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Of note, the instruction manual is now a single large perfect-bound book wrapped in a tight plastic bag... there's no cardboard backing as in previous modulars, so mine arrived rather mutilated on the corners.

Not all ferries of this type have cables - this is a fairly common design for short-distance open-water journeys. For example, this is the Ketchikan Airport Ferry which crosses the deep-water Tongass Narrows (an arm of the Pacific Ocean) between the island city of Ketchikan, Alaska and its international airport, which is on another island: http://www.capilanom...14x21x72dpi.jpg

Er, no. It hasn't been done before. To say that a one-room shack which is part of a larger set is equivalent to a complete stand-alone flagship set is absurd (and I own 6598). That's two sets from the first wave of 2016 City. Add in "Tire Escape", that's never been done either. We haven't the slightest inkling what else might be coming down the pipe in summer and fall. Remember that LEGO is out to make money; police and fire sets are perennial sellers. 10% of sets being "new" things they haven't tried is actually a pretty good ratio. What if they're terrible sellers, and nobody wants a ferry or a prison island? The other stuff will have to make up the difference, sales-wise. They have to mix risks with proven sellers. What "new" things would you'd like to see in City that have never, ever been done before? And how would they be done in a way that appeals to 5-12 year old kids, the line's core audience? I don't think we grew up in different eras; my first LEGO was 6386 Police Command Base. I lament the fact that LEGO hasn't done larger road plates, and I lament the loss of baseplates more generally. But the fact is that the sets are far better scaled and detailed than Town ever was. They're only "oversized" by the undersized standards of O.G. Town. Look at the ambulance from 6380 Emergency Treatment Center vs. the 4431 ambulance and tell me there isn't a vast improvement in design, realism and playability.

Repetitive and boring? Since when did LEGO Town or City ever have a car ferry? A prison island? An auto dealership? A LEGO Store? A service truck with a Porta-Potty? Highly-detailed buses? A museum? A logging truck? An articulated auto transporter with two full-sized cars? OK, so yeah, there's going to be some perennial repeats in the Fire and Police subthemes (which are perennial repeats because, y'know, people buy them for their kids, because kids are always going to want them, and so they're going to make a ton of money for LEGO) but there's also a ton of innovation going on throughout the lineup. Everything is more detailed and realistic than Town ever was, and keeps getting better. And all of this is with a release schedule far more fast-paced than Town ever had. We are in a golden age of LEGO Town/City-themed sets, quite frankly. I really don't get all the bitching and moaning in this forum. If something comes out that you don't like, just don't buy it.

There is no "Ferry Fire Response Unit." They are two separate sets - a Ferry and a Fire Response Unit - that got put on the same line of the leaked set list accidentally.

The Fire Brigade is the most iconic modular of all, and certainly one of the best-designed. Classic proportions, fits perfectly in-era, creative building techniques... there's a reason it kept selling for years. However, there could be said to be one thing wrong with it... there's not much room to grow. With only a single apparatus stall that's too short for LEGO's newer fire apparatus, and no office space or dispatch center, it's not exactly suited for the demands of today's fire-rescue operations. My LEGO town's fire department has been sorely tempted to move its downtown station to newer, roomier (if rather less impressively-built) quarters, such as the 60004 Fire Station. Even after gutting the second floor's interior to install a chief's office and dispatch center, and MOCing a modern "urban" engine that (barely) fits inside the garage, there's no room for a ladder truck or ambulance (never mind anywhere for the firefighters to eat and sleep!). The physical structure has simply been outgrown. What is our city's fire department to do about this dilemma? Demolish and rebuild? Adaptive reuse? There must be a better way, one which preserves and honors the historic nature of firefighting in our community while acknowledging the very real needs of the modern fire service. Well, it just so happens that a recent natural disaster cleared a vacant 32x32-stud plot of land next door to the downtown station. The opportunity is not being wasted — a three-story addition is in the design phase, providing our community's brave firefighters with the space and facilities they need to continue protecting lives and property. By pushing the building nearly to the limit of the land, two apparatus stalls are added that are long enough to completely house an advanced ladder truck and modern ambulance. A third, shorter stall is suitable for the battalion chief's command SUV. The use of precast thin brick panels on the facade pays homage to the original building's hand-laid masonry construction, while being both cheaper to build and more seismically-sound. The original building's apparatus stall architecture and design is also replicated, to create a harmonious and reasonably-uniform appearance. On the second floor, firefighters have room to eat and relax, and the (yet-to-be-designed) third floor will include sleeping quarters, bathroom and equipment storage. The use of large aluminum windows front and back provides maximum natural light and encourages energy efficiency, while also ensuring that the new building is visually distinguished from the 1932 original construction — the goal is to create architectural harmony but not slavishly ape that which came before. The more modern addition should neither overtly stand out nor simply disappear.

Nice work. I'd make the second floor an office/lounge area for officers to come back and file their paperwork... a few desks/computers, coffee machine, vending machine, something like that. Maybe also a bathroom :)

The stores still have the Flower Cart freebie. Just picked one up at the Stoneridge Mall store, along with DO and Birds. I really don't get the complaints about the DO. In the real world, buildings aren't all the same size, the same height, the same width or the same scale. Walk into many old downtown areas and you'll see all sorts of craziness, from falling-down-dilapidated balloon-frames to beautifully-restored masonry edifices. The variety is part of what makes those places neat — I don't want a perfectly-uniform skyline of big empty boxes like the Grand Emporium. I want unique details and neat architecture like the Parisian Restaurant or the Palace Cinema.

So they're re-using the "Forest Police" (park ranger) torsos/hats from 2012. I like. I wasn't going to buy any of this police wave because I've got plenty of regular cops, but I'm a sucker for the park ranger Legos. Probably because I am a park ranger :P

Whoops, misread it.

Re: Palace Cinema stickers... I think once they decided they were going to go with stickers for the posters (and given the probable challenges of double-sided printing on clear plastic, I don't think it's unreasonable), they decided that they might as well just go with stickers for all the non-repeating parts (i.e., everything not the Walk of Fame stars). As for the interior... I can't fathom why they didn't just put a third row of seats in to begin with. They fit easily and that small change makes a huge difference to the upstairs. I guess I'm in the minority, but I really like the Town Hall. It does a great job of replicating the "real-world" functions of such a building, with a well-detailed interior, nifty elevator build (how do you make a stable building that doesn't quite connect all the way around? here's how...) and imposing presence. It's a big box with ornamentation... that's what a lot of those buildings are like.

It would be pretty much impossible to do anything resembling a decent library in 16x32, though. I hope that if they do a library, it's 32x32.

The other thing is that the TBBT set is... incredibly boring. It's a bunch of custom minifigs sitting around a table. That's like 90% of the show, from the bits and pieces I've seen... Pop-culture things are not always going to translate well to LEGO. A live-action sitcom based around a bunch of people talking in a living room is one of those things that just doesn't work. It's like trying to make a Seinfeld LEGO.

I'm anti-OCD about the bags... I build my modern sets just like I built my old sets: by tearing open all the bags and dumping all the parts into a pile. (In the case of a modular, a HUGE pile.) I didn't need LEGO to make parts-hunting easy for me when I was 7, I don't need them to make it easy for me when I'm 30. Plus, it makes building everything take longer. And somewhat more frustrating ;)

I think there's opportunities to combine, particularly given that not all new City vehicles are 6-stud, only the trucks. Mixing old 4-stud cars with current 4-stud cars shows some differences in design, certainly, but the scale is roughly the same. What would look weird is 4-stud trucks next to their modern 6-stud counterparts