The LEGO Modular Buildings series is one of the most popular collections with adult LEGO fans. They are substantial, look good on display, and provide a satisfying building experience with lots of little details and interesting building techniques. While many LEGO fans are happy to display the sets as they are, others like to modify them slightly – or even substantially – to create a unique layout. This may include making the official sets wider or taller, changing the colors, or upgrading the interior. We have discussed a number of techniques in this regards, and I have included some links for you at the end of this post. 🙂
However if you want to be even more adventurous, you can also build completely unique structures that still fit the style of the official LEGO Modular Buildings. By following the basic layout, style and connection points of the LEGO Modular Buildings, you can add pretty much any other structure; office buildings, restaurants, shops, residential buildings, and more. Using examples from other LEGO fans, and taking advantage of LEGO Digital Designer, you can work out the details even before buying a single brick. Once you are done, you can order the LEGO pieces you need directly from LEGO, or from BrickLink sellers.
If you are not completely ready to build your own buildings from scratch, but would still like to add something unique to your layout, there are a couple of resources for custom LEGO Modular Buildings that you might want to take advantage of. Some time back I told you about a book that is an excellent source for LEGO Modular Buildings style structures, called The LEGO Neighborhood Book by Brian and Jason Lyles. The book covers everything from the specific standards of the LEGO Modular Buildings, to choosing colors, building techniques for detailing, interior and exterior decorations and furnishing, and even designing commercial buildings. You can read my detailed review of the book here: The LEGO Neighborhood Book – Review, and buy the book on Amazon at the following link: The LEGO Neighborhood Book on Amazon
The authors of The LEGO Neighborhood Book also run a website called BrickCityDepot.com. Here you can purchase additional instructions for custom LEGO buildings that fit the LEGO Modular Buildings style. They only cost a few dollars, and you will get a full inventory of the parts needed, as well as step-by-step building instructions. A particularly useful section of the website lists alternate instructions for official LEGO sets, which means that if you already have the original set, you won’t have to buy the parts. For example, the #10224 LEGO Creator Town Hall is rebuilt into a consulate, the #10228 LEGO Monster Fighters Haunted House is turned into a row house, and the #10197 LEGO Creator Fire Brigade becomes a townhouse. These instructions also only cost a few dollars, and could make your city quite unique and interesting.
A similar website is called BrickBuildersPro.com. They also provide a wide variety of instructions for LEGO Modular Buildings style structures, and also structures that may not attach directly to the LEGO Modular Buildings, but would fit into a larger LEGO city layout. Some examples are a large international airport, train-station, church, warehouse, barn, diner, fishing dock, and more. Prices for the downloadable instructions are about the same as with the previous website, and they also have some free instructions for smaller builds, like a bus-station, shopping cart, soda fountain, vending machine, and popcorn cart.
Once you build a few official LEGO Modular Buildings, and a few custom buildings by others, you are well on your way to designing and build your own structures. You may even want to recreate a street from your town! So I hope you find these resources helpful. What do you think? Have you considered building your own custom LEGO Modular Buildings? What would you like to add to your layout? Did you try any of the resources I mentioned above? How did you like them? Feel free to share your thoughts and own review in the comment section below! And you can also check out the currently available LEGO Modular Buildings at the Online LEGO Shop.
And you might also like to check out the following related posts:
What a lovely thing to think about today instead of the election! Blessings on you!!!
LOL! I try to keep stressful things out of here, as distressing is one of the reasons most of us are in the hobby. As far as the election, I have my fingers crossed that we don’t screw up worse then we already did. 🙄
There’s a guy in my neck of the woods that has bought a bunch of plans from both of these sites and sold the “sets” on craigslist. Was always wondering where he got plans for a LEGO IKEA…LOL
That’s pretty smart! 😀
I’m always waiting for that one mail a day of you guys!
This is great news!
Do you know if they have some nice ‘triangle’ shaped buildings to?
Triangle shaped? Like an A-frame?
Could be achieved through jumper plates and hinge bricks, I assume…
There are a number of ways to build A-frames, so yeah, it just depends on what exactly PrashBricks has in mind.
Yes like an A-fram, I have another question, I want to design a custom minifigure, with custom printed torso (which I want to design myself), custom printed legs (which I want to design myself), custom printed head (wich I want to design myself), custom weapon (spear with energy), custom printed cape (wich I want to design myself) and part 98011 (hood for cloak) in olive green. Do you reccomend a site, where I can design my own minifig, instead of using custom parts made by others?
I haven’t looked at all their designs yet, so I can’t remember exactly if I have seen an A-frame, but you can browse either websites to see if you find one. Their selection is great, but not huge, so it shouldn’t take that long. I would do it myself, but I’m in the middle of writing an article. 🙂
As far as a completely custom minifig, I would suggest minifigs.me. You can submit your own design ideas and they will make a custom minifig for you for a reasonable price. I have dealt with them myself a number of times and they are super friendly and the quality of their printing is excellent. I don’t know about a cape though. You can ask them if they can make a custom printed cape. The other parts shouldn’t be a problem. 🙂
*frame
Love all things Modular. i’ve started a small business selling the bricks you need to replicate the older Modulars. what pay $2000+ i figured when i bricklinked my own. turns out others think the same. Awesome!
That’s very helpful. A lot of people don’t have the patience or the know-how to find the parts needed, so offering a service like that is not just a good side-business, but also helpful for LEGO fans. Win-win all the way! 🙂
It’s a great idea. I would really like to get more Modulars in the future, so building my own would be nice. I haven’t considered doing so on LDD before (mostly because LDD doesn’t agree too much with my computer’s battery), although I have tried to build actual Modulars on it. I may try these sites out in the future, if/when I start a Modular street.
Also, lots of new sets revealed today! Starting with this bike: http://brickset.com/article/24421/42063-bmw-r-1200-gs-adventure-revealed! The axle-drive is quite impressive, but while it looks good from most angles, the side view shows the model is too long, with not enough bodywork inside; it looks a little skeletal. I do wonder what the “specially designed Technic piece” is… the transparent panel for the windshield? An engraved tile like on the Porsche? The only other new piece I’ve found is a part like 10197, but with the axles opposite each other, not adjacent, used at the top of the kickstand (also on 42060). As far as the other sets, the RC Tracked Racer looks like fun, but not much else stands out for me. Lots of new parts on the Nexo Knights (but I’ve come to expect that) and a few on the Friends. ‘Tis the season for new parts, and this is just the beginning. 😉
I also thought that bike is a bit skinny from the side. I actually really like Technic motorcycles, so I found this set particularly interesting. It’s nice to see Technic releasing so many good sets. I haven’t seen the other sets yet, but will check them out. 🙂
By the way, an ebook version The Lego Neighborhood Book (along with a number of other Lego ebooks) is currently available as part of the Humble Lego Book Bundle. https://www.humblebundle.com/books/lego-book-bundle
Oh, interesting! That’s a great offer! Thanks for sharing. 🙂