Specific Modular MOC Instructions.. Opinions?

[jaysapathy]

I'm in need of advice (hopefully this is in the right place).

My wife and I are starting our own modular city -- right now it's a little more than a colony, with four lego figures and a covered wagon (you get the idea) -- and have been looking at purchasing a few instructions. I bought the Video Game Shop instructions from Brick Builders Pro (http://www.brickbuilderspro.com/video-game-shop-pdf-instructions/), and my better half has been crawling Amazon looking for others. She found a few by the same guy, and has her heart set on this one:

http://www.amazon.com/Build-Cute-Cream-Shop-ebook/dp/B007C4WJOM/

I checked the guy's website, and he doesn't sell this through there anymore (or any of the other 6 he has listed on Amazon -- Mellow Yellow Jazz Club, Fresh Flower Shop, Kelly Green Deli, The Brick Town House, and the Seafood Cafe). Amazon sells these as Kindle books, which I could check out using their Lending Library.. If I owned a Kindle. :P

Has anyone checked any of these instructions out? Are they pretty much the same as his Game Shop? It's frustrating not being able to see them before I buy them, as Amazon has the first six pages as a preview, as opposed to the center of the instructions where you get a good bead on what's going on.

Any and all input welcome. Should I just buy these and hope for the best? Or is there somewhere else I should be looking to purchase similar instructions?

[xtremegoogler]

I checked brickbuilderspro, I think he still sells them there, I could put the Ice Cream Shop in a cart and check out with Paypal, if I wanted to.

[jrathfon]

A lot of the forum members here have instructions in their BrickLink stores. Have you seen these? I'm too new to remember the specific users (Jopiek maybe?) but maybe others can chime in.

[eurotrash]

I've bought instructions from brickbuilderpro and built the

http://www.brickbuilderspro.com/the-white-lion-english-pub/

Clear, instructions - not a huge amount of interior details, but plenty of opportunity to customize it to suit your needs. I lowered the height of the second floor, changed the roof line around and adjusted some of the colors to better fit the bricks I had on hand.

I've also bought instructions from

http://www.brickcitydepot.com/city-building-instructions.html

And built the Chili's restaurant, Commercial building pack 1#, City Residential Pack 4#. They're all different (the Chili's is a lot of fun to build with its facade made of 1 x plates). They're were all great instructions. Again, easy to customize.

Don't forget we've also got our own Eurobricks Kristel

http://modularsbykristel.wordpress.com/instructions/

You'll find her work in this forum. The instructions, once again, are excellent and the interiors are superb! She's also done a Modular conversion for the Haunted House that is a free download. You can get that from here http://modularsbykristel.wordpress.com/downloads/ and you can see for yourself the quality of the instructions.

One last point - having a Bricklink Wanted List autogenerator using XML supplied with the instructions makes life a whole lot simpler.

Good luck and let us know what you find out.

[LegoFjotten]

I got this one from brickcitydepot.com:

http://mocpages.com/moc.php/246930

Very nice!

[jaysapathy]

I checked brickbuilderspro, I think he still sells them there, I could put the Ice Cream Shop in a cart and check out with Paypal, if I wanted to.

I just noticed that. The others listed on Amazon, however, aren't on his site. My biggest concern is if I buy them, I may not be able to get as good a resolution as I'd like if I have to convert from whatever format Kindle uses to PDF. That, and I'm thinking they might all end up being the same instructions, just with different colors. :)

A lot of the forum members here have instructions in their BrickLink stores. Have you seen these? I'm too new to remember the specific users (Jopiek maybe?) but maybe others can chime in.

Not in the Bricklink stores, no. I've picked up the occasional odd, such as the Winchester pub, but I'll have to keep an eye out for those.

And built the Chili's restaurant, Commercial building pack 1#, City Residential Pack 4#. They're all different (the Chili's is a lot of fun to build with its facade made of 1 x plates). They're were all great instructions. Again, easy to customize.

I've seen the Chili's one, and was intrigued enough to buy it, but a "web site glitch" meant that I was out the money and didn't get the instructions. Nobody responded to emails, so I called it a wash. Brickbuilderspro's online system went without a hitch, and gave me the link once the purchase was made, but when I emailed him to ask about whether or not he still sells these sets (three times, in fact) I didn't hear anything back. Understandably, between glitches costing me money and people who don't respond, I'm kind of hesitant to start ordering instructions online, which is why I tend to look towards community developed ones. To be honest, I actually signed up for Prime so I could evaluate the instructions through the Lending program, but got shot down when I found out that there wasn't that ability for a generic Android/iOS device. You have to have a Kindle. Ah well. I'm considering picking up the Seafood Restaurant, as it's only $3.50. If it's awful, I'm only out pocket change.

Don't forget we've also got our own Eurobricks Kristel

http://modularsbykri...m/instructions/

You'll find her work in this forum. The instructions, once again, are excellent and the interiors are superb! She's also done a Modular conversion for the Haunted House that is a free download. You can get that from here http://modularsbykri....com/downloads/ and you can see for yourself the quality of the instructions.

Those are fantastically detailed and well done. I wouldn't think twice about paying $5 for those. I may have to do that with my haunted house, because it fits into the street a lot easier.

One last point - having a Bricklink Wanted List autogenerator using XML supplied with the instructions makes life a whole lot simpler.

I think you've lost me -- can you elaborate?

Thanks for all the feedback!

[eurotrash]

One last point - having a Bricklink Wanted List autogenerator using XML supplied with the instructions makes life a whole lot simpler.

I think you've lost me -- can you elaborate?

Okay, so perhaps "Bricklink Wanted List autogenerator using XML supplied" wasn't the best statement I've ever written, but in a nutshell here goes (and excuse me if you're already up to speed with all of this)

Bricklink has this really useful feature called My Wanted List where you can enter the pieces required for a specific build and then it can match those requirements against BL stores to see who has those pieces and at what prices. You can either manually enter the pieces (laborious, error prone, etc) or you can upload an XML file containing those required pieces automagically. This XML file looks a bit like HTML and describes accurately the piece, the color, new/used, and the quantity required.

Some of the instructions we've been discussing (definitely the brickcitydepot one, not sure about the others) come with a webpage that you open in your browser that allows you to create this XML file seamlessly. This webpage shows the pieces, the description and the default quantities required and you simply tab through the fields zeroising or amending the quantities as necessary.

So, if you've already got a pile of bricks in front of you it's an easy way of identifying what additional pieces you need to get to build your Modular and likewise, if you want to adapt the instructions to suit your particular customization then you can do this either in the HTML page (if it's just quantities that are different), or within the uploaded My Wanted List in Bricklink (if it's colors, pieces, or whatever).

Hopefully this makes sense to you - if not just ask!

[jaysapathy]

Okay, so perhaps "Bricklink Wanted List autogenerator using XML supplied" wasn't the best statement I've ever written, but in a nutshell here goes (and excuse me if you're already up to speed with all of this)

Right, I'm with you. Totally clear on that concept, I've just never heard it termed as such. Mostly, it's "Bricklink XML Parts List" or something similar. :D

The wife and I ordered our first modular this week (the fire station, only $100 after a $50 gift card, woohoo), so we'll definitely be deciding what the next building to attach is after we have a starting point in the village. With double points coming up next month, I'm pretty sure we'll end up picking up all the other modulars available: the grand emporium, the theater, the pet shop, and the town hall. Then, naturally, we add a game shop and the Winchester to it, and we've graduated from a village to a town, if all goes well.

I'll have to look into more of these instructions. I found myself trying to explain it to my wife yesterday ("What do you mean you just get some digital file? For 8 bucks they don't send you an actual physical copy? No, I don't think we should pay for some goofy digital download"), so we might be experiencing a roadblock. Maybe I should get involved with a LUG just to be able to see some of these before I buy them.. Maybe that'd convince her. Ah well.

Has anyone actually bought/put together the Ice Cream Shop or the Pizza Parlor from Brick City Depot? I'm readdressing my previous fears in that they look pretty much the same. The pizza parlor looks like it has the same floor twice. And considering the modulars we're going to have by the end of the month, does anyone have other recommendations as to what would look good with that setup? I know I've seen a McDonald's and a Baskin Robbins out there in YouTube videos, but I haven't been able to find the instructions.

[paostmo]

I've never purchased or built somebody else's design before, but I have seen people sell instructions on eBay. In fact, some eBay sellers simply copy someone else's design and then cash in on selling the instructions. I consider that to be dishonest, so make sure you know who you are buying instructions from. Otherwise, happy building! There are a lot of great MOC's out there that I would like to try building.

[jaysapathy]

In my travels on eBay, I somehow came across this guy who has a new site he's pimping out: rarebricksets.com. He's selling memberships to his site there. For $27, you get access to 20 instructions plus all "future instructions" as planned through the site. A little amateur sleuthing tells me that the site has been open since early May, the guy has written an SEO book, and imports/sells Persian rugs as a day job. The site seems to be more geared towards getting you to sign up (and in fact, when you attempt to do so, Paypal calls it a "Silver Member Subscription," -- those of you who are familiar with multi level marketing scams just shuddered), and I tend to shy away from this one, regardless of how cool a modular Dunkin Donuts might be.

My question for the masses is pretty simple: is he ripping stuff off and selling it? Are these original designs worth looking into, or is this just some fly by night scam artist I should avoid giving my money to?

EDIT: I posted on the guy's Facebook page, looking for info. He told me he had some free instructions on his site, so I went looking to see what I could find. He offers instructions for a train station, but it's all done through short videos via a private YouTube account and a parts list via the website. When I asked if they did "printed" instructions (PDF), he said no, and deleted our entire conversation so nobody else could see. He somewhat misrepresents himself on the Facebook page, indicating that there's actual "instructions" instead of a bunch of random videos of watching him put stuff together. I'm leaning more towards con artist now -- if he doesn't do printed instructions, it's harder for people to claim he's ripping them off. Everything about this guy just seems used car salesman-ish, so I think I answered my own question here. If anyone else has experience with this, I'd be happy to hear it.

Edited September 30, 2013 by jaysapathy

[paostmo]

^^^Jay that seems like a pretty clear scam. Stay away for sure. I just built Kristel's 16 stud haunted house MOD yesterday, and it's turned out excellent. I'll post pics soon!

[brickcitydepot]

This is Brian from brickcitydepot.com

We take care of all transactions as fast as we can and we answer all emails when we get a chance. We are sorry that a "web site glitch" happened with jaysapathy.

I have contacted jaysapathy to ask him about the transaction.

Edited January 24, 2014 by brickcitydepot

[Faefrost]

I tend to prefer using long standing MOC'ers who have their own well established web sites. The guys selling on E-bay always worry me as you can never tell if they are reselling somebody else's plans, etc.

I've bought plans from a Brick City Depot and Kristel and I can't say enough good things about them.