Review: LEGO Architecture 21044 Paris

It's a skyline eagerly awaited in the LEGO Architecture range, we are therefore quickly talking about the set 21044 (649 pieces) which features Paris (49.99 €).

It is difficult here not to enter into the inevitable debate which consists in calling into question the choices of designers in matters of monuments or emblematic constructions of such and such a city. If the Eiffel Tower, the Arc de Triomphe and the Louvre obviously have their place in this skyline, for the rest, it is in my opinion less obvious.

The Champs-Élysées can be summed up here in a few colorful buildings (?) And two rows of trees whose mission is to represent the famous avenue. It's really, really minimalist, and I think it would have been better not to try anything. Paris has enough immediately recognizable places and monuments and the Center Pompidou, the Vendôme column or the Concorde obelisk could have done the job at this location.

The designer also chose to represent the only truly visible tower above the rooftops of Paris (outside the La Défense district in the Hauts-de-Seine) with the Montparnasse Tower. It was undoubtedly necessary to bring a touch of modernity to this skyline composed of historical monuments and balance the overall volume imposed by the Eiffel Tower, but this black and gray monolith does not bring much to this box. This construction will also be obsolete in a few years, the tower being the subject of a renovation which will bring it up to date by 2023 ...

The Grand Palais? Why not. Notre-Dame Cathedral could have taken the place of this building, it is a place visited by all passing tourists. The Basilica of the Sacred Heart of Montmartre could also have done the trick. And do not come and talk to me about the restrictions linked to the reproduction of religious buildings that LEGO has imposed on itself, Saint Mark's Basilica in Venice presents in set 21026 is a Catholic cathedral before being a tourist magnet ...

Not much to complain about the section representing the Louvre with its micro-pyramid. It's minimalist but rather convincing and it will please foreign tourists who are fans of the Da Vinci Code.

The question that must also be asked here is the following: must we absolutely caricature something to represent it? And that's the Eiffel Tower I'm talking about. Was it really essential to stick a big French flag at the top of the building? We are no longer in 1944 when French firefighters courageously hoisted a flag to the top under German fire.

Wanting at all costs to place a French flag in this box, you might as well put it on the roof of the Grand Palais where a flag usually flies ... Moving this flag would also have helped to give a little volume to what is at the foot of the Eiffel Tower in this skyline.

In my opinion, LEGO has still not found a convincing technique to correctly reproduce the Eiffel Tower. The LEGO model is far from being as graceful as the real one and we can also discuss the choice of the color of the parts: The Eiffel Tower is not gray, it is brown-bronze.

We will still remember the use of four transparent pad-printed windshields to represent the arches of the foot of the tower. It is convincing.

Thanks to the use of grids on the different uprights, the version of the Eiffel Tower present in this box has at least the merit of offering a rendering closer to reality than what the model of the calamitous set 21019 The Eiffel Tower (2014) proposed in its time.

Finally, in my opinion, the Arc de Triomphe is quite simply a failure. It looks like a Japanese garden portico, probably the fault of the overall scale of the set determined by the size of the Eiffel Tower. Same observation as for the Eiffel Tower concerning the color of this element: The Arc de Triomphe is not immaculate white.

In short, it is not worth doing tons of it, this box is ultimately only a luxury product for a souvenir shop with a somewhat approximate content and I do not think it pays a satisfactory tribute to The city of Paris. You will have to do with it and spend around fifty euros to get it.

If you prefer to buy some of the monuments in this skyline in detail and on a slightly less restrictive scale, know that you also have the LEGO Architecture references 21019 The Eiffel Tower, 21024 The Louvre et 21036 Arc de Triomphe in the secondary market.

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 25 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.