Home› Building and Techniques
Shopping at LEGO or Amazon?
Please use our links: LEGO.com • Amazon
As an Amazon Associate we earn from qualifying purchases.

Custom Modular Instructions

drewsbudrewsbu Member Posts: 28
edited March 2012 in Building and Techniques
I see a lot of instructions and part lists for sale on ebay for custom modulars. Has anyone ever bought those instructions and how much did it end up costing you in parts? I am looking to get this. http://www.ebay.com/itm/Lego-Custom-City-Police-Station-modular-INSTRUCTIONS-/270727363053?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item3f089bb9ed

Should I stay away from these?

Thanks
«1

Comments

  • LegoboyLegoboy Member Posts: 8,827
    edited January 2012
    Another Brickset member bought a set and provided me a copy. The quality of the modular (Town Hall) design as well as the clarity of the instructions was very very good imo.

    However, having input the required list of elements into Bricklink, the total came to around £300-400 (I think). The built set was about 6,000 pieces so cost per part wasn't excessively high, but still alot for a 'moc'.

    All I would say, is that you must check the availability and price of some of the rarer parts before you start buying the elements blind.
  • wagnerml2wagnerml2 Member Posts: 1,376
    @flump6523 - I was thinking of getting a few of these as well. Did the CD come with a parts list? The website doesn't say.
  • LegoboyLegoboy Member Posts: 8,827
    It did include a 'parts list' but better than that actually, the cd also included a text file of which you copy and pasted into Bricklink. It created a whole new 'Wanted List' for the parts required.
  • CoolsplashCoolsplash Member Posts: 935
    Isn't there a free Lego forum where you can get custom instructions? I can pay money for these as some of the sellers also provide sticker sheets which makes paying worthwhile. Just a thought.
  • drewsbudrewsbu Member Posts: 28
    Isn't there a free Lego forum where you can get custom instructions? I can pay money for these as some of the sellers also provide sticker sheets which makes paying worthwhile. Just a thought.

    Please point me to that forum. I tried searching for the forum, but could not find what you speak of.
  • skherbeckskherbeck Member Posts: 33
    I bought instructions from the same designer above (Brickcitydepot.com) for a Train Station... while it was expensive to part out, it was simple on Bricklink, and the instructions were flawless. The finished product sits proudly in my city along with my train layout and modulars. Highly recommended! (I also parted out Market St and Cafe Corner on Bricklink with just a few color substitutions... definitely less expensive than buying new sets on the aftermarket!
    c666187
  • tk79tk79 Member Posts: 329
    edited January 2012
    I bought instructions from the same designer above (Brickcitydepot.com) for a Train Station... while it was expensive to part out, it was simple on Bricklink, and the instructions were flawless. The finished product sits proudly in my city along with my train layout and modulars. Highly recommended! (I also parted out Market St and Cafe Corner on Bricklink with just a few color substitutions... definitely less expensive than buying new sets on the aftermarket!
    Do you mind if I ask apprx how much it cost to part out on BL?

    ...assuming this is the train station? Link

  • drewsbudrewsbu Member Posts: 28
    I wish that guy on brickcitydepot.com would list approx build price, or piece count. I kinda want to stay away from the moc sets that have rare elements. I do not want to pay $10-$20 for one element.
  • pcironepcirone Member Posts: 346
    I wish that guy on brickcitydepot.com would list approx build price, or piece count. I kinda want to stay away from the moc sets that have rare elements. I do not want to pay $10-$20 for one element.
    Well with these sets more than ever you don't have to follow the instructions exactly, substitute pieces and colors to your hearts content to make it as inexpensive as you want. Don't want to spend $10 on a blue arch? Make it a 10 cent white arch. Or make it a 2 cent 1 x 8 brick. It's a MOC.
    madforLEGO
  • iElkieiElkie Member Posts: 9
    Coincidentally, I purchased a set of instructions from brickcitydepot.com earlier today. I agree that it would be helpful to know some details about the parts upfront, but I understand why these builders prefer not to provide them. However, I did inquire with this builder before buying and he very kindly replied that "We try to stick to parts that are widely available on Bricklink. We have goofed a few times and used parts that were a little rarer than we'd like, but 99% of the parts we use are easily attainable".

    The parts list, xml file and instructions I then received were very well done.
  • jonboy2000jonboy2000 Member Posts: 259
    I bought some instructions from the guy in the Netherlands just to see what they were like (the corner blue building). Whilst the overall model was nice I wasn't very impressed with the build style. The floors for each level were just large plate, over large plate, over large plate (an excessive amount IMO) rather than just plates supported buy 2 wide plates (like in lego modulars). Also the 2 back walls of the building were mainly built in 1x2x5 bricks in some quite rare colour (I forget which). These walls could easily (and should have been IMO) have been built in 1x4, 1x6 or 1x8 bricks which are readily available from bricklink or PAB walls (if you live near a store).
  • htranhtran Member Posts: 38
    I bought many lego custom modular buildings from ebay. The best 2 are:

    fbmodels (Rory Arche) and miran0620 (Miran Pris)
    fbmodels
    http://www.ebay.com/sch/fbmodels/m.html?hash=item43adf4b6d3&item=290681304787&pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&_trksid=p4340.l2562

    miran0620
    http://www.ebay.com/sch/miran0620/m.html?hash=item3a6e4fb154&item=250958819668&pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&_trksid=p4340.l2562

    I have all of miran0620 and many fbmodels plus others.
    I just completed/99% of the Victoria Gothic House, over 21000+ pieces. This is so far the largest, most detail and expensive custom modular building I have. The cost is over $1000+ to built and a couple of months. Pictures will be upload soon plus others. I did the Cake Shop, Hardware store, Small park and this giantic Victoria Gothic House from fbmodels. I have the Road, Flower Shop, Large Park and other from fbmodels but have not start yet. Cake Shop is another expensive model, I spend close to $1000 and it's very detailed as well, interior as well as the exterior.

    Miran0620 is another great seller on ebay with many wonderful custom modular buildings. The Spanish Modular is roughly $300-$500 each and the same for the Wax Museum. I combined all the Spanish modular together so it's very dificult to determine the cost for each but Miran0620 has the estimated cost on the part list.

    I am planning on building the Star Wars Ewok village next from fbmodels but it looks very costly and lot of space for display. If anyone has the ewok village, please post some pictures and cost.

    I am also looking for other custom modular building. Any comment or recommendation will be greatly appreciated.
  • htranhtran Member Posts: 38
    edited March 2012
    I am looking for custom modular instructions. I got most or all of the good instructions available on ebay. These are what I have. Let me know if you have any better instructions and how to get them.
  • samiam391samiam391 Member Posts: 4,506
    ^Incredibly impressive modular collection. Have you tried stephenvw on eBay? He has several modular instructions that are quite nice and incredibly cheap.
    Cheers,
  • effalconeffalcon Member Posts: 71
    edited March 2012
    holy crap...

    that collection makes the original modulars look like junk
  • graphitegraphite Member Posts: 3,275
    lol.. the 1x2 tiles for the roof on the Victorian are crazy.
  • YellowcastleYellowcastle Administrator, Moderator Posts: 5,234
    @htran - please feel free to reattach your pics as they did not follow the merge. Thanks.
  • htranhtran Member Posts: 38
    Here are some custom modular that I have.
  • OdinduskOdindusk Member Posts: 763
    @htran

    Have you by chance bought/built "Gothic Flower Shop" from fbmodels? Really curious about that one.

    Thanks for the pics.
  • htranhtran Member Posts: 38
    I bought both Gothic Flower and Cake shop as well as many others from fbmodels. Flower shop and Cake shop are very similar so I decided to built the Cake shop instead. Fbmodels are very well detailed from the interior to exterior and fully furnished.
  • OdinduskOdindusk Member Posts: 763
    I see you did mention that in your previous post - sorry for overlooking. The cake shop looks really nice!
  • LegobrandonCPLegobrandonCP Member Posts: 1,917
    Wow it must take a lot of work and determination to acquire all those pieces needed for a model.
  • Russell844Russell844 Member Posts: 2,482
    I bought the Chinese Restaurant instructions from brickcitydepot. How do you put the parts list in Bricklink so it generates a separate wanted list?
  • graphitegraphite Member Posts: 3,275
    edited March 2012
    ^ What format does the list come in? Typically you have to create a new wanted list first and use the ID (next to the wanted list name in your profile) in the XML tag WANTEDLISTID for each item.
  • htranhtran Member Posts: 38
    The Gothic Victoria House contains 21,256 elements. The roof has 1,856 back tile 1x2. It's amazing and very big, 16x32 baseplate x12 and 32x32 baseplate x3.
  • parkerwilsonparkerwilson Member Posts: 142
    The Gothic Victoria House contains 21,256 elements. The roof has 1,856 back tile 1x2. It's amazing and very big, 16x32 baseplate x12 and 32x32 baseplate x3.
    Is it even movable?
  • htranhtran Member Posts: 38
    Very big and difficult to move.
  • bluedragonbluedragon Member Posts: 506
    edited August 2012
    @htran
    htran said:

    I just completed/99% of the Victoria Gothic House, over 21000+ pieces. This is so far the largest, most detail and expensive custom modular building I have. The cost is over $1000+ to built and a couple of months.

    Hi htran,

    I also built the cake shop and bought the instructions for the gothic house. I must congratulate you on the gothic house build!!

    I am planning to build it but would like to have a better sense of the cost involved. From your post it looks like the cost of the cake shop and the gothic house were not too far apart. Can you please estimate as well as possible how much the $1000+ was?

    You also mention that you completed 99%. Was that due to the high cost of rare parts or a personal decision?

    Finally, and I apologize for the abuse, would you be willing to share your bricklink wanted list for the gothic house and/or an excel file? It would be extremely helpful!! When I open the .txt file provided in excel, some of the tabs are in the wrong places so it needs a lot of formatting.

    Thanks for any help you can offer!!
  • ChanMcLChanMcL Member Posts: 1,224
    I'm after some mini modular custom instructions, anyone can help?
  • bluedragonbluedragon Member Posts: 506
    ChanMcL said:

    I'm after some mini modular custom instructions, anyone can help?

    I found this one on ebay:
    http://www.ebay.com/itm/LEGO-Custom-Modular-Mini-Pet-Shop-10218-Instructions-Only-10230-/170897363980?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item27ca46d40c#ht_5104wt_1304
  • ChanMcLChanMcL Member Posts: 1,224
    bluedragon said:

    ChanMcL said:

    I'm after some mini modular custom instructions, anyone can help?

    I found this one on ebay:
    http://www.ebay.com/itm/LEGO-Custom-Modular-Mini-Pet-Shop-10218-Instructions-Only-10230-/170897363980?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item27ca46d40c#ht_5104wt_1304
    I found this on eBay too

    http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Lego-Custom-4-Mini-Modular-Buildings-Bank-Chilis-INSTRUCTIONS-ONLY-10230-/270991404984?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item3f1858afb8#ht_4748wt_1076

    But the thing is, I dont really want to pay that much for it. Possibly half of it.
  • The_Brick_BuilderThe_Brick_Builder Member Posts: 658
    I'm trying to find the custom huge modular Town Hall instructions. Does anyone know where to find it? He used to sell it on eBay, but I can't seem to find it anywhere now.
  • LegobrandonCPLegobrandonCP Member Posts: 1,917
    ^ Is it this TH? http://www.flickr.com/photos/24588874@N08/sets/72157629161141716/detail/
  • Russell844Russell844 Member Posts: 2,482
    ^^ I think I have the instructions you are talking about.
  • The_Brick_BuilderThe_Brick_Builder Member Posts: 658
    ^^ No, thanks for looking though! I found a tiny pic here. http://thumbs4.ebaystatic.com/m/mgJ54NznKuU1d50FeoRxMRg/140.jpg
  • The_Brick_BuilderThe_Brick_Builder Member Posts: 658
    ^^^ If they are the ones I'm looking for, great! Would there be a charge or something?
  • bmwlegobmwlego Member Posts: 820
    ChanMcL
    Mini modular custom instructions for an amazing movie theater and diner my friend and LUGmate Jon built can be found at ILUGNY.org and then click on the LDD link.
    Hope this helps.
    Or you can just follow this link
    http://www.ilugny.org/ldd/
  • Russell844Russell844 Member Posts: 2,482
    @The_Brick_Builder , I believe that is the one. Thing is, they aren't my design, so I am not comfortable with distributing them. Plus the files total almost 400MB in size, so it cannot just be emailed off.
  • htranhtran Member Posts: 38
    bluedragon..

    The cost for the Victoria Gothic House is approximately $2300-$2500. There are few rare parts (green whip for the tree...) Gothic House is by far the best modular building.

    Recommendation for this Gothic House:
    1. Money
    2. Display space
    3. Time

    This is a very large modular building make sure you have the space for it and very difficult to move once it's finished. I am starting to break it up and put it away due to the space.

    Fbmodels create many modular buildings but he does not have the xml file and was painful to create/convert to xml from txt. The zip file included the exel I created from the txt and xml file. Please verify all the pieces and if there are any correction, let me know. I have many other modular building instructions. I will post some pictures soon. Good luck, have fun and let me know if you have any questions.
  • ChanMcLChanMcL Member Posts: 1,224
    @bmwlego

    Do you know any more like those??
  • bluedragonbluedragon Member Posts: 506
    @htran
    thanks for the files and the tips ;-)! I am still finishing the cake shop and it will be a while before I get to this- I seem to play more with duplo these days as I have a 2 year old...

    I may cut the size of the garden making it more compact and easier to lift (but still difficult, I'm sure) and cutting a bit of the cost by eliminating the 2 large trees.

    It will be difficult to hide the parts from my wife once they start coming in!

    Thanks again!
  • ChoochChooch Member Posts: 148
    Going along these same eBay listings, has anyone tried these Kindle eBook instructions?
    amazon.com/Build-Cute-Cream-Shop-ebook/dp/B007C4WJOM/ref=sr_1_2?s=digital-text&ie=UTF8&qid=1345674763&sr=1-2
    I'm curious if they are any good - looks like they just came out this year.
  • htranhtran Member Posts: 38
    bluedragon...

    What other custom modular buildings do you have or planning to built?
  • bmwlegobmwlego Member Posts: 820
    @ChanMcL
    The Instructions I linked to on ILUGNY.org are the only ones I know of other than the eBay listings mentioned here already.
  • bluedragonbluedragon Member Posts: 506
    htran,

    from fbmodels I have bought the American brownstone terrace and the City terrace 2 (I actually have the parts for the 1st one):

    http://www.ebay.com/itm/American-Brownstone-Terrace-Instructions-Custom-Modular-Building-Set-City-/290764594363?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item43b2eb9cbb#ht_2011wt_1400
    and
    http://www.ebay.com/itm/City-Terrace-2-Modular-Instructions-Custom-House-Street-Light-Building-Set-Town-/300767741230?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item460727852e#ht_2830wt_1400

    I also bought the instructions for the Mercy general hospital:

    http://www.brickbuilderspro.com/mercy-general-pdf-instructions/

    I am just not sure what's next... it is an expensive hobby!
  • bmwlegobmwlego Member Posts: 820
    @htran
    How was the siding on the gray house in the picture with the Pet Shop constructed? Is that all light blay cheese slopes?
  • htranhtran Member Posts: 38
    bluedragon...

    I have the American Brownstone Terrace and City Terrace 2 and 2 of each. I have all of fbmodels and miran0602. Many custom modular building from hectorxd.

    Hectorxd
    http://www.ebay.com/itm/Lego-Custom-Modular-Building-Corner-Shop-Apartments-INSTRUCTIONS-ONLY-10182-/270905592133?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item3f133b4945

    All three modular from sabriyo:
    http://www.ebay.com/itm/Custom-Lego-Modular-Building-Instructions-003-Hospital-/270780780503?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_2&hash=item3f0bcacfd7

    Many others from ebay. Normally I deal with them for a package deal of all the instructions I like.

    Here is a good site for free custom moc instructions
    Rebrickable:
    http://rebrickable.com/mocs

    I also have many custom super car:
    Lamborghini Countach
    Crowkillers.com
    Monster Truck
    Lego Technic Racers Vector
    Little Red Devil remote control car (best of all...free on rebrickable)

    I will post more pictures in a few days. You are right, this is a very expensive hobby.
  • htranhtran Member Posts: 38
    bmwlego...

    I use the Pet Shop along with the Victoria Gothic House for the comparison of the two.
  • bluedragonbluedragon Member Posts: 506
    @htran
    Wow, that is quite the collection! The fbmodels houses look pretty good side by side- I can't wait!
  • ChanMcLChanMcL Member Posts: 1,224
    http://www.flickr.com/photos/moctown/7598797306/

    Can anyone help me find a part list and instruction for this??

    I Can't seems to find anything on it.
Sign In or Register to comment.

Shopping at LEGO.com or Amazon?

Please use our links: LEGO.com • Amazon

Recent discussions • Categories • Privacy Policy • Brickset.com

Howdy, Stranger!

It looks like you're new here. Sign in or register to get started.

Sign In Register

Categories

Brickset.com is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, the Amazon.com.ca, Inc. Associates Program and the Amazon EU Associates Programme, which are affiliate advertising programs designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to Amazon.

As an Amazon Associate we earn from qualifying purchases.