Modular Building Sets - Rumours and Discussion

[nikhkin]

33 minutes ago, Rick said:

Not that any of this matters, because they can be used in any 20th or 21st century setting.

This is what I like about them. For me, it's set around the mid-1900s. I would prefer that all the releases could be used for that time period. That's why I was so against the 1980s arcade rumour this time last year.

Of course, if you want to use them to represent a more modern time, then it's simple - they're older buildings in the modern age. 

[Sven F]

I am pretty sure that the "old style" the buildings have been following are only because older architectual styles lend themselves more to details which call for innovative building techniques.   Any theme or age you apply to it is just your personal projection.

I know you tend to knock down all your buidlings after a while in America, but most of what's been built in the last 100 years is fully in use today in most of Europe, including ordinary living spaces, not just town halls and museums.

[Dazz]

Well, the clothing of the minifigures doesn't look like 1st half of the 20th century very much. Every female with the exception of the bride is wearing trousers, even at the workplace (bank, department store, town hall).

[CrispyBassist]

the 1932 reference in the Fire Brigade

This, and the "1891" on the TH don't necessarily mean that's the current year, but rather is a reference to the year the building was built. That being said, I agree that the line seems to be designed around the early to mid 20th century. The fairly modern electric guitar in the music shop of AS and particularly what appears to be a microwave oven in the AFOL's apartment pull the time period further forward to the '60s.

[Boettner Builds]

10 hours ago, Sven F said:

I know you tend to knock down all your buidlings after a while in America, but most of what's been built in the last 100 years is fully in use today in most of Europe, including ordinary living spaces, not just town halls and museums.

Not all buildings. My house was built in 1906! :)

[rob-ot5000]

4 hours ago, redtrooper27 said:

Not all buildings. My house was built in 1906! :)

Hmm, surely that must be some sort of oversight

[Faefrost]

23 hours ago, nikhkin said:

This is what I like about them. For me, it's set around the mid-1900s. I would prefer that all the releases could be used for that time period. That's why I was so against the 1980s arcade rumour this time last year.

Of course, if you want to use them to represent a more modern time, then it's simple - they're older buildings in the modern age. 

Well that's just it. By and large they (particularly Jamie) have steered the focus to allow for fairly broad interpretations of the buildings. Yes the majority of the time period specific evidence would probably place them somewhere around 1935, at least from a North American perspective ( The Fire Truck and details in FB, almost everything about the PC except the box offices, the nature feel and story behind the DO, etc). But the evidence of period placement isn't so firm or absolute so as to limit the fans interpretations of the sets. They can be anything from the 1920's to the present. 

And yes much of the "period feel" for the sets likely comes from Jamie. I've long suspected that Jamie has, in addition to his LEGO passions, some history as a skilled and dedicated Model Railroader. It's hard to explain, but once you know it you can't help but see it. Skilled Model Railroader model not simply trains, but a time period. And once you know how they do this you can't unsee it in the Modulars. 

Some of the other designers, such as most notably Astrid, look at them through a different set of filters. She is an Architect by training, is she not, and is more focused on the broader structural nuances and the period architectural styles than she is the period specific cultural details. Neither approach is bad. Although sometimes you get some odd dissonances.

The Palace Cinema has one of the more glaring of these (although to be fair the number of Lego fans who would spot it are minimal). Astrid was trying to recreate a nice Golden Age of Hollywood '30's style Theater. Complete with Shirley Temple homage. And she did a good job with it, except for the box offices. The ticket booths. Either through structural necessity of the build, or because she was working off photos of American theaters, without a lot of reference to how the older buildings evolved over time, she put the ticket booths on the side facing the sidewalk. Which is correct if you look at any of these classic buildings as they have existed for the past 30 years. But it's not how they were built. They would have either had the box office in the center of the entryway, or inside to the right of the doors. You did not stand the customers in the rain in order to pay you. It wasn't until the 1970's and the advent of the Summer Blockbusters, Particularly Jaws and Star Wars,  that the ticket windows were moved outside in order to accommodate larger crowds, and not foul up the doors. 

It's a subtle dissonance, and one that most would never notice. But Hospitals have changed so much, so quickly, that there is nothing subtle about it. There is really no way to portray one broadly over time the way the Town Hall or Parisian Restaurant do. Honestly the only way to keep that broad flexible block of time would be to go for a more intimate setting. A Doctors Office and or Pharmacy. Which remain much more unchanged in basic layout and appearance of delivery over time. 

[Agent 86]

In terms of a hospital fitting into the general "time period" of the Modulars, I think a small hospital in the style of an English "cottage hospital" (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cottage_hospital) would work really well and would fit in with the other Modulars.

Otherwise, a combined pharmacy and doctors office / clinic, would probably fill the need for medical treatment in a Lego City comprised of Modular buildings.

[antp]

Another year-reference is the car of the Palace Cinema: 40s/50s style

[Capparezza]

I wonder: How can a car be counted as an epoch-reference? I can place a 1920s Mercedes in front of a building erected last year. Doesn't make the building older...

So in this set the car can be an oldtimer as well. It even says "classic-style limousine" in Legos store description. If you really need to nail down the epoch, better take a look at the clothing of the included minifgs...

[nikhkin]

18 hours ago, Capparezza said:

I wonder: How can a car be counted as an epoch-reference? I can place a 1920s Mercedes in front of a building erected last year. Doesn't make the building older...

So in this set the car can be an oldtimer as well. It even says "classic-style limousine" in Legos store description. If you really need to nail down the epoch, better take a look at the clothing of the included minifgs...

Perhaps an older car could be used to attend a film premiere, but you won't find a single modern fire brigade using an outdated fire engine like the one in FB.

[antp]

21 hours ago, Capparezza said:

I wonder: How can a car be counted as an epoch-reference? I can place a 1920s Mercedes in front of a building erected last year. Doesn't make the building older...

So in this set the car can be an oldtimer as well. It even says "classic-style limousine" in Legos store description. If you really need to nail down the epoch, better take a look at the clothing of the included minifgs...

It meant that the other way round: the 30s are often mentioned, but the car is too recent for the 30s.

[koalayummies]

Just googled 'old fire truck still in service'. Found a good amount of small town fire departments still in possession of old 1930-1950s fire engines with image dates of 2015-2016. Parked inside and in front of their actual fire departments. That means the building itself is automatically that age. Even found a 1928 Seagrave pumper open top being driven through the streets so it's being used. The time period is officially 2016 

This post is meant to be sarcastic and non-inflamatory. 

Edited November 26, 2016 by koalayummies

[fred67]

On 10/17/2016 at 8:04 AM, Legocity2713 said:

I sort of agree with the car analogy another member had made. 

Lego is ultimately a hobby, like coin collecting, it only becomes expensive if you make it expensive. There are plenty of affordable coins to collect just as there are Lego sets. Lego's products range from $3.99 to $400+ so there are plenty of economy friendly sets in between there it is just our job as a consumer to know where our cutoff is and to buy within our means. If your cuttoff is $30 on sets and prefer to collect figures and order parts mostly online for Mocs like me, thats cool, if you buy the expensive sets to display, thats cool too. So it really isn't jusf for the rich at all. There are options.

I know we all have different opinions on this, and I have mine - like the architecture series, which started off simple and affordable, it grew out of control and now many architecture sets are not affordable to a lot of people who got hooked when they were $20.  I'm not going to whine that it's "unfair" they release super expensive architecture sets, but will opine that they alienate a lot of people who would otherwise like to keep collecting architecture, but now cannot.

The modulars are little different.  At under $200 a set for ten years (gradually increasing by $10 or so here and there), an $80 or $90 jump is tremendous.  It will necessarily mean that a lot of loyal modular followers will have to give up on the series, and not be able to collect them all even if prices come back down next time.  They are alienating a lot of people; they can make huge, expensive sets - like GBHQ, that might nicely work inside a modular city, but aren't really part of the line.

Real wages in the U.S., on average, are stagnant at 1999 levels.  When you're talking about adults, like myself, the level of disposable income I have has gone down, not up.  Despite getting COL increases based on government statistics, my expenses have only increased while my salary, adjusted for inflation, has actually dropped (because "real" inflation is higher - especially when it comes to medical expenses - Bill Clinton was spot on in his analysis, but I don't want to get political).  This is actually fairly common across the U.S. right now.

TLG has every right to price me out of the market if they want; I'm certainly a capitalist at heart, and TLG is a profit oriented company that does it's research, and prices to maximize profits - that's what businesses do.  For everyone like me they may lose sales from, they will gain a lot more.  I have not checked in several years, but last time I did their growth in sales was quite high; their growth in profits was higher (meaning higher profit margins).  That's also what businesses do; if they kept prices lower (even while making great profits), they might not be able to keep up with demand - they actually self regulate their own market by getting people to buy less by charging more.

But this is different; the coin analogy is not really a good analogy.  If you were going to do that, it'd be like collecting the state quarters (and the other new ones) the U.S. government has been releasing... they are all still quarters, and all still worth 25 cents.  If they released a $50 coin, it wouldn't affect your collecting quarters, as it wouldn't be part of that "series."  That's like TLG releasing a $350 GBHQ - it would be cool to have, but you shrug and move on if you can't afford it - it doesn't "ruin" your modular collection to not get it.

 

Like I said - this is capitalism, and if TLG can sell enough "premium" sets, then it's worth their while to sell fewer expensive sets than a lot of smaller sets; it's less work, easier resource management, fewer sales for the same profit.  It just makes sense.  But on a personal level, they are pricing me out of modulars.  If I have to skip one, and can't buy the complete series, I may just stop buying them.  No point in trying to keep up with an incomplete collection, especially if this price point becomes the norm.  They have already priced me out of architecture, and the other themes I was interested in before have been disappointing... classic castle, trains.... there's little for me to follow anymore.  But they lose me and pick up 100 kids into the hobby who actually like Nexo Knights, then that's what they need to do.  It's just disappointing for me on a personal level.

 

[nikhkin]

3 hours ago, koalayummies said:

Just googled 'old fire truck still in service'. Found a good amount of small town fire departments still in possession of old 1930-1950s fire engines with image dates of 2015-2016. Parked inside and in front of their actual fire departments. That means the building itself is automatically that age. Even found a 1928 Seagrave pumper open top being driven through the streets so it's being used. The time period is officially 2016 

This post is meant to be sarcastic and non-inflamatory. 

Huh! Never would have expected that. I hope they have at least updated the water pumps.

Of course, the advantage of Lego being you can build a fire engine from any era.

[Faefrost]

5 hours ago, koalayummies said:

Just googled 'old fire truck still in service'. Found a good amount of small town fire departments still in possession of old 1930-1950s fire engines with image dates of 2015-2016. Parked inside and in front of their actual fire departments. That means the building itself is automatically that age. Even found a 1928 Seagrave pumper open top being driven through the streets so it's being used. The time period is officially 2016 

This post is meant to be sarcastic and non-inflamatory. 

None of those old fire trucks are in active service. They are display and parade pieces only. Typically a departments "first truck". Often kept and maintained as a restoration project by the Firefighters. Anything older than mid 60's can't actually pass modern pump certification in the US or Canada. They are not what can be considered "Class A" pumpers. While you may still see a handful in deep rural areas, often just being used as water tankers, their only function in an urban or town department would be parades, weddings and funerals. Insurance rules mandate that the department be operating Modern Class A pumpers. If they are running old school apparatus then the local homeowners and businesses insurance rates skyrocket. 

[antp]

2 hours ago, nikhkin said:

Of course, the advantage of Lego being you can build a fire engine from any era.

I did that, since I didn't like the old one :D

(and later replaced it by 60003)

[koalayummies]

Real wages in the U.S., on average, are stagnant at 1999 levels.  When you're talking about adults, like myself, the level of disposable income I have has gone down, not up.  Despite getting COL increases based on government statistics, my expenses have only increased while my salary, adjusted for inflation, has actually dropped (because "real" inflation is higher - especially when it comes to medical expenses - Bill Clinton was spot on in his analysis, but I don't want to get political).  This is actually fairly common across the U.S. right now.

Well said Fred. The whole post is great. 

Edited November 27, 2016 by koalayummies

[Faefrost]

22 hours ago, antp said:

I did that, since I didn't like the old one :D

(and later replaced it by 60003)

I must confess as a former Firefighter 60003 always makes me cringe a little. 60002 is a near perfect representation of a modern era Fire Truck. it has the shape right and includes all the basic functions and storage. 60003 is really a Utility Company Truck painted red. It just feels wrong to me (and yes your mileage may vary. Most don't look at these things via "What is i's roll in Fire Ground Operations?"). But I always finds the odd ones amusing. The Fire Truck led and became the symbol of Lego's turnaround in the early 2000's when they were facing bankruptcy. The new executive team rejected the highly stylized SciFi'ish Jack Stone Fire Truck in favor of the then new 7239. Which remains one of the most perfect Lego Fire Trucks ever made. Since then, 9 times out of 10 they will generally make Lego Fire Trucks that are good representations of real things. That make sense. That would pass the smell test not simply for kids and consumers, but actual Fire Fighters. Which makes the few that they get wrong so very very bizarre. For example of the current sets 60112 is stunning in how much it gets right. Whereas 60111 is just mind boggling. (Yeah lets put the hydraulic bucket/boom on a towable trailer... and tow it behind the rescue truck...yeah somebody missed a meeting about how this stuff works. (and yes I know I am being overly picky and a crotchety old know it all bastard. But it's like looking at a plane with the wings on backwards.) 

[antp]

I don't remember if 60002 fitted in the Fire Brigade though.

I recently got that truck with a mix of various set in a secondhand buy, I should build it to check.

[The Jersey Brick Guy]

4 hours ago, antp said:

I don't remember if 60002 fitted in the Fire Brigade though.

I recently got that truck with a mix of various set in a secondhand buy, I should build it to check.

It did/does fit in the Fire Brigade.

[Gorki247]

8 hours ago, The Jersey Brick Guy said:

It did/does fit in the Fire Brigade.

Not without some minor modification. It is just a tiny bit too high to get in through the door.

[The Jersey Brick Guy]

3 hours ago, Gorki247 said:

Not without some minor modification. It is just a tiny bit too high to get in through the door.

What did you have to do to yours? Mine was able to go in/out with no problems at all.

*Now I am going to go rebuild it to make sure I am not lying. :-)

[Gorki247]

I didn't make any changes yet, so mine doesn't fit right now. I tried it again just now to be sure.

The ladder gets caught on the red bit at the top of the door. Removing one set of plates from that part of the entrance will let it fit, but only just and you end up with a small gap at the top. I might look if I can lower the height of the fire engine with one or two plates instead.

Edited November 28, 2016 by Gorki247

[Vindicare]

 

 

Edited January 3, 2017 by Vindicare