Detective's Office

Lego have announced the latest Creator Expert set, and the tenth set in the modular building series, and have really gone to town detailing this one, 10246 Detective's Office. The building is in fact multi-use, with the office taking up the first floor, opposite a period toilet, while below you'll find a pool hall and barber shop. The third floor has a kitchen and roof area, complete with skylight and water tower.

As is customary in the modular building series, there are some really creative building techniques and parts use, including using Unikitty's tail element for architectural detailing, and making use of the new mini-ball hinges to hold up columns. There are new parts in the form of scissors and a large reflective mirror tile. Plus lots of great printed parts, including lots of newspapers, a dart board, and a brilliantly generic wanted poster, and the window of Ace Brickman's detective agency.. There are six minifigures, including the detective, a police-woman, and barber.

Check out the designer video to see some of the highlights of the set, and the candy-smuggling narrative that ties everything together:

New mini modulars at Toys'r'us

In 2012 Lego released a set of mini versions of the big modular building sets, rescaling the first five buildings in the series down to tiny proportions. This year a similar effect has been used for a series of four buildings, available exclusively at Toys'r'us' for their Bricktober promotion.

While the new mini buildings reflect some of the same building types as the larger modular building sets, this time they are not really miniaturised versions of other sets, just generic smaller buildings. Included in the series is a cinema, pizzeria, fire station, and city hall, each set also comes with a couple of small vehicles to populate the streets of the tiny city.

Continue after the jump for a look at all four (images via Lego on Facebook):

Fossil Museum, and other dinosuars from Lego Ideas

A few days ago a new project appeared on Lego Ideas, and instantly became my new favourite: Fossil Museum is the kind of Lego set I dream of; it's got dinosaurs, it's got a nicely thought-out design, and would slot neatly into wider Lego world. I love dinosaurs, and fossil skeleton displays are at the heart of that love; the wonder and the majesty of a fully assembled dinosaur is just spectacular; you don't need fancy interactive exhibitions and overly designed displays to appreciate the beauty of these amazing animals.

And it seems I'm far from the only one, the project has had a remarkable rush of supports in just its first few days. The creator, whatpumpkin, had included a range of dinosaurs, so there's something for all dinosaur tastes: Stegosaurus, Apatosaurus, Spinosaurus, two Deinonychus, and a Pteranodon. If you haven't already, please add your support, and let's get this great design made into a real set.

Dinosaurs have come up in several nice Lego Ideas projects (indeed I have thoughts on a making a couple myself), continue after the jump for a look at some other great dinosaur projects you should support!

Lego's next modular building is Town Hall

Images have begun to surface of Lego's next modular building set, and this time we're getting a town hall:

I look forward to seeing what treats are in the interior, and some higher res image to get a better look at that nice roof-light feature.