MOC: Corner Teahouse

[Righteous Squid]

This corner teahouse, owned by a gang, sorry, ‘co-operation’ of Asian ‘entrepreneurs’ is famed for its selection of exotic teas and herbal drinks boasting a range of amazing mental, physical and spiritual beneficent properties; each lovingly made using ingredients culled from all kinds of endangered and in some cases even extinct creatures.

The ‘co-operation’ is careful about their clientele and hires some ‘nice’ gentlemen who will assess your suitability before allowing you to enter or politely asking you to move along.

Once inside you will find the friendliest of service.

The professor, still sore from losing his prototype wig, is looking for something to raise his spirits.

He orders the most potent herbal drinks on the menu.

Upstairs a shady looking customer makes it clear that all those empty seats are taken.

So the Professor finds a quiet corner for himself.

Meanwhile the ‘benevolent’ head of the co-operation arrives.

As the professor drinks his way through as series of elixirs a strange tingling sensation begins to spread over his scalp.

...???

...!!!

Seeing what has happened to the poor professor the benevolent head summons the him to his penthouse.

In spite of the benevolent head’s polite and delicate questionong the professor cannot remember what drinks he has taken or in which order.

Nor can he remember when he is introduced to the ‘delightful’ piranhas.

The professor screams in horror and falls to his knees begging for his life as the benevolent head draws his katana ...

Later, the benevolent head finds a quiet corner to enjoy his latest trophy.

While the professor desperately drinks potion after potion, elixir after elixir as he tries to rediscover the winning formula.

More pics available in my Brickshelf folder

[Carbohydrates]

What a MOC! The outside's all right, but the real prize is the interior here. I'm really enjoying the consistent and obviously well thought-out color scheme in particular, and the bar is terrific, especially with the grating behind it (which looks odd from the outside, but GREAT from the inside). Nice!

[not-in-use-anymore]

I love the story! I don't like the cut out floors, but it does let the light in well. How many of those Exo-Force sets did you use?

Edited June 22, 2010 by indianajones

[lightningtiger]

OMG !

A fantastic MOC with a great story line !

Detail man detail, it's all here, the exterior AWESOME, interior second storey seating area AWESOME and the bar area AWESOME !

Nice use of a little technic parts in this to make it work, handy to some Exo-Force stuff eh ?

Excellent design work 'Righteous Squid' and I'm a conformist! !

[Commodore Hornbricker]

Fantastic MOC. It toally reminds me of Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom! I love the story. The poor Professor really can't cut a break with his hair! Very funny.

[prateek]

Wow. This is great. The exterior is good, but the interior is the real star! I love the balcony seating, and the inclusion of the professor's adventures is great

[WhiteFang]

Simply splendid. You have made great use of the Exo Force parts to build yourself an oriental tea-house. It's really very nice especially your interior which is filled with much funny details. I can't help but to wonder if you understand those characters? The banners outside meant "battle" and "squad", while the 4 characters at the pub meant "No Entry". I wonder if you have chosen this on purpose?

By the way, this is now blogged in,

[dr_spock]

Awesome work. Great story too.

[XimenaPaulina]

WOW, That's a great MOC 'righteous squid', excellent job! The establishment is trully an Oriental Asian architecture. The interior is fully detailed, and the mafia cars are quite good too. And I also like the funny story.

[Peppermint_M]

Love it. I think it is great when someone uses parts from another theme set to make a fantastic MOC themed elsewhere.

[Big Cam]

Haha, fun story, and a really good looking interior. I like the story, it was very entertaining.

[Tom Bricks]

I love the use of those grate things for windows that is simply genius. Great job.

[LuxorV]

Wonderful creation, Righteous Squid!

Lovely design and really nice details, like the bar, the warrior statue in the corner, and the list could go on and on...

It also reminds me a bit of the first 'Temple of Doom' level from the LEGO Indy videogame. Only, yours is much better

[Righteous Squid]

What a MOC! The outside's all right, but the real prize is the interior here. I'm really enjoying the consistent and obviously well thought-out color scheme in particular, and the bar is terrific, especially with the grating behind it (which looks odd from the outside, but GREAT from the inside). Nice!

Thanks Carbohydrates. Personally I wasn’t so sure about how the grating looked on the inside, but I love how it looks from the outside and along with the bar it is the feature around which this set was built. And it is supposed to look a bit odd so I will take that as a compliment.

I love the story! I don't like the cut out floors, but it does let the light in well. How many of those Exo-Force sets did you use?

Thanks indianajones. I know it would look better in CC modular style with full floors and walls. However, the set is designed for play so full floors and walls would make it hard for my kids to play with. I may make the top floor bigger at some stage and add a partial roof should I ever collect enough large white panels. A large part of this MOC comes from two of the golden sentai set but I needed to get the police station as well to get enough white bricks.

A fantastic MOC with a great story line !

Detail man detail, it's all here, the exterior AWESOME, interior second storey seating area AWESOME and the bar area AWESOME !

Nice use of a little technic parts in this to make it work, handy to some Exo-Force stuff eh ?

Thanks lightningtiger. The Exo-Force Golden Sentai set was in fact the initial inspiration for this MOC, the idea grew on me as soon as I saw it and I was able to get two on sale since it wasn’t the most popular set.

Fantastic MOC. It toally reminds me of Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom! I love the story. The poor Professor really can't cut a break with his hair! Very funny.

I haven’t seen Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom for probably nearly twenty years but a vague impression of the opening scene and its atmosphere does influence the design. This concept of this MOC was initially conceived when the Golden Sentai set came out so I was extremely pleased when the Temple of Doom sets where released providing the characters to populate it.

Wow. This is great. The exterior is good, but the interior is the real star! I love the balcony seating, and the inclusion of the professor's adventures is great

Thanks prateek. I think I give more attention to interiors. I throw up the outside with only a vague impression of what I’m aiming for but I will often make changes and add details to the interior over time. This MOC was first built last September, but I still don’t regard the interior as finalised.

Simply splendid. You have made great use of the Exo Force parts to build yourself an oriental tea-house. It's really very nice especially your interior which is filled with much funny details. I can't help but to wonder if you understand those characters? The banners outside meant "battle" and "squad", while the 4 characters at the pub meant "No Entry". I wonder if you have chosen this on purpose?

By the way, this is now blogged in,

Thanks Whitefang. I am honoured to be blogged for the first time.

If you are wondering about my hairloss status in asking about my understanding of the characters then yes I wear my hair short because it has thinned, though not completely gone. I used to have long blond hair not unlike the professors here but the truth is I don’t miss really it. Serves me right though because I used to tease my dad about his bald spot even though it didn’t appear until his late forties.

If you are wondering about my criminal status in asking about my understanding of the characters then no I am a law-abiding citizen. But I would say that wouldn’t I.

As for the translation of the characters, I couldn’t remember exactly what they all meant but I had previously noticed what they were labelled as on the sticker sheet so I knew there was a certain irony in using them for this MOC.

Awesome work. Great story too.

Thanks Dr Spock.

WOW, That's a great MOC 'righteous squid', excellent job! The establishment is trully an Oriental Asian architecture. The interior is fully detailed, and the mafia cars are quite good too. And I also like the funny story.

Thanks KielDaMan.

Love it. I think it is great when someone uses parts from another theme set to make a fantastic MOC themed elsewhere.

Thanks Peppermint M.

I love making use of parts of all kinds and see it as a challenge to use as many of my accumulated parts as I can, especially the unusual or less obviously useful ones. Sadly there are always parts left over that I have to build more things with and I have way too much technic on spite of never buying a technic set.

Haha, fun story, and a really good looking interior. I like the story, it was very entertaining.

Thanks BigCam

I love the use of those grate things for windows that is simply genius. Great job.

Thanks Tom Bricks.

I especially love the gratings myself and as I said there are the feature around which this MOC was conceptualised.

Wonderful creation, Righteous Squid!

Lovely design and really nice details, like the bar, the warrior statue in the corner, and the list could go on and on...

It also reminds me a bit of the first 'Temple of Doom' level from the LEGO Indy videogame. Only, yours is much better

Thanks Luxor V.

[lego-maniac]

very nice !

I especially love inside the shop. Great Job, congratulation

[Belchher]

This is another great MOC from you, righteous, and as another parent whos lego creations have "must be child friendly" foisted on them, I must say I keep a close eye on everything you do as it helps convince me that my original notion for adult facades and themes with big open backs is not only possible, but can be every bit as good as the adult oriented modular trend!

Hopefully soon after the rather large amount of sets I have on lay-by is in my grubby mitts I'll be able to present a MOC close to the standard you keep on setting.

[Righteous Squid]

very nice !

I especially love inside the shop. Great Job, congratulation

Thanks Lego-maniac

This is another great MOC from you, righteous, and as another parent whos lego creations have "must be child friendly" foisted on them, I must say I keep a close eye on everything you do as it helps convince me that my original notion for adult facades and themes with big open backs is not only possible, but can be every bit as good as the adult oriented modular trend!

Hopefully soon after the rather large amount of sets I have on lay-by is in my grubby mitts I'll be able to present a MOC close to the standard you keep on setting.

thanks Belchher

I wouldn't say though that I felt child-friendliness was 'foisted' on me as a big part of the enjoyment I get from making my MOCs is the enjoyment my kids get from them and I never would have gotten into Lego again apart from that. My MOCing actually started in earnest as I tried to downscale the Batwing as it was really too big for my son to play with at the time.

I will also say that my kids don't care that the colours are natural or 'dull' compared to the standard primary colours and actually prefer the fleshies to the classic yellow in minifigures, so I would love it if the normal city sets matured a little. My two year old daughter absolutely loves my Gotham police station (which I will post soon) and over the next couple of years I hope to design wayne manor with modular rooms that can be interchanged, and lots of furniture so that she can use it like a dolls house - I know she would enjoy it as much if not more than anything I have seen in the Belleville range. Anyway, before I rave on too much and start to foam at the mouth the long and the short of it is that playability does not have to sacrifice asthetic sensibilities and a satisfactory compromise is possible.

Look forward to seeing something from you.

[Batbrick]

When I first saw a preview pic of this Teahouse Righteous Squid I thought it was good but could do some work. I can't believe I even thought that now, everything in this teahouse is just excellently thought out. The use of colours in particularly could have been disastrous but thankfully you've done this very well. The hanging signs, little step up to the door and lamppost are just some of the excellent details.

The interior is even better, the bar section and upper tables in particular caught my eye, and the use of space is used incredibly well. The little timer in the bar and various plants an bits used for exotic drinks is a great detail that I love. The red/black floor squares with intersecting white shows excellent planning and is pulled off very well. And the statues are very well thought out, particularly the white owl and spear man. The owner's section with swiveling chair and map, and other section with Mayan idol and piranha tank are also very nice, and don't suffer from trying t cram so much in like my creations.

And the Professor's story had me laughing, a really sadistic moment cut away to reveal he only wanted the hair!

Batbrick Away!

[Morgan]

WOW! That's amazing! Great job!

I LOVE the MOC. The interrior is truely perfected.

[Righteous Squid]

When I first saw a preview pic of this Teahouse Righteous Squid I thought it was good but could do some work. I can't believe I even thought that now, everything in this teahouse is just excellently thought out. The use of colours in particularly could have been disastrous but thankfully you've done this very well. The hanging signs, little step up to the door and lamppost are just some of the excellent details.

Well, it is true it could probably still do with some work. I doubt I will ever truly 'finish' a MOC as I always want to experiment further. I'm not sure if its noticable here but in my Brickshelf folder you will be able to see how I recently changed the roof by adding the roof windows

The little timer in the bar and various plants an bits used for exotic drinks is a great detail that I love. The red/black floor squares with intersecting white shows excellent planning and is pulled off very well. And the statues are very well thought out, particularly the white owl and spear man. The owner's section with swiveling chair and map, and other section with Mayan idol and piranha tank are also very nice, and don't suffer from trying t cram so much in like my creations.

Mostly I just use whatever parts happen to be at hand (hence my design for the structure was guided significantly by the selection of white pieces I had), and sometimes I raid previous MOCs to borrow little details, but here the trans-clear domes and the flowers were one of the details I ordered specially from Pick’a’Brick as they were crucial to my vision for the character of the place. The other details I ordered where the white dishes for the lighting above the bar and the trans-red dishes for the lighting at the tables. I also ordered a slew of cups and glasses and the trans-clear studs for the bottle-tops and wall lighting. Oh, and probably the white circular plates for the tables too. The large white disc on the exterior was also ordered for the interior but didn’t fit so contributed to a completely unplanned exterior detail which I love. I guess that just goes to illustrate how much more attention I put into interiors than I do for exteriors.

And the Professor's story had me laughing, a really sadistic moment cut away to reveal he only wanted the hair!

Batbrick Away!

Oh I do love to torture the professor.

Luckily for him I will probably be leaving him alone for a while as I didn’t have time to arrange stories when photographing my latest MOCs.

Thanks for your comments Batbrick

Righteous.

WOW! That's amazing! Great job!

I LOVE the MOC. The interrior is truely perfected.

Thanks Morgan.

Still some tweaking to do though.