sonicstarlight

I'm glad that you decided to post them as well - really top-notch stuff! I've just blogged this building on Brick Town Talk and will definitely keep my eyes open for your designs in the future.

Thanks to all for your great comments. Honestly, that's a good question. I live in a part of NYC which is virtually nothing but townhouses, many with retail below, but there is not much variety in the styles of them all. In some ways this looks like the theme park version of a historic neighborhood rather than the real thing, and I'm ok with that. Another thing I struggled with until now was what time period the modulars are supposed to take place in. From the old school cash registers in the Green Grocer and Grand Emporium to the rather modern coffee maker in the Pet Shop, I had a hard time deciding how modern to make the interiors in my own builds. This is the one where I finally said "Screw it - this apartment gets a flat screen TV". Always! I started on these immediately finishing my diner and theater, and my next creation is already well underway - I started it while waiting for the last of my townhouse bricks to arrive in the mail. I don't want to give too much away, but as mentioned before it will be based on Gringott's and should be instantly recognizable despite no longer being a bank... I make a point to never take apart any of my modulars, and I do have the full set of official ones. I will try and take a few photos of everything together at once, but my tiny apartment makes it rather difficult. If my math is right, all told my modulars take up 23 16x32 stud plates - it might be hard to get them all in one shot.

This is a great modular in its own right, but the fact you went out of your way to help make the stumpy part of Market Street feel more at home in the block is truly commendable. I admit that I put that part in the closet and never put it on the shelf with the rest, despite rather liking the townhouse section.

I think even us purists can appreciate stickers when done with as much thought and care as you've done with this fantastic build! They really do add a lot to the design, and honestly are in the keeping of some of the printed panels that have appeared in official sets over the years. That said, those birch trees are what my eyes went to first - so simple yet so brilliant.

For those interested, I made some modular townhouses inspired by both this set and The Burrow - click here to go to the topic in the Town forum, or click on the rightmost thumbnail in my signature. Thanks!

Thank you all for your great comments! Not yet, but I would like to make them. All of these builds were pretty basic - I can't think of anything tricky about them so they won't be hard to make. These are the first MOCs I've done where I didn't at least set up a partial digital model to figure things out, but once my next creation is done I plan on taking a break and trying my hands at making instructions. They are actually 2x2 clear round tiles. There were only a handful of people on Bricklink with them in the inventory and I had to go to a seller in France to get enough of them - easily the hardest pieces to track down. They look official enough, but I don't know of any sets they have appeared in, so I don't know their true origins. I was initially overwhelmed by the excellent creations the people on this site and others were capable of when I got back into Legos a few years ago now, but I just experimented and tried a lot of things until I had something I was happy with. Don't sell yourself short - you never know what you are capable of until you try. As for the thicker wall in the barber, it was really just done so that the mailbox in the stairwell of the apartment didn't poke through the wall on the other side - nothing structural. It did help make the barber more symmetrical as well, which is also why there are thicker walls in the apartments above on both the barber and laundromat in the same location.

Great work - even without a large $, I would still immediately associate this with a bank. Dark green windows go well with all the gray, and the detailing is very intricate without being fussy or distracting. I'm honestly not bothered with the lack of stairs, as they really eat up interior space and even a wider modular like this is much smaller than an average city building in real life.

B-RM-1A Hello all! When it was announced that this year's modular was going to be a pair of 16 stud wide townhouses, I realized that all of the MOCs I've done have been at least 32 studs wide and I really need to make some smaller scale buildings. What began as one turned to two turned to three, so my plan for a nice and simple build after my diner and theater turned into anything but . I am not a fan of Harry Potter in the least, but once I saw the pictures for Diagon Alley I just knew I had to have it. While picking it up, I also got The Burrow on a whim, partially because I thought the building itself was interesting, but mostly because I was desperate for medium dark flesh pieces at the time. I was originally just going to turn Ollivander's into a modular, but I also liked some of the details on Borgin and Burke's so I made two that are both a mix of each (I have another plan for Gringott's Bank, which I am working on now). Wanting to top Lego, I decided to add a third building to the mix with all the leftover Burrow parts I had after making my theater. So without further ado, here they are. After doing so many signs and lettering with my last creation, I wanted these to be text free. With the barber pole, socks sign, and pig on an ax, I think it is clear which is a barber, laundromat, and butcher. The backs have more detail than I am used to doing on my creations. The butcher has a chicken coop (with the brick built chicken from the MMV taking residence), the laundromat has a tree with one of the many owls I now have taking roost, and the barber has a private garden with a skeleton acting as a scarecrow. I'll briefly go through each one by one - let's start with the barber. This one is based largely on Ollivander's, with a few tweaks to make it work as a 16 wide. Inside is a bench for customers to wait for a chair, two stations for a haircut, shelves with shampoos and conditioners, and a large hairdryer. Not visible under the stairs is a sink with a hose to wash hair. Upstairs is an apartment with a sofa, flat screen TV, and a place to sit and eat based on Saarinen's iconic Tulip table and chairs (like the ones in my own apartment, these are cheap knockoffs ). The second apartment level has a dresser, platform bed, and exercise bike. Moving now to the laundromat. I though Borgin and Burke's was a little to dark to do a full modular in that palette, so only the ground floor is dark bley and black. The upper floors are based on the ground floor of Ollivander's. The laundromat has the usually rows of washers and dryers as well as a basket and change machine. Under the stairs is the owner willing to sell detergent to those without. The apartment above has a fireplace with a painting over the mantel and a kitchen, while upstairs is a bedroom with a balcony. Finally, the butcher. I tried to keep a lot of the elements from the Burrow so that it was instantly recognizable as coming from the set, as seen with the covered entry into the apartment and the various bay windows. The pig found a new life as a sign out front. The butcher has some fish packed in ice, a counter with a variety of meats and cheeses (as well as a scale on top), and the counter behind has a deli slicer. Under the stairs is a refrigerator. Upstairs the apartment is based largely on the interiors of the original, from the orange counters and corner sink to the green clock and medium blue and orange striped bed. Like the official modulars, you can remover the middle floors from these and they still work. The barber and laundromat are the same size, so you can mix and match floors between them. The butcher can be mixed with the townhouse of Market Street, although it doesn't look great. Last but not least, here are the buildings mixed in with the official 16 stud wides... ... and here are all seven of my creations together. Many more photos on my flickr page here and on Brickshelf here. Thank you all for looking! Comments and questions are always welcome .

I really like this one. The amount of detail is perfect - not too much and not too little - and the color scheme is fantastic. It makes such a nice pair with your other tan building pictured, yet each building is still unique. Truly wonderful Deco.

This is a really great build! The pub is especially nice, and everything has a very organic, natural look that is very hard to do with Legos. The whole thing is just very lively and welcoming. Excellent work.

The hotel is great - clean, but still well detailed. That car is truly excellent, although I am partial to any car with fins in both Lego and real life.

Thank you for the compliments! I actually started a digital model in SR3D at the request of another member of the boards, but I got distracted with my next MOCs (which I am very close to finishing up) and kind of stopped after creating the diner. The tap pieces weren't working right so the lights on the front facade aren't on, and the pipe on the roof it too tall, but otherwise it is done. After my next MOCs are in the books, I actually want to start making instructions for some of my buildings, starting first with this and then my MMV inspired build. I really need to lay off the real bricks and work more in the virtual realm, for the sake of my wallet. It will probably still be quite a while before I have anything worth sharing, so please be patient.

Both the show and your builds are absolutely brilliant! The staircar in particular is extremely well done and can almost be mistaken for a photo of the real thing as a thumbnail.

Not only do these fit in seamlessly with the Pet Shop (in fact, these are possibly the most official looking MOCs I've seen), but I think your designs are actually better detailed. Both inside and out, each is unique. Also, the color palettes you used are great. Truly top-notch work!

Another stunner, lgorlando! This is an extremely clever way to do a modular, and the details are just great. The little details that caught my eyes were the street signs on the light post and the newspaper boxes - both so simple yet completely brilliant. I might need to "borrow" the latter for my next MOC.

These make a very nice pair. The pinball machine is especially nice and instantly recognizable.

This is an excellent first showing. The exterior is well detailed without looking too busy, and the interiors are better than you are giving them credit for

I would shy away from brick-built streets and extra base plates until you build up your collection a bit. Obviously the modulars are quite pricey as are the collectible minifigure series (they've gone from $2 each in series 1 to $3.50 for series 4 in the U.S. - not sure if similar price increases happened worldwide). As another poster stated, see if you can't try and amass the individual bricks you need to build the modulars you missed from Bricklink for a fraction of the price to get it as a set. Now that the Pet Shop uses the same dark red roof bricks that were so hard to get for a while now, perhaps making a Cafe Corner from scratch will be feasible again. Also look at other sets in the City series if you want more figs - the Castle and Harry Potter lines are also a great place to get sets that have a lot of useful parts for making your own MOCs.

Oops, yeah, I meant first page of this forum and not front page of the site. Just because English is my first (and only) language doesn't mean I'm any good at it This deserves to be on the frontpage, though

Incredible as always, JJG! When I saw this topic back on the front page, I could hardly wait to see what was posted. As a general rule I avoid stickers in my creations, but yours are easily the most visually stunning ones I have seen and I feel that the building is actually much better for them. The architectural details, as expected, are spectacular, as is the sheer scale of it all. Even though you make me feel like a total amateur with your MOCs, I really appreciate all the effort you put into them and for sharing them here

I keep going back and forth with this one. I wasn't wowed by the first leaked shots, really warmed up to it once the official press release came out, but now that I have it and have built it I leveled off somewhere inbetween. I think this is the first set that looks better in photos than it does in real life. There are just a lot of awkward things about this one (the way the third floor of the townhouse overhangs the floor under it is extremely clumsy to me) and they feel more like the Creator line than the official modulars. Still, I am glad to have something that breaks up the scale of the line, both in width and height. My least favorite in the line thus far, but still a solid effort.

I admit to being slightly underwhelmed when the first shots leaked, but after seeing the official images and videos, I am definitely liking this one now. Still wish there were a few more animals in the pet shop, but that's a minor quibble. I like that Jamie has gone from working with only parts in production to bringing back forgotten colors and bricks from the 1980s

I'm not sure that I believe that there are clues anymore. I get the CC to GG connection with the green cherries, and the GG to FB connection with the fire hydrant, but I never bought the FB to GE connection (was it ultimately decided on the lady with the purse?). If this came after the FB, then I could see the connection in the dog, but I can't think of any hint in the GE that would lead to the Pet Shop. That said, if there is a clue, I hope it is the bicycle hinting at a bicycle supplier/repair shop. I would love to see some colors other than red and green.

Wow, this topic is back from the dead again. I actually answered this on the first page - just one MMV plus one Family House and a ton of extra tan bricks (among other things) from Bricklink. I actually want to pick up a second one while I still can just for parts. I'm currently very early in the process of turning Diagon Ally into a modulars, but after that I might see if I can't make a digital model of this in some program (not LDD). Maybe even try my hand at making instructions. Big maybe, but if I do feel so inclined I will start with this model.

I'm not really sure what to think about this one yet - it looks like something you would randomly see while browsing Brickshelf as opposed to an official modular in some ways, not that that is necessarily a bad thing. I will of course buy it as soon as I see it, and I am extremely happy to see another 16 wide set (times 2). Pictures never do these things justice, but the modular line still peaked at the Green Grocer for me stylistically.