Modular Building Sets - Rumours and Discussion

[hikouki]

I was looking at a video of the CMF 24 roster on Youtube and perhaps some of those minifigs from the past years could be used as references for future modulars?

Potter - potter's studio

Rocking girl - school or daycare

Carrot boy - organic grocer (already in City)

Koala keeper - Zoo?

There was an admiral from CMF 23 - perhaps a seaport or city dock? Too big, perhaps.

It would be great to have some colonial or Asian-inspired architecture style.

I think the other CMFs can reference other lines like Castle, Space, Football stadiums, etc.

I ditto the pharmacy or optometrist suggested earlier. I work in healthcare by the way, and the current Lego City hospital is anything but realistic with glass walls! Whatever happened to patient privacy?!?! LOL

[jonahtron]

2 hours ago, hikouki said:

I was looking at a video of the CMF 24 roster on Youtube and perhaps some of those minifigs from the past years could be used as references for future modulars?

Potter - potter's studio

Rocking girl - school or daycare

Carrot boy - organic grocer (already in City)

Koala keeper - Zoo?

There was an admiral from CMF 23 - perhaps a seaport or city dock? Too big, perhaps.

It would be great to have some colonial or Asian-inspired architecture style.

I think the other CMFs can reference other lines like Castle, Space, Football stadiums, etc.

I ditto the pharmacy or optometrist suggested earlier. I work in healthcare by the way, and the current Lego City hospital is anything but realistic with glass walls! Whatever happened to patient privacy?!?! LOL

Potters/art studio is a brilliant idea- stick in a kiln play feature/ light brick and I’m sold! (We’d find out where  all of the crockery comes from in Lego town😂)

Stick it on the wish list with post office, optometrist and ironmonger/drug store.

Im doubtful we’d see a full blown hospital, but I can’t think of a reason why we can’t have a medical practice/doctors surgery on a 32 plate.

Ice cream shop feels like a no-brainer also.

[Hippocampe]

There was some abandoned part/apartment in the first Ninjago set, with vegetation growing all over from the inside

[Silverhurst]

58 minutes ago, Hippocampe said:

There was some abandoned part/apartment in the first Ninjago set, with vegetation growing all over from the inside

True. And speaking of Ninjago, the Ningago City sets seem to be how Lego has decided to create asian inspired modulars, so I doubt we'll see any asian buildings in the modular line beyond maybe an asian restaurant or similar shop placed within a eurocentric facade. A San Francisco inspired Chinatown modular beyond what Palace Cinema evoked would be nice but I won't hold my breath. There are too many architectural styles that haven't even been touched yet, hopefully we'll see them in upcoming modulars instead of retreads of years past. And unfortunately the Jazz Club feels too much like a retread to me.

Edited December 18, 2022 by Silverhurst

[jonahtron]

2 hours ago, Hippocampe said:

There was some abandoned part/apartment in the first Ninjago set, with vegetation growing all over from the inside

Do you know the set number?

this sounds interesting and I don’t think I remember this…

[Hippocampe]

19 minutes ago, jonahtron said:

Do you know the set number?

this sounds interesting and I don’t think I remember this…

It was 70620 - it’s in the upper level, where there is a pink cherry tree growing all over the window

[jonahtron]

2 hours ago, Hippocampe said:

It was 70620 - it’s in the upper level, where there is a pink cherry tree growing all over the window

Ah yes, thanks! the comics book shop in that set is a fun looking build.

[hikouki]

5 hours ago, Silverhurst said:

True. And speaking of Ninjago, the Ningago City sets seem to be how Lego has decided to create asian inspired modulars, so I doubt we'll see any asian buildings in the modular line beyond maybe an asian restaurant or similar shop placed within a eurocentric facade. A San Francisco inspired Chinatown modular beyond what Palace Cinema evoked would be nice but I won't hold my breath. There are too many architectural styles that haven't even been touched yet, hopefully we'll see them in upcoming modulars instead of retreads of years past. And unfortunately the Jazz Club feels too much like a retread to me.

Ninjago is too much of a fantasy theme for it to be placed alongside the other modulars.

OTOH, perhaps Lego could consider a modular building for a CNY set!

[RichardGoring]

As they will continue to do multiple buildings per set, is kind to see a watchmaker as a little nook in a future set.

[Lyichir]

3 hours ago, RichardGoring said:

As they will continue to do multiple buildings per set, is kind to see a watchmaker as a little nook in a future set.

A clockmaker would make an awesome little modular business... but not sure about a watchmaker since it might be hard to represent such intricate craftsmanship at minifig scale!

[RichardGoring]

3 hours ago, Lyichir said:

A clockmaker would make an awesome little modular business... but not sure about a watchmaker since it might be hard to represent such intricate craftsmanship at minifig scale!

True. I did think the scale would be hard, but a watchmaker would fit nicely in the tiniest space, but I might want a bit more room for a clockmaker.

Either way, something with a small, precision mechanical workshop would fit well.

[Silverhurst]

8 hours ago, hikouki said:

Ninjago is too much of a fantasy theme for it to be placed alongside the other modulars.

OTOH, perhaps Lego could consider a modular building for a CNY set!

I don't know, seems like almost every Lego city I look at online has a Ninjago section. I agree about cny modulars, and that might be hope since the Spring Lantern Festival park set was modular.

[MartyMcFly]

5 hours ago, Lyichir said:

A clockmaker would make an awesome little modular business... but not sure about a watchmaker since it might be hard to represent such intricate craftsmanship at minifig scale!

A lot of things in the minifig world are massively oversized in scale.  A watchmaker with oversized precision instruments would fit in well.

[jonahtron]

5 minutes ago, MartyMcFly said:

A lot of things in the minifig world are massively oversized in scale.  A watchmaker with oversized precision instruments would fit in well.

A clockmaker/ watchmaker could easily be the same build, perhaps as part of an Italianate town square set inside a clock tower, lots of pearl gold recolours of technic gears lining the walls etc. 

for those of us that do enjoy the Streamline modern 1930s Diner, I just remembered that the BTS set is due out soon. I had a look at the original music video and the stores are actually cgi and quite blocky. Plus I'm not sure why we need another giant donut on the roof of a building, we've got that from City. It could either suck and be on sale within 5 minutes like the Queer Eye set or be an amazing way to add some more 1930s buildings to the city. There's a record store in this set for all the Video tiles at least!

I know this is just an easy cash cow for LEGO as the ideas set hit 10k within 8 hours, so they are pretty confident- but I hope they put some effort into it!

[PK82]

13 hours ago, hikouki said:

Ninjago is too much of a fantasy theme for it to be placed alongside the other modulars. 

You could add a wall with a portal from Sanctum Sanctorum between the modulars and Ninjago.

[ddavid]

In one of the recent interviews with the designer, he said that although they keep a list of fan wishes in mind (like the police station), they like to surprise us and don’t want to be too predictable. 

Jamie in a different interview said that this is a downtown street so commercial will be a priority and sth like a hospital would be less likely 

The Fassade should also give clue to what’s inside and not a generic building with any storefront 

[jonahtron]

3 hours ago, ddavid said:

In one of the recent interviews with the designer, he said that although they keep a list of fan wishes in mind (like the police station), they like to surprise us and don’t want to be too predictable. 

Jamie in a different interview said that this is a downtown street so commercial will be a priority and sth like a hospital would be less likely 

The Fassade should also give clue to what’s inside and not a generic building with any storefront 

Makes sense. 

Although, not to keep basing it- If there were no pizza chef on the outside of the Jazz clubs yellow neighbour I'd have no idea what business it was. Pizza places don't tend to look like this in Chicago and they are generally simple buildings in New York.  TBH the Spider-man 76108 pizza is closest representation what these places look like. 

I'm trying to come up with an alternative use for the yellow store as it doesn't read "pizza' to me at all. Could look a little like a Trattoria in Rome, but looks closer to Spanish colonial buildings you find over Central America...

Edited December 19, 2022 by jonahtron

[Lyichir]

39 minutes ago, jonahtron said:

Makes sense. 

Although, not to keep basing it- If there were no pizza chef on the outside of the Jazz clubs yellow neighbour I'd have no idea what business it was. Pizza places don't tend to look like this in Chicago and they are generally simple buildings in New York.  TBH the Spider-man 76108 pizza is closest representation what these places look like. 

I'm trying to come up with an alternative use for the yellow store as it doesn't read "pizza' to me at all. Could look a little like a Trattoria in Rome, but looks closer to Spanish colonial buildings you find over Central America...

Really? To me the striped awnings in the colors of the Italian flag are pretty obvious signifiers that there's a pizzeria or Italian restaurant inside.

[jonahtron]

21 minutes ago, Lyichir said:

Really? To me the striped awnings in the colors of the Italian flag are pretty obvious signifiers that there's a pizzeria or Italian restaurant inside.

Oh for sure, I should have said architecturally. Remove the 10 plates of Red Green White awning and the umbrella, the pizza chef- then what kind of business is this?

It'd be very hard to find a pizza place like this anywhere in Manhattan, or Little Italy Chicago- it looks closer to a Spanish or Portuguese colonial revival building. 

 

[Silverhurst]

19 minutes ago, jonahtron said:

Oh for sure, I should have said architecturally. Remove the 10 plates of Red Green White awning and the umbrella, the pizza chef- then what kind of business is this?

It'd be very hard to find a pizza place like this anywhere in Manhattan, or Little Italy Chicago- it looks closer to a Spanish or Portuguese colonial revival building. 

 

By that logic you could say the exact same thing about other modulars. Remove the sign and trolley from the Bookshop, the tile from the front of the Police Station, or the window from the Detective's Office,  and those buildings could be anything  from an outside viewing perspective. Just the nature of the beast that some buildings will automatically read well and others won't. 

[jonahtron]

1 hour ago, Silverhurst said:

By that logic you could say the exact same thing about other modulars. Remove the sign and trolley from the Bookshop, the tile from the front of the Police Station, or the window from the Detective's Office,  and those buildings could be anything  from an outside viewing perspective. Just the nature of the beast that some buildings will automatically read well and others won't. 

I wouldn’t agree with everything here, and what I’m getting at is that you just don’t really see pizza places inside colonial stucco style buildings in Europe or New York, whereas you DO tend to see police stations in grand beaux-arts style civic buildings, it could just as easily be a Library by that same point and one would expect to see something like an antiques store or bookshop or tabaconist in the Victorian era bookshop building. Similarly, very few business could go well in the 1930/40s streamline moderne diner other than maybe a jive club/similar period accurate activity.

I would argue that previous modular buildings DO tend to suit the use of the building to the original architectural style. The town hall for example, even if it were converted into a wine bar 100 years later, you would instinctively know it used to be a town hall as it has that colonial revival style.

 

Edited December 19, 2022 by jonahtron

[FrkW]

To me, that's the best thing about the restaurant. No, it doesn't look like an american pizza place, which is usually much more modern. But it does look like the little family owned proper italian pizza/pasta places that are common in large parts of Europe. Maybe people just think of very different things when they think about pizzerias?

Nothing necessarily says the Jazz club have to be american, and even if it is Lego has shown before that they aren't affraid to mix and match. The book shop was very obviously inspired by dutch canal houses, and the residential building equally obviously inspired by San Francisco. 

[Lyichir]

48 minutes ago, FrkW said:

To me, that's the best thing about the restaurant. No, it doesn't look like an american pizza place, which is usually much more modern. But it does look like the little family owned proper italian pizza/pasta places that are common in large parts of Europe. Maybe people just think of very different things when they think about pizzerias?

Nothing necessarily says the Jazz club have to be american, and even if it is Lego has shown before that they aren't affraid to mix and match. The book shop was very obviously inspired by dutch canal houses, and the residential building equally obviously inspired by San Francisco. 

To be honest I don't think the aesthetic of the pizza place is that foreign/unfamiliar to American audiences either. The hanging plants, trellis, and pale colors all feel very much like you might see at an Italian restaurant here (even kitschy chain restaurants like Olive Garden). There's several pizza places in my hometown that, even when built into strip malls, affect that sort of vaguely Mediterranean look for their interior decor.

[hikouki]

19 hours ago, PK82 said:

You could add a wall with a portal from Sanctum Sanctorum between the modulars and Ninjago.

LOL.

I have the Sanctum and Daily Bugle in one "street", and I think I would rather have all the Ninjago's in another. I wish someone could 'modularize' the Flower and Fruit Mountain plus the upcoming Monkey Kid Hideout. It would be great to have them as a 'park' in modular form!

[Dennan]

On 12/18/2022 at 1:08 AM, Lyichir said:

Optometrist and pharmacy are the kinds of buildings that'd work well as "one side" of a modular (since they don't necessarily need the full floor space of a multi-story building). Hardware store is another. There was a lovely Ideas proposal at one point that I think paired a hardware store with an under-construction building, which feels like exactly the kind of story-starter that works well for modular buildings—the workers could dip into the hardware store to restock during a job.

 

In the Bricklink Designer program there was a Modular Construction Site. 

Modular Construction Site