LEGO Ghostbusters Firehouse Headquarters (75827) Review

When the then Ecto-1 (21108) was announced that it would be the next LEGO Ideas set, Ghostbusters fans were both happy and sad. Good because we would be getting an iconic car, bad that we wouldn’t be getting the firehouse to go along with it.

Fast forward about a year and a half and rumors started swirling in the community that we would be getting the firehouse in 2016 and back in October, it was revealed that we would indeed be getting the Firehouse Headquarters (75827) next year and shortly after that, the official images of the set were released. The set features details from both Ghostbusters and Ghostbusters II.

The Firehouse Headquarters (75827) has been available for purchase at LEGO Brand Stores and on Shop@Home and I’ve finally had time to build and review it. The set contains a whopping 4,634 pieces and retails for $349.99. It is the third largest set in regards to piece count that LEGO has produced behind the Taj Mahal (10189) and the UCS Millennium Falcon (10179).

The contents of the box include a large bagged instruction booklet with two sticker sheets and a dark gray 32×32 baseplate. There are also two boxes filled with numbered bags, the first with 11 bags numbered from 1-3, a dark gray 16×32 baseplate, and two firepoles. The other box also contains 11 numbered bags from 4-7 and two 6×16 brown plates. The rest of the bags are numbered from 8-14 and two un-numbered bags of plates and Technic bricks.

Box

I normally don’t do a review on the box but it is absolutely gorgeous. As you can see, it has the hazard stripes on the side that’s the same look as the Ghostbusters ghost traps. The design of the box is staged in portrait layout but the detailing photos on the back are in the landscape layout.

Minifigures

There are a total of twelve minifigures in the set: Egon Spengler, Peter Venkman, Raymond Stantz, Winston Zeddemore, Janine Melnitz, Dana Barrett, Louis Tully, Slimer, the Library Ghost, Zombie Driver, and Blue and Pink Ghosts.

The minifigures of Egon, Ray, Peter, and Winston are all brand new with this set. All the torsos have gotten an overhaul and now feature printing on both of the arms with the No-Ghost logo and elbow pads. Also, all of the Ghostbusters have proton packs and radios. There are also two ghost traps which is slightly modified from thee Ecto-1 version. For this set, the hazard stripes are now printed 1×2 tiles instead of the yellow grille pieces that were used before. Egon is pretty much the same minifigure as before but now he has a new accessory with his P.K.E. meter.

Peter’s minifigure has gotten the most new detail with green slime all over him which comes from the scene where he is slimed by Slimer and he uttered the words, “he slimed me” when Ray shows up. He also has a new slime face printing with a disgusted expression. Unfortunately, there is no extra torso with no slime on it. If you want that version, you’ll probably have to switch out the arms from the Ecto-1 version or get him from the LEGO Dimensions Ghostbusters Level Pack (71228).

Ray is also the same minifigure as before and Winston has a new hair piece which is also seen on Finn from the Star Wars: The Force Awakens sets.

Next up is Janine Melnitz and this version of her is from the first movie as well. She wears a striped blouse with the signature red plaid outer vest.

Dana Barrett or the Gatekeeper is a great representation of the movie character. She wears the reddish-orange dress after she’s been possessed by Zuul. She has a double-sided head with a fairly normal expression on one side and a evil red eye possessed expression on the other.

Following Dana is the other half of the equation, Louis Tully or the Keymaster. His outfit is the blue striped shirt and brown pants which is the one where he had the party with his clients and was subsequently possessed by Vinz Clortho. Like with the other minifigures in the set so far, Louis also has a double-sided head with a happy expression on one side and the possessed look on the other. He also comes with an alternate head that has him strapped on with the colander and chin strap printing where he was being evaluated by Egon.

Next up is arguably the most recognizable ghost in the film series in Slimer. It has sort of a muted trans-green plump body mold. What I mean is that Slimer’s coloring is not the typical translucent coloring that we’re used to seeing. The face printing is passable with its open mouth expression but it does look a little cartoonish for my taste. There’s also printing of some slobber around the mouth. The Slimer in the LEGO Dimensions Ghostbusters Fun Pack (71214) will have a clean version without the slobber. Its accessory is a hot dog that you see it eating later on in the movie.

The Library Ghost is the first ghost you see in the movie. The torso is a regular torso with some pink blouse printing. The legs are the newer ghost legs which we first saw in the LEGO Ninjago sets. She does have a double-sided head with a normal look on one side and the other side is the scary transmogrified form when Ray yells out to get her. She also has two different sets of hair, one is the bunned gray hair and the other is the white frizzy hair after she transforms. Her accessory is a stickered book called Magical Paths To Fortune And Power which is the book that Peter ordered in Ghostbusters II.

The Zombie Driver is a pretty simple minifigure that wears a black leather jacket with black pants. The face is somewhat gruesome and he wears a black beret. He was seen for a very short time in the Ghostbusters after the containment unit was shut down.

Finally, we have two un-named ghosts in Blue and Pink. They have the same molding but the facial expressions are different with the pink on being more scarier. The coloring on the ghosts are more transparent than Slimer.

Build

From looking at the front and sides, the Firehouse Headquarters has the distinct look of the Hook & Ladder Company No. 8. The only downside of the exterior is that the back of the building is absolutely terrible. It doesn’t even look remotely close to being similar to the other walls of the building. All the other have the outer layer of bricks to cover up the building foundation but the back is only single layered. For the other three sides of the building, you have a lot of details with masonry bricks spread throughout. The roof is pretty bland with some ventilation which also hides a clip to the building closed.

In the front of the Firehouse, you have the main gate as well as the regular door for a person to enter. Above that, you have have Ghostbusters No-Ghost logo which is are stickers. Note that the logo on the Ecto-1 was a printed logo so I’m not sure why LEGO didn’t go with that route instead. Behind the sign is the building name which says “75827 Firehouse 75827” and is also stickered.

On the left side of the building, there isn’t much to see with only a fire escape ladder going down the side of the building.

On the other side, you have a traffic light on the street corner alongside a trash can. This pole tends to get knocked over when you’re building if you’re not careful. It does give more detail to the set as a whole but it’s also somewhat of a hassle. Further down the sidewalk are some trans-pink pieces that represent the pink ooze from Ghostbusters II. Above on the building facade, you can pull out a few of the tiles and attach the trans-clear bar on to it so the ghosts seem like they’re flying.

Now on to the interior of the Firehouse Headquarters (75827). There are two different ways of getting into the interior. You can either open up the two hinged sides or by lifting each floor level.

I have a minor complaint about opening the side wall up to get to the interior. As you can see, only the first floor has hinges so the there isn’t much support for the other two floors and the weight of them rest on the three hinges on the bottom floor. This could be because of the way the set is designed for making removing the floors a little easier.

On the first floor, you have the receptionist/parking area. There are a lot of small details packed in this area like Peter and Janine’s desk, the lockers for Egon, Ray, and Peter. The lockers are able to store the proton pack. Janine’s desk id very cluttered with a computer, a rotary phone, ad a lamp. There’s also printed 2×2 tiles of newspapers scattered everywhere.

Speaking of parking, the Ecto-1 technically can park inside the Firehouse with the doors closed however there’s a caveat. In order to do that, you’ll pretty much have to push Janine’s desk out and everything else behind it out of the way to get the whole car in. It’s nothing too tragic but at at least we’re able to fit the Ecto-1 inside considering that the car isn’t isn’t part of the set. I’ve seen a lot of complaints about this issue.

Since there’s no actual basement for the Firehouse Headquarters, LEGO has decided to put the containment unit under the staircase in the back of the bottom floor. It is able to open up and you can also store a trap inside. On the back wall, you have a stickered 2×4 tile bulletin board which gives a small tribute to Harold Ramis.

On the second floor of the Firehouse Headquarters, we have the kitchen which is probably the most detailed area in the whole building. The cabinets are filled with pots and jars. There’s appliances like the fridge, microwave, and stove with a ventilation hood. The table in the middle has some more of the pink ooze and the dancing toaster from Ghostbusters II. On the other end of the kitchen is a fireplace and an arcade machine with the Stay Puft Marshmallow Man as an 8-bit character.

In the next room, you have the sleeping quarters with three beds and on the opposite hinged section, you have a full bathroom with sink, toilet, and shower. There’s also some green slime near the toilet and on the checkered floor.

On to the third floor, we have Egon’s laboratory. This is where Egon examines Louis after being possessed by Vinz Clortho. There’s a lot of little details like the computer and shelves filled with jars and containers.

On the other side of the room in the middle, you have a pool table. On the wall, you have a map of the real location of the Hook & Ladder No. 8 at 14 North Moore Street.

Over on the hinged side of the building, you have the darkroom where Egon and Ray used to develop the museum pictures of Vigo the Carpathian. As you can see, there are a couple of stickers of Vigo hanging up on the wall behind the table while the table itself is on fire. Outside of the room, you have the fire extinguisher that Winston uses to break down the door and put out the fire in that scene.

Finally, you get to one of the main play features of the Firehouse Headquarters (75827) with the fire pole. This is a new piece in pearl gold that a minifigure can slide down while holding on to a handlebar piece. The two ends of the pole are held on by some Technic pins so resetting the minifigure up top is easy. As they slides down, they also spin due to the spiral shape of the pole. This is a very nice play feature that Marcos has implemented in the set.

Results

Fans of the movies will definitely enjoy building the LEGO Ghostbusters Firehouse Headquarters (75827). While three sides of the outside of the building is pretty accurate, there’s not much else to see especially in the back which is the probably the worst part of the entire set.

The minifigure selection is pretty much perfect with pretty much all the main characters from the first movie being featured, minus Gozer and Walter Peck. Hopefully we’ll see them in the future to complete the full lineup.

As for the details of the inside of the Firehouse Headquarters, it’s nothing short of amazing of how much stuff from the movies that was able to fit in like Egon’s lab and the pool table area where the toaster danced, just to name a few things. You also have some easter eggs from the movies like a tribute to the late Harold Ramis, images of Vigo, and so on. There’s also the fun firepole that the minifigures can slide down on.

With all this good stuff, there are also some things that aren’t so good and fluffy. First is the price and time commitment. At the $349.99 price point, it might be a tough pill to swallow unless you have some VIP points saved up or there’s a deal going on like double VIP points event where you can get more for your money. Then there’s also the time to put the whole thing together. At 4,634 pieces, it’s the third largest set that LEGO has produced and it took me about 11 hours over a few days to place the last brick on.

One thing that I didn’t like while building the set was that it’s a little fragile especially on the hinged side of the building where one of the walls sit on top. You might experience it coming loose when opening and closing it. One thing that fans might not be too thrilled about is that the Ecto-1 might not fit in all the way unless you push back some of the stuff from the first floor. To me, I’m perfectly okay with this considering the Ecto-1 isn’t even part of the set but I’ve seen comments from various places that don’t have the same sentiment.

For the casual fans, you may want to skip this or hope to get it during a special time but for hardcore fans, the LEGO Ghostbusters Firehouse Headquarters (75827) is a set that you’ll most likely want to get as it is probably the most definitive LEGO Ghostbusters set that has been released so far.

A big thank you to LEGO AFOL Relations & Programs team for sending in this set for me to review. The content above represents my own opinion and not the company.

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