Grand Emporium Billboard

burnside

I just bought the Grand Emporium and was thinking of adding a hat to the minifig in the billboard. I attached an image of the difference between the original billboard and the proposed mod. Which do you think looks better, A or B?

Thanks!

starfire2

A

samiam391

I like the hat, other billboard is to plain, hat adds character!

burnside

Thanks guys. I'm leaning to adding the hat too. I wonder why LEGO didn't add a hat. Maybe the height of the set would be too high?

samiam391

Probably, Lego most likely would have had to heighten the sign or something like that so as to increase the stability of the hat on the top. Either that or LEGO wasn't bright enough to add the hat as an extra touch and never thought of the idea in the first place! Either way, props to you for the nice "customization"!

Blue1dot

cute! I'll have to remember that when I finally build mine.

richo

I like it, nice addition.

burnside

@samiam391 Agreed. Probably a height issue.

I bought the Green Grocer on Craigslist for $230 a couple weeks ago. After putting it together I was kind of surprised there was only a rug, fireplace, and a grandfathers clock for the interior of the upper 2 floors. I'm already adding some more furniture to fill in the space. In goes a kitchen, chair w/ coffee table, bed w/dresser, piano, a hall table with lamp, and some wall frames for good measure. Still waiting for the parts from BL, but everything should help make GG a more complete set.

prof1515

People don't wear hats in most ads including billboards. That's why they didn't likely bother to add one. Had nothing to do stability or lack of thought on Lego's part.

samiam391

People don't wear hats in most ads including billboards. That's why they didn't likely bother to add one. Had nothing to do stability or lack of thought on Lego's part.

It adds creativity, LEGO could have added it in as an "option" or something. Either way, you still have to admit the addition looks great!
Btw, since this is a modular thread, anyone interested in a LEGO Cafe Corner?

samiam391

@samiam391 Agreed. Probably a height issue.

I bought the Green Grocer on Craigslist for $230 a couple weeks ago.

^That's a win.

prof1515

People don't wear hats in most ads including billboards. That's why they didn't likely bother to add one. Had nothing to do stability or lack of thought on Lego's part.

It adds creativity, LEGO could have added it in as an "option" or something. Either way, you still have to admit the addition looks great!
Btw, since this is a modular thread, anyone interested in a LEGO Cafe Corner?

Thing is that it doesn't really add much by way of creativity. The billboard itself is a creative touch. A hat is just be extra bricks. People take the word "creativity" a bit far sometimes.

samiam391

Thing is that it doesn't really add much by way of creativity. The billboard itself is a creative touch. A hat is just be extra bricks. People take the word "creativity" a bit far sometimes.

Extra bricks as in.. say what, 20 or so bricks? Which is an additional 2$ by LEGO standards? Lets just both agree it's a nice touch, and leave it at that ;-)

prof1515

I wasn't commenting in regard to cost, I was commenting in regard to a hat (or lack thereof) not really constituting creativity.

Odindusk

Nice indirect shot at the OP. "Your hat isn't creative at all. It's just extra bricks. You fail at life."

samiam391

Well ok.. whatever you want to think about the hat is fine by me! In my opinion though...
@burnside Good work!

DaddyWhale

I think that adding furniture inside is great. It's what I'm hoping to do with CC, GG and (more difficult) MS.

With respect to the top hat: my reservation is that the happy face without hat is kind of an iconic minifigure head. The hat takes away from that...

burnside

@samiam391 I know, $230 for a GG I just couldn't pass up. Thanks for the compliments too.

@prof1515 The main reason why I added the hat was because the LEGO minifig head looked odd to me. If it was rounder somehow, I think I would have left it. I don't get your comment on creativity; I used my imagination and implemented it. How is that not being creative, lol?

@DaddyWhale Yeah, those early modulars are so bare that they need some interior mods. I think FB really did a great job with the interior fixtures and it has been pretty good since then. I was going to add a basketball hoop to the back wall of the FB but opted to just leave it alone.

I think with GE I'm going to make some wall shelving. I saw one person expand on the exterior of GE with another entrance, looked very good. May have to do that mod at some point.

prof1515

Nice indirect shot at the OP. "Your hat isn't creative at all. It's just extra bricks. You fail at life."

Getting a bit tired of people misattributing, either deliberately or out of ignorance, the meaning of my comments for whatever reason they have. However, let's look at my comment.

Thing is that it doesn't really add much by way of creativity.

Where does that say it's not creative? I was replying to someone else's comment, not the original poster's and was simply saying that it's not much by way of adding creativity to include pieces for an optional hat.

The billboard itself is a creative touch. A hat is just be extra bricks.

Again, adding pieces for a hat doesn't constitute creativity, just an option. Having a choice isn't really being that creative. In fact, you could say the original poster displayed creativity by doing something that WASN'T part of the set. Including the pieces however would have negated the creativity in coming up with the change itself.

People take the word "creativity" a bit far sometimes.

Again, where am I attacking the original poster? Where was I even mentioning the original poster? My response points out the general overuse of words to attribute "creativity" to pretty much the smallest and most insignificant thing. It's like sportswriters calling athletes "heroic" for playing games. There's nothing heroic about it. Words have meaning and using them in a haphazardly fashion dilutes the meaning to the point of becoming worthless.

tdhbr

I like the hat. Maybe it could use a red "ribbon" or other spot of color? What if it were cocked to the side a little, sort of mirroring the angle of the present?

Odindusk

Again, where am I attacking the original poster?

You didn't. That's why I called it an indirect shot. However, you're implying that his addition isn't creative, whether that was your intention or not. Simple as that. It's in your delivery man. You're a smart guy prof but some of the things you say translate poorly in a forum setting. I just felt inclined to stand up for the OP's work because I think it was a nice touch, and you deemed it necessary to step in here just to lay down a comment that is roughly equivalent to, "LEGO didn't add a hat because it's not a good idea." Couldn't your day have passed just fine without saying that?

Odindusk

Arg, I keep referring to Burnside as a he. That's a poor default assumption of mine when it comes to people that I don't know on a forum. Sorry if you're a chick! heh.

Odindusk

PS - sorry Prof, bad day. I don't usually get into these things with people.

Si_UKNZ

I love that everyones arguing about adding a hat to lego billboard. I honestly laughed out loud reading this :)

My personal addition to the cumulative knowledge of the universe is "hats are good"

princedraven

"hats are good"

Bet, Fez's are cool!

luckyruss

similar to beards - particularly in my office at least.

Hey, the face would look pretty cool with some stubble as well as the hat!

LostInTranslation

^ A twirly 'tache would be nice too.

mr_benn

And a monocle! It could basically be advertising that it's a shop for nefarious Victorian era villains.

goosebogey

Sounds like it's gonna turn into this guy... http://www.brickset.com/minifigs/?m=adv025

mobricki

Btw, since this is a modular thread, anyone interested in a LEGO Cafe Corner?

Yes I am interested please email me at [email protected]

mathew

Having just built GE, I like the billboard just as it is. Billboards, at least here in the states are typically rectangular anyway.

One thing I did do is decorate the 2nd and 3rd floors. For the third floor I added the MF and tie fighter microships, Santa Yoda and the Christmas tree from the 2011 Advent Calendar. Made the "Grand Emporium" a much more interesting place to visit.