L@go

Very nice work - it looks just like the real thing! Reading the post before asking questions is never a bad idea ;)

New here? Really? ;)

Thank you for the kind words, guys, it means a lot! I'm glad so many of you notice the interior - when it comes to buildings, I think adding interior details is my strong point. I really enjoy cramming as much as possible in there :) It's also nice to see small things like the AC unit and the downpipe (although that was an addition I made because I needed the connection point for the round window) being mentioned - it's the little things that I like to build, but they're easy to overlook. EDIT: Hey, it's on the front page! That's a first in my time here on Eurobricks. Thanks, Rick ;)

A good idea very well executed, if I may say so! And I like your sense of humour. I think Fred's choice is a wise one.

Hello, fellow Eurobrickers! You may or may not have seen some builds from my Updated Classics project that I've been working on, on and off, for a couple of years now: Modern 6624 1 by L@go, on Flickr Modern 6651 11 by L@go, on Flickr Modern 6653 8 by L@go, on Flickr Modern 6661 1 by L@go, on Flickr Hot Rod Clubhouse 16 on Flickr Modern 6694 15 by L@go, on Flickr As you can see, I've only had a go at one building so far, the Hot Rod clubhouse (which wasn't really much of a building in the first place). But my intention is to eventually develop this project into a layout of sorts, and then I need something more substantial than cars. So I decided to have a go at the classic set #675, the Snack Bar, which I owned as a kid. The white and blue colours of the original set have always appealed to me, and during the Eurobricks Event in Billund I got a chance to relive the feeling of holding the brand new, unopened box in my hands when we were allowed to visit the Vault :) I set myself a few goals with this build: I wanted to make it compatible with a modular street layout; I wanted it to fit in, architecturally, with my gas station; I obviously wanted it to be bigger, more modern and more detailed, while still keeping the iconic details of the original... and I wanted to replace that old-fashioned moulded pine tree with something more realistic, so I gave my friend and fellow Eurobricks member Marco('Ecclesiastes) the challenge of shrinking his fantastic tree design down to fit within a 9x9 footprint. He came through - more about that later :) So this is what I ended up with - built on a 16x32 base, it will go nicely with a modular layout if you add another 16x32 plate behind it, with, say, a few picnic tables and some more of those lovely trees, or something like that. I'm quite happy with how it turned out: Snack Bar 1 by L@go, on Flickr Snack Bar 4 by L@go, on Flickr On to the details - and let's start with that wonderful tree. Marco's pine trees are the best trees I've ever seen anybody build out of LEGO, so he was the obvious person to turn to for this. He applied his fantastic building skills to the task of shrinking the mammoth trees down into something that wouldn't dwarf my snack bar, and then brought a few different trees to the Eurobricks Event in Billund for me to choose from. This one was his own favourite, and who am I to argue? Snack Bar 7 by L@go, on Flickr If I'm not too badly mistaken, Marco will post some detail shots of his own soon - probably over in the Historic Themes section, where he normally resides. Snack Bar 8 by L@go, on Flickr I wanted to have a small round window on this wall to match the rounded edges of the roof and the arched opening on the facade, and it ended up like this. The upside-down arch that makes up the bottom part of the window frame is connected to the rest of the wall using those bars and clips that double as a downspout. I was originally planning on solving the SNOT challenge with some old-fashioned finger hinges, but the ones I had were yellowed, and they would have been much more visible in the wall than a couple of tiles. This design is less obvious and just as sturdy. Snack Bar 9 by L@go, on Flickr During the Updated Classics project, I've had to acquire unused stickers from very old sets, which can be a bit difficult. This is the oldest set I've revisited, and while it doesn't have stickers, it has what could potentially be an even bigger challenge: White, printed bricks. I knew I needed an original 1x8 "SNACK BAR" brick, and I assumed finding one that wasn't yellowed and still looked fresh would be a big problem - but I bought the most expensive one I could find on BrickLink, at a whopping 4€ (...) and quite simply hit the jackpot. It doesn't appear used at all - it's still sparkling white, has absolutely no nicks and the print doesn't have a single scratch. Quite incredible for a 35-year-old brick, if you ask me... Snack Bar 12 by L@go, on Flickr The snack bar's owner has an unwelcome tenant underneath the wooden decking... Snack Bar 16 by L@go, on Flickr Snack Bar 19 by L@go, on Flickr The interior is a bit more detailed than the original set's. There's a small table fixed to the rear wall; a sink with a soap dispenser and a towel; a fridge with... well, food; a microwave oven in the corner; a second fridge for fizzy drinks and fruit juice; an oven and a cash register underneath the counter; and ketchup, mustard and other condiments on the rotating plate on the counter edge. On the counter itself, waiting for hungry customers: An ice cream cone, a hot dog, and, not least: The World's Biggest Hamburger. The price? 100, of course. Everything's 100. Snack Bar 20 by L@go, on Flickr The owner and customer are updated versions of the ones in the original set. As you can see, they've 'aged' gracefully. And the customer comes armed with... 100! Snack Bar 21 by L@go, on Flickr And, finally, a comparison shot to show the 'evolution'. This is the original set from my childhood, that I've dug out from the bin underneath my bed at my parents' place... More pictures, showing the assembly of the sign on the roof and some more interior details, in the Flickr folder. I hope you've enjoyed it - I've got another car in this series to follow soon, I just have to edit the photos. Thanks for watching!

As I said on Flickr: This is incredible. But we're used to that from you :) I love the De Luca sign, the font is wonderful. The whole facade is imposing and still very pretty, but again it's the interior that stands out. The way you've applied different colours and details to the three apartments is clever, they really look as if they've been finished by three different people/families. All in all an amazing build. Do you still have your other similar MOCs intact? A picture of them all together would be nice - if you have room to put them anywhere for a photo, that is. They're quite big :)

The building is very nice, and the attention to detail - especially with the interior - is impressive. It does look a bit strange when placed next to the old-fashioned modulars, but it's the sort of thing you'll find in modern cities, so it's still realistic. Your presentation, though, is absolutely superb. It's not hard to see that you've put quite a bit of work into that. Well done :)

I picked it up in Norway for what I assume is the Norwegian retail price, 499 kroner. That's the same as the UN headquarters, so if that's correct I'd guess $/£ 49,99.

I'll have a go - at most of them, anyway :)

There are two Westfields in London, and they're both in town, although not dead center. One is in Stratford and one in Shepherd's Bush, and they've both got LEGO stores. I've been to both, the Shepherd's Bush one several times, and I have only positive things to say about the staff (and the selection) in the store. Shepherd's Bush is on the Central line, so easy to get to - easier than Stratford. So that's what I'd recommend. Never been to Harrod's, but Hamley's does have a good selection on the top floor, like Xcod199 says. Have a nice trip - it's a great city, possibly my favourite one. I try to visit once or twice every year, although this year it'll probably be three or four... :)

It's just the one. I expected it to have two, but it just says "Trevi Fountain".

It's absolutely gorgeous - I'd most certainly buy one if it ended up as a set.

I own this set, it's sitting on the table before me right now :) If there's anything in particular that you'd like to know about it, let me know and I'll post a picture of the part you're curious about. EDIT: Oh, and the most sought-after part? I'd say the 1x1 trans-clear tile would be pretty high on that list. There's 12 of them - plus a spare :)

Thank you! I wasn't that disappointed about the contest - only being given three points to distribute among all those great entries was always going to mean heaps of points for the entries that really stood out, and not that many for the rest. So no big deal - I ended up with a prize I was more than reasonably happy with anyway :) What I really enjoyed, though, was meeting you and all the other lovely Eurobrickers in Billund. Let me know if you ever take the trip up here (loads of Germans do every year...) and I'll show you the Norwegian fjords!

Thanks for the kind words, both! I mainly used the reference picture while building - it's such a pain to sit down and build right in the middle of town, so I find it easier to do it at home ;) - but yes, I've been there many times. All the reference pictures in the main post, except the Wikipedia panorama shot in the first picture, are my own, taken on a very nice sunny day in the beginning of this month.

Hello all! I live in Bergen on the Norwegian west coast. It's the second largest city in Norway, with about 270,000 inhabitants (yes, really, it's tiny...) and, since I'm not originally from here and not too biased, I think I can say that it's certainly one of the most, if not the most beautiful city we have up here. At least when the sun is shining, which sadly isn't too often - Bergen has a reputation for being the rain capital of Norway... Anyway - the arguably most famous landmark in Bergen is Bryggen (Norwegian for The Wharf), which is - I quote from Wikipedia - "a series of Hanseatic commercial buildings lining the eastern side of the fjord coming into Bergen. Bryggen has since 1979 been on the UNESCO list for World Cultural Heritage sites. (...) Today, Bryggen houses tourist, souvenir, and gift shops, in addition to restaurants, pubs and museums." I first attempted to build a version of Bryggen in MLCad a couple of years ago, but gave up after I discovered that the 40 or so 1x1 dark green plates I had used didn't actually exist in any set. They still don't, and although they probably will in the near future I didn't know that when I heard about the Architecture contest at the Eurobricks Event 2014. So for this new version - which I eventually managed to finish for the contest - I worked my way around the problem. There's still a fair few rare bricks in it, but nothing that I couldn't get hold of. Typically, the 1x1 trans-clear tiles were very rare when I built this - but they're just about to be released in larger quantities in the Trevi Fountain set... I wanted to avoid making the buildings too similar, so I built them one by one, from left to right, using mainly this Wikipedia picture as my reference, trying to pick the most easily recognisable details from each building and translate them into microscale. I started with all the facades, then filled them out to four studs deep, and finished the base last. And then I had the Norwegian Certified LEGO Professional Matija Puzar engrave a tile for me, to make the MOC look as much like an official set as possible. As I don't normally build this small, this whole thing was a challenge, but a fun one, and I'm very happy with it. It didn't do particularly well at the event, but I had fun making it anyway, and I especially enjoyed moving outside my comfort zone for once. I might just do that more often - which I believe, in general, is an absolute necessity to improve as a builder. Hope you like it - thanks for watching! More pictures in the Flickr set. The finished product along with the picture I used for reference. Some of the details: And, finally, a little presentation I made to go along with it:

You've managed to catch Cecilie in a fantastic pose during the jelly rat spitting contest. Well done!

I'd totally forgotten about that old part! Strange how that just disappeared, I'd have thought there would have been more use for it. Still, when they couldn't even find room for such a common animal in regular sets... Takk, det samme, forresten. Fin dag i Bergen :) Very good point! If that happened there'd certainly be a possibility of LEGO actually making a reindeer mould.

Read Faefrost's reply - he explains it much better than I did. And he knows what he's talking about. Regarding the other animals you refer to, let me explain why they are bad examples: The foal is a Friends part. Friends sets sell by the millions - as opposed to the Winter Village sets. Which means they can pay for a new mould. The same goes for the seagull and the chihuahua - they're from the Collectible Minifigures sets, which are also produced and sold in huge numbers compared to for example WV sets. The camel and the ostrich are both from the Prince of Persia sets, which were licensed - the economy works very differently with those, as Faefrost explains above. The big shark fits with every LEGO theme set in or around the sea, which means there's much more use for it than for a reindeer. The odd one out here is the goat, which is a very specialised mould - but that, too, was used in a regular retail castle set, produced in much bigger numbers than the D2C sets. The elephant has a much more limited use than most of the others, and in that way it's comparable to a reindeer. But that one is from the Adventurers theme, which was produced in the years when LEGO spent money very unwisely - it would probably not have been done again. Now, I'm just trying to explain why the reindeer mould will probably never be made. If you want to believe that it could still happen, be my guest. But I'm afraid you'll be disappointed.

The bear is a pretty generic shape which can be changed from, say, grizzly/brown bear into polar bear with different printing/colour. Making a mould that is so generic that it could be both deer, reindeer and stag... it might work, but again: There aren't enough sets to put them in. They would have to design sets specifically to put the animals in - and that's just not how LEGO set design works. With the eagle and dragon moulds it's a totally different story. They belong to licensed themes, and it's important to the rights holders that the animals look right - hence LEGO will invest the money to make the moulds. They don't have a choice - it's the same with specific body armour/head printing/hairpieces, they need to look just right, so the threshold for creating new molds is lower than for themes where minifigs could just as well have a generic, already existing body armour/head printing/hairpiece.

I honestly don't see how anybody could seriously expect a reindeer mould. It's much too expensive to design and make a brand new mold for an animal that has such a limited use in LEGO sets. I'm sorry, but it's just never going to happen - unless LEGO were to release a whole holiday theme with several sets featuring reindeer. And I somehow don't see that ever happening.

Hahaha. Made me laugh! :)

Thanks for posting these, Vincent. There really were so many amazing entries that it was unbelievably hard to choose just three to award points to. But in the end, I think Rolli's entry was a deserved winner :)

Well, if you have a green 4x4 plate in your building instructions it's not the same instructions that I got...

I blame Canada for these missing parts, which have made my "finished" castle full of holes so it looks like it's been under siege for quite a while: 10x Brick 1x4, yellow (who managed to get away with all these?) 2x Brick 1x12, yellow 2x Brick 2x2 Corner, yellow 2x Hinge Plate 1x4 Swivel Top/Base Complete Assembly, green 2x Plate 2x2, green 3x Plate 2x2 Corner, yellow 1x Plate 6x6, light bluish gray. I think I'll most likely find most of these in my parts collection once I get home, so I'm not too concerned. And credit goes to CopMike for a great update on the classic Yellow Castle! However, I must also thank (who? Canada?) for the following extra parts: 1x Animal Horse with Black Eyes, White Pupils, Brown Bridle Pattern, white 1x Brick 1x1 with Stud on 1 Side, yellow 1x Brick 1x1 with Headlight, red 1x Brick 1x3, yellow 16x Brick 1x6, yellow (so this is where half of Calanon's missing bricks ended up...) 1x Plate 2x6, light bluish gray 1x Slope 30 1x2x2/3, yellow 13x Slope 33 3x1 Inverted, yellow (no doubt missing from somebody else's set) 1x Slope 45 2x1 Inverted, black 1x Slope 45 2x2 Inverted, yellow 1x Slope 75 2x1x3, yellow 12x Tile 1x1 with Groove, yellow 1x Tile 1x2 with Groove, yellow...