Hat Shop - Modular building built with vintage parts

[Roger_Smith]

Hi there,

this is a MOC modular building with a different approach.

But first, a little background:

After I came out of my Dark Ages roughly a year ago, I mainly started doing two things - building classic space sets, and getting into the official modular buildings (I now have four and counting). I once built a MOD of the Ice Planet Deep Freeze Defender, but up until now, I never built a real, aspiring MOC.

I'm lucky to still have all my old Lego from when I was a kid, a lot of which was handed down from our old neighbour, so I ended up with a nice collection of vintage parts and sets, all of them somewhere between 20 and 40 years old. I also bought a couple of bulk lots from Ebay with more stuff from the 80ies/early 90ies, with the goal to get more classic space stuff.

Building the official modulars and also seeing the amazing MOCs posted here, I naturally got itchy and wanted to create my own modular MOC. The only downside was, apart from the pieces from the 4 modulars I own, I don't have any modern bricks. And building something in LDD and then buying the necessary bricks sounded nice, but I had to find out that I do not have the patience to design anything worthwhile in LDD.

So I decided to try to build a modular MOC using just the old vintage pieces I already have in abundance.

Here are the two most challenging problems I faced building this:

Colors: The 80ies and early 90ies were the time of black, white, yellow, blue, red and grey, with green and brown just starting to make appearances (I have very, very few pieces in those two colors). So I had to find a color scheme with those colors that would work. I decided on white and black, with some red detailing.

SNOT: I definately wanted to do some SNOT building in my modular. However this is not too easy as a lot of the useful pieces that we have nowadays were simply not available back then. The only really useful SNOT pieces were the classic headlight brick, the old bracket (http://www.bricklink...Item.asp?P=3956) and the hinge brick (http://www.bricklink...m.asp?P=3937c01).

Against my original intent I ended up doing one bricklink order after all, but it was mainly for the dark grey and light grey tiles used on the pavement and on top of each module.

But, enough babble, here's the Hat Shop - my first MOC since coming out of my Dark Ages

I took some inspiration from the Pet Shop, mainly in how the shop sign is built (though mine is built slightly differently) and the general floor plan inside.

Ground floor detail.

First floor (european counting ) detail. The classic windows on the left and right are built in sideways using several headlight bricks. As a sideeffect, the middle window got drapes. The whole construction is very sturdy and stable .

Top floor detail.

Keeping with the tradition of some of the official modulars, the back is rather plain. I used old doors from the H0 scale days as windows, which works rather well, I think.

Inside the Hat Shop.

As I already mentioned, this building uses old bricks, a lot of them from my childhood. While I sorted out any really damaged bricks (teeth marks, sticker residue and the like), I got pretty much every level of yellowing on the white bricks. I tried to use the yellowed one on the side of the building, where they won't be visible when its on display with the other modulars, and the white ones for the front & back facades.

In this picture you can see that the store sign is built similar to, but not exactly like the one in the Pet Shop.

Moving up to the second floor. It hold a spacious kitchen with a small kitchen table.

The blue and grey color scheme of the kitchen gives it a nice, Spacey feel...kinda Classic, really...

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.

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Uh-oh...

Moving up to the upper floor. It holds a combined living and bedroom with a TV, sofa and sofa table, bed, chest, some slightly odd pictures on the wall and a parrot.

Another detail shot of the roof. The greebling atop the windows was the last thing I built last night, I had a simpler design of the facade at first, but it didn't look right.

Here's some shots with the official modulars. I think my Hat Shop fits in surprisingly well .

The difference between the old and new greys.

I hope you enjoyed my MOC, and look forward to reading your comments

Cheers,

Roger

Edited February 15, 2014 by Roger_Smith

[snaillad]

Considering how much less choice there was in the 80's in colours and pieces I think you've done a great job here! The colours work well and it fits in nicely with the rest of the street. I haven't yet integrated my 80's pieces into my recent ones as my bricks are all scratched and so on. I still have some of those classic doors like the one on the front, great choice. Don't think I've ever seen that tap piece in the kitchen before. What set was that from?

Also I love the spacemen! Wish mine were in such great condition!

[eurotrash]

^^ I agree. Despite the restrictive color palate this is a lovely looking MOC with a great interior.

Thanks for sharing it with us!

[Roger_Smith]

Thank you

The tap piece most likely came from #920 Alpha Rocket Base from 1979: http://www.bricklink.com/catalogItemInv.asp?S=920-2

I have four of those. It's a nice little piece, it's only downside is that the end of the tap sticks out more than one brick's width, thus it requires a basin at least two bricks wide in front. That's why I puit it to the side of the sink here.

[Legogal]

Wow! A fantastic use of old bricks! Many of us have been wondering what to do with our old bricks, and you have met that challenge quite well!

The spacemen must be looking at the rental apartment for an old folks home if they were orbiting in the 80's! Yours are in much better condition than ours.

The photos of your Hat Shop on Modular Street look great as well. It all fits together nicely! Congrats on a fine build!

[brickcitydepot]

Nice use of the old pieces. The picture where it shows it with other modulars looks great. It has a german feel to it.

[slovakiasteph]

I really like this and the fact that you've stuck to the older bricks. My favorite part is the windows/decoration of the 3rd (2nd) floor, but really, the details look good overall. I hadn't thought about using those shutters as cupboard doors in the kitchen! I think I could do that with other windows as well for an open look.

Definitely a fan of 80s windows, and the red looks good here. I have a few of those...might have to play around with them. :)

[Orange Leader]

I really like this, I'm nostalgic all over for your choice of elements! The facade looks well done and I find the invasion of classic spacemen to be funny.

[lightningtiger]

Excellent modular and very clever use of tons of classic parts especially the old school windows.

Brick On 'Roger_Smith' !

[whydoris]

Brilliant work with the old bricks. I find I have the same problem with my aged white and grey bricks. For sure this moc is a good reference for how to use those bricks

[Roger_Smith]

Thanks, all of you

@slovakiasteph: I really like the look of those shutter pieces aswell, I have a whole bunch of them in blue. Unfortunately, there are no proper frames for them (as far as I know, at least), so you have to use the 1x1x2 hinge bricks to attach them. So having several of them next to each other unfortunately leads to unslightly gaps in between the individual cupboards. But as a stand-alone cupboard I think they work quite well.

@brickcitydepot: Thanks. I was going for a german/european architectural style, as that's where I am from

@whydoris: Yeah, the yellowing can really be a problem. I have a couple of white bricks (not used in this build) whose color is wayyy closer to tan than to white.

Edited February 15, 2014 by Roger_Smith

[Bipin]

What a nice use of vintage elements; proving they are just as relevant today as ever. I especially like how you had used old dark grey in place of its successor, for the sidewalk.

[Only Sinner]

Good for you, breathing new life into those vintage bricks. The whole building looks good and it's nice and tall, too. With the limited part designs and color palette, the whole thing turned out looking great. I heard those 80's spacemen get crazy when they get together like that, so watch out.

[greg3]

Very nice! I like the way you've restricted yourself to using vintage bricks and yet the end result fits in perfectly with the modern building style... Excellent work!

[cei]

Love your use of the tiles (1x2) decorated with the tapes for the hob, looks really good. Impressed you could get such a good look out of all the old pieces, just a shame how Lego fades/yellows with time :(

[SalvoBrick]

This is the right way to re-use old bricks! Brilliant work!

[Paul B Technic]

Wow, excellent work with this, thanks for sharing it.

[Roger_Smith]

Thank you all

@cei: About the tape-tiles: It does look good. Saw that on a MOC posted here and took the inspiration from there..

[LAKAbricks]

@slovakiasteph: I really like the look of those shutter pieces aswell, I have a whole bunch of them in blue. Unfortunately, there are no proper frames for them (as far as I know, at least), so you have to use the 1x1x2 hinge bricks to attach them.

I don't remember I have ever seen a frame fro the small shutters. I also just remember the hinges. But a good use of the shutters.

All in all, you have done a good job on this house, Roger_Smith. It's nice to see old bricks can still be used. And in such a nice way

[CptPJs]

Having some really lovely memories of ny childhood Lego now :) amazing work with a limited collection of bricks.