Building retired modulars via Bricklink

GeordiePaul

Hi Bricksetter! I'm looking to pick your collective brains and hopefully one or two of you will have the answers.

It's my mission to have the entire collection of modulars someday but I know that unless I win the lottery or my book is published (and popular) then I have no chance of buying Market Street, Cafe Corner and the Green Grocer. So my questions are:

Has anyone else bought the relevant bricks from Bricklink to make their own?

Were you able to exactly recreate them? Or did you have to settle for different colours/modified versions?

How much did it cost (approx)?

Did you go anywhere else for your bricks other than Bricklink?

And finally, did you also manage to get all of the minifigs/accessories, etc. that came with the originals?

Sorry for asking so many questions and I hope I haven't asked things that have already been covered elsewhere on another thread. I tried skimming through but couldn't see a similar one to this.

Thanks,

Paul

oldtodd33

Here's one thread.  http://bricksetforum.com/discussion/14418/bricklinking-10190-market-street/p1

GeordiePaul

Thanks Todd! That appears to be exactly what I was looking for, at least for one of the modulars. I'll read the entire thread tonight :-D

oldtodd33

This is the largest thread I can think of, you'll be reading this for a while. http://bricksetforum.com/discussion/4434/bricklinking-green-grocer

Bumblepants

Do some searching and I think there is one if not two threads about Green Grocer and Cafe Corner as well. I did color alternate versions and have a Red Grocer (cheap 1x2 with slot bricks from all the fire stations + cheap red 1xX bricks and I had mine with less than $75 spent beyond the parts I had loose in my collection). Also have a dark brown roof on my Cafe Corner and a pink/dark pink Market Street which was inspired by a ton of 1x4s in those colors being available to me cheaply.

Do some research and figure out what fits your time and budget and have fun!

GeordiePaul

Wow, thanks again Todd! I'll do more than skim the previous threads next time I'm thinking of asking a question. The chances of someone asking something that hasn't already been covered by now are probably pretty slim I bet.

That's my bedtime reading sorted for tonight it seems!

GeordiePaul

Cheers Bumblepants! Sounds like some interesting colour replacements you have there. Are you able to post pics of them? I only ask because I love seeing fellow Lego fans' work on here.

monstblitz

The new quick buy / store finder features on Bricklink won't be covered in those old threads and make the process much, much easier.  Get familiar with those features. 

When I started looking into this, someone gave me the advice of trying to get as many pieces as I can on Pick a Brick.  This was great advice, and earned me $200 in VIP points and a free Fountain.  Not to mention brand new, clean, non stinky, uncracked parts.  I was able to buy the bulk of the parts for Market Street this way. 

If you don't care about colors, you can bricklink any modular for an affordable price.  If you're a purist, it's still going to cost you, and you might as well buy a used set on Ebay. 

monstblitz

Here's my bricklinked cafe corner that was approx. $360.  But it was a saga involving smelly, dirty and broken bricks. 

natro220

monstblitz said:

Here's my bricklinked cafe corner that was approx. $360.  But it was a saga involving smelly, dirty and broken bricks. 

A brown and yellow Cafe Corner is bound to be smelly.

BrickDancer

I Bricklinked both Cafe Corner and Green Grocer (along with Taj Mahal and Eiffel Tower) simultaneously back in late 2012 or early 2013 using only new pieces and all accurate, though a large chunk of parts was already in hand from my bulk collection.

Cafe Corner was a good endeavor and costed around $350 total  Green Grocer worked out to be ~$425 total, which wasn't a good choice after all since the used ones at the time were only ~$500. The minifigs are cheap, so definitely do include those into the BL project. The instruction books and original box are a different story. I paid $80 for CC Instruction and about $75 for the box. I paid $25 for GG Instructions and $40 for the box.

GeordiePaul

monstblitz - I really appreciate you passing on the good advice. Whatever I can do to keep the price down whilst still keeping as close to the originals as possible is pretty important to me.

And your Cafe Corner looks splendid! Definitely inspiring me to actually start one of these modulars as a project in the near future.

GeordiePaul

BrickDancer - the prices you quoted just for the box and instructions don't surprise me at all. What an insane world we live in now when it comes to collectibles. The laws of supply and demand are stronger than ever it seems.

I'm being realistic and expecting to pay a bit more than you did in 2012/13 as certain parts are probably even rarer now. I won't be put off by that though. We Lego fans are a stubborn and dedicated bunch :-D

Bumblepants

GeordiePaul said:

Cheers Bumblepants! Sounds like some interesting colour replacements you have there. Are you able to post pics of them? I only ask because I love seeing fellow Lego fans' work on here.

You can see two of them in a picture I posted in this thread recently: http://bricksetforum.com/discussion/24071/vehicles-for-a-modular-city#latest

Pinket Street has yet to be photographed after undergoing an attempt to install a circular window on the top floor didn't quite work.

GeordiePaul

Bumblepants - I saw them in that thread the other day. They look great! I've pretty much decided to go with alternative colours when I build mine to keep the costs down. Seeing what others like yourself have done has changed my mind because I was originally determined to stick to exact replicas.

Also, that modified Police Station as a modular looks fab. Did you buy two or three of the regular stations and combine them? My son has the regular version but it looks puny after seeing your Mega-Police Station!

Bumblepants

^I found two of that set on clearance and decided to build a modular out of them. I think it is roughly 90-95% from those sets and then spares from my loose bricks to finish it off.