Modular Building Sets - Rumours and Discussion

[pugmom]

woah, that looks like a lot of interior detail. I am torn on that. I love the "idea" of neat interiors and love putting them together, but really, 95% of the time, I am admiring the outside once built so it is hard to justify all of that in my world.

edit - adding quote of backside pic since it was at the bottom of the last page...thanks for the pic!

and the back side:

Edited November 16, 2014 by pugmom

[tafkatb]

Are we sure those are stickers though? Those would be pretty simple prints, so it's not like the posters on Palace Cinema that pretty much had to be stickers. And the "light yellow" - pretty sure that's tan; the contrast in the photo is just a bit off.

[TheLazyChicken]

Wow, this seems to be a great set, might get this instead of the parisian restaurant.

[Sven F]

All in all very likeable.

We AFOLs are a very critical audience, which is not necessarily a bad thing, but should be taken into consideration how difficult it is for LEGO designers to please an as wide a group of fans as possible, and this modular seems to do that job best of all. This however comes at a price so some things may be slightly compromised for hardcore fans of the modular line we knew so far.

Something that must be quite hard to do is make the buildings look recognizable, but not completely defined in location. (something Jaime seemed to take pride in) The office part of the building looks quite american - Chicago / Detroit boxy style. The wooden front of the "bar" is a fantastic touch and could relate to anywhere form France, UK, to continental USA, while the tall blue building reminds me more of a coastal or residential apartment building, but could again be anywhere from San Francisco to Southern France. Maybe I don't see them going so well together, but otherwise work quite well in appearance.

Looking forward for the Designer video, hoping it will be presented by Jaime as he is one of few designers who doesn't look like he's been dragged in front of the camera at gunpoint, and is never boring to watch.

[merman]

well there also seems to be a mirror. I am almost positive that is a sticker, similar to the one in the VW Camper...

[CardinalBricks]

What part are they using on the top facade of the detective office? Looks very strange and I cant ID it at all.

It's the fist-shaped pieces that go over the minifig's hands (not sure what to call them) from the Ultra Agents $20 set and some of the gorillas from Chima.

[Andy D]

This is maybe the best modular yet (IMHO)! Yes, yes, yes I will purchase and it may even move to the front of my "to be assembled queue"

I really like all the activity on the sidewalk, looks like a very busy place.

Andy D

[Roger_Smith]

Is there no access for minifigures to get onto the balconies? Also hope there are stairs (which I can't seem to spot in the low res images of the open up photos on the edge of the box), if not this will take away much of the realism of the modular series, a big no no for me if its the case, I guess we'll learn more when lego releases the official announcement with higher res images

I've been wondering about that aswell. Even with the pic of the backside it's hard to make out what's really going on there.

Lack of stairs would be a big disappointment. Wondering what the pics on the back witrh the arrows indicate. The lower one seems to indicate a way for the crook to enter the detective's office, but I can't for the life of me figure out what the upper one signifies. The barber has to hoist customers up to the balcony/help them down for visits to the detective's office?

I'm really starting to think that this will be the first modular that I'll mod quite a bit, possibly even buying two copies to make bigger versions incl. stairwells...

[JDW]

I really love this set! So much going on! I'll be getting the Pet Shop pretty soon...but I'll skip PR for right now to buy this one as soon as possible!

[BricksMcgee]

Love it! Tend to prefer the multiple buildings in a block style, such as Pet Shop.

Perhaps the private detective is assigned with finding the seagull from Parisian Restaurant? ;)

[MightySlickPancake]

Im not sure what otherpeoples opinions are but the middle 3 pannels and the bottom middle pannels appear to be people making some kind of brew and sneaking it into the pool club through the barbers? The one with the hat is giving the barber money outside the shop as well!! so this is some kind of lego prohebition? Seems like a strange thing for lego to do? eitherway, something is being hidden in those barrels and it isnt good.

[Rob1321]

Awesome. Love everything about it.

[Dohed44]

Definitely a must have.

[LAKAbricks]

I first saw the picture in the Flickr stream. It took me a while, before I realised I was looking at the new DO. I like it. It's very American to me, but I realise you need both to appeal to a wider audience. When will we see some more Latin-inspired buildings, though?

I think this set is a nice deviation from the typical more posh buildings seen in the modular range. This shows there are other sides of the city. And hey, a detective's office can't be placed in the High Street next to the fancy department store, can it?

I like the addition of one or two flats in the blue building. People of Lego City need places to live. This could be a place for Mr. and Mrs. Jones.

To me it seems there are no stairs in the buildings. I guess that would be a first? - Personally I don't care that much. I prefer open-back buildings, the classic way, anyway

[Rick]

The staircases seem to be behind the barber shop, going from the alley towards the wall on the right of the building. The entrance to the detective's office is trough a door on the right side of the office (adjacent to the staircases).

[Clone OPatra]

It's the fist-shaped pieces that go over the minifig's hands (not sure what to call them) from the Ultra Agents $20 set and some of the gorillas from Chima.

Not quite; it's actually the fist from Hero Factory:

(Image from bricklink)

[Tereglith]

I'm pretty excited about this one, and I may make it my first modular if I can get the cash together. It seems more 'standalone'-y than the ones that have come before. You get four different things in one (pool hall, office, barbershop, apartment) which is quite appealing to me as a first-time buyer. This would still be satisfying to have on a shelf even if you don't have any of the previous modulars and never buy any in the future. The previous one I've strongly considered buying is Pet Shop, but I like this one even better.

[Sven F]

looking at the back of the box, the Pet Shop's toilet is bound to get a break as we seem to be getting a second modular crapper.

I can't figure out how many minifigures are there, seem to be 6 of them pictured on the front of the box, but then there's another guy in a red cap that appears on the back.

[Htrag]

Can't wait! It looks amazing. I love the different sizes of the buildings, as well as all the details. I agree that it is a departure from the previous modulars, but it looks great.

[JanetVanD]

Looks like another good one.... I'm particularly pleased with the grey version of unikitty's tail. I had wanted to use the tail piece a few months ago for something similar (decorative top to white pillar) but it was too cost-prohibitive. Hopefully the grey one won't be so expensive!

[finnbricker]

I don't think the window decorations are stickers. At least in the pic the window panes look printed to me.

[ItsaBRICKS]

Very interesting design. Looks promising so far, waiting for the Designer video before I start forming a solid opinion.

[talos]

Wow, I go away for a couple days and there are 5+ more pages of comments here...haha, Sunday morning reading. Great to see images finally. My first impression, just from a glance I saw 'Bike Shop' street...LOL. I like it, I do need to see more photos and greater detail though, before passing judgement. It does seem interior biased to me though. Flattish fronts on the two buildings. They aren't separatable either it looks.

I love on the back box photo, its next to the PR.....not sure I want to eat there anymore..LOL. I think they picked the adjoining buildings in that photo to only show 2 level modulars. I think if one of the others (3 levels) were in the photo, the height difference would be quite pronounced. I can work with that though.

Thats a lot of dark flesh brick profile on the DO building. Maybe too much for me. That particular brick only comes in a 1x4 in the dark flesh color, so that explains its use. The other colors, like light bluish gray only comes as a 1x2.

I will be buying one, maybe two, at some point. I have to say though, for me, like the PR, it has tons of interior details, but I have found, I will take it apart to see the interiors for a little while, but then it doesn't come apart. I just look at the exteriors, and maybe they are a little flat for me. I am sure it will all blend together after a while though.

Oh and also, I like how its using parts I would never of known about, from lines of sets I wouldn't ever buy. Puts new ideas in my head too!

Edited November 16, 2014 by talos

[K-Nut]

No lies, this might be my favorite modular. I love how different the two buildings are in design, and it makes the whole layout seem to be more of a city than before. First day buy for sure.

[VBBN]

Oh man, that is a crazy creative use of the action figure fist on the roof