Modular Building Sets - Rumours and Discussion

[Lego Nostalgia]

On 11/9/2024 at 4:03 PM, Lion King said:

I think I’m going berserk when there is no proper descrption about the next ocular building. Ike- what would it look exaclty? A townhouse-styled bed & breafkst buidling sided with cafe? 

Could be like a Tavern looking B&B, I wish it was a Hospital or Shopping Mall, oh well, I keep coming back here hoping people talk about it but nope

[Lion King]

13 hours ago, Lego Nostalgia said:

Could be like a Tavern looking B&B, I wish it was a Hospital or Shopping Mall, oh well, I keep coming back here hoping people talk about it but nope

Hmmm a travel-styled B&B? Just like English/irishcountryside  inn, eh? I’m not sure what it looks like exactly for a city.

you are not alone! I do wish they would produce a 1.5 (or 2) - baseplate hopsital / shopping center. Given that we hae Natural History Museum sits on shelves, I wonder if we will see another large set in 2027 (that will be 20th annivesary). 

I keep going for a skyscraper. Most of us continues going for post office.

[Lego Nostalgia]

31 minutes ago, Lion King said:

Hmmm a travel-styled B&B? Just like English/irishcountryside  inn, eh? I’m not sure what it looks like exactly for a city.

you are not alone! I do wish they would produce a 1.5 (or 2) - baseplate hopsital / shopping center. Given that we hae Natural History Museum sits on shelves, I wonder if we will see another large set in 2027 (that will be 20th annivesary). 

I keep going for a skyscraper. Most of us continues going for post office.

Avengers Tower and Daily Bugle are amazing for a city, they're very tall, hopefully they might make Oscorp next year (tall black skyscraper)

[Lion King]

On 11/12/2024 at 6:28 AM, Lego Nostalgia said:

Avengers Tower and Daily Bugle are amazing for a city, they're very tall, hopefully they might make Oscorp next year (tall black skyscraper)

They do look great, although Daily Bugle is suffering its own flaws. Daily Bugle has mismatching exterior and interior.  From outside, it looks like it has 10 - 15 floors (?) but on the inside, it only has 4 floors. Personally, I’m okay with modular skyscraper with four floors to match the exterior. 

[Nickbrick27]

On 11/12/2024 at 12:28 PM, Lego Nostalgia said:

Avengers Tower and Daily Bugle are amazing for a city, they're very tall, hopefully they might make Oscorp next year (tall 

On 11/12/2024 at 11:55 AM, Lion King said:

Hmmm a travel-styled B&B? Just like English/irishcountryside  inn, eh? I’m not sure what it looks like exactly for a city.

you are not alone! I do wish they would produce a 1.5 (or 2) - baseplate hopsital / shopping center. Given that we hae Natural History Museum sits on shelves, I wonder if we will see another large set in 2027 (that will be 20th annivesary). 

I keep going for a skyscraper. Most of us continues going for post office.

I honestly don't think a skyscraper would work for a modular building. Modulars are usually way more detailled than City or license themed buildings, so in order to be detailled and tall(multiple stories) it wouöd have to contain like 10k pieces or more.

[Lion King]

1 hour ago, Nickbrick27 said:

 

I mentioend it in other post (see above yours).  I don’t ind 4-story skyscraper.  Just no neeeds for 10k pieces. 

[badbob001]

2 hours ago, Nickbrick27 said:

I honestly don't think a skyscraper would work for a modular building. Modulars are usually way more detailled than City or license themed buildings, so in order to be detailled and tall(multiple stories) it wouöd have to contain like 10k pieces or more.

With the first modular building, Cafe Corner, modular meant the building itself could be expanded. Maybe it's time for LEGO to re-visit the original meaning of "modular" in the brand's name.

LEGO can introduce a sky scraper sub-theme where we initially get several sets that includes the ground floor and some additional floors. Then over time, introduce more floors to be added. So kind of like a sim-tower / apartment / department store management game.

Edited November 15, 2024 by badbob001
edit wording

[higgins91]

10 minutes ago, badbob001 said:

So maybe LEGO can introduce a sky scraper sub-theme where we initially get several sets that includes the ground floor and some additional floors. Then over time, introduce more floors to be added. So kind of like a sim-tower / apartment / department store management game.

I don't think that's possible, that would mean that the base set and the first floors would be on sale for years. Otherwise after 10 years for example, there would only be the last floors produced that would be on sale (the base being retired from sale) so not very seller...

[badbob001]

29 minutes ago, higgins91 said:

I don't think that's possible, that would mean that the base set and the first floors would be on sale for years. Otherwise after 10 years for example, there would only be the last floors produced that would be on sale (the base being retired from sale) so not very seller...

Other themes like Mindstorms and Mario Brothers have "base" sets. It doesn't necessarily need to have the same base floor for 10 years as they can introduce a new base floor every 3-4 years that is still compatible with the old floors. I would imagine people may want multiple sky scrapers instead of a single super-tall one. Maybe even make it cross-theme like a Ninjago floor, Marvel floor, etc. One issue is that the designers may need to have some restraint on the exterior so it looks uniform as a whole since a rainbow looking tower may not be that appealing to adults. But now the designers can put all their focus on the interior.

On rebrickable, I've seen this idea used to incorporate the sitcom sets into the modular line:

https://rebrickable.com/mocs/?q=sitcomplex

Edited November 15, 2024 by badbob001

[higgins91]

yes, but a Mario set costs around 30 euros, a modular 250 to 300!

I don't think it sells much better than the current principle of single buildings that stick together.
Every year, we would need a "traditional" building/house/garage and next to it one or two floors for the building, that would make too many boxes for sale, right?

[Lion King]

30 minutes ago, higgins91 said:

yes, but a Mario set costs around 30 euros, a modular 250 to 300!

I don't think it sells much better than the current principle of single buildings that stick together.
Every year, we would need a "traditional" building/house/garage and next to it one or two floors for the building, that would make too many boxes for sale, right?

Or a $100  - 150 per a floor?

I mean we NEED add-ons…..

[badbob001]

Or how about this idea. The modular set is actually a single 3-in-1 where it has three designs:

• Common roof
  +
• Ground floor
• Upper floor design 1
• Upper floor design 2

So if you want a tall building or all the designs, you need to buy at least three copies and mix/match the designs you like. And in following sets, you can either add on top of the previous ground floor or start a new one with the new set.

Most importantly, it should not be an open-back design.

 

Edited November 15, 2024 by badbob001

[RichardGoring]

5 hours ago, badbob001 said:

Other themes like Mindstorms and Mario Brothers have "base" sets. It doesn't necessarily need to have the same base floor for 10 years as they can introduce a new base floor every 3-4 years that is still compatible with the old floors. I would imagine people may want multiple sky scrapers instead of a single super-tall one. Maybe even make it cross-theme like a Ninjago floor, Marvel floor, etc. One issue is that the designers may need to have some restraint on the exterior so it looks uniform as a whole since a rainbow looking tower may not be that appealing to adults. But now the designers can put all their focus on the interior.

On rebrickable, I've seen this idea used to incorporate the sitcom sets into the modular line:

https://rebrickable.com/mocs/?q=sitcomplex

I built five floors of the SitComplex. I was excited to try it and incorporate some interesting interior sets into a single building. And while it was fun at first, it became tiresome and now I am trying to find the time to dismantle it.

All the exterior builds are pretty similar, so it wasn't that exciting to build maybe half of each level. The interiors were great, but once done, you don't see them much again. It was great and far better than I could manage on my own. I'm pleased that I did five levels, but also pleased that I stopped at that before getting any more.

LEGO has said that people tend to value the exterior more than the interior, and while I really enjoy the interior build, there are some who equally say it's an inefficient use of pieces. While LEGO would undoubtably sell some of a modular skyscraper line, the opportunity cost would probably be pretty high, compared to a unique modular building each year and adding something new that will sell in vulgar numbers to the same AFOL market as they'd target the skyscraper at.

Also, for what it's worth, the current modular buildings still follow the pattern of the middle floor being expandable. So in theory, if you like the style of the building, it can be a skyscraper. There are a number of people who do exactly that. It's then up to LEGO to come up with a modular building style that fits your view of a skyscraper.

[Berthil]

22 minutes ago, RichardGoring said:

And while it was fun at first, it became tiresome and now I am trying to find the time to dismantle it.

One of the reasons why I didn't continue with my Friends/BBT complex which was earlier than most and I still think my Friends ground floor is the most compact and complete one out there, and for free. I bought other sitcom sets with the aim to add floors but also soon lost interest to design those. I just finished rebricking Parisian Street to a very nice corner modular, free instructions will be published soon. That was more rewarding for me than designing another Sitcom floor.

[RichardGoring]

2 hours ago, Berthil said:

One of the reasons why I didn't continue with my Friends/BBT complex which was earlier than most and I still think my Friends ground floor is the most compact and complete one out there, and for free. I bought other sitcom sets with the aim to add floors but also soon lost interest to design those. I just finished rebricking Parisian Street to a very nice corner modular, free instructions will be published soon. That was more rewarding for me than designing another Sitcom floor.

I considered that version. I thought it was one of the nicest available and I liked how it was more in-line with traditional modulars. It would definitely be worse for adding more to it.

Looking forward to seeing the new MOC!

[theremin]

9 hours ago, RichardGoring said:

Also, for what it's worth, the current modular buildings still follow the pattern of the middle floor being expandable. So in theory, if you like the style of the building, it can be a skyscraper. There are a number of people who do exactly that. It's then up to LEGO to come up with a modular building style that fits your view of a skyscraper.

Actually, this is true for all the existing modular buildings except the teal townhouse in the Bookshop. You can't exactly repeat its "middle" floor because of the door in the facade. So Lego partially broke the rule with that one.

Anyway, I agree that a modular skyscraper would be quite boring to build. Honestly, I can't see a better solution than the current one, with a middle floor being expandable in every building if you want it to be taller. But ideally you should have the possibility to buy a sub-set with only the middle floor while the main set is in production.

[Fenghuang0296]

Ultimately, I think the Daily Bugle fits the ‘skycraper’ niche so well that I can’t imagine them doing another set like it until it’s properly retired. It’s not difficult at all to just buy a second Bugle and combine them; the upper three floors are ready for that right out of the box and it wouldn’t take that many extra pieces to modify the ground floor for the same purpose. And you get so much more height out of that for the money you’re paying than you ever would by buying multiple Modulars. (If the Bugle wasn’t already the tallest thing in my city I would do that.)

I could see and would love to see something similar in size and shape to the Bugle but unbranded and with a different design as a future entry in the Modular Buildings line. Could make a very cool 20th Anniversary Modular. 

[Lion King]

It’s really interesting to see so many people’s negative opinion towards modular skyscraperss - “it is quite repetitive and boring to build’, “too expsnive to buy”, “a lot of pieces like 10k”, etc. I’m retry opmisitic that Lego and/or MOCers do have better solutions to make modular skyscrapers more fun. Sure building a skyscraper can be tiring but it will be worthy in the end. 

[Westbrick]

I just very briefly saw a photo on Facebook claiming to be of the new modular, and then when I clicked on it it was no longer available. It looked like a townhouse one baseplate wide, with the middle higher than either side, and steps leading up to a raised ground floor. My impression was of tan, olive green and maybe brown, with white pillars and detailing. 

I can’t find anything on Reddit, but am going to look on Instagram. 

I also feel like it has a balcony in the middle as well, but it’s so hard to remember. I wished I’d looked longer before clicking on it. 

[Westbrick]

I’m drawing a blank trying to find it somewhere. The fact it was removed makes me think it might be real though? Did anyone else see it?!

Overall impression was it was a cross between a small natural history museum and this alt build of the boutique hotel : 

 

[carlo.fadel]

34 minutes ago, Westbrick said:

I just very briefly saw a photo on Facebook claiming to be of the new modular, and then when I clicked on it it was no longer available. It looked like a townhouse one baseplate wide, with the middle higher than either side, and steps leading up to a raised ground floor. My impression was of tan, olive green and maybe brown, with white pillars and detailing. 

I can’t find anything on Reddit, but am going to look on Instagram. 

I also feel like it has a balcony in the middle as well, but it’s so hard to remember. I wished I’d looked longer before clicking on it. 

"Low res image upscaled with AI upscaler" and that's all... I think it's a fake.

[Hippocampe]

But this time it should be a corner building

[Westbrick]

I can’t find it anywhere else. this didn’t look like a corner to me, but I only saw it for about 2 seconds before I clicked on the image and got a  ‘no longer available’ message. Could have been fake I guess, but haven’t come across any fake images of this set yet. Was hoping others saw it too.  

[BrickJonas]

1 minute ago, Westbrick said:

I can’t find it anywhere else. this didn’t look like a corner to me, but I only saw it for about 2 seconds before I clicked on the image and got a  ‘no longer available’ message. Could have been fake I guess, but haven’t come across any fake images of this set yet. Was hoping others saw it too.  

I just saw that same image on Twitter (won't link it, because I wouldn't like to share fake news), I'm sure it's a fan creation, it looks too similar to the latest modular, it uses the same technique for the roof, the same pieces for some facade details and olive green bricks for the middle section. LEGO designers want to make something fresh each year, so I'd expect much more from them. ;) It's a good MOC though!

[arnoldtblumberg]

I 

9 minutes ago, Westbrick said:

I can’t find it anywhere else. this didn’t look like a corner to me, but I only saw it for about 2 seconds before I clicked on the image and got a  ‘no longer available’ message. Could have been fake I guess, but haven’t come across any fake images of this set yet. Was hoping others saw it too.  

I just saw the pic you're talking about on a social media post, but it looks highly suspect, and the main block of text on the box that would be where the set name is looks like a blurry "Medieval," so I think it's been cobbled together from several pics.