Review: 21054 The White House

Without a doubt, the White House is one of the most iconic buildings in the United States. As the 244th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence is celebrated, I present my review of the latest incarnation of this building in LEGO Architecture form. I don’t fully understand why this set received world wide release in June, with the exception of of North America. I will merely accept the fact, and move on.

The set comes, as one might expect, in a solid black cardboard box, with the now familiar ‘Greebled’ 18+ pattern, this time in white, along a strip at the bottom of the box.

On opening the box, we see several 8×16 plates in Earth green, as well as 8 bags, labelled 1-5. As with all Architecture sets, the instructions give us a potted history of the White House – With the site selected by George Washington, and designed by James Hoban, the original building, was also referred to as the Executive Residence and the President’s Palace, before being renamed the White House in 1906, by President Roosevelt.

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Building the Theatre of Dreams. Are My Dreams the Same as Yours? [Review Old Trafford 10272; LEGO House 21037]

Earlier this year, the AFOL Engagement team sent me a copy of Old Trafford for review purposes. This felt pretty great. But I have a problem. I don’t really engage with soccer, or football…or any other team based sporting codes, for that matter. So, when confronted by a set that would have the potential to give a Manchester United Fan goosebumps, I was worried that I might be left cold. How could I possibly hope to recreate the passion of a die hard fan with an epic Creator Expert Set?

Apparently people like football. Or soccer, depending on where you are. Some of these people are LEGO Fans as well. LEGO have taken a punt on the fact that, probably, there are some Football fans out there who would not mind building an iconic stadium out of the plastic bricks they loved as children.

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Architecture Faves: The final rebrick contest

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Do you have a favorite building, structure, or landmark? Even if it’s no longer standing or you’ve moved away, architecture marvels can still be meaningful to us. In this last LEGO Rebrick contest, we invite you to build your most beloved place, city, or building using LEGO bricks!

One grand prize winner, will win:

•       21019 The Eiffel Tower, 21028 New York City, 21029 Buckingham Palace, 21030 United States Capitol Building, 21032 Sydney, 21033 Chicago, 21034 London, 21035 Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum®, 21036 Arc de Triomphe, 21037 LEGO® House, 21039 Shanghai, 21041 Great Wall of China, 21042 Statue of Liberty, and an upcoming 2018 LEGO Architecture product not yet revealed

•       $200 shopping spree on Shop.LEGO.com

•       Winner’s certificate

We will also have two runner ups, who will win 21032 Sydney, 21033 Chicago, 21034 London, 21035 Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum®, 21036 Arc de Triomphe, 21039 Shanghai, 21041 Great Wall of China, 21042 Statue of Liberty, an upcoming 2018 LEGO Architecture product not yet revealed, and a Winner’s certificate.

The contest ends August 2nd, learn more and enter at:

http://rebrick.it/architecturefaves

 

This might be the final Rebrick Contest, but don’t worry: these contests will be moving over onto the LEGO Ideas Contest platform, from the start of September.  All content on Rebrick will no longer be accessible at that time.  This will move all of crowdsourced content onto the one platform.  The Ideas platform has also just undergone a general revamp as well.  Don’t forget to check over there for new competitions from LEGO, come September 1st. Until then…

Play Well.

 

Architecture Skylines Go Down Under: 21032 Sydney

After a successful introduction in 2016, the Skyline Series of LEGO® Architecture sets return.  Three sets are being released in 2017: London 21034 – previewed at the Leicester Square flagship store opening ; Chicago 21033 and Sydney 21032.

The Sydney Skyline is the first of the Architecture sets to represent a city in the Southern Hemisphere.  In fact the Southern Hemisphere has been generally under represented in the LEGO® Architecture range: Of the 32 buildings released to date, only one has been from the Southern Hemisphere: 21012 Sydney Opera House.

15609456_10154605966626226_1886797370_oNow there is no doubt that the Sydney Opera House is a building that is representative of Australia, with nothing quite like it anywhere in the world.  Indeed a picture of the Sydney Opera House and the Sydney Harbour Bridge is generally all that is required to be in a picture to then be defined as Australia.  Especially if there is a kangaroo or koala in shot. Continue reading