Bricklinking Modular Buildings

[Off the wall]

I think part of the fun of bricklinking is 'the hunt'. Twenty or thirty years ago, when I was out scouring the countryside for old radios, the hunt was as much fun as actually finding a good old radio. Sure, it was nice to have the radio. But the search for bargains, the search for rare items and the negotiating was as satisfying as actually having the item.

Seems like the bricklinking process is also a fun, challenging one that has its own rewards out side of acquiring the actual lego product.

Edited July 26, 2014 by Off the wall

[mmcclelland]

I couldn't agree more! I am personally enjoying my hunt for the FB, especially since I've decided not to build any of it until I have all of its parts

[Lego Conductor]

Well I finally took the plunge and started "Bricklinking" the Green Grocer. After reading all the posts and realizing I had 750 pieces of it my own collection it was an easy choice. So far I have 4 Pick a Brick and 5 Bricklink orders pending. I've spent roughly $300 and have about 450 pieces left to go. 50 of those 450 are the 1x8 Sand Green Bricks at an average of $3.50 a pop. Like others I will substitute those with 1x2 & 1x6s. Hope to have all the pieces by the end of August. Thanks to everybody who shared their experiences, it really helps!

[JayCal]

I'm still amazad at how good the grocer looks compared to the other modulars (old and new) so.... Last weekend I placed my orders for a second one. This time I only needed 1 PaB and 1 BnP order plus a very small BL order for the grooved pieces, blue bows and curtains. I also added enough sand blue part to be able to convert it to a sand blue one. I'm contemplating about mirror building this one when all the parts arrive. I'll post pics when ready. Good luck to all out there! Green grooved pieces are becoming horribly scarce.

[opn2]

Edited September 27, 2014 by opn2

[Wookiee]

As someone who missed out on Fire Brigade, do you think it'd be a better idea to BL the inventory at this point, or to just buy the actual set before the prices rise any higher?

Just buy the complete set at this stage. thats what i am going to do.

[mmcclelland]

Just buy the complete set at this stage. thats what i am going to do.

I'm bricklinking it, but that's because I have over 1000 pieces for it in my collection already, so it's working out much cheaper that way

[Wookiee]

I'm bricklinking it, but that's because I have over 1000 pieces for it in my collection already, so it's working out much cheaper that way

Cool you are right,the amount of pieces you currently have would be a factor, i have zero pieces towards it and in Australia its $250 for a new modular so forking out $275 plus freight from the US is still not too bad at this stage for people like me who have come out of the dark ages recently. I would estimate it would be around $300-$400 or worse to BL inc freight to Oz,so to get the complete set would still be good value IMO for my circumstance. That and the waiting for various shipments (i just completed a Brick City Depot Modular that took 3 months to acquire parts) instead of just getting it complete in one go.

[Withacee]

I think part of the fun of bricklinking is 'the hunt'.

I agree!

We make a sport of getting the bricks needed for as little money as possible.

We usually order new, but (being in The Netherlands) always from Dutch sellers, and in orders as large as possible; that saves on postage cost in a big way!

[brickventures]

Just buy the complete set at this stage. thats what i am going to do.

I think that's a wise decision. Last month, I purchased a slightly used Fire Brigade from ebay for $199 with free shippping. It's in like new condition, I am very happy with my purchase. I see one FB selling on ebay for $220 dollars plus $12 shipping right now. I think the prices for FB would not go as high as the other modulars, probably a lot of people bought it for resale.

Edited August 6, 2014 by brickventures

[LegoStraz]

This topic is bad for your wallet... A few weeks ago I after reading it I went straight to Bricklink. 11 orders and £240 later I have now proudly added a blue Greengrocer to the other modulars, now only Cafè Corner missing. Missus not too happy.

[VintageLegoEra]

True...also you money will fly depending on what parts u r looking..

[kofi]

Hi, I was reading this topic for a few weeks, now it is time to get started into this topic too! Hope it is fine for you guys!

3 years ago I started to collect the parts from bricklink for the cafe corner! I tried to get new parts from as less stores as possible. And after a few weeks a couple of hundreds of Euros later I got all the parts.

Just a month ago I bought the original instructions in near mint condition.

So what I wanna tell you is, that it is a very expensive way to get to your dreams! After collecting the parts you will definitely find a seller on bricklink or somewhere else where you could get the entire set with instructions for less money! (that is what happened to me! ;( )

BUT, it is as much fun finding all the parts of your interest as building the set!

By the way, these are my experiences for the next project: the market street:

First: try to find as many parts as possible in your own collection

Second: Do not concentrate on new parts! The used one are most of the times similar to new bricks, and they are definitely cheaper!!

Third: Do not act hastily. Be patient, get your bricks one by one. And if you have to collect for three years - who cares! It will be three years of fun and you will get sometimes a rush of adrenaline getting some cheap parts!

[Legogal]

This thread is very entertaining! Makes me so happy that I got into modulars while CC and GG were still available and picked up two of each. Sold LEGO for the first time last weekend at BrickFairVa. Decided it was time for my spare new GG and CC to get built by someone rather than sitting on my shelf. Am happy to report that they found new homes and are being built by folks who really wanted them. As a condition of selling them, both buyers had to open the boxes and a few bags in front of me because I did not want a reseller to flip them for twice what he paid for mine. It would be nice if more folks with spare modulars would sell them to those who want to build them. They are lovely sets for the most part.

Another thing I lucked out on was that I began my LEGO collecting in 2008 with purchases of all the sand green and sand blue I could afford at the time because I love those colors. There was a lot of sand green on the market from people parting out large Harry Potter sets. I can build whatever I want in the green, but only something smaller in the blue. If there is a color you really love, buy it when you order something else off BL so the freight is minimal and you build up your stock when prices are lower.

It makes a lot of sense to substitute colors you like for those that are hard to find. It is your modular, so build it to your tastes. A sand blue GG sounds lovely! What a great color! Sometimes I do not like the colors used in the modulars and wish I had substituted as I built the original sets. I bought a lot of 1by1 tiles quite reasonably priced from European BL sellers when starting up in LEGO for myself, and those have been quite handy for finishing all the floors in my modulars. And adding furniture has made the early modulars much more pleasing. It is great that the Parisian Restaurant is furnished because this makes it look great from day one. You can always change the interior, too, if you don't care for it.

[Lego Conductor]

Bricklinking the Green Grocer is almost complete. Down to last 82 pieces! About half of those pieces (34) will cost me $60 USD. The 4 white train windows are a whopping $30 USD and the remaining 30 sand green 1x2 bricks with grooves are also $30 USD. Forget about the sand green 1x8. At first I thought I would just order the number needed for the rear of the building, 28 total, as the ones on the side are never seen. Never seen as in abutting the other modulars. Even 28 of those sand green 1x8 would set me back $100 USD. Im on track to spend roughly $450 dollars on this project. I have not seen a recent Green Grocer go for less than $600 so not to bad when all said and done. Look forward to the actual build once I have all the pieces. My only regret was not buying the Green Grocer a couple of years ago for $450 price I'm spending now on Bricklink. For all of those on fence about buying Modulars - please hop off that fence and do it!

[TheLegoDr]

Legogal - nice idea about selling the sets and making them open them. I assume they must have got a good deal then?

And I did build a sand blue grocer a few months ago. I'll have to get pictures sometime.

[syaorankung]

Hi everyone! I am now bricklinking CC and GG too!

I need some advise from you guys about the replacement of both door of Cafe Corner.

Both door's price are extremely high, especially the hotel door.

Any suggestion for the replacement?

Thank you in advance!

[Legogal]

Legogal - nice idea about selling the sets and making them open them. I assume they must have got a good deal then?

And I did build a sand blue grocer a few months ago. I'll have to get pictures sometime.

I guess a good deal depends on whom you ask. Both buyers were pleased with the prices and felt they were fair. I had to pay over $700. twice (including the hotel) to attend BrickFair where I bought in 2008 and sold the sets also requiring 8 days of my time and two 5 hour trips to Virginia. In the end, it feels good to know that both sets are being built by enthusiasts and are not sitting on my shelf. Maybe this is the answer for those of us who have run out of space for LEGO. Sell or trade LEGO to keep within our space limitations. I may try it again next year with used sets if space is still a problem. It seems like it is much easier selling LEGO in person than any other method due to the amount of fraud on most selling sites. Most sellers at the BrickFair VA 2014 yard sales seemed to be doing okay as long as they priced well below BL prices for comparable items.

[Roger_Smith]

Alright, so it looks like I'm gonna tackle something like this as well.

A couple of months back, I bought an extra used Pet Shop on Ebay. Over the past few days, I've spent a lot of time brooding over the Green Grocer instructions with the aim of figuring out all the replacements and part quantities I'd need to use the Pet Shop bricks as a starting point for a 'Blue Grocer'.

I spent most of the past 3 evenings separating the pieces I could use from the Pet Shop from the ones I don't need, and also taking pieces from the rest of my collection (since the modulars and a few choice sets are the only modern sets I own (with everything else dating back to the 80ies/early 90ies) that wasn't much).

Taking everything into account, I currently have 1039 out of the 2378 pieces I will need for the build. 868 of those are from Pet Shop, the rest are from my collection.

Here's the main substitutions I'll make:

Sand Blue bricks replace the Sand Green ones. Sand blue 1x8s don't exist, so they'll be replaced by different combinations of 1x6s and 1x4s

Reddish Brown bricks replace the Earth Green ones (mainly because Pet Shop offers an abundance of them)

Regular 1x2 white bricks replace the white 1x2s with groove (the groove is barely visible in the build, and I wonder why they were included in the first place)

Minifigures from Pet Shop replace the ones from Green Grocer (I honestly don't care what they look like, maybe I'll switch them round a bit so they won't look exactly the same as the ones from PS, but beyond that, I don't care)

I thought about replacing a few layers of light bley bricks with reddish brown ones aswell, but refrained from that idea as it either would have affected the front of the ground floor negatively, or would have required extensive replanning to keep its appearance. And light bley bricks are very comon.

Bricklink, here I come. 1339 bricks to go :)

[JayCal]

So, yesterday my final order came in. After sorting I realised i forgot 6-7 parts (bummer) but that couldn't hold me back from starting the build.

I already have a bricklinked green grocer that has an extra middle level (I'm currently in the middle of ordering one extra level for all my modulars). So this time around I made a Sand Blue Grocer. The awning was changed to dark red, earth green replaced by earth blue, tan to white, curtains became purple and I did a mirrored build on it.

Here's a pic:

Although I do like the way it came out, to me the sand blue looks too much like light bley... so the amount of color contrast between the two is less than for instance the green grocer. This could be helped by reversing the white back to tan... but I don't like the tan/sand blue combination.

Cheers!

Edited August 19, 2014 by JayCal

[Roger_Smith]

Looks great. Seeing a sand-blue example makes me look forward to getting all the parts for mine even more.

Maybe changing the light bley to dark bley would improve the contrast, if you don't like it? Personally I think it looks perfectly fine - most buildings in real life have rather muted colors aswell, after all.

[TheLegoDr]

Everyone has their own tastes. I, for one, love the tan and sand blue and am quite happy with how mine turned out. I still need to take pictures (I've only been saying that for 4+ months!!!). But I didn't mirror build mine. But I much prefer mine to the sand green. No, there isn't as much bright contrast because of the green, but in the light the blue does stand out way more than light bley. As a licensed eye doctor, maybe you should get your eyes checked .

[Modelmaker]

WOW it looks much better in the sand blue. Now i'm tempted to scrap one of my petshops.

[kofi]

So finally I can tell you latest news of bricklinking my market street!

Before I ordered the missing bricks on bricklink and of course lego.com I had a closer look at my own collection - and found about 950 parts out of the 1250! Happy me! There were some expensive parts like the doors in my collection so the grand total of my orders was not that expensive. Over all I spent 160 Euros for the missing parts.

Now I am waiting for the parts to start building my own market street!!!

[Roger_Smith]

Placed the first BL order for my Blue Grocer yesterday. Roughly 350 pieces for a little over 30€ incl. shipping. Lots of small plates and tiles in that one.

I estimate that I'll be able to place 2 additional orders of that size or maybe slightly larger to get the bulk of bricks, plus a couple of small ones to get the rarer parts that only few shops carry. Unfortunately, for some items I'll need to place orders from stores in other countries, which will increase shipping costs.