Your Modular Collection 28 Days Later

[WesternOutlaw]

Okay, you've built the Green Grocer or the Fire Brigade or (insert name of favorite modular here). It's been set up for 28 days. What do you do next?

Does it stay intact within your Tabletown for the next decade to collect a thick layer of dust and other fall-out?

Do you relocate it atop the bookshelf for a Brickster's Book-End?

Does it quickly become a piece pile for your own outstanding modular vision in Svelte-like or Hinckley fashion?

Or do you start an EB mystery game centered around the Grand Emporium's ornate chandelier (my good friend WhiteFang comes to mind).

What do you do after the build? Discuss your thoughts here.

[not-in-use-anymore]

I expieriment with mine, but I normally take a few uncommon peices. I also add more furniture and items, mostly from other sets like the bed from MMV.

[Ralph_S]

I answered part out for MOC building. That's my main reason for buying them in the first place. They are great parts packs. I did keep Cafe Corner in one piece for a few months and combined it with my own buildings, but Green Grocer and the Fire Brigade only lasted for about a month and my 2nd copy of Green grocer was parted out straight from the box.

For me personally this hobby is all about building my own stuff.

Cheers,

Ralph

[Ferdik]

I destroyed my CC to testbuild differn't MOCs. I have now rebulit it and saving for some other buildings to build a city. Until then I keep CC in a dustprotected plastic box so it will stay mint even if it's nuclear war.

Sometimes I unpack my CC and other Lego, like last week when I took this photo: http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_UCJfkEWzL6o/S5H-...-h/4833_big.jpg

Edited March 13, 2010 by Ferdik

[Scorpio]

Everything will remain as is in my town except for the Grand Emporium. That will be getting an addition next door once I get the money. Because let's face it, it's good but I don't see it as Grand until it covers a whole city block (picture the old Marshall Fields in Chicago)

[Matn]

I'm slowly taking pieces from my Café Corner. I really shouldn't do it, but it has too many good and useful pieces. I would love to buy a second one just for the pieces, but right now I haven't even bought the Green Grocer! Perhaps I'll better get them all and just leave them alone in my tabletown. That's what I should to.

[Rapseflaps]

I've had my modulars on top of my TV cupboard since I built them in Octobre. Grand Emporium will join them soon, but after that, there's no more space! I'll have to see what I do with the next one. Luckily, I get to enjoy my little street for a while before then. ;)

Edited March 13, 2010 by Rapseflaps

[lightningtiger]

I let my son play with my Green Grocer building and lucky for me over 80% in still in ONE piece !

But my Emerald Night is up high on the shelf - I would not trust him with that pretty thing.

Of course if I end up with FB and GE I'll let him play with them too - I would keep an eye on him though !

I'm a conformist! everyone !

[Svelte]

Woo, name-check! Actually, I love the modulars too much to really break them down to create other buildings - though I have been guilty of stealing dark bley pavement tiles off them, tan tiles off Market Street, or dark red tiles from the Fire Brigade... But I tend to lose track of what I've stolen from where which makes later reassembly a problem, so I try not to do it too much.

I don't have a huge amount of display space, but it seems like I've always had the Cafe Corner built in some form since it came out, and a multi-storey Green Grocer complex sits in pride of place in my bedroom (although it will probably be bumped soon for a Grand Emporium display).

When I do disassemble the modulars, I carefully sort and bag the pieces and store in plastic storage boxes. I tend to sort by colour and part delicacy, so that light colours go together and scratchable pieces like windows or tiles are stored separately from standard bricks.

I've recently been getting rid of a lot of MISB stuff just to make some room, but I do intend to have 1 copy of each of the Modular Series MISB since I've basically surrendered to my natural instinct and emphasise Town as the basis of my collection and MOCin'

[Fugazi]

It was difficult for me to part out Green Grocer as it's such a nice build... but I don't have a lot of pieces so in the end it was torn down after 4 days. Doesn't mean I won't rebuild it one day though.

[Carbohydrates]

They look so good together, I gotta leave 'em! I just don't know what I'm gonna do in 2011.

[Etzel]

Sets ain't nothing but pieces!

(Piece it out for MOC building)

[vexorian]

Well, if I had one of these sets. After period of time I would destroy it. Clean every piece individually and build it again.

Unless I had more than one modular building, then I would replace it with a different modular and have a rotation system.

CarboHydrates: The fact the buildings' base take more space than the table would cause me tons of stress and paranoia, my conclusion is you got some nerves of steel.

Edited March 14, 2010 by vexorian

[no_skill]

I do a combination of several of the above! I recently was granted special dispensation from my benevelent LTS to occupy the top shelf of her china cabinent (a gift from your's truly) with my modulars, as they have been deemed worthy of public display. They have actually proven an eyecatching conversation piece when we have guests over. So, they are kinda book ends, in some respects. The cabinet helps lessen the dust issue though. Every 4-6 weeks they come out for play, which always starts out as tranquil traditional ctiy play...but after a few days degenerates into an all-out post appocolyptic zombie combat zone. (Then my kids leave me to rebuild & everything gets neatly rearranged on the top shelf.). I love LEGO!

[Carbohydrates]

CarboHydrates: The fact the buildings' base take more space than the table would cause me tons of stress and paranoia, my conclusion is you got some nerves of steel.

Eh, they're all pinned together and the overhanging part is just the sidewalk, which doesn't weigh anything. I don't lose sleep over it.

[JimBee]

I'm torn. All of the time with sets, I leave them alone for a month or two, but when I need one, single part... I end up taking the whole thing apart.

Either that or slowly pick off piece after piece that I "need".

As of yet, I don't own I single modular building, but when I get the Fire Briagde and Grand Emporium, I imagine this will be the case.

[WesternOutlaw]

Who voted for using it to host an EB mystery? -that was just a joke.

[Thee Pirate]

GG and MS are still put together, but CC is torn apart for cleaning.. it's actually been torn apart for around a year now. I still need to get the other two buildings.

[WhiteFang]

I am guilty as charged.. I bought all of the modular sets so far, but I haven't even started building any of them, and these boxes are still lying inside the cartons waiting to come out of those boxes, to see sunlight. Unfortunately, I just don't have the space to keep these sets properly intact without those pesky dust mites , invading those bricks. I will open them much later, few years to come, and enjoy the glory for the last, which is why I voted for the first option.

Don't flush me down the toilet bowl, Brickster.

[WesternOutlaw]

Don't flush me down the toilet bowl, Brickster.

Hinck or Seig would give you a swirley for that!

Actually, I can completely understand. I still have a number of sets that I never got around to opening. I never planned to buy any of these modulars, but after a trip to Legoland California, another AFOL said something like, "the modulars are the best City sets that LEGO has ever made". I ended up buying a Cafe Corner, and then the race was on. Unfortunately, I did miss out on Market Street (but then again, it is a bit different than the other LEGO-designed sets).

I have eagerly opened up each of the sets and have added to Train Town 6:

After spending so much time building, if the table ever goes away, I'll set them up atop the old bookshelf. I don't want to take apart because I think they deserve to be displayed.

GG and MS are still put together, but CC is torn apart for cleaning.. it's actually been torn apart for around a year now.

Feather duster. They do work well and I was able to clean even the trains using one.

[Jasper Joppe Geers]

Basically, when i buy one of the modulars, i'll put them together,

tweak them here and there, and add them to the others.

From there, it's the ocassionally duster every now and then, and

simply enjoy it.

Like some others, the space problem is seemingly lurking around

the corner, but i'm pretty confident that the solution will come in

time as well...

[wooootles]

I only have 2 modulars, CC and GG. They won't ever be cannibalized for parts---ever. My CITY sets end up otherwise, but the modulars are just too good out of the box. They will probably be modded a bit; Planning on a CC interior is one of my goals that I havent started yet. Only time I will break them for parts is when I have a second set. (Thus CC staying as it is is out of the question)

[Carbohydrates]

Unfortunately, I did miss out on Market Street (but then again, it is a bit different than the other LEGO-designed sets).

Same here. When I first started buying the modulars, Market Street was still available, it just never really interested me. I recently made a .dat of the building in case I want to order the pieces for it through Brickshelf, but it really is weaker than the official non-factory ones. I'm not too torn up about missing it. On the other hand, I'd have been SERIOUSLY bummed if I missed out on CC or GG, so I think I made the right choice!

[MetroiD]

Keep them and tweak them is what I do. Currently, all the modulars are stored in a separate cupboard since I don't have space for an actual display anyway. I've also kept a few other sets and MOCs intact, but generally everything is sorted and added to the respective box of bricks. As Ralph says, it's all about building - which is also why I'm guilty of stealing the occasional brown tile from the Cafe Corner... Hopefully, the modulars will still be around in a few years when I'll be able to afford to buy multiple copies of each - I definitely want to keep them all assembled, but the parts contained in those sets are simply amazing...

So my current vote would most probably read something like "Store away to keep from dust & direct sunlight and steal random parts".

P.S.: I found one of the vote options mysteriously mystifying... Can you pleeeease resurrect Scruffy *nudge nudge*

[WhiteFang]

And, this discussion is now blogged inside Classic-Town.net.