You too can have a designer child without paying those high laboratory prices. Just go to an outlet store! At a recent garage sale, I bought a bag of car-type toys for a dollar... because it contained a useful-looking building! It was a single-piece styrene casting, bright yellow, with clear plastic windows and door, originally intended to represent a service station or car dealership. The first thing that had to go was a healthy covering of stickers: Repeated applications of lighter fluid removed them without harming the plastic. The roof was cut away by scribing on the inside where the walls met the roof, with the back edge of an Xacto knife. Eventually I was able to just pop it off, but it took some work. (The roof plastic was thicker than the walls) There were a number of vents moulded on the parts removed, and I cut them away for use on other buildings. I tried to remove the windows, but they weren't going to come out without real damage to them and to the building. I also removed the door and put it somewhere 'safe.' Safe from me in any case, I haven't seen it since. New roof sections were cut from sheet plastic, and locating lugs added to keep them in place. The narrow section has a sign attached, on a framework of matchsticks. There is a giant mascot (from a Kinder Egg) sitting on the roof over the door. The fact that he has 3 eyes suggests that Karl might be selling cheap knock-offs rather than factory seconds. There's also a roof vent, and an eM-4 satellite dish up there with him.

A base was cut from Sintra. A sidewalk, curb, and floor tiles were scored into the base before the building was attached. The building came with a large opening in the rear. I made the sides parallel, and added tracks for a loading door, made from styrene sheet. (Design copied from a Plasticville building) I masked the windows and sprayed the building with white spray paint as a primer coat: All other pieces were primed with grey primer. (Before assembly, duh) Painting was kept simple, pink & blue trim, and an ugly design for the floor. Weathering was done with magic wash. The interior and windows were decorated with posters advertising this week's 'specials'. More critters from Kinder Eggs stand inside the building. Eventually I gave up, and cut a new piece of plastic to replace the door, still in it's 'safe' place. The base was decorated with a trash can, fire hydrant & a bit of greenery. Base figure: 0068