(to set the mood, here’s some fitting background music to this review)

The tenth and latest Lego modular building has arrived, to the usual fanfare and hysteria. Already out of stock on the official site, where it’s exclusive, this will probably be a sought-after set for quite some time as they catch up with demand. Still, when it was first leaked the Detective’s Office (DO from now on) was divisive. Whereas most modulars have been fairly large, solid three-story buildings, DO was a neat downtown mix of slightly rougher houses. It doesn’t exactly fit alongside Green Grocer or Pet Shop but has an identity all of its own. Also, it can be noted that the upper roof section is pretty much on the same level as Fire Brigade’s, so it’s not exactly tiny either. Downstairs there’s a pool hall and a barber shop, and upstairs there’s a classical detective’s office packed with detail, as well as an apartment section used for illicit activities (more on that later).

Despite the smaller size, DO has a good number of pieces and like all modulars it takes several hours to build. Once again Jamie Berard returns to design a modular, and this comes with all the unexpected and impressive techniques one can expect from him. New parts like the tail off Unikitty (now in grey), a row of stacked Hero Factory hands, the CMF painter roller handle and the Mixel balljoints have been used to create discrete but impressive details, but having access to rare parts is not the most impressive quality of Jamie. No, it’s the small things. There is a sliding panel inside the pool hall, which is ridiculously simple, made from pieces I have tons of, but I could never have figured it out. And the water barrel on the roof is simply insane. I admired how Jamie created a water tower on top of Fire Brigade using two wooden tubs, but this is on a whole new level. It’s made almost entirely from pieces I had in my childhood Lego 25 years ago, but used in a whole new way. Once again the combination of Lego’s extremely clever engineering (a specific piece from 36 years ago has a use I’ve never seen in a set before) and Jamie’s creative brilliance comes together to make magic.

The finished set is colourful and playful, but not as visually striking as some other modulars. What it lacks in style it makes up for in function, though. There’s plenty of room to add figures on the sidewalk, on the balconies and the multi-leveled rooftop. If there ever was a fitting arena for Turtles or superheroes to fight it out, this is it. It also helps to break up the silhouette of the city like the Parisian Restaurant or, indeed, Market Street. As a part of a living city, it’s excellent.

Collectors probably know about all the useful pieces by now, but there’s plenty to find here. There’s a ton of the dark flesh toned textured bricks, including the new longer variety. The useful round bricks with holes in them come in black and generously most of them can be substituted for normal ones to use these new rare ones for other things. The brown baseplate is welcome, but the new light blue bricks aren’t that helpful considering there’s just a ton of 1×2 ones here. Not to mention the unique mirror part, which is simply a chromed piece of stiff cardboard held in place to create a perfect reflection unlike any of the stickers we usually get. However, most of this requires you to break DO apart or buy a spare one, and it’s much too good looking for that.

For the first time, there’s actually an explicit story behind this building. It’s the 1920’s and prohibition is in full effect, which makes candy and cookies illegal (what, you think Lego would make a story based on alcohol?). The detective Ace Brickman is investigating, but little does he know that the apartment across the hall is a kitchen for producing sweets. These are then smuggled downstairs and hidden in a space accessible both from the pool hall and the barber shop. Apparently everyone is in on it except him (and possibly the cop visiting the barber shop). It’s fun, but the mechanisms to traffic barrels of candy take up valuable space and parts, which could have been used elsewhere.

I’d also like to comment on Flower Cart (40140) which is nominally a free bonus gift given to early buyers on the official shop, but in practice a part of the DO. It may look like a harmless portable stall, but hidden under the cart is another candy barrel. As I said, everyone is in on it. This is a neat touch, but since it’s already hard to get it smells a little of the preorder/retailer exclusive DLC stuff which plagues gaming nowadays, and it could have been included in the set like the cars in Fire Brigade or Palace Cinema. However, it can easily be recreated by common parts so it’s not too bad.

The tenth modular is one of the best, which is no small feat considering the quality of the line. It’s not the very best (Green Grocer and Parisian Restaurant sit pretty safely on that position), but it’s a great build packed with inspiring ideas and ridiculous attention to detail. In a build where the detective’s desk, the pool table, the barber chair and the crazy way most of the apartment is offset half a stud pales in comparison to other details, you know you’re in for a good time. Even the POOL sign, which is mirrored on both sides and put together with a stud reversal, is just the frosting on top of a delicious build. Every Lego fan needs this.

(please excuse the major potholes… clearly I need more City Construction sets…)