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Viva Las Vegas! I haven't bought a LEGO set in quite awhile, so I went into the NYC LEGO Store while I was home just for a look around to see the new sets. I haven't really been paying attention to the news coming out, besides the beautiful Cloud City that was on display. But I digress, I was attracted to the Architecture Line wall where some sets were on display. I couldn't help but buy the new Las Vegas set even though I went into the store not intending on buying anything. I guess I just have a fondness for Vegas and all the colorful and interesting buildings that are there. I haven't been to Vegas for a couple years, but I'd always like to go back. Theme: Architecture Year: 2018 Pieces: 501 Prices: £34.99, $39.99, €39.99 Here's the front of the box. Vegas is very flashy and this set picks some pretty good landmarks of Vegas, following in the tradition of other Skyline sets. The back of the box shows what each landmark is. I've personally never heard of the Fremont Street Experience. All the others I've been to or seen. Here's the first page of the instruction book. It's a really nicely bound book like the other Architecture sets. Each page gives a really nice description of each of the landmarks included in the set. It's absolutely important to include the LLC after the Bellagio. I'll reference that again at the end in regards to something else. Every page of the book has a quote about Las Vegas from someone. I'm not sure who Jeff Maguire is, personally. Google says he's a screenwriter. Isn't this true? There's a couple other quotes as well. The booklet also includes French and Spanish translations for what was in English at the start. Thankfully this is printed piece. It's great! Perhaps it's on a clear tile to make it seem like the sign is free standing? I've never seen this piece before. I'm not sure if it's new because I've been out of the loop on new sets for awhile, but it's still an interesting piece. Not sure what else it would be used for beyond its use which you'll see later. The full piece layout. I know you're not supposed to build LEGO sets on the carpet, but doing so brought the child out in me for only a moment. There's a lot of clear and darker-clear tiles included. Now it's time to begin construction! Here's the base of Las Vegas. I bet you didn't know that Vegas was built on blue and yellow! Every once in awhile there will be a fun little blurb about something you're building. At the moment, you're supposed to be building the Freemont Casino and Street Experience. Here's the Freemont Experience completed. It's apparently a mall from what I can understand from the instruction booklet, and like everywhere in Vegas (even the airport) there's a casino in it. Now it's time to build the Luxor... The other half of the Luxor pyramid doesn't exist. I understand why - it would make the set stick out further in the back. It already sticks out because of the front of the pyramid and the back of the Bellagio. Here's the pyramid on the base. When you add more buildings to the base, it'll become less obvious that the pyramid is cut in half behind. I really like the use of the Pharaoh's headpiece for the Luxor Sphinx. Could it have been improved by a printed face on the head? I'm not sure, if they printed an ugly sphinx face it would have made it an eyesore. I think they did the right thing with a blank head. Now it's time to build the Stratosphere Observation Tower. While to me this isn't the most notable Vegas landmark, I believe it's the tallest structure in Vegas and it's the tallest freestanding observation tower in the United States. Therefore, it's understandable why it made it into the set as a part of Vegas' skyline. The way that the Stratosphere fits into the base is really clever, and it's not the last time we'll see it. The yellow pole bit goes through the propeller bit and goes into the yellow. Here's how it looks when it's placed down. You continuously improve the area around the Wynn with foliage pieces. You think you're about to start on the Wynn several times and then all of a sudden you're doing some other landmark. True to its size in real life, the Stratosphere is tall. It's clever that they use those bendy Technic looking parts for the curves of the tower. It seems that the Stratosphere has turned to the dark side as well. Luckily as we'll see later, the Bellagio is on the light side of the Force. After several false starts on the Wynn Hotel, it's now finally time to build it. Interesting that it goes at a curve. The rest of the hotel is built on a curve too. Building this was a bit of a slough. The entire thing is built of one piece bits and three piece bits so it can end up curving when you put it on the base. It's worth it though once it's placed on the base piece. The curve is a very nice touch. I don't know what this is supposed to be for the life of me. A sign for the hotel maybe? Maybe a little tree would've been better as a nod to the palm trees that line Las Vegas Boulevard? Even the page for the Wynn in the booklet where it includes its description has a palm tree in front of it. Personally when I went to Vegas I never went to the Wynn either, so if someone who frequents Vegas is reading, please leave a comment on what you think this is supposed to be. Here's the start of the penultimate landmark on the Vegas Strip - The Bellagio Hotel. If you thought that the Wynn was an ache using small pieces, you haven't seen anything yet. Once again, the designers used a clever way to put one side of the Bellagio in. Like the Stratosphere, the Bellagio's white pole goes into the one by two open piece that you see. Here's the first wing put in. As I said, now that more buildings have been added to the base, it's very tough to tell that the Luxor Pyramid is halved. The rear and center of the hotel are in, last up is another build of the wing. Make sure you note all the tiny 1x1 pieces. And that's the Bellagio done, with the Las Vegas tile in front of it. Once again, very appreciated that it's a printed tile. I've noticed that the other word tiles that I've seen in other Architecture lines are printed too. Not sure if this is the case for all of them, but it's much appreciated because for the life of me I cannot handle stickers. Thank the Gambling Gods that there's no sticker sheet! Here's the completed set all done! The final monument is the Las Vegas sign that you can see all the way at the end next to the Bellagio. Unless you're really looking up close the sign isn't that emphasized. Nevertheless, the whole set looks very nice! Those clear pieces with a bit on it that I highlighted earlier are used for the Bellagio's fountains along with some lightsaber blades. The Bellagio's fountains are beautiful. When I visited, it really stuck out to me. It's also very famously seen at the end of the film Ocean's Eleven. I might have made fun of building the set being a slough when using all those 1x1 pieces to built that you could see in the piece layout above and in the close up pictures, but this was an enjoyable build altogether especially for my first LEGO purchase in several years. So, what do I think of the set? It's just my opinion but I really like it. Some of the buildings used might not be the most iconic, at least to me. I think instead of the Wynn Hotel and Freemont Center, they could've included maybe Excalibur (the castle one), New York, New York, Caesar's Palace, the Venetian, Treasure Island or Mandalay Bay. Even the Paris hotel. Obviously all of those couldn't have been included, because Skylines sets can only be so large. I can understand the Venetian being excluded because of the Venice Skyline set and the Paris hotel because there's an Eiffel Tower Architecture set, as well as New York, New York because that's a Skylines set too. I think Excalibur with it's multiple and colorful castles, Treasure Island or Mandalay Bay with the pirate ship and volcano out front could have been good additions instead of the Wynn and Freemont. The inclusion of the Luxor and the Bellagio were smart ideas though. Perhaps though they couldn't get the rights somehow to include some of those hotels that I mentioned? Back earlier I mentioned that they call the Bellagio, "Bellagio Hotel LLC". These buildings are of course privately owned and most are not "landmarks" in the same way that other buildings in the Skylines sets are. Nevertheless, I think the set itself is pretty good. Most architecture sets are a bit overpriced, yes, but for $40 it's pretty good. I said that some of the buildings used weren't the most iconic, but all the buildings look really nice and portray a great skyline. The Bellagio's fountain is really nicely done as well, I'm glad they were able to get the shooting water effect. I think I'd buy a Bellagio only Architecture set. Even with the Stratosphere and Wynn, that are much larger, the Bellagio catches your eye. Poor Luxor looks like it's shoved in, but it's a great inclusion because that's an iconic part of the Vegas Strip as well. Altogether, I give the set an 8.5/10! I highly recommend it. It was between Vegas and the other latest Skylines set Shanghai, which does look very nice, but I think I made the right decision. This is only my second review of a LEGO set. Hopefully I did a good job and hopefully there's no review of the set waiting to be made public.If you'd like more pictures of this beautiful set, just ask!
