You might not want to have a large installation for your home but this is a good starting point for a small solar power system just adequate for your needs. Low Tech Magazine’s How to Build a Small Solar Power System.
Small Business Ideas
This is what a small business should be like in a world full of conglomerates, franchises and people not talking to each other. In such a busy city, you can still find humanity. This might come across as common sense, but we don’t see that nowadays. Where do you find a place where you know the shopowner’s birthday, or that they know yours, where you chat with other customers, where strangers share experiences and knowledge? Not only that, businesses do not destroy other businesses nearby, instead they work synergistically: you need tea, and I don’t sell them? Easy, I order it from a teashop nearby, no problem. Does another shop need my soju? Coming right up. Small businesses looking out for each other, that is what we should strive for, in a world filled with social media and people losing the human touch — watch this video and observe the nuances!
Railfanning Video
A brief explanation of train cars!
Voxels by Malaysian artist Shin Oh
Check out these traditional pixelated shops that can be found in Malaysia, these are becoming a rarity ever since the gentrification of Instagram-able cafes.
Is it me or is it the lack of exposure from my country despite the artist Shin Oh is a local?
Illustrated Trains
These are amazing detailed illustrations by the Japanese artist known as Masami Onishi. But these aren’t the normal trains you see ferrying to work or for travel. These are the workhorses of the Japanese railway system.
Modern Library
This is a Brickative MOC, I always find Brickative to be quite innovative in the way that they design MOCs, I actually believe that they should petition to be Lego Designers themselves. Or that the real Lego Designers should just have a look at their creations.
This is a really modern take to the Brick Town MOCs and all the Lego modular structures that have been out so far. The footprint isn’t that big, considering the fact that it is a corner building. However, a word of warning, the lift turning device is actually outside of the dimensions of the baseplate, so you might not be able to back this building onto another building.
Look at the facade of the building, slowly coming into place.
The roofs are removable and there is only two floors inside which makes up the library. The glass portion of the building is actually where the lift mechanism resides.
Post Office
Now that I’m reaching the limit of my display area for my Brick Town, I have to be selective with the MOCs that I am able to buy. Right now, my aim is to have one each of the various buildings that you need for a livable Brick Town, and one of them is the Post Office.
Since this is a fan made MOC, it is very detailed. Imagine the effort to get the hanging pots of flowers and I like the way he incorporated the stairs to get up to the second floor. Most would have used two sets for “two” different blocks on the same baseplate.
It is a really colourful set and it fits my theme for a smaller suburbia part of my town. A walkable street with some nice shops and a town square for gathering. I really admire the ideas and bricks used by the creator to get the effect.
Just take a look at the textures used. Can you imagine that those are made out of smooth bricks?
Fishing Village MOC
Wow! I didn’t realize that I have been on WordPress for 10 years already this week. Anyhow, let’s celebrate it with another post about a MOC, or actually a few MOCs that make up my new Fishing Village section.
This is the Captain’s Wharf, the interior is sparse but we are going for the exterior look that matches the Old Fishing Shop. I had to change a few things to fit this into my display area but at least the general look is still the same.
Since the Captain’s Wharf is on 1-and-a-half baseplates with an additional 2×32 area, it makes for a really weird footprint if you needed to put them in a diorama. To overcome that weird 2×32, I combined it with the Boathouse Diner. A word of warning though, you might need to people to carry these two together, which will be at almost 3 baseplates wide.
To round up the Fishing Village, I got myself the Dive Shop. This Dive Shop looks “cleaner” than the Old Fishing Shop and the Captain’s Wharf. The roof is nicely patched and everything looks better.
It slots nicely into the backend of the Captain’s Wharf and Boathouse Diner due to its length. Which is made up of the dock and seaside.
Bike Shop
While waiting for the Chinese companies to copy this, they actually made a different-looking MOC known as the Potter’s Corner, which looks almost the same externally. I got that almost two years ago and finally found a way to get the Bike Shop for my own Brick City. I was going to write it off as I have limited space, but after some brainstorming and realizing that the set is just under 33cm, which was the height of my display, I knew I have to get this.
If at any point in time that you wanted to build your own MOC, and grew tired of incorporating stairs, take a look at this set’s lift system. It is fully functioning and better than building stairs. Or the much dreaded circular stairs to save space.
I’m not going to lie, this set was a bit of a headache colour-wise, just have a look at the light orange, dark orange, and tanned coloured bricks, you will be having a headache determining which goes where.
Bootblack Street
This is a MOC from Brickative, one of the best MOC creators out there. It has been a long time coming since I saw the original from Brickative all those years ago, now I finally have it in my hands, albeit the bootleg version of it.
A quick word, as you can see, the sidewalk is actually in tan, almost 99% of all the city modulars have grey tiles. But if you were to place them together with Victor’s Lab or the Old Town Pub set, they will actually look not that out of place.
Another thing that doesn’t mix in well with the regular modulars is the street lamp, pictured here in black instead of the white ones. As again, if you place them together with the other Brickative stuff, it isn’t that big of an issue. I can’t say more about Brickative, they have one of the most innovative ways of building, and each modular from their collection have different ways of building.
Last Gentleman In Town 