Tag Archives: Modular

LEGO released 10182 Cafe Corner in 2007, setting a new standard for large-scale modular buildings. Since then, LEGO has continued to release new structures in the modular building series — 10190 Market Street, 10185 Green Grocer, 10197 Fire Brigade, 10211 Grand Emporium, 10218 Pet Shop, and 10224 Town Hall as of 2012. Meanwhile, LEGO fans have adopted the “Cafe Corner standard” and built hundreds and hundreds of beautiful buildings that fit with the official sets. See some of the best here on The Brothers Brick.

10211 Grand Emporium due out March 1 – modular building, full interior [News]

Contrary to some of the earlier reports about its release date, LEGO has informed us that 10211 Grand Emporium is due out next Monday, March 1st, 2010.

LEGO has also provided some high-resolution photos of the set, including several nice interior shots and pictures of the little bits and pieces that make these modular buildings so awesome. See the full photoset on Flickr:

Here’s the complete product description from LEGO:

10211 – Grand Emporium
Ages 16+. 2,182 pieces.
US $149.99 CA $199.99 UK £ 139.99 DE € 149.99

Welcome to the grand opening of the Grand Emporium!

The LEGO® Modular Buildings series continues with this spectacularly detailed 3-story department store, designed in a realistic scale with lots of special building techniques and rare pieces. On the street outside, citizens carry shopping bags, send letters at the mailbox, admire the window mannequins, and cool off at the ice cream stand while a busy window washer works above. Enter through the revolving door to discover a ground-floor clothing department, complete with a cash register, fitting room, hats, jewelry, perfume, and even a selection of spare trousers. A brick-built escalator carries customers to the second floor housewares department with glassware and golden plates for special occasions, and then it’s up to the top floor for the toy department (complete with toy house and push-scooter) and a great big chandelier above the open atrium. Up on the roof are a billboard and skylight. Includes 7 minifigures and measures 15″ (38 cm) high and 10″ (25 cm) wide. Ages 16+. 2,182 pieces.

Includes 7 minifigures: 1 window cleaner, 1 female shop assistant, 1 genetleman and 1 lady with shopping bags, 1 boy plus 1 male and 1 female mannequin!

Enter the Grand Emporium through a revolving door that really spins!

The first floor has a clothing department with cash register, fitting room, hats, jewelery, perfume and more!

The second floor has a housewares department with glassware and golden plates!

Take the amazing brick-built escalator to the top floor of these 3-story department store!

The top floor is a toy department complete with toy house and push-scooter!

Grand Emporium features a big chandelier above the open atrium and even a skylight!

Lots of realistic details with a rooftop billboard and shoppers with shopping bags!

Raise and lower the window washer outside the building!

Send letters at the mailbox outside the Grand Emporium!

Admire the window mannequins from the street and stop at the ice cream stand for a treat!

Includes new inverted arches and rare elements like transparent 1×1 ‘headlight bricks’ and dark green windows!

Combine with other modular buildings like 10197 Fire Brigade and 10185 Green Grocer!

Measures 15″ (38 cm) high and 10″ (25 cm) wide!

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Goodbye to the Brickston sun

Ralph Savelsberg (Mad physicist) recently moved from England back to The Netherlands, and he misses his former adopted home already. Away from the collaborative displays of the Brickish Association, Ralph decided to combine all of his Cafe Corner-standard buildings into his own layout, resulting in “Brickston Borough”.

As much as I like each component of Ralph’s layout — the lettering on the distinctly British buildings, the vehicles, and even the road itself — it’s the sentiment that brought them all together that I love. It’s the same community spirit on display in AFOL: A Blocumentary.

LEGO brings us together, and can keep us in touch even when we’re apart.

Snapshots of grime, in a good way

BlueBard has been posting pictures of a whole series of his Cafe Corner style buildings over the last few days. They’re all excellent, but this Italian restaurant and repair shop stood out to me as doing an exceptionally good job of capturing daily city life.

It’s also worth checking out his bar and comic book store, which have a similar modern feel and plenty of interior vibrancy. He’s also on Brickshelf.

10211 Grand Emporium coming March 2010 [News]

UPDATE: The LEGO Shop site now has a page up for 10211 Grand Emporium
with a scheduled release date of ~~February 20, 2010~~ March 1, 2010.

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The next addition to the Cafe Corner line of modular buildings is 10211 Grand Emporium, a great set to round out another corner of your expanding LEGO city. From the info on Eurobricks, this 2182-piece set will cost $149.99 in the US, £97.85 in the UK, and €149.99 in Germany.

Like the 10197 Fire Brigade, Grand Emporium has a full interior with some great details to get excited about like the escalator and chandelier seen through the nice dark green windows.

Via Eurobricks

Handsome masonry heralds the end of the 10182 era

The latest 10182 Café Corner building from L.G. Orlando (lgorlando) arrives just as the set that inspired it all begins to come and go, hearkening the end of the set’s availability.

L.G.’s brickwork under the porch is excellent, and little details like the round 1×1 plates in the window frames break up the plane of the wall.

It’s been nearly two and a half years since LEGO released Café Corner, inspiring thousands of LEGO builders to try LEGO Town creations — many of us for the first time. Though we all know that LEGO sets aren’t available indefinitely, it’s hard to imagine this inspirational set being gone forever.

See more photos of L.G.’s Brickstone Manor on MOCpages.

Emporium of modular goodness

I’m unabashedly a fan of brown and all its permutations, so that’s definitely what first caught my eye about this department store by Dita Svelte. But then the gift just kept on giving.

Like most Cafe Corner standard buildings it has modular floors, but it has a few added features such as removable ground floor wall panes so the window displays can be changed. To top that all off, the architectural details are well done and not too overwhelming. I particularly like the decorative tan technic gears on the top floor and the use of sea monster fins as potted plants.

A place for the literate fig

I’m working on my second LEGO creation, which is in the Cafe Corner standard, so I’ve been looking around for good examples of that theme and am especially enjoying any builds that incorporate all kinds of interior details. “Page*s Books” by notenoughbricks sure fits the bill. It’s been under construction for over a year, and looks like it was well worth the effort.

The exterior has fun little details, including a flower piece as an apostrophe and nice use of a DUPLO water barrel, but the interior is what won me over for sure. The ground floor is a bookstore complete with genre sections, reading couches, stepping stools and a cash register. The upper floors are an apartment, including a big screen TV (with specs, just in case you needed them) and a nearly functional bathroom.

Also, it’s just wonderfully colorful and if I were a fig, I would love to live in this apartment above a bookstore. Wouldn’t you? Check out the whole photoset for details.

Modulex Cafe Corner and Market Street

In 1963, The LEGO Group spun off a company called Modulex to create planning tools for architects, including a completely separate system of bricks. Though Modulex still operates today (still based in Billund, making modular corporate signage), they no longer manufacture little plastic bricks.

Nevertheless, Modulex bricks continue to be sought-after collectors’ items among LEGO fans. Some fans even have enough in their collection to reproduce contemporary LEGO sets, as Marion has done with her collection.

The limited palette of bricks in the Modulex system doesn’t stop Brixe from an excellent recreation of 10182 Café Corner and 10190 Market Street.

Even though Brixe’s Modulex version is nearly a stud-for-stud clone of the LEGO set, this comparison shot shows the difference in scale between the two systems (LEGO on the left, Modulex on the right):

Public Library

Johan van den Heuvel (Teddy) uses his master LEGO architecture skills to create this public library that fits well into a modular town layout. The Greek revival style of the building is truly well done. Check out the gallery for more photos showing a peaceful courtyard in the back.

Street poets abound on Westminster Row

I’m new to the LEGO street scenes of L.G. Orlando (lgorlando), and boy have I been missing out!

The detail at the top of each is stunning. Though both buildings are distinct from each other in color and design, the tan in the red and green building ties in nicely with the other.

Here’s another group of L.G.’s LEGO city buildings. The yellow one is especially beautiful, and might be at home on Bourbon Street in New Orleans.

See more photos of L.G. Orlando’s excellent buildings on Flickr and MOCpages.

Okay, it seems a little crass to hype the Zombie Apocafest alongside these beauties, but these are all Cafe Corner standard buildings, and exactly the type of structures we’re looking for in the group display.

See you on platform 3 at Central Station

As great as they are, brownstones and storefronts are fairly common LEGO structures built to the “Cafe Corner standard.” That makes this great train station by Johan van den Heuvel (Teddy) that much cooler.

I love the columns and the arches of the recessed entryway. The size itself is a first, as far as I can recall — not only double-wide but double-deep.

See interior shots and detail photos on Flickr, MOCpages, and Brickshelf.

The past, present, and future of 10182 Cafe Corner

There’s no doubt that 10182 Cafe Corner will go down in history as a classic. But what would it look like at different point in human history? Crises has the answer.