21020 Trevi Fountain
Posted by Huw,
Today sees the release of the latest Architecture set, Trevi Fountain.
The Trevi Fountain in Rome is perhaps the most famous and instantly recognisable fountain in the world so it makes an excellent subject for an Architecture set.
The fountain is an intricate structure backed by a building full of intricate details so there's no doubt that set designer Rok Kobe had his work cut out attempting to represent it faithfully in microscale. Read on to find out if I think he was successful...
Box and contents
Like all Architecture sets, it's packed in a standard high-quality box. The first thing that struck me was how heavy it was, over 900g.
The reason for the weight became apparent once I'd opened the box: the perfect-bound instruction manual, at 144-pages long is very substantial.
In addition to the actual building instructions, the book contains information about the history, design and construction and the architect, both in English and Italian. (Did you know 3000 Euros are thrown into the fountain every day?)
There are five bags inside, full of white, grey, black and trans blue parts, and an orange brick separator. The inventory includes 159 trans blue and 60 trans clear parts.
Construction
Construction begins with the usual black base with tile border, including one printed with the name of the subject.
The gap in the middle is filled with white plates which are then covered entirely with 1x2 and 1x1 trans-blue plates.
The back of the building is constructed first. It would have been easy to have left this plain given it's hidden round the back but as you can see the windows have been painstakingly represented with 1x1 bricks.
The building is the Palazzo Poli, housing Italy's national museum of graphic arts. I haven't been able to find an image of the back of it to know whether this is an accurate representation but it looks pretty good, despite apparently lacking a door which you might expect to find in the middle. It is no doubt much narrower from front to back than the real thing.
The front facade of the building is constructed using a lot of 1x1 bricks and plates and so takes time and patience to build, if you want to ensure they are all positioned squarely.
Oceanus, the central statue, and those on either side, Abundance and Salubrity, are represented using microfigs from LEGO Games sets.
Construction then moves to the detail within the fountain, the sea reef, using light grey slopes and tiles, which are positioned very randomly. Care is needed to position everything exactly where it should be.
The top of the building is then completed, using 2x2 tiles with one stud offset in two directions to provide an overhang at the front and sides of the building.
The completed model
The addition of the crest and decoration at the top finishes off the building, two Hippocampi (mythological creatures that Poseidon created to serve him, apparently) are added to the fountain. I wondered what they were when I built them but once they were positioned with their legs over the rocks it became obvious they were horse-like creatures and I thought they looked great.
The back of the structure looks excellent, given it could so easily have been left blank.
Overall opinion
How successful was Rok Kobe in capturing the monument in LEGO? Let's compare it with the actual fountain using this picture (from TravelHDWallpapers) that shows the entire structure.
As you can see the building facade is an excellent representation, with the correct number of columns, windows and other details.
The fountain and pool in front of it are certainly the right shape but the thing I am not so convinced about is the sea reef, represented in the model by grey slopes and tiles in the water. In my opinion they take up far too much space and leave very little pool in front of them. Of course, that is easily remedied, simply remove some of them or maybe extend the front of the pool out 4 studs or so.
That minor niggle aside, this is an excellent addition to the Architecture line. It's a satisfying, 'adult' build, one you need to take time over to get it to look its best, the completed model looks superb and is a faithful representation of the real thing.
I was impressed that the back of the building had been given a significant level of detail given that it wasn't strictly necessary and when the model is displayed, will be out of sight.
No doubt people will complain about the price (which as I write this, I don't know) but you're buying a premium product and building experience which easily justifies the premium price tag.
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16 comments on this article
That's a pretty-looking mini model. It almost looks like you could display it next to the mini modulars, even though the scale probably isn't quite right.
Decent - one of the better Architecture sets I reckon. Thankfully not another Sydney Opera House at least....
;-)
Yes I'd say it was one of the better ones, although since Rok Kobe has been designing them they've all been pretty good (e.g. UN Tower, Marina Bay Sands).
I see caperberry has also published a review today, http://www.newelementary.com/2014/06/trevi-review.html , which as usual, is excellent.
This thing is quite beautiful after all, but for me it looks to plain for such an excellent example of Baroque architecture. The back of the thing is quite good (I have been there a year ago but I can't remember the backside at all), but for me that's a shame that they do waste pieces to make the back when it would be much better to try to create more complicated and accurate facade. Correct number of columns is good, of course, but as a fan of Corinthian capitals who had tried to make them with LEGO pieces in many ways, I expected something really exclusive like using flower parts or something else to represent these architectural details. There should also be something more than a well-known LEGO round arch in the center, and I really don't know why have they used grey tiles for relief and inscriptions. I would suggest using simple plates with studs instead of odd tiles of odd colour...
before this set was reveled i was not sure i was going to like it. but after reading the review and seeing the pictures i will be getting this set also. great review and pics Huw thanks.
I cannot find this is the US LEGO shop -- anyone know if this is going to be exclusive to Europe? Hope not, otherwise I'm gonna have to bust out my poison pen and fire off another irate missive to them. Even though I was eventually able to get it at a decent price, I'm still annoyed about Marina Bay Sands, and my note to them about that one probably scorched a few eyeballs.
@ChaosTsar: I don't think the North American site has fully updated yet, the new Star Wars and Chima sets aren't up yet, either. But you're right, this is the one set that I'd pay MSRP for ('cause Architecture never goes on sale), so they'd better release it here!
^ The US and CA product feeds used to show availability here haven't been updated today.
I thought it was going to be available to buy today also, but all there seems to be is it's now visible on Lego.com, not on Shop @home here in USA.
As mentioned the real building extends a lot further back and is pretty plain (as I recall), but seeing as the focus is obviously going to be on the facade, I think this does a pretty good job. It's probably the first architecture set that's interested me seeing as it's not just a brick block.
Got this and the Ghostbusters set earlier. Should be some nice builds.
Kinda want to get this just to re-create that scene from La Dolce Vita!
If you look on Google Earth, you can see that there is no "back" to the Palazzo Poli, as it butts up against other adjacent structures. I suspect that the blue 1x1s are there to allow light to shine through, adding some depth and detail to the facade.
To me, this build, while a fantastic attempt, ultimately fails. The Trevi fountain has too much fine detail and baroque elements to reproduce successfully at this scale.
@peruna26 beat me to the punchline -- I emailed customer service yesterday and they also gave me an Aug. 1 release date in the U.S. Yay, now I don't have to pay inflated prices to order across the pond.
I was very lucky mine arrived from amazon on the 29th may but didn't construct until a few days later. All though this set looks great I felt some of the other sets were constructed a lot better. I found that there are too many week points with this set. I am now looking forward to the next one in the series...Any one know what it may be??
The only thing missing from the set are the 500 tourists standing around the fountain & the one police man trying to keep them from launching themselves into the water.
Sadly coins - to scale - just wouldn't show well.
This set is another instance where the all white nature of the architecture "standard" bricks makes sense, and the use of grey and blue enhances the set.
PS: As for the back of the building. I don't remember seeing it. the cabs drop you off in a round about, about 1 block away. But, I don't think any of the tourists see it. You would have to find a citizen of Rome to check for accuracy.