Priced at £35 I didn't think it was too expensive, however after purchasing it I later saw it at a lower price elsewhere such as Argos for £28.99.
It's a 3 in 1 kit so you can choose to make either the Toy and Grocer shop, a news paper stand or a post office depending on your preference, I suppose it also gives kids the ability to deconstruct their original build and make something different which as a kid that would be something that I would have done. However for this build I just made the Toy and Grocer shop shown on the front of the box.
The kit contains 466 pieces and was fun and reasonably easy to build, it took me about 2 hours, has some really nice pieces such as the vending machine and the angled door which is always interesting to see how they accomplished some of the design by using different pieces in a way I would have never though to use them.
The thing that i really like about this set is the way that the centre of the shop is hinged so it can close together like a doll house which gives it lots of playability for kids and also makes it easier to pose mini figures inside the shop.
This shop also has a upper floor apartment living area with a bed and a chest of draws as well as access to the balcony were either the shop owner lives or rents it out to other people.
Here are some pictures of the final build.
I think my favourite parts of this build was the small details like the Wall-E style looking robot on the shelf and the model train in the window, and I love how the vegetable display is on a 45 degree angle showing off the little apple and banana.
The set also comes with two mini figures, the woman shop owner and an exited customer boy who would be perusing the toys, the kid also comes with a little scooter that he can pose on.
Overall i was quite pleased the set and would recommend it to any beginner LEGO builder and children, the other thing that i could criticise the set for was the build quality of the kids scooter as the handle bars often fall off as they are on balanced in place and not fixed down, but that is a very slight inconvenience.
SH
