hey everybody this is the Lego
architecture San Francisco skyline set
now I was born and raised within visual
range of this exact skyline here I have
worked in San Francisco multiple times
I've visited countless times I've sailed
the San Francisco Bay so I actually am
more qualified to give this a fair
review then I have been of any of the
other architecture sets to date so let's
see what we've got here the most
striking part of this build is
definitely the Golden Gate Bridge
representation here which is done in a
most interesting way they've added a
very very strong forced perspective to
it which gives it a certain depth that I
find very interesting and different and
cool it's kind of artsy and it works now
when you look at this up close it
doesn't entirely make sense the the
bridge is actually supposed to go
through here and it's supposed to go
through there and here you know we've
got one on one side one on the other but
I'll tell you if you put this up on a
shelf where most people are going to be
displaying a thing like this it looks
right it looks right from a distance and
I like what they've done overall the
choice of dark red is probably
controversial to some the actual color
of Golden Gate Bridge is a very very
slightly orange red and it's a pale red
it's like a desaturated red I personally
probably would have preferred a regular
Lego red color here but I understand the
use of the dark red there are a lot of
shadows and a lot of times of the day
from a lot of different perspectives for
viewing the the real thing and this also
kind of tones it down a little bit so it
doesn't steal the show quite as much as
it would if it was full ran you know
regular bright red relative to other
skyline sets that people may display
this against so the the forced
perspective here is kind of showing this
from the perspective
like Chrissy Chrissy field or you know
some we're approaching the Golden Gate
Bridge going towards Marin County and
yeah that's that's cool it's it's a lot
more interesting than making it a little
bit more realistic I probably would have
gone for evil / an evil equal height
here I probably would have been a little
bit more iconic but I feel like this was
brave and I appreciate that
that bravery of the designer down at the
base you get the tiniest representation
of Fort Point which is fine I get it and
I appreciate that little inclusion there
makes sense you get a little bit of the
Bay here which is looking a little bit
more calm than it actually would be they
try to put a little bit of suggestion of
waves over here closer to the coast but
it's a very very turbulent area of water
but it's fine it's perfectly fine then
you have Alcatraz this is probably my
favorite part of this entire build they
introduced this new printed brick one by
two with just a print on one side this
looks really good to me again this is
viewed from around the North Shore with
the lighthouse viewed over on the
right-hand side and in the water tower
on the left that's what this represents
here so yeah again that's that's that's
fine I mean there are different angles
you could choose for that but this looks
great to me
it was a good little bill that's a good
representation and I'm very happy with
this hand across they also give you just
a little bit of the representation of
the Marin Headlands we're going Gate
Bridge lands and then let's talk about
San Francisco itself so downtown San
Francisco is represented by some of its
major landmarks including Salesforce
Tower which kind of came out of nowhere
and just took over the skyline of San
Francisco being the tallest building
there it's a relatively new development
this represents Transamerica Tower this
is bankamerica building just now just
five five five California Street and
this little white one here could be any
number of buildings
just just to grab one at random they
didn't they didn't officially title it
but to grab one at random relative to
the position to this I call it 650
Californians treated me it could be a
bunch of things but let's just focus on
these these three big ones first I think
that the Salesforce Tower is represented
really really well the build for that is
good I especially like the detailing
around the top the shaping around the
top and it looks good from different
angles I mean the whole the whole entire
build is really not intended to be
viewed from the backside here like this
but you know the thing actually is
covered up around the back and including
the Bank of America building five high
five count for your street so yeah I
like that looks like just one little
piece I forgot to push down quite enough
there we go that's a little bit better a
little bit better Transamerica building
is interesting interesting part usage
they they captured the shape kind of
sort of in a way I don't know that's
that's debatable
the fact that it's white I can I can go
with that being white let me just grab
the the box they do have a decent
picture of it
there yeah yeah you know I mean you get
to get the general idea it's too bad
that these these spiky pieces couldn't
actually be printed but they're kind of
rubbery they're they're flexible so I
don't think you can actually print on to
that reliably but I get it you know you
see it you know what it's supposed to be
the five five five California Street
it's still difficult for me to not say
Bank America building is also great
Brown is the right color for it
oftentimes it looks kind of black in in
pictures but it actually is a slightly
desaturated kind of dark brown I think
that regular brown is a better color
than dark brown just looks better on the
on the skyline here and that has just a
perfect build a good a good shape to it
it could have had a little bit more
depth but I don't see how at this scale
so I'm actually pretty happy with that
and then let's get down to some of the
littler stuff so of course they had to
have a representation of the Haight
Ashbury painted ladies row houses
they're represented a lot
of touristy materials and you know
they're associated with they've been
used in a beast one know a bunch of TV
shows regularly in cutaways and such and
then this is quite tower over here and
both of these builds use this one by one
printed plate piece just in white which
adds a little extra detail and it's nice
it's much better than having no detail
they're used at all and yeah it just it
just helps the the positions of these
relative to each other is completely
nonsensical but I'm okay with that I
think that they were arranged in a way
that where you can tell that they
weren't tried trying to put them in in
the right order and it's just trying to
be representative here I wanted to be a
a lot better with it then they would
have put these back here and they would
put this just a little bit closer to the
to the front of it I think that could
have been worked out I feel like it
would have been possible especially
since this does have extra depth already
but I'm okay with this position I really
like the suggestion of the cable car
tracks so they've actually got a I don't
know if this was the original intent for
this but it kind of looks like it with a
seam there looks like a cable car track
that's headed up up the hill there but
they also have the more more
unquestionable cable car
suggestion going down the middle of the
street right there which is very nice to
see so you can actually kind of get into
the city just a little bit cable cars
don't run everywhere and in San
Francisco but they are very very
recognizable and definitely belonged in
this setting the biggest problem that I
have with this is the order of the big
buildings see little ones you know don't
really define the skyline so they're
more just representative of the place so
I'm I'm personally okay with those being
moved around a bit and the perspective
on the Golden Gate is just an artistic
choice which you know may not be the
best to some people it's definitely not
the best to me
but I think it's it's interesting and
you know I respect the designers choice
there the order of these buildings here
was also clearly an artistic choice I
think it was a bad one because it does
not represent the actual view of the San
Francisco skyline you think of the San
Francisco skyline you think of pictures
of it taken from the bay which is
towards you it's that way the San
Francisco Bay is all on the camera side
of all of this or you think of pictures
that were taken with a telephoto lens
from Berkeley like the Berkeley Hills or
even the shore but especially from the
hills where you can really just see
everything because there's nothing
between you and this scene and viewed
from any of those locations the order is
and it's very very obvious the order is
left to right Salesforce tower Bank
America building transamerica pyramid
they call it not building that's our
pyramid officially they they call it so
that's that's a mix it's not even a
reversal of this it's it's it's just a
mix it's as if these were randomized
just really they're put there to to give
a certain shape that designer found to
be aesthetically pleasing I find it to
be aesthetically unpleasing because this
is this is showing the Salesforce tower
way way back along the coastline out
it's just totally totally the wrong
place from this view it should be over
here at this corner absolutely at the
corner and then you'll see this guy and
then you'll see this guy that's the
order that it should be so this is
absolutely wrong the only place where
only place is where you see this sort of
order of these left to right is from
like the South yeah south east edge of
the city
AT&T Park maybe if you're lucky but it's
not a good place to see the skyline you
can see it like this from Potrero Hill
just barely but again there you're
inland
looking towards land you're not really
looking at a skyline so this is just
very very awkward to me this is a view
that I have never seen and never will
see for the San Francisco skyline on the
whole interestingly the first page that
you open up in the instructions shows
you a nice view with an ordering of the
Transamerica Pyramid and 5x5 California
Street building that is reversed to
what's here and I believe this photo was
taken before the beginning of
construction on Salesforce tower because
it would be way back in the background
I believe showing up somewhere around
here and this picture is probably taken
from quite Tower if I'm not mistaken or
there abouts yeah so in order to get the
view that you see here you have to be
all the way back there way down there
which is out to the south and one last
thing on that point sorry if you were
viewing it from Potrero Hill or there
abouts you would see the Bay Bridge over
here the one that goes to Oakland the
Golden Gate Bridge would be way back
here and you wouldn't see it to be way
off of there so it's just so so jarring
to me I wish that three big ones were
reconfigured replaced differently and it
would have made sense would have you
actually looked like a representation of
the San Francisco skyline I also really
think that the more that I think about
it the more than I look at it I really
think that the painted ladies could have
been put on this side and then Hill
could have been peaked right here could
have gone down with the quite Tower
closer over to this side would have
would have made more sense wouldn't
would not have been quite perfect but
again I'm okay with moving some things
around but just not the biggest most
important things that define the very
silhouette and the skyline for a skyline
set there you go I like so much about
this they build was definitely enjoyable
and the end results are very confusing
and some of the end results are very
confusing
and I would expect controversial for
people who have actually seen the San
Francisco skyline especially those of us
who have seen it all our lives oh yeah
almost forgot the leftover pieces dusty
pile of extra pieces from this set does
include some of the or at least one each
of some of the more interesting in my
opinion valuable parts from this set
including the printed one by one brick
there the white lipstick piece this
white flower these two double sloped
pieces and tan and the the powder blue
forget the off hand right now that the
exact name of that one this is a hollow
stud here they just don't have extras of
any of the recolor pieces that were used
on the Golden Gate Bridge itself these
are just your existing both of these
dark red ones are existing but they
don't have the end piece or anything
like that but you know a decent
selection of these parts and again of
course if you want to see the build of
this it's already up on my build channel
and you can see a link to that in the
pin comments the comment card on the
side of this video of the charity
presently watching and also any link at
the end of this video anyway those are
my thoughts and feel free to disagree of
course thank you for watching I will
talk to you in very soon
you
