Architecture 21045 Trafalgar Square Building Kit (1197 Pieces)

I own and have built a number of LEGO Architecture Sets including the San Francisco Skyline, the New York Skyline, Buckingham Palace, Big Ben, the United Nations, the U.S. Capitol, the White House and the most recent version of LEGO's Empire State Building. The LEGO Architecture 21045 Trafalgar Square Building Kit stands out as one of the best. In fact, if it weren't for the outstanding LEGO Empire State Building (21046), the Trafalgar Square would be my favorite LEGO Architecture Set. The set includes National Gallery, Nelson’s Column, two London buses, two black cabs. four lions statues, two fountains, four sculpture plinths, ten trees, six lampposts, realistic steps, and an impressively curved road. All this this is created from 1,190 individual brick pieces. The set was a fun build. I completed it in a day and thoroughly enjoyed the build. The set is amazing to look at once completed. At 4” (12cm) high, 9” (24cm) wide and 7” (20cm) deep it's larger than many of the other LEGO Architecture sets. LEGO has designed a very creative use of LEGO blocks in several places. For example, there are "displays" inside of the National Gallery. Instead of having to pull the roof off of the top as is the case with, say, the LEGO U.S. Capitol Building, there are three easy to remove and replace doors on the back of the National Gallery. Simply pull them off by the handles and take a peak inside. This is a much better and a far more realistic way to "look inside" the building than a roof pull. The set, of course, isn't a perfect replica of Trafalgar Square. The National Gallery has been shortened. However, if it hadn't been the model would have been gigantic and perhaps unwieldy. The lion statues don't look realistic. The cabs and buses suggest but don't really look like the real thing. The peaked roof over the National Gallery’s front doesn't quite fit properly Finally, the trees are a bit phony looking and the top of the trees are difficult to construct. This is because LEGO has decided to place a 1×1 Plate, Round Brick on the 2×2 Plate, Round w/ Axle circular brick that makes up the top of the tree. The pieces aren't really made to go together in this manner. This makes it hard to push the round brick on to the tree's top piece. After some experimentation, I found that I could use the tree trunk piece as a tool to insert the 1×1 Plate, Round Brick onto the top of the tree. All of these are issues, albeit minor, with the LEGO Architecture 21045 Trafalgar Square Building Kit. Still, we can forgive most of these issues as they really don't distract from the overall beauty of the outstanding finished model

Excellent piece well designed

This Trafalgar lego set is awesome if you like lego's and you over the age of 20 or even your late teens then you will like this. I ordered it this last Friday, got it on Saturday and finished it on Sunday the only real problem I had was that the two pieces that make the front of the roof don't lie flush with each other (see last picture)like it show's on the box but other than that I got exactly what I paid for and had a great time building this Lego set .One thing to know this is pricey it's 79.99 but when tax is added it comes to 86.59 almost 90$ but other than that this is an awesome Lego set. You can bet I'll be getting more in the future

Recipient had visited Trafalgar Square in the past.

This was a lot of fun to put together. It is relaxing to just focus on putting the pieces together. I love the detail and creativity that goes into these building sets. Easy to assemble and would be a great gift for any Lego lover. The cost is. Okay- anyone would always like to spend less money! This is a great addition to my collection!

The set was fun to build and has some really creative building techniques and designs. It looks great once it’s been completed, there are so many thoughtful details. As for overall value its’s a small set not really worth $80. Otherwise it’s a great set!

I am a LEGO collector and I have assembled many kits for permanent display. The Trafalgar Square model is lovely, but I will say that the base is relatively large to have so many smaller pieces. I solved this problem by actually gluing the base parts which seemed unstable! Once you are certain you have correctly placed a base piece, take some Elmer's and place dots on the critical knobs, snap the piece down, and be sure to let the glue dry before proceeding further. The base will then be stable for the actual structures (which will stay on their own), and it will save you a lot of frustration later on!

My 12 year old granddaughter has moved from the friends and city legos into the architecture legos. She really loved them because they are recognizable from her geography studies. I hope there will be more historically based ones.