Don't worry, I always keep the instructions. But if I take it apart, I wouldn't need to rebuild it because I'd have the facades by then.

I think I'll take them apart once I get the organizers I need. Even though they look nice, making my own building says alot more than just using something that's a Lego set. Their tiled sidewalks wouldn't go with the sidewalks in front of the facades, which will be studded. Animating on tiles are a pain, anyway. Thanks for your input.

I think they are very nice sets, so if you aren't going to use the pieces then you should display them or something... But if you do need the pieces but want to keep the facades to use as background you should alter them so that all the pieces in the back are not present, but only the front. Kind of like a movie set. And if you think that the facades are so ugly that you want to throw them into a volcano, first thing, don't, and second, BREAK THEM!!!

Well isn't that one of the greatest things about LEGOs? You can take the sets apart and build whatever you can imagine. My mom knew a woman who got her son the new Imperial Flagship ($180), and one day he started to take it apart; the woman then decided to glue together the ship, because she helped with making the ship and wanted to make sure he didn't take it apart. Personally, I cringe at this idea. Taking apart LEGO sets is what you're supposed to do! That's why people love LEGOs; if you want something that stays as one thing because it looks nice or costs a lot of money, buy a model kit. LEGOs are made to be broken, plain and simple.

Even though they do look good, I'm still going to take them apart. There are alot of useful pieces in them, like doors, windows, roof pieces, brown bricks, tan bricks, light green bricks, and light blue bricks. Plus, building the facades will be more original than using something Lego designed. With the facades, they might not be as detailed as the modular buildings, but detailed enough. most of them will be 2-sided front to back, and some will be 2-sided corner to corner.

No point in getting a set and not taking it apart I say, this set was made largely out of the Eiffel Tower, it's far more useful to me then built up. I always cringe a little when I see actual LEGO sets appear in movies, they never fit in with the rest of the films look

You should sell me the Green Grocer.  I went to buy it just as it went out of production.  Really wanted that set.

Remember the advice from the Lego Movie

Man, if I had even one modular building, I'd never take it apart. For me, the whole point of buying one would be to make a convincing looking street (which I've avoided attempting in any brickfilms so far).

But it's up to you. They contain a lot of great pieces (or so I've seen on Brickset) so for the amount of money they are, it would probably be more cost effective to take it apart.

"Nothing goes down 'less I'm involved. No nuggets. No onion rings. No nothin'. A cheeseburger gets sold in the park, I want in! You got fat while we starved on the streets...now it's my turn!" -Harley Morenstein