A new year and a new LEGO creator modular building – this time a corner model providing a brick bank and a small laundry. I got this model 10251 two weeks ago while visiting the LEGO store in Nuremberg but now found the time and mood to go into building.
The set contains 2380 pieces, four build steps with 267 steps inside the instruction manual. Compared to older modular buildings it isn’t that hard to build and some building techniques have been changed. This one goes more into building bigger spots and putting it together.
When it starts off on the ground plate, the first cool thing you’ll recognise is the lockable vault including the removable ceiling. Building further the vault is still open but once the atrium foyer is finished you’ll find out about another cool surprise – the washing machines provide a hidden chest for actually washing the money and putting them directly into the vault. That’s something you cannot really tell from the package images.
The other part of this building step adds the pull-able cashbox for the transaction counter adding yet another lovely detail to the scene. When it comes to the ceiling there’s a hidden entry for thieves coming from the roof. You may actually change one of the mini figures into a thief outfit and start your own play story.
The first floor seems empty as there is only one room for the bosses office and a spot for the secretary. Though the build is fun and provides lots of details like the coffee vendor or building the fireplace attached to the chimney for the thief entering the bank. The typewriter totally fits my kind of humour.
The rooftop is not much in height but offers many details for making this model good. It also adds a chandelier and a small winch for pulling heavy stuff from the ground. The rounded roof windows use a common building technique already known from the pets store.
There are no stickers – everything is printed, even the window glasses. There could probably be more than 5 minifigures – the laundry seems pretty empty without employees. There are also not that much repetitive build steps except for one, but the look really compensates for that afterwards. What I really missed was building letters/numbers from other bricks (like “AL’S” and “POOL” from the detective’s office).
Sorting the bricks takes quite a while, so I guess this model was like 5-6 hours for building and sorting. Being a corner building it perfectly fits with the detective’s office from last year 🙂
