Relevancy sort puts the best reviews at the top. We look at things like helpfulness votes, latest reviews, pictures and other traits that readers look for in their reviews.
Additional information about GoldenAtlas could not be loaded.
From: Cardiff
From: United Kingdom
Age: 19-24
Customer Type: LEGO Fan
Building Experience: Advanced LEGO builder
Purchased For: Self
Build Time:
10hrs
Play Experience:
4/5
Value for Money:
4/5
Level of Difficulty:
Challenging
"In my personal opinion, the Detective's Office is possibly the best looking of the modulars currently available. It is colourful, shapely, and has several different features which is make it stand out from other sets.
The set itself contains five different areas, firstly, the gentlemen's club/pub contains a pool table and a dartboard, along with a place for a drink, a trophy area, and a place to store cues and darts. This area is of average size for a modular, but is missing a few features. If this is supposed to be a pub or club, where is the bar so the minifigs can get drinks? They don't have to be alcoholic beverages, but it seems a little empty without one. This is a small table in the room, but there are no chairs, another missing feature.
Secondly, adjacent to the gentlemen's club, is the hairdresser, or barbers. It contains some interesting features, an actual mirror piece, a sink, display wigs/models, a revolving chair and storage space, as well as scissors and a broom. This area is much better, and has everything a hairdresser would need. The only drawback is the tight spaces, which usually cause accidental destruction of different pieces, especially if you have large hands.
On the floor above, there are two areas, the detectives office, and the lobby/toilet area. The first is important, as this is what the area is based around, and contains, a desk, chairs, several wall pieces, and probably the best design of all the areas. The toilet area seems a little 'pointless', is this for the public to the use? The detective? The hairdresser? Who knows, but it feels out of place, and I think that the inclusion of a small apartment area would have been better. There is a lot of missed space in the lobby/stairs area, only used as a hallway and for a single plant.
Finally the top floor contains a kitchen area, which keeps in line with the 'story' of the set. The minifigs are facing prohibition of sugar or sweets (unsure which), so there is 'illegal' baking going on in top kitchen, which is then being smuggled into the rooms below. I like that Lego tries to incorporate a story into their more recent modules, but it creates needless features in many areas, such as gaps in the wall of the gentlemen's club and hairdressers to allow playability. I wish that Lego would just create the rooms and forget about a story in this case, Lego is after all an imagination fuel for those who do want to 'play' with this set.
The main drawbacks of this set are to do with the structural design and accessibility of the rooms. The detective's office is only accessible by going into the hairdressers, or climbing up the fire escape, which seems silly, and the same goes for the entire second and third floors, they are all only accessible via these methods. A separate staircase, similar to the one used in the pet shop modular would have been great here, but space is taken up to create an arcade like area between the bottom two rooms. I do like this feature however, as it makes it the only modular with an arcade like area, which adds a city like feel.
There is a problem with the construction of the ground floor, in that there is visible space between the arcade and the roofs of the two buildings. I am unsure why Lego did not fill up these spaces with bricks, but it looks silly to have buildings with large parts of their upper walls missing.
Overall, this is a good set with some interesting features, but lacks thought in the interior and planning of accessibility.
Too long, didn't read:
Positives: + Colourful, shapely with a strong city feel. + 6 minifigs, with some interesting costumes and hairpieces + Interesting builds for the pool table, water tower and toilet.
Negatives: + Misused potential for interesting interiors in upper floors (kitchen and toilet should be an appartment). + Gaps in the ground floor buildings take away build quality. + A few attempts to push piece count up when they could have simply used larger pieces. + Lots of wasted space in the back of the set, rooms could have been made bigger, or something interesting put outside."