Post Office MOC Review: Facade, Sorting Room and Roof
In street-scene building, the post office is one of those evergreen subjects. It sits at a comfortable size, its structure is tidy and regular, and it slots naturally into a town as a second or third building. I picked up a post office MOC instruction set on BrickPlans (brickplan.cn) to build and test, working through the facade, the sorting room, the mailbox at the door, the service counter and the roof structure one by one, to see whether it earns a place in your layout.
1. Facade: classic postal colors that read instantly
The exterior follows the classic postal palette: cream-white main walls, dark green window and door frames, and a warm red roof. Gold appears only on the signboard and the postal emblem, and the red-to-green area ratio stays restrained, so the finished model looks neither garish nor dull. The entrance is built as a rounded archway portico, with a double-layer arch structure plus cornice molding that gives far more depth than a flat doorway. The wall clock and the printed signboard piece above the arch are both strong additions. Overall it sits in the upper range for street-scene instructions at this price point. The only small letdown is that the front is slightly over-decorated while the two side gables look a little bare.
2. Sorting room: the interior is the highlight
The biggest surprise here is inside. Rather than leaving the post office as an empty shell, the instructions carve out a complete sorting room. A row of slanted letter slots runs along the wall, built from 1x2 plates and divider pieces, with a few printed letters tucked inside. A sorting desk, a floor scale and a worktop covered in stamps are all present. Minifigures have a clear path between the counter and the sorting room, and once the roof is lifted off you can display the full receive-sort-send flow. The storytelling is strong, and it holds up well when placed in a town.
3. Mailbox and service counter: solid details
The red cylindrical mailbox by the door is standard-issue and well executed: two stacked cylinder bricks plus a dome piece, with the mail slot printed on the front, and the proportions feel right. The one gap is that the instructions do not include any letter accessories for the box, so you will want to add a few white 1x1 tiles yourself to make it livelier. The service counter is more carefully done. The wooden counter is built from dark brown bricks, with a scale, stamp and writing paper on top, a pendant lamp hanging above, and just enough queue space in front for one minifigure, which makes photo compositions easy.
4. Roof structure: removable, but watch the stability
The roof is designed as a single layer that lifts off completely, which makes showing the interior easy and is a real plus for a street-scene model. In testing, though, the clutch points between the roof plate and the floor below are on the thin side, and the roof tends to shift slightly when you lift it off and set it back down. I would add one positioning stud piece at each of the four corners during the build to lock it in place. The instructions also leave no channel for light-kit wiring, so if you plan to light the model you will need to route the cables yourself. Worth knowing before you buy.
5. Overall verdict and buying advice
Taken as a whole, this post office MOC instruction set does well on structural completeness, interior detail and exterior recognizability. The parts list is clearly organized by color, so gathering the pieces is not a chore. Points off mainly for the somewhat weak roof attachment and for the mail-themed small accessories you have to supply yourself. If you are just starting a street-scene town, this post office makes a very good second or third building. If you want a more polished result, a light strip and a small number of third-party accessories will take it up a level. Search "post office" on BrickPlans (brickplan.cn) to find the instructions, and the BrickPlans blog has plenty of street-scene building and review references worth reading.