LEGO Art has come a long way since its debut back in 2020. What started as a mindfulness exercise in carefully placing dot tiles or studs in pop art mosaics has expanded to a variety of pas relief from Comic Books to Renaissance masterpieces and Japanese woodcuts to modern sculpture. With the release of 31215, we see an ongoing evolution of the theme
How does this model stack up compared to LEGO Art sets that I have put together in the past? In this review, we will take a look at some of the building techniques used, how the set adopts several tricks and techniques used by Vincent van Gogh. Along the way, we will take a look at his fascination with sunflowers, and some of the highlights of the build for me. Finally, we will hang it on the wall. Probably next to Starry Night, and see how it looks.
This set was provided by the LEGO Group for review purposes. All opinions are my own.
The LEGO Art range has come a long way since the first Pixel art pieces were released a few years ago, stopping off via the Great Wave, and the Milky way, and more recently the LOVE Sculpture. Today, in association with the Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam, the LEGO Group has officially revealed. the latest model in this series: 31215 Van Gogh’s Sunflowers.
A few years ago, if you were visiting Paris for the first time, there were two things many tourists would try to fit in: one would be a trip to the Louvre to see the Mona Lisa, Leonardo da Vinci’s masterpiece, which never fails to astound first time views by just how small it is; and as visit to Notre Dame Cathedral. Or at least it was before the fire in 2019. With the cathedral’s restoration on track to be completed at the end of 2024, tourists will again be able to visit the medieval church.
With this in mind, the LEGO Group today revealed two new products to help bring the magic of Paris closer to home for builders. Fans can start building their very own art collection with the LEGO® Art Mona Lisa or choose to be captivated by the majestic LEGO® Architecture Notre-Dame de Paris set.
These two global icons of Paris have been unveiled to celebrate the rich heritage and history of the French capital, which has an exciting and packed year ahead and will be available for pre-order on 7th May.
As we have previously discussed, 2023 has been the most wonderful year for LEGO® Space fans – from City and Friends sets that are out of this world, Technic sets adding a bit of realism and a set of Collectable Minifigures just around the corner (if you are in the rest of the world – May 1) or a little further away if you are in Australia (1 June). While some might be anxiously awaiting some classic spaceships reimagined with parts and techniques of the 2020s (at this point, I only have hopes and dreams and not even a reliable rumour to hang my hat on). But, once the dust settles on Star Wars, we will be seeing two new sets with an adult focus launch on the scene: one for fans of Space Travel and one for fans of art and astronomy: 10341 LEGO ICONS NASA Artemis Launch System [3601 Pieces; AUD449.9/ €259.99 / £219.99/USD259.99] and 31212 LEGO® Art The Milky Way Galaxy [3091 Pieces; AUD299.99/ €199.99/ £169.99/ USD199.99]
Batman- The Animated Series first aired in 1992 on Fox Kids in the US and was sent out worldwide over the next few years. After first experiencing the Comic version around that time, I was rapidly hooked on the Art Deco design, a new broody Batman, and a virtual absence of any form of wisecrack which had defined the Batman of my childhood- syndicated reruns of the 1966 Batman series. That series may have had the most iconic Batmobile at the time. Still, the city was otherwise soulless, save for the occasional guest star that Batman and Robin would encounter as they climbed walls on the BatRope.
It’s New Year’s Day where I am currently sitting*. The sun is shining. It is around 30º C (86ºF to those in other parts of the world). Last year was a hectic year: we had been locked down for large parts of 2020 and 2021, and it felt like half of society was trying to make up the missed time socialising and getting work done, while the other half was trying to keep out of harm’s way. [*I might have taken an extra day to edit this]
Ultimately, it is time to kick my feet up and relax. As good fortune would have it, The lovely people at the LEGO Group have sent me a copy of the latest LEGO Art Set: Hokusai The Great Wave. Based on Hokusai’s woodcut ‘The Great Wave off Kanagawa,’ the set promised me “the chance to immerse [myself] into the relaxing project of recreating the iconic Great Wave, captured in a LEGO Art set. This set offers so many ways that fans can unwind and find their flow. Not just immersing themselves into the building process, but also getting into the artwork and how that is composed.”
So, did it deliver? Running from Christmas to New Year’s Eve is often a mental challenge: so many last-minute things to do. If there was one thing I needed, it was a chance to relax.
And More importantly, will I feel happy to nail it to the wall afterwards?
The Latest LEGO® Ideas set – The Starry Night, based on LEGO Truman’s submission to LEGO Ideas has been unveiled, and will be available by the end of the month.The set has 2,316 pieces and measures 38 cm wide x 28cm high x 21 cm deep. It will be priced at £149.99 / €169.99 / $169.99 USD / 259.99 AUD / 219.99 CAD when it goes on sale at LEGO Branded retail channels, as well as the Museum of Modern Art gift shop, on May 25th.
In 1889, while staying at the Saint-Paul-de-Mausole asylum in Saint-Rémy, Southern France, Vincent Van Gogh created the Starry Night. The landscape was based, in part on the view he had from the room where he was staying, although, as is the nature of impressionism, perhaps some things are not exactly as they appeared. But without a doubt, with his swirling use of colours – in the foothills, the foreboding cypress tree and the sky itself, Van Gogh created one of his most enduring pieces of art. The original is now on display in the Museum of Modern Art in New York.
Travel has been off the books for the better part of a year now (maybe more, depending on where you are going to and from), but the latest LEGO Art release will help you keep an eye on where you might want to be going!
While you might not be able to get on a plane to travel, your LEGO can take you there.
The LEGO® Art World Map (31203) has 11695 elements – the highest part-count of any LEGO set to date. It will be available from LEGO.com, and LEGO Stores globally from 1st June 2021, priced from [EUR 249.99/ $USD249.99/£229.99/ $AUD399.99/ 349.99 CAD] and will become available from other retailers globally from 1st August 2021.
With the high part count, and I presume a 5×8 grid of 16×16 backing plates (that’s over 10200 pixels), this set will take some time to put together. You might need something to help take you through it, and there is an extensive soundtrack to accompany the build, bringing you tales of travellers and adventurers from around the world.
The opportunities for customising this set are a little less varied than for the first wave of LEGO Art Sets – the prescribed builds include 3 versions, with different continents in the centre of the map.
A couple of months ago, I put together the 31201 LEGO Art Harry Potter Hogwarts Crests (HPHC) mosaic, and I felt a little underwhelmed. But I think this was more a ‘me thing’ rather than an issue with the set: I personally didn’t feel a strong affinity with the source material, not really identifying with any particular Hogwarts House. I have heard from plenty of people who really enjoy the build, and want to build the set of crests, as well as the larger combination crest. So, as I said, it’s a Me thing. Perhaps I should have looked at a crest other than Hufflepuff’s?
That said, one positive point that I do appreciate is a large number of left over parts.
Of course, one of the stated goals for the LEGO ART range is not just to produce a mosaic which you could hang on your wall, but to also give adults an activity to focus on. You don’t need to hang your final result. you can dismantle it, and rebuild it as one of the other options, or even rebuild it as another image.
Despite personally feeling a little deflated by the HPHC building experience, I find the idea of building a LEGO Mosaic/Art set appealing. If you have followed my posts around the time of the range being announced, you will have seen my analysis of the value for money building the LEGO Art Andy Warhol’s Marilyn Monroe, either through the set or purchasing the individual elements (Spoiler – they sets are good value for the elements you receive).
I’ll have to admit, the notion of a mass marketed LEGO Set based on the mass produced screen print of Marilyn Monroe amuses me as a further extension of the pop-art movement. So, I thought I would set out to investigate whether I could rebuild the Hogwarts Crest as Marilyn. Therefore using a mass produced LEGO Artwork to produce a different mass produced artwork. Now, along with virtually all Building instructions, you can download them from the LEGO customer support website, OR you can access them from Building Instructions App.
