Bricklinking Modular Buildings

[Chubbs]

Has anyone done the Grocer in Dark Red yet? since the groove bricks are now available in that color.

Seems like Minecraft sets are responsible for most bricks with groove, unfortunately no sand green for 2016 as far as I can see.

My plan is to do a GG in Dark Red but to use the masonary brick instead of the groove

[Aegis1984]

I'm finally getting around to BL'ing Market Street. The parts that have given me the headaches obviously are the doors, arches and hoses. A solution for the hoses though...? I realized that years ago, I picked up an Exploriens set, 6854 Alien Fossilizer. In that set, there was a white hose and surprise, surprise, it appears that it is the same one as in Market Street! So instead of paying as much as $40 CAD EACH for the piece, I looked up 3 complete 6854 sets (and checked the description to make sure the hose wasn't swapped) and at an average of $14 CAD, I have the parts and a few extras. Now there's just a few more pieces to get, namely the blue torso which seems to be about $18 CAD at least...

[goldengraham09]

im bricklinking the TH atm as i love the look of that one.

im about 3/4s through and spent about £130 atm.

Had a few of the bricks already from other sets so cant complain.

i think i will try the Fire brigade next as that does look really nice, then Green Grocer, Market Street, Cafe Corner. then buy the newer sets that are in the shop during this period as well.

Im also cleaning the pieces up as i go so going to do the hyrdogen peroxide trick to get them sparkly clean :)

[Boettner Builds]

I bought the following sets second hand to get the parts:

hose : 6657

Doors : 3285 or 4956

don't have a solution for the blue torso yet :(

Look at eBay. It may take a while, but keep looking for "torso lots". I have found some pretty expensive CMF torsos for cheap that way.

Edited February 4, 2016 by redtrooper27

[BlockLogo]

Just placed my first BL order for the Green Grocer in a long while. after some initial small orders I took a long time to go through my own pieces, and found that I had about 25% of the pieces on hand. I'm making A LOT of substitutions, and forgoing a lot of the interior to keep the price reasonable so it will be a very heavily modified build. Hopefully I will be able to get everything I need in 3 or 4 more orders and a big B&P order from LEGO during double VIP.

I have to stop browsing stores I'm ordering Green Grocer parts from though. Sooo tempting to add a bunch of minifigs and elements I tell myself I will use in a future MOC.

[Chubbs]

Hopefully I will be able to get everything I need in 3 or 4 more orders and a big B&P order from LEGO during double VIP.

Hate to be the bearer of bad news BlockLogo but you don't earn VIP on B&P orders, only on Pick-A-Brick orders

[BlockLogo]

Bummer...

[Poisso3]

After sorting through most of our bricks, I decided to finally start on building the Green Grocer using the bricks I have on hand...and some modifications.

[BlockLogo]

Good progress! I'm still gathering bricks for my Green Grocer, but already itching to start on Cafe Corner. Bricklinking is addictive...

[Bizmarck]

Hello All,

I just finished my Green Grocer in a simple tan (no textured bricks). Did this for price reasons as well as reusability reasons (also got rid of a lot of the 1 x 8 for the same reason). Changed some colors. think it came out ok. All up between 200-250 aprox. including shipping. This is the only retired modular I really wanted, so happy to have it done.

Next step is to upgrade my older city; police, fire and hospital to have them fit with the new modulars. (also will mod the modulars to be playable from the back), so will let you know how it all goes.

Biz

[ssowy]

Sven F - great idea on replacing the dark blue pillars with the round 1x1's. I should've done that instead of buying the pillars off of bricklinking, costing me around $60 plus the dark blue arch and other parts.

[goldengraham09]

i am still working on the Town hall,

Realised i didnt have alot of the pieces i thought i did, so many bricklink orders have been made.

Still needing the all the orange bricks. really wanting to change the colour so they are not that expensive but it looks really good and i want to keep everything as normal as possible.

about 250 has been spent so about another £50 hopefully to go.

[sithewok]

I've been ever so slowly getting the parts for Green Grocer and Café Corner -placing small orders over the last couple of years. I am down to only a few pieces needed for CC - maybe 20 bricks. GG, I am down to the modified green 1x2s (I substituted 1x4s for the 1x8s.) and I am terrified of them. lol. When I started the whole process, I (stupidly) hoped that TLG would produce more of the rare sand green parts, but waiting on those has only made it more expensive as the Bricklink price has continued to climb on them. I believe we are going to use a chunk of our tax return this year to buy tiny expensive plastic bricks. It's nice to have a place to say that and not have (too many) people think that I am crazy.

[ronenson]

Stil waiting for the 1x2 bricks with groove to reappear in sand green. If not, I won't order the rest of the parts.

[Sven F]

Same boat here, either they are rereleased or i am not having it, the price is too high. I can use the masonry profile while i wait though.

[TheLegoDr]

It is interesting considering they have recently released that grooved brick in pink and red-brown and tan. Maybe one day they will re-release the sand green version, but it is anyone's guess.

I switched mine to sand blue in 2014 and I couldn't be happier. I don't even like the sand green grocer when I look at it now..but that's just me.

[sithewok]

Do you happen to have photos of the Green Grocer with the masonry profile brick substitution, Sven? I would be interested to see that.

[Sven F]

Mine isn't built yet, but it's been done before. A quick search gives this picture whose owner hopefully won't mind me sharing it

http://cdn.vanillaforums.com/brickset.vanillaforums.com/editor/op/493lc0i8wcxr.jpg

You can also check on page 37 of this topic.

Edited February 25, 2016 by Sven F

[BlockLogo]

I'm substituting the bricks with groove as well. No way I'm paying for those. If you absolutely want to, though, make sure to check the instructions. You really don't need all 50+ of them, since they are not all visible in the finished build. You can easily substitute about a dozen of them for plain 1x2 bricks.

I have 5 orders coming in next week. Just 2 or 3 more and I'll have everything I need...

[Gongoro73]

Yep, I built mine with masonry bricks and it looks good. I used the backwards of the brick (with the horizontal line) on the right part of the building and the mix of the two textures makes it looks even better IMHO. If someday Lego re-releases the groove bricks I guess I will swap them, but I like the way it looks with the masonry ones.

Edited February 26, 2016 by Gongoro73

[sithewok]

I went ahead and ordered enough of the masonry bricks after seeing the images. I will probably continue to slowly acquire the modified 1x2s, but this looks great for the interim.

Am I correct in assuming that you cannot see the hinges in the final build? I don't have the sand green hinges at this point, either, I realized.

[BlockLogo]

You can't see the hinge bricks, no. They're hidden under the crates in the front. Unless you wanna build it exactly, any color will do.

One of the first things I did when I started was go through the instructions and check which parts can be subbed because they're not visible. The sand green hinges, the dark/earth green 2x4 bricks, etc. I just substituted them with pieces I had on hand.

Also remember that some pieces, especially tiles, are cheaper to order directly from LEGO.

[goldengraham09]

has anyone ever changed the main colour of the Town hall from Dark orange?

not sure i want to pay the prices for some of the pieces tbh as it is quite expensive.

would anyone say another colour would suit?

[Sven F]

Does anyone own the original Green Grocer to confirm weather the dark red used for floor tiles and curtains is the old, slightly translucent dark red or the more opaque new dark red? Bricklink doesn't differentiate this color from its older variant, but the difference is very noticeable.

If you shine a light through the brick, the older one will pass light through the plastic, new dark red won't.

Thanks.

[BlockLogo]

Just got a bricklink order with hundreds of sand green and earth/dark green bricks, so I can actually start building some of the walls of the Green Grocer now!