LEGO Icons Modular Natural History Museum 10326 independent review! 

Great review, as always! And thanks for being upfront and honest about the quality control problems and misleading marketing info that the sponsored reviewers gloss over or fail to mention. Any real review needs to objectively discuss both the pros and cons--otherwise it's just advertising by proxy.

Speaking of quality control: is it just me or are a lot the injection points on the elements bigger and more unsightly than in the past? Maybe it's just from the extreme close-ups in the video?

I’m a bit disappointed in it personally. I still feel like peak modular was the brick bank. The interiors have just fallen a bit short as of late. I like the first floor but would’ve liked to see more prints etc against the walls. The second floor feels incredibly empty.

I like that this can both be used as a modular building adjacent to the rest of the collection, or as a stand-alone unit, which most of these museum-type of buildings are.

I don't know how this would work but I would have liked to see a basement. As most museums have a storage space for exhibits when they are in rotation.

wake up babe new Jang modular video just dropped!!

If I was to ever get this set I'd try to convert it into a manor house.

The interiors are important for play, but because these sets are oriented for an older audience the play aspect probably isn't weighed as much. Which is fair, but I know as a child I would have adored this set 😂 I adore it as an adult too!

The curator is actually meant to be Dr. Killroy from the old Adventurers theme! Random but cool inclusion

I'm very glad you talked about the interior. One of the biggest issues I have as a perspective buyer was the lack of interior space as well as the exhibit choices. Most natural history museums in the states(especially the smithsonian, which this set takes heavy inspiration from) have a large array of gems and stones that are sadly absent. Fortunately this is lego so being able to turn one of the rooms into a dedicated "rock exhibit" would not be difficult apart from the limited space. I wish that lego had gone with two large "rooms" on the topmost floor instead of three small "rooms" full of references.

This would look great with an LED light set installed. Also, a building like this would probably have some sort of botanical garden or cafe area in the back, and maybe moving the back wall out some to increase the interior footprint. I don’t think it would be unheard of for a building like this to border one street in the front and one street in the back.

I like this set but I feel like Lego is jumping the shark hard with their self referencing. There are about 100 ideas for the 2nd floor more interesting than "hey geezers remember this thing?!!"

I REALLY appreciate how much effort you pour into these reviews! Really pays off.

Jang, you have these reviews down to a science. Best in the business.

It's very bleak and empty.

I'm glad you raised the issue of the relative importance of the interior. For me, the fun of a Lego set is the build and then how it looks on the shelf for months or years down the road. All the interior details are quickly forgotten, and in a real way, when I go to purchase a set like this, I'm asking if the facade is worth the money. The interior and minifigures are just a lot of very expensive add-ons. In fact, I really wish Lego sold cheaper modulars that were just empty shells with no figures and that put all the artistry and ingenuity into the exterior that's actually seen on the shelf.

4,000 piece set for 300 dollars feels like a steal compared to licensed sets of the same class. Starting to become more and more of a modular LEGO fan.

Was waiting for this one! 100% agree about the interior. Externally it looks fine enough after exposing more of the windows to let the building breathe a bit. I kept that mostly unchanged but ended up ditching most of the stock displays and designing custom dioramas more suitable for an authentic natural history museum. The brachiosaurus and planetary display were interesting and well-built but we needed about half a dozen more mini-builds of that quality. Much of the valuable interior space was taken up by the references to lego's history which felt like filler this time and detracted from the overall quality of the interior. Big wasted opportunity imo. Overall, an above-average set with the potential to be great with some modifications :)

This was my first modular! I usually stick to architecture but I absolutely loved the silhouette and façade so I had to pull the trigger on this. Even though it's the only minifig scale thing I have in my little display it presents pretty fantastically. I especially loved the orrery too.

I am definitely in the minority when it comes to this set! I adore the olive green as a color on buildings- maybe it's because my childhood house was a very similar color! And the interiors having so much space really makes it feel like there's enough room for a whole field trip.

Excellent review, Jang! I appreciate your take on the exterior of the modular buildings vs. the interior.

Thanks for the great review. I really appreciate your quick but detailed observations.

If I buy this I’d add some vintage space Lego mini figures and old bricks as museum pieces, I think the empty spaces gives an opportunity to get a bit creative

Hey Jang, great review. I always hold off watching other people’s reviews before you release yours, always something to look forward too and doesn’t disappoint.

Loved building this - hopefully they’ll still do a special 48 stud wide modular for the 20th anniversary (like assembly square for the 10th)

Oh... it's olive bricks. I see why it's 4k pieces for only $300. Fantastic architecture.

Now u need Indiana Jones to go perfectly with the set 😊

Good set to go with Indiana Jones

Great review! I’m still mixed on this set. It looks great from the front and would be a wonderful standalone set on a shelf, but it’s almost too big to add to a modular street. I feel like it dwarfs your Assembly Square. The interior is mostly lack luster as well. I’d rather use the money to hunt down a retired modular set not already in my collection.

I appreciate your honest and balanced review. I saw it at the LEGO store and the outside does look cool, but seeing the inside it's a pass for me. At $300 the value isn't there. I'm a LEGO fan who actually does open up my modular buildings and mess around with them once build and there's not enough here of interest, especially at that price. I'm much more interested in buying the Jazz Club which fits my interests more, looks cooler, and is almost $100 cheaper.

I was honestly not impressed by the model when it was revealed, but this review helped changed my perception of it. It's a shame Lego seems to do a bad job at marketing their products well and it relies on fans to show off their models properly

Thank you for your review! I really like the exterior, but it's so empty on the inside, so I really hope for a good discount at the premium partners in Germany.

I was on the fence about olive green until I saw some MoCs with more "neutral colors". In my opinion, they looked way too plain. With that in mind, I think they made a good choice.

is anyone planning a MOC out of this and the Haunted House? Since the colors match well and the Haunted House contains a lot of great museum pieces, it makes sense for me to.build an even bigger museum out of them.

The caretaker's office needs a window and the safety barrier needs to be built up - mine will be a slightly modded version. This is the first modular building since Corner Garage that looks like an actual building you'd find on the street - like all earlier modulars did - not with the stupid combinations of tiny and ordinary-sized buildings and garish colours. I am so thankful that they are back to business at last. The only thing - my display cabinets comfortably hold 1x1 base plate sized buildings but this like Assembly Square is 1x1.5. So now there are 3 modulars that have to sit on top of the display (getting a lot of dust) - Town Hall (too high for the shelves), Assembly Square and Natural History Museum. My word, it is a little spare inside, though. Misses a whole floor compared to traditional modulars! For such a price that is poor. In this way it reminds me of one of the most beautiful modulars, Grand Emporium (although it doesn't have the street appeal of that one). The Lego Museum on the top floor references classic sets - the yellow castle is a giveaway! I agree with you 100% about the actual value of the interior. It is fun when you build but worth almost nothing afterwards. Pet Shop is my all-time favourite modular - incidentally. I think of that recent Birch Books shop and what a lame copy it was. Those earlier modulars, particularly Cafe Corner and Green Grocer - they are still the ones everybody stares at and comments on when they see my display. They don't know they are the first but they do know they are the best.

Great review. I always appreciate your honesty in your reviews and previews, especially since you pay for a lot of your review sets out of pocket so you probably have more independence in what you say. Not saying that the reviewers who get a set from Lego are sent a script but they might hold back a little because of it. Regarding the interior of this set, on one hand, I would like more but on the other hand, in most museums, there is a lot of walking around space so they probably tried to find a common ground but also being true to real museums.

looks like someone could do a Night at the Museum build, that would be neat to see.

Was that a mouse hole under the stairs just beside the bench? 🤔

Impressive set Building of some sort of classic architectural design Pretty realistic look Giving some retro vibes I love it 🥰🏫👍

I built this set without the instructions and I was impressed with its sheer size, and I agree with Jang that the olive green looks far better in person!

This is such a great-looking set. Unfortunately I have zero space at home for it. Wonder if anyone modified it yet to replace the things on the upper floor with more natural history stuff.

YesssS! I've been eagerly anticipating this one

Of all the Modulars, this is one of them.

This would be a pretty good mod for a Hill Valley town clock tower city.

Great, unbiased review thank you Jang! I think you're spot on in that the set in person looks way better than the pictures on the Lego website. I was on the fence with the color but after seeing others switching the color out for tan or white for example, I think the green was the best choice. It's a shame that more of the floor isn't tiled, that would make by far the biggest difference to the interior, especially the upper floor. And personally I'm happy they went for a larger-scale set, there's been too many single baseplate sets with multiple building styles, which is fine for display on a shelf but looks way too small in a larger-built city. I've been building my own museum loosely modeled on a converted old railway station, intended to house the lego dinosaur skeletons from a few years back - and it needs a lot of space to fit all three in, so completely understand that they downsized the dinosaur here... All the best for 2024 and look forward to seeing further developments on your own city.

4:35 I actually don't mind those there, its like the bands put around trees in the city to control the way they grow glad the large bone still exists thx for the review!

Funny, I was just looking for your review of this last night and this morning it appears! ❤

Great review as always Jang! I still have mine in the box, but cant wait to build it. I am planning to mod it into a Paleontology museum tho, as ive got no interest in the planetary and human history stuff. Also gonna build a Botanical garden to accompany the Museum

I got into modulars a couple years so I’ve been trying to collect as many as I can. This one I might pass on, unless I can buy it on sale

I own this modular and it’s the most disappointing thing to place it next to Assembly Square. - Poor colour matching. - Poor interior details. - Less overall mass. - Terrible injection sites in visible places from moulds that are way past being good. (Windows and ingot pieces on the front being the worst.) -Literally different sizes of bricks: running a fingernail along LEGO walls used to be perfectly smooth, now you can feel and hear the different layers. - Less minifigures. I refuse to buy more LEGO sets until their quality improves and I hope others also decide to vote with their wallets.

They included Pluto!

Needs a third level as it’s too short.

I'm still not a big fan the olive green, but I can see it coming off better in person than on camera, like you mentioned. The top floor is kind of empty, but this does provide more room for minifigures to be browsing around. We see how cramped it got by the Brachiosaur on the first floor. Yeah those are a bunch of LEGO sets, but at least the Pirates, Forestmen, and Castle could be representing real things haha. The Classic Space would be future speculation I suppose. I could see a building like this standing in its own area or maybe even block with grass, trees around it. I could see someone doing a setup like that and even maybe adding some outside exhibits out there. But I guess it has to be completely flat, so it can be flush against other buildings. I don't know if it would have worked to put flat windows on the sides or not.

I compare it to Assembly Square and it's just not there. This is a big box, and I like the green fine. Looks like very simple building and building experience. For the cost I think the second floor needs more.

unlike most people i like LEGOs olive green colour so unlike most people I like the colour scheme of this modular

Great review, as usual. All I am seeing from this set is that it's "yet another modular", nothing too crazy. I'd go as far as to say that it feels like the necessary substitute of Assembly Square, like the market demanded a new modular this big and at this price tag. Unfortunately, to me it can't compare to Assembly Square, especially considering it used to go for 240€ back in 2017. Times change, modulars evolve yet I don't find the appeal anymore, not the charm Cafe Corner and Green Grocer had.

Best LEGO RU-vidr EVER. P.S. I can't stand the sponsored people out there. You the viewer are paying for their LEGO collections. Stop watching!

I show up for the reviews but I stay to expand my vocabulary. Thanks Jang!!!

The roof looks rly good, better than I expected

A big dissapointment for me. It would look nicer in tan colour bricks and looks very basic compared to past modulars. I would rather get a Mould King, XMork modular than this one. Good thing it has a toilet as those are rare in the lego world. I think the only reason lego made it bigger for no special reason is to charge more for it!

I'm glad Jang reviews these so I can decide if I want to buy them. This one was...boring. Not because Jang's review was boring, but because the set was boring. This will probably be the first modular I don't buy, unfortunately (or fortunately for my bank account.) Nothing really pops about this set.

As always, neat review! I like the idea, but to me it's too large. I think it misses the "classic" modular feeling, mainly because of it's size. I just prefer the smaller(and more affordable) buildings.

I'd like to think that because Lego can never stop including Ninjago references, that the Minifigure chosen to be the Curator of the Museum is based on The Time Twin Dr. Saunders/Krux. Also hot dang, that's a lot of extra pieces that are definitely gonna be super useful for brick built signage and accessories and griebling. So that's really cool. I'd say for this much and how much mass there is it's pretty good, just once again a problem with Quality Control bein not up to snuff and that will be addressed as long as we are reasonable about making ourselves heard. Overall I'd definitely say that this set is a sorta glimpse into both the past and future history of the Modular Expert Buildings, and it shows just how much these sets have evolved and yet how much room there is for improvement. So yeah, over all a pretty good step forward once again. Although seeing this set in particular makes me realize that it's probably about time for there to start being some well update remade sets of the past and earlier years of the Expert Modular buildings. This definitely make me wanna see an updated City Hall set that's just as big as the Natural History Museum and a new Grand Emporium set that while not as wide is just as deep and still has the three floors and a couple of new additions like maybe a rooftop diner or Noodle Shop or Café or something. And maybe instead of and Escalator they just save space by putting regular stairs and that way there's enough room for a working Elevator similar to the ones in the New Ninjago City sets.😅

Seeing this 😍 Seeing the price 😭

Another modular, another disappointing interior. As a person who bought a Ninjago modular before getting a standard modular, both standard modulars I've purchased are big letdowns. Was a bit interested in this one, but I'll skip it. Thanks as always for the review.

I agree with how bad the consistency of lego colouring has gotten, especially with white bricks now I've bought UCS republic gunship recently and comparing it to my other models from 2008 clone wars, the white is almost a slight 'sunbleached' look to it. I think considering how much lego costs now a days and it being a "premium product" we should be getting the best of the best not what feels like a cheap knockoff (but hey the cheap knockoffs can at least get consistent colouring )

Overall it really seems like the "Natural History Museum" name is rather inaccurate. I get why they didn't do taxidermy and stuff but they shouldn't have called it a "Natural" history museum. The lower level is good but too small, and the second floor is so bare it hurts. It's a great concept but it needs way more to be complete. I wonder if the curator is a reference to Dr. Kilroy/Charles Lightning from Adventurers as he has the same glasses and facial hair style.

Love this build, recently got around to finishing this and its really good. Has some simple building techniques then has some very interesting and intricate ones. Overall 8 out 10 set and recommend. Great review Jang

Got this set for Christmas, and I love it, but I do wish Lego would stop making dinosaur skeletons white. Dinosaur skeletons arent white, they're a browny black sort of colour. I know this is pedantic but still haha

I got this set for Christmas can't wait to finally build it. I spent so much time building this in Studio in November and then doubling it up that I feel like I can build it without looking at instructions now! Great review!

Jang is the best reviewer. I honestly don't listen to any of the other viewers before listening to him! He's the best for sure.

One thing that was always a slight nitpick to me was how alot of building sets have the same color exterior walls as they do interior walls. Usually it's easy to ignore though, but with a set like this it's impossible to not notice the olive green all over the place, gives it a dull, decrepit look. It's nice on the outside, but inside it really sticks out like a sore thumb. The area with that spinning planet display should be in a dark room for example, to signify an outer space environment

Awesome set I'm not sure about the color. I think the main color should have been light nougat with white and maybe other colors as accents Its awesome that it fills up the whole baseplate for the first time in a while IMO the dinosaur takes up too much space, I would probably replace it with something else That's the beauty of the set though, its perfect to customize.

If that's supposed to be a brachiosaurus then I'm disappointed. Surely they could've made the tail shorter an the body slanted.

Should the set be more filled out, sure but that is where creativity comes in. I have always seen the Lego modular buildings as good starting point but you can add space and elements to fill out the space. That is what makes so cool.

Weird how empty it feels inside. Like they made it look so large and massive from the outside but failed to capitalize on the additional space on the interior. Comparing it to Sanctum (which has a kind of museum vibe), that makes better use of the space inside and feels more detailed because of it.

$300 is a little much IMO. Don't get me wrong, it's a great building but there isn't a whole lot going on.

It's just a green box. Most of the time these builds are built for display and isn't being opened to see inside. so why not make it something interesting to look at. If Lego can't be bothered to make something interesting then it shouldn't have been made. The banners and tree are the only eye catching thing about this. Take those away and all you have is a green box. Does lego even try anymore, is there anything interesting coming out anytime soon?

One of my least favourite modular sets. I'm just not a fan of that colour

the set is so beautiful, but the furnishing is a little empty.. i feel like thats pretty fixable though

Loved that, so more interesting and entertaining than the traditional speed build, brilliant work.

Personally I think the museum looks better alone then with any other modular

Should have had a lion statue out front. But that french bulldog rocks 🔥

I want to put the doughnut under the microscope 🔬 instead of the petri dish

Wait no frogs for the tree? Must be a dogwood then and not a cherry blossom lol

The interior feels kind of empty.

I think the colors should have been light nougat and white

More expensive than my phone which is $200

HANG ON. Are the 3 museum employees Pippin Reed, Johnny Thunder, and Doctor Killroy?!?!? The curator's mutton chops tipped me off but the other guy's mustache and the woman's curly hair, combined with the fact this is a MUSEUM and all the other references to past Lego themes

Simply line up this between other modulars is a bit bland. Usually, big (Natural) Museums have a garden or park around it. I would suggest 4x16 spacers with trees, benches, etc between buildings.

Very impressive design and attention to details in this set!

Thank you very much for giving us a well balanced evaluation of the museum. I enjoy mine very much.

So far I only miss the first 4 (financial out of my league). Or first 3 and 5th, but that isnt that important. However, I will skip this one. Maybe it is just me, but I dont like it. It is a bit what you say in your afterwords, but mainly it is the shape. It is from the outside just a big block of plastic. Yes, interior is nice, very nice. And I am one of those fans that looks inside, but overall, just a chunk of plastic bricks from the outside.Well maybe I just use it as an excuse to quit with my modular collection due to lack of room.

Might just be me trying to see the most positive out of it, but I don't think the interior is all that bad (except maybe a bit heavy on the self-referential stuff) In addition to the exhibits, the museum should be full of figures enjoying them. Excited kids running around and tired parents trying to wrangle them. I think with 20+ figures it wouldn't feel very empty. Of course, the set doesn't include that many figures so I don't think they should get any "props" for that lol

All of your reviews are independent no?

A terrific review, Jang. Am always appreciative of the time and effort you take to go through each aspect in detail and to provide a fair assessment of the set. This set isn't for me - I'm actually reducing things down because of space restrictions. But I do like it and the olive green was a colour choice I particularly enjoyed - strong Parisian Restaurant vibes, which is no bad thing!

You can easily transform this into RPD from Resident Evil Two, I’m tempted to get this just to do that, it be a project though

The rooftop makes me remember the original Bladerunner's climax scene. It's a good thing.

Is it just me or does the Museum Curator look like the Professor from the classic Johnny Thunder sets., Dr Kilroy?

I wish they had picked a historical figure to make a lego statue of, like maybe Teddy Roosevelt or something