LEGO Tim Hortons

Hi there!

For the last year and a half, I have been slowly working on building my own LEGO city. It is not much to speak of yet, but it consists of one main street with an intersection. Mostly, my city is made up of the Creator modulars at this time. I also bought the Bike Shop & Cafe (31026). It has been temporarily removed from my town as I am working on a modification of it. Just before LEGO retired the set, my local Toys R Us had a crazy sale on them, so I bought I second one. I am now making it a little bigger, turning it into a modular, and adding a floor to each building. But, that is a story for another post. Today, I would like to talk about my first original building in the city. This was my first attempt at a LEGO MOC modular, and what better way to start than with a Canadian classic?

Now, we all know that minifigures love their coffee (there is hardly a City set that does not come with a cup). So, no Canadian LEGO city would be complete without a Tim Horton’s coffee shop for those minifigs to get their caffeine fix.  It took me a while to collect all the pieces for this project. I used some pieces from the aforementioned 31026. The rest came mostly from the in store and online Pick-A-Brick, with additions from my old collection.

It is simply a one floor structure with a removable roof. I originally toyed with the idea of making the coffee shop the bottom floor of a taller building. There are some Tim Horton’s locations like that in city centers. However, as I started to build up, I felt the Tim Horton’s feel became lost in the rest of the building. It really felt more authentic to me as a stand alone building. The picture here shows white chairs, but I will be swapping those out for brown ones to stick with the Tim Horton’s colour scheme.

I used two window pieces horizontally mounted to create the menus. The menus themselves are actually photos of menus I found online and printed on photo paper. The left-most coffee machine is based on the one from the Bike Shop & Cafe, while the machine next to it is a MOC of the Tim Horton’s ice-capp machine. The display case went through a few iterations, but I think I ended up with something that looks good.

Other features that I included are a bathroom, and an ATM outside. The behind-the-counter area features an oven/stove-stop for baking and making soup. There is also a loaf of bread, knife, and area to make sandwiches next to the ice-capp machine. There are some spotlights lighting the way to the back door, and a maintenance ladder leading to the roof. Just like with the menus inside, the Tim Horton’s sign is a picture printed on photo paper and inserted into a window piece.

All in all, the design of the set, the collection of pieces, and the actual building of it took me about a year. That seems like a long time…. but I unfortunately do not have as much time as I would like to have to tinker with my LEGO projects. I am sure many of you out there feel this way!

I would love to hear what you think of my little project. Constructive criticism is always a good thing. Until next time!

–T.N.B.

p.s. you can check out my Pinterest page for a few more pictures on this project.
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