Not exactly Modulex, but really worthwhile

Posted on October 1, 2010 by Karyn

Mike Doyle has hit the AFOL ground running. He has just begun to create MOCs and not only are his creations amazing (check out his abandoned house titled Two Story with Basement) but his blog documenting them is a treasure. He has just posted a Lego Primer for (mostly) adults who are returning to creating with Lego. It’s a great intro to all things Lego and well worth a look.

Mike Doyle's Lego Primer

I think if we give him a little time, he will eventually be won over to try some creations with Lego® Modulex®!

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Limited Edition Fall Pumpkin Kit

Posted on September 30, 2010 by Karyn

Tiny Lego® Modulex® Pumpkin Kit

Celebrate the arrival of Autumn with this 2010 limited edition (50 kits total) Lego® Modulex® Pumpkin Kit. These are original, vintage Lego bricks from the 1960s & 1970s. The kit includes 25 bricks, including 2 more than you need to complete the pumpkin. One of the extra pieces is another olive slope (so you will have a pair). Instructions included. Cost: $12.50 plus $2.50 shipping to US. Email me to request your kit and I will send you PayPal payment instructions. Will ship immediately upon receipt of PayPal payment.

Limited Edition Minibricks Madness Lego® Modulex® Pumpkin Kit

Here’s a quick photo of the Pumpkin with a BrickFair Minifig.

Pumpkin with BrickFair 2010 minifig

Posted in Lego, Limited Edition Kits, Modulex, Store | Tagged , , , , , , | 3 Comments

“Modulex? Is that real LEGO®? What is it?”

Posted on September 12, 2010 by Karyn

Many people have never heard of or seen the tiny LEGO® Modulex® bricks. Here are some of the questions we answer all the time (and will make available in our FAQ section). If you have a question, leave a comment and we will try to answer it for you!

Are these Modulex® bricks made by Lego®? Are they “real” Lego® bricks?
Yes! These bricks were made beginning in 1963 by Lego® for architects. Later, in the 1970s their use was for planning boards (wall charts to organize projects). The Lego Group started the company Modulex® to manufacture and sell the bricks. In the 1960s the studs were stamped with “LEGO” and later in the 1970s the studs were stamped with “M” for “Modulex.”

What makes these bricks different than standard Lego® bricks?
These bricks are not only smaller (approximately 5/8 the size of a standard brick), but they also have a different height/width ratio. A standard brick has a 5:6 width to height ratio. Modulex bricks have the same width, height, and depth, so they are a perfect cube (with a stud on top).

The tiles or smooth bricks are different too. Standard Lego® tiles are 1/3 the height of a brick, and smooth with no studs on top. Modulex® tiles are the same height as a regular Modulex® brick, but are studless. For this reason, some people refer to them as “studless bricks” instead of tiles.

Are the bricks still being made?
No. They were discontinued and have not been manufactured since the late 70s. All the bricks sold in the MiniBricks Madness webstore are vintage bricks that are 40-50 years old! Each brick is a piece of Lego® history in your hand.

Are these bricks “legal” for MOC entries in Lego AFOL conventions?
Yes. These are real Lego® bricks and are allowed in MOCs.

Are the colors the same as standard Lego® bricks?
No. The Modulex® colors form a muted palette. You can see a sample of the colors in the bricks that I used for my nametag.

Modulex sample colors

My name badge with Modulex® sample colors



What kind of special elements are part of the Modulex® system?
Since Modulex® bricks were designed with architects in mind, there are different kinds of special elements than in the standard Lego® system. The Modulex® elements include roofing connector pieces at various angles (roof ridges), special slopes, windows, doors, and a swivel plate. However, you will not find all the variety of parts that modern Lego® sets include. The slopes for Modulex® do not have studs on top, as many of the standard Lego® roofing slopes have.

Posted in Lego, Modulex | Tagged , , , | 3 Comments

Placing orders with us

Posted on August 17, 2010 by Karyn

First, thank you for your patience while we made decisions about how best to serve you, our customers. What we have decided is to put in place something that will allow us to do what we do best and what we hope serves your needs best. Rather than a typical automated shopping cart, we are opting for a one-to-one relationship via email (or phone) that will allow us to customize kits and orders for you. This means we can handle your special requests, give you the best shipping options (rather than a one-size-fits-all fee), and make sure we only charge sales tax to those whom we are required to charge.

You can view details about our current products by clicking on the photos in the right sidebar (the links are live now). On those pages will be photos, prices, and descriptions of our standard products. However, we will also encourage you to ask about custom sets (specific range of colors, types of bricks or tiles, etc). If you are ready to order, just click on the Order tab above. Your order submission to me will include the items you are interested in. Once I receive that, I will respond with the information necessary to complete the transaction. Once I know exactly what you want, I will email an invoice with shipping (and sales tax, if applicable) to you. There will be a link to pay the invoice with PayPal. You don’t need to have a PayPal account to send the payment (although, if you do, you can use that) and you will be able to use credit cards to send the payment through PayPal.

We hope that this procedure will help us to serve you in a personal manner. Please let us know if there is anything we can do to make the process simpler for you!

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A Brick by any other color

Posted on August 12, 2010 by Karyn

One of the qualities of LEGO® Modulex® bricks that delights builders and collectors is the muted color palette. Here’s a look at most of the color varieties available. The colors were designed to meet the needs of architectural models so they are particularly appealing to AFOLs who are creating historical building MOCs.

Modulex sample colors

My name badge with Modulex® sample colors

The black 1 x 1 brick on the top of the badge is a standard Lego brick and the red 1 x 1 in front of it is a Modulex brick (for comparison).

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BrickFair 2010 Report

Posted on August 10, 2010 by Karyn

Wow! What a great weekend at BrickFair 2010 in the Dulles Expo center. Hundreds of Lego Fans came to display their amazing creations for the public to view. And boy, did the public ever show up! We were told that there were 19,388 people who came over the weekend. In addition to the MOC (“My Own Creation”) expo, there were competitions, games, playrooms, lectures, films, and vendors.

We arrived on Thursday with several MOCs to set up. I brought my Modulex greenhouse, Parasite Rex (took over 35 linear feet of table space, but was much longer if measured along the spiral from mouth to tail), a hairbrush & comb, and tiny tropical birds. The Modulex greenhouse and tiny, tropical birds were both nominated for Brickee awards (didn’t win, but it was still exciting to be nominated). After we set up the MOCs we found out we would have an entire vendor table to use (it became available at the last minute). We set up a display which explained a bit of the Lego history of Modulex. We included some examples of items built with Modulex (a piano, frog, alligator, tiny poodle, and ship). We also had a section of the display which demonstrated the difference between regular Lego bricks and Modulex bricks. We put 100 bricks of each type into glass bottles to visualize the difference. That display attracted a lot of interest and questions. We spent much of the weekend introducing this tiny brick to Lego fans who had never known about the Lego Modulex history.

And, of course, we were able to sell Pocket Kits of Lego Modulex! We hope that everyone who purchased a Pocket Kit or Mini-Tub will send us a photo of something they create so that we can add to our gallery.

Here are some photos of our vendor display.

MiniBricks Madness at BrickFair 2010

A bit of Modulex history on our vendor table at BrickFair

Examples of Lego Modulex creations (on our vendor table).

Some of the Pocket Kits and Mini-Tubs that we had available for sale

Mark took lots of photos of the MOCs, which are available to view on his Picasa Web Album.

I’m excited to let everyone know that we are almost ready to re-open the webstore. We will have the blue compartment Pocket Kit available again! Also, we are putting some easier payment options in place. Check back in a day or two and we should be up and running again.

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Live at BrickFair 2010!

Posted on August 6, 2010 by Karyn

We’re at BrickFair and enjoying talking to everyone who stops by our vendor table.  Our webstore is “Closed” while we are here, so you will have to wait to make purchases online until we return home. Pictures and more posts later!

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Modulex Greenhouse for BrickFair

Posted on August 3, 2010 by Karyn

Here’s the Modulex MOC I’ve created for BrickFair.

Modulex Greenhouse for BrickFair

Modulex Greenhouse (interior) for BrickFair

Modulex Greenhouse for BrickFair (interior bracing)

Posted in BrickFair, MOC, Modulex | Tagged , , , | 3 Comments