I think users in the negative camp need to appreciate that Exclusive (or, Creator Expert) products are entirely individual, and not tied down to specific or running narratives. Even the term 'modular building' has been coined purely as a reference to the way that the buildings connect to one-another. It does not mean that the design of each new product must harmonise with past releases.

The thing to take away from this 'Palace Cinema' building is that, while it may not jump out at you as being a cinema on first glance, it is beautifully original and looks to be a very interesting and fun build, which is what Creator products are all about. This is in similar vein to 'Town Hall', as the architecture doesn't strike you immediately as being such, but it's a huge and entertaining set.

In addition, you're basing your opinions on a fairly low-res image. I've had the opportunity to see a print quality image of the building on a release schedule, and it will drastically alter your opinion on just how much detail is in the architecture of the building.

I have to agree about the Buick though (it's not a limousine), as it is extremely tame for a £99.99 product. I'd actually pay an extra £10 just to have something more befitting the grandness of the occassion.

  On 12/27/2012 at 3:13 PM, sgeureka said:

Since the Eurobricks frontpage now shows an image of the Palace Cinema, I attempted to copy-paste the Palace Cinema into an image with the other modulars. I think it fits in nicely with the others. Someone with Photoshop experience will get better results (the scale is hard to get right).

Thanks sgeureka! And of course, my Hero Grogall!!!

Here is also an attempt to place Cinema Palace next to other Modulars... Spent a couple of minutes so the result is not that good. For the scale I looked at minifigs..

And here a little bigger..

Wasn't that enthusiastic at first glance, like everytime since GE... but now that I photoshoped it, I like it a lot more

Edited December 28, 201212 yr by SwissBrick

This is the most excited I've been for a modular building since perhaps GG. I think that the exterior styling is really fresh in comparison to the rest of the line, and I'm really looking forward to seeing what TLG has done for an interior (having said that, I'll be avoiding pictures of the interior as I want it to be a surprise when I build it).

I've got mixed feelings about the car. I almost like it, but there are many aspects of it that seem so unrefined. I'm also disappointed that it looks like we'll be getting out first clone minifig in the line. The figs have never played any role in my desire for the buildings, but now it'll be distracting to have two of the same ladies on the sidewalk.

Even though I expect the price and piece count to be similar to everything that we've gotten so far, I'm still interested in finding out what they will be. Hopefully this isn't released any later than March - I can't wait to pick it up!

P.S. Thanks for posting the find, Grogall! And SwissBrick, your photostitch appears to be pretty accurate - and by the looks of it the theater integrates well with the rest of the buildings.

Not sure what that 'budget' thingy means. If the posters are not printed it may be the downfall of the modular houses line. No stickers was one of the axioms of the theme. I cannot imagine they caved. I rather pay more for printed elements...

Great Photoshop work, Swiss Brick. I think the cinema might be just slightly shorter in real life, but I think that image really helps reinforce how well this fits in with the rest.

  On 12/28/2012 at 10:58 PM, merman said:

Not sure what that 'budget' thingy means. If the posters are not printed it may be the downfall of the modular houses line. No stickers was one of the axioms of the theme. I cannot imagine they caved. I rather pay more for printed elements...

This is still the only thing I'm worried about. It looks like there could be a seam down the center of the marquee so that it is two 2x4 printed tiles rather than one big sticker, but those posters (which I initially overlooked) seem far less likely to be printed elements. I think one of the original goals of the modular line was to only use bricks currently in production, but TLG caved on that as gave us all that sand blue in the Pet Shop and a new printed clock and shield for the Town Hall. The fact this is a Factory set still makes me nervous.

Edited December 28, 201212 yr by sonicstarlight

  On 12/28/2012 at 10:10 PM, danthaman11 said:

The car is not very good but I believe I see 1 x 3 x 1 black car doors on it. If this is correct and makes the final version, Lego has brought those back into production in black and that will be nice for car MOCs.

You're right! How could I have overlooked that? That is indeed great news. They're starting to get very hard to get hold of.

  On 12/28/2012 at 11:19 PM, sonicstarlight said:

The fact this is a Factory set still makes me nervous.

I don't understand what you mean by that. I repeat from my previous post: All the formerly "exclusive" or D2C sets that are not at home in other themes, will be labeled as Creator Expert from January's Horizon Express set onwards. This is no different from Town Hall in that respect. They've just changed the labeling.

  On 12/28/2012 at 11:19 PM, sonicstarlight said:

Great Photoshop work, Swiss Brick. I think the cinema might be just slightly shorter in real life, but I think that image really helps reinforce how well this fits in with the rest.

And here it is, shorter, right, with its price, it can't be that "massive". It also looks better in "brick size" comparison.

Modular_Steet_Palace_Cinema_modifié-4 par SwissBrick, sur Flickr

  On 12/29/2012 at 12:27 AM, SwissBrick said:

And here it is, shorter, right, with its price, it can't be that "massive". It also looks better in "brick size" comparison.

Thanks for sharing, SwissBrick. The cinema actually doesn't look too bad next to the other modulars. It's definitely growing on me.

  On 12/29/2012 at 12:17 AM, L@go said:

I don't understand what you mean by that. I repeat from my previous post: All the formerly "exclusive" or D2C sets that are not at home in other themes, will be labeled as Creator Expert from January's Horizon Express set onwards. This is no different from Town Hall in that respect. They've just changed the labeling.

Fair point - I'm probably making a mountain out of a mole hill here (or no hill). I'm actually a big fan of Market Street, which follows all the same "rules" as the rest of the modulars, so I guess I shouldn't be judging a book by its cover.

  On 12/28/2012 at 11:19 PM, sonicstarlight said:

Great Photoshop work, Swiss Brick. I think the cinema might be just slightly shorter in real life, but I think that image really helps reinforce how well this fits in with the rest.

This is still the only thing I'm worried about. It looks like there could be a seam down the center of the marquee so that it is two 2x4 printed tiles rather than one big sticker, but those posters (which I initially overlooked) seem far less likely to be printed elements. I think one of the original goals of the modular line was to only use bricks currently in production, but TLG caved on that as gave us all that sand blue in the Pet Shop and a new printed clock and shield for the Town Hall. The fact this is a Factory set still makes me nervous.

Since I think we can assume the movie posters are the big window panes, to which I say we have seen printed panes before. 2507 Fire Temple has 4 printed window panes. So there is some hope for the posters.

SwissBrick, great job! I'm even more excited now!

I have been time traveling again!

  On 12/29/2012 at 10:01 AM, GRogall said:

I have been time traveling again!

How far into the future did you have to go? March 1st?

Its nice! I really like it!

How do you do that?! Can you share the date with the rest of us? Please....

  On 12/29/2012 at 10:01 AM, GRogall said:

I have been time traveling again!

I'd be more than curious to see the URL... Can you share it Grogall??? Thanks again for sharing!

I'm not going to make a final judgement on one pic, but it does look better when part of that unofficial photoshopped image (well done on that, BTW).

I'm sure it'll grow on me, but at this early stage I'm not all that impressed. There's a combination of pseudo-oriental design and art deco going on there, but they don't work all that well together. The blending of multiple styles in architecture usually makes the end product more than the sum of its parts, but it doesn't work too well for me here. I've always associated art deco motifs with ancient Egypt, Rome and Greece, but I won't pretend to be an expert. I guess what I mean to say is, I love art deco and far-East inspired architecture, but it's not often I see the two of them combined successfully into one building. Here's hoping that this aspect of the set will grow on me with time.

From a technical/building POV, I really want to see how the interior is designed. It does look a bit small - there was a modular cinema MOC, the pics of which were floating around a while back and really impressed me. From what I remember, that was a *bit* more modern but made efficient use of space in both the horizontal and vertical. I don't want to sound like an old grump for bringing out my old "I wish it weren't a corner building..." complaint again, but this set would probably benefit from being a full 32 studs in width while still allowing for that cool pavement/sidewalk detailing. The cinemas I've seen IRL rarely have entrances on corners. but still look great.

In summary, I think this has some nice features but it hasn't convinced me just yet. Interior shots and possibly the RRP might sway that. If nothing else though, it will inspire me to design a MOC modular cinema that's nearer to what I was expecting!

Edited December 29, 201212 yr by Martin_B

  On 12/28/2012 at 2:31 PM, Cian said:

Major problem with Art Deco is that, in this part of the world at least, most Art Deco buildings are white. And only white. Its also a very minimalist style so very hard to represent in minifig scale. I'm pretty certain that this would be a contributory factor to TLG not doing a purely Art Deco modular.

There's a lot more than just cinemas and massive office buildings though, these are a few from Dublin - a car dealers, a tyre factory (!) and a much smaller office.

This one's a reproduction as the original building was knocked illegally, but it looks much the same

Only a facade left and integrated in to a department store... starting to think we don't really treat them very well here!

Kodak Ireland, as was

I think Lego could have done something with a predominantly white facade with splashes colour and texture through offsetting. I've done it on several of my modular builds and think the effect works well.

The colour combination on the town plan cinema was excellent. I think this would have been a great opportunity to incorporate some of the colours used in recent friends sets to make a decent art deco build in a similar way to the town plan. Slightly off topic. I found this pic a little while ago, thought it might be worth sharing I wonder if the town plan was based on it?

Anyway.....

To be fair to TLG I have alot of respect for being bold and not 'playing it safe'. I'm still not convinced that this will go with my other modulars but maybe it isn't supposed to. No street goes on forever, maybe this is the first in a new line of bolder more expressive buildings. Lets face it, there is so many people whom build modulars, myself included that it makes it more difficult for TLG to give us something we have not seen before. Jamie Berald says it at the end of the petshop video that the greatest challenge is 'trying to keep us surprised'. This new cinema certainly does that!

  On 12/28/2012 at 10:25 PM, nesquik said:

In addition, you're basing your opinions on a fairly low-res image. I've had the opportunity to see a print quality image of the building on a release schedule, and it will drastically alter your opinion on just how much detail is in the architecture of the building.

If you've seen a release schedule, do you know what date it will be released? Or at least the month? I'm hoping it won't be until March, as I want to get the Fire Station in early Feb, and I'm pretty sure it will be discontinued when Palace Cinema is released.

I think we're all a little disappointed that it isn't sonicstarlight's Empire Cinema. He set certain expectations with that MOC that it is difficult for even TLG to meet.

As for this possibly featuring the dreaded sticker sheet(seriously, can anyone put them on straight? I always find myself trying to push them into place on the brick after I put iy on crooked), even the mini-modulars featured a printed tile for the hotel sign, which I thought for sure was going to be a sticker. Given that, i believe TLG understands the AFOL community's expectation for this series and I would be a bit surprised if they used stickers.

Oh and as for that reuse of the pet shop girl, GG had some decidedly common torsos. The blue overalls? I my little brother even has that from one of those creator brick buckets or whatever they are. A white torso? Not really common, but totally uninteresting.

On a side note, I just built the mini-modulars I got for Christmas(lovely set, I'm so glad I got it, I would be kicking myself if I passed it up like CC and GG) but we will have to wait for two more modulars and a corner for the second edition to that set, correct?

Edited December 29, 201212 yr by bootz

It is assuring that if an ordinary Ninjago set uses printed windows, a Creator Expert (exclusive) set sure can

Edited December 29, 201212 yr by merman

Not sure I understand the hate on this set. It is unique, and it appears to fit with the rest of the line well. Personally, I am looking forward to it.

  On 12/27/2012 at 4:39 PM, Faefrost said:

Exactly. A better description would be "California Faux Chinese". Pretty much all of the Modulars have a very distinct feel of where they come from style wise. Grand Emporium kind of leaves one thinking of London, Fire Brigade has a "Rust Belt" America feel to it, Pet Shop has a very Continental Europe look. Cafe Corner has kind of an Amsterdam feel to it. Green Grocer has kind of a French styling. Town Hall is probably the most generic, but more resembles an Eastern US/Canada style. And this one just screams Los Angeles.

They always use a baseplate under the Modulars as part of the "Modular Standard". Typically 1 32 x 32 or 2 16 x 32's

The town hall actually reminds me of the town halls of two of the larger danish cities (Copenhagen and Odense), as well as it reminds me of the statebuilding of Iowa.

  On 12/29/2012 at 1:36 PM, Paperballpark said:

I'm hoping it won't be until March, as I want to get the Fire Station in early Feb, and I'm pretty sure it will be discontinued when Palace Cinema is released.

I just got my new early 2013 LEGO VIP catalog brochure, German edition. Some countries' holiday VIP catalogs didn't include the Fire Brigade, and now is the first time that it isn't shown in German catalogs (the GE, PS and TH are still there, no PC yet). So I expect the FB to be discontinued soon, like you.

Edited December 29, 201212 yr by sgeureka

  On 12/29/2012 at 12:10 PM, SwissBrick said:

I'd be more than curious to see the URL... Can you share it Grogall??? Thanks again for sharing!

It looks like a good Photoshop of info on this URL (URL came out garbbled in "quick reply") Go to the LEGO.com main page and select the "Shop" button. Other items and prices even the same, in the same location on the page.

Good job!

I am very happy with the style of the building. Such an iconic design. I only hope (pipe dream, I know) they have hand and footprint tiles like the origial in Hollywood, CA.

I look forward to adding this to my collection.

Andy D

Edited December 29, 201212 yr by Andy D

I'm definitely warming up to this set. I think it's going to be a great addition to the Modular Line up - irrespective of whether it's called Creator or not. I'm intrigued as to what surprises they're going to include inside. I'm hoping for a Entrance Lobby with Popcorn machine, several rows of banked seating, a balcony, an executive box and a Screen area that can hold my iPhone!

I also like the fact that its a corner set and that two of these MODed together would make an epic structure.