Reseña del LEGO Icons 10362 Café Francés

LEGO Icons 10362 French Café is an unexpected LEGO Experiencia: verdaderamente excelente de construir, pero difícil de entender más allá de eso.

With no minifigures (nor built to their scale) and no back of any kind, what is 10362 French Café and will it strike a chord with those looking for something different, or those coming into LEGO ¿Por primera vez? ¿Tenemos el sucesor de la siempre popular Colección de Edificios Modulares?

Prensa: Marzo 1, 2025 Precio: £ 69.99 / $ 79.99 / € 79.99 Piezas: 1,101 Minifiguras: 0 LEGO: ¡ORDENA YA!

Un AFOL en París

10362 French Café is nothing if not well-timed, if only for a glance across at the most closely-related Modular Buildings Collection, also in Icons. That subtheme has just marked 20 releases across almost 18 years with January’s 10350 Esquina Tudor y está bien establecida en su identidad y ethos, tanto que estamos empezando a sentir las limitaciones de su alcance y potencial.

Incluso si se trata de conjuntos como 10350 Esquina Tudor Contribuye a impulsar la construcción modular de forma creativa, como habrás notado en reseñas recientes de dichos sets (y aquellos que toman prestado mucho del mismo libro de reglasdel ADN, tales como los 21353 El Jardín Botánico), que como LEGO La experiencia ha cambiado muy poco a lo largo de los años. Si bien es cierto que es una serie que ha tenido éxito tal como es, ¿por qué cambiar? El problema es que el nivel de técnicas utilizadas en los modulares parece tener un techo de cristal y un espacio definido para trabajar, y a veces nos deja con una experiencia de construcción que puede parecer formulista y simplista en algunos puntos. Compare un conjunto de construcción modular con los espacios creativos mucho más nuevos y libres dentro de un... LEGO Botanicals or LEGO Art Prepárate para ver a qué nos referimos.

Lo que nos lleva al pariente cercano de los edificios modulares, la colección Restaurantes del Mundo, que comienza aquí con 10362 French Café. Es una oportunidad para aprovechar todo lo bueno e interesante de lo que hayamos construido antes en LEGO y aplicarlo a un nuevo conjunto de reglas de diseño.

Esas reglas son inmediatamente diferentes en el tamaño del espacio que estamos construyendo, ofreciendo una sección transversal del frente de un edificio, y está construido sobre una base de ladrillo con bordes negros que está muy en línea con lo que hemos visto en temas con licencia para sus ofertas más orientadas a la exhibición y dirigidas a adultos.

Con un vistazo rápido a la construcción también se puede apreciar que hay una variedad de técnicas integradas en el modelo y, al menos aunque sea solo como primera impresión, muchos más detalles de los que un edificio modular típico podría ofrecer.

Es una fachada

The things that are interesting and can draw you into 10362 French Café, though, are also seemingly only achieved through a notable compromise. As mentioned, we are building a cross-section of the front of a building here, and that’s very much all we are building, for display purposes only, with the back to this thing placed firmly against a wall and never spoken of again. It’s a compromise that obviously allows a lot more pieces to be worked into a far more detailed front exterior to the build (for context, 1,101 pieces sits 147 shy of 2007 modular building 10190 Market Street, and roughly between a third and a quarter of the piece count that goes into more recent modulars with their multi-storey, interior-and-exterior designs) and for the budget to remain competitive (at £69.99 / $79.99 / €79.99 it’s open to a different market than the modulars).

Por un lado, se trata de una apuesta de la LEGO Group. It's a new creative concept that opens up all sorts of new design rules for what promises to be a new series of sets, but starts with a very clear and quite restrictive rule – it’s a façade. There’s no real interior to interact with, what you see is what you get, and from certain angles only.

Por otra parte, es exactamente lo que necesita una nueva dirección creativa que sigue a algo tan sorprendente y exitoso como la Colección de Edificios Modulares: reglas fuertemente definidas que establecen este conjunto (y cualquiera que pueda venir en la misma serie) como algo completamente diferente.

Why are we talking this much about the fact it’s a façade? Plenty of LEGO sets in the past have effectively been façades, across many themes, and to varying degrees of success. Even so, none have – to our limited recall at least – cut off the backside of the set so coldly and inaccessibly as 10362 French Café does. This is a hard-line back wall that is for nothing and for no-one. We’ve never seen it before, and whilst it is unusual to see in a LEGO set for how limiting it is in play, it does establish a unique definition for the set and any possible series of such sets to follow.

Es un movimiento que se refleja en la ausencia intencionada de minifiguras en este set. Ya hemos oído hablar de las LEGO Group’s understanding that minifigures effectively ‘get in the way’ of the LEGO experience for a sub-section of fans and, whilst there are plenty of LEGO sets out there that get by without needing a little LEGO person to be included in them, few provide a build like 10362 French Café that leaves their absence so conspicuous. It is truly fascinating to build a scene that has the makings for a cute couple enjoying some table service from a French waiter only for such characters and story to be left out.

So much existentialistic talk of a LEGO set. Ah, but we are in France here…

Sin minifiguras

How does the actual set shape up then? Right off the bat with construction of the pave-stoned floor you can see that 10362 French Café is a cut above and, as per the notes in the instructions booklet pointing out some of the techniques being used, is all about exploring and celebrating new build ideas.

Without the size, full building or minifigures of a modular buildings set, 10362 French Café needs something different to it, and looks to a more disciplined, involved and intricate build process to find it. This is a LEGO experience that will slow you down, purposefully, and demand a little more attention and concentration than either what you may be used to from similar-looking models, or that you may be expecting from what could be one of your first LEGO sets. And those little notes picking out details, techniques and even parts usage? They are some of the most personable comments in LEGO instructions that we’ve seen for a while, to the extent that it begins to feel like the designers behind this set are actually sat with you pointing clever things out as you build it.

And, once you give the set the extra time and care that it needs and get through that first bag of parts that put the base together, 10362 French Café will pull you in and show you exactly how many clever things it has within it. And that’s because this is clearly a design team that is having fun, building to a higher level and taking you along for the ride as you see some of the tricks that they weave into various stages of this model. Some details are subtle and you may actually miss completely or not fully appreciate the deeper understanding and skill required to create such things, whilst others that you do spot will cause you to pause and take a second glance at for how novel they are – not every LEGO set can do that, and it’s very much the strength of 10362 French Café here.

For what 10362 French Café sets itself up to be (and somewhat boxes itself into needing to be), it is an enjoyable, interesting and wholly unique LEGO set to build that different types of adult LEGO fans can find value and fun in. In addition, the final model has a real solid weight to it that reflects the sheer amount of brickwork and technique that has been worked into it. As a display piece, it has an odd specificity worked into it with that cold, flat back, but front on it is really detailed and captures a lot of character and charm for the subject matter it is focused on.

All that being said and perhaps in the design team’s likely mission to set clear design rules and ideals, and even establish a series moving forward, 10362 French Café feels a little too boxed in for broader appeal. For those specific LEGO fans not wanting minifigures in such a typical playset environment, this is a great little grown-up set perfectly formed for display on a desk or shelf as pretty decoration. But for anyone thinking you can merely add your own minifigures afterwards and begin to build around the set a bit more, you need to be aware that this is a set that has not been designed with minifigures in mind, and the proportions and scaling will highlight that the minute you try to place a minifigure anywhere within the model. Case in point...

Además de esto, si bien el libro de reglas que establece 10362 French Café comienza con tanta promesa y realmente se destaca en la construcción del modelo con todo tipo de consejos y trucos incluidos en el diseño, el hecho de que estés construyendo una fachada de escala un poco extraña se siente como un verdadero anticlímax, al igual que el hecho de que sea solo un restaurante y, lo que es más importante, que cualquier otra cosa que venga en esta serie probablemente también será lo mismo.

Los aspectos positivos de la experiencia de construcción y el valor novedoso detrás de 10362 French Café deberían generar un interés adecuado en este set, pero no podemos imaginar que haya un apetito realista por toda una serie de estos, particularmente si se trata solo de restaurantes.. Parte del encanto y atractivo de los edificios modulares, City and Creator is the variety of buildings that you can put together. How many restaurants would you honestly have interest in building, if it were a series?

Encasillar 10362 French Café, y cualquier otra subserie de sets que surja de ella, en unas reglas de diseño bastante particulares y potencialmente divisivas, y en un solo tema, parece una decisión innecesaria que reduce el espacio creativo que, de otro modo, podría explorarse para algo que busca diversificarse de las reglas establecidas de los edificios modulares. La creatividad y la experiencia técnica invertidas en el diseño de 10362 French Café son excelentes y son justo lo que buscan quienes desean crear un nuevo espacio. LEGO for Adults can thrive with. But it’s likely going to be lost if all the other rules and the choice of subject matter that it is used within are as restrictive as this.

Nuestra honesta opinión: Surprisingly wonderful to build but quite weird in scale and, when you think about it, as a LEGO set in general. Kudos for trying something new, and we recommend if you get the chance to try it out, but we can’t see this being the best direction for an entire new series. The shadow of modular buildings continues to loom large.

Este conjunto fue proporcionado para revisión por el LEGO Grupo.

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