27 November 2020

LEGO® Modular Building reveal: 10278 Police Station

Posted by Admin
The latest set in the popular line of LEGO® Modular Buildings Collection has just been revealed - 10278 Police Station. It will be available from 1 January 2021, when we will review it in full, but in the meantime Caz Mockett (BlockHeadUK) thought she'd share some of the new elements spotted in the official images.

LEGO® 10278 Police Station contains 2923 pieces, 5 minifigures and will cost £169.99/ €179.99/ US$199.99/ AU$299.99/ CA$269.99. The age mark is 18+, and the model is 25cm/10in wide, 25cm/10in deep and 37cm/14.5in tall.

Exclusive New Parts in 10278 Modular Police Station


A new 1x3 concave slope in Medium Stone Grey / Light Bluish Gray is being introduced – at least 12 are used on the roof, and at least three in Brick Yellow/ Tan as part of the interior dividing walls.

It has a 1x1 plate cut out of the rear, which increases stability. The shape of the curve is designed to fit snugly with the existing Slope, Curved 2 x 1 Inverted (24201).

Exclusive New Colours & Printed Parts

Here are 11 recoloured and printed elements we spotted. Let us know in the comments if you see any more!

  • Plate Special 2 x 2 Gear with 6 Teeth (35442) in Dark Green/ Green - at least 12 are used for the foliage of the two trees either side of the main door
  • An unprinted version of Animal Body Part, Head Blocky with Pixelated Face Print (Wolf) in Light Bluish Gray (21098) as the detailing on the roof parapet 

  • Bracket 1 x 2 - 1 x 2 in Sand Yellow/ Dark Tan (99781) behind the 1x2 jumpers under the front windows
  • Window 1 x 4 x 3 without Shutter Tabs in Dark Brown (60594)  

  • Brick Special 1 x 1 x 1 2/3 with Studs on 1 Side (32952) in Sand Green
  • Tile 1 x 1 Half Circle (24246) in Reddish Brown and Nougat
  • 2x Tile 2 x 2 Round in Tan (15535) with Reddish Brown and Pink donut patterns 

  • Plate Special 1 x 1 with Clip Horizontal in Medium Lavender (61252)
  • Bar 7 x 3 with Double Clips (Ladder) in Dark Stone Gray / Dark Bluish Gray (6020)
  • New print for the dark blue Police torso

We also spotted a rare colour of an element returning after a very long break:

Plate, Special 1 x 2 with Ladder in White (6317345|4175) - not seen in this colour since 1991, and used here for Venetian blinds inside the top floor. 

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LEGO 10278 Modular Police Station Press Release

Here is the official press release.

THREE-FLOOR POLICE STATION JOINS THE LEGO® MODULAR BUILDINGS COLLECTION

The LEGO Group has announced an amazingly detailed new addition to its Modular Buildings Collection with the unveiling of the LEGO Police Station. 

Hiding a wealth of features behind its impressive facade, the eye-catching new model consists of three floors and a modular structure that allows LEGO fans to fully explore the intricate interiors and increase the building’s height.


Designed as a centrepiece to a bustling LEGO neighbourhood, the LEGO Police Station also comes complete with a donut shop brimming with sweet treats and a newspaper kiosk, as well as five minifigures including a 1940s-inspired police officer for ample storytelling possibilities. 

Adding further architectural interest, the outside is decorated with brightly coloured awnings and ornate cornicing. The LEGO Police Station is fully compatible with other products from the LEGO Modular Buildings Collection and makes a striking display piece alongside these, as well as on its own. 

The feature-packed floors of the LEGO Police Station are filled with secret surprises and delights for true-crime fans. On building the set, it soon becomes apparent that a mystery donut thief is on the loose. Naturally, the LEGO Police Station is fully equipped to tackle even the most sugary-sweet of crimes, with an evidence locker, jail cell, interrogation room and case board with red lines connecting all the clues.


Inside, all levels are connected by a grand staircase and are stocked with uniquely designed pieces including a billboard, telephone and a typewriter. The ultimate Easter Eggs and clues to solving the mystery of the Donut thief come in the form of a hidden escape route beneath the jail cell and a secret access route to the Donut shop. 


Chris McVeigh designer at the LEGO Group commented: “We’ve had a lot of fun designing the LEGO Police Station. An architectural gem and treasure trove of quirky features, it’s the perfect place to start building your LEGO streetscape, or a brilliant addition to an existing one.” 

Totaling 2,923 pieces, the LEGO Police Station is the latest addition to the LEGO Modular Buildings Collection which also includes the Bookshop, Assembly Square and Corner Garage. The LEGO Police Station will be available to purchase at LEGO.com and from LEGO Retail Stores from January 1st 2021.


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All images are ©2020 The LEGO Group.

19 comments:

  1. Thanks for the good analysis.
    Two corrections regarding the new 1x3 curved slope: it is concave, not convex, and the cutout at the rear is 1x1, not 1x2.
    Good spotting on all the new and rare parts!

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  2. The Plate, Special 1 x 2 with Ladder in White was also on the back of the Ghostbusters Ecto-1 which is already released, so it's not quite new for this set.

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  3. The female officer has a different torso print than the two males. There's something that resembles an Imperial officer rank badge above her right pocket, it has a necktie, and is a single-breasted design vs the males in a double-breasted design. I suspect this is mean to indicate she's a desk sergeant or higher while the males are patrol officers. Both torsos are unisex (no cinched waistlines).

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  4. I was VERY surprised about the unprinted Minecraft wolf heads, since that's the sort of part I would have definitely expected to be IP-locked. Now that we know that piece is allowed to appear in other themes, I wonder what others we might see used as generic building elements going forward. New Elementary's post about some of those parts a few years back certainly shows just how interesting some of their proportions and geometries can be…

    The new inverted half arch was a delightful surprise when my brother pointed it out to me! It's a great addition to a family of curved pieces which also includes the current 1x6 arch (92950) the 1x6 mudguard/wheel arch (62361), the 1x4x2/3 bow (93273), the 3x4x2/3 triple bow (93604), the 1x2x2/3 half bow (11477), the 1x2x2/3 inverted bow (24201), and many more.

    As a bonus, the radius of these curves closely approximates that of an 8x8 circle, which opens the door to various uses in conjunction with bricks, plates, tiles, and domes with a similar radius.

    I've also realized over the course of the day how many interior details we still haven't gotten a particularly clear look at in any of the pictures — for instance, the tape recorder in the interrogation room, the "evidence locker" mentioned in the set description (presumably inside the attic of the Sand Green building which has a door connecting it to the rest of the station), the bathroom on the station's third floor, the water cooler in the station's lobby, the record player and kitchenette in the thief's apartment, and the crawlspace down the stairs from the station's lobby.

    I don't expect any surprise new pieces sequestered away in these less visible parts of the build, but I definitely will be looking closely to see if there are any exciting building techniques like past Modular Buildings' and 18+ sets' interior furnishings tend to boast.

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    1. They just used one of the small Minecraft heads as a lampshade in another set, so this isn't even the first time.

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    2. Indeed, and I think the Diagon Alley set used full-size Minecraft heads as (square) balloons. But since those are pretty much just cubes, I was less surprised about them being available for use iin other themes than I was about one of the animal head molds, since those have somewhat more Minecraft-specific proportions.

      Considering just how many other animal head molds Minecraft sets have introduced (rabbit, panda, parrot, cat, chicken, horse, bear) this opens up a huge number of future possibilities for parts that could show up in other themes.

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  5. 1x2x3 window frame (60593) in Dark Red is also a welcome addition

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    1. I don't think I see any of those? Some of the "lifestyle" photos have distorted colors (possibly because those were meant to be the CMYK versions of the photos instead of the RGB ones) that makes the Reddish Brown parts look Dark Red (in addition to severely distorting the color of the Medium Lavender parts).

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    2. Ah yes, I am mistaken and they are reddish brown. Dark red would look equally good in the donut shop but one can only have so many recolors I suppose...

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  6. Slope 45 2 x 1 w Cutout w/o Stud (28192) in Nougat

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    1. I think it's Medium Nougat but it's good either way.

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  7. I suspect the "Bracket 1 x 2 - 1 x 2 in Sand Yellow/ Dark Tan" is actually a 1x2-2x2, given that the underside of a bracket can be seen flush with the inner wall (to the right of the typewriter desk).

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    1. I think you're right. You can see the dark-blue awnings out of the typewriter windows, proving that they're the same windows. The plate bottom in the wall isn't a normal plate, but the little bit you can see looks exactly like an up bracket. Most importantly, it really simplifies things for the geometry immediately above the bracket, where there's very little space to work with.

      The only problem is, that's an up bracket facing studs outwards, and on the outside it's a Type III 1x2 jumper plate facing studs inwards, set back about half a plate. The wall is five plates thick, and when you account for those two parts and the inset at the front, there's only about 2.5 plates, or one stud of room to work with. That's got to switch from two studs (bracket) to one (jumper), with the smooth back of a bracket sitting right above it, and smooth tile tops sitting right below. I've come up with a lot of crazy SNOT solutions over the last 1.5 decades, but the only possible solution I can think of is to attach another jumper plate to the bracket and use The One Ring as a stud-reverser. Even with recessed studs where the logos don't increase the height, that's an imperfect connection, and I don't know if they'd consider it to be a "legal" connection. We have to wait one more month to find out the answer. Does anyone else have any theories?

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    2. I think the actual solution is probably a pair of 1x1 round "nipple" plates and a 1x2 rounded plate. That would achieve the stud reversal as well as the spacing (set into the wall slightly more than the top edge of the bracket.

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    3. Shoot! I meant to get back to this post. I also thought of the nipple tile, but I was figuring they'd just use another jumper to get the proper stud alignment. I just tested all three solutions in LDraw, and both of mine result in the jumper plate being flush with the outside wall due to the recessed stud, while yours has hollow studs that allow the nipples to be fully inserted, yielding the half-plate offset seen in the photos. They also used the same construction to link the Hogwarts Moments books together, so I suspect that's a technique that is rapidly becoming common knowledge amongst the System set designers.

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  8. Three cops, a crook and a doughnut shop sales assistant. So just who is looking after the news stand?

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    1. The donut thief is also running the newsstand. Apparently so few people buy newspapers that he has to steal food to eat.

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    2. Wasn't that donutjob (to paraphrase an animated movie) also headlining his newspapers? Criminal activity with the underlying intent of selling newspapers sounds like the plot of "Tomorrow Never Dies"...

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