Preview of  10243-1 Parisian Restaurant

Deciding to build the Parisian Restaurant was mainly due to the positive response it received in a Brickpicker forum topic. Many people chose the 10243-1 as their favourite Modular Building Series(MBS) set. I did not know a lot about it and what better way to build the set to see if those people had a point in picking this set. It was released in January 2014 and is still widely available at the moment of writing. The Parisian Restaurant is the ninth set to come out under the Creator subtheme following 10232-1 Palace Cinema. When looking at the brick count, with its 2469 pieces, it is the second largest modular building up to date, with 10224-1 Town Hall, 2766 pieces, having the most bricks. The set is priced by TLC at 159.99€/159.99$ (The prices for Europe vary from 149.99€ for France and Germany to 159.99€ for Belgium and the Netherlands. It is the third modular I will be building and the second to be reviewed. My hopes for this one are high, again mainly due to the comments it has received from fellow Brickpickers.

Theme

The Modular Building Series is a sub-theme of Creator and was introduced in 2007 and spans 9 sets at this moment. There are rumours that a Detective Agency will make its entry soon to be the 10th modular building. The prices of the buildings vary between  100 and 200 Euro. 10243-1 Parisian Restaurant has seen a price change for the low countries as said above, but for most other countries, it stays at the level of eg. 10218-1 Pet Shop and 10211-1 Grand Emporium.  The theme is very popular with AFOLs and even though they are not cheap, the popularity increases every day. There does seem to be a notable change in the line up for the MBS. If what is generally is expected is correct, two Modular Buildings will disappear at the same time with only one replacing them. If this is just a one-off or the intention is to make the assortment smaller, is still a guess for many.

Packaging

The Packaging is better designed compared to 10224-1 Town Hall. The background has a nice sky blue color with some real life house printed on it. The front also has the Creator series logo and the Expert badge on it that also was on the previous Modular. On the top right you can find how the back of the restaurant looks like. The front also shows us the height and width of the building. Comparing it to the Town Hall (50cm x 25,5cm), it does seem a bit small with its 30cm x 25 cm. That is 20 centimeter smaller and that does disappoint me slightly. With it having the second most pieces of all Modulars, I would have thought it to be larger. Then again, we still need to see what the actual build will be once finished and if it blends in with the rest of the Modulars I have on display. The back of the box  shows us on the left side the different floors. On the top we can see the different rooms. At first sight, it does look good. It has many interesting features and especially the kitchen area seems to be a very detailed room. On the bottom to the right you have a display with other modular houses. It has the 10232-1 Palace Cinema and more important, the 10224-1 Town Hall. I find this important as it seems the set will be retiring soon. It looks very large compared with the other modular buildings displayed and this may have a positive effect on the price of the Town Hall on the aftermarket. In all, I like the design of the box. With the bright color, it is very inviting and the Expert badge does give it something special. It is much more compact than others I have had in my hands so far, especially then of its big brother Town Hall. I think it is a good evolution, saving on packaging material and shipping costs.

Content

So after opening the box and pouring out the content on the table, you're left with something like this.

• 4 x # 1 bags
• 6 x # 2 bags
• 4 x # 3 bags
• 4 x # 4 bags
• 1 dark gray plate 16x8
• 1 ground plate light gray

I had expected more bags to be present in the box with that amount of pieces so again, somewhat disappointing. Not the wow feeling like with the Town Hall. Not scoring that well so far, but again, the medals are given at the finish line.

Build Experience

Build Part 1: Ground Floor

One thing that you can say about the first part. A lot of small pieces. I can imagine now how this is the second largest Modular Building Series set if you look at brick-count but small pieces are not always fun to build. Of course a building needs detail and that is what these small pieces are for. It takes usually longer to sort them too. The good thing about them is that you actually get quite a lot of extra pieces. I will add a picture of them later in the review.

The floors look much better than the other modular buildings I worked on so far apart from 71006-1 the Simpsons House, but technically that is not a Modular Building Series house. It's some work, but the tiles in the kitchen and the beautiful plank floor in the dining area give 10243-1 Parisian Restaurant an authentic feeling. The red carpet part is a great detail too and found in many restaurants of that kind.

I added the picture on the left to show what in my opinion is an error. It is the part that says Chez. Brilliant in my opinion but totally useless in this setup as you can't even see it when everything has been built around it (see picture on the right when finishing up part 1). Writing only chez  on the floor is the equivalent of writing At while the name of the place is At Albert (chez Albert) so I don't see the added value in this creation. I know designers sometimes want to put some fancy LEGO-brick-made lettering in their creations, but you shouldn't put something in to.... put something in! Preferred imo would be a mosaic with 1x1 alternating gray and dark blue stones. It's just a small detail, and in no way does it make this first part less beautiful than it is, but for me, it is simply something that has not been well thought.

The little black chains are such an excellent detail. And so are the lamps that are on the dining tables. It is a very special technique involving a flat  round tile with a hole in it that I have not seen before. The kitchen is very nice too, and will be discussed in part two of this build. Because you're working with so many small pieces, the duration of the build takes a little longer than usual. I'm an average builder. I don't build Lego to set a speed record.

Duration of the build: 53 minutes

Build Part 2: Ground Floor Finishing

Now we're getting there. Look at those beautiful green pieces you get in this part. This time not that many small pieces in it so I assume the build would go much smoother. This part is the finishing up of the ground floor. So far, 12243 made a fine impression. I am anxious to see now what it would give with the walls build.

Start the clock...

Looking at the front, you can see the immense detail. Some nice printed pieces like the name of the restaurant and menu card, no stickers at all so that's a big plus  (most of the modulars are stickerless). As said before, the little chains are a nice addition in combination with the colorful flowers. The plants on the right side are quite special too. I had not seen that leaf piece before. The  decorative ornaments next to the windows are not my favourite. I don't know what exactly bothers me about the front but it is simply too busy for me.

The back on the other hand is kept very simple and that is more how I like it. Here the eye-catcher is the blue trash container. Not only does it look good but it has various goodies on the inside. And like you find near many restaurants... a rat. The ivy is a good addition. The added flower brings a subtle color accent.

On the inside you have the dining area, with 2 tables and 4 chairs. The wine  cabinet is a creative and esthetically pleasing piece of furniture. Colors are alright. I find the dining area relatively small. In fact the entire depth of 10243 should be a few studs more. Two tables on the inside  of a Parisian Restaurant is too little. This is Paris, not Monaco where the weather is much better and people don't mind sitting outside.

Then there is my least favourite part of the entire build. The curtains... an absolute disaster. They kept on breaking (at least 10 times!) and then I put the pieces on wrong and... It was a catastrophe and I hope not to see this constructions again in future MBS.

Building the stair part was also not what it was supposed to be. It felt very fragile.

But thankfully, there is also the kitchen and when you look at that, you just nod and see it's fine! It holds so many details. I absolutely adored the dough roller they created, hanging next to the other kitchen utilities. The refrigerator with the printed (!) milk carton in it is simple but gorgeous. The dishes on the sink are a nice touch. The turkey and pie are nice pieces to have in your collection. The printed thermometer part is a nice add. You also receive 1 pot and a pan as cooking gear. And this of course al placed on the tiled blue and white floor. This is a very nice pearl and the designers did well on it.

The building of part 2 went very slowly and difficult. I had no real fun on it. It was even frustrating at times (curtains). The end result on the other hand is pretty nice. Duration of the build: 1 hour 34 frustrating minutes

Build Part 3: First Floor

Again a bunch of the green pieces. The rest of the colors are very standard. Some blue accent pieces. In all, nothing all too special.              

The front of the first floor is very nice. The windows have a good building technique. Just a shame that the arch piece used above the windows is just not wide enough. The 'crosses' on in the top white part are very good and innovative ideas. I appreciated a front terrace for the Town Hall as it  was a very nice building and sometimes, for certain occasions, the Mayor would want to speak to his people but in this setup, I don't see the added value. On the contrary, because of adding this, you make the room even smaller than it is. The back has a well worked out stairway. The door on the left is what you see in many city houses. You can't really call it a terrace but you can be outside. It's hard to find real outstanding points in this. It is very plain and combined with the ground floor, it works out well for me.

The inside of the studio is simple but well worked out. You have the kitchenette at  your right with plenty of  space to put in utensils. A dining area with one seat. On the right you have the leather chair. Too bad the seating area is light gray. I would have made it a darker sand color or the same as the rest of chair, otherwise great minibuild. There is a fire-place, again nothing to fancy but certainly an asset to the studio. My absolute favorite is the bed. It's not particularly difficult to construct. It folds up into the wall. Never saw one of those beds except for in the movies but it's ubercool. The underside is made of some sort of new piece making the bed entire smooth when clapped in the wall. The doors are somewhat weird. They are not in a straight line with the walls, but instead are more to the inside them making the available room even smaller. As said, I would have  replaced the front balcony door with another series of windows. There is no need for 2 terraces in a small studio like this. This part was a more fun part to build. At least you had the feeling of advancing. Duration of the build: 1 hour 10 minutes

Build Part 4: The Roof

Again the green bricks and addition now the dark blue ones for the roof. Another great color which I look forwards to of seeing built. They seem to match quite well with the green ones.

The build so far has not been such a success and I was hoping that the roof would make it fun... and it actually did. The front of the roof is absolutely stunning. It shows the beautiful color combination with the white and gray. The ornaments are a piece of beauty and everything seems to match perfectly.  The ridge beneath the ornaments are very special too. Both ornaments and ridge will be shown in detail in the building techniques section.Most of the other modulars so far have had a flat roof and this is a nice exception. I love how they played with the three dimensional roof tiles. Without any doubt, 102431-1 has the most beautiful roof I have seen in any modular thus far.

Over to the back, you can see the roof constructed in the same way as the front, with 3 windows in them and the flowers beneath. To the right you have the door and a plant in a special red pot. The pieces used here are pretty new and they work out well for this purpose. The chimneys are a welcome addition too. I have not seen them in Town Hall or Grand Emporium.

Because of the rather special construction of the roof, it does not open up like other MBS where you can just take the entire roof off. Instead you can tilt the backside of the roof, it is attached with hinges, to gain access to the attic chamber. The attic chamber itself is a studio for an artist. You have 2 paintings, an easel, and a color palette. It has a nice old-fashioned stove too. The door is somewhat weirdly placed. You can't take off the part above the door so it's difficult to make your minifigures 'enter' the studio. In all, it does look good for what it is meant to be.

I would also like to comment on the paintings. Before I bought the 10243-1 Parisian Restaurant, I looked at a review about it (Brickshow) and the guy commented about the paintings, that the painter really was not good at it because it were all squares. Well, just to point out, this way of painting is called Neoclassicism and one of the great painters of that style is Pieter Cornelius Mondrian. One of his paintings got really known because of the former L'oréal logo which I am sure you will recognize if you look at the actual painting at the left.

This has entire nothing to do with LEGO of course, but I simply needed to put this in it because of the comment of a collegue reviewer.

Wether it is nice or, not I leave in the middle. What is important, is that even a bunch of squares can be a work of art.

Duration of the build: 57 minutes

Building Techniques

The most interesting building techniques are how the ridge on the roof is constructed and how the ornaments above the ridge are done. The ridge is really a piece of innovative thinking. No new pieces were used for it and it was constructed with Indian feathers. I don't know if the color has been used before but the end result is something not many could have constructed. Perhaps it would have een been better if the feather bricks were the same sort of blue used in the roof, but perhaps that would be overdoing it. It was the most interesting part of the build and I could surely think of using it in one of my own builds later on. Thumbs up for the designers.

The ornament used in the roof is also something really special. Here, there is the introduction of the sea shell, the white croissant, the mini slope and the short wheel arch. All relatively new pieces and they blend very well. At the left, you see half an ornament constructed. This building technique is less impressive than the ridge because of the newer pieces used, but the end-result is something wow. In fact, the entire roof area was of very high quality. This type of ornaments can be used easily in other builds too. The white croissant could have been used in the Town Hall too but I assume the reason why it has not been, is because it simply had not been designed yet. Nothing keeps you from replacing the current normal colored one with a pair of these. Only sad part is, there are only 4 included with the 10241-1 Parisian Restaurant. Overall again a very good job of the designers!

Minifigures

The minifigures all have the traditional yellow heads. A plus for me since I grew up knowing nothing else. All the pants are generic pieces that can be found in plenty of other sets. We have 2 females and 3 males.

The Scooter Woman: For this torso, again there is worked with the black areas and lines, creating somewhat a more curved body for the female. The black and blue combo works well. It has pretty good detail. Nice necklace and the opened up shirt at the top. Has back printing but nothing all too special. Can found in 11 other sets besides this one. The hair with pigtail is not such a common one so a compliment to every inventory.

The Artist: This Yoko Ono type of woman has a very nice torso. It is my favourite of this bunch of minifigures. It actually is a kimono with some good details. Some nice back printing too with the small dragon. It has been in 3 other sets besides this one. The wig has been around since 2006 and has been in 20 sets apart from 10243. That can be considered as an uncommon one.

Ring Guy: Has a fairly uncommon torso. I thought the Mayor of Town Hall had the same but not sure. I like it a lot. The striping, the little pen in the pocket. Very great detail and back printed. Always nice to add one of those to the inventory. The wig is actually a Luke Skywalker one so relatively rare in other-then-Star Wars-sets. The ring he's holding is a very nice detail!

The Chef: Has been around since 2001. Time for an update.

The Waiter: The torso has been around since 2006 and has been in 17 other sets. It doesn't seem to be a regular waiter's uniform but it is due for some updating too. The dark brown wig is very common. His accessory, the shield with the bottle on, and how he has to hold it just seems awkward.

Unique Pieces

I must say there have been some very interesting pieces in this set. I took some pictures of the ones that stood out for me.               

• 9 pieces are strictly unique to this set. Note that they are all from  2014.
• 4 pieces are available in 1 other set besides 10225-1 Town Hall.
• 25 pieces are available in this set and 5 or less other sets.

Also notable is that there are 34 1x3 and 26 1x8 olive-green bricks present exclusive to this set. For a complete overview of the pieces, you can take a look at the Brickset inventory.

Value For Money

 

 

With a price of 159.99€ (NL,BE) or 159.99$ it hovers around the normal prices of a modular set. What you should keep in mind is that it has a lot of small pieces and that is why the Price/gram for this one is less interesting than 10224-1 Town Hall. The total pieces of set 10243-1 is 2469 while it weighs 2610 grams.

• Price/Piece comes to 6.44c/piece
• Price/Gram comes to 6.09c/gram

If you would look at the price/piece you would say it's great value, but with the price/gram included, it seems a lot less. Of course it remains a good value, but it simply shows you can't always judge good value by the price/piece scale. Very few reductions have been done on the 10243 so far so with a reduction of 10-15% on MSRP, I would consider this a good buy.

(DIS)Play

For display in a single setup, it looks good. It has nice colors, A great roof and some eye-catchers. For display in a multiple set-up it is too small imo. Not all houses should be big ones, but it seems tiny next to the Town Hall and the roof part is about the same height as Grand Emporium without the bill boards. The 10218-1 Pet Shop is even smaller, but there you have the full width used and it's deeper too then 10243-1. It is probably my biggest issue I have with this set. The size.

As for play set. The same goes. It are very small rooms to play with and agreed, I have larger fingers, but even for smaller hands, the attic or studio will be difficult to play with. Of course the MBS are not designed as play set but it would have helped should the building have been deeper and taken the entire width.

Growth Potential

Like all Modular Building Series sets, this one will undoubtedly do well in the secondary market too. It is too early to tell since it has been released in January 2014. It does seem to sell rather well when I look at the Brickpicker forum. I estimate that it will do slightly better a year after EOL then 10211-1 Grand Emporium . TLC is in the middle of changing the MBS rules of EOL, so I think that will be the deciding factor of 10243-1's success.

I hope you enjoyed reading this review as much as I have writing it and building the set. Comments are always welcome!

Preview of 31026-1 Bike Shop & Cafe

It is with mixed feelings that I start the review about this set.  The set is a fairly new set (May 2014) and it's a part of the Creator series. It would fit in perfectly with a City setup and there is a possibility to use the parts for a MOC.  The MSRP is 79.99€ in Europe($89.99 in the US) and has 1023 pieces. The mixed feelings come from the fact that when I choose sets to review, I choose them on basis of display ability.  At first sight, it does not look bad, but it seems tiny compared to the Modular building series.  It is only because of a significant price cut (52€/piece), that I bought 2 sets of the 31026-1 Bike Shop & Cafe.  This set is a part of the 3-in-1 type of creator sets so manuals for 3 different builds are included.

Theme

The Creator theme is a very vast collection of different types of builds.  It ranges from creatures to vehicles and buildings.  They are in general more detailed than City Sets and therefore also suited for AFOL's and MOC.  The sets were meant to be without minifigures in the beginning but when the theme evolved, some sets were released with minifigures and this included the 31026-1, which has 3 of them. The difficulty for building can be rated from very easy to relatively difficult.

Packaging

The packaging is simple. You have the LEGO Creator logo on it.  Then a picture of the street where you can see a scene with the 2 buildings and minifigures in action.  Below that you have the 2 other pictures of the sets you can build.  Actually the scene does remind a lot of what you can find on City sets. The back of the set shows the back of the buildings with the interior and once more, the 2 other setups with larger pictures.

Content

In the box, we can find 8 separate bags, 2 light gray plates and a bag containing the manuals. The bags are not numbered as with other sets due to its 3-in-1 nature.  I can't say I have the "wow" feeling when I look at these bags. The set is a 1k+ pieces one so I had expected more of it for some reason.

Build Experience

You can see on the picture above that 31026-1 Bike Shop & Cafe has a lot of different colors, especially the dark red and light blue which  are very special to have as building accents.  In terms of color variety it did impress me.  Once you sort the lot, you realize you do have quite a nice variety of useful building bricks.

Build Part 1: The Bike Shop

It's tiny! Is something you would say when you start building the Bike Shop. Agreed, it can not be the same as building 10224-1 The Town Hall, but it looks surprisingly well.  The ground floor has the beautiful blue walls and also the funky green slopes above the big window. The window arches are beautifully done and the grooves in the first floor walls combined with the gray accents really turned out well!  The locking mechanism feels sturdy.

There are some nice interior details.  For one  you have the kitchenette on the first floor. Very well done.  I liked the golden tap.  So absolutely vintage.  It resembles somewhat the kitchen of my first studio.  On the roof, which can be reached by ladders and a hatch, there is a little terrace with a barbecue set. Typical for small urban houses. It is my favorite part of the structure. In general, the Bike Shop part made a good impression with its build, pieces and techniques.  Because of the small size of this structure, the building goes relatively easy.

There were some issues with stability in the beginning, I broke a wall down when building, but in all, it was pleasant to build. It would fit well in a LEGO City setup folded out.  For use in a Modular Building Series, it is too small in combination with the existing buildings.  It is a relatively easy build so the younger ones will be able to have fun building this too.

Duration of the build: 54 minutes

Build Part 2: The Car

It is nothing really special this car.  It has a pair of rims  that I have not seen before.  The hood is quite nicely done with the different elevations but for the rest, it is an ordinary small yellow car.

Duration of the build: 7 minutes

Build Part 3: The Café

The Cafe seems to be larger than the Bike Shop.  The ground floor is the café.  The first floor holds a relax area and the roof has a nice botanic garden.  On the outside there is a small terrace to enjoy a cup of espresso. When you look at the outside, you see the colors dark red, sand brown and blue.  I like all 3 colors and the sand brown does go well with both the blue and the red.  Combining all three colors in the building is daring and does not work for me.  When the building is clapped out (in play-mode), it would look good in a City setup.  The curtains look pretty good from the outside. You can see a construction for a lamp and espresso-machine which are both well designed.

Duration of the build: 51 minutes I see this building especially as a showcase for colors and building techniques.  It shows you some ways to decorate windows, and how  to break up walls to give them some life.  It also shows how to construct certain items, like a workbench or a espresso-machine.

 Important also is that the café has 11 windows and 3 doors and it is about the same for the Bike Shop.

 Windows and doors are expensive if you have to buy them in pieces from s@h or Bricklink which certainly adds value to this set. In all, I like the building experience of this set. It is over 1000 pieces but it builds relatively fast.

Building Techniques

I think the entire set is a building technique at itself. Plenty of things are demonstrated

• Arches above windows
• Placement of windows next to doors
• Locking mechanism
• Combining windows
• Decorating outer walls
• Roof decoration
• Special items
• Etc...

This set has some great building techniques. Definitely feel like I learned something while building this.

Minifigures

The Suited Guy: The head is released in 2014 and already can be found in 4 different sets.It is pretty common as is the rest of this body. The torso dates from 2006 even and has appeared in 18 sets so far.  I am a bit disappointed that they have not yet updates this torso to have back printing.  The pants for Suited Guy and the rest of the minifigures are all very common unpainted ones.

Leisure Girl: Leisure girls hair is a new mold from 2014  and is unique to this set so far... but undoubtedly it will turn up in City sets to follow since it worked out well. She has a funny torso.  The lines drawn give her a more female look but kind of a superhero-female look. Nice abs!  The back has some printing too, also with the lines and black area.  I wonder if these are just the pockets of the jacket she's wearing.  Again a lost opportunity to add some more value to this new minifigure by adding some printing on the pants or perhaps even with a different color.

Bike Shop Employee: Mediocre minifigure. Don't have anything for or against it. If you look at these minifigures and compare them with the ones from the modular building series, you will find them disappointing.  The uniqueness and quantity.  It is hard to rate this section.  Creator series are not focused on minifigures so in essence, 3 minifigures is very good compared  to other sets of its kind.  But on the other hand, if you look at the price, you would probably have expected some more.

Unique Pieces

The amount of 'nice' pieces in this set was pretty good for a set of this size.  It is not overwhelming but certainly approved what I found.

• 3 pieces are strictly unique to this set.
• 1 piece is available in 1 other set besides Bike Shop & Cafe
• 18 pieces are available in this set and 5 or less other sets.

Some printed pieces like the calculator, the screen and bank notes are always nice.  There are no stickers in this set.  My favourite part is the gold tap.  The special green slope is found in other sets too, but it is the first appearance in a Creator set.  The wheels and the orange translucent cap, I just chose because I liked them, nothing really special about them. For a complete overview, you can check out Brickset.

Value For the Money

With a price of 79.99€ or $89.99 it is an expensive set for the Creator series but still acceptable.  It is also one of the larger Creator sets.  The price has not fluctuated yet but as seen it can be bought for around 60€ at this moment.  Already a nice drop from MSRP. The total pieces of this set is 1023 while it weighs 1700 grams.

• Price/Piece comes to 7.82c/piece
• Price/Gram comes to 4.71c/gram

Here  we have a nice difference between the Price/Piece and the Price/Gram.  The manual comes in triple so it adds to the weight of the set.  It is not a bad value when you look at the contents.  

Plenty of windows and doors and some good colors.

Display

I don't think there is much to display.  Sure, it are both nice buildings, but they are too small to put them in a lineup with buildings from the Modular Building Series.  Perhaps if you take a few of 31026-1 to even out the difference in pieces, you might make something of it.  The 10224-1 Town Hall has about 2700 pieces compared to the about 1000 pieces of 31026-1.  So add 1,5 more of them to this and you could have a building that could stand well in this street. However, if you want to give your kid a nice extension to their City village, this is the item to get. If you fold out the buildings, you get a very nice length of buildings. And who knows, you might learn something when you help them build it. It has SOME minifigures and a very nice array of bricks so fun guaranteed.

The price between 60 and 70€makes it a  good holiday gift buy.

Growth Potential:

I don't believe this has that much growth potential.  It is a good set, but just not for investing.  I think everybody should have one, but none will pay you "top dollar" to get one.  I also think there will be other similar sets coming out in the next few years and they will be equally or better priced. I think 31026-1 was marketed wrong.

This is not a real Creator set, nor is it a Modular Building Series.  It is also not a City set or anything else.  Perhaps it can go to 120% of its MSRP but it is doubtful.

I hope you enjoyed reading this review as much as I have writing it and building the set. Comments are always welcome!