Yes, yes, yes!

A perfect display for the old Lego Games teeny tiny Ninjago figures. I’ve been waiting. Thanks Lego!

Wow! Looks stunning. And for a set that measures over a foot across with over 2000 pieces the price seems great.

Very nice - I'm looking forward to seeing the corner pieces in other colours!

Can anyone tell what the base dimensions are ?

@hardwax said:
"Can anyone tell what the base dimensions are ?"

Counting the studs from the image, looks like it's 40x34

I’m not usually one to complain about prices, but AU$260…ouch.

I'm not sure if I'd ever heard of this particular castle, but I love Japanese art and architecture, and also love Architecture sets with foliage and grounds, rather than just depicting the building, so I like it! Probably won't get it, although that's less due to the cost and more due to running out of Lego display space.

First I’ve even heard of it. Looks nice but not for me.

@hardwax said:
"Can anyone tell what the base dimensions are ?"
It's 32x19.5cm (12.5x7.5in)

Having visited the real castle this may be the first Architecture set I buy… on discount…

@sjr60 said:
" @hardwax said:
"Can anyone tell what the base dimensions are ?"
It's 32x19.5cm (12.5x7.5in)"
Correction (7.5 in. is the height!)

"Measuring over 7.5 in. (19 cm) high, 12.5 in. (32 cm) wide and 10.5 in. (27 cm) deep"

What an amazing set.

Amazing! THIS is what I want to see on a regular basis from the Architecture line! More of this please, more I say!

An incredible looking dust collector!

As many have noted, this feels more like what Architecture should be, and it looks really good. I too will hope for a discount on this since I'd happily add it to my collection (and I appreciate it for the Civ benefits it provides too), but it's steep and my budget has a lot of competition these days.

@Binnekamp said:
"Then again, I remember balking at the price of 21010 Robie House. In fact I still do NOW! This is magnitudes cheaper even without accounting for inflation. WTH were they thinking with that build and price."

So do I, and it bothered me for ages! Robie house is so beautiful. I luckily managed to get one at MSRP recently, not new and with one or two broken pieces that I need to BL soon, but still. It really does look incredible. I also got Farnsworth for $50 at the same time, and that completes the houses line that I wanted.

I think I will Bricklink more pink sakura trees for the grounds. Nice set.

Lovely looking set, but too pricey, as usual.

@dimc said:
" @Binnekamp said:
"Then again, I remember balking at the price of 21010 Robie House. In fact I still do NOW! This is magnitudes cheaper even without accounting for inflation. WTH were they thinking with that build and price."

So do I, and it bothered me for ages! Robie house is so beautiful. I luckily managed to get one at MSRP recently, not new and with one or two broken pieces that I need to BL soon, but still. It really does look incredible. I also got Farnsworth for $50 at the same time, and that completes the houses line that I wanted. "

Where do you get these incredible discounts? I can never find a store in The Netherlands where these discounts are given.

@Legoist61 said:
" @dimc said:
" @Binnekamp said:
"Then again, I remember balking at the price of 21010 Robie House. In fact I still do NOW! This is magnitudes cheaper even without accounting for inflation. WTH were they thinking with that build and price."

So do I, and it bothered me for ages! Robie house is so beautiful. I luckily managed to get one at MSRP recently, not new and with one or two broken pieces that I need to BL soon, but still. It really does look incredible. I also got Farnsworth for $50 at the same time, and that completes the houses line that I wanted. "

Where do you get these incredible discounts? I can never find a store in The Netherlands where these discounts are given."

Oh this was a used sale on local classifieds. I've been looking for Robie and Farnsworth (I have Fallingwater, Villa Savoye, Imperial Hotel, etc) at a decent price for years, and while I didn't get boxes or instructions, the fact that I could get the pair for under MSRP was too good to pass up. Then I sadly broke a couple of Robie pieces, but that's how it goes. I will never take it apart for that reason. I did do Farnsworth in order to line up all the tiles, and it looks great.

Where's the 'Are you going to buy it?' poll?
This one is not for me, but good to see a proper Architecture set again. There aren't enough of them.

@EvilTwin said:
"That looks awesome
I feel a bit guilty about this but I have resorted to a clone brand to get my fix of oriental architecture style buildings. It is never quite the same... so I am definitely adding this to my wishlist"

I'm curious, what brand did you settle on? I did the same thing for architecture sets since LEGO has drifted away from the line a bit the past couple years and found The Atom Brick https://theatombrick.com/collections/all

I'm on the fence about this. Architecturally its a great set for the range, a real return to form. But its not a set that grabs me and says 'buy me, I have to have you'. I love the double dark tan roof pieces but its a building I'm just not familiar with.

It might be another I need to grow to like, or see in the flesh. At some point Lego need to open a store in East Anglia, or I need to work up to having the energy to go to London for the day.

I think I will be getting this one.

@daniellesa said:
"I'm on the fence about this. Architecturally its a great set for the range, a real return to form. But its not a set that grabs me and says 'buy me, I have to have you'. I love the double dark tan roof pieces but its a building I'm just not familiar with.

It might be another I need to grow to like, or see in the flesh. At some point Lego need to open a store in East Anglia, or I need to work up to having the energy to go to London for the day."

I will wait for a discount, but I really like it. So much of the early Architecture line was nearly monochrome, and the whole line used about 5 different colors in total. Things like Trafalgar Square added a splash, and the Great Pyramid looks great with the riverfront. Even the White House is a huge step up in interesting-ness from the original version. Himeji isn't perfect, it mostly uses the original colors, but it's more visually interesting and the grounds help a lot. This one has nice angles and details to look at. Sungnyemun was interesting but lacked any context.

@enowicki said:
"I'm curious, what brand did you settle on?"

I've bought a few sets in the Wange Architect range. I'm in Malaysia so they are available pretty cheaply. It's a weird range- some are direct lifts from Lego sets and some are probably taken from other people's MOCs online but a lot of them seem to be original. The quality is not bad and they make some effort with presentation and so on but there is still a fairly wide gap between them and Lego in terms of design, quality of instructions, the overall build experience and so on.

@hardwax said:
"Can anyone tell what the base dimensions are ?"

I saw that it is 32cm/12.5in. wide and 19.5cm/7.5in.

Great looking model. Very nice display piece and it would look good with the Lego Bonsai tree build on a shelf.
Great price too.

As a fan of the Architecture line, I quite like this.
But the price is kinda ridiculous...which falls in line with LEGO's new greedy practices.
The piece count is clearly artificially inflated with 1x1 bricks in an attempt to justify the price and I'm not falling for it.

I will definitely buy it but I rather wait for Amazon or another retailer to get it and inevitably slash the price.

Cool set! As a Japan-addict (did my 17th trip last month....), I'm happy to finally see a proper Architecture set from a Japanese building. The Tokyo skyline set was okayish, but this seems on a different level.

First impression was a bit of a rollercoaster ride though. At first glance I expected it to be much bigger than it is. Then saw the price, which seemed a very pleasant surprise, en only then noticed the actual scale. And suddenly that price didn't look as nice anymore. Still, it doesn't seem as outlandish as some other recent sets, and I expect it to be a rather solid build. So nothing a good old discount can't fix.

As for the build itself, overall it looks pretty good, considering the scale. Some nice parts usage, and it does capture the shape of the real thing quite well. The only things I'm not so sure about is the roof of the tenshu, the curved roofline is sorely missing (though I don't see how they could have done that better), and some texture would have been nice here. And a bit less so for the base, though that could have only been solved with prints that would likely have looked too repetitive.

And sure, it would have been great if it had been at a larger scale or would have included more of the surrounding area, but that would obviously have had a rather big impact on the price. And realistically, I doubt there would be enough demand for a €400-500 set of what still is kind of a niche subject.

And my last bit of criticism isn't so much about the set itself, but something Lego can easily solve in the upcoming years: Himeji-jo isn't my favorite Japanese castle, Matsumoto-jo is. Hey Lego, you know what's better than one Japanese castle? Two Japanese castles! Or three! Or.....
(after all, I visited 7 of the 12 remaining original castles, and many more reconstructions)

EDIT: only just saw the lifestyle pictures, which give a much better feel for the size....which isn't great. Literally. So yeah, this definitely needs quite a bit of a discount....

If I snag this, I'm adding more cherry blossom trees! My only gripe is that I wish the brick base/walls were more textured, somehow. They're rather bland.

I think this is one of the first Architecture sets that I am actually awestruck. Doesnt fit my LEGO collection but it does look great

@legoDad42 said:
" @hardwax said:
"Can anyone tell what the base dimensions are ?"

I saw that it is 32cm/12.5in. wide and 19.5cm/7.5in."

Zoom in on the pictures: the base is 34x40 studs/ 27.2x32.0 cm/ 10.7x12.6 in.

@Slobrojoe said:
"Consistently with the last few releases, in this line and others, I look at the piece count and I’m so stunned by the number of pieces because I just can’t see where they put 2000 pieces in this. Maybe it’s just me though, loads of small pieces in this, but still…"

I totally agree it looks like a 500 piece set

The set is gorgeous. It helps that the original is gorgeous. But it looks like it has acres of tiny pieces and I know that, no matter the end result, I just don't like putting together sets with lots and lots and lots of tiny pieces.

I'd love to see the completed set in person, though.

I want this just for the set, but I also kinda want to buy a second copy and see if I can track down floor plans and exterior elevations for the Dragon Clan castle from Legends of the Five Rings.

@shokwave2:
For me, I think that would have to be Old Faithful Inn, the largest “log cabin” building in the world. When asked how much burled wood they wanted for the staircases, they said, “Yes.”

@Pompatus:
I remember the first Sears Tower set was basically just $1 worth of black 2x2 bricks with an antenna, and a $20 price tag. Try not to choke on the memberberries.

@dimc:
I remember buying the Farnsworth White Tile Battle Pack…

@EvilTwin said:
" @enowicki said:
"I'm curious, what brand did you settle on?"

I've bought a few sets in the Wange Architect range. I'm in Malaysia so they are available pretty cheaply. It's a weird range- some are direct lifts from Lego sets and some are probably taken from other people's MOCs online but a lot of them seem to be original. The quality is not bad and they make some effort with presentation and so on but there is still a fairly wide gap between them and Lego in terms of design, quality of instructions, the overall build experience and so on.
"

Thanks for the info, I haven't purchased any from that brand, MEGA and Keeppley (Qman) are really the only other brand besides The Atom Brick I have invested in and it is mainly because they have their own models, mold their own parts and do not infringe on patents (actually seen LEGO recently come out with parts MEGA has had for years). Not bashing anyone but I find others opinions of brands interesting.

And all the brands above officially license sets such as MEGA and Keeppley with Pokemon (based on region) and The Atom Brick with their Frank Lloyd Wright, Smithsonian sets.

Beautiful, but I've run out of space.

I’m probably not going to get it by I like it.

@Duq said:
" @legoDad42 said:
" @hardwax said:
"Can anyone tell what the base dimensions are ?"

I saw that it is 32cm/12.5in. wide and 19.5cm/7.5in."

Zoom in on the pictures: the base is 34x40 studs/ 27.2x32.0 cm/ 10.7x12.6 in."

Ah, I meant tall at 7.5inches.

This looks very good. I guess it doesn't have the fancy box.
What I find really nice is that it's something less obvious than, say, an Eiffel Tower or a Statue of Liberty. I didn't know of this building actually.

Looks really nice. …and I think my kids would like this. …But LEGO needs to sell some shelving. These big sets take up gobs of room.

@quincy:
Then we’ll have dozens of people moaning about how the shelves invalidate price per piece, and demanding to know where all the “stuff” is.

I do really like this. I was lucky enough to see the outside on a school trip. We got there too late to go inside :( Only disappointment is the lack of brickwork detail on the base. And that they didn't bring back this part.
https://www.bricklink.com/v2/catalog/catalogitem.page?id=3224&idColor=98&ccName=4235715T=S&O={%22iconly%22:0}

I am a Japanese. You can say Himeji Castle is the most famous castle in Japan. It's called ' the White Heron Castle' because of it's colour. I was waiting for this castle to appear as a lego castle. It looks a bit underwhelming as the size is cosiderably small from my expectation. However, I am definitely going to buy this one. Thank you Lego!

Very impressive.

@sunsetstreet said:
"It looks a bit underwhelming as the size is cosiderably small from my expectation."
I guess different scales are always possible if it proves popular, like the Sydney Opera House, Eiffel Tower, Big Ben, Taj Mahal etc.

As soon as my budget is back on track....

I do like this - the real thing is an incredibly beautiful building and this works well in Lego form. I must admit that I can't quite see where the piece count has gone though, it doesn't look like it would need nearly that many pieces!

Reduce the base size and make it a $100 set. Add more texture to the raised stone part. As released it's too plain looking and expensive.