I thought it might be helpful to get a thread going for indecisive people like me.  I would be open to others listing their "dilemmas" as well in order to avoid multiple threads. 

 

I ordered the Grand Emporium, but as I somewhat expected the order was cancelled due to it being over sold.  I had decided that I was going to spend about $150 on a set to build this month, but I am having trouble deciding what to go with.  The investment potential is at the bottom of my list, I am more looking for an enjoyable build and something that will look good on display. My hope is to build a city for my son as time goes on. Here are my ideas so far:

 

Fair Ground Mixer

Palace Cinema

Parisian Restaurant 

Creator Family House (Going with this one, I would have room left in my budget for another set or two)

Another modular (Pet shop, etc)

 

I appreciate any feedback on these sets, or suggestions on others.

 

Thanks BrickPickers! 

Excellent display. Jealous of that blue tram, missed out on that one. And the Cafe Corner of course.

 

The tram set was one of our first after coming out of our dark ages. Cafe Corner was a 40th birthday present... paid $700ish for it used.

I wanted to use light bley arches, she wanted beige. Guess who won.

 

Supporting the modulars was quite the discussion.. I originally wanted to just build a wood frame underneath and have a facade (faster, cheaper) but that also got shot down. It is 100% lego underneath. I took some pictures a long time ago of it in progress, but alas I cannot find them. It's simply 4x4 columns of bricks spaced anywhere from 4-6 studs apart with 2x6+ or 1x6+ beams connecting them. The straight run of tunnel in the back is all partial arches with beams locking everything together. The hard part was going over the curved tunnels as some of those spans were more than 16 studs. I used technic beams and lots of pins to create some strength but it's not nearly as strong. We then covered it in plates to lock it all in place.

 

A better close up of the arches

CityArches.jpeg

 

Our subway stop (we live on a street called Home St)

CitySubwayStop.jpeg

 

The subway entrance (ps: ignore the star wars/ninjago battle - we do let the kids play with the city).

CitySubwayEntrance.jpeg

This is extremely impressive! I have all of the modulars, this gives me some inspiration!