United Nations Headquarters Lego MOC

Lego has done a great job with its architecture theme. One of the best models is the Lego United Nations Headquarters (21018). Some of these models are small, and have been shrunk down. The UN Headquarters is one of the most successful examples of this. Even though it is small, a good amount of detail is still present. If you have ever wondered what a Lego architecture set would look like if money and piece count didn’t matter, then this United Nations Headquarters by Spencer_R is perfect. This is a spot-on recreation of the UN Headquaters and has recently been updated with the newer trans blue pieces. The flags and adjoining park have been recreated perfectly and give this Lego MOC a sense of scale.

Check out this Lego United Nations Headquarters, by Spencer_R, over on Flickr: https://www.flickr.com/photos/51130204@N04/14021080829/

The Lego House (4000010) Special Edition Review by CopMike

Lego has a super rare set out now called The Lego House (4000010) Special Edition. The set is designed to fit in with the Architecture theme, but is not officially a part of it. What makes this a Special Edition is that it is only sold in Billund, Denmark. Which is the upcoming location of The Lego House. The set is 250 pieces and sold for 149 DKK, which is currently about $27.50.

The Lego House is currently being built in Billund, which is where the Lego Group was founded in 1932. The building will be part museum, and part educational experience (and I’m sure part gift shop).

CopMike has recently gotten their hands on The Lego House, and posted a full review over on Eurobricks. The set comes with a perfect-bound soft-cover instruction manual, an exclusive (boring) Minifigure, and a bunch of white and trans-clear parts. In fact, two new 1×1 trans clear flat tiles. The final set is not the most exciting, but the limited availability and exclusive Minifig help make up for the design.

Check out the full review of The Lego House (4000010) Special Edition by CopMike over on Eurobricks: http://www.eurobricks.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=94889

Finn’s Basement – The Lego Movie Set is at Legoland California

Legoland in Carlsbad, California has recently opened a new exhibit. Finn’s Basement, which is the actual set that was used in the filming of The Lego Movie. It is a massive set with almost every scene from The Lego Movie built in Lego. The whole set up is just like every kids (and adults) dream. A massive basement level Lego studio, with a whole collection of Lego spanning decades of collecting. Even though this is only a set, it is extremely awesome!

It appears that these photos were taken before the final exhibit was finished. In newer photos there is a plexiglass wall surrounding each set, making sure that hands stay away from all the hard work on display. The amount of work that went into building this set is staggering. A few poor souls are probably still recovering from calloused hands. The detailing involved in this set is amazing. With hand drawn signs, warning labels and posters which all appeared in The Lego Movie.

Finn’s Basement is organized into different sections. Each one representing a theme from the film. Represented are City, Castle, Wild West, Pirates, Space, Cloud Cuckoo, etc.

Based on the Classic Space section it looks like Benny got his spaceship! Spaceship!

Legoland California has a great exhibit here. Hopefully it will stick around for a long while.

Check out the full series from Finn’s Basement posted by ared22 over on Imgur: http://imgur.com/a/w3WB2

Brickville is a Beautiful Lego SimCity

Brickville is the closest thing to a Lego SimCity. Imagine if EA Games made a Lego themed version of SimCity. It would look like this. This micro scale city in completely modular. Usually these type of projects can look too artificial, sometimes being too constrained to a set of rules. Brickville seems to have found a way past this problem. This little city is currently 67 or so baseplates in size and is expanding. Not only is Brickville extremely photogenic from overhead, but its profile looks almost real. The variety of the high-rises and skyscrapers help lend the project a sense of realism.

Brickville recently made an appearance at a KLUG show. Where it was photographed by Luap31 and Jameson42. You can find more details over on Flickr: http://www.flickr.com/photos/brickville/10946567563/

Lego Parisian Restaurant Modular Building (10243) Reviewed by Huw

Lego has been steadily releasing new Modular Buildings for the past few years. The recent, Palace Cinema (10232), and Town Hall (10224) have proven extremely popular. The newest set is the Parisian Restaurant (10243) which should be hitting shelves in the near future. Huw, from Brickset, has recently posted an early photo review of this highly anticipated set. The Parisian Restaurant comes with the now standard 3 step instructions. Which, should take anywhere from 5-9 hours to complete.

There are a whole lot of new and rare pieces included this time around. The most recognizable is the new Lego Scooter. This little red Vespa influenced scooter is extremely cute, and fits in perfectly with the Parisian Restaurant. Also included are a whole lot bricks in the new Olive Green Lego color. Since the whole building is based on this rare color, the Parisian Restaurant is probably the best source for these parts.

Featuring five Minifigures, a chef, waiter, two restaurant patrons, and the female scooter pilot. As usual, these included Minifigs all feature the classic smiling Lego head. I like to think of the blonde man as a Lego Owen Wilson.

Huw notes that the increased detail means that the Restaurant takes longer to build. All three floors are furnished, with the bottom floor featuring an impressive amount of details. From the fully tiled flooring, to the full kitchen, everything here looks great.

The Lego Parisian Restaurant is an excellent new entry in the Modular Building theme. The previous two seemed to be missing a certain spark for some fans, but this set has reignited their enthusiasum. The other good news is that there are no stickers this time around. Everything here is given the premium treatment from Lego.

“Modular buildings have come a long way since Cafe Corner, which was just an empty shell, haven’t they…”

Make sure to go read Huw’s full review, with many more photos and details over on Brickset:

Part 1: http://www.brickset.com/news/article/?ID=8134
Part 2: http://www.brickset.com/news/article/?ID=8147

More details (including video!) of the Parisian Restaurant can be found on LegoGenre here: http://everydaybricks.com/lego-creator-parisian-restaurant-10243-modular-building-revealed/

Lego Marina Bay Sands (21021) Architecture Set Revealed!

The new Lego Architecture set, the United Nations Headquarters (21018), has just been released and with it comes details about whats next. According to a Lego survey, the Marina Bay Sands (21021) is coming soon. The Marina Bay Sands is a massive casino located in Singapore. It features an extremely unique design, with a full shopping mall and massive outdoor rooftop pool. It kind of looks like someone took a cruise ship and placed it on top of three skyscrapers. Hah.

Thanks to Brickset for revealing the early details.

Lego United Nations Headquarters (21018) Reviewed @ Toys N Bricks

The newest set in the Lego Architecture theme, the United Nations Headquarters (21018) is now available
(Amazon). With 597 pieces and a $49.99 price tag this is one of the more reasonably priced Architecture sets. Over at Toys N Bricks, Brickbuilder0937 has recently posted a full pictorial review of the set. The Lego United Nations Headquarters seems to be one of the best Architectures sets with an extremely accurate (for Lego) and professional design.

The set depicts not only the U.N. tower, but the other four surrounding buildings too. By the time you complete the base, the layout of the complex is very apparent.

If you have been looking around for “1 x 2 trans light blue” bricks then this is the set to get, with 155 included. They are put to good use, creating some beautiful windows. This set also features some of the “smoothest” brick built slopes. Achieved by combining “headlight bricks” and the “1 x 1 with stud-on-one-side” bricks. These half step slopes can be seen on the smaller surrounding buildings.

The little Lego lever is a perfect representation of a flag pole, one of the best details in this set. Making the building instantly recognizable as the U.N. Headquarters. Just don’t accidentally brush up on those levers.

The whole build is quite a bit larger in person then it looks on the box. Which, is the opposite effect from most of these Architecture sets.

“In the past I was skeptical of buying the Architecture series sets because they seemed small for their price, but after seeing how accurate and profesional this model was, I was impressed.” — Brickbuilder0937

Read the full Lego United Nations review over at Toys N Bricks: http://toysnbricks.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=35&t=9403

The Lego United Nations Headquarters (21018) is available from Amazon: here.

Lego Sydney Opera House (10234) Review by Drudoo @ Eurobricks

The new Lego Sydney Opera House (10234) has been reviewed by Drudoo over at Eurobricks. With 2,989 pieces and a $320 price tag, this new Creator set is one of the biggest Lego releases this year. To say that this is only an upgrade to the original Lego Architecture Sydney Opera House (21012) is an understatement. Everything about this set is different and it even hides a few surprises. There are so many pieces and bags that the set comes in multiple boxes, just like the massive Lego Star Wars Death Star (10188). Lego made the smart decision of including the instruction manuals and such in a separate card board reinforced bag. Preventing the problem of bent instruction manuals. It would be nice if this would become standard for all their sets.

As the base for the Opera House is built up, it is noted that this whole set is extremely sturdy. With none of the wobbly problems that some of the larger sets in the past have had. The Lego Sydney Opera House contains so much tan, but does a good job of not being boring. The set really starts to get interesting when building the “sails.” These structures are surprisingly technical, and are not as simple to build as they look. Using a combination of technic and advanced building techniques to achieve the correct angles and placement of every part.

Drudoo is about half way through documenting and reviewing the Lego Sydney Opera House. Make sure to check out the full review for many more pictures and details. Keep an eye out for updates as the Opera house gets completed, they will be coming “as soon as possible.”

http://www.eurobricks.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=85886

Lego Architecture Studio (21050) Review by Jim Butcher @ Eurobricks

The LEGO Architecture Studio (21050) is a very mysterious set. Currently only available in the United States, this set can be hard to find. Because of this, the set is wrapped up in mystery. Jim Butcher got his hands on this massive set and broke it open to document and review what he found. The Architecture Studio contains 1,210 pieces and comes in a very unconventional box. Most official Lego sets are released in a flat(ish) rectangle shaped box, not so for the Architecture Studio. This is a huge package. Taking up the space of 3 or 4 normal Lego sets. Inside is a very unique set, that Lego has never produced before.

Besides the 1,210 Lego pieces the set comes with two clear sorting trays. Fun fact: these sorting trays are official Lego pieces. They work well, and help to manage the massive amount of like sized/shaped pieces. Speaking of which, almost every piece is white. With the exception of a handful of transparent pieces. The whole point of the Lego Architecture Studio is to use the included pieces to begin building technically minded architecture models. The monochrome color scheme helps break the Lego models down to their core concept, while reinforcing the minimalistic goal of the set.

The large Lego piece count and sorting trays are not the main focus of this set. The instruction manual or book is the star. A huge 272 page perfect bound book. Featuring tips, building techniques, styles, history, and general information about Architecture and Lego. The book does not contain standard instructions. No step by step builds of famous architectural models. Instead the book features very general instructions, often showing the building of a model across only 3-4 steps. The Lego Architecture Studio (21050) is an educational and inspirational set, sharing more in common with Lego Mindstorms then Lego Star Wars.

Read the full review by Jim Butcher over at Eurobricks: http://www.eurobricks.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=85176&st=0

Lego Architecture Studio (21050) Book Download

UPDATE: It looks like Lego has taken the file offline. ~~Lego has offered a .pdf download of the whole 272 page book from the Lego Architecture Studio (21050). This is huge download, at 413 MB. Check it out here:~~
~~http://cache.lego.com/bigdownloads/buildinginstructions/6062928.pdf~~

Amazon has the set for sale, but like other recently popular sets it comes and goes out of stock often. Check it out on Amazon here: LEGO Architecture Studio (21050)

The Great Neuschwanstein Castle in Lego

Neuschwanstein Castle might be the most famous castle on Earth. A Romanesque Revival castle located in Germany, near the village of Hohenschwangau. The castle construction completed relatively late, in the year 1892. Since then, this little castle has made appearances in the films: Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, Ludwig, and Ludwig II. But, most importantly it was the original insperation for Disneyland’s Sleeping Beauty’s Castle.

This Lego Neuschwanstein Castle is the creation of T-Bone, who put a whole lot of hard work into it. Not only has the color scheme been carefully thought out, but the details and design are accurate to the real life castle. Every window, door, tower, and room is accurate. Where there should be 5 windows, as on the real Neuschwanstein Castle, there are 5 windows in this Lego MOC. T-Bone even got the tree and pavement details correct.

Also note the extremely well made micro carriage with horses in the castles entrance.

Check out T-Bone’s Lego Neuschwanstein Castle over on Brickshelf: http://www.brickshelf.com/cgi-bin/gallery.cgi?f=514019

Also make sure to check out the castle over on the Lego CUUSOO page: http://lego.cuusoo.com/ideas/view/1128