2014 Modular Building (Parisian Restaurant)

Paperbackwriter · January 2014

Thanks for not starting a flame war, I just had to get my opinion of the PR out there. Maybe I went overboard on the MS comparison, but expectations weren't as high way back then. :-)

KiwiLegoMeister · January 2014

Sadly, have just foregone the Parisian Café in favour of Simpsons House #71006.

Paperbackwriter · January 2014

Right choice on going for the Simpsons House. Thought it was great when the press release came out, even better when I saw it in person at the Lego store. Having to manage my lego addiction, I will have to pass on the Simpson House.

FollowsClosely · January 2014

Paperbackwriter said:
I can't stand the PR. Keep up this praise of an undersized and under designed product, and you'll wind up with a modular building series that is more about the furniture and the minifigs than it is about the building. ... 'sigh'.....

I disagree with just about everything @Paperbackwriter complained about. I love the fact that it is a smaller structure. It adds diversity to my street. Not all city streets have massive blocky buildings! It is also a great build with a nice new color. It is top 3 (maybe #2 after GG) in my book, and I own them all.

Bosstone100 said:
...The Fire Brigade wasn't easy to add a floor.

Actually it is, and looks OK, not great.

Bosstone100 said:
...I don't know how the floors are in PR but I wonder if it's easy to add a floor or would it require a redesign.

The PR would look a bit odd I think with another floor, but believable me thinks.

mathew · January 2014

y2josh said:

And even though it's pretty easily outclassed by Fire Brigade and Palace Cinema...

My opinion the Palace Cinema has changed. I originally wasn't that impressed by it. But after looking at it a few times at the Lego store I think it will be the next modular that I purchase should I venture back into that territory again. Like others have said, it lends itself well to modifying. Whereas the Parisian Restaurant is pretty much as good as it gets. Also I can see the value in the Palace Cinema whereas PR perception wise seems to be overpriced. I haven't seen the two side by side, but it doesn't look much larger than the Winter Village Cottage.

y2josh · January 2014

mathew said:

y2josh said:

And even though it's pretty easily outclassed by Fire Brigade and Palace Cinema...
My opinion the Palace Cinema has changed. I originally wasn't that impressed by it. But after looking at it a few times at the Lego store I think it will be the next modular that I purchase should I venture back into that territory again. Like others have said, it lends itself well to modifying. Whereas the Parisian Restaurant is pretty much as good as it gets. Also I can see the value in the Palace Cinema whereas PR perception wise seems to be overpriced. I haven't seen the two side by side, but it doesn't look much larger than the Winter Village Cottage.

It's a bit larger than the cottage, and it IS packed with little details, but even sitting next to the Pet Shop, it looks small. As I mentioned, I think it's a very nice model, but I'm not sure it will have a permanent home on my 'street.'

mathew · January 2014

Regarding the Cinema are they still giving out the Lego Movie stickers? Or is it a done deal?

canuck · January 2014

Here's what PR looks like with another floor on it. (not mine)
http://www.flickr.com/photos/[email protected]/11935919755/

AFFOL_Shellz_Bellz · January 2014

Anyone besides me having an issue with the seashells not staying closed? Both of ours keep popping back open. I love the architectural details of PR. I don't find it necessary for every modular to look like it belongs with all the others. I much prefer the buildings remain architecturally and aesthetically interesting.

Briking · January 2014

^With the external staircases I'd say it'll require a bit of thought.

AFFOL_Shellz_Bellz · January 2014

I'm thinking you could do the type staircase that we see on apartment building fire escapes, but I would enlarge the patio to run the full back of the restaurant. I'll rethink it if I can talk hubby into another one! LOL, my chances aren't great considering I've done nothing with the two extra #3315 I just had to have.

oldtodd33 · April 2014

I agree with @Paperbackwriter I just finished PR yesterday and am sadly disappointed with it. It does have some very nice detail inside and out. But it is so small compared to the others, it just doesn't look right. I would rather have had less detail, especially inside where it is just a waste of bricks because you can't see them anyway and more building. My least favorite modular so far right next to MS.

vwong19 · April 2014

I finished building the PR yesterday and was pleased by the result. The like the overall look of the set and appreciate the interior details. I would put it up there with any other modular in terms of quality and price. I'd rate them as follows....
1. Pet Shop - 2 buildings!
2. Green Grocer - nice color, detail, interior
3. Parisian Restaurant - so much detail
4. Cafe Corner - no interior, but exterior is great
5. Fire Brigade - it's ok, nice truck
6. Palace Cinema - stickers really hurt it + limo?
7. Grand Emporium - repetitive, cold
8. Town Hall - expensive, but big, cold
9. Market Street - smallest, no interior

y2josh · April 2014

I guess if I were going to rank them, it would go something like this:

1) Fire Brigade - still hands down the most beautiful of the modulars, even if it is a 'generic fire station.'
2) Palace Cinema - I really love the exterior on this one, but the interior needed a bit of work, and I agree that the stickers are a shame
3) Pet Shop - Although I'm not a huge fan of the Pet Shop half, the brownstone is really nice. I kind of wish you could buy JUST the brownstone, honestly, cause my street would be littered with them at that point.
4) Town Hall - I more or less enjoy the Town Hall, but I wasn't a huge fan of the color, and the 'modern' elements like the computer don't seem to fit with the feel of the rest of the street.
5) Grand Emporium - I could really take or leave this one. I LOVE the chandelier and revolving door... but that's also all that really stands out to me on this set.
6) Parisian Restaurant - As a standalone piece, I really like this set. Connected to any of the other modulars, it looks quite bad.
7) Green Grocer - Kind of a bland looking building with only the first floor interior as a standout
8) Café Corner - I didn't really care for it when it came out, and it hasn't aged particularly well on top of that

And Market Street I don't even count, although I recognize that some people do. It would obviously be last, were I to include it.

brickupdate · April 2014

@vwong19 I think my ranking may be somewhere similar to yours (though not exact.) I too think Pet Shop is just amazing with the two-building setup, especially since one is a brownstone, something that cities have hundreds (thousands?) of. The only modular I haven't built yet is Palace Cinema, so I need to get to that soon. I sold my Market Street because it just didn't even seem to fit with the others. Thanks

klatu003 · April 2014

@‌ AFFOL_Shellz_Bellz Yes. One stayed closed, but the other was always popping open. I would walk by and close it a couple of times a day. I took it off and *really* closed it. Still popped open. Then one day it stayed closed and still is after months. I don't think I did anything different.

Pitfall69 · April 2014

brickupdate said:
@vwong19 I think my ranking may be somewhere similar to yours (though not exact.) I too think Pet Shop is just amazing with the two-building setup, especially since one is a brownstone, something that cities have hundreds (thousands?) of. The only modular I haven't built yet is Palace Cinema, so I need to get to that soon. I sold my Market Street because it just didn't even seem to fit with the others. Thanks

I agree wholeheartedly. I sold my Market Street a long time ago. I never thought it fit. I really love the Pet Shop. The fact that it is two buildings is great. You can buy multiple sets and place the Brownstones in a row and make a residential section. With some tweaks, you can make the Pet Shop into something different and place your buildings on different blocks.

Pitfall69 · April 2014

I don't know why people are constrained to just building what is in the box. It is Lego for crying out loud. How about some creativity? I love the Fire Brigade, but I'm working on a different version and large cities have many Fire Stations.

vwong19 · April 2014

I like Market Street, but the value of the set is getting to the point where I may have to sell it. $200 for the instruction book alone....? Also display space is becoming a premium.

legogal · April 2014

The Parisian Restaurant is one of the nicest mods because of all of the small details inside and out. I rank it in the top three. It is fine that it is a bit smaller on the exterior because if you look in large European cities, not all of the buildings are the same height even though they often are similar. And one can always enlarge it if that bothers him. It has so much personality and seems so much more developed than GG and CC, two of my other top three. The other mods certainly have some attractive features and are favorites of mine. Like many other folks, I don't think of Market Street as a mod and have not attempted to buy it because the design does not move me like the others. And the price is just insane. I have chosen to buy duplicates of other mods instead. Being a free world, it does not bother me one bit that others have completely different opinions of one set or another. It is cool hearing those opinions and thinking about what is said!

piratemania7 · April 2014

I joined the band wagon relatively late. Began with FB and have two of each from there on. I have everything built but the PR and I must say I am a high ranking fan of the TH. Although it's price point is higher than all others it's appealing as a central element to my block. Thereafter I agree the brown stone is awesome and may down the road find time/money to produce a couple more.

I'm mixed with Market Street. I know everyone has different opinions and although my desire to collect that versus CC or GG is far less, I may still one day BL it and see how it goes.

Xefan · April 2014

legogal said:
It is fine that it is a bit smaller on the exterior because if you look in large European cities, not all of the buildings are the same height even though they often are similar.

Agreed, currently looking out over the UK's 3rd largest city from the top of an office block and it's nearly impossible to spot two buildings that are the exact same height.

legogal · April 2014

Yup! Of the European cities I have visited, it seems that Paris is one of those that has the more level roofs, but even there, they do vary quite a bit as some have very tall interior ceilings and other have shorter ones. It seems that the wealthiest folks lived on the floors with the tallest ceilings and the poorer ones had the higher floors with lower ceilings. I adore the height limit in Central Paris because it makes everything so visible from the landmarks like the Eiffel Tower and Arc d' Triumphe.

Once you leave the core of the city, they allow tacky larger buildings, some of which look okay, like at Le Defense, but would not make a great neighbor if you lived nearby. The older buildings inside the city look so much more inviting.

In the US, I don't know of a large city with such height limits except for DC, which I also love to visit. When lost driving around there, I just look for the Washington Monument, and easily find my directions. It makes the scale of the city perfect because you usually have an idea of where you are. Life would be much better if more cities had height limits so that folks don't have to live totally within the shadow of the crass, gigantic skyscrapers being built all over NYC, etc. Buildings over about six stories scare me because it is hard to run down so many stairs in case of a fire or each quake, both of which are common in the US. A fellow named Christopher wrote an excellent book on the scale of livable buildings, and he also liked opening windows in those smaller buildings. That is one of my favorite books period.

mathew · April 2014

Having built the Palace Cinema I don't understand all of the complaining about the stickers. First, it has the most pieces of any current modular under $150. So it's a great value. The movie poster stickers are fine. They look great and I doubt printing would have looked as nice. They could have used printed pieces for the marquee but that's negligible. We all would have liked a marquee with printed alphanumeric tiles but that would have increased costs quite a bit. The only sticker I don't care for is the movie screen. But that's more about the artwork. My biggest gripe is that Lego still hasn't produced a clear insert piece for the arched window pieces.

GreenArrow57 · April 2014

mathew said:
Having built the Palace Cinema I don't understand all of the complaining about the stickers. First, it has the most pieces of any current modular under $150. So it's a great value. The movie poster stickers are fine. They look great and I doubt printing would have looked as nice. They could have used printed pieces for the marquee but that's negligible. We all would have liked a marquee with printed alphanumeric tiles but that would have increased costs quite a bit. The only sticker I don't care for is the movie screen. But that's more about the artwork. My biggest gripe is that Lego still hasn't produced a clear insert piece for the arched window pieces.

I totally agree! I like the stickers, it's a challenge to get them on squarely.
I too would like to see inserts for the arched window parts as they look a bit odd without them.

piratemania7 · April 2014

I'm just not putting the stickers on my PC. : )

Wil348 · April 2014

Stickers are better in sine cases, say if you had to apply them to a rare or interesting part, you can remove the sticker and use it elsewhere. It's also cheaper to print stickers than print parts.

Briking · April 2014

^^ I'm glad I'm not the only one!

CCC · April 2019

CCC said:

Yet another set where they throw away perfectly good food. We need some proper lego rubbish. Maybe fish bones since fish often seem to end up in the bins.

It is about five and a half years later, and still LEGO is wasting food:

Image: https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-eHuDC3_B1_E/XL4_uH4oyOI/AAAAAAAAGsI/oVOAkYsfGY4wnJKGRsATj1TfRxBwtIL7wCLcBGAs/s1600/41379-Heartlake-City-Restaurant-main-set.jpg

M1J0E · April 2019

Impressive find relating to such an old thread! Maybe they should’ve used this sticking out of the dumpster instead? https://brickset.com/parts/design-92691 I actually never knew a long bone existed before.

Astrobricks · April 2019

M1J0E said:

Impressive find relating to such an old thread! Maybe they should’ve used this sticking out of the dumpster instead? https://brickset.com/parts/design-92691 I actually never knew a long bone existed before.

Perfect for a Bones or CSI MOC :)

560Heliport · April 2019

^ That's what I thought when I pictured one of those sticking out of the dumpster- "That looks like a human thigh bone- call the police!" And "I'm not sure I want to eat there..."

SumoLego · May 2019

And an abnormally long leg bone, to boot. Welcome to the Zombie Thread Resurrection Club!

The dumpster with the Kwik-E Mart is best version.

2014 Modular Building (Parisian Restaurant)

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