I was recently looking for inspiration for making the interior of a LEGO grocery store and fresh produce market and came across some very wonderful ideas from LEGO fan Jemppu Malkki, who takes advantage of interesting LEGO elements, and also uses printed LEGO parts and LEGO stickers in unconventional ways. Since I liked these ideas so much I thought to share them with you here. 🙂
In the picture above you can see the general layout of the store. In the fresh produce section you can see all the standard LEGO fruits in different colors (apples, cherries, carrots and bananas). I like the use of the white crates instead of the brown ones as they give the whole store a fresh, clean and modern look. Notice the beautiful printed tiles above the produce section with fruit and vegetable prints – these are from old LEGO Fabuland sets that I have never seen in such good condition.
In the middle there is a cheese and meat section with a scale to the side, as well as a roll of clear plastic bags represented by a 1×1 trans-clear round brick – a brilliant idea! Right at the front is the bakery section displaying breads, croissants, muffins and pizzas. Yum! At the back there are coolers with dairy products, with a soft drinks cooler next to them. The rest of the printed and stickered elements represent various packaged food products and household cleaning supplies. The “Bang!” sticker is used for items on sale. It is really nice to see printed LEGO elements used in such diverse ways!
At the front of the store there is a magazine-stand, candy bins and various fast foods and snack foods – again, using stickers and printed elements to give them brand names and graphics. Below is another picture showing the close-up of some of the items; dishwashing liquids, household cleaning products, laundry detergents, cereal boxes, cat food, boxes, bottled water, soft drinks, energy drinks and various personal hygiene items – all using LEGO stickers and printed elements in some way.
Really great ideas, aren’t they? This is one reason to always keep LEGO stickers, and even get extra ones when you can. Also, even if you are not interested in a particular LEGO theme, it is worth looking at the stickers and printed elements to see if you can use them in some other way. You can find various stickered and printed LEGO elements on BrickLink at the following links: decorated LEGO tiles, decorated LEGO bricks, decorated LEGO panels, decorated LEGO flags, LEGO stickers, LEGO food items.
The LEGO Friends sets are particularly great sources for LEGO food items, kitchen/restaurant utensils and really nice printed elements like juice boxes and milk cartons. You can find all the currently available LEGO Friends sets at the Online LEGO Shop. Also, if you are looking for more options for food items, LEGO customizer EclipseGRAFX has a whole range of printed bottle soft drinks, chocolates, cupcakes, cinnamon rolls, milk bottles, coffee cups and more. See here: printed LEGO elements by EclipseGRAFX.
So what do you think? How do you like this awesome little grocery and convenience store? Have you used LEGO stickers and printed elements in different ways? Feel free to share in the comment section below! 😉
And you might also like to check out the following related posts:
This is just awesome! So much detail!
That is a really smart use of parts. I’m a big fan of EclipseGRAFX custom pieces. They will be at BrickFair Al next January. I’ll get some more parts there.
I had trouble leaving their table at BrickWord Tampa, I had so much fun. I love their stuff! They were also nice enough to give me a bunch of posters and an awesome T-shirt (a benefit of being a blogger). Bought a bunch of muffins, caffee mugs with frost on top, cinnamon rolls – basically all the food items and some other misc. stuff. They are great for LEGO City settings and the Modulars! 🙂
I was trying to come up with a good vegetarian joke, but it seems like you tip toed around it too carefully. Darn.
Obviously these are awesome and what Jemppu has done here is really cool. But I am surprised you didn’t angle TLG for more prints, with your disgust of stickers and all.
I’m certain you’ve seen this in their CS FAQ section, and probably even referenced it in an article at some point. But for anyone like me that missed those:
How do I best apply the decals or stickers that come in many LEGO® sets?
Our designers have shared this trick for applying decals: lightly spray a window cleaner on the surface of the parts to be decorated. This will allow you to adjust the decal without damaging it. Once you have the decal in the right place, use a flat edge to smooth out any bubbles and let it dry.
LOL! Yeah, I’m not the one for controversy. Besides, LEGO meat technically is vegetarian as it is made of plastic, so it is completely in line with my spiritual principles of not hurting other living creatures. Tofu turkey and plastic turkey are completely fine with me. 😉
You know, I have never-ever seen that suggestion from LEGO, nor have I ever heard anyone mentioning it – and I have seen many tutorials and videos about applying stickers. Always learn something new! Also, good topic for a future article! Thanks for sharing! 😀
Cool! I like how he was so smart. 😀
Inspiration for an article?! My head is huge right now!
http://service.lego.com/en-us/helptopics/products/general-questions/apply-decals
Yeah, “they’re plastic anyways” was what I was going to say.
LOL! If you are married I’m sure your head will get back to regular size soon. If not, then Monday should do the trick. 😉
Seriously, that’s why I like blogging; I always learn something from our readers. 🙂
That grocery store looks amazing. I want to build one, maybe not as detailed a this but its on my list of MOCs to build if ever get around to it. I’ve been wanting to get some eclipsegrafx stuff for a while. They have some great stuff.
I saw some of the new city sets coming available on December 1st. Particularly the snow plow and the dune buggy. I feel like i’ve spent so much on Lego already that I can’t decide whether to pick them up or wait.
Kim, personally I’m waiting until all of the early 2015 sets are released to make a decision. They will be around for a while so there is no need to rush. 🙂
Ha ha that’s true and a good idea. I always feel like I have to rush to get stuff and I forget that they’ll be around for a while. I’m sure part of it is also just plain excitement about how cool everything is as well.
Hey, ADMIN. I was wondering, Can I make a post here showing what I’m selling?
I have quite a few – Barely used new- LEGO sets that are in very well condition as I am a collecter. And stuff like in this post make me want to buy more LEGO to have things like this myself. But I can’t keep up with LEGO, And again, I am a collecter so I don’t even do that, I just have them on display with the occasional clean-up.
And there are other things I want to buy such as videogames. So basically I’m qutting on LEGO and I wonder if anyone here might want to buy them from me? From what I know figurines like the Western Emmet are pretty rare and valuable.
They may not be in the original bags (I couldn’t resist) but I will send them in bags with stuffing to protect them.
So even if I don’t get a crazy profit, something is better then just having them there. I also have Hero Factory and old Bionicles. (Those will probably be a bit hard to say goodbye to as they are my favorite things from LEGO Especially wityh Bionicle returning)
I would even throw in bonuses. Like if someone offered me alot for one thing I have I may throw in some bonus minifigures or even The LEGO movie videogame.
I’d also try to make shipping free
Maybe you could post pictures of what you got on a free picture sharing site like flickr, or if you have facebook you can share them there, then you can let readers know about it here and link to the pictures. Would that work?
I’ve seen many people sell their collections at the Brickset forum.
Yes, that’s a possibility too.
Yeah it would, thanks.
I didn’t realize that it was free shipping on all online orders this weekend for Black Friday. I’m glad it was because I had forgotten to order the motor and battery box for the Fairground Mixer. Now I will have those too!
That’s great! There is nothing like a nice motorized LEGO set! 😛
Very, very nice. Excellent details (of course helped by the stickers) and very life-like setup. Funnily enough, I couldn’t even think of doing something like this because I don’t have any LEGO food pieces. 😕 The food stuffs included in Friends sets is a major reason I like them. And I should probably check out EclipseGrafx when I need some of those prints. But what’s with “Uncle Joker’s ice-cream”? 😀
BTW, I went to Legoland today, and I must say, it’s quite different than I expected (for the better). I saw a lot of 2015 sets in the stores, or rather, I saw the 2015 Technic, City, and Creator presently listed on Lego Shop as “coming soon 1st Dec.” I also saw a surprising amount of Mixels and CMF Series 12, and I mean tons. Boxes of Series 12 at almost every store.
Also, does anyone think that the Galaxy Squad sale prices will go down? I want the Obliterator, I’d just like the price lower (under $60), but I’m afraid it’ll be sold out before I can get my hands on one. 😕
The Obliterator is an excellent set. I have spent a lot of time playing with and modifying it. It is very obvious that LEGO wants to clear them out before the end of the year, so it is possible that you will see even better deals after Christmas both at LEGO stores and other retailers. It is a bit risky to wait that long, but I think you should be able to get one. I think $60 is already a great price, (I got mine at full price), but probably $40 is the best you can hope for.
Well, some of the other GS sets went down to half-price, but I’ve only seen that after they are sold out. The thing about waiting is now I’m wondering whether I actually want to get it. The lower price will be better because then I can still get a few other must-haves now, and continue saving for the Parisian Restaurant.
OK Admin, here I am again. I’m the same guy that was totally befuddled as to why TLG wouldn’t change the status to sold out for TH, GE, and HH, until I figured out that it’s just not in their interest to increase demand for sets they don’t sell until after the busy holiday shopping season.
Similar type of situation – today TLG put 4 sets on sale for Cyber Monday, one of which is the City Cargo Train at 20% off. But there are 2 City Cargo Train sets:
60052 – this is the newer one that is available at SAH and seems to be in good supply at all stores and everywhere.
It lists for $200, and is NOT on sale.
7939 – this is the older one that’s been SOLD OUT on SAH for months.
It listed at $180 and has indeed been discounted 20% over night to $144. But why, it’s still SOLD OUT!!
Trust me, I read and reread everything you explained previously about the unpredictability and inconsistencies of TLG and their SAH website. But unlike the example above where they completely ignore some “retired” sets to draw as little attention to them as possible, this old set was specifically targeted as 1 of only 4 to get 20% off. The only thing that makes sense, which is very hard to believe, is that some store(s) somewhere has a whole cache of 7939 to get rid of.
So do I need to start calling every store in the country to find out who has them and have them shipped to me?
That is indeed the case. When a set goes on sale, the website get’s updated, even if it is not available there. There are plenty of Exo Suits and Research Institutes, and other sets that have been long shown as sold out on LEGO’s website, but since they are available at LEGO stores, it remains listed. And yes, that train is available in some places. So is the Town Hall, and some of the other sets that are not available online. You could call every store, but stores do not ship, unless you directly walk into a store, and ask for a currently available set that they don’t have in stock.
This time without the hyperlinks…
OK Admin, here I am again. I’m the same guy that was totally befuddled as to why TLG wouldn’t change the status to sold out for TH, GE, and HH, until I figured out that it’s just not in their interest to increase demand for sets they don’t sell until after the busy holiday shopping season.
Similar type of situation – today TLG put 4 sets on sale for Cyber Monday, one of which is the City Cargo Train at 20% off. But there are 2 City Cargo Train sets:
60052 – this is the newer one that is available at SAH and seems to be in good supply at all stores and everywhere.
It lists for $200, and is NOT on sale.
7939 – this is the older one that’s been SOLD OUT on SAH for months.
It listed at $180 and has indeed been discounted 20% over night to $144. But why, it’s still SOLD OUT!!
Trust me, I read and reread everything you explained previously about the unpredictability and inconsistencies of TLG and their SAH website. But unlike the example above where they completely ignore some “retired” sets to draw as little attention to them as possible, this old set was specifically targeted as 1 of only 4 to get 20% off. The only thing that makes sense, which is very hard to believe, is that some store(s) somewhere has a whole cache of 7939 to get rid of.
So do I need to start calling every store in the country to find out who has them and have them shipped to me?
Hyperlinks are fine, but when you add more than one your comment goes under moderation for the safety of our community. It just means I will have to see your comment to approve it. No need to retype. 😉
The train was actually available this morning and a number of people bought it. Perhaps LEGO found a whole stack of them in some warehouse? But yeah, it was available. 🙂
That’s funny. Sorry everyone.
Thank you, once again.
I should have clarified:
Thank you for putting my mind at ease, once again.
And – would you be so bold as to disclose what store the TH is still available at? I have Expedia on the other line to book my flight.
Sorry, I almost missed this comment amongst all the contest entries. I was chatting with some people on Reddit where someone mentioned they were still able to pick one up. I think it was in Canada.
Pretty cool moc, but there are no pretzels.
i have a multi colored grochery store not as big thoe l.o.l