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[Review] 10255 Assembly Square

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SET REVIEW: 10255 ASSEMBLY SQUARE

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Introduction

To start the new year off, it is my pleasure to present to the EB community a review of the 10255 Assembly Square, celebrating the 10th anniversary of the Lego modular building series.  This is the 12th and largest set in the series and it is packed full of interesting details both in the structures and the decorative elements, many of which reference past modular building sets.  This set to me shows just how far set design has advanced within the space of 10 years, from the original 10182 Cafe Corner which was one of the first sets targeted at adult builders and was a stunning development at the time, to the present day where we are seeing more and more of these large expert sets.  I hope you enjoy this review and I look forward to reading your comments.  All images link to flickr where larger resolutions can be viewed if desired.

My thanks to EB LUG Ambassador CopMike and the LEGO CEE Team and Designers for the opportunity to review this set for the EB community.

Set information
Name: Assembly Square
Number: 10255
Theme: LEGO Creator Expert / Modular Building Theme
Year: 2017

Release Date: 1 January 2017
Pieces: 4,002
Price: USD $279.99, GBP £179.99, EURO €239.99, CAD $339.99, NZD $449.99
Resources: Brickset

Packaging

I'll begin with some images of the packaging for this set. The box is quite large (580x480x168mm) and features lots of detail shots on the back, many of which were in the press releaseUnfortunately the box was a bit battered in transit but the details are all still clear.  One side of the box features all of the minifigures in the set while the back also has a layer-by-layer separation of the buildings to show the floor plan.  I have included a size comparison with the box for the previous set in the series, 10251 Brick Bank, to demonstrate how much bigger this one is.

Box Front

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Box Rear

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Box Sides

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Box Contents

Despite the size of the box it is packed pretty full.  There is one very thick instruction manual, a white internal box which has the numbered bags for sections 1 through 3, and then the numbered bags for sections 4 through 6 are loose in the main box.  The box also contains two green baseplates (32x32 and 32x16) and a single 8x16 light grey plate.  There are a lot of bags in this set for each section:

  • Section 1:  3 numbered bags, a 32x32 green baseplate and a 16x32 green baseplate
  • Section 2:  7 numbered bags
  • Section 3:  5 numbered bags
  • Section 4:  4 numbered bags
  • Section 5:  7 numbered bags
  • Section 6:  7 numbered bags and a 16x8 light grey plate

Contents Overall

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Internal Box and Contents

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Instruction Booklet

The instruction booklet is a single thick volume.  Unfortunately, it does not come sealed in any sort of plastic like many other expert sized sets, so when I pulled mine out it was a little bent and had a tear on the front cover, which is unfortunate.  Otherwise, it is a sturdy booklet with lots of helpful features such as the breakdown of which bags build which sections of the set and an extensive parts list at the back.  As well as boxes for the parts used in each step, the parts are also outlined in yellow as they are added to the build.

Booklet Cover

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Inside Sample Pages

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Minifigures

This set comes with a wide variety of minifigures, 8 in total plus one of the relatively new baby minifigures.  There are 4 male and 4 female minifigures filling a variety of roles themed to the types of stores and rooms within the set:  a baker, florist, barista, dentist, photographer, music shop manager, ballerina and AFOL with her baby.  All have the classic smiley face except for the baby, who also has white dots in his or her eyes.  All of the minifigure torsos are printed on both sides with interesting designs and are complimented by an assortment of hairpieces and hats, including a beret and moustache for the photographer.  The barista's apron is also printed down onto her legs.

Barista, Florist, Baker, Music Shop Owner and Dentist - Front

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Barista, Florist, Baker, Music Shop Owner and Dentist - Back

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Photographer, Ballerina, AFOL and Baby - Front

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Photographer, Ballerina, AFOL and Baby - Back

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The Build Part 1:  Floor Plan

Now it is time to get building, and we're in for quite a lengthy one with 6 bagged sections to complete.  This first section is pretty much all tiles; lots and lots of tiles.  These take a while to lay out (and longer if you're a bit pedantic like me and want all of the dots left behind by the sprues to be pointing the same way).  Speaking of those dots, I was a bit sad to see these on the sides of many of the 1x2, 1x3, 1x4 and even 1x6 tiles now, where they used to be on the underside either in the centre of at one end.  I say most; really every tile in this set has the sprue dots on an edge, except for 4 of the 1x2 dark grey tiles in this section.  Mostly these can be hidden, but not always, it was definitely better when they were on the underside.

The footprint for the building is 48x32, as shown below.  In reality, it is really 2 separate buildings, one taking up a 32x16 space on the left and the other occupying the standard 32x32 modular building size on the right.  The right building is designed to look like 2 buildings but is built as one (as we shall see later).

Baseplate Footprint

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We begin by laying out the tiles for the footpath and the building on the right, which will be a bakery.  This is followed by the fountain in the centre and the tiles for the florist shop at the back (part of the right building), and we complete part 1 with the tiles for the coffee shop in the left building.  There are lots of interesting tile colours and shapes, particularly around the fountain, including cut corners and the shield pieces.

Tiles

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As the tiles are laid down, the size of the buildings becomes clear, including spaces left in the floor for furnishing later.  In comparison to the original Cafe Corner set which had no interior at all, this is quite a different start!

Footpath and Bakery

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The fountain base is a neat build so I have included a couple of construction shots to show how it comes together.  The actual fountain won't be added until the second to last step of part 6 of the build, so we have the be patient for that, but we do get the base now.

Fountain construction

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Note the turntable in the entry to the building on the left; this will be used to create a doorway similar to the Cafe Corner entry, a nice throwback to that set.  There are lots of features of this build that reference all 11 of the past sets; I won't mention all of them so see how many you can spot!

Fountain Base and Left Building Entry

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With part 1 of the build finished, we can see how large each building is eventually going to be, although not much other than the floor tiles have been laid down.

Coffee Shop Floor

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Florist Floor

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Bakery Floor

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Part 1 also includes the baby's pram, which improves on the pram design that featured in the 10185 Green Grocer set.  The baby is in part 6 of the build along with the street lights and fountain, so we don't get to see the baby in the pram just yet!

Baby's Pram

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There are only a few spare parts left over at the end of this section, shown below.

Spare Parts

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The Build Part 2:  Bakery and Florist

In part 2 of the build, we construct the bakery and (most of) the florist that occupy the right building.  The florist is in the central section behind the fountain and connects to the bakery on the right.  The florist shop isn't actually finished in this part; the last couple of layers are added in part 3. 

Before building this section, there are some interesting parts to point out, including the blue/yellow bird (which is a new take on the old parrot mould with slight differences such as in the shape of the beak).  There is a variety of printed treats on 1x1 round tiles and some other interesting parts and colours, shown below.

Interesting Parts

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We start by building the bakery and florist interiors and back walls.  Immediately I am finding all sorts of exciting furnishings to make the building a little more interesting than just building up the walls.  In the bakery, we have a built-in oven in the back which includes a large black door with a cast-iron look to it and a play feature for getting the pastries out, demonstrated below.  In the florists shop, we have the counter with a till, money and plant inside a jar, a stand for the parrot and a display of flowers.  The flower display has a nice variety of colours for the flower pieces and includes a six-pronged flower stem, which when placed next to the brown brick makes for quite a snug fit (almost too snug, but I got it to stay there).

Bakery and Florist Interiors

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Florist Furniture

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Florist Interior

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The bakery oven features a technic pin at the back to push the tarts out; it's quite powerful so be wary, those tarts can go flying!

Bakery Oven

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Next we build up the front of the florist, with pillars around the door and each window decorated with a SNOT technique.  The arches above the door will be added in part 3, so for now we just build the white frames.

Florist Door Frame Pillars

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Florist Door Frames

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To finish part 2 of the build, we complete the bakery.  First there are a few furnishings to build, which include a large display cabinet built into the wall with lots of different cakes and pastries, a smaller glass cabinet in the counter, a table with pastries and a large wedding cake.

Bakery Counter

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Bakery Wall Cabinet

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The wedding cake is a neat design, with angled tiles to make the tabletop and a miniature bride and groom on top.

Bakery Furniture

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Bakery Interior with Furniture

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Next comes the front of the bakery, which has two large windows made with garage door pieces. The doorway uses an angled door-frame piece.  We also add the canopies above the windows on the florist at this point.

Bakery Entrance

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Bakery Windows

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The windows are topped with dark blue sloping roof tiles and above the doorway is an upside down dome, which is attached with 1x1 circular tiles with pins on them, which connect to the open holes in the bricks below.  A staircase is added at the back for access to the next level and a few more details such as a clock, and then the bakery is complete!

Bakery Window Lintels

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Bakery Staircase

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Bakery Doorway

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And there are our first two rooms complete, the bakery and florist.  I'll conclude with a final picture of the front and back of part 2.

Part 2 Front

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Part 2 Back

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There are a few more spare parts with this section, including spares of the three 1x1 round printed tiles.

Spare Parts

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The Build Part 3:  Coffee Shop

In part 3 we build the ground floor of the left building which is occupied by a coffee shop, and also complete the top of the florist.  I really like the detail in the coffee shop, the furniture and other small interior details really make this set an outstanding one and very interesting to build.

First, let's look at some of the more interesting parts in this section, including a printed pie curved 1x1 tile, the black half circle window piece and the yellow and white modified plates with spade heads on the front edge.  The Chihuahua is a reference to the 10218 Pet Shop set.

Interesting Parts

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The coffee shop is built on the foundations laid out in part 1 of the build.

Coffee Shop Foundations

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Very soon we get to the furniture for the coffee shop.  There are two tables, a small chair utilising the curved 1x1 tiles, a counter and a coffee machine.  There is also a sofa built into the wall, not shown below.

Coffee Shop Furniture

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The coffee machine is a little weak in my opinion, there was room here for a slightly larger and more elaborate espresso machine.  However, the furnishings fit nicely into the space, with the two wall lamps and the sofa.  At the back of the coffee shop is the staircase to the next level, accessible via a separate external door, but visible from inside which I find slightly odd.  This could have been covered over similar to the staircase in the Cafe Corner set, but it would have reduced the space for the coffee machine.  As it is, the archway is a nice addition but doesn't make a whole lot of sense when the stairs aren't accessible from inside.

Coffee Shop Interior

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The front part of the coffee shop is built next, including the angled doorway using a 2x2 turntable and large windows with arches over them.  Arches are also placed over the doorway to the stairway, connecting the building to the florist, which I am glad about as the baseplate was becoming difficult to move around without without the weight of the buildings bending it.

Coffee Shop Windows and Doorway

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Before adding the final details to the building, the outdoor furniture needs to be built.  This consists of two tables, four chairs which again use the 1x1 quarter curved tiles, and two plants.  The table legs fit into the open studs outside the cafe so that they don't move around.

Outdoor Furniture

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To complete part 3, the coffee shop is finished off with awnings, a grating is added between the coffee shop and the florist and the florist is completed with arches and clear bricks at the back.  I love the way the arch pieces fit together, I have separated them in the image below.

Florist Window Arches

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The awnings use the same colours as the awnings in the Cafe Corner set, but use curved bricks instead to get the shape and have a nice texture along the front with the pointed spade head shapes.  The coffee mug over the entrance is also reminiscent of the doorway in the Cafe Corner set.

Coffee Shop Awnings and Entrance

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The florist is also now completed, with two roses above the doorway.  These look really nice and make it very clear what the shop is without any need for other signage, however I did find that the upper flower is quite difficult to position without forcing the leaf piece above it back against the horizontal clip plate behind it.  The rose stays in place but it has to be forced back to do so and would sit more comfortably angled a bit further down, which isn't as satisfying as then the roses don't line up with each other.  Not a big issue though as long as it stays in place.

Florist Front

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Florist and Coffee Shop Back

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The coffee shop back door has some leaves to the left, which are held in place by the trans-green pieces.  The leaves don't budge because of this and consequentially the door doesn't open the entire way.  Otherwise the back is pretty standard, I do like the inclusion of a lamp over the back door to the florist.

Coffee Shop Back

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The top few rows of bricks at the back of the florist separate easily, providing better access to the inside.

Florist Back with Removed Bricks

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That concludes part 3 of the build and completes the ground level of the set (apart from the fountain and lamps, to be added at the end).  Now we get to move on to the upper levels!

Completed Ground Floor

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The Build Part 4:  Dentist and Photography Studio

Part 4 of the build is the second floor of the right building, which contains a dentist above the bakery and a photography studio above the florist.  The dentist is one of my favourite rooms in the set and has lots of neat features.  To escape the square-box syndrome of buildings, this building has a circular tower at the front, built on top of the upside down dome over the entrance to the bakery.

To start, there are lots of printed parts in this section including the printed window with the dentist's sign, a newspaper, brochure, boat painting and portrait.  I accidentally left out probably the coolest part in this section, the 1x1 brick with studs on two adjacent sides, but I'll include a close up of that in the interesting parts for section 6 of the build.

Interesting Parts

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The The obvious starting place is the floor, which defines our building space.  It is quite a spacious building actually, with lots of room for both furniture and posing minifigures.

Floor Plan

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As with the ground floor, the back walls of the dentist are built first, then the furniture.  Some of the photography studio has also been built.

Dentist Interior

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The main focus here is the dentist's chair, this is a really awesome feature piece.  It includes a lamp and swinging table, and the choice of colours is perfect for a dentist, lots of clean sterile white with mint highlights.  The basin behind the chair includes a transparent light blue window for the water.  The reception area has a small phone and a rack with the newspaper and brochure.  Slightly odd that the dental surgery is open to the reception, particularly when clients of the photography studio have to pass through the same reception space!

Dentist's Chair

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The reception area also contains a dark blue chair and a small potted plant in the back corner, as well as a clock on the wall.  Inside the dental surgery, there is the boat painting on the wall and another cabinet will be added near the end, once the front walls are in place.

Dentist's Reception Area and Dental Surgery

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Next up we build the front walls of the dentist's surgery.  This part is a little repetitive to do all of the windows and each column, but not terribly so.  The printed window reads "Preventing Yellowing" Dentist.  I have a few white Lego bricks that could do with a trip to this dentist that's for sure!  Note also the cabinet added above the drawers.

Dentist Window

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Next up, we turn to the photography studio.  The centrepiece of this is the brick-built old-fashioned camera.  A white paper roll hangs from the side wall as a backdrop for the photography (I could do with one of those..), and a small cabinet sits next to the portrait.

Photography Studio Furniture

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Photography Studio Interior

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Interior Furniture Close-up

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The studio is then completed with windows on both sides.  The lower windows are all clear panes while the upper windows are white panes.  Jumper plates are used to offset the windows by half a stud to add some texture to the exterior, along with a couple of flowers on the windowsill to complete the front facade.

Photography Studio and Dental Surgery

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The rear features the same staircase as the ground floor for access to the next level.

Dental Surgery Back

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That concludes part 4 of the build!

Photography Studio Back

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Completed Part 4 Build Front

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The spare parts include some of the dentist's equipment (which was hidden away in the drawers), an extra moustache and the usual small piece spares.

Spare Parts

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The Build Part 5:  Music and Dance Studios

Next up is part 5, which completes the left building.  On the first level is a music studio/store.  Upstairs is a dance studio and this is topped off with a roof and parapet. 

There are a couple of neat instruments for those that don't have them, as well as the white spiral pieces (or what I would refer to as a Koru) and the 1x1 half circle tiles.

Interesting Parts

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Compared to the right building, the floor plan for the left one is much smaller.

Floor Plan

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As usual, we build the back walls and add in the furniture, including the staircase.  As well as the two guitars and the saxophone, we have a brick-built drum kit and a counter with a till.

Music Studio Interior

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The drum kit is nicely done, with a high hat cymbal, crash cymbal, bass drum and two small drums (we shall assume one is a snare and the other a tom tom).

Drum Kit Close-up

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Next up we add the front walls and windows, including an angled window again using a turntable like the door below it.  Along the top edge, we use 22 of the 1x1 half circle tiles.  It makes for a neat texture but I'm not entirely convinced by it.  Perhaps what is bugging me is that the dot from the sprue that injects the plastic for this piece is on the curved side, which is pointing outwards; that looks crappy to me since I like to hide those dots where I can.  This is a tile that would definitely benefit from the dot being on the underside.  Still, it is a nice piece and I'm not going to complain about getting a whole pile of them in this set, particularly in the useful light grey colour for all you castle builders out there.  I do like the wall and window designs though, the facade of this building is nice to look at.

Music Studio Front

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As for the back, there isn't a whole lot going on other than two windows.

Music Studio Back

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Let's take one last look at the front windows before we move up to the dance studio, I do like these.

Front Windows

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Now we move upstairs to a VERY similar level, the dance studio.  This build will feel familiar and a bit repetitive, but it does have some differences to break things up and keep the building interesting.  First of all, we get to install a mirror and I love this mirror, it is so reflective!! Very good quality.  Secondly, we have an adorable brick-built piano, which is right up there with the dentist's chair in the cool furniture category.  The piano comes with a small stool but otherwise the room is left empty, as a dance studio should be.

Dance Studio Furniture

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Dance Studio Interior

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Ballerina Practicing in the Mirror

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The exterior is the same as the level below other than the angled front corner, which has a balcony instead of a window, utilising the angled door frame piece but backwards this time compared to the entrance to the bakery.  One minor thing that bugs me on both levels is that there is a white 1x1 tile at the top of the two white pillars in the middle, but not at the tops of the outer two white pillars; the tiles there are grey.  I can't see any reason for these being different, but personally I think it would look better being all in grey, or at least having both with the white tile.

Dance Studio Front

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Not much different on the back side.

Dance Studio Back

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To complete part 5 of the build, the left building is completed with the roof section, which has a couple of features worthy of mention.  There is a hatch at the back providing access to the roof from the dance studio, which is a reference to the hatch on the roof of the 10197 Fire Brigade set.  There is also a skylight for the dance studio below.

Rooftop Hatch and Skylight

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The rooftop is completed with a detailed parapet that references the 10211 Grand Emporium set roof, but this time using a white spiral piece which I think looks great.  An angled white shield rests sits in the middle of the concave curve to top the balcony below.

Rooftop Front

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I think the rooftop is best viewed on top of the dance studio, so let's look at that parapet again.

Rooftop on Dance Studio

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That completes part 5 of the build, one part left to go!  Part 5 is probably the most repetitive part of the whole build as the two levels are very similar, but there is enough detail to keep it interesting and building the piano helps to break up the second level.  The tan pillars with white tiles on the front are a little unstable as they are 1x1 pillars from top to bottom, which means the white tiles sometimes won't be lined up; keep an eye on this when displaying the model.

Part 5 Front

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Part 5 Back

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Part 5 Front Windows

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Only a few spare parts in part 5.

Spare Parts

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The Build Part 6:  AFOL Apartment and Outdoor Terrace

Finally, we arrive at the last section of the build, the top level of the right building, which is where our female AFOL lives with her baby.  Next door above the middle section is an outdoor terrace featuring a BBQ and "neglected tree".  Our AFOL must have other priorities that come ahead of watering the plants.  We also get a turret on the roof of this section, and the fountain in the square will also be completed.  Huzzah!

This section has some great parts, including the "neglected tree" (I'm quoting TLG here) and a printed 2x3 tile of the Cafe Corner box, a nice throwback to the original set that started this series.

Interesting Parts

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The floor plan is of course the same as the lower level, but let's have a look anyway.

Floor Plan

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This section starts with some of the detail along the front, which includes a facade on the middle section made with hammers inside headlight bricks.  The base for the fold out bed/couch is also shown here.

Hammer Facade

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After adding in the back wall, the furniture is built, which includes everything an AFOL could need; a large train layout, shelves for Lego sets, an Eiffel Tower model and a small kitchen.

Apartment Furniture

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With it all inside the apartment, it is a bit cramped,  feeling I am sure a lot of AFOLs can relate to!

Apartment Interior

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As noted above, the couch folds our into a bed.

Couch/Bed

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The apartment includes a bathroom hidden away behind the kitchen, featuring a toilet complete with a roll of toilet paper.

Apartment Bathroom

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On the shelf in the living room, above the couch, we see miniatures of the first three modular building sets:  10182 Cafe Corner, 10190 Market Street and 10185 Green Grocer.  The terrace outside so far has a small BBQ, a table and chairs and the neglected tree... it seems a bit out of place really, but we;ll see how it looks at the end.

Apartment Interior and Terrace

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On the shelf close to the door here are miniature versions of 10242 Mini Cooper and 10220 Volkswagen T1 Camper Van.  Below it there is a holder for the Cafe Corner box, and the layout takes up the rest of the space.  The Eiffel Tower looks good in the tower part of the room.

Apartment Interior Other Angles

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The front wall of the apartment comes together fairly quickly, particularly as it has been a while since we built the level below, so it doesn't feel repetitive.  The roof of the terrace features digger buckets to make the roof and is open at the back.  Again, I think the terrace is probably the weakest part of this set, I'm not sold on it.  It isn't terrible but it doesn't excite me much either, I think more could have been done with this space.

Apartment and Terrace Front

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Apartment and Terrace Back

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To top off the set, we finish with the roof of this building! Once more, we have the floor plan as it is only for the right part.

Roof Floor Plan

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The parapet uses the same scroll pieces as on the other roof section, but incorporates a turret for the tower at the front and an all important white rooster.

The White Rooster

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Roof Front

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Roof Back

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I was REALLY excited to finally do the fountain, so let's take a look at that before we look at the rook on the apartment.  Look at this fountain!  With TWO street lamps.  A very satisfying conclusion to the build, really, I've been looking at that fountain base the whole time wanting it to be finished.

The Fountain. Finished. Finally.

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Now that that is out of the way, we can look at the completed section 6, with the roof on the apartment.  This turret is a nice way to top off the set.  The windows are of course entirely decorative, but they look good.  The outdoor terrace is looking a little better to me now that the roof is on the apartment.  Still not the most exciting, but not terrible either, you guys let me know what you think.

Apartment Front

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Apartment Back

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There are a few more spare parts to add to your spare parts box.

Spare Parts

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Completed Model

And with that, we are finished building!  Quite a journey.  As you have probably gathered if you are still reading, I like to explore the set as I build it, so I hope you've enjoyed looking through the images and getting to know all the details.  To finish, let's take a look at the whole set, with some birds eye views of the interiors to recap.

Assembly Square Front

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Assembly Square Back

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Assembly Square Sides

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Bakery and Florist

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Coffee Shop

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Dental Surgery and Photography Studio

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Apartment and Terrace

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Music and Dance Studios

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Conclusion

And here we are at the end of the line.  Before moving on to a score and final thoughts, let's take another look at the set with all the minifigures outside to say hello!  I totally didn't try to copy the box art.

Assembly Square

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Design: 9/10 – The set is very well designed and has so many cool features.  The interiors are well thought out and I loved making them, particularly the piano and dentist's chair, really cool.  There are some minor things I think that could have been done better such as the terrace area but on the whole, this set is fantastic and was a pleasure to build, I really enjoyed it.

Parts: 10/10 – So many parts, so many colours, so many options!  The modular buildings always have unique and interesting parts and this is no exception.  Buy this for the excitement of the cheese slopes on two adjacent sides of a brick alone, seriously.  Great parts and lots of printing!

Build: 9/10 – The build experience is super fun, I think I already said that.  Some small repetitive sections but in a model this size, it is well handled and interspersed with interesting interiors to distract from the exterior.

Price: 9/10 – The price per piece comes in at 0.07 USD which isn't terrible in my view, certainly much better than the last set I reviewed, the Winter Holiday Train.  I doubt this set will be on sale much but it is well worth the price.

Overall View:  Honestly, this is a great set and a real tribute to the whole series.  I'd rate this as a must have, it should appeal to all adult collectors.  It is packed full of details, it is a delight to build and although it has a few minor things that could be improved on, that is always the case and I look forward to seeing any modifications that our members decide to make and share with us.  Great parts, great design, decent price and lots to keep anyone busy for hours, plus a very impressive display piece either as a stand alone set of in a line with other modular buildings.

Thanks for reading, please let me know what you think of this set in the comments below, I look forward to reading them!

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Outstanding splendid detailed review. Draggy, thanks for doing this awesome review of such an amazing set. I am looking forward to pick this up, but before doing so, I need to get my Brick Bank first. There are so much fine details in this set and I appreciate your time to highlight many of these. :wub: 

Way to go, Draggy. :thumbup: 

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Great review, I have promised this to my wife, got plenty of VIP points towards it and its her 50th birthday next week.

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Great review !

curious to see that the 2 clocks (backery and dentist) don't have the same time !

maybe the 2 buckets feature Parisian roofs ?

just ordered to, I like it

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Just now, Toitoine said:

Great review !

curious to see that the 2 clocks (backery and dentist) don't have the same time !

maybe the 2 buckets feature Parisian roofs ?

just ordered to, I like it

Good spot on the clocks!  The middle building does seem to draw some inspiration from 10243 Parisian Restaurant, the roof has a similar style.

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I read the review after ordering it, but it certainly confirms the anticipation of building this set.  Jaime did an outstanding job with the design on this one.  Pricewise, it looks very good for just over 4,000 parts.  

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Amazing review. I definitely agree with you @Dragonator, the terrace just isn't that appealing to me. I think it would have looked better if the back side was closed off with the digger buckets or something similar to the roof of the PR, and add something to have that lift open up to reveal the terrace on a sunny day. That would have made it better.

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Great review! :classic:

Nice set overall, I think, still not sold on the color schemes, though. Those of the bakery and the coffee shop don't work for me individually. The flower shop does, but only on its own, and not in conjunction with the other buildings.

The builds themselves look like a lot of fun, well thought out and lots of intersting details. Overall critique on the building design is still the same for me as after the press release. Would've preferred for the set to separate into two or preferably three separate buildings, and I especially don't like the shared staircase for the right two buildings. Also the two buildings on the left somehow lack identity for me. They are overladen with references to CC, GE, PS, PR and BB on the outside, so there hardly is any defining unique aspect to them :sceptic:.

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An awesome review for an awesome set, number one on my shopping list for this year.

I dig all the different build styles to make up every building, I wonder how many different designers at Lego took part in this set ?

Thank you for doing this mega review 'Dragonator', Brick On Review On ! 

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Thanks for the great review!

I still prefer the Behemoths of old like the Firestation because you never see the interior of the new breed after you've put it on the shelf, the builds sure are smart.

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Thanks for a great review! Can`t wait to get my hands on this, build it and display it! ;) Don`t hope this is the end of the theme.

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Cheers very much for putting this up.
Very complete, and an interesting read.
That must have been a lot of work!

We can't wait to receive ours. This set looks like an absolutely smashing build.

16 minutes ago, BrickByBrick Official said:

Awesome job with this review! Would you recommend this or the Technic 42055?

Well, both, if the wallet allows it. :grin:

But if I had to choose, i'd pick the Assembly Square, simply because it fits in so well with our 30-odd other modulars.
They're both brilliant, the bucket wheel Excavator being the more challenging build, I would say. So if that's an important criterion...

Ah, choices, choices...

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Hi,

Thanks Dragonator for the great review! Has anybody noticed that in the back of the AS instruction booklet there is an image of all the modulars in a row and PC is in black and white along with all the other retired modulars. Does this mean PC is about to go?

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Very good review, new parts nicely noted and good shots of the interiors. Nice job. :thumbup:

As for the set I would perhaps of preferred two stronger sized buildings using the same footprint instead of 3 as it looks a bit cramped for my liking. Still I commend them for interesting part usage and including a fair few new or rarer pieces for a reasonable price (Well at least in the UK). Might the first modular set I buy for parts rather than display.

Thanks again Dragonator!

 

 

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17 hours ago, RogerSmith said:

The builds themselves look like a lot of fun, well thought out and lots of intersting details. Overall critique on the building design is still the same for me as after the press release. Would've preferred for the set to separate into two or preferably three separate buildings, and I especially don't like the shared staircase for the right two buildings. Also the two buildings on the left somehow lack identity for me. They are overladen with references to CC, GE, PS, PR and BB on the outside, so there hardly is any defining unique aspect to them :sceptic:.

That's what I originally thought at first how it be be designed. Like the PS, but separated into 3 parts. I also don't care for shared staircase and having to walk into the dentist office to go the the photography studio. But it is a very cool modular.

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Super good review.

I tried to pick one of these up from the Lego store today. But they seem to have sold out. 

I haven't seen this much excitement for a Modular for a while now.

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