Modular Building Sets - Rumours and Discussion

[Aanchir]

On 4/30/2019 at 10:38 AM, cimddwc said:

Maybe. It's sometimes odd, I think, how some new stuff gets used early in just a single set before a wider use in several sets months later: The teal color returned with the Diner before being used mostly in Elves sets; Coral didn't get the same Modular treatment, but was used in the TLM2 party bus (and a CMF) before the upcoming summer Friends sets. But the Garage hat that new turntable base before any other set. Now this new 3-wide window only in the HP bus and no other set as far as I could see in the available images... so yeah, maybe it will be in wider use in early 2020.

Sometimes this is just coincidence when the theme a color or mold is primarily developed for happens to have a later release date than another set taking advantage of that color. For example, I heard in an interview with one of the Creator Expert designers that the Elves team was responsible for pushing for the return of Teal (Bright Bluish Green), and that the Creator Expert team simply took advantage of it for the Diner once they knew it would be available.

Similarly, of the six colors suggested by the LEGO Friends team ahead of that theme's launch (Dark Azur, Medium Azur, Aqua, Medium Lavender, Lavender, and Spring Yellowish Green), the majority of them showed up in other themes like Alien Conquest, SpongeBob SquarePants, Cars, Minifigures, and Duplo prior to showing up in Friends. And Medium Nougat showed up in Toy Story prior to its much wider use in Harry Potter and Prince of Persia later that same year. I think it's just an indication of how a lot of themes tend to be in development at the same time even if they actually get released months or years apart.

[BrickFit26]

On 4/22/2019 at 6:41 PM, Digger of Bricks said:

The Brick Fan - LEGO Creator Summer 2019 Official Set Images

 

 

Love the yellow and blue colors in the exterior.

On 4/5/2019 at 4:30 AM, Digger of Bricks said:

I myself I'm still waiting for something else Art Deco more in the way of BioShock's Rapture rather than Fallout (just as one way of putting it). 

Omg! Yes! 

[Digger of Bricks]

By the way, Brickset and The Brothers Brick are inviting questions to ask Creator Expert's design team over at Billund's Fan Media Days! 

• The Brothers Brick - Ask LEGO Anything: We’re Talking to LEGO, and We Want Your Help! [News]
• Brickset - What would YOU ask a Designer?

[CSW652]

I think they need to add a modular parking garage as a future set.  Most Lego city videos I have seen are really lacking available parking for their businesses.

[Lyichir]

1 hour ago, CSW652 said:

I think they need to add a modular parking garage as a future set.  Most Lego city videos I have seen are really lacking available parking for their businesses.

Eh... parking garages suffer from generally being somewhat uninteresting architecturally as well as not having a lot that goes on in them other than parking. And I think most people would be satisfied with parking vehicles on the curb of the streets, rather than needing a dedicated building for it. So I would be surprised to see Lego opt to choose a parking garage as their modular for the year when a more interesting type of business or residential building would probably be more popular, especially for bringing in first-time modular buyers.

That said, the simple sort of architecture of parking garages also might make them a fairly easy type of building to MOC as a custom modular.

[CSW652]

21 hours ago, Lyichir said:

Eh... parking garages suffer from generally being somewhat uninteresting architecturally as well as not having a lot that goes on in them other than parking. And I think most people would be satisfied with parking vehicles on the curb of the streets, rather than needing a dedicated building for it. So I would be surprised to see Lego opt to choose a parking garage as their modular for the year when a more interesting type of business or residential building would probably be more popular, especially for bringing in first-time modular buyers.

That said, the simple sort of architecture of parking garages also might make them a fairly easy type of building to MOC as a custom modular.

Then they should add parking spaces or a dedicated parking road plate to the existing road plates.  Most people on youtube seem to run the sidewalks out to the traffic lanes.  The other options are to park on studs or tile it eliminating in curb that was there.

Edited June 1, 2019 by CSW652

[TeriXeri]

1 hour ago, CSW652 said:

Then they should add parking spaces or a dedicated parking road plate to the existing road plates.  Most people on youtube seem to run the sidewalks out to the traffic lanes.  The other options are to park on studs or tile it eliminating in curb that was there.

They had a baseplate-sized parking lot on the 2017 City Playmat, but thats not a real baseplate.

Other then that, real Road plates haven't had new ones in 14 years, this year just a swap of packaging to Straight+T and Curve+Crossroad

Edited June 1, 2019 by TeriXeri

[Vindicare]

5 hours ago, CSW652 said:

Then they should add parking spaces or a dedicated parking road plate to the existing road plates.  Most people on youtube seem to run the sidewalks out to the traffic lanes.  The other options are to park on studs or tile it eliminating in curb that was there.

Visiting a nearby town I drove down a way one, one lane road with parking on both sides, with one side being angled spots. It gave me the idea to do that using the straight road plates. But making the angled spots using 1x6 white tiles isn’t exactly possible if you want a flush clean sidewalk akin to the Modulars. Some stickers are an option to consider. 

[corasaur]

On 5/31/2019 at 11:23 AM, CSW652 said:

I think they need to add a modular parking garage as a future set.  Most Lego city videos I have seen are really lacking available parking for their businesses.

More like we need a modular apartment building. My lego street shall remain a dense beautiful pedestrian-centered downtown.

Cars waste too much space in real cities already.* My lego town will be pure. 

 

 

*American urban planning is a sprawling disaster.

[SFmuscle73]

In the new 60234 People Pack - Fun Fair the ice cream scooper looks to have old school attire for ice cream parlors.  Sometimes the torso in these People Packs show up in our modulars the following year.  Could the 2020 modular have an ice cream parlor - it’s easily an establishment missing from the modular line!  Why would they make that torso for just a Fun Fair pack?  Any one interested in an ice cream parlor?

[fordtruckin]

4 hours ago, SFmuscle73 said:

In the new 60234 People Pack - Fun Fair the ice cream scooper looks to have old school attire for ice cream parlors.  Sometimes the torso in these People Packs show up in our modulars the following year.  Could the 2020 modular have an ice cream parlor - it’s easily an establishment missing from the modular line!  Why would they make that torso for just a Fun Fair pack?  Any one interested in an ice cream parlor?

I like your thinking.

[Vindicare]

On 6/3/2019 at 5:39 PM, SFmuscle73 said:

In the new 60234 People Pack - Fun Fair the ice cream scooper looks to have old school attire for ice cream parlors.  Sometimes the torso in these People Packs show up in our modulars the following year.  Could the 2020 modular have an ice cream parlor - it’s easily an establishment missing from the modular line!  Why would they make that torso for just a Fun Fair pack?  Any one interested in an ice cream parlor?

That would be great fun. I would certainly prefer a 50’s era one as that is what I picture. It would be a nice addition to the current era style the Modulars are living in. 

[jonahtron]

Long time reader- long time lurker:

I had exactly the same thought about the ice cream vendor leading to a 1950's Americana soda shop/ice cream parlour. Recently had a chance to play The LEGO Vie 2 game and came across this design for the ice cream parlour from classic bricks burg. Whilst it's very unlikely they will go with something like this, it's interesting to consider previous "official" designs than TLG have made for such buildings.

After a Gragae,  Diner and an Ice cream parlour/ dance hall, drive-in. I'm struggling to think of any more quintessential American style buildings of the current modular era... did anyone else have any thoughts?

https://imgur.com/OtTM6ek

Excuse the link- don't know how to embed an image here.

 

[jonwil]

I could see an ice cream parlor or soda fountain (or something that has both ice-cream and soda stuff as well as shakes and such) being a prefect fit for a modular. Put that on the ground floor with some other business we haven't had before (Comic Book Store? Optometrist? Bookshop? Arcade?) on the upper levels and (assuming they dont use colors I hate like the dark orange they used on the garage) I would buy one.

 

[Boettner Builds]

My top 3 are, museum, school and police station. I’m sure it’s just a matter of time that we get one of these 3. So in the meantime, ANYTHING we get is a pleasant bonus!! :D

[Hippocampe]

I wish for an hospital or a school - absolute necessities

but how about a media center ? Our city deserves the latest news !

the first floor could be a television station with all the cameramen and the crew, decor, show host and his/her desk and couch for guests, loges for artists and makeup, etc

the second floor could be a radio station - that could remind us a little bit of the recording studio above the Diner

at the third floor, there could be a meteorological center with maps, consoles, computers, globes, antennas, etc

one of the floors could be also a newspaper room

Edited July 21, 2019 by Hippocampe

[Strakk]

I can see a school as a possibility. I think it can provide a wide variety of rooms (classes, labs, meeting rooms, canteen, school yard...).

I have my doubts on a museum, since you may need to have large rooms with only the showcased pieces. Yes, you may try to change themes for the different floors, but the visitors would be doing more or less the same things, which would reduce playability. I know it would be mainly for AFOLs, but it seems LEGO always tries to include scenes where people interact.

A police station may be released sooner or later. If they continue with the current American-style, it would be nice to see one with the 80s look.

As much as I would like to see an old post office, I am afraid it will never happen. Hopefully, they can fit a little one in one of the next composite modulars.

@Hippocampe  I would be interested in a media center, but as I previously said, I have the feeling that it might look a bit too "adult" compared to the current style there are using-

A proper train station would be great too. It has been a while we had one also in the regular city line.

 

 

Edited July 21, 2019 by Strakk

[Hippocampe]

On 7/21/2019 at 3:41 PM, Strakk said:

I can see a school as a possibility. I think it can provide a wide variety of rooms (classes, labs, meeting rooms, canteen, school yard...).

I have my doubts on a museum, since you may need to have large rooms with only the showcased pieces. Yes, you may try to change themes for the different floors, but the visitors would be doing more or less the same things, which would reduce playability. I know it would be mainly for AFOLs, but it seems LEGO always tries to include scenes where people interact.

A police station may be released sooner or later. If they continue with the current American-style, it would be nice to see one with the 80s look.

As much as I would like to see an old post office, I am afraid it will never happen. Hopefully, they can fit a little one in one of the next composite modulars.

@Hippocampe  I would be interested in a media center, but as I previously said, I have the feeling that it might look a bit too "adult" compared to the current style there are using-

A proper train station would be great too. It has been a while we had one also in the regular city line.

 

 

The question is : who buys the Modulars ? Who is the main target « user » ? Are they mainly used for display or for playing time ? The answer to that may lead us towards the future building themes...

 

[Strakk]

On 7/23/2019 at 11:52 PM, Hippocampe said:

The question is : who buys the Modulars ? Who is the main target « user » ? Are they mainly used for display or for playing time ? The answer to that may lead us towards the future building themes...

 

My impression is that the main target are families where adults like LEGO too. I can see two types of situations. 1) The set itself may be still or their daughter/son, but they are ok with spending more for a good product and display it. 2) AFOLs.

Do we have a number for the sold units (sets)? That could give a hint.

[BrickFit26]

On 5/31/2019 at 8:23 AM, CSW652 said:

I think they need to add a modular parking garage as a future set.  Most Lego city videos I have seen are really lacking available parking for their businesses.

What the LEGO modular theme is lacking is living space for minifigures. There is hardly any. A modular apartment building or another modular hotel would help.

[Wesley D]

I still believe they are working on a hotel.

- In the designer video of set 10260 Downtown Diner designer Mike Psiaki stated 'surprised' there wasn't a hotel yet. ("We don't have a hotel?!... We need a hotel!")

- There is also said they are working on multiple modular buildings at a time.

- There is the hotel bellhop minifigure in set 60200 Capital City. Normally parts from City sets aren't unique, but untill now it's the only set his torso is used for.

I for sure would like to see a grand hotel in the future!

 

[gotoAndLego]

The only problem I can see with a hotel or apartment building is size and cost; how much space would each apartment in the building take? Another thought is how would you avoid the build being repetitive since you are basically repeating the same interiors in different colors and exteriors; to be frank, Grand Emporium was pretty repetitive but since modulars were fairly new (both in sets and MOCs) I didn't mind. Maybe something the size of GB Firehouse could hold enough rooms and apartments to actually feel like a hotel to apartment building. They would probably need to use the large brick pieces and panels to give us the necessary size without driving up the parts count.

[jus1973]

1 hour ago, gotoAndLego said:

The only problem I can see with a hotel or apartment building is size and cost; how much space would each apartment in the building take? Another thought is how would you avoid the build being repetitive since you are basically repeating the same interiors in different colors and exteriors; to be frank, Grand Emporium was pretty repetitive but since modulars were fairly new (both in sets and MOCs) I didn't mind. Maybe something the size of GB Firehouse could hold enough rooms and apartments to actually feel like a hotel to apartment building. They would probably need to use the large brick pieces and panels to give us the necessary size without driving up the parts count.

I also think cost would be massive.  GBHQ was at least 2x the current modular price, so something that size, which would perhaps house 6-8 apartments, would end up being best part of $400, or £350

[Hive]

On 8/3/2019 at 9:21 AM, Wesley D said:

I still believe they are working on a hotel.

- In the designer video of set 10260 Downtown Diner designer Mike Psiaki stated 'surprised' there wasn't a hotel yet. ("We don't have a hotel?!... We need a hotel!")

- There is also said they are working on multiple modular buildings at a time.

- There is the hotel bellhop minifigure in set 60200 Capital City. Normally parts from City sets aren't unique, but untill now it's the only set his torso is used for.

I for sure would like to see a grand hotel in the future!

 

They already did a hotel, though.

 

[gotoAndLego]

22 hours ago, jus1973 said:

I also think cost would be massive.  GBHQ was at least 2x the current modular price, so something that size, which would perhaps house 6-8 apartments, would end up being best part of $400, or £350

Yeah and half the people on here want big buildings without much in the way of interiors which kind of defeats the purpose on an apartment or hotel.