Bricklinking Modular Buildings

[egadzook]

I pieced together Cafe Corner back in March 2012, just four months after I bought my first modular, Fire Brigade. Using bricklink was a new experience, and a little overwhelming. Cafe Corner took 3 BL orders, 1 Lego Bricks & Pieces order, and a couple in-store purchases from the Lego PAB wall. Not too many purchases considering I had zero Lego inventory to pull from. Substituted windows for the wall panels, and used red versions of the doors.

Cafe Corner + minifigs: $275 USD, $295 with shipping.

Saw this thread and decided to BL Green Grocer in January. Made same substitutions as others for windows, 1x8 sand green bricks, hinges. Additional changes:

- Purchased only 48 of the sand green groove bricks, as that's the number visible on the facade. Replaced the other 8 with regular 1x2s.

- Replaced white groove 1x2s with regular 1x2s, as groove is barely visible.

- Changed curtains from dark red to reddish brown. Also switched the 1x1 round plates to pearl gold so the curtain assembly would match the viking tiles.

- Awning in dark green

- Replaced pricey 1x6 tan arches with 1x6 raised arches (92950). Looks very similar.

For Green Grocer, I was able to pull 570 of the tiny/common pieces from my small inventory ($64 savings based on BL avg prices). Placed 5 BL orders, 2 Lego Bricks & Pieces orders, and 1 online PAB order. I'm glad I was able to snag the sand green groove bricks for $1.64 usd each, since they are even more crazy expensive right now.

Green Grocer + minifigs: $350 USD, $410 with shipping/tax. (shipping to Canada is expensive, sigh)

Edited February 24, 2015 by egadzook

[kasmca]

I love these stories on how you members are bricklinking Cafe Corner and Green Grocer. I am thinking of Bricklinking Cafe Corner. I have used bricklink before but only to get specific pieces.

That's amazing that you were able to keep costs down and minimize shipments.

Once you start with many different pieces do you have any suggestions on minimizing costs as well as shipments? Did you manage it in a spreadsheet? I find it challenging shopping for parts as some stores will have some pieces cheaper but others more expensive. Any tips? What strategies are employed to determine where to source parts? Sorry for the newbie questions.

I'm also in Canada (Toronto area) and shipping is not cheap.

Edited February 24, 2015 by kasmca

[egadzook]

Once you start with many different pieces do you have any suggestions on minimizing costs as well as shipments? Did you manage it in a spreadsheet? I find it challenging shopping for parts as some stores will have some pieces cheaper but others more expensive. Any tips? What strategies are employed to determine where to source parts?

Here's what I did:

- Used the Brickstore program to get the parts list. Eliminated extra/alternate pieces, as well as what I had in my inventory.

- Updated parts with current bricklink average prices

- In Brickstore, exported wanted xml list. Saved to notepad as .xml. Then imported to excel using developer tab. All this was so I didn't have to manually type average BL prices for each part.

- Fill in rest of parts info into excel

- Update with PAB prices and BnP prices. Compare to BL prices to determine where pieces should be bought. I used conditional formatting to make it apparent at a glance, then sorted by colour, like so:

- To minimize BL shipping, I also ordered some parts that were cheaper on BL from PAB and BnP, as long as the price difference wasn't too bad.

Number of parts to order from BL is now significantly smaller.

- Put remaining parts in new Brickstore file and export to wanted list on Bricklink.

- To avoid placing lots of small orders for the rarer parts, I used the BrickWizard program for the more expensive parts. Compare prices to estimated cost to make sure shipping savings are worth it.

- While buying rarer parts from the store BrickWizard determined, also buy whatever else is available from your wanted list.

- For whatever is left, go to wanted/by shop and purchase from stores with more lots available.

**I'd order from PAB and BnP last, in case a few remaining parts aren't worth paying the shipping to order from BL.

Doing all this, I was able to piece together Green Grocer with 5 BL orders, 1 PAB order, and 2 BnP orders (could have done with just 1 BnP order with better foresight).

Wow, what a novel! Hope it wasn't too tedious to read...

Edited February 24, 2015 by egadzook

[kasmca]

Wow. Thanks for the detailed explanation. I never knew about brickstore or brickwizard. They look extremely helpful for large purchases with many lots. This is very helpful!

[stevkir]

Congrats. What did the price on the BLinked GG work out to if you don't mind my asking?

Also believe it or not the Bricklinking gets easier if instead of doing it for the retired sets you opt for something like third part instructions such as those from Brickcitydepot Depot or our own Krystal. I particularly like the Pharmacy that the BCD guys published in their Lego Neighborhood Book. Of Krystal's stuff it does not get much better than her Tan Townhouse. You will find you are not hunting down quite so many rare and expensive parts.

With it taking 3 years to complete I don't have the numbers on how much it actually costed to acquire all of the parts, but I would guesstimate it around $350-400 in all.

[hiroki]

I'm not sure if this is the place to post but:

I missed buying the Town Hall before it was retired. Should I BL it, buy a used one, or wait until it becomes available again?

[TheLegoDr]

I think you'll be waiting a really long time then...

Best bet is bricklink or buy a used/MISB aftermarket version... The problem there is, finding one at a decent price. Looking at brickpicker it was saying a little under $400 for a new one. Bricklink cheapest in US at least was $464. And bricklinking one together piece by piece was already $424 without shipping...so I'd look for a complete set first.

[hiroki]

I think you'll be waiting a really long time then...

Yeah it sucks that they moved away from the "release one, retire one" tradition, plus they skipped on PS (which I have.)

Best bet is bricklink or buy a used/MISB aftermarket version... The problem there is, finding one at a decent price. Looking at brickpicker it was saying a little under $400 for a new one. Bricklink cheapest in US at least was $464. And bricklinking one together piece by piece was already $424 without shipping...so I'd look for a complete set first.

Thanks for the tip! Might as well look for one now than have it at such inflated prices after a year or two.

[Lego Conductor]

In regards to Cafe Corner,

On BnP 10182 has the New Dark Red 1x2x3/73 degree as Element ID: 4267279

The New Elves set 41075 also as New Dark Red 1x2x3/73 degree but with Element ID: 4623597

So is this the exact same piece? Any differences that would effect outcome of model?

Thanks in advance for any answers!

[LegoSjaak]

I'm not sure if this is the place to post but:

I missed buying the Town Hall before it was retired. Should I BL it, buy a used one, or wait until it becomes available again?

Buy a used one.. it is so new, you will not notice the difference....

[cimddwc]

In regards to Cafe Corner,

On BnP 10182 has the New Dark Red 1x2x3/73 degree as Element ID: 4267279

The New Elves set 41075 also as New Dark Red 1x2x3/73 degree but with Element ID: 4623597

So is this the exact same piece? Any differences that would effect outcome of model?

According to BrickLink, the former is the version with "Completely Open Stud" (made from 1984-2012), the latter with "Hollow Stud" (since 2006). BL Inventory says both were used in 10182.

[MorrisMethod]

Made this with spare parts and some help from Lego store. Thought you guys would like it.

[Off the wall]

Nice work, MorrisMethod. I'm doing something similar. I've accumulated thousands of spare parts over the past couple of years. I'm building a street of row houses based on a PS template. So far, I've got a gray, a green, a blue, a white and a green/yellow all built off the inspiration provided by the PS 16 wide residential building. There's a bit of a 'mix and match' with some of them, but it's better than letting the parts sit in a plastic storage bin.

[Lego Conductor]

Thanks for the info cimddwc! Just placed an order for them. Told myself after Bricklinking Green Grocer that was it. Well now Im starting on the Cafe Corner!

[clohr]

hello,

I'm new around here, I'm from chile, I'm building the GG and CC piece by piece, soon I will tell you my story, the lots of pieces are coming from 10 - 12 orders from bricklink... I have a question for you, someone can tell me what is "BnP" ??

Thanks!! greetings from chile!

[Lego Conductor]

BnP is the Brick and Pieces section on the Lego Website. Its found on the Customer Service Missing Parts link. Hope that helps clohr!

[Oafley Jones]

Toying with the idea of Bricklinking a Cafe Corner and I've already got a couple of questions. The most urgent one is on colours. Bricks and Pieces and Bricklink have different names for the colours. Take for example a 1x4 plate that's called Dark Blue on Bl, on BnP it's Earth Blue. There's no mention of Earth Blue as a colour on Bricklink! Are these the same thing, and if so why does BL have a different name?

[stevkir]

After 3 years I have finally finished my GG, with a few modifications

As you can see I used dark red bows instead of the blue and the wood pattern around the door. I actually plan on changing and meant to purchase the viking pattern when I ordered the last of my parts but it was forgotten. I will just have to wait till I get around to ordering more parts for my MS to get those viking print 1x4 tiles.

[JetBlackSVW]

Toying with the idea of Bricklinking a Cafe Corner and I've already got a couple of questions. The most urgent one is on colours. Bricks and Pieces and Bricklink have different names for the colours. Take for example a 1x4 plate that's called Dark Blue on Bl, on BnP it's Earth Blue. There's no mention of Earth Blue as a colour on Bricklink! Are these the same thing, and if so why does BL have a different name?

Earth Blue is Lego's name for BL's Dark Blue. You can see it in this color list: http://www.peeron.com/inv/colors%C2%A0%C2%A0excellent

[NgRO]

Quick Question:

How many pieces are in total for the Sand Blue variation of GG?, because there's not 1x3 & 1x8 bricks :S

[ReplicaOfLife]

Quick Question:

How many pieces are in total for the Sand Blue variation of GG?, because there's not 1x3 & 1x8 bricks :S

There's no definite answer for that as it depends on how you chose to substitute.

For example, when I BLed my Sand Blue Grocer, I went through the instructions locating common brick combinations and worked it out from there. So, for example, I checked how often you would find a combination of 2 1x8s and one 1x3 and would replace that with three 1x6 and one 1x1.

Imo, that leads to a more efficient brick use than just replacing each 1x8 by a combination of two other bricks, but of course it takes time to figure it all out. Apparently I did some blunders and ended up one or two 1x6 too short, but could compensate with leftover 1x1s and 1x4s, iirc.

I had it all worked out in Excel, but lost that Excel due to a HD crash. Might still have a backup on a laptop, if you're interested I can check next time I turn it on.

[talos]

I was inspired by everyone's great looking rebrick projects, so I decided to do my own Green Grocer too. I decided on using tan bricks. I had a scrificial Simpson's House to supply the majority of bricks for it. The tan notched bricks seemed the best choice cost-wise for me, and I like how it looks. Only thing I lost was the character line that goes around on the first floor level really. I think it looks fine with it all the same color though. I used orange for the curtains, another cost-wise choice. The only other notable substitutions are in the ground floor tile floor in the shop. I used some different colors there. trans red and trans green, because I had those on hand in my parts collection. Also the awning color, I used a light blue, again because I had those parts on hand. I added another section of ladder to the fire escape, it allows it to reach the ground and folds up like the original. I do need to substitute the right parts for the fire escape railing though, the parts I used are one size too short. I added some tiles to the rear pavement too, I might connect the two entrances and add some more plants.

I have to say reading the other comments on people that can get all the parts in just 1 or 2 orders from bricklink, I wish I could say I was able to do that! I think I had to make about 8 orders to get what I needed for this! Here are a couple photos I took today.

Edited March 11, 2015 by talos

[ItsaBRICKS]

Never seen a Tan Grocer before! Looks great.

[Lego Conductor]

Seems a lot of users have Bricklinked Green Grocer into different colors, blue, tan, etc. So who has done different colors for Cafe Corner other than the grey one posted earlier?

[stevkir]

I was inspired by everyone's great looking rebrick projects, so I decided to do my own Green Grocer too. I decided on using tan bricks. I had a scrificial Simpson's House to supply the majority of bricks for it. The tan notched bricks seemed the best choice cost-wise for me, and I like how it looks. Only thing I lost was the character line that goes around on the first floor level really. I think it looks fine with it all the same color though. I used orange for the curtains, another cost-wise choice. The only other notable substitutions are in the ground floor tile floor in the shop. I used some different colors there. trans red and trans green, because I had those on hand in my parts collection. Also the awning color, I used a light blue, again because I had those parts on hand. I added another section of ladder to the fire escape, it allows it to reach the ground and folds up like the original. I do need to substitute the right parts for the fire escape railing though, the parts I used are one size too short. I added some tiles to the rear pavement too, I might connect the two entrances and add some more plants.

I have to say reading the other comments on people that can get all the parts in just 1 or 2 orders from bricklink, I wish I could say I was able to do that! I think I had to make about 8 orders to get what I needed for this! Here are a couple photos I took today.

I like it and think it looks good in tan. The only area it looks a little out of place is the second floor windows and I think finding arches and the inverted slop pieces in a different color will be a huge benefit.