MOC: my Bricklinked Modular Green Grocer

hello gang,

i've embarked on another modular mission. i have built a coloured modified Cafe Corner, and a Market Street because im not rich enough to buy them MISB. i have all the modulars currently released except 1, the green grocer. in the last 12 months since i have returned to lego, it has been climbing in price steadily, and i think in another 2yrs time a MISB 10185 will probably break the $1000 price tag.

here are my modulars at the moment:


(as of 25.1.13)
cheapest used/BL fake: $429 USD (no box), cheapest Sealed set (that will ship to Oz) $600 USD, then add Shipping!

i still want to complete the collection in some way or form, now with a new cinema being released, i decided on the alternative: BRICKLINK!

Unlike my colour modified CC and MS, i have decided to go the 100% identical Green Grocer this time.

step 1: research.
i DL'd the instructions from lego.com and have saved them to my tablet. i went to bricklink and printed an inventory list of all the parts, and then decided to use what i have first. i went through my large brick collection to see how much i could save. i think i had about 600 or so of the necessary parts (including some of the rare and unique parts by coincidence), and put them aside in it's own bucket.


step 2: Bricklink
the rest has to come from here. im still new to this, learning for the first time how to do business when i had to obtain parts for my Cafe Corner. I only shopped in Australia for the CC, but this time it has been a worldwide hunt for parts.
the end result was 7 orders from around the world. New York, Utah, San Diego, Bavaria, London, Wellington NZ, and Denver, totalling $300.. i can live without box or instructions

so far 3 of the 7 shipments have arrived... Utah, Colorado and NZ.. 11 days travel time is pretty good so far

will add more pics as they arrive/ start building

I am just beginning to do this for Cafe Corner. I have an inventory of the bricks i need and have gone thru my brick collection to find bricks i already have (not with as much success as it seems you had tho ). I have also priced the missing bricks thru pick-a-brick as the shipping from Lego.com is a standard $35 no matter how much you are shipping, so i figured i may as well price the bricks there as well as Bricklink to see if there would be any save on postage. I have yet to commit to an order on BL or lego.com (still researching and lack of funds) but i am very interested in a) how your building of CC went and b) how your GG will go (as GG was the next modular i planned to do depending on my success with CC). As someone who has just got back into it all recently, i am relatively new to BL. How did you go about sourcing the best deals in BL? Did you simply search each brick and look for best price/quantity? or is there a better/easier/less painstaking way to do that??? Any help much appreciated :D

timmyC: the CC topic is in this subforum
https://aussielegofans.forummotion.com/t923-moc-my-cafe-corner-and-market-street

Thanks very much Jig

UPDATE

well, most of the Orders are here. i have gone through my inventory lists and i have about 90% of the content here and ready. i went with a balance of cost and simplicity and went with a total of 7 shipments to start with, then 2 more additional ones

(pic will be added shortly)

hurdles: i had a dodgy BL store experience with a store in NYC. the guy has some rare parts (biggest supply in the world of this part), and is very poorly running the store. his order was my first in all of this, and it only left yesterday.. all the other orders are here and ready. his store was banned from trading last week, i pulled a paypal threat on him due to him not acknowledging my payment, (the threat made him jerk into action)... he will not be getting a good rating from me.

so, today i went through the 5 page inventory and realised i have missed ordering some parts. it's been a month since i started this project, and now this happens!

so, my 10th order is about to be made.... i might actually see how far i can build as well.

still waiting on the NYC order to commence

I have the greatest respect for those who build and create modular buildings so I'm really looking forward to see this build take place.

im still waiting for last orders to arrive, but i have enough to start. i can only go as far as the ground floor:



meanwhile, im rebuilding my red Market st to have a yellow twin brother

Wow! I've certainly considered doing something similar, but it will be very interesting to see this take shape. Now I have a job, things like this are more possible for me.

Looks great so far.

keep us up to date.

Awesome thread, thanks for sharing. I look forward to your next posts. I will one day try and do this as I missed all the retire modulars as well, I only started collecting again last year. Can anyone remind me which Modular is retired next? I need to start getting them first.

The ground floor is looking good. Whenever I see modular buildings photographed on forums I find myself wishing I was two inches tall so I could go through all the doorways and explore.

Ajax wrote: Can anyone remind me which Modular is retired next? I need to start getting them first.

get the Fire Station and Grand Emporium ASAP... Fire Station is end of line now i believe... GE will not be far behind.

Very impressive 'Jig' :D it must be so satisfying. I can't wait to get my Cafe Corner going, but i only have about 25% of the pieces so far, i'm between jobs so buying is a problem, even tho i have plenty of time to build very frustrating.

But your Green Grocer is looking great!! I will be keening keeping watch :D

I'm intrigued you've managed 90% of the bricks with only 10 Bricklink orders. I have made 2 BL already for my CC, and it's looking like many more. Would this be because some of the pieces are rarer in CC.....?

here is the latest pics: 1st floor is 'temporarily' completed:


this is what i mean by temporary:

this kit is meant to have sand green 1x2 grooved bricks on the front of it... these are not common bricks and they cost a small fortune, as there is only 2 sets that use them (GG and Diagon Alley). i have purchased them in the quantity i require from a store in NY a long time ago... it was the first BL order i made.

well, it's now 6 weeks since that order was made, and all the other orders have already arrived from all over the world and this one has still not arrived... the reason is the seller took a month to send them. this store has been the most painful experience in my lego life. in fact, what i did was made some backup orders for parts for GG from other stores, and part of that backup plan was standard sand green 1x2 bricks... the backup orders have also arrived long before the original order was sent.

so.. that's why it's temporary. im sick of waiting, and im using the standard bricks until the grooved ones arrive (possibly when hell freezes over). if they are not here within another 2 weeks.....

i dont think it's a big deal, but eh?

it's 99% finished. i need 10 small parts for greebling to complete it. the last pics i might put up will be when i rebuild it with the proper grooved bricks (if and when they arrive)... thanks for joining me on the ride:

my BL'd Green Grocer:
10 Orders, total cost: AUD$320







build: i find it as one of the best Modulars i have ever built. the ground floor is the best in the range, the outside architecture is great. it's perfectly balanced between beauty and complexity. the colour scheme is unique as well. the window sill is not as good as PS's brown townhouse IMO.

looking forward to adding the Palace Cinema in a couple of months

A really good looking build that's turned out great never mind the lack of those grooved sand green bricks.

I'm going to have to watch myself or else I'll end up being swayed from rural small town NZ subjects and want to do streets with rows of Victorian modulars instead.

Its really awesome, congrat's. If you made a few modifications to the ground floor and a few colour changes to this design it would make a great haunted house.

i got the grooved bricks today!



i added them to the facade as originally designed:



so now it is 100% complete! (here it is with the rest of them)

Yes it does look better with the grooved bricks. Well worth the trouble of getting hold of them IMHO.

Im so jealous of all those modulars, Im terrible saving money and soon as I save $50 - $100 I buy smaller lego sets or dinosaurs (my other passion). Even this morning I had saved $80 on my paypal account (saving for my first modular) by selling old dinosaurs etc and I just spent it on Non Modular stuff. Im so annoyed with myself, back to square one...again.

A warning to old Dinosaurs, - don't go near Ajax's house or you will get sold.

La, I will have to stay away.

Jigsaw, well done; you have a great set-up there.