These days, I’m struggling to find something to write about. I stress over the fact that I can’t spend enough time for the blog on one hand, think about the big move of our HQ (yes, we’re moving again) on the other. I keep seeing LEGO news. The newest LEGO House set is announced. There’s a brick convention in the UK. This and that. However, I can’t find the strength to write. I got tired of saying the same thing, and you got tired of reading it, I know. Nevertheless, the situation remains the same.
I don’t want to break my rule of publishing something at least once a week. Today’s Saturday, it’s my last day tomorrow. If I don’t publish anything, there, I’d have broken the rule. Look at the blogs, look at your older articles… nope, nothing. Then a tiny light bulb appears. Why don’t I write about what’s in front of me? Yeah, I can do that.
Of course, now you’re thinking about what I have in front of me. During the sales in November, I got the colorful Friends building, or officially, Heartlake City Community Center. Of course, I got the kitchen as well. When moving became inevitable, I decided to leave the community center for later, but the kitchen is on my desk. In front of it are the food stalls I’ve built; the result of a chat with one of my friends.
Then let’s begin, the food city of the woman who’s unable to find a subject to write about :)
Toys R Us Food Stalls
I don’t even remember when and where I saw it, but I remember squealing at the images. Four promotional Toys R Us sets, all with a different food theme. I know there have been other sets and minifigures like this before, and I know how hard it is to get them – in Turkey, at least.
When I was talking with Emre, my friend, he told me about the city he’s planning to make. He tried to include me in his project, too. I kept telling him, if there are no instructions, I can’t create a city, even if I had limitless parts. I never played like that. I build what comes with the box, I either use it or not, but the game is always about the minifigures. What we call MOC is something I look at with admiration, not something I make. As he was telling me about the stalls he wanted to put in the park of his city, I remembered the food stalls again. I sent him the images first. Then I wondered if I could find the instructions. I couldn’t. Any speed builds? Images? None. How was that possible? These sets were released, weren’t they? After a bit of digging, I learned they were only released in the Asian market. They’re called Brick Bites, and available after spending a certain amount of money on LEGO sets in the Toys R Us online store. Great, but how was I going to build them without any instructions?
Thanks to years of writing and research, I knew the existence of Rebrickable. I checked. There were no instructions, but there was a parts list. Well, they were easy enough, even I could build them. I launched Studio and started to build. I was happy with the result. I checked Bricklink, to see which stores had the parts I wanted. It’s not always easy to find a specific part or a color in stores in Turkey. I gotta give it to them, though, some of them have a wide range of parts. I made my list, placed the order. I was planning on building them all but couldn’t find the bright light orange ice cream scoops. Oh well, maybe next time.
When the parts arrived and the builds were finished, I had three cute food stalls on my desk.
The City of Food
I work from home, using my laptop. Of course, I have my toys on my desk, I feel joy when I look at them. The Community Kitchen in the back, three food stalls in front of it, and Autumn’s Waffle Stand in front of them. After seeing them day and night, I was struck with inspiration. I have never thought about building a city until now. Both because it was always about the minifigures, and because I haven’t been getting many sets, I didn’t have enough parts. The small sets I got mostly weren’t suitable to create a city. Maybe now was the time. I’ve been spending a bit more than usual lately, buying bigger sets than usual as well. I might be able to pull it off.
On the other hand, I loved the food stalls, I wanted to have more of them. Then I thought, why not a city of food? I have a kitchen, I got my stalls, I have a hot dog and a burger truck. It’s a great start, isn’t it? But of course, I can build a few more stalls, because they’re too darn cute! Then let’s go back to Studio.
Go back, right… but what will I build? Preferably, something I like. Coffee would do. Right, coffee. Sure. If it’s to have the same concept as the others, I’ll need a coffee cup on the stand. Let’s see, who built a coffee cup. Come on, Rebrickable, show me what you got!
And I came across a fantastic designer. Okay, everyone who makes MOCs is like that for me, but this was right on target. They designed tons of stalls. They were a bit different than what I was going to do, but each of them had a build on top, showing what the stall is selling. I may have lost my mind a bit. I picked a few I really liked. Was it over? Of course not. I needed to build them. Thankfully, the parts used were listed. I used them, guessed from time to time, checked availability from Bricklink. And finally, my stalls were ready.
How to Build It?
I’m not actually asking a question here; it’s the name of the group (or handle of the person) behind these stalls. There are nearly a thousand models on Rebrickable, and they publish them on their webpage and social media accounts as well. I didn’t go through all of them, but the stalls are amazing.
When I was studying architecture, there was something almost all my tutors said: Avoid symbols. What does that mean? It means if you’re designing a barbershop, there shouldn’t be a scissors statue on the building. If you’re designing a vet, don’t design something that resembles a cat or a dog. Sure, I get it, they’re trying to say the building should speak for itself, but what if it doesn’t? What if it can’t? That’s when we get the same old rectangles everywhere. However, using something like this brings color to the building, to the street and to the city. It attracts attention. Of course it can’t be used everywhere, every time. But both people and the city need this kind of color from time to time.
I “borrowed” some of the designs I found on this page. I haven’t ordered the parts yet, due to having enough expenses on my plate because of the move, but even the rendering I got from Studio looks amazing. When I build them all, a small street in my food city will be ready. Or maybe I’ll make a square, not a street. I haven’t decided yet, and it’s my first time :) But even if I don’t arrange them, they look really good on their own in my opinion.
That’s it for today!
Before I wrap things up, I’d like to thank the creators of How to Build It. Knowing what parts to use and bringing them together are completely different. Thanks to them, I did something I don’t usually do, challenged myself to build. I’d like to thank Emre for giving me the idea of building a city, though I’m not sure if it’s a good decision or a bad one. We’ll see :) And I want to thank you, my dear readers, for still following my blog. The quality of what I write isn’t always the same. Maybe sometimes I write about things you don’t care about at all. Still, I’ll try to continue publishing for as long as I can.
Sending hugs from this part of the world!
The Brick Bites banner and the images of the sets, along with the set images with symbols are from Brickset, the collection of How to Build It stalls are from Rebrickable. The images of unbuilt stands were rendered in Bricklink Studio. The rest are mine.
Some girls play with Barbie dolls, while others create small worlds with LEGO minifigures and continue to do so when they grow up. You can probably guess which group I belong to :)
