Modular Building Sets - Rumours and Discussion

[Maple]

7 minutes ago, RichardGoring said:

While I agree that in a comparison it's crazy, but LEGO has a stock shortage and loads of customers wanting to buy stuff. From a short-term monetary position this strategy gets them the most money for the least cost. Whether that impacts long-term brand perception or customer loyalty, I don't know. It may also stop people getting loads of the GWP meaning others don't get it at all, which is somewhat easy to do if you're going to buy a load of 18+ sets anyway, most of which are over $200. And possibly the threshold was set when they thought it was to release with the Boutique Hotel at $200?

We have no proof it was supposed to be released with the hotel. LEGO barely can keep things in stock anyways to even get to $200. So last year it's 85$ and this year it's $200? That's insane. There is no excuse for that and I'm really sick of people trying to defend LEGO at every turn. This is just silly. 

Also the Hotel is $199.99, you won't get the GWP. I was going to buy the City Crane set or $39.99 when there was a GWP at $40. LEGO wouldn't give costumers that. 

Edited January 24, 2022 by Maple

[Friscorays]

15 minutes ago, Maple said:

.....Also the Hotel is $199.99, you won't get the GWP. I was going to buy the City Crane set or $39.99 when there was a GWP at $40. LEGO wouldn't give costumers that. 

In my experience, Lego has always rounded up on the penny for GWPs. On many occasions my purchase has been one penny short of the stated cutoff, and the GWP has still appeared in my cart and shipped. 

Boutique Hotel is back in stock in US and if that remains the case for a few more days I plan on putting that to the test once again.

Edit: Was back in stock, now out of stock again. Hopefully I'll be able to come up with some qualifying combo of sets that I am interested in and which are actually in stock to qualify.

Edited January 24, 2022 by Friscorays

[RichardGoring]

Yes, I've always had GWP added to the cart if I'm 1c below the threshold.

I wasn't so much trying to defend LEGO as justify it. They're a private company and can do what they want. And we're not entitled to a GWP, but can equally go elsewhere, especially when most sets can, after a while, be had at a discount from other retailers. And there are other manufacturers.

But I agree that the inconsistency is irritating, and that it's not ideal to change things so much, or be unpredictable from a customer satisfaction perspective.

[R0Sch]

Here is my attempt to reverse engineer the Vintage Taxi from the images. I think the bonnet is a new part. Also torso and head of the minifigure are new prints. The head strongly reminds me of the old castle minifigure head with red moustache and sideburns (3626bpx122), so maybe a hint to a Castle themed 90th anniversary set?


The torso has this print but the shirt will be medium blue instead of lbg:

Edited January 24, 2022 by R0Sch
additional image

[TheLegoDr]

While that taxi looks really neat, it doesn't give me taxi vibes. And it also looks easy to rebuild from pieces, so $200 plus this for free, or since nothing is in stock can maybe piece it together for a tiny fraction of the cost.

I may just build it to be a regular car in the city instead of a taxi anyway.

[BrickFit26]

Wow. Really loving the GWP. So late in the month, maybe they're having production delays?

If the BH is out of stock can you get a other modular to get the GWP?

[R0Sch]

Here is the Studio file, this time with the correct parts and colours based on The Brothers Brick review:
40532 Vintage Taxi.io

[temes]

If I use VIP reward discount code, can I still get GWP if the original price is over $200? 

[Kalahari134]

Interesting that the threshold is $200 or £200, even though BH is $199.99 or £174.99. Still, just means that I'll get Haunted House instead.

[Kallego]

1 hour ago, temes said:

If I use VIP reward discount code, can I still get GWP if the original price is over $200? 

Yes

2 hours ago, R0Sch said:

Here is the Studio file, this time with the correct parts and colours based on The Brothers Brick review:
40532 Vintage Taxi.io

Nice, thank you for the effort!

Did you check what a redbrick would cost based on the parts I n your file?

[Jiesdeo]

On 1/24/2022 at 10:40 PM, TheLegoDr said:

While that taxi looks really neat, it doesn't give me taxi vibes. And it also looks easy to rebuild from pieces, so $200 plus this for free, or since nothing is in stock can maybe piece it together for a tiny fraction of the cost.

I may just build it to be a regular car in the city instead of a taxi anyway.

I think it's probably based on a the French Peugot 402 L taxi seen in films like "Gentlemen Prefer Blondes" and "An American in Paris", continuing the French theme of the set.

[alvinofdiaspar]

33 minutes ago, Jiesdeo said:

I think it's probably based on a the French Peugot 402 L taxi seen in films like "Gentlemen Prefer Blondes" and "An American in Paris", continuing the French theme of the set.

Nice, I guess that would be a good fit with Parisian Restaurant then.

[R0Sch]

13 hours ago, Jiesdeo said:

I think it's probably based on a the French Peugot 402 L taxi seen in films like "Gentlemen Prefer Blondes" and "An American in Paris", continuing the French theme of the set.

I don't think so. It's clearly based on a Citroen 15CV in the Barcelona Taxi look because of headlamps + fog lights and the yellow doors and trunk.
The Boutique Hotel has more Spanish than French style. Or did you see many palm trees in France? Also "El Cubo", the name of the art gallery, is Spanish for The Cube and Pablo Picasso is the inventor of cubism.

18 hours ago, Kallego said:

Did you check what a redbrick would cost based on the parts I n your file?

Yes, around 25 EUR from Bricks and Pieces or Bricklink. Here is the XML part list.
40532_vintage_taxi.xml

[Yoggington]

14 hours ago, Jiesdeo said:

I think it's probably based on a the French Peugot 402 L taxi seen in films like "Gentlemen Prefer Blondes" and "An American in Paris", continuing the French theme of the set

There's an interview with the designer here worth a read: https://brickarchitect.com/2021/interview-secret-history-of-10297-lego-boutique-hotel-with-anderson-ward-grubb-ashwin-visser/

While not a replica of any particular building, he mentions general "beautiful Beaux arts buildings throughout Europe" as inspiration, and specifically calls out the Metropolis Building in Madrid, and the Central post Office in Ljubljana (Slovenia).

In my mind at least, I see it as somewhere near the Spanish end of the Mediterranean.

[Jiesdeo]

5 hours ago, R0Sch said:

Or did you see many palm trees in France?

You mean besides all along the French Riviera?

 

[Bainter-ban]

On 1/24/2022 at 12:24 PM, Rotbart said:

Actually it's not. Look closely. Both the jacket and the face are a little different. Maybe they are brothers. Or the Beagle Boys.

That’s true! Nice catch 😁

[MartyMcFly]

If you swap the yellow parts the taxi could make a nice old-timely police car for the station.

[jonwil]

The official LEGO description claims its a "1930s Citroën Traction Avant"

 

[Doge]

On 1/25/2022 at 4:16 PM, R0Sch said:

Here is the Studio file, this time with the correct parts and colours based on The Brothers Brick review:
40532 Vintage Taxi.io

Thanks for sharing!

One remark though, the file is incomplete. It misses six parts, and one is colored wrong:
6380236 LEGO PART 79389 Bracket 1 x 1 - 1 x 2 (Black 6x)
302328  Plate 1X2 (Green instead of black 1x)

Also, the black brackets are currently only available in that quantity on the Lego site, happy hunting! :P

 

[RichardGoring]

I acquired a huge number of plates ages ago and then finally decided to do something with them, creating a load of MILS plates for my modulars. Partly because it might be nice to do a city one day, but also because it will make them much more stable when they get moved around and played with (mostly by my daughter, but I enjoy them with her). And as they all (currently) sit in a line on a shelf, I decided to make them all black, so that it matches the Architecture line style. In putting them together I realized that I needed more black plates, so they are on order, but now the transfer begins.

I didn't want baseplates on the bottom because of the colour, but also because it annoys me that they're not in system. And I want to do this in 16x16 modules to use new road plates in the future (if I do a city). I originally tried to do this with all LEGO plates, but it wasn't quite stable enough to have standard plates on top and bottom, so I found some 32x32 stackable plates on Amazon. Not LEGO, but they have the company name on the studs, hopefully suggesting they are proud of the quality.

Also the outside structure isn't official MILS as I wanted to do the 16x16 modules, and wanted to minimize the number of holes/gaps on the edge, as it will likely be visible - at least in the near future.

Anyway, looking forward to getting them all used up.

[Blazej_Holen]

Still no designers video? 🤔

[Lyichir]

Worked a bit this morning on another mod for the Boutique Hotel! Added a downspout to the exposed corner as suggested by my dad:

 

[BrickFit26]

That's a great idea.

[Shiva]

Wasn't there a "Review: 10297 Boutique Hotel" thread on this forum? But I can not find it.

[RichardGoring]

I've finally transferred a bunch of my modulars over to a MILS-inspired base, but going for closed sides in black as I (currently) don't have any roads (maybe one day). I prefer the look of them on the shelves, but it also makes them much more stable to pick up and move around (my daughter regularly plays with them). I was particularly pleased with tiling the Palace Cinema floor with a red carpet, given that creating a red plate base would be hard/unstable if I wanted black edging on all of it (2x2 angle tiles in red to finish it off are still waiting to be shipped from B&P). Using Captain Jack Sparrow as a movie wax work in the lobby was fun too.

Edited March 21, 2022 by RichardGoring