L@go

V-LV-47A to V-LV-48A, V-LC-15C Hello again! In February, I shared four car MOCs with you here on EB, and your response inspired me to go back to my digital drawing board (MLCad) and fiddle with some new designs. After a while I had a few vehicles I liked and ordered the necessary bricks to build them, and after having stored them on a shelf for a while I finally managed to take some pictures of them a couple of weeks ago. Now I've edited the pics and gradually uploaded them to Flickr (you may have seen one pop up every now and then in the Lego group there), and I thought I'd present them here. Maybe you'll like them, maybe you won't - and maybe you'll have suggestions for improvement, or maybe you'll be inspired to make some designs of your own. I very much enjoy building vehicles. I've been a petrolhead (gearhead to you Americans) all my life, and used to love building cars as a little boy. As with my last batch of cars, I've stuck to the style and scale that TLC has done their latest city vehicles in - ie four-wide, but with the wide wheels, and with hinges for mirrors. I've also used the NXT 'XFxxxxxx' tiles for (rear) numberplates where possible. I'm quite happy with these cars, and they're a colorful bunch. Here we go: 1) The hatchback. This was inspired by a MOC I found online, but I haven't been able to find it again after I built this. Anyway, it's pretty standard. I think the 4x4 tile with studs on edge works well for a bonnet (hood). 2) The convertible. This was also inspired by a MOC by another builder, probably on Brickshelf, but this is also quite standard: I thought it suited the female driver (whom I, like some chauvinist pig, have placed on the bonnet in one of the pictures. I apologize for any hard feelings - it's not meant to offend anyone...) and I felt that the medium blue stripe along the side made it just a bit more attractive. 3) The Longnose. I wanted to experiment with longer overhangs (I've always been fascinated with such cars) and quite like the way it turned out. With its orange colour it looks somewhat like a (very) mild version of The Beast, a crazy 70s creation by a guy named John Dodd. There's a few things I like about this - mainly the orange/black colour scheme, the proportions, the rear window and the spare wheel. 4) The minivan. The main goal with this was to get a car with an unusual colour, and with the limited number of bricks available in medium blue I limited the colour to the luggage compartment in the back. I gave the driver a medium blue torso to match the car, and he looks like a young and dynamic guy :) This car features three doors to the luggage compartment and some step plates for easy access. I like the combination of white and medium blue. 5) Stinger. This may seem like a strange creature to you, but it's inspired by the Grinnall Scorpion III, a long-time favourite of mine that I dream of owning at some point (I tried one a couple of months ago, and it definitely did not put me off the idea). As you can see, it's a single-seated (no surprises there, as most Lego vehicles are), three-wheeled sports car, with the engine in the rear and free-standing, F1-style front wheels. This is actually a project I started in MLCad a couple of years ago, but finally ended up with a design I was reasonably happy with. The rear end works best for me. 6) The roadster. Designed to be a topless version of the Sports Coupé in my first batch of vehicles, it's slightly modified with a huge air intake and a different grille. The thought is that it's been customized slightly, so it felt like a good idea to use some customized bricks from ChromeBricks :) and, as you may have noticed, it's a product of the M division... the driver is such a fan that she's even bought the sweater. 7) The Super Blower. A low-slung, open-top sports car with a big rear spoiler and an oldtimer-style front end. This is slightly related to the Hot Rod from the first batch, but with a less hot rod-like look. This is about as low as you can get with the standard 4x12x3/4 base - although it's probably not very safe to have the driver's head stick up like that... but then again, I'm not sure this scary-looking tough guy is all that concerned with safety. I like the look of this one, it's just about as menacing as I wanted it to be, and I think using the two flared mudguards back-to-back worked quite well. Before I present the last and very different vehicle, let me show you the five founding members of The Hotrodders, the city's custom car club :) 8) The rescue flatbed. I wanted to make a truck with a very cab-forward design, driver placed in front of the front wheels, and it occurred to me that building a road rescue truck could be a nice way to utilize this design. I'm happy with this - it looks good in red, has a nice offset 7-wide flatbed, and it's got some nice working features - drawers, storage compartments, and a winch. The two workers, who seem to have slightly different attitudes towards service, sadly don't fit in the cab together, but well, you can't win them all... The rescue team at work! That's all for now, but there's more to come from me still - I've made a lime green 'shooting brake' to go with my Lime Light MOD, which I haven't had the time to take pictures of yet, and I'm waiting for the bricks to build a few more cars - a couple of which I think will be particularly nice. For more views of both these cars and my previous ones, including MLCad renders of all, have a look at the Vehicles set in my Flickr. Hope you've enjoyed looking at my pictures. Comments are more than welcome! L@go

I agree with this definition. There's a big difference between being addicted to something - which is bad - and being passionate about something - which, in most cases, is not.

Amen to that, brother. I wouldn't say that it's way out of hand for me yet, but I can see what you're saying and I have no doubt I could get there if I'm not careful. I keep thinking that I'm very much into it now, and that it will wear off, but who knows? Like you say, though, this probably goes for any hobby that you just plunge into.

Like I've said before, please offer us more than one picture of your creations. You ask for comments and criticism, but that's very hard to give when faced with a single picture with a small depth of field...

1) This is a service for missing parts. You could probably abuse the service to get roof pieces, but my guess is that somebody will smell the fuse if you try to tell them that you're missing 36 of them... 2) I don't believe that's the particular arch in question. This is. The cheapest used one is $9.69, and the cheapest new one is $18.41. While you only need one for Café Corner, you'd need five for Market Street - which makes it quite expensive...

I've sent Jamie Berard a message about this. I'm also trying to reach a Brickshelf user called Peachtree, but don't know how to do that. The eBay seller also sells instructions for three of his modulars - doubtlessly without permission.

That would be an equally bad thing to do, because the seller has made the instructions himself (no official instructions for these buildings have been made by the builders) - and judging from his feedback on eBay, he's done a pretty good job, except for the fact that the details are just not quite right. Not that anything else was expected, as he's never seen the real buildings, just the pictures. So if the instructions were published here, we'd be violating his right to own his own intellectual property: The instructions. But his biggest mistake, of course, isn't making the instructions. His big mistake is selling them, and then using images that aren't his to market them - when the instructions don't even match the instructions closely. He didn't ask for permission - which makes this a) illegal and b) very rude.

This is slightly off-topic, but what that seller is up to seems very dodgy to me. He's selling instructions to Jamie Berard's Town Hall? I very much doubt that he's got permission to do that. It would be a different story if he'd used pictures of the actual building he sells instructions to, but using pictures of Jamie Berard's Town Hall to sell his own instructions - especially if there are differences between the instructions and the pictures - makes me suspicious. He appears to do the exact same thing with Eurobricks member shutinc's Wax Museum - the images are lifted straight from shutinc's flickr account. I've PM'd him about it. And if he proves to have permission for this, I'll obviously apologize for being suspicious... EDIT: Shutinc just answered me. He's never given any permission to use the images, and the case is probably the same with the Town Hall. So there are some skeletons in this seller's closet. I'll boycott him, and I suggest you do the same.

I see your point, and agree that it is early. And if the rumours had just surfaced on a forum, from "serious sources", I'd think it was a bit fishy. Now that the list stems from this shop I don't, as they've been correct before. And another thing is that there were rumors of a couple of these sets even before the list was out. So I think it's genuine. But I could still be wrong, and you be right :)

These items surfaced as 'not yet in stock' on brickshop.nl, which as far as I remember has been quite a reliable source before. They're removed now, probably at the request of TLC. It did say January 1st, 2012 on all of them, but I agree that this was probably just a placeholder until they knew the actual date.

Very nice. Better than the CX, in my opinion, but then again it's got a much easier shape to replicate :) I have no idea what the next one is, though, if it's a car. Looks like a caravan!

When I browsed those webpages yesterday, I was thinking just that: I wonder how long it takes before somebody at TLG sees this. And the fact that it's being removed so quickly does make it more likely that the list is actually correct. I certainly hope it isn't! I adore the dark green building in 10184, but I definitely think that something completely new would be much more exciting than a redesign...

Never seen anything like that before, but you've really nailed it - these are brilliant replicas. Steering a motor vehicle by shifting your body weight? Sounds like Segway, only 50 years earlier... And compliments on your photo skills. Super crisp.

That's a great modular. I like the idea of creating one that's smaller than the official ones, it's a nice way to 'break up' the modular street, and everything doesn't need to be big - after all, all buildings aren't the same size in a real street, either. And as others have said - although it looks small on the outside, you've managed to cram a very nice interior into it. I love all the details - the menu, the soda dispenser, all the kitchen appliances. Great work. Is that a health inspector on the stairs? :)

Hello - I don't venture over here much, as I'm not all that into Star Wars. But have you guys ever heard of 10225 R2-D2 ? It popped up as I had a look at that webshop after a tip that there might be some new modular building news there. Turns out there's much more than that - that is, if it's not all a hoax. I believe this site has been quite trustworthy before, though...

Haven't brickshop.nl proved to be quite reliable in the past? I'm noting that they have listed a bunch of new exclusives that I haven't heard of before. They follow the set numbers of 10222 Winter Village Post Office: Bonaparte: Removed setnames/numbers on direct request of LEGO. This is very interesting, probably not just for us Town afficionados... EDIT: Regardless of whether this list is for real or not, the release date is most certainly wrong, at least for four of the five sets. The webshop says 01.01.2012 for all five - which is not going to happen...

That's a nice take on the CX - I'm impressed by how you've managed to achieve those complex curves. My parents had a CX for several years, a very nice charcoal grey '87 22TRS, that I once traveled across some speed bumps in while doing about three times the speed limit. The hydraulic suspension made sure I didn't feel the bumps at all. Shockingly good :) The next one looks like an R4...

Interesting. CX? :)

I agree that GE is the best choice for now. And it'll be the first of the two to disappear from the shelves. This question was also just posted here, so you could probably go there to hear what others have to say :)

I've been waiting for this to be moved to the Special Themes section, where there are several other threads about the Architecture sets - as they aren't really Town sets. But that being said, I'm astonished that nobody has mentioned Fallingwater yet. I've got all the sets in the series so far, and I agree that Robie House looks great, but of all the buildings so far Fallingwater is without competition my favourite. If you have a chance to grab it, do it. It's sitting on top of my piano in my livingroom looking fantastic. Yes, the White House and Farnsworth House are nice. But Fallingwater is in another league, as far as I'm concerned!

No. Mine looks exactly like that - like I'm saying, I built it from the instructions... The original building, posted by lgorlando himself, differs slightly from the instructions, as you'll see if you compare the two: Original Version from the instructions

While I like the original, I just can't believe how much better it looks on that baseplate. Great idea, and a very tempting thing to try! And that sailor's cap really suits the fisherman :)

I've built a few buildings from other people's instructions, so I can provide a few answers. Try here: BrickBuildersPro Brick City Depot Yoni Levi's custom building instructions (from eBay) I can vouch for all three, these are good sellers who sell nice instructions to very good buildings. In my opinion, they're worth paying for. Edit: I felt I should include this one as well: Dustin Crops Blocks (from eBay) I haven't tried any instructions from this seller, and none of them are really modulars, but they look quite nice and he does have a clean feedback record.

It's slightly different, but not all that much - as I've built it from lgorlando's own building instructions, available here :) Here's a picture of what you'll end up with if you do build from the instructions: As you can see it's quite similar, but there's one less floor on the left-hand wing of the building and two slightly taller floors instead of the three small ones on the red addition.

I'm sure they're nice! Unfortunately, I haven't got LDD installed on my computer, so I can't see them. How about posting a couple of pictures? :)