MetroiD

Sorry to ruin this one for you guys, but a) this boat's definitely not made only of plastic, and b) that stuff's not LEGO. Just have a look at the bricks when the camera switches to "on-board" view and you'll see that the top of the studs is actually perfectly flat and doesn't have any LEGO printing on it. I must admit, I was hoping they'd drown sooner. Fan-man was an absolute cheat. Pity for the canal tho - letting a bunch of plastic bricks of doubtful origins float around is not really a great idea.

My first ever LEGO set was The Admiral with his cannon in a fancy red boat... I was 3 at the time, so I guess my mum trusted that I wouldn't actually eat the "cannonballs". She came back home with this lil set one day when I was real sick and my eyes went all shiny... It was the LEGO fever that got me that day. My second (that, or just of the very first ones I got) set was I called the minifig Inspector Cruchot (remember Louis de Funes?)... That set is still intact, I've just added a couple of spare blue 1x1 round bricks at the back. I'll never take this one to pieces... I guess you can tell this is still one of my most favourite sets ever. And Asi's first set we got her was The Maharadscha Scorpion Palace. A lovely set with some veeery nice parts. She was over the moon when she got her first very own set.

Been supporting them for the last 10+ years, ever since I started taking an actual interest in football (I didn't care too much for that when I was a smaller kid). I remember the sexy Chelsea of Ruud Gullit and after him, Luca Vialli... those were the days! I don't watch the Bulgarian Football League for numerous reasons and Hertha BSC could not quite captivate me during my stay in Berlin either. So it's always been CFC for me. I also did follow NHL some time ago and supported the Colorado Avalanche (Roy, Sakic, Forsberg and Blake to name just a few... who WOULDN'T support them!). However, hockey has become increasingly hard to follow here in Bulgaria and ever since that cancelled season a few years back I haven't really been able to follow the league as closely as I would like to. In terms of Formula 1 - McLaren, solely because of Ayrton Senna. The best F1 pilot there ever was. I disapprove of all the controversy which the Silver Arrows have somehow managed to surround themselves with, but I'm not one to change teams every other year. P.S.: And btw, no offense meant, but there is no such thing as soccer. It's called football and that's the way it's been known long before the Americas were even discovered by Europeans.

Following your logic, should polybads then be bags made for Poly? I did enjoy those polybag impulse sets back in the 90s. The impulse box is pretty much useless anyway, since anyone could build such models without instructions...

That's a very nice MOC you built there! It's very lively and really well designed, can't wait to see more :) For some reason this one reminds me of village markets in smaller rural areas where you'd be able to buy pretty much anything.

Definitely, but it's rather a marketing problem here... Because seeing a LEGO set that's half the size of the toy standing alongside it on the shops' rack yet costs more would put off not only children, but parents alike. In marketing, even such simple psychological factors do have a major influence and that's why LEGO have continously used boxes that are sometimes waaaaay bigger than the required size to fit in all the parts. I do however agree that for the environment's sake, reducing the unnecessary size of toys' packaging is really the way to go, since there's an awful lot of toys that are produced in the same manner - huge box and contents 1/3 or half the size of it. We haven't bought any exclusive sets yet, so when we do I suppose I'll definitely keep the boxes of those... Since getting a hold of one of those would be an accomplishment by itself! Some of the biggest boxes I own right now are damaged (that's how I bought them - but the price was 50+% off ), so I guess I'll be throwing them out sooner rather than later. But the instruction manuals, sticker sheet and the catalogue are, of course, kept separately at a safe location ;) Throwing them away is out of the question! Which reminds me... didn't LEGO use to include a smallish catalogue along with almost every set back in the 90s? What happened to those? I've noticed that they're missing from the new sets... Thanks for replying to this one, I really was very curious what other people do with their boxes (especially if they don't have much space where they live).

Most definitely!!! Glad you like my choice ;]

I was wondering whether you guys keep your LEGO boxes after you've opened them, built the sets and/or added the bricks to your collection? I know that many of you buy specific sets with the intention of reselling them later on, once they've gained extra value as rare vintage items, and in that case it is only logical that you stack away the boxes and keep them in a mint & sealed condition. However, for the ones of you who are like me and do not plan on selling their collection /at least not in sets/ or buying up just for the sake of reselling sets, do you actually keep those big (ridiculously huge in some cases) boxes after you've once torn them open? Back in the days of my childhood (late 80s / early 90s), LEGO boxes were a work of art themselves - especially the ones of bigger sets. With plastic display cases and windows in the box itself to see the contents, they featured some great photography of the set (far less misleading that nowadays' pics ). So it comes as no suprise that back when I was a kid I'd stack my boxes on top of a wardrobe. In a few years, the wardrobe had a huge pile on top of it which was rapidly collecting massive amounts of dust... So I had to throw them away. However, now that my hobby has been brought back to life, I find myself doing the exact same thing (sans that piling-on-top-of-wardrobe thing). Probably it's because the sheer size of sets such as the Agents Mission 6 or Indy Crystal Skull Temple still adds up to the value of it, just like a lil kid would think... Well, in any case, I'll get around to throwing them out one of these days, that's for sure. But I guess I might keep the better ones. How do YOU handle your boxes then?

That's precisely what I was thinking mate... My first bike will be a Kawasaki ZXR 400, so I don't really think I can fit 3 x 40 litres on that, but I sure will give it a shot! Back in the day when I lived in Germany I had a pal who rode a Honda CBR 1100 XX Blackbird and that baby could get loaded like a truck and still did 220 without even breaking a sweat... I might consider buying a long-distance sport-tourer someday, but for now I'd rather concentrate on something that'll be easier to handle :]

That's what I've also been thinking about lately. I've been planning on a tram for our town and have come up with the idea of using narrow-gauge tramways. After a bit of research, I think it's doable and am right now planning to get started on a 5-stud-wide design. Can't wait to receive the 7036 Dwarves' Mine I ordered off Bricklink and get my hands on those 4.5v train tracks! So I would also be extremely interested in some details regarding the motoring of such narrow-gauge tracks...

Whoa! A neighbour AND a fellow biker! :) That BMW is an awesome machine, Zorbas, have fun riding it around bro! Who knows, once I buy my own bike, we might meet each other somewhere along the road :]

Thank you for your help and priceless input guys! Freddie, that MOC is absolutely great as a reference mate, thanks a lot. You're right, I will most definitely start off with normal rails/tracks running alongside the street on the regular street plates and try to balast them. It may look awkward at first, but at least it should give me a general idea as to the dimensions required. Actually "hiding" the tramway will come at a latter stage, since the entire street elevation process looks extremely brick-savvy. Asuka & BlueBard, thanks for your kind words :) Here's a link to a more detailed presentation of the truck itself.

Thanks Colin, that is a wonderful MOC indeed. And thanks ever so much for pointing me to it... That's pretty much the way I would like to try and "hide" the rails, we'll see what we'll come up with in the future :)

Mmmm... Unagi / Kabayaki Nigiri, my favourite sushi!!! (that's eel, not Ross' precognition thing... ) Oh, and a classical Miso Soup would be great, thank you! But I also Thai cuisine. Crispy chicken with noodles & vegetables = marvellous (despite the huge amounts of natrium glutamate)

I'll second that. Asi came up with the idea of a flower shop quite some time ago... ordering specific parts off Bricklink, checking out different ideas, sketching stuff, etc. was all a part of the process and we definitely took our time with our Fleurs des Leutres building. We were certain that we wanted to build exactly THAT building once I started the Divco Flower Truck. And since it was ready within a couple of days, I guess you couldn't really say that the season has influenced this specific MOC too much (it was still snowy around here during that time...) It was however a charming coincidence, working on something so bright and flowery and then going out to see the flowers and trees in bloom... Gotta love springtime :) Furthermore, Brickster here is absolutely right in suggesting that there is a connection between the season and the MOCs, since after all the things within our surroundings which we find most oustanding are often the ones we choose as an idea to implement in a MOC, even if we don't always consciously realise it. Sometimes it might even work the other way around... for example, during the winter time I had all but forgotten the sound of a motorcycle's engine and the lovely roar of a revving bike. Hence the multitude of two-wheeled MOC during that period, I guess (not that I'm done with those, NO SIR! )

Those are some wonderful designs... Just the kind of compact garden MOCs I was looking to draw inspiration from! Excellent job mate :)

Yup, Er!k, you're right, but we'll need to place a nice Bricklink order for that cause right now we don't have anywhere near enough tiles... But those will surely be a nice finishing touch to this one. After we're done with the tiles, I'm also planning on combining this building as it is with regular street plates in a way which would leave enough room for a sidewalk AND a tramway on the sides of the road. Since we don't own any rails / train sets yet, I can't really start experimenting on that, but I would love to give it a shot. What do you guys think, has anyone tried such a layout yet?

Thanks a lot for all your comments guys! Your feedback & criticism is greatly appreciated, keep it coming please :) And thank you ever so much for your praise... it means an awful lot to us, especially bearing in mind that we're pretty new to this whole modular MOC thing. On to the "Q&A" part then : @ Eilif: We got the yellow brick with flower decal on Bricklink. I believe it originally appeared in a Mickey Mouse set and is more or less a rarity (Set No. 4165). @ Freddie: Eyecandy is gooooood, as long as it's not TOO much, after a certain point it starts to feel bad on your eyes :P I'm sure glad you like this one the way it is! @ Athos & Ralph S: I guess I should have said that first when I posted this MOC: This building is obviously not a modular building constructed according to the CC standard. We do not own any of those modular sets and we are well aware that the structure we've come up with does not comply with the CC standard. However, it IS still modular, hence the title/ description (so much for nit-picking ) I must stress that it was never meant as an addition to the Green Grocer / Cafe Corner or even Market Street. This is a standalone building with its different yet modular style of construction. The aim here was for each floor to be easily separable from the others - and even though they are not interchangeable or CC compatible, we will probably use it again for some of our future MOCs as well. So in that sense, "modular" probably sounds improper for this MOC, but I'm very glad that you still liked it guys :) Regarding the colours: We do not own enough bricks in those trendy muted colours. Even if we did, I do not believe they would offer the best exterior for a building which houses a flower shop, which is generally a vivid and colourful place. However, I totally understand what you mean and I agree that there are some town buildings which simply look GOOD in tan / muted green/ blue etc. colours and yellow or red should never be used for those. Right now, I think we'll just wait until we get our hands on the original modular sets before we construct that kind of buildings. We've got enough white and grey bricks lying around anyway :] @ Erdbeeris: Thanks for the tip! We might just implement that idea in one of the buildings which will be attached to this one and see if it looks good :) @ Basiliscus: True that. I'll try and look for another solution for the cooker... I'll add some more pics of this one later on (you still haven't seen its last floor - the bedroom; or the bathroom on the second floor, for that matter!) and try to work on some of your advices. Once again, thanks guys ;]

Thanks mate! The vines were actually a last-minute touch which wasn't really planned but we thought they'd make a perfect solution to the problem of having an absolutely naked ugly exterior wall there. Decorating it in any other way or adding another window + seashell + arch combination was impossible, since that would have ruined the small kitchen corner behind that wall, so the vines came up naturally as the best way to go. Once we add another building to the side of this one, the vines will disappear from this one's "back" side and transcend to the next building. I already look forward to that :]

B-OV-17B A month or so ago, Asya came up with the idea of building a florist for our future town layout. Thrilled by the idea, I made a Divco delivery truck, after which we started building our first ever modular town structure. The architectural style of the building is modern baroque, which will help fit in much easier amongst all the other structures from different architectural periods we have in mind. Despite that, the "baroque" element was kept as a more subtle note, since we did not want to end up with a structure that would be way too gaudy to house a flower shop. It is however featured in the baroque-ish name of the building, Fleurs du Loutres, which translated from French should sound something like Flowers of the Otters... (do correct me if I'm wrong please, I never did manage to quite master that language!) Obviously, the structure is intended as a corner building, and in the future we are planning on adding to its sides and creating a little inner sort of courtyard area which will then be used for a gazebo or a small park - hence the arch and the narrow tunnel. She sells seashells... not. She sells flowers actually. And both she and her colleague are mighty happy doing that! Joe the delivery boy is also more than happy to drive his restored trusty Divco delivery truck around, so I guess the foundations for a succesful business have indeed been laid. Even though he's a charming young man, Joe is also a bit absent-minded. The mediocre (at best) top speed of his Divco is a perfect match to Joe's wits, but the girls always make sure he's safe. Despite that, today's new flower arrangement has obviously caught his attention and I can just hear Helen here callig after him, "Hey, Joe, careful with the stairs, you're carrying one of our best bouquets!" It's early in the morning - the flower store has just opened for customers, Asi is busy attending to her flowers, Joe is starting on his first delivery course for the day, the mailman is halfway done with the morning mail... And a sigfig who bears some uncanny resemblance to yours truly here has finally decided it's time to rise and shine. His girlfriend is already making sure that the flowers are looking fine and healthy, and I guess you can tell she's also taken care of the household... Dishes are washed and the laundry is done. Bliss! The building is 100% furnished, however I am not quite satisfied with the quality of the interior photos that I've managed to take so far. I'm planning on shooting some more and then I'll post a few pics of the interior. For now, let me just tell you that the house itself consists of a bathroom, kitchen + dining corner + bedroom. Nothing too grand really, but then again it's all you need really :] Oh, and I'll also do a close-up shot of the mailman with his mail delivery bike. It might be a bit weird that flowers are to be delivered using a minitruck in our town, whereas mail is delivered using a bike, but what can you do... we're environmental-friendly... well sort of. In any case, I think the mailman is perfectly happy with his bike for now. MOCpages Brickshelf

I'm sure you are, neighbour... I guess we stole it from your cuisine somewhere along the way, even though in the Bulgarian version we rarely use aubergines. In any case, it really makes me laugh every time Balkan countries start arguing on topics such as orignal authors of some folk song, country of origin of some dish or folklore story ot motif, etc.... Things have become so mixed up around here that it only takes a bit of looking around (and actually reading a bit about it) for one to realise that even tho we fight all the time and point the finger at each other (in typical Balkan style), we are very much the same. Which, on a global scale, sounds extremely logical. Anyway, I digress... Dish of the day: stuffed peppers. Admittedly, that's not something you'd order at a fancy restaurant, but I don't think those are the only dishes worth mentioning. To me, this is one of the most "house-typed" foods. A healthy and delicious one too!

Thanks a mill mate! I'll make sure to stop by Hamleys!!!

My 2 cents regarding the whole "Brickshelf is unreliable" story: Dear mods and fellow members, please do not be annoyed by the fact that there actually IS such a thread as this one. Having hundreds of the same topics discussing Brickshelf is naturally quite stupid, that's for sure, but having THIS one is rather useful - that way if you don't know what's wrong with BS, you can always check out what info other users have share here - just like I did. And to all people who moan about BS being unreliable - yep, you're spot on. BS is unreliable. Furthermore, its file upload system and the entire user interface is old and annoying. BUT it's free. End of story. I would only expect someone to moan about someone else's services if they pay for those. Which we don't. So unless we start supporting Brickshelf by paying an actual amount of money to the people who run it, I think it is totally inappropriate for us to start pointing our fingers at the site. A solution to all of those who are mightly annoyed and fed up would be to look for other photo-hosting services, there are tons of them and quite a few of those are free. Now on a more relevant note: I can only confirm that indeed all the folders ARE empty, and the content of the more recent ones (posted within the last week) has not been moderated. Which goes to show that the people responsible for the site's maintenance are unavailable. Give it some more time and everything will be brought under control.

Totally agree with you there. I must say however that Ferrari have quite a few internal problems of their own as well, so switching right now would really not be a wise move. Furthermore, Lewis was nurtured through the ranks by McLaren and he was more or less MADE such a success because of the support he received from Ron Dennis. Leaving them now when they are having such bad times could be another huge hit on his public image - what, with all the "liar liar" talk lately... The whole McLaren thing IS blown out of proportion, especially with FIA being hellbent on making them the scapegoats on almost any occasion. However, I couldn't say I didn't see that coming after the stolen blueprints scandal. That was a massive mistake by the Silver Arrows and should never ever have happened. It might have been understandable if we were talking about Toyota or Red Bull stealing sth from Ferrari, but that's McLaren ffs!!! The scandal brought on massive internal problems for the team et voila - the result is obvious. What they need right now is a MAJOR overhaul. Same applies to FIA, however. The timing couldn't be better for teams such as Brawn GP and Toyota to finally start winning major points and mounting a serious title challenge. P.S.: KimT, I agree, the Sepang race was a disaster. The timing was horrible and I can't see how starting the whole thing two hours earlier would have ruined a true fan's sleep... For all of that, I blame none other than Bernie Ecklestone. The man has all but forgotten how things SHOULD be done, that's probably the umpteenth gaffe he is guilty of, only since the season commenced. He MUST step down; the problem is that I can't see who could replace him. Jean Todt would not be a good solution if FIA are to get rid of their biased decisions...

Nice to see you here, Matija! I love all your MOCs, they're absolutely wonderful. Spent a lot of time on MOCpages looking through them and I must say that it's pretty obvious that one's looking at an architect's job, not just any ol' MOC. A mighty well done job too :]