What's on the Front of Your LEGO® Set?

I recently reviewed #60233-1: Donut Shop Opening and I commented that the box did not include the set name when I originally posted the review. I found that to be quite odd as the name of the set is always on the front.

Fast forward a few weeks and I received a shipment from Amazon.com in the US which included #75957-1: The Knight Bus. The box came with a sticker on the left side with the usual information I always see on sets. If you look at the second picture I posted, you can see what it normally looks like. It took me a bit to put it together, but the one on the left was not produced in LEGO’s North America factory. Apparently US sets have all of the information while sets in Europe do not have the name and piece count. Like the #60233-1: Donut Shop Opening set I purchased from Smyth’s in Germany, the set I received from Amazon.com was made elsewhere (Europe or Asia), a sticker was added to meet the US rules, and it was sold at Amazon.com. That must be how LEGO is trying to fix its supply chain with the Mexico factory shut down due to COVID-19.

I have a few sets here that I purchased at Smyth’s in Germany. I wanted to do a check to see if they all were like that. First off, some architecture Skyline sets…

For comparison, here are two versions below. The North America versions have the piece count and let you know that it is a building toy. Which if you’ve seen the first LEGO® Movie, you know that it is not a toy. It is “actually a highly sophisticated inter-locking brick system.”

Here’s #75276-1: StormtrooperTM Helmet purchased from Smyth’s in Germany. In looking it up, the North America version has the piece count and the abbreviation in Spanish. Then it says it is a “Building Set” in English, French, and Spanish.

One last one… this one was also purchased from Smyth’s in Germany and it is #10254-1: Winter Village Train. It looks very similar to the North America packaging per what I could see on Brickset.com. The North America version says “Ages/edades” above the 12+. This set picture has pieces abbreviated in English, German, Spanish, and… I’m not sure what “db” is. Anyone? The North America version just says “pcs/pzs.

So there you go… If you’re in the US, pay attention to any new sets you get to see what the packaging is like. Your set may have traveled a lot farther than you’d think. I haven’t done a deep dive of the instructions or any of the other markings. Has anyone else noticed any differences?

Happy building!

Set Review - #21047-1 - Las Vegas - Architecture Skylines

LEGO released the Las Vegas Skyline as part of its Architecture series back on 2 September 2018. While I’m not a collector of every Architecture set, this one hit home with me because I lived in Las Vegas for 4 years. It retails in the US for $39.99 and with 501 pieces, that makes it $0.08 per piece. I picked it up at Amazon.com for 20% off or $31.99 so no complaints from me on price. I just had to wait for the set to be discounted.

Most of the sets in the Architecture Skyline series like #21039-1 Shanghai feature famous landmarks in the city, monuments, tall skyscrapers, or other key buildings. Las Vegas is the only one that features only resort casinos. I’m not sure what else they would put… the Hoover Dam? Or… that’s really it. So they selected a few of the casinos and given that there are so many in Vegas, they had to choose. They picked mainly from the Strip (except for one) and originally they were in order of appearance as your drive through the Strip or along I-15 that runs parallel to it. Unfortunately for LEGO, one of the casinos they choose was the Mandalay Bay Resort where in October 2017 a really awful thing happened there and a lot of innocent people lost their lives. When LEGO announced the set, there were a lot of comments about it being inappropriate to highlight this Resort after what had happened less than a year ago at the time. So they smartly delayed the set to redesign. Now the skyline is not in order, but it works.

Onto the review…

Here is the box. The front shows the completed set, the back shows the completed set with pictures of the actual buildings nearby.

The box has 5 unmarked bags and an instruction booklet. The instruction booklet has some facts about the city and the buildings in the beginning and then throughout the build. It also has a number of quotes to include the one I posted from the box.

If you’re bored, Google “Cinnamon Stomberger.” It’s not who you think it is…

Onto the build… The base is built first. It’s nothing out of the ordinary. Space for the buildings with a printed tile on the front.

To start the build, you make the Fremont Street Experience and the Stratosphere hotel. Fremont Street is in Downtown Las Vegas and not a part of the Strip. For those of you not familiar, the Strip is actually part of Unincorporated Clark County. So the city of Las Vegas gets mad that it doesn’t receive tax revenue from the Strip. When I was there they were promoting Downtown Las Vegas quite a bit because they got revenues there. At the time, downtown was pretty sketchy, but I hear it has improved. The Fremont Street Experience is much larger than what is in the set so it was scaled down substantially. I get what they tried to do, but it doesn’t to much for me. They should have added another of the better known casinos instead of an inadequate Fremont Street Experience model.

Next up is the Stratosphere which is on the northern end of the Strip. I lived in Vegas before smart phones were big so instead of GPS, we navigated around the city based on where the mountains were and the Stratosphere. I think they did a good job capturing it in a miniaturized LEGO form.

Next up on the east side of the Strip and still on the northern end is Encore which is part of Wynn Resorts. Encore is the second hotel which was built after the Wynn and it looks very similar. My guess is they choose Encore over Wynn to get the Wynn name out of the set given recent misconduct reporting on the company’s namesake CEO. Encore is a curved hotel which makes it a challenge to build at such a small scale. I think LEGO captured the color scheme good, but at such a small scale, adding in the curve makes the building look a lot less sleek than it actually is in real life.

The Luxor is on the southern end and west side of the Strip. The LEGO build has half of the hotel casino and then the sphinx out front. The head piece is pretty cool and they captured the obelisk out front too. The only thing I would have improved on would be the famous Luxor light on the top. They added in the red light on top of the Stratosphere and I think it would have been cool to show the Luxor light too.

The final building is the Bellagio. The Bellagio replaced Mandalay Bay in the set. Mandalay Bay is next to and further south of the Luxor on the south end of the Strip. The Bellagio is actually further north on the west side of Las Vegas Blvd. No big deal…. I think they did a good job capturing this casino and its famous fountains out front. If you have never been to Vegas, definitely YouTube the fountain show. It’s cool to see and even better in person. There is another tower to the left that they didn’t include called the Spa tower. I've spent the night there and got to watch the fountains from above. Pretty cool! The wings of the hotel are held up by some clips so the back of the hotel is ugly looking in this design, but as long as you stick to the front, you’re fine.

Last up is the famous “Welcome to Las Vegas: sign. I think this is the only time I’ve seen a Skyline set have a printed tile versus a build. I get why they did it, but I think it looks tacky. It also doesn’t look quite to scale given the pieces behind it.

Here’s the final set… I think the designers did a decent job capturing the city given the constraints, but I don’t agree with all of their choices. Fremont Street looks dull and the Encore loses out of its sleekness. Could they have added in Caesar’s Palace and its statues? Paris Las Vegas and the Eiffel Tower? Treasure Island and the pirate ship? The Mirage and the Volcano? MGM Grand and it’s awesome bright green color? NY NY? I realize you are limited to space so maybe the goal was to pick buildings where you didn’t have to put a lot of outside detail into the model to get across the resort you’re building.

My overall take is that I don’t think I would have picked this one up if it wasn’t on sale. Also, having lived there, I have a connection to the place too. As a touristy place, I’m sure selling a brick built version of the Strip goes over well to include at the LEGO Store that wasn’t there when I lived there. The build was alright and there are some decent pieces, but overall this one didn’t excite me.

What are your thoughts?

Set Review - #21039 - Shanghai, China - LEGO Architecture

I don't review too many of the Architecture themed sets, but here are a few I've done in the past if you are interested:

#21023 - Flatrion Building, New York
#21031 - Burj Khalifa, Dubai, UAE

This review is of one of the Architecture skyline series within the Architecture theme.  These skylines were started in 2016 with New York City, Berlin, and Venice.  2017 had Chicago, London, and Sydney.  2018 brought this set and will have Las Vegas which was delayed due to it's inclusion of the Mandalay Bay resort and casino and a forced redesign after tragic events that happened there a few months back.

This set is the first in Asia and my guess is it is an attempt to garner support from the huge market in Asia and China.  It was released in the US on 1 January 2018.  It contains 597 parts and retails in the US for $59.99.  That works out to $0.10 per piece.  I purchased the set for $47.99 from Walmart which works out to $0.08 per piece.  As of the writing of this post (early April 2018), the set is on sale for 20% off at Amazon.com and Walmart in the US.

Onto the review... The box looks much like the other Architecture sets.  Set on the front and then description of buildings on the back.  It opens the same way as the others too.

The contents are 6 bags, an instruction booklet, and 2 flex rods not in bags.  The instruction booklet has some great pictures of the actual city and some descriptions of each of the buildings.  After the English version it goes through the same in Spanish and French.  I'm kind of a fan of the unmarked bags.  You have to find the pieces versus opening bag 1 and then 2 and so forth.  It makes it more of a challenge to build.

The first part of the build is the base.  I am a fan of how it's built.  Some of the past Architecture builds I have done have just had a rectangular base.  I like how this one has a rounded part and isn't symmetrical.  

The part of the build includes the Chenghuang Miao Temple, Longhua Temple and Pagoda, Radisson Blu Hotel (in the back), Bund area, and the Oriental Pearl.  The first 2 older buildings would be really awesome to build on their own in a larger scale, but I can't see LEGO building them.  The Bund area is designed pretty well considering how small of a scale it is shrunk down to.  The Radisson in the back isn't all that exciting.  I'm not as familiar with the city, but I would think they could have picked a better building.  

The buildings on the right side are much more impressive in my opinion.  The Oriental Pearl is definitely an interesting design and the LEGO designers did a good job scaling it down.  The World Financial Center is another good build and if anything the brick color is great.  The final building is the Shanghai Tower.  The use of the Technic 3x3 half beam curves and the flex tubes to create the curved shape is an ingenious technique.

Here's the final set.  I think it looks great.  I do think it's overpriced at the retail price so grab it at 20% off from Amazon.com or Walmart if you can.  If you're a fan of the Architecture theme or the skylines, I would definitely add it to your collection.  It's a great build and it comes with some great pieces to use elsewhere too.  What are your thoughts?