[REVIEW]: 10211 Grand Emporium

[hatcher]

Set Name:Grand Emporium
Set Number: 10211
Theme: Creator
Year: 2010
Pieces: 2182
Minifigures: 7
MSRP: $199.99 (CDN) $149.99 (USD)

Description from Shop@Home:

Welcome to the grand opening of the Grand Emporium!

The LEGO® Modular Buildings series continues with this spectacularly detailed 3-story department store, designed in a realistic scale with lots of special building techniques and rare pieces. On the street outside, citizens carry shopping bags, send letters at the mailbox, admire the window mannequins, then cool off at the ice cream stand while a busy window washer works above. Enter through the revolving doors to discover a ground-floor clothing department, complete with a cash register, fitting room, hats, jewelry, perfume, and even a selection of spare trousers. A brick-built escalator carries customers to the second floor housewares department with glassware and golden plates for special occasions, and then it’s up to the top floor for the toy department (complete with toy house and push-scooter) with an impressive chandelier above the open atrium. Up on the roof are a billboard and skylight!

Add this classic department store to your LEGO Modular Buildings collection
Grand Emporium features many authentic details
Set includes 7 minifigures
Measures 15" (38cm) high and 10" (25cm) wide
Build five mini modular buildings including the Grand Emporium in the 10230 Mini Modulars!


link: http://shop.lego.com/en-CA/Grand-Emporium-10211" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Spoiler alert. I love this set. Its practically perfect. Its got everything you could want from a Lego set. I didn't take as many pictures as I could have, because it has over 2100 pieces, but you don't need to be photo bombed on this one.

First up, the front of the box. The modular buildings are a huge success. And looking at the front of this box alone shows you why. Look at that, its beautiful.

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The back of the box shows off a lot of the awesome things you can do with this set, and many of the amazing building techniques they used.

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The contents of the box. You get 3 instruction manuals (not bagged and boarded unfortunately, so they got banged up a bit in transit) a tan base plate, and a whole bunch of bags. The bags are numbered 1, 2, 3 in regards to which level of the building they are used in, but you need to open all of them at once to dig out the pieces you want. Some people will love that, some (like myself) not so much. There are no stickers.

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The instruction booklets, with identical covers.

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A random page from the instructions. Steps are numbered and parts required shown. In smaller sets this is a nice feature, in a set this large, a God send. It takes a lot of time to hunt through all the bags looking for parts, but at least this way you know how many you need.

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On to the build. Up first we have the minifigures. There are seven in this set, and the first six are found on the first level. All the figures in this set have the same head with basic eyes and smile. Even the mannequins. Their faces are just turned around backwards. In this picture we see the two window mannequins. I assume they are representing either a bride/groom or just very formal wear. The woman's dress looks familiar, not sure what set I've seen it in, but I'm pretty sure its appeared before, probably a pirate or knights set.

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A female store employee and a child customer.

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A male customer holding his pants in the air (it will make sense later) and a female customer with shopping bags.

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The mannequins from the back.

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The clerk and child from the back.

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And the other two customers from behind.

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The first 20 or 30 steps are just to lay down the sidewalk tiles. As you can see from this picture, the Grand Emporium is a corner building. The only downside to a corner set, is you lose a lot of square footage on the base plate to sidewalk. So, to make up for it, you create awesome sidewalk. Tons of 1x2 and 2x2 tiles. It looks great.

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The building itself starts off pretty simply, the walls are mainly grey or tan 1/6,8 or 10 bricks. Its the front sections of the building that get all the awesome detail. In this shot, we've got most of the first floor shopping area done, a back door, the counters and window displays. You can even see by the door a changing area (the black curtain). Nice, big windows. Looks great.

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A bit later in the build, and we've completed the revolving door (which works pretty well all things considered) and the front exterior wall details completed. I did realized after building this that the vertical columns on each side of the windows were supposed to stick out further as I left out a bunch of 1x2 plates under those tan parts, so you might notice that difference in the next picture.

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The first floor is now finished. You can see in this shot the escalator that goes up to the second floor, the flower pots, street lamps and other street accessories, as well as the "SHOP" sign that curves around the corner over the revolving door.

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And from the other corner (sorry its a bit dark). You can see the ice cream stand on the street, and if you look inside the store, you can see that someone has flipped up the curtain exposing our male customer in his underwear (I blame my son, he's five, and underwear is the funniest thing in the world to kids his age. Try it, find a five year old and say underwear to them, I bet they'll laugh uncontrollably). The first floor, inside and out looks fantastic.

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And a shot focusing on the inside of the first floor. Clerk behind counter, kid eying the change area deciding whether to cause some mischief or not, customer heading for the door with purchases.

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And the extra parts from this level of the build.

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On to bags numbered 2. These bags make the second floor. Here it is at an early stage of the build. Again, being a corner building, the second floor is smaller to start with, and you lose even more floor space for the escalators.

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The walls are starting to go up, and we can see that this level sells plates and goblets. Both the second and third floors have very complex windows that wrap around the front sections of the store. That's coming up soon.

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The windows have been put in. As you can see, this part is a real pain to get done. Gaps in the walls, dozens of tiny panes of glass to stick into tiny frames. But, when its all done it will be worth it.

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The escalator and the top of the window supports are in now.

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And level 2 is now complete. The flags are a nice touch. You can see the few extra parts off to the side.

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The final minifigure is found in the bags for level 3. He's a window washer. Same generic face as the rest of them.

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And from the back.

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Level 3 is very similar to level 2. The only difference at this stage is what they are selling here.

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About to start on the windows again. This level sells toys and bird houses apparently.

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Level 3 also features a really nice chandelier.

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Windows are now in, and we're nearly done this level.

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And level 3 is done.

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But we're not done! We still have to put together the roof! The hole will be covered by a skylight later.

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The skylight is rather ingenious, as is the detailing along the edges of the roof.

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More roof detail added, along with a tower-

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- which holds up the roof billboard.

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And the spare parts from bags numbered 3.

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The final part of the build is the window washer rig. He has a coffee mug or something in there with him, and it hangs off the side of the roof so you can wash the third floor windows.

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The complete set, all together from the front.

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And from the back.

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Final thoughts. This set is rated for ages 16+ and while my five year old was able to do most of the building, he certainly didn't have the patience to put it together, as we took several days to complete the build. The detail in this set is amazing, and even though you lose a lot of floor space due to it being on a corner, it makes up for it with all the great building techniques and designs. The price is high but even Canadian pricing is less then 10 cents a piece (which I always look for when deciding which sets to buy). The minifigures are ok, the generic faces being my only gripe. This set has been around for over 3 years now (the fire brigade being the only one older then this still for sale) so if you haven't bought it yet and are still thinking about it, you better do it soon.

Ratings:

Minifigures 4.5/5
Parts 5/5
Play Value 5/5
Price 4.5/5 (Canadian pricing) 5/5 (American)
Overall score 4.9/5

[slacker]

Nice review. This is the first modular set we build. After that we were hooked. It's my favorite so far. I'm only missing CC and not planing to buy it.

[skeet318]

Great use of your camera, man.

[Brickred]

This is a great build, lots of details but pet shop is the best. Is the haunted house considered a modular? If that is included in this category then I think all the other modulars loose their shine, the hinged opening of the haunted house makes it a real play set with plenty of possibilities, all the other modulars are display sets

[skeet318]

You getting anymore modular buildings, Hatcher?

[hatcher]

I have the Fire Brigade but haven't put it together yet. I hope to get the other ones that are out right now at some point, depends on what kind sales (and how much spare cash I have, which right now is 0) come along.

[skeet318]

Well your review sold me on this one. Going to the Lego store next week to get this set and my wife wants the Pet Shop. Gotta get that weiner cart also...

[RobertDD]

So is it worth waiting for a discount on these at all, or are they pretty much $150 all year long?

[hatcher]

Well, I get mine from Toys R Us Canada, and they do occasionally put the modulars on sale for 20% off. Of course, they usually mysteriously sell out five minutes after the sale goes live. I've never seen the Lego store put them on sale. And at Americian prices, full price isn't a bad price for the number of parts you get.

[wyldjedi]

I actually like that the minifigure faces are simple like the classics from the 80's. Maybe it is because I grew up with minifigures like this. Or perhaps, I like it because you do not need fancy minifigs to make an awesome set. Too many times I see a garbage set that looks like an 8 year old threw it together, but the included minifigures look awesome. Anyway, good review

[hatcher]

This is a great build, lots of details but pet shop is the best. Is the haunted house considered a modular? If that is included in this category then I think all the other modulars loose their shine, the hinged opening of the haunted house makes it a real play set with plenty of possibilities, all the other modulars are display sets

I don't think it is technically a modular building, but it is approximately the same size. I've never seen one in person, just pictures and videos.

[Brickred]

So is it worth waiting for a discount on these at all, or are they pretty much $150 all year long?

Twice or thrice a year various outlets put modulars on deep discounts, last year around November amazon had some fantastic discounts on them, the sales were so good the sets were sold out within hours same thing happened with the haunted house some time back - those are the best times to buy big ticket sets

[RobertDD]

Ok, good to know these do go on sale. I will keep an eye out then.

[Brickred]

Ok, good to know these do go on sale. I will keep an eye out then.

Is there any specific one you looking for? I can alert you incase I see any sales.

[RobertDD]

Ok, good to know these do go on sale. I will keep an eye out then.

Is there any specific one you looking for? I can alert you incase I see any sales.

Thank you, that would be much appreciated. At this point i don't own any of them yet, and i really do love them all, so if any of them go on sale I'd be interested.

[Laura8]

Well, I get mine from Toys R Us Canada, and they do occasionally put the modulars on sale for 20% off. Of course, they usually mysteriously sell out five minutes after the sale goes live. And at Americian prices, full price isn't a bad price for the number of parts you get.

I've never seen the Lego store put them on sale.

[FenrisAkashi]

I've never seen the Lego store put them on sale.

Lego stores typically have a 10% off coupon attached to their seasonal catalogs if you live close to a store.
These also see sales on amazon.com occasionally.

[crewser]

I've never seen the Lego store put them on sale.

Lego stores typically have a 10% off coupon attached to their seasonal catalogs if you live close to a store.
These also see sales on amazon.com occasionally.

Is this catalogue sent to VIP members? If it is, do they send it to Canadian VIP members?

[harold.sampson]

Great review. I have been debating getting this set for a while. Know I know I will.

[LauraKQB]

Lego stores typically have a 10% off coupon attached to their seasonal catalogs if you live close to a store.
These also see sales on amazon.com occasionally.

But the 10% coupons don't work on "exclusives" (which modulars are) anymore. :(