REVIEW: 21028 New York City

[Bob De Quatre]

Introduction

Hi fellow EB members! I was given the chance to review the upcoming #21028 New York set from the LEGO Architecture series that will hit our favorites stores in January 2016. With this set (and #21026 Venice and #21027 Berlin), LEGO designers decided to create not only a building, but a few of them, representing a specific city. Let's see what these new "cityscape" looks like while visiting the Big Apple: New York!

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: 21028 New York City (New York, USA)

Theme: LEGO Model Making / Architecture

Year: 2016

Pieces: 598

Price: USD NA, GBP NA, EURO NA

Resources: Brickset, BrickLink

Packaging

The box comes in the usual LEGO Architecture 's black livery. 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 set and its location in the world. We also are informed that the booklet contains "details in English on design and history".

The back of the box has a front shot of the set with pictures of each of the real buildings and a short comment on New York City in a few languages. Size of the set is also indicated: 255mm wide and 260mm tall.

One side of the box shows a very nice perspective of the set, making you feel like you're on the Hudson river, looking at the city... I really like that picture. And again a notice on the design notes and history comments being in English, but this time written in a few languages.

Content of the box

The box contains the instructions booklet, 6 unnumbered bags and a brick separator. The six bags will all be opened rather quickly.

Instructions booklet

The 115 pages instructions booklet is very classy and well printed. When you have it in hands, you know where your money went. There is a double page about New York City with a very beautiful picture of the Manhattan Bridge.

Each building of the set also gets a double page with informations on the building and a nice picture of it (or a part of it).

The instructions are extremely clear and easy to follow. And I mean it. There are a lot of steps where you'll build one piece at a time... That can be explained by the fact that the LEGO Architecture theme is aimed at people that don't usually build with LEGO.

Build

"And this is where we'll build the city of New York" - John York, December 1st 1615

Yes, I know my United States history... So, as Mr York said, this is where we'll build the New York City set. The base has an uneven width that bothers me. I think it would have been much better to have a five studs wide base, maybe with light bluish grey tiles on the front representing sidewalks or city streets. You can notice that the One World Trade Center will attach to two plates with handles. Oh and there is a white 2x2 plate there... Don't ask why...

First layer of concrete, water and grass applied! The Hudson river waters are very transparent, like trans-clear.

The first monument we'll build if we don't start reading the instructions at a random page, is the Statue of Liberty. A fine example of american's french's mastery of metal working. The LEGO rendition at this scale is pretty good. We may have lengthy discussion about using the trophy part, but what other choices the designer had? And we got the trophy part in an exclusive sand green color.

Here is the Empire State Building during its construction in 1930.

And here it is, finished, in 1931... Its shape and color is really recognizable. The Empire State Building is one of the two buildings in this set that have already been featured in the LEGO Architecture serie back in 2009 (#21002). Even if it is smaller than its ancestor, I find this Empire State Building more accurate and much more interesting than the older one.

Next comes the Wonder Woman's Invisible Building, where she parks her Invisible Jet...

Ok, let's change the background for a moment and contemplate the Chrysler Building. A kinda simple and straightforward build that does the job pretty well considering the scale. I can imagine the face of the designer when he was said that he had to build a 15 studs height Chrysler Building. But still the choices for the top of the building are pretty clever and I' m sure people will recognize it easily.

The Flatiron Building is an early skyscraper famous for its triangular shape. It's the second time that LEGO Architecture feature the Flatiron Building, the first being back in... 2015, the #21023 Flatiron Building set was released a few month ago. The build is amazingly simple, but also accurate given the small scale.

The last building we'll see during our tour of New York City is the One World Trade Center. This building is the tallest and the most technically interesting of the set. The building begins with a SNOT assembly that will secure the build on the base while providing flat sides and even some architectural details! It will also help strengthening the upper parts of the build.

The final build looks great, but I must admit I'm not fond of it. To me, it is not accurate enough, but still I know that given the scale, there was no other options, and the designer did a great job. Do you think it could have been done differently, or with a better shape closer to the original?

Our visit of New York City is close to the end, so let's see all the places we've been together.

We only got a few spare parts, but we won't complain as there is a second trophy statuette in the box!

Interesting parts

The jewel of this set is doubtfully the trophy minifigure in sand green, which is exclusive to this set. Sand blue parts are always great, as are silver metallic. We got lots of tan and a handful of 2x1 plates in trans-clear, and another handful of 2x1 grille tile in tan, and another handful of "Slope 45 2 x 1 with 2/3 Cutout" in sand blue. That makes a lot of hands...

Conclusion

Design: 9/10 - It's hard to build at this scale but the designer made a nice job.

Parts: 8/10 - There are some great parts in there. The lack of variety is compensated by quantity of some parts.

Build: 7/10 - Clever and sturdy builds with some nice techniques

Price: --/10 - The retail prices aren't published as I write this review. I'll update that score when they are.

Overall: 24/30 (80%) - A nice LEGO Architecture set, introducing a new concept based on cities and not just one building. The buildings are great and well chosen. I like that series and hope to see more of them in the future.

[Dragonator]

Some classics in here, although I'm not a huge fan of the green man! Something more abstrach could have been used? Oh well, cool set nonetheless. I definitely like the new Empire State Building more than the old one.

[XAxles]

Huh, so looks like they didn't start with fig-scale Lady Liberty to scale it.

Anyway... this set has some damn lookers, even One WTC.

[kinggregus]

In my opinion, this is the weakest set of the 3 new architecture sets. This is probably because the source material is much harder to scale down, but each building is not truly representative of its original. The only exception is the Empire States Building.

Perhaps, I was too greedy but when I heard that TLG was going to do some of "cityscape" I was hoping 2000+ pieces sets.

[ARSLOCK]

any guesses on the price? $50-60?

[mediumsnowman]

Excellent review, thanks Bob! This is my favorite of the three skyline sets and subsequently the only one I may consider picking up. All the landmarks are interesting and recognizable and who can say no to a sand-green microfigure?

[legonerd54321]

This is a must have for me (Loving New York and Architecture and all..)

[KlodsBrik]

Great review !

I will restrain from voting on these sets till a pricetag is put on them.

Ive always loved the architecture series for parts. And these arent any different. If the price is right i will definately have to pick this up.

Ive never had any interest however in having these standing around.

[Bob De Quatre]

We'll try to get prices as soon as possible.

[Tariq j]

Nice review Bob, I think this is my favorite set of the Line.

[6ix]

Thank you for the review, Bob! Even though I'm not fond of the design of this set, I will still get it, because, hey, see my sig, so I collect the NYC Architecture sets.

Any change of you modding and photographing this set to change the order of the builds in:

Statue of Liberty, One World Trade Center, Flatiron Building, Empire State Building, Chrysler Building.

This would represent how the buildings are ordered in the real NYC.

[Bob De Quatre]

Thank you for the review, Bob! Even though I'm not fond of the design of this set, I will still get it, because, hey, see my sig, so I collect the NYC Architecture sets.

Any change of you modding and photographing this set to change the order of the builds in:

Statue of Liberty, One World Trade Center, Flatiron Building, Empire State Building, Chrysler Building.

This would represent how the buildings are ordered in the real NYC.

It is possible with the parts available, but you may want to reinforce the base with a few black plates

#21028 New York City MOD ! by BobDeQuatre, on Flickr

[6ix]

Wow, thanks for the quick response! :-)

I actually like this one better than the original. One World Trade near the Hudson is more realistic as well.

[WhiteFang]

One of the most iconic cities filled with brilliant skyscrapers and architecture. I would love to see these actual marvel sights in New York very soon. Thanks Bob for this review.

[DanSto]

Do you think it could have been done differently, or with a better shape closer to the original?

Differently, yes : http://www.eurobricks.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=76694

Better ? I don't know. My building use the same approach over the whole tower and does not use slopes.

[Herky]

I could likely post this same response in each of the reviews but since this is the first one I came to, will do so here. 1. Review was fantastic, the folks who do the reviews are usually great and do high quality reviews with great information whether I agree with them or not. 2. As excited as I am to get 6 sets in the Arch line this year, I am super disappointed in the cityscape being so micro as I can see it now. 3. If this has a price point over $30 it will be the biggest TLG ripoff outside of the Ideas licenses but with 598 pieces I expect it to be $60 US easy.

I love the idea of cityscapes, but just way too small and to me, the NYC is the best one cause I am familiar with these buildings. I would rather have seen them choose one building and just make a bigger set out of it. We have most of these in NYC already though, but just look at DanSto's OneWTC above, to me this is preferable than a tiny cityscape. You can still do Berlin and many more, just do one building. The scale to micro is too small now in my opinion.

I really appreciate the review though, these may be the first in the line I do not pick up, it just seems Lego is giving us less and wanting more money for it.

[jfbat]

I would rather have seen them choose one building and just make a bigger set out of it.

They did. The Flatiron came out this year in the Architecture series and is still available.

As mentioned in the review, the "cityscapes" are a new line within the Architecture series, next to the less-micro scaled series with one building.

I like the way the flatiron and Empire State are done, One World Trade Center looks a bit bland and could be a multitude of high towers and the Statue of Liberty and Chrysler building - though recognizabble to me - just look a bit off. When I saw the first (small) pictures of this I thought this would be a must have for me. Now I'm not so sure anymore...

[folego]

Thanks for the efforts you've put in this review. I found it not only informative but very detailed. I have never been to the city yet, but I have fallen in love with it through the scenes and views of the city depicted in all the movies I've seen so far. I can only imagine that when I visit the city one day I will be so thrilled and stunned by its beauty. For me, this set of LEGO presents the most magnificent feature buildings of New York City, and I love the idea and absolutely the result.

Edited December 7, 2015 by folego

[contrails]

Took me awhile to figure out that one of them is the Chrysler Building. Doesn't quite do the real building justice as the real thing is so magnificent looking. Probably due to the scale there is a lot of restriction on what can be done

[Herky]

Yes I know that the Flatiron was done, so was Rockefeller Center...I guess my post lost its meaning there, essentially just keep on doing the larger buildings, these are so small and abstract, as contrails said above, didn't realize it was Chrysler...the micro scale can't do that building justice. This line is too small to really appreciate.

[rollermonkey]

The only way these won't continue is if they don't sell.

I definitely plan on voicing my opinion on the survey site.

[Herky]

survey site? pray tell, can you post the link?

[jimmynick]

The update of the Empire State Building is fantastic! The other buildings are a little bit lacklustre.

[rollermonkey]

survey site? pray tell, can you post the link?

Really? I've gotten a slip for the site in every Architecture set I've ever bought.

www.legosurvey.com/product

or

http://survey.medallia.com/?legoproduct&domainredir=www.legosurvey.com

[Herky]

interesting, I don't think I have ever gotten one, unless it is in the book, I usually don't read the book part, just put the set together, thanks for the link