Review: 31036 Toy and Grocery Shop
Posted by Huw,
In the second of his reviews of this year's Creator sets, Shib takes a look at 31036 Toy and Grocery Shop:
For quite some time now, LEGO have been putting out houses under the 3-in-1 Creator line, so following on from last year's 31026 Bike Shop & Cafe we have a smaller offering into a line of 3-in-1 shops. The Toy and Grocery Shop is nearly half the cost but also under half the piece count, and I assume this is to cater similar set content to different budgets, but how does that price point effect what the buyer gets?
Box/Instructions
The box art is very standard on the front, showing the main build of the set in all its glory, with the alternate builds depicted smaller along with the typical yellow band and Creator 3-in-1 logos. To be honest the front isn't all that eye catching or appealing to me personally, but the back of the box has a much nicer graphic.
LEGO have cleverly put together a small town layout, made up of the three possible builds, which acts as a play suggestion, incentive to buy multiple sets and to my ey,e cleverly sets up parallels with classic town plan type sets – I can imagine parents feeling a slight wave of nostalgia when looking at the pictures and deciding what to buy their children.
Parts
Just from looking at the box I could tell there would be a lot in here I would like. The colour theme is quite satisfying, I think sand green pairs really nicely with earth blue to create something that looks quite grounded and nicely representative of real buildings, while still being interesting and colourful enough to look interesting and unique.
The majority of the parts included are fairly easy to come by, but this does appear to currently be the only set to contain the 1x5x4 brick with inverted bow in earth blue, but I would imagine that will slowly make it's way into other sets too. Personally I'd have liked to have seen a bit more earth blue and sand green, but the parts included are all pretty useful.
Minifigures
The set comes with two minifigures that are both fairly generic and made of parts found in multiple Creator/City lines. The female minifigure's head is the rarest minifigure part, but it's such a generic print that it will likely be used a lot more in the future. It does also feature a second print, but the scared expression doesn't really fit this set very well.
I do like the torso of the male minifigure, it's not particularly hard to find but the classic spaceman featured is a nice little reference which I'm sure a lot of LEGO fans will appreciate.
The Post Office
The Post office is a compact little build, which opens out on hinges to allow for a couple of display possibilities and additional play features. I actually prefer it displayed opened out, this makes it look a bigger build and disguises some of the odd colours in the wall that are a result of some of the internal details.
The building also seems to have an observation deck. I can't say I've ever seen a post office with an observation deck in real life, but obviously this post office is situated in an area of outstanding natural beauty. I do quite like how the sign has been achieved very simply with a printed letter piece, avoiding the need for any stickers or new prints, but it's a shame that we don't have a postal worker to go with the set, especially as such a torso design already exists, but as this is a secondary build, it's understandable.
There are a couple of nice details for such a small building. I really like the little brick-built bird, which I have taken to be a seagull as it has cheekily stolen a letter. Brick-built birds are pretty common among the Creator line, but it's still nice to see them used to add a bit of additional character in the builds that need it. There is also an odd little detail on the inside, which at first I thought was meant to be a light, but on reflection, because of it's positioning over the counter I came to the conclusion that it's a CCTV camera – looks like this business is prepared for all the criminals that have been a scourge to LEGO City for so long!
I was also surprisingly pleased with the lamp design, having built all the winter village sets I was surprised to find yet another possible way to build lamp posts, I know the lack of consistency annoys some people but I like seeing how the same thing can be approached and achieved in a variety of different ways.
The News Stand
Looking over this build I couldn't help but feel that the colour restrictions really let it down, having a very muddled finish with the colours being a little muddled on some walls. Much like the post office, I felt that it looks a lot better opened out to display two building façades next to one another, but even then it doesn't look very impressive.
This definitely felt the weakest of the three builds, in fact I find little really good to say about it, I will concede that it's got easy playability for children, but it offers little more than just being a setting for children to set their play in, and even for that it's small and pretty uninteresting. It could be useful for someone with a big city layout, wanting to add some kiosk businesses around, but in all honesty I think it would be fairly easy to put together something more appropriate from a cheaper parts pack.
I do quite like the little plant like detail on the inside, but the fact that at a glance I can't come up with an obvious explanation as to what it is, shows that it's not the best detail.
The Toy and Grocery Shop
Saving the best to last, we move onto the Toy and Grocery shop. This build is noticeably bigger than the other two and unsurprisingly makes best use of the available parts. While the other two I felt really looked best open, this looks great both open and closed. The designer has even taken into account for the balcony, including a couple of plates that fold out further to create a barrier all the way round while closed.
As a single building it has enough scale to stand out nicely on a shelf, but it would definitely be dwarfed by any Modulars. I also think that when closed it looks a lot more in line with 31026: Bike Shop & Cafe – it's obviously not as substantial in size but works nicely with them to start setting up the mix of buildings that could make a nice town. However when opened up and set as two buildings, it really doesn't have the depth to stand up next to the Bike Shop & Cafe.
There are a lot of interesting little details that add a lot of interest to this build, my personal favourite being a vending machine. It does look a little odd being built into the wall, but the fact that it opens for a brick-built can of pop (or soda) to be retrieved by the minifigures. Out the front of the toy shop is a gum ball machine, with a little stack of studs inside to represent the gumballs, a printed version of the specialised ice cream part (part number 625401) would probably give a better finish, but I appreciate that would have required a new printing system.
I'm also quite fond of the little robot toy in the toy shop, it has a bit of a resemblance to a certain Pixar robot that we will be getting as an Ideas set in the future. The choice of a train and a robot does seem like it might be a bit of a reference to the Winter Village Toy Shop as it seems unlikely to just be a coincidence, but could be explained by the difficulty in building different minifigure scale toys.
The one detail I didn't like was the yellow scooter, the way it's built is quite fragile, the front kept falling off as I was trying to position it, and the wheels don't turn, I'd imagine most kids would choose a LEGO skateboard over this scooter, so it seemed a bit surplus to requirements. I felt that the letters randomly on the floor of the bedroom didn't add anything, as these letter pieces aren't even open it seems an odd place for someone to have just dropped them.
Overall opinion
This set is a real mixed bag in my opinion: while the main build is good, the news stand came across as being a filler design. While it's a reasonable set it does suffer for its scale, if it had been done more to the same scale as 31026: Bike Shop & Cafe then I think LEGO would have a nice lower price point version of the Modular line, but as it is, this set doesn't add to that idea.
What I think would possibly have been a better solution would be to look at including some shops in the City theme, which is often criticised for its lack of much beyond police, criminals and fire fighters. Under the City line this could be done as three separate, fully formed sets (with two being a much lower price point by the amount of parts not used) to set up a shopping/everyday life sub-theme.
The other major criticism I have is that the set would have been made far more complete by including just one more figure. With the two included it seems that having two shops in the main build leaves the shops either with no customers or no shopkeepers. By adding a single minifigure would mean the boy minifigure could be looking in the toyshop, with a shopkeeper showing him the toys while the other shop is still attended by a second minifigure.
I suspect that LEGO were working on the assumption that most children getting a set like this would likely already have a few minifigures that would join those in this set, but I think that's a little bit of a cop-out and so leaves the set feeling a little incomplete as a full playset.
At £34.99, this feels a little pricey for what you get – if I was looking for a couple of shops I'd probably choose to spend a little more to get set 31026 Bike Shop & Cafe, however it is nice to see that LEGO are catering some of the less common subject matter to a wider range of price points, and I can imagine this set being the sort of set that future adult LEGO fans can look back on fondly.
Ultimately it's not a set I would recommend for adult collectors but for a child's playset, it's really satisfying to see the more everyday side of life represented and I would almost certainly consider it as a good gift for any children I need to buy birthday presents for.
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18 comments on this article
I think the news stand is the best build :) It looks more realistic to real news stands out there and more accurate than the other builds. Thats my opinion ;o)
To me, this one goes on the books as one of the ugliest sets I've ever seen
I am loving these minifig-esque Creator sets. I hope they continue to put out more. While I keep all of my Modulars on a shelf, these sets are great actual 'buildings' I can play with the rest of my City sets. For years we've asked (at least I have) for buildings for our casual cities other than the usual fire station and police station. I can't wait to see what they come out with next.
To me, the newsstand stands out as better than the post office if not better than the toy and grocery shop. It certainly doesn't lack detail, and I particularly enjoy the roof detail, reminiscent of a classical train station style news stand.
I'm not particularly fond of either model, but this set is a great parts pack when you're into Modular buildings. So it's forgiven.
For the scooter, I would replace the two hinges holding the wheels with one double/sided hinged piece
I also much prefer the news stand. It's the only build of the three that doesn't look awkward near the bike shop & cafe (31026).
I bought 2 of this only for the pats to build my own building with.
I've only ever built the main set, with these Creator sets it seems a waste not to use all of the pieces.
I figured the letters on the floor were supposed to look like they were delivered through the door?
The review doesn't show it with the Bike Shop & Cafe, which is a shame, it's like reviewing a Modular and not showing it compared to other Modulars.
I'm really hoping they continue these sets for people who don't have the time, money or space for proper modulars. Although it's a shame that because of the hinge pieces these buildings don't sit flush like they should.
The main model is a really nice, if weird, building. The scooter is a fragile mess, the folding bridge is aesthetically messed up, and the color scheme works... it's just outright bizarre. But it's pretty darn cool, and I would display it with other Creator houses with no qualms. Particularly the Beach Hut, which is actually a very similar set if you compare the two.
The alternate models.... yeah, I think we're all better off NOT building those.
Of these 3 builds I think the main one is the worst... There's just something weird about how It looks. I prefer much more the other 2, especially news kiosk. Too bad the color scheme and "cityness" doesn't really match my theme. But if It was less pricy I would definitely consider getting this set.
Loving the little WALL-E toy in the toy shop!
Out of everything seen here, I like the wee robot that looks like it could be Wall-E!
Agree with what thomsedavi said ^ ^
I assume LEGO won't put a shop into its regular City because it's not exciting enough. The target market of younger kids probably doesn't have the same appreciation for creating a realistic neighborhood, preferring burglars and fires instead. It seems the only way LEGO will put a shop in the City theme is if it's also heavy on trucks or other vehicles (like Town Square or the Marina). I appreciate that they at least try to do it separately with these Creator sets, even if the results aren't quite what we'd hope for.
I like the look of each of the builds but it's just SOOOO small. Looking at the images I assumed it was a roughly $25 set, and thought that was just okay, kinda underwhelming but not expensive. Then I saw it was $40! Yikes, even if by price per piece it's a reasonable deal, it doesn't look it at all.
Remember that when you're little things seem bigger. I had a quarry set from the 70s when I was probably 6. I thought it was the coolest thing ever and positively gigantic. Looking at it now I realize it was my imagination that was gigantic!
I like the look of it, the colors, but the buildings do seem small, more like mini shops I guess, which has its appeal too. If I find this set on sale, I'll probably get it for parts to create something more substantial. Thanks for the review.