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[toythatkills]

Here in my case means Japan, and we really don't get most of the major sets.

Ah crap, sorry. That sucks.

The Big Bang Theory set looks totally rubbish though, I can't imagine that's a big loss at least. Wall-E's gotta come over though hasn't it? Surely Disney are as big in Japan as anywhere else!

Well if you ever want Lego shipping from the UK I don't mind doing it for you. Obviously that's not a cheap option but cheaper than scalpers or whatever if you really can't come by it.

[Darwock]

Agreed, I have no desire for that one, but it's an Ideas set so I'm hoping it's not setting a precedent. Could mean we miss out on Doctor Who as well, another TV show that means nothing to the Japanese public.

Thanks for the offer, I might be in touch, lol

[Darwock]

This is one of two biggie bricklink customs I have made. Designed by scharnvirk, who also provided very nicely made pdf instructions. I needed a Tie fighter for my star wars collection, but wasn't happy with any of the official representations. I held off on buying the parts for this until I saw the UCS Tie, but that one also disappointed me, so I bit the bullet and put scharnvirk's model together. This is the right size, but doesn't have any place to put a figure - that's the major problem with it. Otherwise amazing.



The front windscreen is an officially printed piece, the top hatch is a decal replica of an officially printed piece (only available in the darker shade of grey). The whole thing would look more accurate in the darker shade, which would also mean no need for decals, but sadly one key technic component is not available in the darker shade which nips that in the bud.



Actually the upcoming new film Tie fighter looks like the nicest official set so far, but the changed colours don't work for me and a rear facing canopy seems naff as well (what no engine?). I considered bricklinking the parts in the old colours and working out how to get rid of the second hatch, but... got to keep things under control and I already have this really nice looking model.

[toythatkills]

So here we are. I spent ?230 on the Grand Emporium like an absolute tool and so I figured I should probably build the bloody thing! Want to see loads of photos of it?

[HIDE]Lots of bricks!



PART ONE:

Part one is the ground floor and the street outside.

All the pieces from part one.



This is the pattern on the floor at the entrance, and the base of the revolving door.



Holy crap what the hell I'm getting changed!



Some curtains to protect his dignity.



A little perfume display!



A cash register, there are some super-expensive jewels behind the glass.



The ground floor taking shape.



You just KNOW this page is gonna be fuuuuuuun.



It was to make those pillars on either side of the window. They were annoying but I like the effect a lot.



The back door.



The revolving door spins at like a million miles an hour. Do not get caught in it.



The escalator effect is super-cool.



Shop sign! Probably some fun customisation can be had with this.



An ice cream stand! The blue outline is really nice.



And this is the completed ground floor.



Bunch of pieces left over from Part One, it worries me that there are three of the same piece there, like I maybe forgot to use them somewhere...



Part one was a lot of fun to build, and took about two and a half hours.

PART TWO:

Part Two is the second floor, obviously...

These are the pieces for Part Two, that's a lot of beige.



Here's the base construction.



The bottom of the wall.



This floor is pretty boring.



Loads and loads of 2x1 blocks in this layer when some longer pieces would have been fine. Like they wanted to artificially increase the part count or something!



Windows added! This part of the build was really awkward, it takes ages for the windows to be locked in and I was constantly knocking them off.



Second floor complete with flags. The little grey bricks on top are what keep the floor above in place. It's different to the Detective's Office which actually has the floors attached to one another using studs.



These are the pieces left over from Part Two. At no point did I use handcuffs in this part of the build. What the hell?



These are the two floors together.



And this is a better look at the escalators, which look really cool together.



The second floor was not a very exciting build, to be honest, and the stuff it sells wasn't at all exciting or inventive, which made it a bit dull. Took about an hour in total.

PART THREE:

Part Three is the top floor and roof.

These are the bricks for Part Three, and I could immediately see what was coming...



It's the same base I made before!



It's the same walls I made before!



I can see why Lego isn't suitable for young kids. Even I was really tempted to put this blue ball in my mouth and I'm way over the age of three.



These were the funnest part of the final bit of the build, some little toys to go on display! I love how few bricks you need to make something recognisable.





Apart from those, though, it's basically the same build as Part Two.



A fancy chandelier! This is pretty cool.



Aaand that's the third floor finished. Same as the second floor but with better stock and a chandelier. Same awkward windows, same everything as far as building goes.



That's the three floors so far...



The roof starts very familiar...



A skylight, which is above the chandelier... some poor planning by the Lego architect there.



The decorative nature of the roof, from on the roof and below.



A billboard advertising Lego, or presents, or something.



Window cleaner suspended from the roof



A bunch of left over pieces from Part Three.



The view from the front!



The view from the back!



And my two modulars so far...



They actually look pretty cool together from the back.

[/HIDE]

So how was it overall? It wasn't nearly as fun to build as the Detective's Office was. That one tells a story and it feels like the build has been designed specifically so you can see the story develop as you build it. This one is really just a building, and there's a fair amount of repetition. You make the bases three times, the second and third floors are constructed the same, and you make two sets of escalators. The interiors, especially the second floor, are pretty boring really. There's a fair bit of scope for customisation though, I think one day I might just turn it into a full on toy shop and fill it with stuff. That's the other thing the Detective's Office did well, it had no wasted space at all. There was so much stuff crammed in everywhere you look but the second floor of the Grand Emporium feels almost completely empty.

Saying that, the finished result looks fantastic so I can't really regret buying it. Looks lovely next to Al's.

[Dogg Thang]

That looks incredible. The detail is superb and full of charm. The price? Yikes! But absolutely lovely. I'm envious - and thanks for posting so many pics! It was great to see the process. That's where the fun is!

[toythatkills]

I'm pretty certain it won't be the last modular I buy, these things are proper addictive.

So maybe expect more pictures in the future! As soon as Wall-E is released I'll probably crack and add one to my basket on the Lego store. Wall-E should be ?40 and you get free shipping over ?50, so it makes total sense to add another ?120 to the order. I'd be saving money!

[toythatkills]

Ooooohhhhhhh

[QualityChimp]

That's really cool and reminds me that I meant to say that I recently went to Norfolk and visited Wroxham Miniature Worlds.

http://wroxhamminiatureworlds.co.uk/

I'm a sucker for a model village and this was brilliantly done and broken down into sections like Europe, Briatain and Japan. Each one was animated and lit and had a list of things to look for. It was really good fun and there was even an emulator corner!

There was also a brilliant Lego section with a load of kits and rare Minifigs. Again the scenes had lots of things to spot (Cyberman having lunch, Batman looking for his Batmobile and so on).
All the pics are on my camera, which I can add at a later date if people want to see, but here's someone else's photo of the town.

Have a look at the back - there's your shop, along with window cleaner and roof sign!

[toythatkills]

That's two Grand Emporiums back to back! So greedy!

It looks really good though

[Super Grover]

Ooooohhhhhhh

Fantastic choice sir, bravo.

Mine is en route.

[toythatkills]

It is incredible.

An absolutely brilliant set of Lego. Not only is it fun to build, but you get an amazingly "lifelike" version of Wall-E at the end of it. It's articulated in all the same ways that the film version of Wall-E is so you can move and position him exactly as he is in the film, and is about as authentic as it could possibly be. It's probably better than most regular Wall-E toys and it's made of Lego. There are also practically no studs on display thanks to loads of clever little techniques.

It's really really good. Probably the best ?40 you could ever spend on Lego. It's a pretty hefty set too for the price, at 677 parts.

[Super Grover]

Arrived today.

As ttk mentions, it's a weighty box for its size.

Woud'nt be surprised if this set becomes as hot as the cuusoo Mars Rovet set.

[tyjay]

Oh think I'll have a look in the Lego,store tomorrow morning for walle
they usually stock items early

[Dirty Sanchez]

where did you guys pick this up?

[Darwock]

I actually found I was able to order it from Amazon (thank god) - not dispatched yet mind you so fingers crossed nothing goes wrong. The lego nutters over at neogaf are claiming the wider release has been postponed to fix a weak neck issue or something. Sounds dubious to me.

Here's the other major custom I have bricklinked - this time designed by an actual Lego designer, but 'off the books', not sure if it was before he was employed by them, or if he did it privately just to get around the restrictions on stability/difficulty/technique. Having built this though, it wouldn't surprise me to learn he was offered a job on the strength of this design alone. It's god damn GENIUS. It's the same guy who designed the recent F40, and the blue power jet (Mike.. Psiakis?). This is his take on the X-Wing, and again I prefer it massively to any of the official kits. That includes the UCS by the way, because this one is in perfect scale with my other Star Wars ships and holds a pilot figure.





There are so many weird fiddly bits that seem like they won't stay aligned as you build, but the final result is solid as a rock. The wings do open and close, there is a retractable landing skid in the nose, the droid fits in the right way round (unlike the official set).

Negatives? It uses an old style canopy they haven't made since 1985 or so - impossible to find in good condition, and only in bright colours. I had to use my scale modelling knowledge/supplies to gloss it up and remove the scratches. The hinge part is also a mildly different shade of grey (obsolete colour) - tried it in white but prefer the grey even with the difference.

Also the sides of the nose tip section are attached by one stud only, the only part that is not very stable but they are cosmetic so it remains very swooshable.

If anyone out there is inspired to give it a go, be warned the publicly available parts list has errors in it (missing parts, bad colour choices) so after I started the build I had to take a two week break to wait for the correct parts to arrive.