This year, LEGO is celebrating 15 years of LEGO Modular Buildings. The series began with the #101823 LEGO Creator Cafe Corner released back in 2007, gradually followed by other buildings. The series has an enthusiastic following amongst LEGO fans that eagerly discuss, build, arrange, and display their collection. More adventurous builders also design their own Modular Buildings in a similar style, and may even make a little side business selling instructions.
As of this year, there have been 17 sets released in the collection, and discussing possible future sets, and waiting for the latest release has become an annual tradition amongst collectors and LEGO city building enthusiasts.
The first LEGO Modular Buildings were designed by LEGO designer Jamie Berard. Jamie is well known for his skills of using unusual LEGO elements as interesting architectural details, for his attention to color and style, and for charming back-stories.
Speaking of stories, Jamie is also very natural on camera and is a great storyteller. In fact, he was one of the first designers who regularly appeared in LEGO designer videos. Even though Jamie passed the torch to other designers to continue the LEGO Modular Building series as he is now working on other projects at the LEGO Group, he is still the best at sharing the history of this much-loved series.
In a recently released video, Jamie takes us on a 40-minute tour inside the secret LEGO vault hidden beneath the company HQ in Billund, Denmark. He talks about each of the LEGO Modular Buildings, their stories, hidden details, and more. It’s wonderful to watch and listen to a LEGO designer who is so enthusiastic about this series and has so much knowledge to share. I highly recommend watching it, so I enclosed it below.
As an easy reference to the whole series, here is the list of LEGO Modular Buildings released so far. The ones that are still available directly from LEGO are linked to the Online LEGO Shop. Earlier sets can be purchased via secondary marketplaces like BrickLink.com. Keep in mind that the oldest sets are the hardest to find and are the most pricey.
- #10182 LEGO Creator Café Corner – released in 2007
- #10190 LEGO Creator Market Street – released in 2007
- #10185 LEGO Creator Green Grocer – released in 2008
- #10197 LEGO Creator Fire Brigade – released in 2009
- #10211 LEGO Creator Grand Emporium – released in 2010
- #10218 LEGO Creator Pet Shop – released in 2011
- #10224 LEGO Creator Town Hall – released in 2012
- #10232 LEGO Creator Palace Cinema – released in 2013
- #10243 LEGO Creator Parisian Restaurant – released in 2014
- #10246 LEGO Creator Detective’s Office – released in 2015
- #10251 LEGO Creator Brick Bank – released in 2016
- #10255 LEGO Creator Assembly Square – released in 2017
- #10260 LEGO Creator Downtown Diner – released in 2018
- #10264 LEGO Creator Corner Garage – released in 2019
- #10270 LEGO Creator Bookshop – released in 2020
- #10278 LEGO Creator Police Station – released in 2021
- #10297 LEGO Boutique Hotel – released in 2022
It was encouraging to hear that it appears from the video that LEGO has no intentions to discontinue the series. In fact, they are now even adding similarly sized and detailed sets in other themes for those who would like to expand their LEGO city layout.
What do you think? How do you like the LEGO Modular Building collection? Do you own any of the sets? Are you displaying them as is, or do you add your own modifications, additions, and even custom buildings? Feel free to share and discuss in the comment section below!
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