LEGO City 7744 Police Station

I bought this set for my son who is 6. The set is incredibly detailed and of great quality. It took us both a long time to work through the colour instruction booklets, which take you visually step by step through each stage of construction of the police station, cars etc.

The toy is great value for money as there's hours of play to be had with a Lego set of this size. My only gripe is that there are so many tiny, tiny pieces it's impossible not to lose some of them to the vacuum cleaner!

The Lego Police Station has always been one of the cornerstone products of the Town/City range, and this new version is no exception. In fact, it probably trumps every preceeding set, its that good!

We'll get the negatives (such as they are) out the way sharpish. The modular construction is fine, and like the Castle stuff, allows for various reconfigurations. However, there are a lot of smooth tiles used at various contact points where parts of the building fit together (notably the watchtower and interview room) which means the structure doesn't hold together as sturdily as it should. If knocked, this means whole parts of the building come away. This can easily be remedied by using studded beams in these areas, which is something I will be looking into myself. There are also a large number of decals to apply. This is a personal thing, but I much prefer tampographed bricks. Adding stickers not only limits the reuse of said bricks in other creations, but it also prohibits it as the stickers increase the size of the brick (albeit by fractions of millimetres), making it awkward to fit next to non-stickered bricks should you wish to create your own models.

Right, now thats out the way, lets focus on what this set does have, which is a ton of features and details! The play value of this set is immense! The jail cells and watchtower are excellent and thanks to a nifty bit of engineering, you can stage your own jail break as sections of the wall can be flipped away. The cells themselves are superb, with graffiti, toilets, mugs and beds. Clearly, these are cells for some of the worst elements of Lego City, as they are open to the elements! There is some nice detailing with manual keys pegged up, as well as an electronic key pad for the cells, plus a storage rack for the handcuffs!

Elsewhere, the main station has two garages for housing the panda car and (my favourite) the dog handler's van (complete with fearsome police dog!). Inside the garage is a tool stand comprising a spanner and hammer for those routine maintenance jobs. Up the flight of stairs leads you to the desk sergeant, busy tapping away at a computer (with keyboard and flatscreen, no less!) and next to him is the top copper, sitting at his desk doing...stuff. There's also a safe and water cooler on this level too!

Above them is the interview room, complete with mirrored wall! The interview room has an adjustable lamp (perfect for good cop bad cop scenarios!), as well as a notice board with various mug shots. Those watching the interview can help themselves to a coffee from the coffee machine (a shame there's no doughnuts included!).

The vehicles themselves are excellent. Whereas previous Lego Police Stations have given us a reductionist version of sets available separately, these stand up well to their `sold separately' competitors.

With seven minifigures and a police dog, there is ample scope for your own police adventures. A superb set, and despite the relatively high price tag, remains excellent value for money. Highly Recommended!

I bought this for my seven year old son with Christmas money he got from grandparents. He is delighted with it. He built the station in one day with help from his nine year old brother. They are seasoned Lego users but certainly the construction info is beautifully clear. It is a very comprehensive piece of kit and seems good value perhaps because of all of the accessories and the attention to detail. We have a lot of Indiana Jones and Star Wars Lego but I think the boys would agree that the Lego city kits are more fun to play with after building. I love the little toilet rolls (daft but they just make me laugh) but all the office stuff and cars are great. I would recommend it highly to anyone who has enough space to accommodate it.