Very nice set!

Pretty good, but a bit too modern! I prefer the Town Centre I've got from 1972 (355-1)

Kicking myself for peeling the stickers off this as a kid. Need to rebuild it eventually and order a replacement sheet (most likely a repro sadly)

Did this set give you a delorean and Marty and Doc as well?

Plus the ‘kid’ on the box looks like the former mayor of Rotterdam Aboutaleb

$250 seems cheap for this today. And looking at BL sales data,only one sold at that price so I wonder what damage or issues that one had. Current ones are significantly higher prices.

@AustinPowers said:
" @Modeltrainman said:
" @Yooha said:
"So, that man from '08 is the same person as the boy from '58?"

I think it might be Kjeld Kirk Kristensen, yes. He was on the box in '58."
It IS him.
I mean, it says so right on the box.
Doesn't anyone look at the image? "

This is brickset 2025, not brickset 2015.

A modern classic, of course. I do wonder what a set with a similar concept would be like today... probably double the part count, for a start.

the disjointed floating text scattered around the box art sure was... a choice. "graphic design is my passion"-ass box

Had to take a second look at that picture. Thought I saw Dennis Taylor

@yap said:
"It was a time where we had STAMP (Sticker Across Multiple Parts).
There are several in this set.
The worst is the Octan sign on top of the Service Station."

Weren't these ones all done so that the piece they join together forms essentially a big part that can be removed and treated as a distinct part - so the sign, and the cinema boards being a large tile/plate combination that is easily removed as a piece. In contrast to old STAMPs where sometimes they were applied to parts that would naturally need to be taken apart when disassembling a build.

@Crux said:
"Forget Will Ferrell, meet the real (former) President Business of Lego.

There is a non-zero chance that those builds are all solidly Kragled stuck."

And not a Piece of Resistance in sight...

As I recall this was EXTREMELY limited in availability and part of an era of very thin cardboard boxes for the size. I saw the set once at Toys R Us, and then never again. Sadly, I missed it, but I had other priorities in 2008.

Shame they couldn't include some baseplates as implied by the photo and the 96 studs across the cover. More a City than Advanced set with the cinema facade just showed the need for individual Creator Expert buildings.

@yap said:
"It was a time where we had STAMP (Sticker Across Multiple Parts).
There are several in this set.
The worst is the Octan sign on top of the Service Station."

I just looked through the Instructions and oh my goodness, those are awful! I wouldn't say the worst is the Octan Sign, that's at least a simple solid structure, but the C I N E M A sign, I mean, that thing feels like it unnecessarily covers the other pieces. The marquees make sense and you still have the plates underneath to keep them solid, but then the movie screen, yeah, that's not good either, and it appears a lot more flimsy with just a sticker holding the two pieces of the screen together.
We may live in an era where patterns are broken up with a bunch of spaces, but at least we aren't dealing with sub-assemblies that can never be taken apart for the joy of rebuilding or making use of the parts in our own creations.

Two sets like that in a row! Wow!

@CCC said:
" @AustinPowers said:
" @Modeltrainman said:
" @Yooha said:
"So, that man from '08 is the same person as the boy from '58?"

I think it might be Kjeld Kirk Kristensen, yes. He was on the box in '58."
It IS him.
I mean, it says so right on the box.
Doesn't anyone look at the image? "

This is brickset 2025, not brickset 2015."
Sorry, I don't get that joke.

My brother had this set! I wanted it so bad back in 2008... but all was made well when I got Medieval Market Village the next year.

@yap said:
"It was a time where we had STAMP (Sticker Across Multiple Parts).
There are several in this set.
The worst is the Octan sign on top of the Service Station."

Whoah - never realized this set had that many.

Also, it's technically not that true that this was still common in 2008. The entire thing got silently abandoned around 2010-2012-ish, and as far as I remember, was already vastly reduced by 2008.

The worst era of STAMPs was probably the 70s, where TLG simply didn't care at all if stickers got destroyed once used (some club magazines even openly promoted painting bricks).
The 90s was bad as well (at least for Town, Trains and Belville), where stickers locked entire sub-assemblies together.

For most themes in the late 90s and early 2000s, stickers were vastly replaced by prints, thus significantly reducing the likelihood of STAMPs (though they were still present).
The print craze of those years began stopping in 2004 due to costs and - people actually complaining of parts not being "reusable"/"single-purpose parts" (kind of the opposite to what's currently the case).

So, yes there were a lot of stickers in those years, but I don't recall ever seeing such a STAMP fest as this from that time...

@AustinPowers said:
" @CCC said:
" @AustinPowers said:
" @Modeltrainman said:
" @Yooha said:
"So, that man from '08 is the same person as the boy from '58?"

I think it might be Kjeld Kirk Kristensen, yes. He was on the box in '58."
It IS him.
I mean, it says so right on the box.
Doesn't anyone look at the image? "

This is brickset 2025, not brickset 2015."
Sorry, I don't get that joke. "

Reading is soooooo 1958....

Who is the guy on the box?

@AustinPowers said:
" @Modeltrainman said:
" @Yooha said:
"So, that man from '08 is the same person as the boy from '58?"

I think it might be Kjeld Kirk Kristensen, yes. He was on the box in '58."
It IS him.
I mean, it says so right on the box.
Doesn't anyone look at the image? "

The small letters on the box are not readable to me.

@Trasky said:
"Kicking myself for peeling the stickers off this as a kid. Need to rebuild it eventually and order a replacement sheet (most likely a repro sadly)"

Where does one obtain reproduction sticker sheets? I would totally buy some sheets for certain sets.

@PurpleDave said:
" @Binnekamp:
Well, at least one other person knows their lore. Yup, grandson of the founder, appearing on both set boxes. So back in 2009, I think, a copy of this ended up in the charity auction at Brickworld Chicago. Somehow, Brickworld co-founder Adam Reed Tucker wound up in a bidding war over this, and was being pressured to place just a ridiculously astronomical bid for the set. He agreed, on the condition that the winner got to build the set with Kjeld. And of course nobody had the funds to challenge that bid, so he won.

In the end, though, all he really got was an autograph on what then ended up being an open copy of the set, and to pose for a photo op, looking like the two of them were about to start building the set. Kjeld may have attached a few pieces to each other (hard to remember), but I’m sure he had a flight to catch, because he didn’t stick around long enough for them to actually complete the build. But back in those days, he’d show up to these big conventions, walk the floor for a couple hours at most, and then take off just as fast as he’d arrived. He did the same thing (excluding the charity auction) at the Galidor Premiere Party in Manhattan during NYTF 2002, but he was still running the entire company at that time. I think during the BWC appearance he may have been showing his successor around.

@Atuin:
At least one person has pointed out at least one set with an alt build included in the printed instructions that required you to remove all the stickers you’d applied for the main build. I think that wins the chump prize in this contest."

Wow, wow, wow...
instructions telling you to remove stickers... that's really harsh!

I really regret not getting this set because it was a nice set, good piece / price ratio and a good legacy set / photo with a Kristensen! Unfortunately I had no room living in Japan and buying castle, SW, and Mars Mission.

Nice story about the bidding also.

@yap said:
"It was a time where we had STAMP (Sticker Across Multiple Parts).
There are several in this set.
The worst is the Octan sign on top of the Service Station."

In another age, when a darker power ruled these lands

@BlackFalconBirdman said:
" @PurpleDave said:
" @Binnekamp:
Well, at least one other person knows their lore. Yup, grandson of the founder, appearing on both set boxes. So back in 2009, I think, a copy of this ended up in the charity auction at Brickworld Chicago. Somehow, Brickworld co-founder Adam Reed Tucker wound up in a bidding war over this, and was being pressured to place just a ridiculously astronomical bid for the set. He agreed, on the condition that the winner got to build the set with Kjeld. And of course nobody had the funds to challenge that bid, so he won.

In the end, though, all he really got was an autograph on what then ended up being an open copy of the set, and to pose for a photo op, looking like the two of them were about to start building the set. Kjeld may have attached a few pieces to each other (hard to remember), but I’m sure he had a flight to catch, because he didn’t stick around long enough for them to actually complete the build. But back in those days, he’d show up to these big conventions, walk the floor for a couple hours at most, and then take off just as fast as he’d arrived. He did the same thing (excluding the charity auction) at the Galidor Premiere Party in Manhattan during NYTF 2002, but he was still running the entire company at that time. I think during the BWC appearance he may have been showing his successor around.

@Atuin:
At least one person has pointed out at least one set with an alt build included in the printed instructions that required you to remove all the stickers you’d applied for the main build. I think that wins the chump prize in this contest."

Wow, wow, wow...
instructions telling you to remove stickers... that's really harsh!

I really regret not getting this set because it was a nice set, good piece / price ratio and a good legacy set / photo with a Kristensen! Unfortunately I had no room living in Japan and buying castle, SW, and Mars Mission.

Nice story about the bidding also."

71485: the B-build wants you to add eyes to the canopy. The A-build and C-build want you to remove those eyes.

This is a thing that should not be.

@Librarian1976 said:
"Where does one obtain reproduction sticker sheets? I would totally buy some sheets for certain sets."

Haven’t bought from their site but I’ve heard of BrickStickerShop before. Not aware of any other places

This , is how you do a ~2000 piece City set, 60380 Downtown was good too.

60271 Main Square or 60473 The City Tower are just much worse imo.

I remember seeing this set in Zeller's waaay back then...and few short years short years before it got replaced by a Target store...strange days...:| (:))

@Crux said:
"71485: the B-build wants you to add eyes to the canopy. The A-build and C-build want you to remove those eyes.

This is a thing that should not be."

It would be cool if Lego would use something like static clings instead of stickers for stuff like that. Could even be STAMPs. Removable and reusable, and durable enough to do so.

Probably not a good idea for typical display sets (those should only have prints anyway.....), but for play sets that would be great...

Man I wanted this one so badly as a kid. There is just something so charming about the simplicity of this set

@AustinPowers said:
" @Modeltrainman said:
" @Yooha said:
"So, that man from '08 is the same person as the boy from '58?"

I think it might be Kjeld Kirk Kristensen, yes. He was on the box in '58."
It IS him.
I mean, it says so right on the box.
Doesn't anyone look at the image? "

I didn't notice text when I glanced at it.

@WizardOfOss said:
"It would be cool if Lego would use something like static clings instead of stickers for stuff like that. Could even be STAMPs. Removable and reusable, and durable enough to do so."

Well, it could be worse. It could be a build-critical print like eyes, and a chamois with a bottle of Brasso if you want to build the alt model.

I don’t have that problem. Since I built this and added it to my town it’s never been apart.

@PurpleDave said:
" @WizardOfOss said:
"It would be cool if Lego would use something like static clings instead of stickers for stuff like that. Could even be STAMPs. Removable and reusable, and durable enough to do so."

Well, it could be worse. It could be a build-critical print like eyes, and a chamois with a bottle of Brasso if you want to build the alt model."

Or the other option is just they could have included two canopies, although I guess that would leave you with an awkward extra lying around no matter which build you make.

I'm shocked this is only going for $250 now. That's not a bad deal at all, especially compared to other popular sets around that time like Cafe Corner, Green Grocer, fantasy era Castle, the old carousel set, etc. I know this set isn't quite as popular as those but I thought it was fairly sought after and might be worth several hundred dollars at this point.

@Halex16 said:
" @Librarian1976 said:
"Where does one obtain reproduction sticker sheets? I would totally buy some sheets for certain sets."

Haven’t bought from their site but I’ve heard of BrickStickerShop before. Not aware of any other places"
I generally avoid stickers but once when I couldn’t do without a particular sticker I ordered from brickstickershop. I was impressed with the quality. The printing was crisp, the colour matching and lustre spot on, and the thickness just right. Customer service was pretty good though my order did take some time to arrive.

@Fire said:
"I'm shocked this is only going for $250 now. That's not a bad deal at all, especially compared to other popular sets around that time like Cafe Corner, Green Grocer, fantasy era Castle, the old carousel set, etc. I know this set isn't quite as popular as those but I thought it was fairly sought after and might be worth several hundred dollars at this point."

Its' actually less than that. The average used price is less than $200 according to Bricklink. However, a lot of partial lots (individual buildings for sale) might be causing it to be lower than it should. The lowest priced complete set copy for sale is $161 USD from Hong Kong.

@Heriol said:
" @PurpleDave said:
" @WizardOfOss said:
"It would be cool if Lego would use something like static clings instead of stickers for stuff like that. Could even be STAMPs. Removable and reusable, and durable enough to do so."

Well, it could be worse. It could be a build-critical print like eyes, and a chamois with a bottle of Brasso if you want to build the alt model."

Or the other option is just they could have included two canopies, although I guess that would leave you with an awkward extra lying around no matter which build you make."

Oh, no. However would we survive being given extra LEGO parts.

@MusiMus said:
"Two sets like that in a row! Wow!"

Two sets like what? Heavily stickered?

I love these buildings so much! I remember eyeing this set as a kid. The buildings remind me of a more polished version of the Lego City/Town bonus levels in the TT videogames.

@gunther_schnitzel said:
" @Yooha said:
" @AustinPowers said:
" @Modeltrainman said:
" @Yooha said:
"So, that man from '08 is the same person as the boy from '58?"

I think it might be Kjeld Kirk Kristensen, yes. He was on the box in '58."
It IS him.
I mean, it says so right on the box.
Doesn't anyone look at the image? "

The small letters on the box are not readable to me."

What box?"

Isn't that a box of a LEGO set on the picture? Or is that a crocodile? Or a sunset?

@Yooha said:
" @gunther_schnitzel said:
" @Yooha said:
" @AustinPowers said:
" @Modeltrainman said:
" @Yooha said:
"So, that man from '08 is the same person as the boy from '58?"

I think it might be Kjeld Kirk Kristensen, yes. He was on the box in '58."
It IS him.
I mean, it says so right on the box.
Doesn't anyone look at the image? "

The small letters on the box are not readable to me."

What box?"

Isn't that a box of a LEGO set on the picture? Or is that a crocodile? Or a sunset?"

It's not a box. It's the instructions; specifically the second book as you can see by the -2 after the set number. But the box has basically the same image, just without the -2 after the set number and with the number of pieces and age recommendation in that area.

@TheOtherMike said:
" @MusiMus said:
"Two sets like that in a row! Wow!"

Two sets like what? Heavily stickered?"

Black Cat wasn't heavily stickered, see 8144 or 10152.

@Binnekamp said:
"
I mean, how often do you find this much civilian stuff in anything from the era since Town? And although the set is divided up, it has quite a complete scene."

By "civilian" I assume you mean "not police or robbers"?

This has got to be the ultimate Lego nostalgia/history set. And yet it doesn't seem to be recognized as such.

Oh well, to each their own. I still think a box with Kjeld playing with a Lego town is one of the sweetest Lego scenes imaginable. Maybe it's because Lego really has been there my whole life, and that continuum speaks to me.