hello everyone this is the latest
official Lego rendition of the Empire
State Building in their architecture
line over 1,700 pieces in the set it is
on a completely different level compared
to the last two renditions of the Empire
State Building that they did an official
sets the most recent one was just a
miniature version that was included in
the New York skyline set but they also
did a standalone Empire State Building
about ten years ago which was just tiny
by comparison just around 70 pieces for
that one so this is definitely on a
different just a different plane of
existence practically not only in its
size but also its complexity and level
of intricacy of the building techniques
the height of this one is about 21 and a
half inches or 55 centimeters there it
is in comparison I'll just align up a
figure with the center line of it so you
can see that the relative general size
so it's pretty impressive but it's not
massive it's not absolutely towering
with 1,700 pieces almost 700 of those
pieces are just 1 by 2 grills so there's
not a whole lot of bulk that goes into
this except there is quite a bit of mass
this is a very solid build it's not
hollow at all in terms of how it looks
as a completed model well it looks great
I mean it looks practically like a
proper scale model and perhaps if you're
not too familiar with Lego you may even
see this from a distance and not even
realise that it's made of Lego there are
no exposed studs I mean you can kind of
see the sides of some studs and things
but you know it it looks more like a
model than many of even Legos
expert-level and architecture sets in
the past it's really not that complex of
a shape though right I mean it really
lends itself well to a rectangle based a
block based building system but I mean
you can clearly see if you are a Lego
fan you can clearly see that there's a
ton of studs on the side construction
involved in this mostly to get that
outer skin and certainly this is the
correct
two decision going with lots and lots of
the grille pieces they weren't as
annoying to apply I think as as they
look or at least as I expected yeah it's
I'm just looking at the instruction
sheet here off screen it's 684 exactly
official grille pieces that are attached
there but there really isn't that much
repetition yeah applying those is
repetitive but there's not that much
repetition in the build far less than I
expected actually there are a number of
sub assemblies that are done like twice
like the section right here it was done
you attach it from the side this section
is done you attach it from the side
there are there are a few things that
are done four times one thing that's
done four times for a vertical just a
vertical repeat to get the major center
section of the tower the sides was at
the sides of the front and back as the
sides get attached they're mirrored or
identical actually one here one here and
it's just one large sub assembly each
but it just I don't know it just felt
like a better build a more interesting
build than I expected for something that
is so so constrained by rectangles by
right angles everywhere and you know the
studs on the side construction is not
limited to just applying that outer
scanning you can see that a lot of the
the sub assemblies are fully built on
there on their sides and this makes some
really interesting use or quite a lot of
use of a technique that I think Lego is
trying to tell us through through this
build they're just trying to tell us
they they like and they fully approve of
in case there was any question about it
this technique right here of placing a
tile in between the studs of a brick or
a plate so they actually do this to
invert studs a number of times and in
many places if not all in this it's not
even really necessary it provides some
interesting structural support if you're
interested in what size that is a height
of two bricks plus one plate
but it's not like they use the anti
studs on top they don't connect anything
to that throughout this it's almost as
if they're just trying to send a message
to us it it's a good technique and fills
up some space in an interesting way
leaves some interesting gaps for adding
in things from the side but yes there
was any question this is a perfectly
legitimate technique that Lego has has
told us very directly they like not only
approve of but actually like probably
the most interesting stuff in terms of
how it gets built is down at the the
lower level the lower most level that is
and actually most of it you don't even
see this actually has some interior
detail that's designed into it they
actually have the escalators that are
built in there and you build them you
place them and then you never see them
again so it's really something that's
that's put there just for the Builder
nobody else is going to be able to
appreciate those and I think that's cool
I it really didn't waste a lot of pieces
for that definitely a fair amount of
design effort had to go into to creating
that but I kind of appreciate that as
sort of a sort of an easter egg that is
specifically for the builders you know
you have to put in the effort and here's
the page in the instructions where you
can see them in place and they also make
a reference to them over there but
ultimately all this gets covered up and
it's it's interesting how there is so
little area here of of studs on top you
know it's a very large structure but the
number of studs that are exposed at this
point to which things get attached it is
very minimal
now these tiles around the sides do
receive some weight but a lot of the
structure ultimately gets its core
support from its core from its center
well I'm talking about the core and
while we're looking at the instructions
here I do want to point out a very
deliberate decision that was made during
the design was to make the core red
white and blue very very USA patriotic
right there completely unnecessary but I
you know an understandable message and
another thing that can potentially be
appreciated by the Builder well there's
there's more to it than this by far but
this is a good illustration of just how
much color there really is on the inside
and I like that especially the fact that
you don't see any of that red white or
blue at the at the end I mean it doesn't
peek through anywhere on the finished
product the only place you do see bright
color is down on the ground and on the
streets in particular where they have
some suggestions of some taxis going
around the outside and they do give you
the street all the way around so this is
not something that needs to be displayed
you know in one particular direction
from one particular angle you don't
really need to choose where are you
gonna put this how are you going to
display it when you build it it looks
equally good from truly any angle and
then at the end you know the very tip of
it of course is a very different build
they give us some plated or painted
silver pieces there that's nice to see
to give it a little extra shine always a
luxury you want to get that little bit
of deluxe not only not only just the the
metallic finish of it but a little bit
different texture you know it has that
satin finish compared to the fairly
glossy finish of regular Lego plastic
pieces so that works out well and this
is very symmetrical all the way around
with studs on the side construction of
course and ultimately studs on every
side construction but you know it has a
nice little core inside so this is not
it's not fragile at all
and yeah just makes for a nice topper
real quick here are the sets spare parts
the leftovers there aren't very many of
them especially considering how many
parts are in the set in total and
nothing here is too special at this
point I suppose I could talk about the
history of New York City and
metropolitan architecture in general but
those are things that I personally don't
have a great interest in so I'm not
going to just look up a bunch of facts
just to pad out the video I think that
I've covered everything that I wanted to
cover regarding this I mean most of most
of what you want to know about it you
can see right here but I
can tell you what I feel about its value
having actually gone through the process
of building it and you know having the
thing right here in front of me the
price to part ratio on this set is
fantastic you know I mean you cannot ask
for it to be better and I'm glad that it
is that way because 684 is a lot of 1 by
2 by 1/3 pieces you know in just the
grille pieces so if this had a 10-cent
price to part ratio that would be insane
it would be ridiculously expensive as it
is it does feel still a bit expensive
for its overall size but the quality is
definitely there the display value is
definitely there this has lasting value
you know this is something that you can
just leave on display and it's it's it's
not going to be superseded by anything
in the next decade and possibly multiple
decades you know at some point they may
come out with maybe a half high version
of this with future pieces that will
look really nice and detailed or maybe
something that's twice as large as this
but for its size it's just so good and
like I said fortunately the building
experience was much better than I and I
expected it's actually enjoyable to put
together it's not boring to me has some
interesting techniques and it just feels
right so I think that there's nothing
really that can be done to make this
better in my opinion I think that the
price is high but relative to other
architecture sets you know in the
official architecture line it's very
good and I think ultimately for a lot of
people it would be worth it and again
keep in mind its size and scale which is
pretty impressive it's not going to work
well with minifigures if you're into
minifigure level stuff you know it's
gonna look like not a scale model like
maybe just a temporary installation I
don't know I don't think it works too
well with minifigures unless you put it
off in the background but that's pretty
much all that I have to say about this
one if you want to see how it actually
goes together yourself you can watch it
you can watch the full bill the pure
build
in real time with no distracting music
nothing sped up and nothing cut out
except for a couple minutes literally a
couple minutes out of the roughly two
and a half hour build where I just
messed up and didn't record a couple of
tiny little sub assemblies my apologies
for that but most of it is there but if
you don't want to go through the entire
process you just want to see it in
general have the much shorter version as
a speed build
you know time lapse style 60p fairly
smooth hopefully with some music to go
with it and that lets you go through and
just you know see how everything
ultimately comes together choose one of
those if you would like to I'll put up
links to both on the screen right now
I'll talk to you soon
