sonicstarlight
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I finally picked this set up last week. Here it is with my Empire Theater.
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Expand the Winter Village Contest III Voting Topic
sonicstarlight replied to Hinckley's topic in LEGO Town
I could have easily picked 5 more and been completely content with my selections - amazing entries this year. 6. sdrnet - 1 18. Priovit70 - 1 21. Kristel - 1 29. Mrcool1804 - 1 33. vecchiasignoraceppo -1 -
Excellent entry all around! It's very consistent in style with the official sets. I really like the clock - very elegant. Good luck in the contest.
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This is beyond stunning! You already know I'm a huge fan, and this is possibly the best build you've done yet. The exterior is just beautiful - the curved facade is easily my favorite part. The interiors are very clever and perfectly planned. The floor in the pharmacy and the entire third floor are the standouts for me. If you really twisted my arm for critique, the only thing I would suggest is adding a different color to the dome - maybe dark tan or sand green for an aged copper look, and maybe just the ribs. This is an excellent interpretation of the source material you linked to, so anything I'm saying might go against the original. Again, I got so excited when I saw a topic with modular in the title and your name as the creator - it's like Christmas for me. As always, blogged on Brick Town Talk.
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Really clever. All the different parts come together to make a great whole. The snow on the roof is quite well done - that and the radiator are my favorite details. Good luck!
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I did struggle a bit with this, but in the end I liked the classic look of the black on white. Most of the carriages I used as inspiration were either all white or all black, but I stumbled upon this photo that I thought looked really nice. I did add a little dark red to help break it up, but it's hard to see when minifigs are in it. I'm not so sure - I'm voting for your entry. The porch was actually the first thing I built - the building was really just something for it to fit around. The concept of making it a jewelry store actually came much later. I took a few detail shots, including the microscope - click here to see them.
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I'm not sure my wife would agree . It was my intention to try and tie all three parts together to help tell a story. Vehicles aren't my thing, and I struggled to think of a mode of transportation that would work with a jeweler - I nearly made an armored truck, which is far less romantic... It might be a while. Still need to finish my lingering cast iron builds, and I have an idea for another 2 baseplate modular that I may or may not want to try and tackle next. I did want something more residential than commercial, even if it was always intended to be a store. I love it when old Victorians see a second life as a little shop, sometimes with the owners living on the upper floors. Just took one. I tried last night but I think it was too dark - had some decent morning light that still let the light brick shine through. Don't want to break the 5 image limit for the contest so click here to see it in my flickr photostream. Thanks to everyone else that posted some great comments. I really enjoy reading them all!
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CA refers to Canada, not California.
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This is really lovely! It is very much in keeping with the official sets, but still very unique from them. I really like the offset windows on the second floor - nice touch.
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Hello all! I finally got my act together in time to enter a contest on Eurobricks! Here is my entry to the "Expand the Winter Village Contest III" - a Jewelry Shop with a carriage and fountain. This actually took me a little less than 3 weeks to do and over 90% of the bricks came from whatever I had laying around - easily my most efficient build to date. The hardest thing for me was not over doing it. Everything I've done at minifig scale has been CC-style modulars, and the Winter Village line is much more simplistic. I had plans to do a really ornate Queen Anne Victorian with all the trimmings, but eventually I realized I needed to strip it way down to keep my part count right (this is roughly the same as the Winter Village Cottage) and to carry forward the styles of the sets already part of the line. Maybe I'll do a proper modular to scratch my Victorian itch... Anyway, on to the entry. Here are all three parts together. The store looks larger than it is because of the porch - it is actually about the same footprint as the Toy Shop if you were to take it away. The floors don't come off normally, but I pulled them apart in order to get better pictures. Here is the ground floor. On the left is a vitrine with a priceless ruby and the gold display, while on the right is the main counter with several gems in the window. Upstairs is the workshop with a place to cut gems as well as appraise them thanks to a microscope. Extra inventory and cash is stored in the safe. This man just couldn't wait to show off the shiny rock he just got and is popping the question to his girlfriend in front of the nearby fountain. Meanwhile, another happy couple takes a carriage ride. I modeled this off of the carriages that are found in New York's Central Park. This was hard to pick just five images. Many more can be found on my flickr account, including more details of the exterior of the shop and a shot with my building among the official sets. Click here to see them! Thanks for looking, and don't forget to vote!
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Stunning, and probably the new one to beat at the moment. Best of luck in the contest!
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I don't think any official sets will ever top the GG for me, personally. That was the first (and only) modular to have a nicely patterned tiled floor, so I wasn't expecting one here. I did think there would be more seating on the second floor, though - I don't know why they bothered putting stairs up to the roof in the theater itself. Again, not stellar interiors but about what I expected. The thing that bothers me the most for some reason are the light bley brick bricks on the exterior. I'll admit I hate brick bricks in general (the idea was excellent, but the pattern on them is completely off, especially if you want to offset them to make something sturdy) and this looks like it would be a stucco building in real life so I don't understand why they are there. I think I am at least going to flip them around so that only the horizontal lines sides are showing.
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A monochromatic, cast-iron inspired modular with an alliterative title? It's like you made this just for me! I'm not surprised this is getting so much high praise. Again, you've found the perfect balance of exterior detailing - I love the crown especially and have been struggling topping off one of my own buildings in progress now, so I really appreciate the inspiration. The inside is great too, and probably the best use of Friends pieces I've seen in a modular. It should come as no surprise by now - blogged on Brick Town Talk!
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I'll echo a lot of other people's comments and say that I am a fan of all the white. It's one of my favorite colors to build in, an honestly there are a lot of real world buildings that are entire monochromatic. I wouldn't add color just for the sake of it. This is a great first modular, by the way. Looking forward to seeing it completed.
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Well, I guess it was just a matter or time before this got bumped from the dead. I'll respond once now that it is already at the top of the list, but I think the discussion on this has pretty naturally run its course so I'd rather let this fall off the first page so newer MOCs can get the spotlight. This is virtually what I was going to say. As was said in the Palace Cinema topic, we get spoiled by all the great MOCs seen on this site and others as fans don't need to think about the bottom line like TLG does. My theater might have 3 times as many bricks as as the Palace Cinema does, the staircase will fall apart if you blink too hard, and the facade is held together by techniques that cause a little stress on the bricks which is not something they ever do in official sets - some parts are held on by friction and gravity alone. It looks great in the end, sure, but it is not practical for a set and that is exactly why I made it - I wanted a fully decked out Art Deco movie theater and I knew no official set could be as detailed as I wanted it. If you want a set that is grander than the official ones, all you need to do is build one - this is the beauty of Lego. Also, there are no instructions for this - I wouldn't even know where to begin. I took a lot of photos, including ones that show the construction of the stairs and how the street facade works, so I think anyone motivated enough could make something 90% accurate if they have the will and want to spend $500+ on Bricklink in parts - I don't think such a person exists. If you have your heart set on this specific model, feel free to download the LDD model of the Mini Modular standard version - click here to see an image and find a link to download the virtual model. It's still 400 pieces, but the real one is over 10 times that. I for one love the Palace Cinema. I also love all the beautifully impossible modulars I see here. It's important to know that there will always be a divide between the two, and the fact these official sets exist at all is still amazing to me.
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This does seem to be the most polarizing initial reaction to a modular I have seen (I've been lurking since before the Fire Brigade was announced), but most things online tend to be "love it or hate it" affairs. I'm probably the only one that was hoping for something that wasn't Deco (and thank you for the high praise of mine) and I think this is the best non-Deco solution - it is still of that classic Hollywood era and actually ties back to Hollywood itself. I'll assume that more people will warm to the design as time goes on, as is often the case, and criticism is certainly warranted, but I for one am actually impressed to see something so stylistically different while still being harmonious to the rest of the line. You might never see a theater like this in your neighborhood, but I've never seen anything that looks like Market Street or Town Hall in mine.
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This is really charming! The exterior is great - the roof technique is brilliant. The interiors are possibly even better - that bookshelf is very well done.
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This is really nice and fits in with the official sets well. I'm also not the biggest fan of red as a color, but I do understand the effect you were going for and I think you pulled it off well. Is there a way to see the interiors without taking off the roof? The official sets leave off a wall - it would be a shame if your interiors are normally hidden as they look very nice.
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Fair point - I'm probably making a mountain out of a mole hill here (or no hill). I'm actually a big fan of Market Street, which follows all the same "rules" as the rest of the modulars, so I guess I shouldn't be judging a book by its cover.
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Great Photoshop work, Swiss Brick. I think the cinema might be just slightly shorter in real life, but I think that image really helps reinforce how well this fits in with the rest. This is still the only thing I'm worried about. It looks like there could be a seam down the center of the marquee so that it is two 2x4 printed tiles rather than one big sticker, but those posters (which I initially overlooked) seem far less likely to be printed elements. I think one of the original goals of the modular line was to only use bricks currently in production, but TLG caved on that as gave us all that sand blue in the Pet Shop and a new printed clock and shield for the Town Hall. The fact this is a Factory set still makes me nervous.
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Technically, this is a 1920's style cinema. Grauman's was completed in 1927, which is about the same time as a lot of the iconic Deco theaters, including LA's famous Fox Village Theater from 1931. I still think the Town Hall is the odd one out stylistically. Too thin and too tall to look realistic. This is my favorite one since the Grand Emporium. The dark stripes on the Grand Emporium's top two floors is dark tan. The Fire Brigade also uses a lot on the ground floor street facade.
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Wow! I actually really like the direction they took with this. I've been to Grauman's Chinese Theater in real life, and this is clearly an homage to that rather than something actually found in Asia. In that way it is just as Western in style as everything else in the line, and I for one find it a very welcome change of pace. Plus, this will actually pair very nicely with my Deco theater. I was worried when I heard it was going to be a budget set, but I think getting another Creator modular is the best - maybe another more traditional modular will come out in the fall. The only thing I'm concerned about is the marquee - that better be a printed tile and not a sticker.
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Already some great entries this year - this one is possibly my favorite yet. The main building is very well detailed both inside and out, and the little extras are all nicely done. Good luck!
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I've already posted on flickr, but I want to say more here. I love the fact the main facade is mostly grey - I think too often people add color for the sake of it and make things look too busy as a result. I like that this looks like a building that could easily exist in real life. The level of detailing is spot-on, and the interiors are great as well. Blogged on Brick Town Talk!
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I saw the thumbnail on flickr and immediately knew it was you - I came here hoping to find a topic and was pleased to see one. Honestly, no one does this era of buildings better than you, snaillad. The color choices are spot on - it gives a slight nautical feel very common in Moderne buildings. The way the windows were done is brilliant, and that detail in the center of the second floor has become a bit of a signature style for you - I really want to borrow it someday. As always, blogged on Brick Town Talk!