of Chicago where we have alot of Greystones (Limestone facade brick masonry structures) where the facade is/was all grey limestone, but the first floor has been converted or remodeled (or just painted) in a different style or scheme than the rest of the building. Very Urban!

Thanks, that's pretty much my feelings on the matter. They can both be impressive, but in a comparison of nostalgic vs. inspirational, I'll take inspirational every time. That said, I'm glad there are some collectors out there, because a layout or presentation of classic sets is always neat to look at and brings back great memories. As for me, I'm not as tallented or experienced as the LEGO designers, and nothing I've made compares to Green Grocer (currently my favorite set), but even if there were, and I could afford, a whole city's worth of Cafe/Market/Grocer style sets my module or display still wouldn't contain many/any of them.

I've been working on town building MOCs recently, so the large "building" models with lots of modern colors and architectural details are one of my best source for alot of necessary pieces. I've already been using parts from, Engine Shed, Cafe Corner, and part of Market street. Townhouse, and Green Grocer will probably be torn down and canibalized next. The pieces from Building Bonanza and House are pretty good also, but being based around white, they weren' t quite as usefull as the Red, Dark Red, Sand green, Light blue, Tan and Grey and Bley of the earlier mentioned kits. Lastly, Arkham assylum is one of my all-time favorite parts packs. Lots of dark colors, interesting minifigs and accessories, and architectural elements, such as rock roofs, quarter round tall clear windows, cast iron gates, lots of black railing pieces (curved and strait), and 2 kinds of brown doors. It was half off (39.99 USD) for so long that I can't understand why AFOL's weren't snapping them up. Next to Hobby Train (also half price for a long time), Arkham was probably the parts pack deal of the year for 2007. I rarely buy a set twice, but I got one when it went on sale, and then got another when I realized just how usefull the pieces were.