Review : LEGO Creator Expert 10264 Corner Garage

Now that everyone has had time to digest the announcement of the new Structure 2019, the LEGO Creator Expert set 10264 Corner Garage (189.99 €), we can quickly talk about this building that will stick to the Downtown Diner from set 10260 for a neighborhood with a 50s atmosphere.

Small neighborhood garage with a single gas pump, upstairs veterinary practice and apartment above with direct access to the roof, on paper this set offers varied spaces with services that will be welcome in your LEGO city.

If you collect the Modulars, you will not hesitate very long anyway, you will need this one too. If you don't have any, it's not certain that this set is the best place to start.

First of all, I note that the building actually occupies only a large half of the base plate on which it is installed due to the presence of the gas station and the canopy that houses the gas pump. It is also a set at an incoming angle which constitutes a street corner and can therefore take place in a corner of a shelf attached to the walls on two sides. There isn't much to see behind the construction anyway, as is often the case on Modulars.

If you want to play with the garage lift, remember to leave a little space behind the set to be able to access the mechanism that allows the thing to be raised and lowered. just pull on the blue and black element visible in the photo above to activate this function. Nothing super exciting, but to wow your passing friends even more, you can always leave a vehicle permanently in the garage with the bridge up and the curtain up.

It is a constant of the range Modulars, the construction phase alternates between truly creative sequences and stacking bricks for the walls of the building. We are not bored and we discover in passing a few tips that will perhaps be useful one day such as the cornices or the canopies of the upper floors based on blue windshields. When assembling the two upper modules, it is difficult not to have a feeling of déjà vu over the pages, the exterior structure of the two levels being almost identical from one floor to the other.

The bags of the set being numbered, it is possible to share the assembly with several on the condition of having the instruction booklet in digital format (to download at this address as soon as the PDF is online) in addition to the one provided in the box. Everyone can assemble a section during a family and friendly activity.

The whole set ultimately only serves as a pretext to install a garage on the ground floor, with its gas station and small workshop. It really is a tiny neighborhood garage, but the designer still managed to install a lift, a tire changer, a tool console and a counter on which the cash register is located. It's all a bit crowded inside, but it's always like that with Modulars and this one is far from the worst of the range in terms of size.

The staircase which provides access to the veterinarian's office located on the first floor, from the small blue door with its paw-shaped handle, simply crosses the workshop without any partition wall. To get to the apartment on the second floor, you must also cross the waiting room of the veto's office and there is no door (or hatch) between the two floors. Those who find nothing to complain about will persuade themselves that the vet is the mechanic's brother and that it is he who lives above with his ex-brother-in-law. The others will have to do with or lay plasterboard.

The garage is run by Jo, as the sign indicates. He is assisted by a female character with a smeared face who must be his daughter. Or his niece. Or her daughter-in-law. Or whoever you want.

In passing, one may wonder if the choice of the garage / veto / apartment combination is the most judicious. Having to go through the workshop to get to the first floor could have prompted the designer to set up the boss's office upstairs and move the vet's office to the second floor. But in this case, it would have been necessary anyway to go through the offices to go to the vet. Failed, this stair system is really poorly designed.

Access to the workshop is closed by a sliding curtain which can be raised using the dial placed on the exterior wall. The mechanism is simple but very ingenious and the dial is discreet enough not to disfigure the construction.

The roller shutter elements are slid in a groove which serves as a guide and prevents derailments. Like everyone else, you will spend five minutes raising and lowering the curtain. It's fun and it always works if you haven't made a mistake while assembling the mechanism.

If the floor is covered with Tiles on the exterior part of the construction, the interior of the various spaces is left as is by the designer. You will tell me that it does not change much since most of the fans who will acquire this box will be content to display it on a shelf and we will not really see what happens inside. And you will be right. But it's ugly due to the scale of the surfaces and furniture. The studs seem huge and that's a shame.

Many pieces of furniture and other decorative elements are present and some of them are even very successful. This set does not reach the level of finish of other references in the same range but it is still very honest if we take into account the available interior space.

At the vet, in addition to the aquarium built into the wall, we get a few animals and a whole series of medical instruments. It's in the theme and if you like techniques that allow you to reproduce stuff with a limited number of pieces, you'll be served.

I couldn't resist the urge to take the toilet out of the small corner room of the studio on the second floor. I would like to point out that the flush is not attached to the white pipe on which it rests, it is in fact directly attached to the wall of the apartment. In the photo below, she balances on the white mat.

Oddly, the second floor studio has a toilet in one corner of the room, but no bathroom, however compact. The bed installed near the glass roof also leaves me rather perplexed: it looks more like a hospital bed than anything else. The rest of the furniture is quite successful, always with that 50s connotation. Special mention for the taps, blue for cold water, red for hot water, which remind me of memories of my youth.

The roof terrace is also designed with exposed tenons. Too bad for the finish of this space which is clearly visible from the outside. A floor covered with Tiles gray with some hints of dark green and brown to symbolize the degradation of the coating over time would have been very welcome.

I have nothing against studs, but when it comes to a detailed mockup intended primarily for exhibition, I prefer not to see too many of them. In the radius of the things I would have liked to have obtained here: A cylindrical water tank on the roof.

As with the limousine from the 10260 Downtown Diner set, LEGO is providing a vehicle here, to liven up the city streets a bit. The tow truck is successful, it is in the 50s spirit of the box and it will find its place in all urban contexts. The doors open, the tow arm is raised or lowered via the wheel placed at the rear, it's functional. LEGO could have cracked a pad printing on the doors with the logo of the garage sign.

LEGO also provides a scooter in Medium Azure and his pilot who takes the torso already seen in the LEGO CITY set 60202 People Pack: Outdoor Adventures. Not essential in this box, but since it's there ...

A second vehicle to troubleshoot and put on the lift would have been welcome to ensure maximum playability out of the box without relying on the fact that fans have already purchased the 10260 set and therefore have the pink limousine which is from elsewhere staged on the back of the box of this new set.

I know many fans consider the parts allocated to these vehicles to "penalize" the level of detail of the set by cannibalizing inventory. But if LEGO sells me a garage with a lift, I would love to be able to use it to lift something other than the tow truck ...

As you already know, there are no stickers in this box and all the signs are pad printed. The Octan brand is displayed on the gas pump, supported by the use of the fictitious company's usual colors on the garage walls, the vet has a sign that references the world of Indiana Jones and Jo's garage sign includes a funny slogan under the half tire. These little details aren't everything, but they're finishes that are generally popular with fans.

In summary, we like it or not, each to his own. I like the petrol station theme and the color Dark orange used for the walls of the floors. I like a little less the lack of finish in the cabinet of the veto and in the apartment, LEGO had accustomed us to better.

The sacrifice of nearly half of the available surface does not bother me more than that, it was the price to pay to offer something really original with the gas pump and the passage covered by a canopy.

The vehicle provided is successful, the minifig endowment is unsurprising but sufficient. 189.99 € is a bit expensive, so in my opinion it is appropriate to wait at least for a doubling of VIP points or a promo to invest in this new element of the vintage district of LEGOville.

Note: The set shown here is put into play as usual. To participate in the raffle, simply post a comment on this article before December 15 at 23:59 p.m.. You have every right to disagree with me, this is not eliminatory.

Update : The winner was drawn and was notified by email, his nickname is indicated below. Without a response from him to my request for contact details within 5 days, a new winner will be drawn.