Random set of the day: Town Hall
Posted by Huwbot,
Today's random set is 10224 Town Hall, released during 2012. It's one of 3 Advanced models sets produced that year. It contains 2766 pieces and 8 minifigs, and its retail price was US$199.99/£149.99.
It's owned by 14,419 Brickset members. If you want to add it to your collection you might find it for sale at BrickLink or eBay.
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65 comments on this article
This is the newest modular that l do not own. Retired before l started collecting them. l wish l had it!
The age is starting to creep up, I don't like it! Take it back! Take it back!
I kind of wish they had made more of the Mini Modulars like they did for the first 5 in 10230. I was hoping to have the whole collection without paying hundreds upon hundreds for the sets. Just every few years release a $90 to $100 or so of them in microscale. This would have been a nice one like the Firehouse surrounded by the other modulars.
Hey, Modular, I remember those. Are people still collecting them?
I always oggled over this one back in the day, to the point where missing it was basically the moment I decided modulars weren't for me. If I had the money and the space I'd go for it, but that's a pipe-dream
Fabulous RSotD choice, Huwbot!
It’s enough to make a grown man cry. Need to try and assemble this from my collection.
@MCLegoboy said:
"I kind of wish they had made more of the Mini Modulars like they did for the first 5 in 10230. I was hoping to have the whole collection without paying hundreds upon hundreds for the sets. Just every few years release a $90 to $100 or so of them in microscale. This would have been a nice one like the Firehouse surrounded by the other modulars."
Yeah, and then you could actually make a nice city layout, for cheap! Or at least, far cheaper than the other option.
Loved this set back in the day but being in elementary school I knew I never would get it. Fast forward 7 years later I started backtracking the modular buildings, and I finally found this one sealed for $630 in May 2020. Average price at the time but now its worth that much used; it's crazy how much this one has appreciated recently.
One of the guys in my LUG was collecting dark-orange 1x2 bricks to build Detroit’s Guardian building in minifig-ish scale (about 8’ tall, with enough interior space to fit three adults), and the supply just dried up. So he built the David Stott Building instead. Then this set came out, and a couple years later he had the ~40,000 1x2 bricks needed to build the one he really wanted after all.
@MCLegoboy:
A former member of my LUG had just shown us his microscale versions of the first five Modulars when the GWP was announced. And then he moved across the US, and no follow up sets were ever announced, so I’ve seen two different takes on just the first five, and not one other micro Modular since then.
I started collecting in 2019 , downtown diner. Town Hall was retired already, but I found it yet for a reasonable price.
It's kind of weird there are computers in this set, despite LEGO basing the modular series as a whole in the early 20th century. I love the elevator, I'm surprised LEGO's never done one in a modular or City set since. This is also the first modular building to introduce new prints - the clock, bride's torso, and shield. The exterior walls are very clean and don't have any unsightly spots where interior details are mounted. One tiny issue is the ground floor is very deep and hard to access. All in all this is phenomenal and one of the best modulars ever, especially at the time of release. Despite it being a decade old, it still is the largest singular building and dominates all others.
It's just so pretty.
I started collecting Modular Buildings after this retired, but I was able to build this from bulk collected at my local Bricks & Minififures and through some Bricklink purchases. I’m only missing two light bluish gray 6x24 plates, but used four 6x12 plates instead.
I don’t collect modulars but this is the first time I’ve noticed this one has a curved skylight made out of old garage door pieces. Likey.
Such a simple yet effective technique to make those columns.
Interestingly enough, it apparently did not sell well enough when it was released that its production was stopped early, at least that was the story back then.
Back then, the 'fetish' architectural design piece was the 'croissant' nowadays it is the 'sausage' which you can find in an ever growing list of colours.
There is some amazing parts use and sub builds in this. This was the first Modular not designed by Jamie. Astrid did this one. she had a background in architecture and it shows. I believe Astrid did this and the Palace Cinema. This is also the beginning of where you can see little stories playing out in each modular and across a group of them. For example you have a simple wedding story that flows through the Grand Emporium, Town Hall, Parisian Restaurant and Assembly Square. The slight anachronism of the computer on the desk is likely Astrid. She has a different eye for things than Jamie. Astrid looks more at the style and function of a building. Jamie has more of a modelers eye. He is picking a moment in time.
@madforLEGO said:
"Interestingly enough, it apparently did not sell well enough when it was released that its production was stopped early, at least that was the story back then."
This was the first one I didn't get. It was more expensive than the others, and the box shape wasn't as interesting to me.
@Faefrost said:
"There is some amazing parts use and sub builds in this. This was the first Modular not designed by Jamie. Astrid did this one. she had a background in architecture and it shows. I believe Astrid did this and the Palace Cinema. This is also the beginning of where you can see little stories playing out in each modular and across a group of them. For example you have a simple wedding story that flows through the Grand Emporium, Town Hall, Parisian Restaurant and Assembly Square. The slight anachronism of the computer on the desk is likely Astrid. She has a different eye for things than Jamie. Astrid looks more at the style and function of a building. Jamie has more of a modelers eye. He is picking a moment in time. "
I thought 10232 Palace Cinema was designed by my alter ego, Jordan Schwartz.
Best random set of the day ever.
An awesome modular, one of the best certainly of the pre Golden Age period (2014-2017). Agreed it's a real shame they put a stupid computer in there, especially when the photographer is using a lovely vintage flashbulb camera.
These were the days when modulars were value for money. $300 AU and it towers above everything, takes up most of the baseplate, is fully detailed, looks good on the outside, good minifig selection and even has a working lift!
I wonder if we will ever get anymore government type buildings like this.
That bride and groom look suspiciously alike, we’ve checked they’re not actually related right? :D
Can't talk, right now. Too conflicted. I had the chance yesterday to buy this used along with Green Grocer, Grand Emporium, and Pet Store for $1800. I passed. Still conflicted. I feel like Huwbot is rubbing it in my face.
This is one set I gave up on owning as it was already very expensive - even second hand - by the time I started collecting the modular buildings.
Fast forward to July 2020, and I managed to buy - at a *very* reasonable price - one each of 10224 Town Hall, 10211 Grand Emporium, and 10197 Fire Brigade, including their instructions and boxes from someone that were selling their entire collection.
The only issue was that the white parts were badly discolored on the Town Hall, to the degree that I replaced some of the worst affected pieces, but the Town Hall is now a proud member of my LEGO City :-)
News that this one was being retired prompted me to jump on the modular bandwagon and snap it up before it was too late along with all the other ones I could still find. Had to Bricklink a Cafe Corner but that was a great forced introduction to Bricklinking things!
Still have it assembled and on display. I can literally reach behind me and touch it while typing this. Though I need to dust it, now that I think about it. :)
I have this one still in the box. I want to build it so bad, but than I look at the prices it's going for these days and I just can't... Now the excuse is I have no space to put it, because I refuse to become a scalper by selling it and getting another one when I regret selling it will only cost more.
Still have it unintentionally in MISB condition, no time to build :)
Set retired Dec 2014. I came out of dark age mid 2015. Big regret!
This was my second modular that I purchased. It was a toss up between the Grand Emporium and this one. I choose the Grand Emporium due to it being likely to retire before the Town Hall, since it was older. It was a total surprise that this sold out at the same time so I had to quickly find one since I wanted both of them.
This was the first Modular not designed by Jamie and to be. Honest it shows. It is less refined than the previous entries. Thank God Jamie came back with the Parisian Restaurant that was much more refined than all the previous modulars. Bring back Jamie!
I still remember vividly seeing, shortly AFTER retirement, shelves of these discounted in John Lewis.
I only picked one up as I already had bought myself one and clearly they were not popular so would never increase in value.
Oh well.
They are both still sealed in storage somewhere in my to-build-at-somepoint-list, which apparently goes back to pre 2015
I went out to the Columbus Ohio Lego store in 2013 to buy 10937 Arkham Asylum and a modular building. That trip there were 3 modular buildings available including Town Hall which wasn't the oldest there. On recommendations from staff I purchased 10218 Pet Shop because everyone assumed it would be retired soon. It was not. Town Hall was retired. I still do not own one, the only modular I missed.
I always have back to the future vibes with this one, just need someone to set it up at a show one day with the Delorean 10300 and they will have one happy fan.
@ambr:
You know, the real clock tower building, which was located on the backlot of Universal Studios in Hollywood, burned down a few decades ago. I did get a chance to see it in person sometime in the mid 90's.
The only modular I own, and I still think it's one of the best looking, due to its relative simplicity in design.
I love how the Town Hall is covering almost the entire baseplate and still is several floors high. It was more expensive than the rest back then (and probably still is now), but boy did you get CONTENT for that price. No recessed slices of buildings to the sides or wedge shaped walls on this one. Just one chunky monolith of a building.
I think the box-art from back then did it a slight disservice in that regard.
Unfortunately this set retired before I became aware that there even was a Modular line.
Afterwards I saw that LEGO sold off the last ones on Shop at Home for 89.99 Euro! What a bargain. I should have bought ten and sold them nowadays.
Like some other comments here i ordered mine entirely from different part orders on bricklink.com and bricks from my parts collection, as buying the set itself is simply ridiculously expensive nowadays.The only part that was really expensive was the part on top of the Bell tower, but all in all i paid a fair price using this method. Just takes a lot of time.. If you compare this to recent modulars the sheer size makes it feel like a set that is really worth its price, all bricks go into the building instead of tiles on interiors you seldom see after building...
Lore time! The bones of townsfolk who lost in the lottery are forever memorialized in the facade.
I collect the modulars. I have this one and never built it because it was just too ugly - both at a distance, and up close.
By far my least favourite of the series. I really should sell it but I am a collectionist. :-( Oh well, maybe it will be worth thousands of dollars by the time I am finally ready to part with it.
Is it wrong that I actually let my kids play with it? They had turned it into a hotel back before the BH came out
My wife pulled me out of my dark age with the first Death Star playset. I vaguely recall the Town Hall still being on the shelves at that time. However, my first modular was the Palace Cinema, and the Town Hall was already retired when i got the Palace Cinema. I had to pay the markup from a 3rd party seller to get this. Worth it.
@Talint:
I still have the first Death Star playset, MISB, sealed in the shipper carton, and wearing the makeshift raincoat they made out of an upside-down plastic shopping bag because it was monsooning in Chicago when I made the trip from Brickworld to the downtown Chicago store. That was the only store that had it in stock, and I wasn’t going home without buying it at the 30% convention discount.
@Mr_Hankey said:
"I have this one still in the box. I want to build it so bad, but than I look at the prices it's going for these days and I just can't... Now the excuse is I have no space to put it, because I refuse to become a scalper by selling it and getting another one when I regret selling it will only cost more. "
That is such a First World problem. Open it, build it, enjoy it, and take comfort in the fact that it is probably still worth a lot more in "assembled once" condition than what you originally paid for it.
@picopirate said:
"This cost 33% more than the other modulars at the time ($200 vs. $150) and I remember people being upset. At least back then $200 got you a huge set. Today, the Jazz Club is a whipping $230 and half the set is only two stories."
Yes, and the beauty of this set is that most of the 2600 pieces are all LARGE USABLE bricks instead of all of the microscopic garbage detail we get today.....
At the time, this was the largest set I'd ever purchased and thought my wife was going to kill me for spending $200. Now look at the prices of the sets being produced and it's only a drop in the bucket.
Love this set - I managed to get it off Ebay in late 2014 for about £130 delivered and spent Christmas that year building it - more recently I picked up an additional floor to up the scale a bit (I mod most of my Modulars) for another £40 or so - bargains all round! Trouble is the white pieces are yellowing now but it still looks great in my town square part of my city...
@PurpleDave said:
" @Talint:
I still have the first Death Star playset, MISB, sealed in the shipper carton, and wearing the makeshift raincoat they made out of an upside-down plastic shopping bag because it was monsooning in Chicago when I made the trip from Brickworld to the downtown Chicago store. That was the only store that had it in stock, and I wasn’t going home without buying it at the 30% convention discount."
Might as well sell off the parts inside and keep the package if that’s how you’re going to keep it.
@monkyby87:
I do plan to build it someday. Someday. I’m not concerned about the devaluation that will happen when I pop the seals. The only time that’s stopped me is my third copy of 7784. I built one copy, then pick up two more on steep clearance for the parts. I opened the second copy right away, but by the time I was ready to open the third, MISB were selling for over $700. Every now and then, I’ll be trying to figure out what sets I own have some part I need for a MOC, but it has never been worth the loss of value just to get a few basic black parts worth mere pennies. So I buy the parts, wait out the delivery delay, leave the seals intact, and push decisions off until the next time I’m short some very basic black part.
The only modular that I have to decapitate to fit on my shelves. The top of the bell tower is stored inside the top floor!
I'd love them to do another modular like this, rather than the trend for smaller more detailed (fussy) buildings.
I got this in 2014. At the time, I was getting modulars a year or two after their release. (I've since caught up and am typically getting them at 4-6 months after release.) I was living on the other side of the country from my family, it was a Saturday morning on March 29th, and I had just gotten the call that my grandmother had died. I decided to go out for a drive instead of sitting around the house alone.
Ended up driving east in some places I had never been before. On the way back, I stopped at a mall for something to eat and checked out the Lego store. Decided to get this set. ...and I liked the fact it had a bride and groom since I was starting to plan to ask my girlfriend to marry me. (I did 2 months later. She said yes.)
...so this set has some memories for me. More than most other sets I have.
Not that impressive by today's standards, but a decent looking building.
My favourite 99% rebrick. There a few very expensive Parts, that will never added. But I hope I get sometimes the bride torso.
I started with the Fire Brigade and I regret that this is one of the very few that I've skipped. I think the price jump was the only deterrent at the time, because otherwise it looks great and the dark orange was a rare colour for my collection.
@MCLegoboy said:
"The age is starting to creep up, I don't like it! Take it back! Take it back!"
Tell me about it!
We can expect to start seeing sets from The LEGO Movie pop up in RSotD about a year from now. Knowing RSotD is entirely sets at least a decade old, that’s going to feel very weird and unsettling…
When I first saw pre-release pics of this, that’s when I quickly decided I had to collect the modulars!
Individually it’s maybe not the best modular, but as a centrepiece for the town I thought it was a must have..
@Blondie_Wan said:
" @MCLegoboy said:
"The age is starting to creep up, I don't like it! Take it back! Take it back!"
Tell me about it!
We can expect to start seeing sets from The LEGO Movie pop up in RSotD about a year from now. Knowing RSotD is entirely sets at least a decade old, that’s going to feel very weird and unsettling…"
Don't... don't even think about it! TLM can't be that old! *puts fingers in ears* I'm not listening! I'm not listening!
Oh, this one, it's Santa's Summer janitor job, even has white carpet and dark green furniture to remind him of Christmas.
The only modular building, I have bought at half price. It was at a LEGO World (Copenhagen). I was going to pass, but my wife put some pressure on me, and I bought it. Luckily. - There is just a tiny regret, no giving in to the small pressure she put on me to buy the Café Corner... C'est la vie...
It's not the most popular of modular buildings, I am happy for mine, though. Only thing is, it is so high I have to remove the upper part of the tower for the building to sit on top of my bookcase. Alternatively I have to make a hole in the ceiling.
Town Hall was my first modular purchase on coming out of a very long dark age in 2014. Loved the sheer amount of detail and the stories. Went back to get Grand Emporium and Pet Shop; took a few years to accept I’ll not be getting Cafe Corner to Fire Brigade. At some stage Town Hall was commandeered by Lord Business and his robot minions in honour of The Lego Movie, which really hooked me back in. It is indeed scary to think that’ll be 10 years next year - almost as scary as how much Lego I’ve acquired over the last 9 years.
Ah, my second and last modular (so far... mostly due to space limitations) -- my first being 10197. My affinity for bells helped sell this one on me. No regrets on either purchase, especially since installing light kits inside both.
@gylman said:
"I collect the modulars. I have this one and never built it because it was just too ugly - both at a distance, and up close.
By far my least favourite of the series. I really should sell it but I am a collectionist. :-( Oh well, maybe it will be worth thousands of dollars by the time I am finally ready to part with it.
"
You make me sad in a very specific way.
After yesterday's MAGNIFICENT set, this set is such an underwelming set. So little Blacktron....
Was prepared to skip this one, just as @gylman I considered it my least favorite modular - too big, too boxy, too expensive, didn't like the color, didn't like the town hall theme. But as I found it at 40% off in some webshop I decided to buy it anyway, this was also around the time I started experimenting with shrinking the modulars from 32x32 to 24x24, so eventually this was turned into the ULC (University of Lego City). I reduced it to 24 stud size by removing the outermost window on each side, the "leftover" windows were then re-used other places - 2nd floor windows ended up on third floor, third-floor windows were used for the attic (underneath the ends of the now-sloped roof), I added new windows between the pillars (tricky 1/2-stud offset) and the rest ended up on the end walls. While I reduce the size of the building I try to retain most of the original's details, for instance to improve the backside. I wanted to link to pictures, but unfortunately the page I posted them on no longer seems to work properly.