First Impressions: 10255 Assembly Square

The LEGO Group has just unveiled 10255 Assembly Square, a special Creator Expert set celebrating ten years of modular buildings. Brick Fanatics casts an eye over the set to share some first impressions…

The first word that comes to mind here is ‘underwhelming’. It feels incredible to be saying that about a modular building set. My initial sense is that this set is trying to do too many things at once.

To make this a commemorative 10th anniversary set, shout-outs to past modulars abound in the design. Many of these are obvious – the multi-coloured café patio cover aping those from 10182 Café Corner along with an ornate doorway made up of footwear. The flower shop roof is shamelessly inspired by 10243 Parisian Restaurant, and the pretzel shop channels the 10185 Green Grocer’s façade coupled with the brickwork of 10197 Fire Brigade. The roof work on top of the sand blue building smacks of 10246 Detective’s Office.

The problem with so much nostalgia is that all those architectural features cannot be packed into a single building, it would look like a hot mess – so the designer had to make three. Multi-building modulars have been the weakest of the line because, out of necessity, they must be smaller. This was the case with both 10218 Pet Shop and Detective Office. Common walls cannot be single walls so a proportion of the plastic allotted to the set must go towards making a wall in the same place twice. 10224 Town Hall, the largest of the modulars, was able to achieve its impressive size largely because of its lack of interior walls (also in part because of its slightly higher price point). Pet Shop, by comparison, is much smaller because the walls between the two buildings had to be constructed twice. The designer minimized this somewhat on Assembly Square by making the two buildings on the ends L shaped, but there are still common walls and the buildings are still noticeably smaller than previous entries.

That being said, this set is hardly a miss – it is just not the mind blowing home run fans were hoping for. Despite their sizes, the buildings are gorgeous. The masterful architectural details we have come to expect from modulars are on full display. The partial square with the decorative fountain, that the three buildings are constructed around, is wonderful. The triad of buildings means we get multiple of unique businesses and venues which include a café with interior, a flower shop and a pretzel store. The second floors consist of a music studio, photography studio, and doctor’s office, with the top floors containing a ballet studio, rooftop patio and studio apartment.

In summary, this is an attractive set with a variety of unique buildings constructed with rare colours. Those of us who have collected all the modular sets can delight in some of our favourite architectural features coming around for a second pass. Despite those positives, the minimal size of the three buildings is disappointing. It would have been great to see the design team go all in and do a single massive building over the same footprint. A royal building, a University quad, something that could have been a single structure. Of course despite any reservations, most fans have drunk the modular elixir and will be picking this up to continue the street – which looks set to continue for another decade still…

Author Profile

Daniel

When I was 3 years old my dad bought home 6659 TV Camera Crew as a gift — he had no idea what he had just unleashed. Three decades and no dark age later, I am still going strong. My love of LEGO led me to a career in Civil Engineering and I am now raising three budding LEGO lovers with my lovely wife who is, bless her, a huge supporter of my brick addiction. When not writing for Brick Fanatics or fulfilling my duties as the U.S. Editor of Blocks Magazine I enjoy collecting, MOCing, exhibiting, as well as running, climbing and home improvement.

Latest entries

• Reviews02/06/2019LEGO Creator Expert 10266 NASA Apollo 11 Lunar Lander review
• Reviews09/01/2019LEGO Marvel Super Heroes 76113 Spider-Man Bike Rescue review
• Reviews09/01/2019LEGO Marvel Super Heroes 76133 Spider-Man Car Chase review
• Reviews08/01/2019LEGO Marvel Super Heroes 76134 Spider-Man Doc Ock Diamond Heist review