I'm a sucker for little "slice of life" Lego sets like this one. The bank isn't being robbed by the Brickster, there aren't a million cops in helicopters descending upon the bank, nothing out of the ordinary going on at all, really. It's just a bank, the type of small-town bank that's found all over the world. This is one of the best Town Jr. sets. It packs so much in a mere 99 pieces it's insane. The best part by far is the bank building, the armored car, while a nice detail, leaves a little to be desired. But as far as having a nice new building for your town that ISN'T a police station or fire station, this set is superb for what it is.

The Building: By far the best part about this set. Is it juniorized? Well, yeah, it is, shockingly enough for a 1997 vintage Lego set, but this is one of the few times that it really doesn't knock too much against it. It's got everything it needs and nothing it doesn't. There's a public-access area on the bottom floor, featuring a teller, a computer, and a cash drawer. There's an employee-only area on the top floor, featuring a computer console that appears to have a direct line with the police (a silent alarm perhaps?). There's a security camera (great touch, though it could use another), and my favorite part, the ATM. ATM's are not exactly common among Lego sets and this is a great representation of one. I particularly like that it's attached to the main bank building, as most ATM's in real life are. The little green plant awning thing above the ATM is a great touch as well.

It looks like a branch bank. Maybe not the central, main bank, but certainly looks bank-ish enough to be a small town branch. The only real design flaws of the building are that there isn't much on the top floor (easily enough added, though) and that there are no stairs leading up to floor two (though again, you can add that and again, almost no buildings of the time period *did* have stairs in them). This thing makes a fantastic addition to a Lego town. With minor modifications it can get even better if you're so inclined.

The Armored Car: Unfortunately this is the weakest part of the set. Nothing deal breaking but unlike the bank building proper, this thing is a bit lacking in the believability department. Back in 1997 Lego's Town design department appeared to have been run by someone with a deep-seated phobia of car roofs, having had one terrorize them as a child causing deep seated psychological trauma. This person issued a decree that no Lego town set under his watch shall have a vehicle with a roof (except a couple of course) and this one was no exception, and probably one of the strangest roofless vehicles. A convertible garbage truck is odd but not technically impossible. A convertible armored car? Yeah that's a bit much.

Also there's a rollbar, because you hae to have that rollbar everywhere, even places like here where it makes absolutely no sense because there's nothing really blocking the money-containing part of the van from the driver, so it's not very armored or secure at all. There are sirens above the windshield that are a nice touch (or would be, if it had a roof), and the big grill piece on the front of it does wonders for making it look "armored", as do the fence bricks on the side. It's a shame the silly rollbar and lack of roof are there, just because other than that this is a great little model. It looks utilitarian enough for its purpose and I actually really like the use of a window pane brick with a little clip brick on it as the "armored door" on the back of the armored car. Is it super realistic? Well, no, but it looks the part and a ten year old's imagination won't mind.

I also wish they'd have re-enforced the top of the back of the van. The three window blocks that make up the back of the van are only connected to the car by the bottom of them, and good Lego design 101 is "always re-enforce things on the top and bottom where feasible". It would be plenty easy to do with this (and I did as a child), just add a 4x6 plate to the top of it. On the same token, another 4x6 plate on top of that in the front gives this vehicle a roof with the added authenticity that comes with that.

Building Experience: I feel so bad always giving low rankings for this category. I swear there are good building experiences out there, just none of them were in the Town line of '97 through '99. It's not a bad experience at all, but the only real noteworthy parts of it are A) the clip on brick acting as a handle for the van backdoor... Creative, and I wouldn't have thought of trying that, and B) the neat way of attaching the security camera so it can swivel back and forth. Both cool little bursts of creativity, but other than that it's stacking the huge pre-made walls and floors.

Parts: Now this is what I'm talking about. This thing has one fewer than a hundred pieces and so many of them are rare, exclusive, and handy it's insane. The armored car side panels with the money printed decal are exclusives. The bank windows with the money logo are exclusive to this set and essential for building another bank of this scale. The ATM contanier flap is exclusive and very good looking. The security camera is at least pretty rare and handy to have, the computer bricks and keyboard tile are rare to the point of being welcome in anything, and the huge amount of money tiles and coin accessories are welcome additions to stimulating any Lego town's burgeoning economy. Great in the parts department, worth getting for that alone. Also the money-transporting containers are extremely hard to find and add a lot of playability to this set.

Playability: Very high. The troubles this bank can get up to if you're ten years old or thereabouts is insane, and of course the displayability if you're an adult that likes to display Lego sets is also high. Many different scenes and poses possible. the money transporting safes fit perfectly in the back of the armored car, the ATM can actually hold money inside of it, the cash drawer opens to reveal coins, the inside of the bank is very well illuminated due to its open nature... excellent playability. Whoever designed this set put a whole lot in a very small package. Just not an armored car roof.

Value For Money: High, but since 20 years has passed since this set's inception it's gone down a bit. As ever, ebay scalpers want hundreds for it, and bricklink sellers are much more reasonable in the 20's and 30's of dollars. Despite being so few pieces and having a disproportionately high amount of money per piece, it really is worth it due to the huge amount of incredibly useful bricks you can only get in this set, and the just fun nature of the thing. It's easier to find if you get it imported from overseas, though the money obviously goes way up when you do that due to shipping. I probably wouldn't spend more than 30 bucks on it but it's one of the few Lego sets with fewer than a hundred parts that's genuinely worth that much money. If you can overlook the handful of obvious flaws with it, it's a great set that's a lot of fun.

This set is COOL. I got it one day and quickly built it. The car is wicked with all the money cabinets and its great with both the bank men. i also think the ATM is wicked and so is the front desk. LEGO should make more bank sets to go with this one. This set is great with great play value and fun to build.

This bank looks much better than the LEGO City 'Bank and Money Transfer' set (3661). It comes with 2 bankers who have a nice rare torso. We also don't get any stickers, which is really cool about this model. This set includes a bank and a truck. The truck looks awesome - even if it's smaller than the newer versions of the LEGO City theme. There's a nice black grill in the front and there're some nice headlights in the front as well. On the top of the windscreen you can also see two lights and the grill door opens very easily. After you've opened the grill doors, you can take the safes with the money out of the boot of the truck.

The bank itself looks cool. I like the way LEGO printed the windows of this building. On the inside, you get an office on each floor, which makes this set very cool. On one floor, you can even see a drawer which can be opened. On the ceiling you can see a camera which you can sviwel and an antenna. I think this set is very cool. I don't know if this one is cooler than set 3661 from the LEGO City theme, because I don't have this set yet, but I'm sure that it will be much cooler. It's a great set to have for sure.

All in all, this set is a great set and I would recommend you to get this. You can find this set on eBay and BrickLink for sure. Here is the link where you can check out the full gallery I made for this set on my website: www.klokriecher.de


Videos I made of this set:

Stopmotion

Review

Speed Build

Lego never had many banks. I think only two in existence. So owning this one at the price and piece availability is a no-brainer for most town collectors.

This is an incredibly useful set. It's small yet multi-storied and can be integrated numerous times in town (meaning you can pick up a few more of these). Or you can take 2-3 of these and improve on the complexity of this set. The office windows and large walls can help create a nice foundation for a much larger bank or office even. The colors also are great.

I hope that Lego produces another bank in the near future.

I played with this set over at a friend's and think it is cool. There are two minifigs, an armored vehicle, a bank and alot of other stuff.

BANK
The bank isn't that great as it is so tiny and there are no stairs connecting the two floors. Building is also limited due do the large pieces used to build the structure. The CCTV camera adds decor to the bland look of the bank.

VEHICLE
The vehicle is very well-constructed and there is a space to put the money at the back. It also fits only one minifig driver.

MINIFIGS
There are two minifigs. The Bank Manager in the grey shirt seems to be in charge of all financing affairs. The other one is the Armored Truck Driver, who has the common face in the late 1990's Town sets. A gag can be seen on the cover box, where the Bank Manager is holding a safe bigger than his torso with only one arm. (Have you tried lifting a safe before? Its very heavy)

ACCESSORIES
As the most abundant part of the set, money comes in and we're talking big money. There are alot of LEGO coins and paper bills included in this set so I doubt that you'll ever be in debt again.

All in all, this set could be better if the building were less boring. Other than that, the armored truck is awesome and the money is too. I recommend this set as it easily fits into the city.

-asianlego