First architecture set on RSOTD ever [correct me if i'm wrong]

Shame the newer version of the 2x2 round tile (with the O on the bottom instead of the X) hadn't come out when this set was released. I still want it, Anglophile that I am, but if I did manage to get it, I might replace the clock faces with the newer version.

This or the Cars 2 one (system, not Duplo)— you can only get one. Which one?

SO much monotone colour in this set. Why oh why didn't they dot the grasses with a flowering bush or something? All that green...

Architecture sets make me wish I'd come out of my dark age earlier! I've got most from 2017 onwards, but got this one from eBay, before earlier set prices got a bit silly.

@PurpleDave said:
" @TheOtherMike:
They’re attached to 2x2 plates. Why does it matter which back they have?"

If they were the newer version you could mount them on a 2x2 jumper plate and avoid the studs sticking out the side of the tile. But you would then be left with the stud gaps. I don't know which would be preferable for me.

@PurpleDave, @Miyakan: The 2x2 plates make the clock faces stick out too much from the face of the tower, so using the newer style tile (and thus mounting the clock-face tiles directly on the surface of the tower) would lessen the bulge.

Using existing LEGO parts, would a theme-appropriate (minimalist) representation of Big Ben itself, comparable to the set's scale, end up being Too Big Ben, Too Little Ben, or Just Right Ben?

@TheOtherMike:
Fair enough. I just looked up the instructions, and the width of the tower doesn’t really offer any easy alternative to center the clock faces with the X-back, at least not with parts that were available at the time. Now? You could put 1x1x1-2/3 bricks in the centers, and the X-back would lock onto the two vertical studs, but they didn’t exist back in 2012.

Architectural set are doing a great job I think. It's nice to have some of the more famous structures made out of Lego. Also makes a nice souvenir if you have visited these locations. They should never stop selling these sets in their own cities, like this in London, or Empire State Building in New York, or many others in their respected cities.

@MeisterDad said:
"SO much monotone colour in this set. Why oh why didn't they dot the grasses with a flowering bush or something? All that green..."

Isn’t that going to be a natural problem with most architectural sets, unless the building itself is fairly colourful? Especially ones at this scale where they maybe can’t sneak extra details in as easily

@Ridgeheart said:
"I'm still waiting for a Dutch architectural scene, but what's typical for us, apart from football-riots (best saved for a stadium-set)? Tulip-fields, partially crushed by self-absorbed tourists? A calm sunset in scenic Kinderdijk, known for its windmills and absolutely nothing else?

Or we could depict a scene set after the next flood. Just a blue 16x16 plate, covered with some trans-blue 1x2 tiles and some face-down nanofigs.

@Brickbuilder0937 said:
"Or in this case, tiny Ben."

There's always a bigger Ben out there."

Those 'special' coffee shops? Red light district? Canals, houseboats, merchatilist Dutch architecture?

Big Ben.

Thankyou @Huw I was just going to say I wonder how many people outside the UK have bought this, either online or when in London and as if by magic a by country summary appears, never noticed that before.... what a neat feature.

@PurpleDave said:
"Hey, what a coincidence! I was just listening to an episode of the Stuff The British Stole podcast!...
"

All of it! Stealing from other cultures is probably the only thing truly, authentically British.

@Ridgeheart said:
" @StyleCounselor said:
" @Ridgeheart said:
"I'm still waiting for a Dutch architectural scene, but what's typical for us, apart from football-riots (best saved for a stadium-set)? Tulip-fields, partially crushed by self-absorbed tourists? A calm sunset in scenic Kinderdijk, known for its windmills and absolutely nothing else?

Or we could depict a scene set after the next flood. Just a blue 16x16 plate, covered with some trans-blue 1x2 tiles and some face-down nanofigs.

@Brickbuilder0937 said:
"Or in this case, tiny Ben."

There's always a bigger Ben out there."

Those 'special' coffee shops? Red light district? Canals, houseboats, merchatilist Dutch architecture? "

It could be a tiny historical re-enactment. I'm very partial to that one time a Dutch mob got so heated, they killed and partially ate statesman Johan de Witt. Classic!"

Was he scrumptious, precious?

I remember finding this one in a shop in London when I visited there in 2012.
It was too expensive for what you get.

In fact, I still wouldn't part with 30 euro for this set right now, even when not taking 11 years of soul-crushing inflation into account!
(It was probably not exactly 30 euro, but still).

Turns out this was a harbinger for what was to come: tiny parts and display focussed sets sold at a 'premium' but still occasionally with issues anyway (in this case the protruding clock faces. Also, it's only part of the Palace of Westminster).

Why do so many Aussies own this?

UK pop 67M, 1130 brickset users own it.
AUS pop 25M, 615 brickset users own it.

@StyleCounselor said:
"All of it! Stealing from other cultures is probably the only thing truly, authentically British. "

Not true! I was listening to an episode about a mummified (probably Egyptian) head that ended up in the library of an Australian high school, and the host mentioned that, around 100 years ago, both the British and French were falling all over themselves to loot Egypt before the other guys got to it. So, definitely a favorite cultural pastime, but not specific to the British.

@Ridgeheart:
How about inventing the first stock market, the first overvalued stock, and the first stock market crash?

@GenericLegoFan:
I’m pretty sure the same could be said about the average stale donut.

Technically, Big Ben in only the name of one of the bells. (the biggest one in there, obviously!) The tower is (I believe) called Elizabeth tower... not sure when it was renamed after her, but it has never been named Big Ben.

@StyleCounselor said:
" @PurpleDave said:
"Hey, what a coincidence! I was just listening to an episode of the Stuff The British Stole podcast!...
"

All of it! Stealing from other cultures is probably the only thing truly, authentically British. "

Oh, the irony of that having been written by someone in the US (presumed to be American) in **English**, the language of England!

Yes, yes, I know that English is etymologically eclectic, drawing as it does on numerous source languages. But still, English in its current form - even the version spoken in the US - is essentially a creation of the English.

Ahh, my first Architecture set! When the theme was still very basic.
Still like the theme though.

@Zander said:
" @StyleCounselor said:
" @PurpleDave said:
"Hey, what a coincidence! I was just listening to an episode of the Stuff The British Stole podcast!...
"

All of it! Stealing from other cultures is probably the only thing truly, authentically British. "

Oh, the irony of that having been written by someone in the US (presumed to be American) in **English**, the language of England!

Yes, yes, I know that English is etymologically eclectic, drawing as it does on numerous source languages. But still, English in its current form - even the version spoken in the US - is essentially a creation of the English. "

It's not ironic at all. I'm a product of the British stealing Ireland and North America. The whole point is they stole everything from everyone.

Being the dominant language hardly disproves the point. In fact, it supports the case.

Americans have stolen a thing or two. Mostly, we've stolen the British smugness that we are the savior of the world.

@Zander said:
"Oh, the irony of that having been written by someone in the US (presumed to be American) in **English**, the language of England!"

Ah, but we didn’t steal it! You imported it. And then you left it behind when you left. Terms of surrender, and all that. Besides, it had fairly well been paid for, by that point. The US basically financed your wars with France. And Spain. And probably at least a few other countries. India did a lot of that, too, I know.

And let us not get into who still owes whom all the money they borrowed to finance their defense during WWII. Actually, tell you what. Send us all of your powdered wigs, in perpetuity. The fashion world will thank you for it. John Cleese wearing that wig in A Fish Called Wanda looked more ridiculous than the entire Ministry of Silly Walks.

@Zander: English isn't one language. It's several languages stacked on top of each other, wearing a trench coat.

@Trigger_ said:
"This or the Cars 2 one (system, not Duplo)— you can only get one. Which one?"

No likes? No responses? Okay, I'll answer it myself; the Cars 2 one, it's closer to Minifig scale if still far-off and has an explosion play feature. This is still the way better set, though, just not of my personal taste.