Icons Eiffelturm Paris (10307)

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At 10,001 pieces, this is a long build, and it’s not recommended to blitz through it, and I’m pleased to say that I actually had a really enjoyable time building it, going so far as to say that the build itself IS one of the main drawcards of the set. This looks like a complete section, but it’s actually just the first half of the third level. There’s still more building to go!

Completing a smooth base is one of the first milestones in every LEGO Architecture model, which is why I was looking forward to completing bags 9+10. The last four holes in the base are covered by four more 16×16 x 2/3 Road Tiles (part 69958) in 330 Olive Green. The rest of the studded gaps are finally covered with a lot more tiles, and 1×2 tiles in 192 Reddish Brown which I believe are meant to represent park benches. In North America, it will be available starting at midnight on the east coast, which means 9:00pm on November 24th (Thanksgiving) if you live on the west coast like I do. First Impressions Eiffel Tower looks amazing, it is resplendent and serves wonderfully as the ultimate, one-of-a-kind LEGO experience that anyone spending hundreds of pounds, dollars or Euros on would hope for. It pays such loving tribute to one of modern world architecture’s most famous buildings and stands so impressively once built.

Eiffel Tower offers an incomparable, one-of-a-kind LEGO experience and final display piece that soars high above everything else that has come before it and has us questioning if this can even be fairly categorised as a LEGO set like all the others. Despite receiving initial criticism for its design, it has since become a global, cultural icon and one of the most recognisable structures in the world. There are about 12 parts that come in quantities in excess of 100, including 704x of the badly damaged 1×1 clip mentioned below, and a potentially ‘evil’ 666x 1×6 plates. Naturally, almost all of these high-volume parts are 199 Dark Stone Grey Dark Bluish Gray. The exception is 1×1 Round w/ 5 petals (part 24866) which you get in large quantities in both 37 Bright Green and 28 Dark Green Green. Injection Moulding Quality Issues

The first temptation with LEGO Icons 10307 Eiffel Tower is to try to compare it to something that has come before and to that end there are a couple of sets that come to mind. This begins with the previous, large-scale version of this same building –10181 Eiffel Tower – that released in 2007 and, for LEGO design standards of the time and across 3,428 pieces, credibly captured the wrought-iron appearance of the tower and came in at a pretty impressive 108cm tall. This clearly isn’t the case, and a lot of effort has been put into the building experience to make it quite intuitive, seamless and as pain-free as possible. I think it looks marvelous. Truly. They got the shaping perfectly, the details are amazing and very pleasing to look at but... was it really necessary?To be frank, this model looks beautiful from across the room — assuming that you have a large enough room to allow you to see it from a distance! I am extremely pleased with the overall shape of the model, which captures the elegant form of the real building very well. If this were a MOC on display at a LEGO convention, it would draw large crowds due to the large size and high degree of craftsmanship. To be fair, even when some of the most talented AFOLs build MOC’s based on key landmarks, they take similar shortcuts to achieve the right ‘look’ without re-creating the structure in the same way. Overall, it is perfectly acceptable, but falls short of exceptional. Value The metalwork looks great, although you’ll want to spend some time aligning the crossbars once the weight has settled.

Building larger LEGO sets often involves repetition and that was certainly the case here. I was pleasantly surprised by the nature of that repetition though. Whereas the construction of 10276 Colosseum involves building identical structures of several hundred pieces, 10307 Eiffel Tower instead focuses on small sub-assemblies, including 168 similar cross-braces, as one example. Opening up the flaps reveals a portrait and quote from Gustave Eiffel, translated into several languages. (Different languages on either side, too!) In fact, a really spectacular view can be had from the base of it, allowing you to view the ornate iron trusses that it’s known for.Speaking of planning, you definitely want to plan ahead as it has a footprint of 57 x 57cm, and is of course awkwardly tall, so placing it on a desk or shelf doesn’t really work. Eiffel Tower was such a pleasant surprise, and I liked it a lot more than I initially thought I would. After seeing it in person in Billund, I was of course impressed by the height and scale, but came away fearing that the build would be bland, torturous and repetitive.