Dave’s Cool Toys Blog

Some Lego Architecture iconic buildings

Last week my son and I were in New York City to see the King Tut exhibit.

We also walked down to the store, Obscura, to visit. We’ve been watching the show "Oddities" on the Discovery Channel, which features the store along with it’s owners and employees. Unfortunately, they were filming in the store when we got there and we didn’t want to interrupt, so we didn’t go in.

We also stopped in at the Barnes and Noble and I perused the toy section. Most of the toys they carried were pretty common. But one thing I noticed was the Lego Architecture Sets.

They are absolutely lovely.

But I have to wonder, "are they really Lego?" Basically, you have one thing to build. You follow the instructions and it’s done. There are 77 pieces in the Empire State Building, so it shouldn’t take too long to build (I expect at least one piece is the base). The Seattle Space Needle
is only 57 pieces and they are all pretty custom pieces.

So you are basically just buying a model of a building that you put together. OK. That’s fine. But is it Lego?

Wikipedia’s entry says "Lego bricks can be assembled and connected in many ways, to construct such objects as vehicles, buildings, and even working robots. Anything constructed can then be taken apart again, and the pieces used to make other objects."

So do these sets qualify? I don’t know.

But they are beautiful and the packaging is very classy (that’s what originally caught my attention on the shelf).

Prices range from about $20.00 to $80.00. Or you can buy a complete set of 6 for $259.95. Recommended for ages 10 and up.