Well, it comes around once a year and when it does the entire LEGO community stops. Of course, we're talking about the release of a new Modular Building!
There was lots of speculation online as to what this year's release might be. A retro ice cream parlour to match the diner was one of our favourites, however as usual LEGO kept their cards close to their vests and no one saw the Police Station 10278 coming!
We noticed for the first time, this modular building received the sleek black box treatment. A departure from the more traditional colourful expert creator style boxes seen with last years Bookshop set. Interesting to note a new crisp looking 'Modular Buildings Collection' logo to really make things official!
Just falling shy of 3000 pieces, this is one of the more details Modular Building sets, second in brick count only to the Assembly Square.
This was an awesome set to put together! With a couple of new build techniques as well as a few fun surprises here and there, the team had a great time tackling this set in different shifts, there’s always something to work on around here! All up in total the build time for us was around 6 hours, a little longer for us as we stopped to admire the set’s different detail and narrative unfolding, while also getting a bit excited about the lighting opportunities to come!
Speaking of which, time to solve the main challenge - making sure this crime fighter’s HQ is lit up on all levels!
What was obvious from the get-go on this project was the use of our reasonably young yet popular components, the wireless connectors. Having been developed in response to many fan requests over time for increased playability, these tiny components put in a lot of work!
First available as an add on when released in 2018, the component was officially included as part of the Bookshop light kit design last year. So, once the Police Station was announced - we couldn’t wait to see what opportunities to implement these super functional additions the next modular instalment held - and we weren’t disappointed! Three great levels allowing us to utilise the wireless connectors to maximum usage.
We wanted to make sure removing these levels would produce a nice ‘reveal’ so we used warm downlights to give the donut shop the ambience a friendly neighbourhood store would have.
From here we moved from functionality to aesthetics in trialling different colours and ambient lighting techniques. There’s been talk in the LMB design offices in recent months in ways to create more subtle and stripped backlight kits and those have produced great results, but this is a modular building and we always go all out! As such we decided to really dial up the colour palette on this one with some green lights to accentuate the exterior foliage as well as an appropriate pink for the donut shop. Of course, we needed to let the crooks know how serious the security system is with a flashing red bit light up on the rooftop!
We always love encountering brand new bricks and the Police Station offered us an all-new lamp to work around. Normally we’d include some clear trans round plates in the kit to substitute, but this new diamond-shaped piece brings a real fresh style to the table! All that was needed was an additional black round plate with an open stud to allow the wire to flow through seamlessly. Minimum modification of the original LEGO design is what we aim for always.
Of course, it wouldn’t be a Light My Bricks Modular Building light kit without one of our patented street lamps!
This case closed! These modular buildings never disappoint and we're already anticipating what LEGO will cook up next year. Speaking of cooking, we feel like a bakery treat of some kind!