Review: LEGO Architecture 21043 San Francisco

After Paris, it's now the turn of the other skyline of the LEGO Architecture range scheduled for 2019, the benchmark 21043 San Francisco (565 pieces - 49.99 €), to be the subject of a quick tour of the owner in order to give you some very personal impressions.

If I was logically able to have a critical look at the content of the set 21044 Paris (49.99 €), it is immediately less obvious with this representation of San Francisco. The designer has obviously condensed here everything that the city has of silhouettes that are a priori emblematic for most potential customers, starting with the most famous construction of all: the Golden Gate Bridge. Whether the result is too cartoonish or truly faithful, only those who live in San Francisco or really know the city well will be able to afford to have an opinion.

It is thanks to this red bridge that almost everyone can instantly recognize San Francisco and the designer has skillfully integrated the construction by creating a very successful forced perspective effect, especially when looking at the model from the front (see the last photo ).

We also find what makes the charm of San Francisco with the contrast between the alleys lined with Painted ladies, these Victorian-style houses with colorful facades that line the sloping streets, and the modern buildings in the center. It's picked up in a corner of the model, but it's successful. Everything is pad printed in this box, including the white 1x1 pieces with the small black square which are used for the Painted Ladies or the facade of the blue building visible from across the street.

The three buildings, 555 California Street, la Transamerica pyramid and Salesforce Tower, are wisely aligned behind the hill. I do not know if there is a point of view on the city which proposes this alignment, but the differences in colors of the facades and the characteristic architecture of each of these constructions are enough to make it pass.

With a little imagination, one can even spot two colorful trams running on the sloping street facing the Coit Tower, placed at the top of Telegraph Hill and whose summit offers a breathtaking view of Alcatraz.

It's hard to talk about San Francisco without talking about Alcatraz, which you probably already know from different sources depending on your generation (The Escape from Alcatraz with Clint Eastwood in 1979, Rock with Nicolas Cage in 1996 and for fans of Steven Seagal, the calamitous Mission Alcatraz of 2002).

In the linear spirit of skylines LEGO Architecture, the prison of Alcatraz is found here placed under the Golden Gate Bridge, which obviously does not correspond to reality. Nothing serious, I would rather have the island under the bridge than no island at all. The windows of the cells are represented by a few pad-printed parts, it is rudimentary but the effect is there.

This skyline is quite different from those produced so far by LEGO, the Golden Gate Bridge here occupying two thirds of the surface of the model. But if we consider that the set should reach a wider audience than the locals, it makes sense and few people would be able to list the names of the different buildings in this set anyway.

Note also the symbolic presence of the fortifications of Fort Point at the foot of Golden Gate, a place where many tourists take the photos that you find everywhere with this perspective effect from the lower part of the famous red bridge.

Thanks to the representation of Golden Gate, the set is immediately identifiable even by those who have never set foot in San Francisco and I note that the designer did not see fit to place an American flag somewhere ...

Lovers of skylines LEGO style, this set will not disappoint and it is probably one of the ones that best exploits this concept. That's a big yes on my part, especially for the very successful forced perspective effect applied to the Golden Gate.

AVAILABILITY announced for January 1, 2019 on the LEGO Shop at the public price of 49.99 €.

Note: The set shown here is put into play as usual. To participate in the raffle, simply post a comment on this article before December 30 at 23:59 p.m.. You have every right to disagree with me, this is not eliminatory.

Update : The winner was drawn and was notified by email, his nickname is indicated below. Without a response from him to my request for contact details within 5 days, a new winner will be drawn.