Aloha

[cubfan78]

Hello,

I just thought I would take a quick minute to introduce myself. My name is James, I currently live in HI and just recently got back into Lego's after many years removed from my youth.

My spark was reignited when I starting buying Duplo sets for my now 3 year old daughter. It started in November when I bought both the Holiday Toy Shop and Santa's Work Shop. I really enjoyed putting those two sets together and felt a void when I packed them away until next Christmas. I then went out and bought a couple of the Creator 3 in 1 sets and put those together and set them on a shelf. My wife was not happy that I put those "Mini Modulars" in front of some pictures and wanted me to find a more permanent location. 

At this point I decided that I wanted to try and work on a Lego City (more like a town). I was on the fence on whether or not I wanted to commit to buying the full size modulars. The one's that were available were really not that appealing to me with the exception of the Palace Cinema and the Pet Shop. I do like several of the retired sets but I am not ready to pony up the cash for those sets, not to mention that I am going to be moving back to the mainland in the next two years.

For now I have decided to stick with the Creator 3 in 1 line, working on a small town. In the last couple months I have bought 3 corner Deli's, 3 Toy and Grocery sets, 2 Beach Hut's, 2 Bike and Cafe Shops, Lakeside Lodge, Changing Seasons house, Apple Tree House, Tree House, a few vehicles and some baseplates. I am in the process of putting all these sets together. I have a rough Idea of how I want the layout to look. I am going to group the buildings together to form one or two streets. Like something you might see in the downtown area of a small or historic town. I am going to add houses to round out the small town feel. I am leaning toward adding a beach and a park but am going to skip adding a train or any kind of Marina. I want to try and keep the small town feel to this build, so for now I am going to leave out the bigger modular buildings. I am also going to build roads instead of using the road plates because I think they are too big for these smaller Creator 3 in 1 buildings. I am on the fence on about adding the Ferris Wheel and the Fairground mixer but I think they might make nice additions to my small town down by the bay.

After I am done building all the mini mods, I might try my hand at some MOCs for a police and fire station primarily because I hate the look of the sets offered by Lego in the City series. At some point in the distant future I will probably want to add the bigger buildings, it will just depend on how much space I have and if I want to commit to buying some of the retired sets. For now I am happy with just the some Creator 3 in 1 sets. I like the fact that I can buy three of them and build 3 separate buildings and have some parts left over to go in my brick stash.

I just had my first pick-a-brick experience just a couple days ago and drove my wife nuts when I spent 30 minutes stacking the bricks so I could maximize the value of those cups. the selection at the Honolulu Lego store was pretty disappointing, they did not have any tile pieces at all, which is what I went there looking for. However, I did still manage to fill up two cups. I still would like to get about 500 2x2 and 4x2 tile pieces but don't want to pay the crazy price from the Lego Shop online. Where do most of you buy your tiles from?

I know that this site focuses on the Lego as an investment but it seems like the forum also has pretty decent discussions for guys like me who just want to build. 

I look forward to learning a ton and sharing my renewed love of Lego's. 

James

 

[TheOrcKing]

I always loved how the abbreviation for Hawaii is HI just like the word as if the place was waving a friendly hello to everyone. Welcome to the site, James.
 

11 hours ago, cubfan78 said:

I know that this site focuses on the Lego as an investment but it seems like the forum also has pretty decent discussions for guys like me who just want to build.

A few people only invest while most here do enjoy the occasional build (custom or official). There should be plenty of topics such as techniques & examples to find under our building category with more stuff being added all the time.
 

11 hours ago, cubfan78 said:

After I am done building all the mini mods, I might try my hand at some MOCs for a police and fire station primarily because I hate the look of the sets offered by Lego in the City series. For now I am happy with just the some Creator 3 in 1 sets. I like the fact that I can buy three of them and build 3 separate buildings and have some parts left over to go in my brick stash.

Good luck with your custom police and fire station projects, and the Creator houses are favorites of mine for the same reasons.

[Guest brickcrazyhouse]

11 hours ago, cubfan78 said:

 

After I am done building all the mini mods, I might try my hand at some MOCs for a police and fire station primarily because I hate the look of the sets offered by Lego in the City series. 

11 hours ago, cubfan78 said:

I still would like to get about 500 2x2 and 4x2 tile pieces but don't want to pay the crazy price from the Lego Shop online. Where do most of you buy your tiles from?

 

Do you have an idea of the buildings base dementions you were thinking about?

 

And for tiles I'ld try https://www.bricklink.com/index.asp

[cubfan78]

Thanks guys for the nice welcome! 

7 minutes ago, brickcrazyhouse said:

Do you have an idea of the buildings base dementions you were thinking about?

 

And for tiles I'ld try https://www.bricklink.com/index.asp

 

Not much bigger than creator the 3-1 buildings, probably something is 14-16 x 10-12 studs. I don't want them to look out of place with these smaller buildings.

I will have to check brick link out, thanks!

[lobo1969]

Welcome!

[agp548]

On April 17, 2016 at 0:41 AM, cubfan78 said:

Hello,

I just thought I would take a quick minute to introduce myself. My name is James, I currently live in HI and just recently got back into Lego's after many years removed from my youth.

My spark was reignited when I starting buying Duplo sets for my now 3 year old daughter. It started in November when I bought both the Holiday Toy Shop and Santa's Work Shop. I really enjoyed putting those two sets together and felt a void when I packed them away until next Christmas. I then went out and bought a couple of the Creator 3 in 1 sets and put those together and set them on a shelf. My wife was not happy that I put those "Mini Modulars" in front of some pictures and wanted me to find a more permanent location. 

At this point I decided that I wanted to try and work on a Lego City (more like a town). I was on the fence on whether or not I wanted to commit to buying the full size modulars. The one's that were available were really not that appealing to me with the exception of the Palace Cinema and the Pet Shop. I do like several of the retired sets but I am not ready to pony up the cash for those sets, not to mention that I am going to be moving back to the mainland in the next two years.

For now I have decided to stick with the Creator 3 in 1 line, working on a small town. In the last couple months I have bought 3 corner Deli's, 3 Toy and Grocery sets, 2 Beach Hut's, 2 Bike and Cafe Shops, Lakeside Lodge, Changing Seasons house, Apple Tree House, Tree House, a few vehicles and some baseplates. I am in the process of putting all these sets together. I have a rough Idea of how I want the layout to look. I am going to group the buildings together to form one or two streets. Like something you might see in the downtown area of a small or historic town. I am going to add houses to round out the small town feel. I am leaning toward adding a beach and a park but am going to skip adding a train or any kind of Marina. I want to try and keep the small town feel to this build, so for now I am going to leave out the bigger modular buildings. I am also going to build roads instead of using the road plates because I think they are too big for these smaller Creator 3 in 1 buildings. I am on the fence on about adding the Ferris Wheel and the Fairground mixer but I think they might make nice additions to my small town down by the bay.

After I am done building all the mini mods, I might try my hand at some MOCs for a police and fire station primarily because I hate the look of the sets offered by Lego in the City series. At some point in the distant future I will probably want to add the bigger buildings, it will just depend on how much space I have and if I want to commit to buying some of the retired sets. For now I am happy with just the some Creator 3 in 1 sets. I like the fact that I can buy three of them and build 3 separate buildings and have some parts left over to go in my brick stash.

I just had my first pick-a-brick experience just a couple days ago and drove my wife nuts when I spent 30 minutes stacking the bricks so I could maximize the value of those cups. the selection at the Honolulu Lego store was pretty disappointing, they did not have any tile pieces at all, which is what I went there looking for. However, I did still manage to fill up two cups. I still would like to get about 500 2x2 and 4x2 tile pieces but don't want to pay the crazy price from the Lego Shop online. Where do most of you buy your tiles from?

I know that this site focuses on the Lego as an investment but it seems like the forum also has pretty decent discussions for guys like me who just want to build. 

I look forward to learning a ton and sharing my renewed love of Lego's. 

James

 

I am in Hawaii too and I agree our Lego store is definitely lacking pick a brick elements. Not to mention the 10 percent markup from retail. 

[cubfan78]

On 4/19/2016 at 10:09 AM, agp548 said:

I am in Hawaii too and I agree our Lego store is definitely lacking pick a brick elements. Not to mention the 10 percent markup from retail. 

I noticed a 10% markup, I started ordering from the Lego Shop online. I have gotten a couple sets at Target and had them match their online price which was a savings of about 15% over the Lego Store.

[jaisonline]

Welcome to the web site.  Go Cubs.

[Deadfraggle]

Welcome James.

Bricklink is a great site to scour with great prices for the basic parts. Also, the large Classic series boxes that come available on Black Friday are almost impossible to beat on price-per-piece basis.

[cubfan78]

Thanks guys for the welcome! My lego collection just keeps getting bigger.  It looks like the carousel is going to be remade, this pushed me to purchase the Ferris Wheel and Fairground mixer. I am also thinking about ordering the Ewok Village during the double VIP points. 

[gazza]

welcome aboard, mate