IMPRESSIVE ARCHITECTURAL LEGO SETS
I’ve always been a fan of architecture — and a fan of Legos. When I was a kid, my brother and I would play Legos for hours at a time — coming up with characters and involved story lines that always ended up with a tornado destroying our town so we would be “forced” to rebuilt. Those tornados were just an excuse to take everything apart and reconfigure it — it was by no means a way to torture the small, plastic inhabitants of our village. It’s been quite a while since I last payed any attention to Legos — though I still love them just as much. Recently, when my adorable husband Jim and I were looking for a gift for our soon-to-be seven year old nephew who desperately wants Legos for his birthday (good kid!), we happened to check out the Lego website. Holy, moly — Legos have somehow gotten even more amazing! I may be a little late to discover these massive Lego buildings — since it seems like they have been around for at least a few years — but I was so excited, I just had to share with all of you. (Legos are retro, right?)
If time and money were no deterrent, it would be my goal to build a city block out of these architectural Legos — they were even designed by people who were trained as architects! If you couldn’t tell already, I’m beyond impressed.
These sets are from the Lego Modular Buildings series. You can tell already that they are cool, but what makes them even more amazing is that they can be easily taken apart once they are built — to expose the inside of the buildings.
Some of the buildings listed on the Lego official online store have videos in their descriptions. In the videos, one of the creators of these sets speaks about the details of each set and shows off all the fun features. I highly recommend watching them — it is the next best thing to actually having the set in front of you.
The sets are not cheap — $149.99 – $200 — for one set depending on which one you choose — but they are very large and have thousands of pieces, including many specially made unique-to-the-set pieces. It must take days if not weeks to build one even with the directions — so if you (or your kid) is a Lego fanatic, these might be worth the monetary investment.
During my visit to the Lego website, I also stumbled across this haunted mansion.
It has a hinged side so you can play with it like a doll house!
Just looking at all of these fun Lego sets has me feeling like Frank above — and wanting to return to my days of playing with Legos for hours and hours. Good thing they don’t have these in mid century modern house styles — or I would have to buy them all instead of remodeling my bathroom.
Managing Editor and Graphic Designer for the popular blog RetroRenovation.com by day and part time home improver, interior designer, retro enthusiast, vintage bargain hunter, gardener, cook, artist, picture taker and the brains behind this blog on evenings and weekends.
Kate: Did you miss all of these? http://architecture.lego.com/en-us/products/ FLW’s Robie House, Falling Water, Fransworth House, etc???!! There’s your MCM!
I did see those Diana — and don’t get me wrong, they are cool — but there is something about the doll-house-like qualities of the other sets (and the size of them) that makes them so much cooler…
Speaking of mid century modern designs. There is also the Lego Architecture series that has the Farnsworth House, Guggenheim Museum, Frank Llyod Wright’s Falling Waters, Villa Savoye and other famous landmarks. Check out architecture.lego.com/en-us/products/
yes, those are cool too — they would be better if they were larger and could be opened up!
Holy Moly, Kate … these are amazing and very cool! Brought back so many memories of the hours and hours you and your brother played with these very creative “toys.” You guys used to fantasize about LEGO creating some of these sets. Saw the link to the Fallingwater set too. Cool! Remember the trip when we went there and that trip was your first trip to an IKEA store too! Great memories! I foresee a birthday or Christmas present of LEGOS in you and Jim’s future?
Oh yes, how could I forget the endless hours playing Legos with my brother — and of course I remember our trip to Falling Water and IKEA — what an exciting weekend that was!
These are awesome! Wish they weren’t quite so pricey. I enjoyed playing with Legos for hours growing up, and again with my son when he was a kid. I bought three of the early architecture series sets a few years ago, before they began to grow larger & more costly. I agree these big sets are much cooler. But having lived in the Chicago area awhile, I’m glad I bought the one set when it still said Sears Tower – just not the same now.
My husband grew up in the Chicago area and is equally disturbed about them renaming the Sears Tower — we still call it the Sears Tower and probably always will!
I totally have the Fransworth House in a cart….I want to display it! idk…somehow all these intensely intrique legos don’t have the same character as the old ones; kindof loses a sense of imagination.
I totally impulse-ordered the Farnsworth!
ohhh cool — and sorry about that!
I agree — these aren’t as imaginative as giving someone a box of pieces with no instruction — but imagine how many small houses you could build with all the pieces from these sets. It would be fun to build one, play with it and admire it for a while and then take it apart to see what you could come up with using the pieces…
I used to build mid-century homes with boxes of Legos when I was little, but didn’t know they were mid-century. Flat roof lines, fun landscaping, big long windows. I would open the boxes and completely disregard the original intention for the pieces and just build anything and everything. I even would use vintage Matchbox cars in the driveway! (I think you just inspired a post!) Can we go back to being kids?
If only we could be kids again! I would play Legos all day!
My youngest daughter sometimes plays with the Legos…I’m always impressed with her designs (not so much the finding little teeny pieces under tables/couches).
Just wanted to share this blog about miniatures…some cool Mod dollhouses/room boxes…(I still play with my dollhouses): http://call-small.blogspot.com/search?updated-max=2013-03-03T22:17:00-05:00&max-results=7
OH MY GOODNESS! What an adorable blog — now I want to start making mini dollhouse rooms!