Hello! I got this set when it came out & i must say (My opinion), it is one of the best lego sets of all time!

Pro's- The building build is very detailed & well planned out.

Con's- The price cost alot of money when i got it.

Pros:

Very playable

Well lit ( you can see inside when whole)

Very large

Cons:

Not the largest second and third floor

Roof doesn't always stay on

Summary:

Overall 9.5/10

This set is fabulous ! Highly recommend it !

I have fallen in love with the Modular Buildings line. While it was the Winter Village series that had brought me out of the Dark Ages, it was the Modular Buildings that allowed me to really appreciate the evolution of Lego parts and building techniques that had taken place since my childhood. The Modulars are quite pricey, but I had to pounce and get Set 10224 Town Hall anyway, when I saw one at the Anaheim Downtown Disney Lego Store discount pile, due to having had its external packaging box crushed at one corner. The damage was good for a 20% discount from the $199.99 list price, and at least there were no missing or damaged parts on the inside, so I was lucking out.

Box/Instructions

Despite the damage, the box was still very appealing. In particular, it showed various scenes from different sections of the building, hinting at many different play possibilities.

The instructions come in three booklets, one for each level of the building. I wished the instructions were split a bit differently though, considering that the ground floor takes much longer to build than the middle floor on this set.

Parts

The light brown is a very pleasing tone for the exterior walls of the building, and for a future MOC, those bricks could come in handy. I also love the globe on the middle floor, as well as the cashier/computer on the ground floor, which is of a modern flat-screen design, and makes for a very nice contrast compared to the monochrome CRT terminals I have in Space Classic sets.

The use of arch pieces for the front-facing windows is also very awesome.

The flowers along the window on the middle floor add a pop of bright primary colors - red, yellow, and lime green. The flowers had worked quite well for Pet Shop and they work even better here. I like their presence - adding enough interesting detail to this grown-up building, while using their primary colors to hark back to childhood.

Minifigures

This set comes with eight, all with the classic smiley face as is the case with all Modular Building minifigures.

• Bride: She stands out by using a white sloped brick as her lower body, to represent the skirt of the wedding dress. She is a stunner - because the brick is slightly taller than a standard minifigure lower body, she stands above the others, plus her hairstyle is gorgeous.
• Groom: Looking awesome in his own vest and slacks, but not as much of a standout as the bride.
• Photographer: Her light brown hair and red press jacket look quite good, but my favorite "feature" of her is the camera itself, a very nice mini-build.
• Girl: I love her long straight red hair and the floral top.
• Boy: The Space Classic T-shirt is a very awesome touch. That alone already makes him my favorite of the eight.
• Mayor: Dark blue pinstripe suit looks good, along with the light gray hair.
• Secretary: Looking youthful yet professional with slicked-up black hair, scarf, and purple slacks. I always note that Modular Buildings minifigures often have old-fashioned, stereotypical professions, though for a modern touch, I could instead make this woman serve as the Mayor, and the gray-haired man as her key advisor.
• Janitor: I love his white beard, and he definitely is ready to serve the needs of Town Hall. As I built this set, I posed some progress photos where I used the Janitor as the laborer, and the black-haired shopper from Set 10211 Grand Emporium, who looks a lot like me, as my alter ego/contractor/forewoman.

The build

I took some sweet time to build this set - I stretched out the build over a month.

The front doors are a very interesting build detail, as the various components of the door are put together from transparent and solid bricks. It is always nice to build a special, unique detail from common parts, a challenge that has become rarer among modern Lego play sets compared to the ones I grew up with.

The installation of a service escalator is a very nice touch as well. An open path allows me to use a knob to raise and lower the escalator during play, and when I need to lock the escalator into a given floor, there is another indentation for the knob to rotate into. Building the shaft was quite interesting, due to uses of tall one-piece bricks at 5x the standard height.

The roof gable construction is also a nice touch, requiring upside-down pieces to be rotated into position. The Greek columns of the ground floor main entrance also use an ingenious SNOT technique for an authentic look that one doesn't think of as being plausible with Lego elements.

Even the belfry is a nice build, much better than the pre-molded one of the Fire Brigade. One downside though is that the bell is strictly static and cannot swing, unlike the Fire Brigade bell.

Love the top floor skylight and its design as well.

The completed model

This is the tallest Modular Building, and definitely looks imposing when placed with other Modular Buildings, though it does not overwhelm the others.

Between the service elevator, the eight minifigures, and different chambers, there is a lot of play possibility. The conference room on the top floor, and the City Council chamber on the ground floor in the rear, are very good places to congregate lots of minifigures. The city treasurer, the secretary, and the Mayor all have their own offices which look great AND have good play possibilities.

And of course, with other Modular Buildings and their minifigures added to the mix, the play possibilities go up even further. In fact, when I finished building this set, I went to the Grand Emporium to grab its mannequin for a second wedding dress, and immediately had the Mayor perform a wedding for a women couple - my alter ego and a generic redhead.

Summary

For yesterday's children who have fond memories of playing with Lego products, the Modular Building line is an awesome way to bring those memories into the grownup era, with appropriately grownup details to match. In particular, I've really gotten to like the Town Hall, due to its larger size, many different rooms, and details like the functional service elevator, which make for lots of different possibilities when it comes to displaying the set, or playing with it.

I'm even happier with this set because of the 20% damage discount. Looking forward to many years of enjoyment with this set.

I bought this set from Lego S@H since as far as I am aware, this is the only place to get it if you live in Australia. I purchased this during the May 4th promotion to take advantage of the free shipping offer, and the delivery time and the packaging was first class with the box arriving slightly early and in perfect condition.

The first thing that struck me about this set is that it is huge. There are so many bags of lego when you open it you cannot help but smile. I really enjoy the build experience (as I am sure many of you do) so I took my time with this set (probably about 8 hours all up) and enjoyed it the whole time. The instructions are well mixed up, with the instructions generally alternating from building the walls (which could potentially get a bit repetitive) to fitting out the interior. This keeps the interest level high, and as a testament to how great this is to build, my partner helped out the whole way and she is not normally into building!

The actual finished product is just phenomenal with intricate interior detail (personally I think this is the highlight of this model and sets an exceptional standard for future modulars) and the finished product is huge. I think this is the perfect centre piece for a Lego City layout as it will tower over the town.

The colour palette is interesting. From reading other reviews and opinions my general impression is that some don't rate it too highly. I think it is great for two reasons. Firstly it fits with the Town Hall theme perfectly, very conservative and it "feels" right. Secondly, the brown/grey/dark grey scheme mean that where colour is used, it stands out beautifully, such as the flowers at the front or the many features of the internals.

Finally, the mini figures are just great. I think the janitor is my favourite, but special mention to the wedding photographer.

Overall, this is a great set, and one sure to please for years to come. I rated playability a four just because I didn't think this set lent itself as well as it could of in that area. Overall though, definitely 5 bricks!

The perfect Modular Buildings until now. It has many details. It's the hugest Modular building. There is a new thing in the instructions that thing is in every page they highlight the new brick that you need to do it in this step. I really like this set and I think everyone gonna like it.