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Bob De Quatre

REVIEW: Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum

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    • Average
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    • Above average
      8
    • Outstanding
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Introduction

Hi fellow EB members! In this early spring, Lego takes us to a walk on the 5th avenue, New York. The Guggenheim Museum is worldwide known for its art collection as well as for its architecture. I'm not sure what LEGO thinks of art, but I'm sure they're very interested in architecture, and that's why they released the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum as their new set in the Architecture theme!

Thanks to EB LUG Ambassador CopMike and the LEGO CEE Team and Designers for giving me the opportunity to review this set!

 

Set information

Name: 21035 Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum
Theme: LEGO Model Making / Architecture
Year: 2017
Pieces: 744
Price: USD 79.99, GBP 64.99, EURO 69.99
Resources: Brickset , BrickLink

 

Packaging

The box comes in the usual LEGO Architecture 's black livery, but in an odd almost square shape. It is also quite thick, as there's 744 parts to stuff in. The front shows the full set, proudly standing on blueprints against the black background. On the upper left corner is a rather big LEGO Architecture logo and just under is the name of the set and its location in the world and the set's sizes... Nothing fancy here, just the good old Architecture box!

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The back of the box has a front shot of the set and a picture of the real buildings and a short comment on the museum in a few languages. Size of the set is also indicated: 190mm wide and 125mm tall.

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Content of the box

The box is almost full, with the instruction booklet and 6 unnumbered bags, one of which contains a brick separator for your collection.

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Instructions booklet

The 167 pages instructions booklet is, as always with Architecture sets, very well done and good looking with the classic black background. There are a lot of nice pictures of the building and its interior, with lots of facts.

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The instructions are easy to follow and no color errors should be made. You can see here one the many pictures and facts that pop up in the corners of the booklet. You can also see that some steps need quite a bunch of parts, but I reassure you, many steps onl require a single plate!

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Build

First steps passed. If you look closely, you may notice a big change compared to the other sets of the theme...

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The set makes a great use of the newly released rounded tiles to add details. The build uses lots of 1/2 studs offsets and snot techniques.

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Continuig with the building...

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The technique used to achieve the rounded sections is really nice and makes use of many new parts.

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The finished set in all his glory! My finger hurts of placing all those tan 1x1 tiles!

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As always there are some spare parts.

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Interesting parts

The set comes with a nice selection of white curved slopes, and among them the rather new 3x2 white curved slope. Three 2x3 white tiles are also present. The set is also at the moment the best source for 1x1 quarter round tiles in light bluish gray. Parts in new or rare colors include the 6x6 round plate in white and black, the 10x10 inverted dish in sand green, the 2x4 wedge plate in sand green, a 3x3 cross plate in tan, a white 1x3x1 panel , and 4 of the new 1x1modified brick with 2 studs on adjacent sides in black! And of course two nice printed tile and curved slope with the museum's name on it.

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Conclusion

Design: 9/10 - A really nice set in the Architecture theme! One of my favorite.

Parts: 8/10 - Some very interesting parts in this set, and maybe more variety than other sets of the theme.

Build: 8/10 - An interesting build, not too monotonous.

Price: 7/10 - At 9.4 cent per part, this set is in the price average of the Architecture theme's sets.

Overall: 32/40 (80%) - I really enjoyed building this set! I think it may be one of the best set of the recently released Architecture sets. If you're a fan of the theme, go grab it, you won't regret it.

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Great review and wonderful pictures! Thanks!

It looks a great build. Maybe this will be the first Architecture set I will buy.

 

PS: Bob will update the number of pages of the instruction booklet later.

Edited by Covi
Addition of PS

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Well-done review for a very interesting set! The many curves and subtle details really make this model stand out.

The "big change" seems to be that the base is formed by black plates directly at the bottom and not with dark grey plates one level above? That's probably because now there is also a light grey sidewalk level.

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9 hours ago, t-brick said:

Well-done review for a very interesting set! The many curves and subtle details really make this model stand out.

The "big change" seems to be that the base is formed by black plates directly at the bottom and not with dark grey plates one level above? That's probably because now there is also a light grey sidewalk level.

I figured he meant the lack of a name plate on the base, like almost all the other arch sets.

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4 hours ago, KevinMD said:

I figured he meant the lack of a name plate on the base, like almost all the other arch sets.

Correct, there's no 1x8 black tile printed with the name of the building, which feels... refreshing :classic:

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7 hours ago, Bob De Quatre said:

Correct, there's no 1x8 black tile printed with the name of the building, which feels... refreshing :classic:

The fact that they took their inspiration directly from the actual building is awesome and I appreciate the detail.  I do enjoy the black name plate but what they did here is totally slick!

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Thank you for doing this review. It's a nice set and is certainly a better improvement as compared to the predecessor. :sweet: 

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Could you do a few picture drom other angles? The internet is full of front views, but I' m curious to see the side views and back view.

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I really like this set. I didn't have any problems attaching the higher level curves. I'm not sure what people could be doing wrong to have trouble with that part?

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Just finished this set this morning - my third Architecture Set after U.S. Capitol, Imperial Hotel and Buckingham Palace. It has now replaced the Capitol as my favourite looking Architecture Set and Buckingham Palace as my favourite Architecture build.

Some really nice techniques especially on the tower - during the build there were aspects of the tower that seemed weird (the yellow 1x2 plate w/ stick that was 'randomly' place inside the building) but all made sense in the end (allowing a 1x1 plate w/holder to secure the central window block into the gap that had been left. After a complex build utilising man new (to me) techniques i found the tower facade (made up varying sized brick-yellow plates covered with 1x1 brick-yellow flat tiles) quite therapeutic.

Only had one issue (my fault) attaching one of the curves on the third level (left side of rotunda as you look at it) which I placed 1 stud too far back but when I removed it I inadvertently (and unknowingly) removed a white 1x4 plate with it which prevented me from placing in the correct position and necessitated much building-rebuilding until my error was noted.Another issues was my lack of ability initially to find the olive green, flat 1x1 tile (round) - there is only one in the entire build - but as it was to be located at an accessible are of the complete build I carried with the build until it reared its head later on and was affixed with a little bit of dexterity.

Overall took about 2 to 2 and a half hours to complete - keeping most pieces in their respective bags, apart from a couple of the larger bags with a high piece counts into the box for easy searching. 

Edited by eggeadnurse

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Hope you guys enjoy this video!

LEGO Architecture - Solomon R Guggenheim Museum ( 21004) - Bricks Assembly

 

Edited by Bricks Assembly

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