Featured set of the day: Museum Break-in
Posted by Huw,
Today's set has been chosen by Green_Bricks:
I’m fairly certain that most people reading this won’t remember this set, and if it had come out today, I doubt I would either. Looking at it objectively now, it’s a nice build for a museum, something that we don’t see too often from Lego nowadays, and the playability is good, but considering that most of the set is taken up by fairly generic police vehicles, it doesn’t stand out too much from Lego’s hundreds of other police sets.
So, why choose this over stunning builds such as my Creator Expert sets?
Well, in the summer of 2013, when I was 9 years old, my parents made a deal with me. Looking back, it was essentially a bribe to make me practice some sort of musical instrument, but the payoff was earning 50p a day, until I had accumulated £50.
Then, for the first time ever, I would be able to visit a real Lego store. You have to understand that, as a 9-year-old Lego fanatic, the idea of a Lego store was some sort of utopian paradise. I wanted to make a pilgrimage, to the land of my favourite toy, and this was it.
So, at some point in August, my mum and I got in the car early one morning, drove the one and a half hours to Milton Keynes, arrived soon after opening, and entered the store. (That’s a vast oversimplification; navigating Milton Keynes was a nightmare, and a kind police officer helped us find the store itself!).
This brings us back to 60008 Museum Break-in. The story takes place back at a time when I still received the Lego club catalogues through the letterbox, and this set caught my eye early on. My collection was small at this point; I had a police station, but that was boring and white. This set had dark blue, a new and exciting colour for me at the time! The new minifigures had elaborate prints! The museum had skylights!
My point is that, now that I’m lucky enough to have amassed a part collection diverse enough to build pretty much anything I put my mind to, it’s easy to forget what it was like starting out, and although this set seems fairly standard now, it was a massive step up from anything I owned at the time. Of course, the best thing about set 60008 was that it was within that magical £50 price point. It had to be the one.
Being an excited kid, I built the set immediately upon returning home. Then again the next morning. Then probably again that afternoon. I wouldn’t quite say that my life revolved entirely around it, but at some point, I could build that set from scratch with no instructions in just over half an hour. That is a memory I hold extremely vividly, looking at my watch after timing myself like I was on the predecessor to Lego Masters. In my eyes, there were very few, if any negatives, and even today I look at it through rose-tinted glasses.
I don’t have much more to say, really. It seems pointless for me to actually go into the finer details of this set, because my entire enjoyment of it revolves around nostalgia. It comes from a time when the City theme really captured my interest, and though I’m sure it has increased in quality over the years, I find myself becoming more and more distanced from the theme nowadays as I develop and look for greater challenges.
This set encapsulates more than that, however; it connotes a part of my childhood, as well as the memories and experiences Lego can provide me with, which continues to be what I think Lego is all about. Anyway, no massive in depth analysis this time around; just one kid’s experience of why something so objectively normal can be so subjectively incredible :-)
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37 comments on this article
I've still got this one; definitely an underrated set.
Also, I considered myself in the youngest portion of Brickset users, but the fact you were 9 in 2013 is making me feel so old!
I always liked that one. Bought it for my son on his 5th birthday. He really liked the City sets and especially the police themed ones, and this one was a nice overall value.
This set was still featured on the LEGO City map on a new book that just came out.
By chance I found the building for sale second-hand a couple of years ago. A few bricks missing, but the most important one was there: the painting of Girl with a Pearl Earring. Also the two flags, which define the facade were included. It might not be a big, richly detailed Modular building, but it is so much more than a simple panel-built City building.
LEGO needs to make a Modular Museum using this as a base with a little bit of the City Center bit.
I rarely put stickers on as I'm constantly rebuilding things, but I thought the designers did beautiful work on the Minifig with a Pearl Earring. The vehicles were forgettable- we've seen vans and trucks so many times in this style, but the building was unusual and had compelling architectural details.
Never noticed before but that looks a lot like the A-Team Van........ I seem to remember wanting this but as Huw said the price and generic Police Helicopter and Van put me off. £34.99 with no Police in it and I would have bought it. Thankyou for the story, like of lot of things its often about the memory it conjures rather than the thing (set)
"You have to understand that, as a 9-year-old Lego fanatic, the idea of a Lego store was some sort of utopian paradise."
I was in mid to late teens when Lego stores first started coming along, and they were still pretty fantastic to me then!
^ I was in my 30s when the first UK ones opened and they were still awesome then!
Now I look back I wish I hadn't broken this set down as this build is amazing, I remember buying this from John Lewis at Cribbs Causeway during the 2013 boxing day sales. I built this set and loved it, at the time my sister was also into LEGO and she got the LEGO Friends Mia's Bakery set which we combined to make a small street with the Grand Emporium that I got the day before (Christmas day)
I've got to say the 2013 City subtheme was probably one of the strongest Police themes in a while, despite not actually having a station released that year.
I remember when this came out, I was 13 but only interested in star wars and ninjago despite the intrigue in this set at the time. My taste has however changed since.
Those were the days! Way better than the buildings in City sets nowadays. I too was 9 back when then, and was just getting into Lego. As such, I hold a lot of nostalgia for this whole wave of police sets, despite not owning this one, and elite police is still my favorite city subtheme. 2013 was a great year for Lego, I only wish I had been old enough to buy more sets back then (although to be fair, I still don't have enough money to be able to buy many sets).
It's a fun set, and a lot of people aren't aware that it blends perfectly with 7621 Indiana Jones and the Lost Tomb as a museum front.
I vividly remember this set from my childhood as well and still have the van intact around somewhere! Thanks for the trip down memory lane!!
I got this set for my 9th birthday back in 2013, what a coincidence. I agree that this was a great set at the time and even though I’m not a fan of the City theme anymore, I do still like this set.
I wanted this set back in the day too XD
Great story. Starting out in LEGO are some of my funnest(I know, not a word) memories. I actually think I was more creative with less specialized and new pieces...
Quite underrated. I really like the museum and that sort of van. Just wish I got it.
My parents did a similar thing with me as well. Basically if I practiced the piano for three months every day, then I could pick a $100-ish set of my choice. I eventually got the 9472 Attack on Weathertop.
I have fond memories of this set! The museum is pretty small but it has some nice features, especially the laser security system. The vehicles are great; always thought the dark blue colour scheme gave them an air of prestige compared to other City Police sets.
This is a very good article Green_Bricks. A nice, fun read. Two studs up!
I do remember this set. The design of the museum is cool and compact.
I bought one of this set and picked up most of a second one for my younger son. Then ended up with two more of the portraits in a bulk buy of random bricks. Its probably a little wrong, but I couldn’t resist adding a mustache to one (the one in poorest condition) to make it an “obvious forgery” ala Chrononauts
@Matt89190 said:
"I've still got this one; definitely an underrated set.
Also, I considered myself in the youngest portion of Brickset users, but the fact you were 9 in 2013 is making me feel so old!"
I was only 7 ;D
Never got this one, I chose the arctic base instead, it was always ‘on the list but not the top’
I’ve had the “girl with the pearl earring” piece on my desk for a couple weeks but hadn’t searched for the matching set yet.... so thanks.
Nice set & story. . I’ll see if the whole set is buildable out of the lot I found it in.
In a bit late, but thanks Brickset for having me on, and thanks everyone for leaving your comments about similar experiences with this set :-)
Terry Pratchett wrote a joke into Good Omens about how Milton Keynes was “built to be a perfect city” but “many Britons found this notion extremely amusing”.
Nice set, as well. Never got it myself, but I do remember looking at it in catalogs and such.
I remember seeing this set in the catalogues! I always wanted it but 2013 was taken up by Ninjago, iron man 3, and Chima for me...
I still have this proudly displayed in my city. Every good city has a museum!
I had just come out of my dark ages and was collecting far too many sets & themes at this point, but I liked any sets with buildings in them. I built this museum and felt it was too small, so I got another set (I think this was when Tesco sold lego with discounts). I then set myself a MOC challenge to build a bigger (better?) museum just/only using the parts in the bags for the 2 buildings - I think I gave away the vehicles unbuilt in the bags to my nephew and niece, so couldn't use those parts. My MOC is still sitting up on my shelf. I dare not dismantle it as I know I'd never be able to remake it! It's probably the last full MOC I've made, too many sets and not enough time now!
This is one of the few City sets that stands out and I remember
I liked this set, even planned to get it. Sadly the price was awful and I never seen it on good sale.
I just buld my own museum then.
Great write up considering you're still just a whippersnapper :D It's a nice set (have we had a museum since?) and as mentioned above the fig with the pearl earring sticker is fun addition. It could easily lose the large police van and probably be a better set/price point as its overly large and kind of dominates the museum, which I feel should be the focus. I'm glad someone else mentioned the other van reminding them of the A-Team van as that was also my first thought as well all those years ago.
I didn't realise this set was so old! We bought it for our son's birthday and he still has the museum on display (well, on a shelf gathering dust). The museum was and is cool.
I also have fond memories of this set. Funny enough, I was also 9 years old at the time, and I remember convincing my dad to buy it for me on June 1st 2013 (the day we celebrate the children's day in my country). He wasn't very happy with the huge amount of money he paid for it, but I certainly was happy with the set I got.
Looking back on it, it's still a really unique set. A Museum Build like that is not something you see every day, and certainly not something a modern city set would offer.
Thanks for sharing this article! It brought back some fond memories I almost completely forgot about!
@Lordmoral said:
"LEGO needs to make a Modular Museum using this as a base with a little bit of the City Center bit."
Been there. It’s been adapted to fit in my son’s modular street with an additional top floor too.
This is a great set. The van is still the criminal’s vehicle of choice and has been copied to make a plumbers white van. The police van has been duplicated to make a black swat van too.
I actually came to buy this set last year, I'm 47 years old, and I'm a collector, it's never too late to get a Lego, laughs. When I think this set is super cool, I bought it for my police collection. I find it interesting what the co-legos (colleagues) narrate about their childhood in the making of this set, besides being important, something that reminds them of their childhood with priceless value, regardless of the nostalgic, happy, sad moment, always bringing good memories. This set mixes art (museum) and the relentless performance of the Lego City Police, has a good construction. Congratulations to those who built it (acquired, won), and to those who don't have it, it's never too late, get yours, you will love building it. Congratulations on the site.
I just rebuilt this set along with most of my police theme. Its amazing, The helicopter with the light up brick was a ton of fun and the museum had good peices with the baseplate, I dont know how you could say the vehicles were generic, the crook van is great and the SWAT looking van is top notch, I always loved the special forces team as the perfect minifigs for my brickarms.
I also remember this set. I liked the unique look of the building. Would have bought the set, if there had been more museum and less vehicles in it.