By Rakesh Gosai (SAFOLs Brick Deputy)
One of the most anticipated LEGO® sets for me released this year, the LEGO® Boutique Hotel 10297. This is the 17th LEGO® Modular building that LEGO® has made. The LEGO® Boutique Hotel was designed to celebrate the 15th Anniversary of this well-loved Creator Expert Theme.
The set consists of 3066 pieces and is already available from your favourite LEGO® store in South Africa. Get your bags packed and get checked in to this beautiful rendition of this hotel!
This hotel is unlike anything LEGO® has done on a Modular Building and its fitting for the 15th Anniversary set to be something special. The instruction manual has a fitting introduction to the Boutique Hotel and the Modular Building theme. The designer is Anderson Ward Grubb, and he has cleverly hidden references to the previous Modular Buildings. I enjoyed that because it helped me appreciate the current and previous renditions in this series.
The amount of minifigures in this set is 7, which is above the average amount of minifigures that were included previously. More minifigures just increase the playability of this set.
The minifigures are:
- An accountant
- A backpacker
- An older lady
- The art gallery curator
- A barista
- A male bellhop
- A female bellhop
Included with the above minifigures are two mini builds i.e. A coffee cart and a luggage trolley.
The build is an amazing experience and continuously engages you as you build the various sections. The variety in the build kept me engaged with the furniture on the inside, the variety of colours used in this set, the staircases, and the beautiful architectural details on the exterior of the hotel. Each bag feels like you are building something different.
Sand Green is a favourite colour of mines, this is used at the top section of the hotel. I enjoyed the clever use of the black snakes on the roof, keep an eye out for that! One of the stand-out features of the build is the way the building is angled and gives the set a unique feel.
Keep an eye out for the beautifully designed staircases in this build, there are many as this set is three stories high. The art gallery is an amazing addition, it does feel very small, but the details squeezed into this section are really fun. The painting inside looks like a character from the theme called “Galidor”, an unknown theme to me. Included in the gallery is a LEGO® sculpture, I have not seen this featured in any other sets.
The palm tree at the outside bar is another amazing detail, something new and bright unlike the ones I am used to seeing in older sets. The staircase at the rooftop bar has a notice board which has plenty of references to the previous modular buildings, a very clever way to include this in such a small board.
The hotel itself features two rooms, one large suite and a smaller room. My daughter always asks me where the toilets are in these sets, and this set has only one in the large suite! Poor minifigures that use the smaller room! In the large suite, a nice feature was the chocolate on the bed and bottle of wine. This suite has a black and white television with an actress from The Palace Cinema.
The Boutique Hotel makes is an amazing build with beautiful colours and beautiful design. From start to finish, I was engaged. Once the build is completed, you can’t help but admire it from all angles. This was a perfect set for me and rated 10/10!
