hello everyone from the Lego
architecture skyline series this is
their micro scale abstract of Dubai
there are some things about this build
that I like very much there are some
things also that make me go hmmm looking
at the whole thing overall it's amazing
to see just how much these skyline
series sets have increased in size over
the years I mean they used to be like
properly micro scale where everything
was about yay tall and the base would be
about yay wide and these things are just
expanding so much it's incredible and
you get such 3d builds now whereas
before most of these types of stats were
just on these little strips but they
keep just expanding on absolutely every
dimension and I don't mind that because
it allows you to get a lot more detail
in there and certainly there is quite a
bit of detail here and the builds just
in general the builds were enjoyable for
each of the sub sub assemblies here each
of that the building each of the
structures now because there is so much
detail here and because there is so much
depth it sticks out so far towards the
back of that original style a force ton
white strip you really get full
buildings here there they're not just
cut off they're not just facades of them
or anything and the whole model for the
most part actually looks really good
from pretty much any angle we're just
something that I really don't expect and
as I rotate this around it's still
looking good even completely around the
back it's still looking pretty good with
just a couple of small exceptions so the
overall presentation here is very nice I
want to start off with this thing here
that looks particularly awkward if you
don't know what it's supposed to be if
you're not familiar with the subject
matter whatsoever I personally wasn't
particularly familiar with it it's
called the Dubai frame it is an almost
500 foot tall picture frame through
which you take pictures of the main body
of the city it's a really interesting
idea and Lego has represented it here
with mostly just a door frame couple
tiles on the top
do give it a platform down below and the
whole thing is painted in gold I don't
believe I've ever seen a lego door frame
or window frame painted in golden before
I'm glad that they did paint it rather
than using the the the pearl gold color
because this way it matches the color of
their tiles I guess they could have used
pro gold tiles as well but this is just
it's just a superior gold in my opinion
I don't think there's any better way to
make this in Lego with parts that are
available without it being completely
just fragile it's ready to to fall apart
at a moment's notice if you if you
breathe on it so I think that's actually
pretty clever and then down here you see
more gold pieces that's really nice I
also appreciate the leaf pieces in the
olive green color which represents small
trees well represents large trees but I
appreciate especially the olive green
color because it causes them to not
stand out too much and not grab too much
of your attention from everything else
because there's a there's a dominant
blue theme through all this and I think
green really really would have taken
away from that and just drawn your eyes
towards it you know with like a bright
green or a regular green these are the
Jumeirah this pardon me if i pronounced
incorrectly Emirates pair of buildings
the smaller ones Hotel the larger one is
a office building and these are depicted
pretty nicely appreciate the one by one
half round parts that are in black down
at the base and then in gold part way up
just generally speaking I think that
these look pretty proper given their
scale and everything and the things in
this set are mostly scaled decently well
to each other not perfectly let's not
look around the back here seeing the
undersides of plates is is very very
very rarely a pleasant experience in my
opinion and in my experience it's just
not something you want to see very
frequently now between those undersides
they did play
these invite inverted tiles you know
everything is still studs on the
underside you're looking at the
underside so the dark dark blue squares
are inverted tiles and you'll see that
again here but again you see the
undersides of plates I really don't like
that could I have come up with a better
solution myself possibly not I didn't
want it to be too thick but now the
shaping overall is pretty good but this
is awkward to me it's very awkward and
as soon as you start to see this even
slightly around the side you start to
see that you know it doesn't it doesn't
hide from you at all and the same thing
goes for the taller building if you look
at it a little bit from the right so
that's something that I'm personally not
happy with but here's another positive
thing about this portion of the model I
love how these buildings are angled at
an interesting angle and I love how they
come together at their bases it's quite
unexpected and all I have to do is move
one of them a little bit to show you
just what's going on here with that two
completely separate assemblies that just
link up right there at the base and it's
kind of a little bit of magic it feels
like a little magic trick when you put
the second building on and they just
lock together that said you saw that I
was able to easily move this around I'm
also able to easily move this around and
now I'm moving both of them around so
has to go back to the negative side
unfortunately these things are just
rattling and shaking around you any
slight movement especially since the
base of this is slightly warped and it
just always happens it's always a little
bit of curvature you know just a little
bit of movement in the room and these
move around like that
I don't like that not something that I'd
like to see it's not very covenants
inspiring you don't have to worry about
these falling apart they are attached
securely they're just a little bit loose
because there's no friction in the joint
of this part that's used here so when
those two come together
a little bit gap and just a little bit
of looseness that again isn't enjoyable
the building on the right is the Burj Al
Arab and this well it is shaped very
nicely the build is enjoyable in my
opinion when you compare this to
pictures of the real thing I personally
have a couple of issues with this some
things about it are done fantastically
well the whole thing is intended to
represent a sale you know it's supposed
to be a sale shape and the real building
captures that fantastically well and I
think the Lego model captures that quite
well also especially when you look at it
from one of its wide sides but as you
start rotating around these these pieces
interesting pieces these are the
candlestick parts and they they fill the
space appropriately but these parts that
are diagonal and facing up into the
right here are supposed to be far less
noticeable than the horizontal ones and
seeing their ends is not a particularly
good look also seeing those ends not
connect where they're supposed to to
these outer main parts of the structure
I don't even know what you would call
that but yeah it just kind of falls
apart to me like looking at it from the
side yep that works I wish that again
the diagonals were not as prominent as
they are but just rotating it like this
doesn't work so well now up top here or
near the top that's the helipad that is
represented well I think the proportions
there are good positioning there is good
and as you rotate it all the way around
is where you saw on the wider view you
do see more full fully built out fully
detailed building there's as much detail
on the away side as there is on the near
side which is fantastic
I very much appreciate that although it
does have the same problems as the other
side of course
and then there's one other thing that is
in my opinion wrong about this or at
least that's troubling to my eyes it's
the lack of the restaurant that's at the
helipad level there's supposed to be a
restaurant here and it it really would
have been attached right where that
joint is in them in the model and it's
supposed to stick out sticks out this
way and it sticks out left and right and
it's just not depicted like no effort
was made to even suggest that that thing
actually exists and I think it's an
important little architectural detail
that's just simply missed here entirely
in this model really wish that had been
yeah just thought of you know considered
and I think that could have been pulled
off without too much difficulty I think
they could have built plate wise from
behind there especially with the help of
the 1 by 2 round modified plate pieces
with the hollow studs the relatively
recent parts that are fantastic that
could have filled in the extra space and
I just would have completed the overall
shape of course when a lot of us
foreigners think of Dubai we think of
the Burj Khalifa and that is very
prominent not a particularly intricate
build but pretty appropriate I think
maybe even a little bit brighter looking
here than the real thing which is an
improvement over past renditions of the
Burj Khalifa which have been a little
bit flat looking by comparison
they put a representation of the dubai
fountains right out front which is nice
you know it's it's a very small
representation of it but it's mostly the
thought that counts there and definitely
gets the point across Burj Khalifa
itself has good shaping generally
speaking you see lots of those one by
two modified rounded plates that
mentioned or used in this in a couple of
colors well a couple of shades of grey
and there is a little bit of repetition
involved here not nearly as much as it
appears here because in order for the
structure to work out for some of the
offset
to come into play as you go up the
structure you change how you build from
tier to tier
generally speaking so this was not
annoying at all and I personally don't
like doing a lot of basic rep repetitive
building especially with one by one's
fortunately these are mostly the one by
ones and one my twos are mostly things
that do not be not need to be aligned
perfectly so that made it a lot easier
and it takes you right on up to the top
and again the relative proportions are
pretty good between the different
buildings I think I think that Jumeirah
Emirates buildings are thing I think
they might be a little bit tall relative
to the Burj Khalifa it was either those
or the building one of those one of
those sets sorry have I did not record
my measurements there but generally
speaking most of this is is well within
a reasonable range and again coming all
the way around the back of the building
I mean I've rotated this a full 180
degrees plus and you're not seeing any
miss I mean you're able to see just a
little bit of gap down there at the base
where something is a little bit
different from this side but I mean it
takes a nitpick I think a real nitpick
to to go against that to call that a -
you want to score that against this so
just generally speaking I think this is
pretty nice all that trans light blue
it's just a beautiful color and really
helps with the general blue theme of
whole day now do watch out for a little
bit of an issue that I have here where
the whole thing is kind of leaning a
little bit do you want to go straighten
that out because ultimately there's not
a single single spine going through all
of this so it's up to you to avoid the
the bendability
of lots and lots of stacks of small LEGO
pieces and make sure it ends up straight
these are the spare parts for the set
and I'm just happy to see that olive
green colored foliage piece even if it
is just one extra so what about value
here I'll tell you one thing the price
to part ratio looks fantastic 740 pieces
for $60 u.s. yeah sounds quite good on
paper at least till you realize that
well they're practically no large pieces
here and the overwhelming majority of
parts are pretty small there's that one
very special piece with the gold
painting on it the door frame but that's
not worth a tremendous amount and there
are just so many 1 by 1 studs here and 1
by 2 plates involved in this and 1 by 2
sized things in general that it doesn't
look like $60 worth of stuff but then
again of course we have to face it this
is a model of Dubai a center of wealth
and excess really the average car price
there is over 100 you know a hundred
thousand or something like that so
probably more people are willing to
overpay for this particular set than
almost any other that that Lego has has
made I do feel like you are overpaying
here I generally feel like you're
overpaying for most they go architect
your sets because you are Lego makes
these sets for adults we have cash to
throw around you know they're they're
collectibles
they're special little display models
that are not intended to be priced based
on the amount of stuff that you get
there the amount of plastic that you get
there in a way that can be easily
compared to regular LEGO sets like City
sets or or whatever so once again
overpriced but it's kind of something
that you have to be used to I think in
the architecture line some things about
this are really nice and again on
display from any kind of reasonable
distance it's
it's quite quite elegant especially if
you know what you're looking at you
start to look at it a little bit more
closely and with with an eye for detail
and some things aren't that great this
is my least favorite thing over here
because any time that a table moves that
this is on there just like rattling
around so not a particularly good look
so some good stuff here some bad stuff
and your mileage may vary hope that I
have at least given you fair look at
what's actually here whether you agree
with my opinions or not you want to see
the build for this I've got two versions
of it I've got a real-time version with
nothing but the sounds of parts being
put together and then I have a speed
build version with some fairly gentle
music to go with it so check out one of
those if you'd like to I've got links to
both of those related channels where I
have just build related videos down in
the video description and I also link to
it at least one of them in the end
screen which is coming up right now so
thanks for watching I'll talk to you in
very soon
