A city must have a barber and a pool hall. A beautiful piece that adds to my city. The mirror in the salon is a great touch. I love the intricate inside stairways. The office of detective is great and the hidden safe is a good idea. Could have used a bar inside the pool hall though. Love the toilet . Great to have a small flat upstairs.

Overall a nice build with unique features. Really adds something to my city. A not so old building for my downtown district. Well worth the money and as with all in this theme, a must have.

Summary

A very nice modular set, different in style from most what has gone before. To me - in looks at least - it looks more than a North American building than a European one. The background story - the pool hall is a Lego 'speak easy' - also points in that direction. The building experience was good, though during the build there were a number of things that made me wonder about the decisions made by the designers. The minifigures are well done, and so are the interiors; some of the interiors are rather crammed though, while the detective office in particular is much roomier. As it is, within the modular range I can only compare it to Assembly Square at the moment, which would be an unfair comparison. That said, I see the same attention to detail as in the anniversary set.

To me, one of the surprising decisions was to use the 'trap-door-recepticle' (the 6 x 8 stud 'ring' in which a trap door is hung) rather than a combination of 1x8 and 1x4 bars. The same goes for the 'incomplete' walls of the ground floor along the alley (they are not built to full height). Note also that the backside of Brickman's office (above the pool hall) is not supported at all.

Overall, I think this is a good modular, and deserves to be part of any modular collection. IMHO it is well worth its price.

Build experience

Overall, building this set was good for about 5,5 hours of building fun at a very easy pace. The division of the construction over the bags works well. There are many half-stud-off constructions (recessed windows, much of the upper part if the top floor) that can serve as inspiration for one's own builds. The construction of the eves is interesting as well. Tne designer did a good job in trying to make the construction of the first and second floor structures different for variety.

Tricky (and something to be careful with) is when building the wall of the pool hall over the passage for the cookies towards the alley, as the overhang is only supported on one side. The pool table as well as the news-paper box were fun little builds.Overall I do not consider the construction as a whole to be difficult.

Minifigures

There are 6 minifigures included, plus a very nice cat. Star figures IMHO are Ace Brickman, the detective, and Al the barber. The female police officer is equipped with both a hair piece and a police hat. There is a nice variety in legs, torsos and hair-pieces, that mostly could be swapped around easily to create new characters. There is easily room for a few more characters.

The build

The build is clearly inspired by North American buildings, and the prohibition era - though rather than alcohol it is cakes that are smuggled. The route to smuggle cookies into the pool hall is designed nicely. Overall, the design is well executed, I really like the sign above the barber shop (its construction technique was also used for the comic store of Ninjago City) as well as that for the pool hall. The interiors are very well done, as are the details: they certainly measure up well to best that Assembly Square has to offer. The half-stud off construction works well for the eves as well as the recessed windows. My favourite room is Ace Brickman's office: the cabinets, the safe, the hidden compartment, luxury chair, the desk, it all gives the impression of a rather disorganized private detective that has come over straight from the movies.

The general colour scheme works well, and I truly like that there is a (near) complete brick facade. The alley leading up to the detective office is a nice touch. This, in combination with the eves, works well to counteract the otherwise bland / cube-like architecture of the block.

The missing upper sections of wall (between the alley and the pool room and barber shop) cannot be seen under normal circumstances. The fire escape from the first floor (working) is a nice touch.

Play vs display

This is clearly a display piece. There are a number of play features, and the various rooms do invite play, but are - unfortunately - difficult to access. Making full use of them means taking off the roof and floors, and moving away the stairs and ceiling-fan. As a display piece it works very well, though I would guess it does not have the general and 'easy' appeal that some of the other modular sets do.

The verdict

A very nice set that IMHO is in many set apart from the modular range, much like the 2018 diner set. Both seem to be based on North American designs, rather than European ones (as is IMHO pretty much the rest of the modular range). Somewhere it reminds me of something like South Street, Philadelphia, or certain sections of Chicago.

To me, the strength of the set lies in the details and interiors rather than the looks of the exterior: a difference with IMHO pretty much every other set in the modular range.

Is this set worth it? IMHO it is. Do I regret buying this set? Definitely not. Would I tell others to get this set over the likes of the Parisian Restaurant or the Brick Bank? Probably not, and I can easily see why people would prefer those over this set.

The modulars are undoubtly one of the most popular themes amongst AFOL's. And righteously so: they are intricate models with great parts usage and unique architectural features. Will the detective's office continue this trend?

Box/Instructions

The set comes in a big box with the D.O. prominently featured on the front. The instructions come in one booklet. Nothing special all in all.

Parts

This is both the greatest aspect of this set and it's weakest. This set features some great parts: the mirror, the sciccors, the unikitty tails. Yet it features so little of the generic building blocks in the many different colors that it is constructed of that it doesn't lend itself that well as a parts pack or as a basis for a MOC.

It does however come with a plethora of doors and windows with some very nice printed window panes.

Minifigures

The minifigures are okay. The match the vibe of the neighbourhood very well. One thing though, a personal pet peeve: the torso of Al the barber. WHAT IS THAT? It looks like a torso you would find in a '94 set. His bow tie is between his nipples, the vertical striping is more akin to a sports jersey.. I dislike this torso so much...

The build

I felt that which each floor the building process became a bit les interesting. While the roof has some interesting details the build itself is quite repetitive. The highlights in terms of construction for me were the pool table (excellent, just wonderful), the ceiling fan-lamp thing (so lifelike!) and the water tank on the roof. It is also nice to see the lettering featured in the Pet shop make a return.

The completed model

It is a very diverse, city-like block. It just works, you see New York, the grimy alleys where the regular Joes live. And it is wonderful next to the Brick Bank (put the Pool cafe and the laundromat next to each other). While you might argue about choice of color for the blue walls on the second and third floor, it does prevent the building from becoming to drab.

Could it be improved? Yes, I think so:

-Personally I would have liked a separate entrance with a stairs on the back side for the office.

-The toilet area could have been a normal apartment.

-That tree just looks wrong. It is to small and doesn't fit the type of neighborhood in my opinion.

So minor criticism basically.

Overall opinion

All things considered I would recommend this to anyone looking for a good time building. However, if budget is an issue this wouldn't be my first choice amongst the modulars available. For me it just lacks the WOW factor that Parisian Restaurant or the Brick Bank brought although I can not pinpoint why. But again, make no mistake: this is an excellent model. 4 outta 5!