Architecture skylines by the numbers
Posted by Huw,
Today's guest author is Xiaolong:
My name is Andy, known here as Xiaolong. I’ve been a FOL since I received 720 Train with 12V Electric Motor for my 3rd birthday. At the moment I’ve a lot of free time. Not because I don’t have to work any more but because all my other ‘free-time’ activities are on hold.
So, I decided to build all my Architecture skylines one after the other to see what they look like displayed together. Once I'd finished, I thought I'd do some analysis...
For good reviews I can recommend those by Tom Alphin at BrickArchitect.com, plus those here at Brickset, of course. I, on the other hand, had the idea to play with some numbers.
In this first table you can see that they became wider, deeper and with a bigger footprint over the years.
Then I counted the colours which I divided in two categories. First we have the basic colours: black, white, light bluish grey, dark bluish grey and tan. Then there are all the others.
This is very subjective as I excluded trans-clear and trans-blue for water and green for plants.
I also do not count those that are in a very small quantity and add just one little detail like the statues in Berlin and New York, the French flag, …
Here we see the same. More colours as the years go by. Venice looks very boring while Tokyo is the brightest, even when I do not count every single colour of Shibuya, nor the golden top of the pagoda.
Next I took my kitchen balance. I weighed just the finished model. This table can therefore be influenced by the fact that some Skylines have more or less spare parts.
It’s obvious that the weight is higher as parts count is higher. But Shanghai gives you a lot of ABS while it’s only 4th in parts count (nearly equal in 3rd with New York).
If we look at the weight per part we can conclude that as parts count decrease the Weight per part increases because the plates that form the base become more prominent. The exception is Shanghai but the can be explained by the ‘big’ parts that form the Shanghai Tower.
Now some more fun. I measured the height of most towers (in cm and without the base) and compare that with the real life-size (in m, mostly from Wikipedia)
First we see that in some cities the ratio between the buildings is consistent (e.g. New York, London) while in others there is a big difference(e.g. Berlin, Las Vegas) Let’s assume that the buildings in San Francisco are in the same perspective as the right pillar of the Golden Gate Bridge.
If we make a graphic we see that St. Mark’s Campanile, London Eye and the Big Ben should be much shorter while especially Big Red and Jumeirah Emirates Tower should be taller.
Let’s dig deeper and make a ranking. If we list them up from tall to small, we see that LEGO mostly follows.
A last step is to see the relative difference in ranking between LEGO and the real life world. Those who are interested can make their Jumeirah Emirates Tower, Salesforce Tower and Willis Tower taller and find a way to make Sydney Tower Eye, London Eye, St. Mark's Campanile and Eiffel Tower shorter/smaller.
A final study is about the colours for water. Two kind of trans-clear tiles are used on four colours of plates which make some interesting shades. Notice that some cities have different shades. While it is hardly visible in Shanghai it is very unsightly in San Francisco.
To finish. I like to MOC sets with spare parts. Tokyo is wonderful for this.
I hope you had an interesting read. Keep distance. Stay safe.
PS: I know some of you are hard core completists. Feel free to send me a 21038 Las Vegas and I will be more than happy to include its data!
83 likes
22 comments on this article
@Huw
It should be 720-2, the black steamtrain.
OK -- damn duplicate numbers!
Wow, that is a labour of love! EXCELlent work.
That extra skyline MOC is beautiful too.
Great look at a different side to the models, very enjoyable, Thanks.
It's articles like this what I'm here for. Thanks a lot!
Brilliant article. I love the obsessive attention to detail. So much so that it has prompted my first comment on Brickset. Thanks. I'm hoping we get a Hong Kong skyline soon.
Interesting, brilliant, different article and way to go through the sets. I enjoyed reading it, and even the data, knowing that I am not a digit or number (don't really know how to express it in English?) person - at all. Thank you. We really are lucky to have imaginative people in our community. Whether it is for builds, new sets, comments, or articles. But eventually it's quite logical. Lego is all and only about imagination. I love Brickset :)
Fun article and loved the inclusion of the wayang puppets!
Awesome article, Xiaolong!
As an owner of six Skylines myself (and hopes for more in the future), and lover of tall buildings (& of course Lego!), I can really appreciate your work!
One error I picked up - you have the Hancock & Willis Tower (Chicago) Lego heights mixed up, which gives incorrect ratios - the Willis Tower is definitely taller! (in both Lego & real life).
I like the intention, but is it a fair study when parts and sets are omitted?
Is this what Lockdown does to you? :) Fascinating none the less.
Very interesting article! I'm hoping we can get a skyline of Boston or Taipei.
"Now some more fun."
Honestly I think a skyline of Istanbul is overdue i my opinion. Istanbul sure is a bigger city than most of the ones here. I know there aren't that many famous skyscrapers in the city that would fit the skyline series, but it has some wonderful buildings like the Hagia Sofia and Topkapi palace, although I might suspect the Hagia Sofia would be a better set as a stand alone model, giving room for all the domes and extra detail.
Venice is the unique set with a Catholic Building (St Mark's Basilica) when Sacred Heart and Notre Dame is missing for Paris.
I hope a new edition of Venice and waiting for Beijing, Hong Kong, Rome, Barcelona and Prague
@lemish34
You are right, somehow somewhere I got them switched.
John Hancock Center, 344 m, 17,4 cm, gives a ratio of 1.977
Willis Tower, 442 m, 20.5 cm, gives a ratio of 2.156
This makes that big Red, 2.731 is even more off scale.
Thanks for your attention.
Very interesting read - that's why we love you Brickset! Upon looking at your table, the most interesting one to me is the one with the height ratio (real/Lego). Based on this, I would say London is quite accurate at 0.964 and 0.950. The places where there are problems are: Chicago (must verify if indeed 2 buildings have been inadvertently swapped), Berlin, Las Vegas, San Francisco, Tokyo and Dubai where the ratios between adjacent buildings are all over the place (I guess we would have to properly test if the differences in ratio are statistically significant). First time I hear about 'moccing with spare parts' - you did a fine job at it! I love this line but I never bought any because I feel they are very expensive for a bunch of very small parts - maybe if they do Toronto,Canada! (CN Tower, Skydome, Financial District, Toronto island airport, Gardiner expressway, Roundhouse Park)
Can you fix the name / link to my website. It is brickarchitect.com
Thanks!
Please tell me I am not the only one who sees those two dolls with those skylines and thinks, "Kaiju attack!!"
This is an amazing article, thanks for the research!
I've been thinking for years that they'd do Washington DC, Seattle, Toronto, Moscow, Athens, or Rome soon and I'm really surprised every time they come out with another city instead. I definitely didn't expect Las Vegas to be a higher priority.
Personally, I'd love to see Boston, Massachusetts or Portland, Maine (with Portland Head Light). ...but I know the odds of Portland, Maine are 0.0001%.
I don't always do math but when I do I'm usually buying Lego!