Lego Tower Bridge (10214) was the set that almost put me off Lego completely. Thousands of similar pieces in unnumbered bags that required sorting into more than 50 plastic tubs and still took hours and hours to build.
Despite that, I am very excited about the official announcement today of Lego Big Ben. I’ve mentioned before how I think the bigger Lego sets are the better, and this certainly fits the bill with 4,163 pieces. And even better – it’s only £169.99 and out on July 1st. That’s the same price as the Minecraft set I posted about yesterday, except this is more than double the size. That’s the difference when it’s not a licensed set.
This set was rumoured earlier in the year, and it’s nice to see they’ve really done it justice. You could quibble and say that they should have included more of the Houses of Parliament, but I think you’d have been looking at an 8,000 piece set at that point. They’ve done well to include a good section of the rest of the building, while still making the Elizabeth Tower the centre piece. And at 60cm high, it’s a big un.
Here’s the relevant quotes straight from the Lego press release…
It features a detailed facade with statues, shields and windows, and a clock tower with 4 adjustable clock dials and a removable roof allowing access to the belfry, plus buildable exterior elements including a sidewalk, lawn and a tree depicting the building’s location. This model makes a great display piece for the home or office.
- Big Ben features a detailed section of the Westminster Palace and the adjoining Elizabeth Tower, 4 detailed clock dials with movable hour and minutes hands, and a sidewalk, tree and grass area depicting the building’s location.
- Remove the top of the tower to access the Big Ben bell.
- Put your LEGO building skills to the test!
- Special elements include 4 printed clock faces.
- Rare elements include ski poles, flowers and corner plates in molded gold color, and tinted-translucent elements.
- This set includes over 4,000 LEGO pieces.
- This set offers an age-appropriate building experience for ages 16+.
- Big Ben measures over 23” (60cm) high, 17” (44cm) wide and 7” (20cm) deep.
I can’t wait. Of course I have no idea where I’m going to put it…
