LEGO 10362 French Café – a slice of Paris [Review]

LEGO’s focus on deep building experiences for adults really took off with the debut of the Modular line in 2007 and Architecture one year later. With LEGO Icons 10362 French Café, the first set in a new Restaurants of the World subtheme, LEGO seems to be splitting the difference between intricate diorama detail and shelf-ready display piece. For whom does this slice of the Belle Epoche toll? Does it toll for thee? Available now for pre-order, and shipping on March 1st, LEGO Icons  10362 French Café retails for $79.99 | CAN $99.99 | UK £69.99 on the LEGO website. You may also be able to find it through third party vendors on Amazon or eBay.

The LEGO Group sent The Brothers Brick an early copy of this set for review. Providing TBB with products for review guarantees neither coverage nor positive reviews.

Unboxing the contents

The thumb-punch box for French Café is consistent with other 18+ Icons sets with a black background and a stripe of sand green brickwork along the bottom. The set’s title frames it as part of a Restaurants of the World series, similar to the recent Gardens of the World sub-theme.

Inside are nine paper bags numbered 1-9, a single square instruction book, two rectangular plates, and a flex tube. There is no sticker sheet, which means all those graphic elements are printed! (This is a blessing considering how many prints are on transparent elements.)

Here’s a preview of all of the printed elements we’ll be working with:

And while the set doesn’t include new molds, we do get some new colors, especially in peach. I tried to highlight those I could recognize here.

The build

We start by building out the foundation and sidewalk that the café will stand upon. By the end of bag 1, we’ll have used both of those lose black plates and established the base for the entire model. The base is fairly thick – 5 plates high at the thinnest edge – both for stability and to house the first of several innovative build techniques – a sidewalk made from SNOT bricks.

Let’s take a moment to appreciate the pavement pattern achieved by alternating stacks of window arches laid on their side. Almond-shaped gaps create a pleasing pattern that you might see on a stone paved sidewalk of the era. The gaps are tight enough that you can’t see the green tiles and sand green round plates underneath.

Bag 2 starts by having us fill the rest of the foundation with blue and white bricks and red tiles that will soon be covered. A reference to the French flag perhaps? The remainder of bag 2 establishes the footprint of the café, with the right side using inverted triangles to create a pleasingly off-grid angle.

With bag 3, we move onto the café proper, starting with a modest decorated interior that includes a chair, table, and register. Here we get a clear reminder that while the building techniques thus far have been similar, this is no modular, as the scale is too tall for a minifig and the space is too narrow to accommodate any play. The interior scene is framed by a double-wide frame (appearing in green for the first time) with a pair of clear doors printed with art nouveau flourishes in gold. We also get our first appearance of the café’s signature peach color with some lovely art nouveau columns flanking the door.

Bags 4 and 5 complete the ground level walls and windows. Green frames with printed clear windows are set in sand green walls. Both the longer right side and narrower left are build as separate SNOT segments laid across tiles to create the pleasingly off-grid angles.

Ever since building 10185 Green Grocer with its bay windows, I’ve been a sucker for techniques that break the standard grid. French Café shows how far LEGO has come with complex joinery using a mix of hinges, reflected triangles, and, quarter circle tiles to create asymmetry and sharp angles. Due to it’s slim size, French Café takes acute angles to an extreme with a point so sharp on the left that the final section of wall utilizes thin book covers to close the gap. It’s an impressive technique, in theory, but there’s still a conspicuous gap from the clips and it adds to incomplete look of the back.

Bags 6-8 focus on the arches and decorative façade over the ground floor. This part of the model is dense with tiles and plates used to sustain the irregular angles and allow for the ornate façade. Dark orange and gold join peach, white, and sand green, completing our color palette.

The arch over the door, built from new 1×2 slopes in peach, is a pleasingly complex section that looks wonderful when complete. I also liked the use of upturned pail handles in gold tucked into 1×4 arches as a gilded detail. Transparent book covers with gold print are clipped on to make the awning, adding more Art Nouveau flair.

Bag 9 adds the final flourishes to the façade, starting with a lovely printed name plaque over the door. Moving on, we clip the flex tube over the door. The arch looks especially good from an angle. Next we add lamps, a section of fence, plants, a sandwich board menu, and more tables and chairs for patrons. The final detail is a tall lamp post with pearlescent bulbs.

And voila! Our café is complete.

The finished model

The completed French Café blends Art Nouveau architecture associated with Paris’ Belle Epoche with the cozy outdoor cafes of Montmartre and its irregular streets. Details like the pavement pattern, asymmetrical angles, and the doorway arch are a testament to the ingenuity of set designer Hoang Huy Dang (who also designed last year’s wonderful Retro Radio). The scale – slightly larger than minifig scale – allows for a bit more detail than a typical single-floor building. It’s a beautiful façade so long as you view it from the front.

The back tells a different story. Compared to most other display pieces, outside of mosaics and wall hangings, the contrast of front and back is more pronounced than other LEGO builds. Outside of appreciating the structural craftsmanship, this isn’t a model you’ll be wanting to flip around often.

When this set was first revealed, like many, I was curious how it would compare to the modulars and how readily it might be modified to fit that line. I also had questions about the scale and how figures might be added to the tableau. Here we see French Café next to the similarly-themed Parisian Restaurant modular.

The café is wider than a modular, but only as deep as a modular’s sidewalk area. While French Café’s ground floor is roughly the same as a modular-level, with the half-floor façade above, the set would make an awkward transition to modular without some heavy alterations or re-theming. The double doors and arch might be appropriate for a grand hotel, but certainly not a cozy corner café. Something to keep in mind if you’re considering modding the set.

Testing out some minifigs, the café doesn’t look bad with some pedestrians passing by.

The illusion is definitely spoiled if you try to incorporate the chairs though.

The scale works even better with Friends minidolls, as they’re slightly taller (and used to not sitting in their furniture).

Or you could just modify your minfigs President Business style.

Conclusions and recommendations

As LEGO experiments with new concepts for adult builders that blend complex techniques with display potential, it becomes a bit harder to categorically recommend sets in the Icons line, even when they are admirable in many ways. 10362 French Café is definitely a caveated recommendation.

Throughout the build process I found myself appreciating the craftsmanship, especially with the complex joinery that allowed for the unique angles and patterns. But much of that complex design gets hidden in the finished build in corners that are only meant to be viewed from one side. This is a façade that looks great on a shelf, but the impressive detail is skin deep compared to modulars or most other sets in the Icons line. Furthermore, the uncanny almost-minifig scale will likely be a sticking point for some builders and collectors.

If your collection is less minifig centric, or you’re looking for a gift for someone who would appreciate an elegant shelf piece, then it’s easier to recommend the set to anyone with a soft spot for Paris and Art Nouveau.

With 1,101 pieces, LEGO Icons 10362 French Café hits shelves March 1st with an RRP of US $79.99 | CAN $99.99 | UK £69.99. You may also be able to find it through third party vendors on Amazon or eBay.

The LEGO Group sent The Brothers Brick an early copy of this set for review. Providing TBB with products for review guarantees neither coverage nor positive reviews.

The post LEGO 10362 French Café – a slice of Paris [Review] appeared first on The Brothers Brick.