Thanks to my fellow Lego kaki, FD, I came to know about this customized Computer Store by BrickBuildersPro. The website sells both kits as well as building instructions pdfs for Lego Enthusiastics to work on. As I got quite a bit of spare bricks left from my last buys from BL when assembling the LEGO Café Cornerand LEGO Market Street, I thought I’ll just give this a try.
The instructions pdf came in a massize 19MB zip file which contains 3 PDFs and a XML text file. The 3 PDFs are for the 3 levels of the Computer Store and the XML file will allow you to upload the part list as a wanted list in BL. Quite a nice touch for customers I would say. It took about 2 weeks for me to identify all the parts I would still need to get and for the parts to ship to Singapore. In total, I ordered from 6 stores to complete my missing parts. Don’t ask me about the cost involved as I’ve ordered other junks along with these purchases. A rough feel would be about SGD $2-300.
In terms of complexity, I would say that this is much less complicated than the LEGO Café Corner or even the LEGO Market Street. It took me around 4 hours over 2 nights to complete everything (need to work.. so cannot full time do this). However, there are some stoppages here and there when I discover the design seems a bit off and I had to figure out what the pictures are showing. Also, at a couple of steps, I’m not sure why the design chose some bricks over others and resulting in a less secured fit. Those, I made some modifications of my own to better fit the pieces. Lastly, not too sure if I’ve made a mistake in my ordering of the parts but I came up short of some pieces that I need. Those, I’ve used some temporary pieces of another color to replace while I need to order some more together with my next project.
Here are the pictures of the completed piece.. 🙂
This building is not a full 3 storey building. It is more like a 2 1/2 type. However the overall height is compensated with a very high ceiling first level. All the front panels are glass going all the way till almost the top of the level 1. In the centre portion, the big grey square is for me to put up the logo of the shop. No prizes for guessing correctly what I’ll be using for this :-). Lining along the walkway are 4 black lamp posts that differs from the usual white ones in the regular modulars from Lego.
From the top view, you can the roof of the building is actually glass sky light made up of 4 by 3 panels. This allows light to go into the second level of the building making it brighter than the normal modulars.
Level 2 also has a large display window that has 3 black mini figures that will be holding white tiles like iPhones. But I forgot to put them in when I took these pictures. 😀 The designer has also created very elaborate designs for the front of the roof as well as for the balconies but using very single and small parts. Inside level 1, there is also a very interesting display rack that looks like an iPhone but with various color panels.
This shows the inside of level 1. It takes 2 flights of steps to reach level 2. You can also see counters with devices laid on top for customers to try.
For level 2, besides the display window feature, there is also a counter for customers to try out the latest desktops that look so suspiciously like a iMac.. 😀
Overall this is a very interesting and fun project. This is the first time I’m doing a set that is not designed by Lego but we can see see there are really talented people out there who can do the job just as well. This set will certainly go onto my modular street and I’m looking forward to my next project which will most likely the Grand Toy Store or the home furnishing store.