Honey, I Shrunk the Sembo Japanese Shops (Not Lego)!

I modded my Sembo shops!

Hi brick fans, thanks for dropping by!  In case you are new here, my blog BricksandFigs is about reviews of not Lego minifigure I find on Aliexpress and showcasing my custom brick builds or as sometimes referred to, MOCs.

In today's post, I will show you the three changes I made to the recently acquired Japanese shop sets made by Sembo brand.   For my initial build pics of these shops you can find that post here.   Ok, let's go!

Change #1 - Adding a roof to the sushi shop

In this before picture of the sushi shop, you can see it has no roof, whereas all the other three shops do have roofs.  To be consistent, I wanted to add a roof to the sushi shop.  The easiest way to do this is to put another post on the right side and then attach a cross beam across the top.  This will then provide support for a new roof plate covering the entire shop.

Change #2 - Adjust the counter heights

Sembo made the shops bigger, so you can appreciate all the little details but one thing I noticed is that they are slightly bigger than minifigure scale.

 In the case of this before picture of the takoyaki shop, you can see that the counter height is nearly the height of the girl minifigure.  If that was in real life, the counter height could be close to 5 feet tall.

 The counter height of the ramen shop is ok, until you realize those ramen bowls will probably be too high to eat out of, while sitting on the stools.  This is also a before picture.

Lastly, the shaved ice shop is also way too high.  There's no way the girl minifigure is going to reach the kakigori without her wearing it in the before picture.

 On most of the shops the counter is 3 studs high, so I'm going to reduce it to 2 studs if possible.  This should make the shops more minifigure friendly.

 Change #3 - Adjust the shop widths

All of the shops presently sit on a 16x8 stud plate, so when you display two of the sets besides each other they take up 32 studs, which is the size that is occupied by a normal modular building.   This would be fine, except I want to add in sidewalks to make the appearance consistent with my other modular buildings. Pictured above is how the shops looked before I modified their widths.

My sidewalks are about 8 studs deep.  If I subtract 8 studs from 32, I get 24 studs remaining.  So the challenge is to get 2 shops side by side within 24 studs.

The results

Here are the Japanese themed Sembo shops with all the changes applied.

The sushi shop underwent the most changes, but I still couldn't get the counter height as low as I wanted.  I was able to add the roof and move the signage to the front.  The width was significantly reduced from 3 seats to only 2 seats.  The ramen shop counter height was reduced and the shop width was only slightly decreased.  The red lantern of the ramen shop was shifted from the side to the front.

Here's how the shops look around back.

Here's the newly modified Takoyaki shop and shaved ice shop.  As you can see, the counters are much more accessible.  The biggest challenge on these two shops was preserving the fabric banners.  They take up a lot of room, so there's a bit of overhang.  The red lantern on the takoyaki shop was also moved from side to front.

Here's the rear of the two aforementioned shops.

For most people, they would probably stop here, having accomplished the ambitious challenges, but I decided to go one step further and placed the shops on 16x32 baseplates complete with sidewalks and a brick wall.

 Some WIP pictures

I really wanted that Asian feel, so I completed the display with a large cherry tree placed in a central courtyard.

The entire display is comprised of 3 16x32 baseplates, two for the shops and one for the parkette/courtyard.

I don't have the baseplates permanently attached, because sometimes I'll want to display it this way.

Well, that's it!  I hope you enjoyed looking at how I modified my Sembo shops and made a display for them.   Please note that you cannot simply take the shops as they are and downsize them.  I had to pull a lot of bricks from my brick stash and basically re-design and re-construct each shop from scratch.

Hsanhe 6411-2 McDonalds restaurant MOC modular building gets a drive thru lane!

Hey, what's up, brick fans?  Today I'd like to give you a look at the latest updates to my McDonalds modular building. 

Here's a bit of background about this modular if you are new here.  The Hsanhe brick brand made a set of six small store fronts, each having about 200 pieces and included 2 minifigures.  I bought all six of the sets back in July 2016 and have since incorporated those shops into larger modulars or have made them into their own small modular buildings.

The McDonalds modular started life as one of those sets.  If you'd like to see how it has evolved in my not Lego brick collection, feel free to check out my other posts.

https://its-not-lego.blogspot.com/2016/09/hsanhe-6411-2-fast-food-restaurant.html

https://its-not-lego.blogspot.com/2018/02/hsanhe-6411-2-fast-food-restaurant-mod.html

https://its-not-lego.blogspot.com/2019/01/hsanhe-6411-2-mcdonalds-restaurant.html

Anyways, let's take a look at the latest enhancements!

In case, you haven't guessed, it's the addition of an actual drive thru lane. The lane widens the former baseplate by about 8 studs.  Although it seems trivial, the modification required me to rip out the previous baseplates and interior.  I used the 8x16 stud smooth surface baseplates from a couple of old Kazi brand fire station sets.

I added an extension and post over the drive thru lane to provide some continuity to the Mcdonalds restaurant.  I also made some minor changes to the takeout window, but I might have to adjust the height again.  I dunno, what do you think?  Is it too high or is it ok as is?

At the rear of the building, I added a new extension and repositioned the back door to open off to the side.  I made the awning 5 studs wide to cover the entire back door.  The rear extension is supposed to provide a secure room for supplies and deliveries  instead of just leaving them out in the open like that gray container.

The final modifications I made to the McDonalds restaurant was to add bigger picture windows to both sides of the building.  Initially I had planned for this building to be sandwiched in between other buildings, but with the added glazing, this modular could be placed as a stand-alone unit in a city layout.

I used smooth tiles over the picture windows so that I could just pop them out for easier access to parts of the restaurant.

Here's an overhead shot of the building with roof removed.  Tiling the extended are off the back is low priority and I'll probably get to it soon, unless I decide to re-do the back area.

 Other than that the interior remains the same as before with a seating area and stand up counter with trash bin.  And yes, I still need to make/print some stickers for the menu signage over the counter.

No changes to the roof either. It comes off in two pieces.

I'm pleased to report that there has been no turn over of the staff at the McDonalds since the last time we looked in and everyone continues to be fairly happy in their job.

Patrons come and go, so we get some regular guests and some new guests.

We got a small party of seniors visiting today plus the airline pilot who is picking up some takeout from the drive thru in his sporty convertible.

Here's a few more shots.

Thanks for popping by and see you next time!  

The Gem Store, my latest Modular Building MOC

Hello and welcome back to Its Not Lego! My blog about not Lego building sets, minifigures and my own customs (MOCs).

The Gem Store and Studio Apartment

I just added the final pieces to my latest two storey modular building made from Not Lego bricks that I sourced from my old stash of bricks and Aliexpress.  It's a precious gem store on the main floor and a studio apartment on the second floor built on a standard 16 stud wide baseplate and then widened by 6 studs to accommodate the stairs going up to the apartment.

Quick Tour of the Outside

The front facade of the modular is clad with tan coloured masonry bricks and a small enclosure covers the front door, which is flanked by two lights.    A unique feature on this modular building is the security camera keeping a watchful eye on the everyone who passes by.

Here's another picture of the staircase that leads up to the second floor landing.  The tan and black colour scheme matches the building too.

Instead of a security camera out back, there's plenty of lighting, even under the stairwell.

One more glance at the outside before we head indoors.

Gem Store Interior on the main floor

It wasn't easy trying to take picture of the gem store's interior as this and the preceding pic will attest. 

Pulling the camera back a bit kind of helps with the view but I think I'm going to have to take out a wall to get a better look inside.

That bullet proof glass wall that separates the foyer and the security camera was obstructing our view, so now that those have been removed, let's take a closer look.

 There are three staff working in the gem store.  There's also a security guard for extra precaution.  The store isn't quite open for business yet, so the staff are busy setting things up.

There's a lot of precious stones up for sale.  Final inspection and placement is key to a good sale.   According to the clock it is about 8:30 am, got another hour or so before the shop opens.  Those metal bars on the window will stop all intruders.

 More gems on display around the store.  The security guard spends most days stationed by the front door.  Here's some more pics of the inside.

Let's hope all the precious gem stones are all accounted for.  Did you happen to notice how many security cameras were inside the store (including the ones on the removed wall)?

Studio Apartment interior on the second floor

We will once again take out some exterior walls to get a better look at  the inside of the apartment.

With the room divider removed, we can see the entire apartment.  The kitchen is the first room upon entering the apartment.  It includes a sink, stove, oven, fanhood and cabinets.

 The studio apartment is rented out to a university student.  Her classes don't start until later this morning, so she has time to do some quick vacuuming and eat breakfast, before heading out.

 It's not a luxurious apartment but it has all the essentials including a sofa, a comfy bed and three piece washroom.

Here's the view of the apartment with the other wall removed.

The student really takes pride in keeping her apartment neat and tidy. Hmm, something's missing in the bathroom though.

There, that's better.  Sometimes you don't notice what's missing until you take the pictures.

Gosh, my modular buildings all kind of look the same, don't you think?  Anyways, thanks for checking out my modular building.  Thumbs up or thumbs down?  Feel free to let me know what you think.    Thanks for looking and see you next time!

 For anyone looking for Lego style parts for your own MOCs, I've had great success with this Aliexpress store.