Lego Modular Buildings

Café Corner (set number: 10182) was the first of the Modular Buildings series sold exclusively through Lego shops. It was originally released in April 2007 at a MSRP of US$139.[3] The set contains 2056 pieces and is recommended for builders 10 years of age or older. Some of the set features include a three floor building set on a street corner, a vertical 'Hotel' sign, opening doors and windows, café tables and umbrellas, a striped awning and three minifigures.[4] Many unusual building techniques were incorporated, such as annexes, fanned minifigure-sized skis as decoration, angled corner, and a 3D façade.[1]

Fanned minifigure skis

During development of this first set in the series, the designer team led by Jamie Berard considered the cost of several options. One more expensive version had additional café features, dark green interior walls, a bike and an additional minifigure. In contrast, a lower cost version of the set was considered which lacked rear exterior walls, interior stairs, and extra interior walls on the second floor, and had only two minifigures but no bike.[2]

LEGO fans could suggest improvements to the initial prototypes such as adding color to the roof, which was originally gray, and translucent elements to the hotel sign.[2]

Market Street (set number: 10190) was the second of the Modular Buildings series and designed by Dutch Lego fan Eric Brok under the Lego Factory theme, a theme composed of sets primarily designed by fans of Lego and not by the Lego design team.[5] It was originally released as a follow-up to Café Corner in 2007 and priced at MSRP of US$89.[6] The set contains 1236 pieces and is recommended for builders 10 years of age or older. It was one of the first leading buildings. The set features include opening doors and windows, a gate, a striped awning, and three minifigures.[7] Advanced construction techniques used in Market Street include: curved staircases, "stripped paint" sections on the walls, interchangeable floors,[8] Dutch/Belgian stepped roof,[3] a basement, offset windows, and wrought iron-look decoration and gate.[9]

Market Street is a unique set in the Modular Buildings series in that it has fewer than 2000 pieces and is recommended for builders 10 years and up rather than the usual 16. One of the reasons this set was smaller than the others was to provide a lower cost entry point into the Modular Buildings series.[10] Prior to 2018, this was the only Modular Building set to have minifigures that did not all have the Lego classic smile face.

As a Lego Factory set, Market Street was to showcase a fan design, thus promoting the Design-it-yourself vision of Lego Factory. The modularity of the resulting model also may inspire people to design their own floor modules (or furniture sets) in Factory, without having to build an entire house.[3]

— Eric Brok, Adult Fan of Lego, Designer of Market Street

Market Street is the only set in the series to be released with Lego Factory branding on the box — and as such is sometimes questioned how official it was intended to be as a Modular Buildings entry as it was designed by a fan rather than a Lego designer.[11] Eric Brok, a fan from the Netherlands, designed the set working closely with LEGO designers.[9]

Green Grocer (set number: 10185) was the third of the Modular Buildings series. It was originally released in 2008 at a MSRP of US$149/£99.[12] The set contains 2352 pieces and is recommended for builders 16 years of age or older. Some of the set features include a blue and white awning, opening doors and windows, detailed interiors to each room, a roof terrace, a fire escape, access to a courtyard behind the building, and four minifigures.[13] Advanced building techniques used in Green Grocer include using black skeleton legs and hammers to make railings, black spear guns as railings for the fire escape, a paddle for a pendulum in a grandfather clock, and hinges to make a bay window.[14]

Green Grocer differs from the previous two sets in the series because it has a greater level of detail inside. Whereas Café Corner and Market Street had bare interiors, each floor in Green Grocer contains a prop such as a radiator or some furniture. The first floor is fully furnished as a grocery store with refrigerated shelves with opening doors and cartons of food. The assortment of Lego food pieces in the grocery includes carrots, apples, and bananas. There is also a stairway to the apartment above and a mailbox set with letters.[14]

Lego Modular - Set 10197 Fire Brigade

Fire Brigade (set number 10197) was the fourth set in the Modular Buildings series released in September 2009. The set contains 2231 pieces, was priced at MSRP US$149/€149, and is recommended for builders 16 years of age or older. Modeled to look like a realistic 1930s fire station, the set includes a bell tower, an opening garage door, a 1930s style fire truck, and four minifigures with a fire-dog. Like Green Grocer, all floors in the Fire Brigade set are fully furnished.[15] The Fire Brigade is the first Modular to come with a vehicle, the 1930s-style fire truck. The set also includes some new, unique pieces, such as gold fire helmets and a red sliding garage door.[15]

New building techniques introduced with this set include a method of creating numbers in the built into the structure using standard Lego bricks. On the front of the building the year 1932 appears, which is a reference to when Lego was founded. The number 3 also appears on the pavement of the set representing that this is the third set on the series from Lego set designer Jamie Berard, who had previously designed Café Corner and Green Grocer.[15]

Lego Modular - Set 10211 Grand Emporium

Grand Emporium (set number 10211) is the fifth set in the Modular Buildings series and second corner building released in March 2010. The set contains 2182 pieces, was priced at MSRP US$149/€149, and is recommended for builders 16 years of age or older. Modeled to look like a realistic early 20th century department store, the set includes an exterior with an ice cream stand, store window displays, window washer platform, and rooftop billboard. Interior details for the three-floor building include an escalator, dressing room, and a wide assortment of merchandise. It is built as a block corner building, similarly to Café Corner, Palace Cinema, Brick Bank, and Corner Garage. There are seven minifigures, including two that are decorated with blank faces to look like mannequins.[16]

Lego Modular - Set 10218 Pet Shop

Pet Shop (set number 10218) is the sixth set in the Modular Buildings series released in May 2011. The set contains 2032 pieces, was priced at MSRP US$149/€149, and is recommended for builders 16 years of age or older. It is the first set in the series that is actually two buildings that separate using the same Technic pins that link the rest of the modular buildings together. They can be reversed or separated and wrapped around another building. The brown building is a brownstone-style town house with elevated ground floor atop a crawl-space and the sand blue building is the Pet Shop. The brown building was the second building after Market Street that had a basement. There is a feature on the Pet Shop on the ground floor where the staircase can be folded away for more access room for playing as this was an issue with Market Street. There are four minifigures, two parrots, one dog, one cat, and a fish tank with goldfish. The set also includes three dog bones, a ball, a frog toy, a birdhouse, a bucket, and a brush. Until the Brick Bank, this was also the shortest set by height and stands at just over 25 cm. The next tallest modular is Market Street at 33 cm. The set includes a full interior including a toilet, bed, kitchen, and fireplace.[17]

Lego Modular - Set 10224 Town Hall

Town Hall (set number 10224) was released in March 2012 and is the seventh set in the Modular Building line. The set contains 2766 pieces and is recommended for builders 14 and over. It is the tallest Modular set, taking the title from the Green Grocer, having three floors with generally higher ceilings than the norm, plus a clock and bell tower on the roof. It contains many interior details, such as a working elevator, along with board tables and balconies to look to the floor below. Along with the many interior decor details, the building features the pilastered portico and brick façade treatments of United States Colonial Revival architecture. The 1891 date on the building represents the birth year of the founder of Lego and when reversed, it is the birth year of the designer, Astrid Graabæk (1981). The set was priced at £149.99/US$199.99/€179.99 when released by Lego on 16 February 2012. There are eight minifigures in the set including a wedding couple. The set had a global discontinuation date of 31 December 2014 and had a much shorter lifespan than its predecessors.

Palace Cinema (set number 10232) was released in March 2013 at a MSRP of US$149/€139. It is the eighth set in the Modular Building line and the third corner building. The set contains 2194 pieces and features architectural homage to the Egyptian Revival architecture of the early 20th century, albeit with Chinese-like cultural appropriations similar to Hollywood's Grauman's Chinese Theatre. As such, it also features Hollywood Walk of Fame type printed star tiles for the outer sidewalk, LEGO elements that returned to decorate the walls in 2018's Downtown Diner. Palace Cinema is the first Modular Building set to be released with the Lego Creator Expert branding on its box and was the first to include stickers. Some of these are movie posters containing Lego in-jokes such as the ubiquitous brick separator tool used to disassemble (Godzilla-like "The Brick Separator"), the time-consuming sorting of Lego elements ("Forever Sorting"), and Lego's iconic 1990 red Airport Shuttle #6399 set ("Mystery On The Monorail"). Also, Palace Cinema was the first of the Modular Building sets to have only two floors (albeit with higher ceilings than the norm) instead of the usual three and the second to include a vehicle: a black car styled loosely on a convertible Buick.

The ground floor is the ticket and concessions area leading up to the theater floor housing a reel-to-reel projector showing a black and white motion picture to a maximum seating of six. This floor also has stairs accessing the roof, atop which the two brick-built promotional searchlights can be placed. The set includes six minifigures.

Parisian Restaurant (set number 10243) is the ninth set in the Modular Building line and was released in January 2014 at a MSRP of US$159/€149. This set contains 2469 pieces and has a fully stocked, blue and white tiled kitchen with tableware serving two interior tables, two street-side tables (on a patio tiled in a subtle design with the word "CHEZ"), and two upper terrace tables. On the first upper floor (terrace level) is as an apartment with pull-down Murphy bed, kitchenette and fireplace. On the top floor is the artist's studio that includes a cast iron heater, easel, paintbrush, and two works of Mondrian-style Modernist art. This is a nod to the fact that the original Lego brick color palette of red, blue, yellow, black, and white were chosen based on Mondrian's art.[18] Outside the upper floor stairs lead down to the roof terrace for diners lined with hanging lanterns and flowers. This set also includes hard-to-find white croissants and brick elements in olive green, dark blue, and dark red. Advanced exterior details include façade with croissant detailing, sidewalk, bench, scooter, and a dumpster and trash can at the back.

The Detective's Office (set number 10246) is the tenth set in the Modular Building line and was released 1 January 2015 at a MSRP of US$159/€149. This set contains 2262 pieces. It contains a detective's office, a barbershop named "Al's", a billiards table "pool" room, and an upstairs apartment. The "Al's" sign resembles the various brick-built lettering signs from the Pet Shop, Town Hall, and Fire Brigade. The featured "Pool" sign uses a building technique never used before. The interior of the pool room features a fan, a pool table, and a dart board. The detective office features clues, a cabinet, and a secret storage space behind a picture. The barbershop features a mirror, scissors, lights, and chairs for customers. The apartment holds an old-style toilet and a small kitchen. This Modular varies from previous buildings in that it introduced play features of a secretive or "illicit" nature: it has secret compartments that allow cookie smuggling throughout the building. It also is different because it is the first Modular to have two buildings on the same baseplate. The front of the building features a newspaper stand, a tree, and two balconies. It includes six minifigures.

Brick Bank (set number 10251) is the eleventh set in the Modular Building line and is the shortest Modular in height, the fourth block corner building, and the first corner building to not feature a direct-corner entrance. It was released on 1 January 2016 and priced at MSRP US$169/€149. This set contains 2380 pieces. Like the Palace Cinema it contains only two furnished floors although it also had higher than normal ceilings like the Cinema.

The Brick Bank features a bank, secretary's office, bank manager's office, laundromat, and a detailed façade and sidewalk. The bank features an atrium foyer with wide, arched entrance, triangular-patterned floor tiling, ornate chandelier, oxidized-copper colored skylight, transaction counter with hidden alarm buttons and security glass, and a bank vault with safe deposit boxes and a large round door. The laundromat features a printed window, tiled floor and four laundry machines—one of which contains an play feature for "laundering money": placing Lego money bills or coin elements through this machine will fall into a special deposit box inside the bank's vault. The rooftop also has another play feature for a robber to descend the chimney by rope and exit through a special entrance atop the bank vault. The secretary's office features a wall clock, desk, typewriter, cabinet with opening drawers, fireplace, and an espresso machine. The bank manager's office features a large desk with banker's lamp and approval stamp, leather-look chair, printed portrait, statue, and a cabinet. It includes five minifigures.

The Brick Bank also introduced some rare elements such as a metalized-paint gold ingot and coins, and the less-common colors of Sand Blue and Sand Green.

Lego Assembly Square Interior

Assembly Square (set number: 10255) is the twelfth set in the Modular Building line. It was released on 1 January 2017 at a MSRP of US$279/€239. This set contains the most pieces of any previous Modular set at 4002 pieces as well as the most minifigures: nine when including an infant figure.

The Assembly Square ground level features a bakery with counter, cash register, shelves, opening oven, wedding cake and assorted buildable pastries and treats; a florist's shop with counter, cash register, garden tools, flower arrangements, bouquets and a blue and yellow macaw parrot element; and a café with espresso machine, counter, bench seating and pie elements. The middle level features a music store with a buildable drum set, two guitars and saxophone element; photo studio with an "antique" large format bellows camera atop an adjustable tripod; and a dental office with buildable reclining chair, waiting area, telephone and a sink. The upper level features a dance studio with buildable piano and reflective mirror element; an apartment with buildable foldout sofa bed, detailed kitchen, toilet, micro LEGO® train, modular buildings and Eiffel Tower, and access to a rooftop terrace with buildable barbecue, table and a neglected plant.

This set marked the tenth anniversary of the Modular building sets and contains numerous "easter egg" references in the set's use of brick elements, colors, and architectural details used in Modular sets released over the previous years.

Downtown Diner (set number: 10260) is the thirteenth set in the Modular Building line. It was released on 1 January 2018 and contain 2,480 pieces with a MSRP of US$169/€149. This building reintroduces the teal color (what Lego calls Bright Blueish Green) that had not been in production since 2008. The first level of this building is a 1950s-style diner. It has a curved front window, red bar stools, a classic bubbler-style jukebox, soda fountain-equipped counter, and an open-plan kitchen.

The middle level has a gym with boxing ring, punching bag, and weight training room. The upper level houses a recording studio, complete with vocal booth, mixing desk, and a cabinet for refreshments.

The façade of the building features pink-and-teal 20th century Art Deco styling with a large pink "DINER" sign. Though Streamline Moderne style architecture first emerged in the 1930s, this modular has a more 1950s-style color treatment than the general era of previous Modulars (~1930s). Other external features include arched linteled windows, balconies, a wrought iron-style exterior staircase, and a detailed sidewalk complete with mailbox, parking meter, flower pots, and the iconic white streetlamp of the Modular collection. It is the third Modular set to include a vehicle: a 1950s-style convertible automobile recalling an homage to Elvis Presley's pink Cadillac. One of the minifigures also features an Elvis-style of pompadour hairstyle.

For the first time since 2007's Market Street, the included six minifigures have individual, varied faces rather than the classic Lego smiley faces used in the previous sets. Subsequent Modular Buildings continued to use these stylized faces.

Corner Garage (set number: 10264) is the fourteenth modular building and fifth corner building, released in January 2019. It became the third biggest set in the series, trailing the Town Hall and Assembly Square, with 2569 pieces and a price of US$200. The building resembles that of a 1950s-style American building, much like the Downtown Diner. Its bottom floor is made up of the garage, the middle floor has a veterinarian's office owned by a character named "Dr. Jones", and the top floor is an apartment with roof access. The set has six minifigures and, instead of the usual blocky-structure corner buildings offer, the set produces a 45-degree angle cut at the front.

Bookshop (set number: 10270) is the fifteenth set in Modular Building line, released in January 2020. The set comes with 2,504 pieces, retailing at US$179.99. The set consist of two separate buildings akin to the Pet Shop, making it the second set in the series that is actually two buildings that separate. The model features the "Birch Books" bookstore and an accompanying townhouse. The set is a return to more classical and European architecture from the last two more modern-American modular designs, Downtown Diner and Corner Garage. An autumn setting is portrayed throughout the set through the use of warm-colored leaves and the attire of the minifigures. The Bookshop was created by Lego designer Wes Talbott, who said the model was inspired by the houses of Amsterdam and the dollhouses that were built by his mother.

The Bookshop's ground floor features a birch tree with several new colors of foliage elements, as well as a display window and store in medium nougat and light grey colors. The first floor features decorative white windows, a reading room with a grandfather clock, lamp, and sitting chair. The top floor of the bookshop has a dark red roof with light grey architectural details. The townhouse is built above a crawl-space basement with a staircase, garden, and lamp post. The first floor is teal with white accents and features a bay window, dining table and living area, while the roof has a complex build involving a varied roof-line, dark blue tiling, and dark grey top. The back part of the roof of each building breaks away to reveal two small bedrooms. The Bookshop comes with five minifigures and several mini-builds featuring a bookshelf with a printed "Moby Brick" book cover, four-poster bed, lamp, grandfather clock, and toy plane, as well as a bluebird and chameleon element in new colors. The five minifigures include a shopkeeper with glasses, an older man with grey hair, a young boy in a flannel jacket and lime green scarf, a woman with a purple top, and a man with suspenders and a tie.[19]

Lego Designer Jamie Berard created many Modulars Buildings and decided to make a mini version of his set for fun.[20] Five of these were then released as a single set 10230 containing 1356 pieces, each one on an 8x8 baseplate, making them quarter-scale with respect to the original buildings. Initially, this set was for Lego Group VIPs only, but it later became available for general sale.

In October 2014, four sets similar to the Mini Modulars were released as Toys "R" Us exclusives. They are 40180 (Bricktober Theater), 40181 (Bricktober Pizza Place), 40182 (Bricktober Fire Station) and 40183 (Bricktober Town Hall). Despite the similarity of names, they are not mini versions of existing modular buildings; they are new designs. They are simpler builds than the original Mini Modulars, based on 6x8 plates, and each one includes two vehicles; the target age is given as 7 and up.

In October 2015, four new sets were released for Toys "R" Us Bricktober. They are 40141 - Bricktober Hotel (204 pcs), 40142 - Bricktober Train Station (180 pcs), 40143 -Bricktober Bakery (234 pcs), 40144 - Bricktober Toys "R" Us store (165 pcs). This time the base is 8x8 and 8x10 (and the boxes are thicker, but otherwise same size). As last time they each include two vehicles.

Ninjago City (set number 70620), a large 4867 piece set, was released in late August at a MSRP of US$299/€299 to coincide with the release of the Lego Ninjago Movie. Although not advertised as a modular building, it features the same structure as the regular modulars with a 32×32 stud baseplate, building connectors and a river matching the same dimensions as the sidewalk. It is a huge multi-level model with levels themed differently. The bottom levels contain the "old world" with an old fashioned fish market; the middle levels contain "the street" with a modern comic store, crab restaurant and a retail store; and the top levels –named "high rise"– contain a sushi restaurant topped with a "Dragon Gate" (see Feng shui) and communications assembly—as well as a small living apartment for the title "Green Ninja" character Lloyd Garmadon and his mother. The set comes with 16 different minifigures.

Ninjago City Docks (set number 70657) is a set with 3553 pieces, and was released in July 2018. It connects to the regular modulars and fits the Ninjago City, with which it shares the basic layout of river, bottom-leveled "old-world, and middle-leveled "street". Unlike its predecessor it does not feature the "high-rise"-levels, but extends over an enlarged baseplate of 48x32 studs. The bottom levels contain the "old world" with a harbour, a grocer, and a sculptor's workshop, as well as a dojo, a map room, and a small home. The "street"-levels host a tea room and an arcade.