LEGO Brand Retail Store

The LEGO® Brand Store is a solid purchase, even at full price. As I am writing this, the set is a little hard to come by in Canada. I actually got mine from the States. But, if you can find one, I do recommend it. You get an excellent value both in terms of the cost per brick, and the amount of build time that you get out of it. There are many fun details, and overall, it looks pretty good. My complaints about it are mostly small, and mainly that I don't like the interchangeable wall elements. more less

Being a fan of LEGO modularly designed houses, this set is no different to the other wonderful sets in the line. Even if you are not the biggest fan of houses, a LEGO branded store can be the centerpiece of any LEGO cities or collections. A very fun, different and detailed build, with a variety of Easter eggs makes this a fun and affordable set for all. The only thing that immediately stands out that could improve the set is the addition of a LEGO store employee minifigure, which a set of this type needs, however this reason alone does not deter from the allure of this set. As with the other LEGO store sets however it is a shame that this set is exclusive to flagship stores, but hopefully this set makes its way as a promotional set or appears in local stores in the future. more less

While I personally liked this set for the parts, looking at it as the set its designed to be brings forth a number of flaws. For starters, there's no LEGO employee so there's virtually no real play value here (hard to shop if there's no one to run the store). Also, there's no money pieces so that hurts the shopping experience as well. The store doesn't "do anything" either so this set seems like a kind of poor fit for kids. more less

I always enjoy sets which depict aspects of the LEGO brand and 40305 LEGO Brand Store is another excellent example. Its two-storey design most closely resembles that found in 60097 City Square but this model is more detailed than its predecessor and looks more impressive on display in my opinion, not least because of its bright colour scheme. However, there is some room for improvement. A store employee should certainly have been included and the LEGO sets look more realistic when represented by 1x2 tiles rather than 1x2 bricks. Moreover, I would love to see an entirely accurate rendition of a LEGO store at some point in the future, although this is a fun set and I would certainly recommend adding it to your collection, especially if you already own 5001622 LEGO Store Employee. more less