My PLOG continues during this time of pandemic and protests...
Today I want to share my building experience putting together Lego set 10270 the Creator series Bookshop (part of the modular series of buildings that come out once per year); this set came out at New Year's, but it took me a while to decide to pull the trigger and spend the money to order it. Since I got the set on backorder during the pandemic, you may notice that it has a white sticker with the piece count (2504 pieces) and such; I believe that means it was shipped from Europe to make up for the lack of production in North America.
Yesterday I spent many hours putting together this set. I found it to be a fun, simple build; it just takes a long time to put these buildings together. I also really liked the minifigs that came with the set. The back of the box shows how the set looks with the recent modular diner and gas station. I like the sunset on the box, though I hope it doesn't symbolize that "the sun is setting" on this series. I am hopeful to get plenty more modulars in the future.
As you can see below, someone from the Lego team has a dark sense of humor, putting the human head in the iguana terrarium. That's not how it's supposed to be. The iguana is really neat though, coming in a special color to match the bed.
These large sets have a lot of bags, but as usual, Lego numbers them into sets. There were about 2-3 bags of each number. When I build, I tend to open up the bags of the current number and dump them into a plastic shoe box container. I then sort out the larger pieces.
Below you will see a great, fun facial expression on the boy in the set. It's too bad they are still doing the yellow skin tones. I wish all sets were actual flesh colors. I do love the banana shirt with the plaid vest. The scarf is a nice touch too, but always makes me wonder why they blur the Lego reality with some accessories like that being 3d add-ons and others just being printed onto the pattern of the torso.
The "Moby Brick" book is a lot of fun. Nice brick humor.
I like this lady's hair and that the set also has the cool bluebird to sit in the tree.
In the following picture, you can see my plastic shoe box setup with how I build.
The "elderly couple" in the set are cute together. Clearly the woman colors her hair. LOL. As usual, I wish their torsos didn't have the yellow print at the top for their open collars; that makes it just about impossible for me to use the torsos with my flesh-colored Lego heads and hands.
In general, I like the buildings for this set. I'm not a fan of the actual birch tree though. It looks like something from the Lego Elves series. The bright yellow and orange leaves are just too bright in my opinion and clash with the realistic look of the street. You may also notice that it's strange that the blue window frames on the house are not the same color as the building; that's odd.
The backs of the buildings look mostly fine, but I would not have chosen green as a color to go with the bookshop. In fact, on the inside of that building I wondered if the designers were making a statement that the type of person who would own a bookshop must not be good at decorating or picking colors that went together; the green carpet on the stairs and such are just hideous and not something you would see in someone's home or place of business.
The modular series has been going on for over a decade and there are certain consistent elements that this set blatantly defies. Instead of each floor being a 1-piece removable element, they made it more like a dollhouse facade building with halves coming apart. It's weird. It's different. But I'm okay with it. It just goes to show that they are emphasizing more childlike play features, like with the bright colors, instead of just marketing the set for adult collectors like before.
Other than the ugly birch tree, my biggest complaint is that the designers left ugly sides viewable on the teal-turquoise blue building. That's more like an amateur MOC build than a professional Lego set. I expect the actual Lego sets to do a better job of hiding those elements. The huge black and grey elements really stand out, as do the off-color green pieces.
The people are great, if you want yellow-flesh Lego minifigs.
THE GOOD:
*It's great to have a split modular set like the Pet Shop.
*Nice minifigs and accessories.
*Nice animals with the bluebird and iguana.
*Interesting, detailed interiors for the buildings.
THE BAD:
*The birch tree.
*The weird off-color green pieces for what obviously should have been the teal-turquoise color but Lego didn't have them available at the time.
*The messy look of the sides of the home building.
*The home won't be an easy set to add floors to if people buy multiple copies of the set (and that's an expectation with these modular buildings).
*The home is too short for the modular series and has no bathrooms or kitchens.
*The bookshop has ugly color combinations and decorations inside.
How likely am I to recommend it? HIGHLY. Whether you collect the modular building series or not, this is a fun set. It is expensive, but it's one of those sets that I would regret not having bought if I passed on it.
That's it for today. Be safe out there (and I'll be safe at home)!
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