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Review: 10197 Fire Brigade

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Debating whether to get this or not while it is still around, what do you guys reckon given the similarities with the up and coming Town Hall, this won't be my first modular, already got GE and PS

I say get it then save up again for town hall if money is the issue. As once the FB is discontinued, you will only regret not getting it. Its a great build. I got a couple of them to make a bigger Fire station.

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Debating whether to get this or not while it is still around, what do you guys reckon given the similarities with the up and coming Town Hall, this won't be my first modular, already got GE and PS

Hi Brickmamba,

here in switzerland I see the set all over the place in toy stores (where normally there's no modular building...) and it's on sale default_blink.gif

It's a great build and even if there are some similarities with the upcoming Town Hall, the building experience will for sure be different.

I would get it if I were you, the interior is very detailed and the brick colors are just great.

Kind regards,

SwissBrick

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I have four quantity of 10197 and I modification four sets into one large Fire Brigade but I am still working on it.

MN

Would be interested to see pics of your modification LegoMN when its finished.

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I just got my missing pieces in the mail today. I have a hunch that the issue was a mix up of polybags as I had about as many pieces left over as came in the replacement pack only what I have left is almost all technic pins and connectors.

Anyway, its together and I'm a happy camper

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Excellent review, thanks. :classic: I just ordered this set and it should arrive here in a couple days. This will be my first set from the modular line. I knew I needed to pick this one up, seeing as it's bound to be discontinued any day now. Hopefully, it will make a good first impression for the rest of the modular line. :sweet:

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So I looked at the Holiday Catelogue the other day, and I did not see the Fire Brigade listed. Perhaps after multiple false alarms this set is finally being retired?

Edited by Canada_7

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So I looked at the Holiday Catelogue the other day, and I did not see the Fire Brigade listed. Perhaps after multiple false alarms this set is finally being retired?

It's been noted that it is missing from the American and Canadian catalog's, but still shows up in some, but not all of the european ones. A safe assumption is that it is probably nearing its EOL. Even if it is not being pulled from the shelves, the fact that it is being dropped from some versions of the catalog, even if just for space, kind of indicates that the end is nearing.

Best guess? The US and Canada have probably already received their last restocks of the set. Some of the European channel still has another shipment of them pending. But pretty much what is on shelves or in the supply chain is the end of it.

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I have just bought the pet shop can I fin the review on here before I start building it if anyone has the review?

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Well, I'm not sure why we're chatting about this in an ancient review - the moderator is going to have a fit! - but for what it's worth; Grand Emporium is no longer sold online by Lego in the US or Canada as of mid-October 2012. That's a bit strange, isn't it? It's a newer set than Fire Brigade.

Edited by bjtpro

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Well, I'm not sure why we're chatting about this in an ancient review - the moderator is going to have a fit! - but for what it's worth; Grand Emporium is no longer sold online by Lego in the US or Canada as of mid-October 2012. That's a bit strange, isn't it? It's a newer set than Fire Brigade.

Maybe they ran out of certain pieces or something like that

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Well, I'm not sure why we're chatting about this in an ancient review - the moderator is going to have a fit! - but for what it's worth; Grand Emporium is no longer sold online by Lego in the US or Canada as of mid-October 2012. That's a bit strange, isn't it? It's a newer set than Fire Brigade.

There was a report in the US that the FB was being discontinued back around May or June. It mostly disappeared from the shelves. Then all the stores seemed to get one more full restock. So they must have done another production run of the set. The GE is probably in that same boat. S@h is out of stock, and what is out there is what is there, unless they make another run.

Keep in mind they do not always discontinue sets in the order they were released. The Death Star set is the shining example of this. At a certain level of demand they will typically make more.

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There was a report in the US that the FB was being discontinued back around May or June. It mostly disappeared from the shelves. Then all the stores seemed to get one more full restock. So they must have done another production run of the set. The GE is probably in that same boat. S@h is out of stock, and what is out there is what is there, unless they make another run.

At S@H US the GE seems to have another run, ready to ship Dec. 9. Probably the last run, just for the holidays. I wouldn't be surprised if they both are gone by March. Remember, the FB had a fudge up run with missing bags, that's probably kept it in circulation, as well :classic:

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OK I feel like a bit of an idiot, but can someone tell me how to put the fire helmets on the frog hangers? I cannot get them to click and stay thre; what is the secret?

Thanks in advance!

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OK I feel like a bit of an idiot, but can someone tell me how to put the fire helmets on the frog hangers? I cannot get them to click and stay thre; what is the secret?

Thanks in advance!

You sure they are supposed to click and stay there? I 've never even tried "cliking" them -- I just hang them there...

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You are supposed to, are you sure that you attached the 1*1 round plate to the grey piece on which it should be clicked?

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You are supposed to, are you sure that you attached the 1*1 round plate to the grey piece on which it should be clicked?

That may well be what is wrong! I will have to try that when I get home.

Thanks!

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I just completed this set and it was pretty good, though this modular seems to have a tedious amount of 1x2 and 1x1 plates in the walls. A dark tan 1x2 plate was missing so that was slightly annoying. I love how the second floor has so much furniture and I've left those fun little builds for my daughter, who finds the rest of the building not as exciting.

There were certain parts of the build where it'll call for many smaller pieces when a single larger piece would do and I would initially think this was a way to purposely drive up the piece count. But my experience with 'Lots' in Bricklink tells me it's probably cheaper to have one Lot of many smaller pieces than to have several Lots of different pieces.

The standout weak spot is the tree, but I'm not sure how it could be improved given the small amount of space. One of the back pages of the instruction booklet shows the Midieval Market Village with its rather nice tree, but that won't fit in the sidewalk.

032.jpg

The firetruck is not so bad and matches the type of the time:

1930-1939-ford-trucks-36.jpg

But the design goes downhill when you get to the empty void above the rear wheels. Certainly a few more pieces would help the truck immensely.

I too noticed the lack of a bathroom and beds, but realized that you can remedy that by just adding another modular middle section. Anybody buy more than one fire brigade? LEGO should have a direct-sell service of just selling the middle floor of these modulars.

Found these cool mods of the Fire Brigade that fixes some of the negatives:

http://www.eurobricks.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=86155

http://www.eurobricks.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=68810

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The standout weak spot is the tree, but I'm not sure how it could be improved given the small amount of space. One of the back pages of the instruction booklet shows the Midieval Market Village with its rather nice tree, but that won't fit in the sidewalk.

I must have looked at pictures of this set hundreds of times (and no, I don't have it and doubt I'll ever get it), but I never noticed the tree. Now I have I must agree with you, the "tree" doesn't add anything to the set and would probably not even make it to the building stage if ever I would get this set...

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I must have looked at pictures of this set hundreds of times (and no, I don't have it and doubt I'll ever get it), but I never noticed the tree. Now I have I must agree with you, the "tree" doesn't add anything to the set and would probably not even make it to the building stage if ever I would get this set...

The tree is actually a play feature. In one of the back pages of the instruction book, it shows these sets in a row: Cafe Corner, Green Grocer, and Fire Brigade. The white cat from the Green Grocer is stuck on the tree and the ladder from the Fire Brigade is just tall enough to reach it:

http://bricks.argz.com/bricksfiles/lego/10000/10197/079.jpg

I wish the tree wasn't so hard to accidentally knock down.

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