Once again, Life Imitates Art. For you youngsters: 'Way back in olden days, a 5 and 10 was a shop where everything cost a nickel or a dime. They were like Dollar Stores.' The Plasticville kit was, when released, something familiar to Americans. We haven't seen 5 and 10's for many years. Or have we? My plan was to reimagine the business as one where everything was $5 or $10. A hilarious and cynical comment on the future setting.... Until I found a real Dollar Store that had already done the reimagining. My chagrin was boundless when I saw the sign: 'No Item Over $10' My joke fell flat. Needless to say, my enthusiasm sort of disappeared. Step one as always was to scrub the kit pieces, which being 30-50 years old were pretty grubby. (More on this later) With many Plasticville buildings the first order of business is to remove or cover the heavy lettering saying 'Plasticville'. Shaving, filing, grinding whatever: Yet the words often still ghost through paint, and their removal puts other detail at risk. I took a new tack here: With keen eye and cunning, I changed a P to an E, making this an 'Elasticville' outlet. Do they stretch your dollar? Was this the old Rubber District of town? Mysteries, to be sure. All I cared was that it no longer said 'Plasticville.' (Although I suppose 'Elasticville' doesn't make any more sense) I cut new windows from clear plastic, replacing the original paper inserts. The only other modification was plugging the wiring hole in the rear.

Since I added no interior details, and the front of the building was mostly windows, it was pretty obvious that the store was empty. I added a few signs to the windows, and added a couple of 'Heroclix' figures to some LEGO pieces, to make window mannequins. Now it looks a bit less obvious. Another, easier technique would be a simple 'OUT OF BUSINESS' sign on the front. The base was cut from Sintra, and had floor & sidewalk detail scribed in place befort the kit was attached. The base was decorated with a trash can, fire hydrant & a bit of greenery. The base was primed, and the building parts spray painted before assembly. This brings up an issue I've noticed: Plasticville kits are moulded in 'colour' and old ones are amazingly grubby. I clean them up, and almost invariably paint them the colour they were moulded in. (They chose good colours) Then I weather them, to bring out the details, and the pieces wind up looking like they did before I started.... sigh...