The Kumamon House is converted into a Lego Compatible Modular Building!

 

Hello, brick fans! Welcome back to Bricks and Figs, my blog about LEGO-compatible sets, MOCs, and minifigures! Today, I'm excited to present another modular building MOC: a Japanese-style two-story building with a rooftop garden. As with all modular buildings, the roof and floors can be removed for easy access to the interior.

The Inspiration and Objectives

This new creation is a teardown and rebuild of the Panlos/Inbrixx 880018 Kumamon House, which I reviewed last fall from Afobrick.com. The original building exudes the charm of an old Japanese akiya house, complete with a traditional garden. However, it didn’t quite fit into my LEGO-style Japanese cityscape, as my other modular buildings are either 16x32 or 32x32 studs wide, while the Panlos Kumamon house is 32 studs wide but only 16 studs deep.

My primary goals were to rebuild the Kumamon house to match my other modular buildings and to retain as many of the original features as possible. This includes the exterior and interior accessories. I listed the unique features of the Panlos Kumamon house that I wanted to keep:

• Roof design
• Windows
• Japanese garden with bamboo plants
• Color scheme
• Kotatsu (dining table)
• Ikebana (flower display)
• Interior furnishings and wall hangings
• Lighting

The New Design and Layout

Like my other modular buildings, the redesigned Kumamon house is situated on a raised baseplate. My challenge was to incorporate as many original features as possible while adding a sidewalk and new front entrance.

The Japanese garden, featuring a stone lantern, small bridge, koi pond, and bamboo plants, has been relocated to the backyard. This allowed for a decent footprint for the building structure while still providing a staircase to the second floor. There are two access points: a front entrance and a rear entrance leading to the backyard. The unique windows are now a focal point at the front of the house. The two-story house also includes a rooftop garden accessed via another staircase from the second floor.

The main floor interior is dominated by an ikebana display wall that also hides the staircase. The center of the room features a low table with a teapot and mugs, along with a TV, radio, and a small console table. The second floor includes a bedroom with a decorative shoji screen, wall closets, and a colorful fan above the bed. The kotatsu table is set up with food offerings in front of the bed. The rooftop garden, accessed by an outside staircase from the second floor, includes a partially covered area with gardening tools and various plants.

The finished model

Here’s how it looks after the rebuild:

• The unique windows, two lanterns, and small balcony on the second floor have been retained.
• New flowerpots adorn the front facade.
• Tan-colored bricks construct the walls, while dark orange accent bricks and a teal blue-green roof have been maintained.
• Roof tiles were reworked to fit the new building. 

Here's the small balcony on the second floor.

I think he wooden screen is really cool and this was a must have in the new building.

I didn't want the extra windows to go to waste, so I placed on the side of the building.  You won't normally see these however, if all of my Japanese themed buildings are placed side by side.

Here's a view of the back and right side of the building.

Full view of the new building rear elevation.

I tried to keep as much as I could of the Japanese garden from the Panlos set.  

The rooftop staircase.

I managed to keep both of the wooden screens.  The smaller one is used in the garden.

Some views of the rooftop garden.  I have a large collection of Lego compatible flowers and shrubs, so I put some of the to use here.  I put a sink with water tap to facilitate watering the plants.

Removing the roof, we can now see the interior of the second floor.  The fan decoration, the shoji screen, the bed and the wall closets have been rearranged to fit into the new second floor layout.

The kotatsu dining table was reduced in size by 50% to fit into the bedroom area.

The wall calendar was saved and put into the new bedroom.

Here is the overhead shot showing the layout of the second floor.  The new sand green floor tiles were chosen to represent tatami mats and not part of the Panlos set. BTW, the underside of the roof is where I've attached a light brick. It's used to light up the second floor as we will see later.

Here's the interior of the first floor with the rest of the building removed.  The first floor light brick sits on top of the ikebana display.

Here are a few more views of the first floor layout and furnishings.   The center table and freestanding fan was not part of the OG set, it's just my creation, but all of the other accessories are from the Panlos set.  There weren't enough of the tan coloured floor tiles, so I added some extra ones to complete the flooring.

Here you can see that this is indeed a modular building.

Lighting

The light brick on the first floor has three light strips attached to it.  I used one to light up the rear stairwell, one over the flower display and the last one under the front awning.

The second floor light brick has 2 light strips attached to it.  I use one of the light strips to illuminate the centre of the room and the other light strip is affixed to the underside of the awning.

Rearview of the building with lights on.

And here is the front elevation all lit up.

Just in case, you were wondering if the new Kumamon house is minifig scale or not, here's Murakami-san watering the plants in the rooftop garden.

Mrs Murakami is setting up the meal in the bedroom.

So the short answer is yes,  you can display minifigures with the new Kumamon house MOC.

Converting the Kumamon house into a modular building was challenging, requiring the addition of many extra tan-colored bricks, floor tiles, and flowers. However, the result is a beautifully integrated modular building that fits seamlessly into my Japanese cityscape.

Please feel free to check out the wide variety of building block sets on sale at Afobrick.com.   And don't forget to use my coupon code ITSNOTLEGO to save an extra 5% off all your purchases.  

Thank you for joining me on this build journey. Please let me know what you think of the new building.  Bye!

First Look at the LeLightGo LED Light Kit for the Town Hall 10224

 

Hey brick fans!  Welcome back to my blog!

Today, I'll be reviewing a new LED lighting kit for my Town Hall modular building.  It's from an established company called LeLightGo.  They have quite an expansive collection of LED light kits available for your Lego and Lego compatible brick sets.

Thanks so much to LeLightGo for providing this kit for me to review!

• Set/Kit:  LeLightGo 10224 LED light kit for Town Hall modular Building
• Lego Compatible: Yes
• Instructions: Downloadable from the LeLightGo website
• Price: $39.99 USD (before discounts)

Here is my Town Hall modular building for which I will be incorporating the light kit into.

Unboxing

The LeLightGo light kit comes in a compact box with a sticker on the outside to identify the light kit.  The SKU matches the Lego id for the Town Hall which is 10224.

Inside we find a pouch containing several small resealable bags of parts.

Here's the contents.  Some of the seven bags are numbered and some are not.   Note that there are no instructions or other pamphlets like other LED light kit brands.   The instructions for each set can be found directly on the LeLightGo website as PDFs which can be downloaded to your computer.

Here are the all the components from the unmarked bags.  There's a USB connected battery box that uses three AAA batteries (not included) with a USB power cable and 6 port expansion board.  The LED lamppost came in an unmarked bag, but I believe it should have been marked as bag number 1.

Here's the contents of bag 2.  These are all the lighting components that will be used for the first floor of the Town Hall.  

Bag 3 contains a thin light strip that will be installed inside the arch over the front entrance.

These are the lighting components in Bag 4 to illuminate the second floor interior and exterior.

Bag 5 contains a similar set of components to light up the third floor of the Town Hall.  Additionally, there is one more light strand that will light up the bell tower.

LeLightGo was also very kind in sending me three sets of wireless connectors.    The wireless connectors make it a lot easier to separate the floors in a modular building.   I'm going to look at these wireless components in greater detail in a separate review. 

Testing the Lights

Once everything is unpacked, it's advisable to test all of the lighting elements before installing them into your building block set.  To do this, you will need to connect the USB plug to one of the expansion boards then, attach each of the LED lighting components.  Then it is a matter of connecting the USB plug to the battery pack and turning it on.  Visually verify that the light strands, and each of the lighting components are working properly. 

The User guide provides some information, but it could be improved to provide more detailed information about how to connect the wires to the expansion boards for those who are new to LED lighting kits.

In the majority of cases, the lights should all work fine, but if you run into problems, simply contact LeLightGo as per their website.  "If your kit doesn't work please contact us on support@lelightgo.com or via Facebook Messenger or Instagram. We will immediately solve your problem."

Alright, everything looks good, so it's time to light up my Town Hall modular building!  We will download the lighting instructions for the Town Hall here.   I'm looking for the set number which is 10224.

There are just pictures in the instructions and no words, so you just have to follow along.  The pictures of each step are pretty straightforward on how to take apart some of the bricks  in order to install the lighting elements.  The first action to perform is to replace the existing lamp post with the LeLightGo version.  This should be from Bag #1.

For the next step, we take the three connected 1x2 bricks with leds and attach them to the underside of the windows and front entrance of the main floor.  The light strand is from Bag #2.

From the same light strand, we connect the Led light to the rear lantern.

The original instructions have the three 1x4 LED light bricks attached to the first floor ceiling (ie. the underside of the second floor).  I decided to do a bit of customization by adding a brick that spans the entire width of the main floor.   I then attached the LED lights to the underside of the span.   

Returning to the exterior, we attach the long led strip from Bag #3 to the underside of the front arch.

All the components from Bags 1, 2 and 3 are all connected to the same expansion board as per the instructions we downloaded.

The second storey will have it's own expansion board where we plug in the 5 exterior lights and two interior lights.  All the components are grouped together in Bag 4.   Now, use one of the black lead wires to chain the second floor expansion board to the first floor expansion board.  This is easy because of the open atrium between the floors.

Here's how it looks from the inside.  I'm leaving the ceiling light strips free hanging for the moment but normally you'd attach them to the underside of the upper floor.

Repeat the steps for the third floor using the contents of Bag #5.

And here's what the third floor interior looks like.

The final light strand from Bag #5 is used for the light above the clock and the bell tower.  The process is fairly straightforward as per the instructions.

I must say that the LeLightGo LED lights are quite bright and makes the Town Hall modular building shine!

Summary

Because I'd had some exposure to other brands of  Lego lighting kits, LeLightGo was very easy to install for me.  It took me a total of about four hours to fully integrate the light kit into the modular building, basically one morning, and the results are excellent.

When plugging the wires into the expansion board, I noticed that they felt very secure, and not too loose.  I plugged and unplugged the wires from the boards quite a number of times, and the wires held up well to all of my handling.

I would like to see the instructions improved to show the new light kit users how to plug the wires into the expansion boards, but that was my only nit.

The cost of the lighting kits that I found on the LeLightGo website are very competitive with the other lighting brands.   I also liked that LeLightGo still has lighting kits for many of the older Lego style modular buildings, because similar light kits are discontinued on other LED lighting websites.

At the time of this writing, LeLightGo has a special promotion Buy One, Get 50% Off using the code Mar50 at checkout.   You can also use my discount code ITSNOTLEGO to save 25% off anytime.

Having installed the LeLightGo lighting kit for the Town Hall modular building, I can say this is a quality product which I'd recommend to anyone who wants to light up the buildings in their Lego city.

Thanks again to LeLightGo, and thanks brick fans and modular building enthusiasts for reading my blog post!   Bye for now!

My Custom Not Lego Koban Police Station

 

Hey brick fans!

I just wanted to show you my latest project, it's a small neighbourhood police station called a Koban. It's typically found in many Japanese cities and towns.   My little not Lego Japanese town gets a much needed police station.

Here's the wikipedia page for it: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/K%C5%8Dban

My model is based on someone's 3D render I found on the internet.  It looked simple enough to replicate with my bricks and blocks.

I copied the location of all the windows that I saw in the pictures and even added bars on the windows.

I added a policeman minifigure and a policewoman minifigure to provide a sense of scale.

There are no pictures of the back of the building, so I just added a door with a covered ledge.

I have a weird sized brick on the back wall which I' need to replace.  I wonder if I should indent the back wall to replicate the design on the sides of the building?  Might give it a bit more visual interest.

I used minifigure baseplates for my rooftop, lol.  Looks crappy doesn't it?

In case, you are wondering if my not Lego police station is a modular building, yes it is.  The roof and the second floor can be separated.

I've even added a stairwell opening on the second floor.   Now I just need to furnish the interior.  I need to add stairs, a front desk, some offices, a break room and a small jail cell.  That will be for the next project. 

This project took me about 20 hours to build using just the spare bricks and blocks I had laying around. That's it, thanks for looking at my custom Japanese Koban police station!  Bye!