u/BrownBear71

All right! here is the first floor of the Detective Office build, which doesn't include the Detective Office. He's on the second floor.

Top view

In a way, this resembles a building complex, or, in HK terms, an Arcade. So it is now called "The Arcade". On a 32 x 32 baseplate, there is a variety of buildings and uses, and they share that footprint.

A lot of people already have the set, so I will mention the changes made:

1. "The Highlander Pool Hall" converted to a Police Station. A lock-up cell extended the depth considerably. And the large amount of empty space in the back made it possible. The main station is 2 additional studs in depth.

2. Added a planter box in front of the Police Station.

3. Beefed up the spindly street tree with a thicker trunk and more leaves.

4. Al's Barbershop/Beauty salon also benefited from the 2 stud increase in depth. It's now spacious enough to have a second chair, a Salon Chair with dryer (design mooched from a LEGO "Friends" set). Al has expanded his skills to do ladies hair too.

Inside Al's Barber/Hair salon

5. On the back side of the baseplate, Al's Barbershop still has that hidden smuggling grate cleverly hidden with a scooter, and also has a very important facility- a Porta-Potty (by BrickPanda). It also has scooter parking, and I illegally modified the scooters with a standard stud on the underside so they can be parked.

Back view of \"The Arcade\"

6. These changes threw off the design of the black roof tiles over the back of The Highlander (Police Station/Pool Hall) so I had to revise it and inadvertently made a more stable build than the original LEGO design.

7. Tiled the entire back side with sidewalk tiles, so no baseplate is visible. The original design went "on the cheap" and left 1/4 of the baseplate uncovered.

This popped up on my feed today. A terrible deal. At $256, it costs over 90% of the original Bricklink price, with notably NO figures and NO stickers.

This is obviously a "we pick the parts for you" MOC offer.

I have the original BDP set in my backlog. It didn't really cost me anything, because I sold off a boxed, complete vintage large LEGO set on ebay and simply rolled the money back into LEGO for the BDP sushi restaurant.

Seriously, if someone intends to jump on this MOC version and needs a scan of the stickers, just hit me up.

It's been a while since I was at one of those, and a case of loose LEGO bricks caught my eye. It wasn't taped or sealed up, so I opened it and took a look. It had several intact minifigs, and the parts looked clean and lacking in the usual disgusting thrift store donation funk, like toothmarks, carpet crud and dog hair.

I went for it! Gave everything a warm bath in a light bleach cleanser, a salad spinner whirl, and dried them on several trays between towels in the back yard.

Here's the haul:

https://preview.redd.it/fl9stw5eelih1.jpg?width=1280&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=366891bb7046fde94b3037d7a2b8836446087dd7

Seven minifigures. Jay Skybound is wearing a different sword harness, and the jail prisoner and firefighter have a few mismatched body parts, but I'm happy with what I got here. The green sweater guy is a shoo-in for running my newest 7-Eleven convenience store (work in progress).

And these are a reminder of the quality of real LEGO minifigs. Don't need sanding, Dremeling, plastic polish or nail polish to move their arms, fit on baseplates or sit in chairs correctly, sigh.

https://preview.redd.it/qk6ywniielih1.jpg?width=1280&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=fabdf4faac95b49258dd6ec8d34479ca200aacb5

https://preview.redd.it/wdjztanoelih1.jpg?width=1280&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=e2af7b55c3849a4133a35fb049c04294bbd6f91e

The loose parts came out to be a nice collection that I am already tapping for the initial build/modify of the Detective's Office set I recently got. The large roof slopes helped a lot! Lots of good, standard parts.

And I'm gradually replacing parts in the LEGO store build with a slightly higher percentage of real LEGO. (it might matter to Purists? My LEGO store was 80% alt-bricks, 20% LEGO? lol)

I grouped all the Technic pins and pieces together, and might want to keep them separate, because as we know, a lot of times, alt-bricks Technic parts aren't always very precisely made so sometimes real LEGO is the way to go.

Yes, yes, we all hate AI slop, used to bilk people into buying stuff made from non-existent parts and/or get scammed. We've seen it with Gothic skulls stuff, Pink Floyd, fake military tributes, and popular TV shows. Or AI slop is used to "enhance" IRL sets to make them look better and more saleable than they really are.

Case in point: This "Sopranos" set on Ali. I started laughing at the AI pic.

1. Masonry blocks in multiple colors in the same piece!
2. Pig on roof is not a LEGO or alt-bricks part.
3. Chair is not a LEGO or alt-bricks part.
4. Front door cannot open because no such part exists.
5. Too much fresh veggie variety and not scaled like LEGO parts.
6. Bald hairpiece does not exist.
7. Heads not standard LEGO shaped.
8. Car fenders can't decide if they're brick built or an arch part.
9. What is on that hood? Jumbo stud?

And hilariously, some people even BOUGHT that set on Ali and posted photos!

1. No masonry bricks. Just alternating tan, LBG and DBG plates.
2. Not even sure where that pig came from. Yet there is a standard pig part that they didn't use(?)
3. Chair is just a panel piece with a height boost. Can't fit a minifig.
4. Building is not even minifig-scaled. Front door is a window piece.
5. Veggies missing.
6. Didn't even try to match the bald hair piece.
7. Used standard LEGO-type heads
8. Car fenders are standard pieces. Tires and car body are smaller than the ad. And much less impressive.
9. Car hood is just a flat plate.

I guess it's slightly impressive that the overhead store stickers are pretty accurate.

Anything else ppl noticed about the diff?

This all started back in 2016, when I bought this microscale Hsanhe 7-Eleven in Hong Kong on vacation. It was in one of those small shops that's jam-packed in a multi-floor building, which might be In's Place on Nathan Road. This is a microscale, with an open back and is NOT minifig-compatible. I think the price was $4.00 (converted to USD). Building according to original spec was Stage 1.

https://preview.redd.it/jo79sj06e9gh1.jpg?width=658&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=d7b9034154c344a8ef8476abdf8add99a8ba872a

Stage 2 was when I heavily rebuilt it to minifig scale. Most of the original Hsanhe set was incorporated into this version. The floorplan was 12 x 8, open back. On the outside was a gas pump, and a hot-food hamburger vending machine.

https://preview.redd.it/g3evshp8e9gh1.jpg?width=870&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=569d2242fc5d991fdc75a144aa141767549b91ac

The latest is a Stage 3 rebuild, driven by a few factors. When I ordered parts for my LEGO store MOC, the seller sent me eight 2x5 "clear" bricks, which were cloudier than I wanted. I ended up ordering those parts again from another seller, so the cloudy-clear parts were still in my parts box. Then with the now-discontinued "Saving Mondays" program on Ali and coins, I got eighty 1x6 white bricks, an unused back-half of a LEGO store MOC (nearly-free on Ali), BrickPanda's supermarket shelves and a lot of other small purchase stuff for pennies. So it was time to expand the 7-Eleven yet again.

https://preview.redd.it/gtjbde4de9gh1.jpg?width=1024&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=ce00aa5dc13c3118db7f9abafe80cfb7a6573e28

The new footprint is 16 x 16, on a 16x 18 baseplate, built mini-modular style this week. The gas pump remains outside, but the hamburger vending machine is now inside. This build incorporates BrickPanda's supermarket shelves into the floorplan. I also used one of the skibidi people security camera heads as an actual store monitor. This footprint is just the right size for an internal staircase, which will eventually lead to a second floor living quarters, where the back-half of a LEGO store MOC will be recycled.

https://preview.redd.it/oep72w4he9gh1.jpg?width=1024&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=06a798666a3bf8d82bcd09ad00f2bbfe20aac9b4

There is no set of instructions. This is a random build, just playing with parts and tapping my parts stash wand winging it.

The front sign is just a placeholder, using an old decal with surface crazing. I'll eventually reprint it to proper size.

Saw the writing on the wall... as of late, Ali is getting worse and worse as far as game benefits.

For one magnificent week in late June, Ali opened up multiple shopping credits exchanges at midnight, so I grabbed as many as I could. I gained $39.00 worth in credits and had to decide what to spend it on.

https://preview.redd.it/5yr7kf97pffh1.jpg?width=1280&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=1f750ab864e6359e780bc2ea6bffb700ec14c583

The prices of modulars had gone up since I last checked. "Detective's Office" used to be $60-$65. Now it's $75+. But with credits, coins and the Ali event coupons (whichever that was), I was able to get it down to $14.25.

https://preview.redd.it/7f138dulpffh1.jpg?width=1035&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=1274937c7e79bf7440c0a4d95b6e9064600c2a9a

Shop1105554058 Store was and still is a zero-feedback store. They had a small stock of modulars with good coin discounts, so I took a gamble on them. The package went on the slow boat from China, and took over a month to arrive, and it did. But my feedback for an item they no longer carry doesn't seem to count towards their feedback.

This is legit. The box fit the contents perfectly, and the manual says "JJ2954". Manual , baseplate and the parts all came through with no damage.

The minifigures... we all know not to expect too much, and it's hilarious that these nightmare figs are still in production. The oversized dead eyes and smile. So I did an immediate replacement. Beard-guy is one of my decal faces, and scowling guy came from a cheap ninja fig. I'll be scrubbing the nightmare faces off the other figs and replacing them with decals.

The figs are generally shaped like LEGO figs, but of far lower quality. The armholes needed sanding, and so did the holes in the legs to get them to fit on the hip assembly, sit in chairs and stand on baseplates. But they're fine now, and I have work ahead of me to fix the other 4 figs. These came on the heels of a thrift-store find of real LEGO which included 7 LEGO figs and those reminded me of the quality of the real stuff that's perfect as-is.

https://preview.redd.it/s8vkz6gdpffh1.jpg?width=1200&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=eb17cf17349a524e7be9a4d0b7ac38a564445354

https://preview.redd.it/j967un0ipffh1.jpg?width=1280&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=476cf4c542abd6891acddabda8dbb5d2dbb42f1d

I was evaluating the manual last night, and noticed that there's a lot of unused space on the baseplate in back of the Detective's Office and adjacent barbershop. So my idea is to expand the building by 2 studs or more. And Al's barbershop can also host a beauty salon (for Atom Eve, Velma, Daphne and the rest of the girls) and I honestly don't need a pool hall, but I need a police station so a conversion is planned.

I'm still sitting on $25.00 in Ali game diamonds, and for now, I don't think I can cash them so I'll stop buying for now, and work on this, and the backlog still in the closet.

I am not endorsing this shop. Never bought from them. And $25.71 is a very visible markup.

But this is a chance at obtaining the elusive Velma.

I added the full store name which was cut off on the screenshot.

$58.64? This set went for $7-$8.00 last year (or so on Ali).

This, along with the ridiculous markup of certain OOP minigfigs, might be showing a trend that certain Ali sellers are sitting on older stock and purposely waiting for availability to dry up, and then selling them at a massive markup!

There is zero reason to pay almost $60 for a Scooby Doo Mummy Museum k/o.

Stopped off to get some Korean Fried Chicken today, and within walking distance is a Goodwill store. Haven't been to one in a while, so I figured I'd stop in. Scanned the top racks for toys and then I saw... Sluban. So I pulled out the box (which looked near-new) and saw this plane.

My City-in-Progress probably needs airplane transportation, so I decided to risk the $6.99. After paying, I opened it up at the counter, and the set looked completely unbuilt. The larger pieces were present, and also the manual, and a sealed bag of Sluban figures!

Took it home, and did an inventory. 100% complete! Intact sticker sheet too. This build looks like it could be fun!

Things I'd heard about Sluban: They do a lot of planes and tanks, and they have custom molded pieces that have no LEGO equivalent. So in the event of a missing Sluban piece, we're SOL?

Also, I had heard here that the quality of the Sluban pieces is very good these days. I tested a few out- tight clutch, possibly tighter than LEGO. They've also come a long way since the girl-themed cruise ships... their plastic is no longer soft and flexy- it's harder and more in-line with modern parts.

I think I got my $6.99 worth!

The other part of the haul was a $12.99 case of real LEGO. I'll probably need to clean and dry those parts (never know where they've been... toddler mouths, gross carpets...) and then do a sort. I know that there's several minifigures in it, and the LEGO carrying case is dated 2009, so maybe the figs are circa that era.

It's kind of unusual to see this many alt-bricks sets taking up this much shelf space at a US Daiso. Several of these are recognizable of the small, microscale (std bricks) "Street View" sets that we see on Ali. Looks like Daiso had contracted these to be sold under their own brand name.

The current retail price is $6.00 apiece in US retail stores. In Japan itself, 300 yen is about $2.00-ish, but you have to go to one of the big ones, like Daiso Ikebukuro for the best selection, and haul them home in your own luggage.

This was a quickie. I had a tiny island set up for years and the parts were tucked into storage. A large percentage of this is real L*GO.

Most of this is built using stock parts and figs. The TF babies are from a Sluban party yacht, and Fred, Shaggy and Scooby were from the k/o Mystery Machine. I liked the quality of those figs much more than the crude ones that came with the k/o Mummy Museum Mystery.

Velma is a custom. I had posted a tutorial on how to make a Velma by using standard parts and decals.

Mr. Roarke is from one of the Skibidi sets. I ended up repurposing the Skibidis, and using their cameras and TV set heads for other things. And one of them just happened to be wearing a completely white suit. Quick head swap, a little dremeling of standard gray hairpiece and sponge-painting and ta-dah! Mr. Roarke.

I might have enough parts for a Tattoo. No white short legs so maybe light gray will have to do.

Somehow I think there isn't a great future in store for the Sluban TF Babies....

(parts of the post and photos had to be redacted/blurred because of reddit rqmts)

This was a 2 month project. So the challenge of this project was: Can I make this L*GO store, and have AliExpress pay for most of it?

I was sitting on a large amount of AliExpress gems, and the (now obsolete) "Saving Wednesdays/Saving Mondays" program that used to get $5.00-$8.00 in shopping credits. At the time, it was possible to get more shopping credits by cashing in the Ali gems for various $1.00 and $5.00 amounts.

The parts were purchased in multiple orders, with packages arriving every week. So in the end, I paid maybe $10 out-of-pocket to buy the instructions from rebrickable, a trip to the Dollar Tree for a cheap 100 bulk white brick pack, and a dollar here and there to get my packages up to $10.00 on Ali to get free Choice shipping.

This build heavily uses custom decals (about $5.00-$6.00 on Ali) and the cheapest inkjet printer that Best Buy sells. L*GO legitimately released several small L*GO store sets. The technique is to scour the internet for photos of L*GO sticker sheets, load them into a graphic editor, clean them up and sharpen them. And then print out a bunch of these replicated decals, and apply them to tiles.

I sort of went over and beyond the original design. I felt the upper interior walls were too bare so I added shelves with more L*GO/alt-bricks sets on them.

But... is this made from L*GO?

Well... errrr... it has L*GO parts.

• Streetlamp
• Red 2x4 brick in window
• heart plaque
• hinged window
• Some of the pick-a-brick rounds
• Most of the 1x4 white tiles
• The black staircase
• tan boxes under the stairs
• blue pennant
• Purple 2x4 brick in window
• most of the 1x1 flowers
• The minifig customers (Tony Stark, Lady Iron Dragon, Scuba diver, Ninjago Zane). Mostly. Some have Alt-bricks heads and hair. Nobody judges them. The line between L*GO and Lepin is very flexible here.

BTW, for people who just want a packaged set without the multiple small orders parts gathering, there is an Ali store that claims to sell the entire MOC in one set: "Shop1105202331 Store". I am not vouching for them. I can't speak for their promptness, quality, or completeness.