LEGO London Bus 10258 Building Set (1686 Pieces)

I really like vehicle models and as I work in a transport adjacent industry and have done for a number of years in different areas this kit seemed like a logical fit. It is a classic looking double decker bus that brings to mind the old Routemaster buses that not only ran in London but were prevalent in Manchester in the late 1980s that I used to get to and from Uni every day. First off, lets talk about the punny destinations - they gave the other half an I a great deal of pleasure and amusement. Brickston, Yellow Brick Road, Brickadilly Circus and Twobytwo Square. There are quite a lot of stickers in this kit and they are my nemesis. The ones for the number plates and destinations weren't too bad but I really struggled with the ones for the advertising signage on the sides. Fortunately, I can report they peel off and restick easily and of the 6 on the side signage I think I had to remount 5. There is some repetitive building - all those seats! However, it didn't get boring which I thought making 14 seats for the top deck after making around 12 for the bottom deck would have tipped me over the edge but I still enjoyed it. Helped that it became almost like piece work and I was watching a Lego Expo video and discussing it with the other half as I assembled them. Great build that is really a display piece but the wheels work and there is no reason why the mini figures wouldn't fit that you may have in your stash if you wanted to play with it. I'm happy shoving this on a display shelf so I can look at it and grin. Number Of Pieces: 1,686 Average Price Per Piece: £0.06 Build Time: 5.75 Hours

My recent experience of Lego has been helping my granddaughter to build her Lego Friends sets, so this London Bus was something very different for me – a ‘lockdown' project inspired by a schoolfriend sharing his project! It was a very enjoyable build and the completed model looks even better ‘in the bricks' than ‘in the pics' – in particular the tiles on the sides look very heavy on the box and instruction booklet yet are fine on the model. There are many lovely details, the engine, staircase, ticket box, fire extinguisher, and seats. I made my own destination labels for the route that passed my school. I made a couple of minor changes: • I took out the 1x1x3 pillar from the front of the driver's door and replaced it with a spare 1x1 flat tile – makes the cab look better. • Also replaced the three transparent bricks below the windscreen with red 1x1, 1x1 with knob, and 1x4 bricks – and used the spare clear round brick to make an offside side lamp to match the one on the nearside (I took the 1x1 with knob from stage 45 and replaced it with a plain 1x1). I also built it with the shorter window as the last on the lower deck, and in the corresponding position upstairs, with a slight rearrangement of the bricks and plates above and below – it looks better balanced. As others have said, it would be nice to have at least driver and conductor figures. The only real disappointment is the front of the upper deck, the corners look a mess and the screen (with that awful sticky label) slopes too much – it really needs special bricks for the top corners to merge the front and side roof curves properly. I am now investigating the extra parts needed to extend the whole model by 2 studs to eliminate the short window altogether – downstairs the seats over the rear wheels would be for four as on the real thing, upstairs the seats could be moved back 1 stud to eliminate the awkward '1½' seats at the front, and the rearmost seat moved forward 1 stud with a proper seat rather than the bench. Anyway it's got me being creative!