Lego Tower Bridge 10214

First of would like to start by saying that I have been a Lego fan since I was at the age of 2 with their Duplo sets. Over the years I graduated from Duplo to their more complicated sets and now, 30 years later, I no longer play with Legos or buy them but I still admire them. It has been well over a decade since I have last bought a Lego set. Many of the Star Wars, Harry Potter, Creator sets seemed nice but being that I don't really "play" with Legos as I used to as a child, they never really got me interested enough to purchase them. Until I saw this Tower Bridge set. The picture of the box instantly caught my eye and after reading the details for it, I knew I had to buy it.When the box arrived, I didn't realize just how big it was! I knew there was going to be a lot of parts involved but upon opening the box, I was surprised to see just how many separate bags they were. I must admit, at first I was a bit intimidated. This for sure was going to be the biggest Lego set I have ever worked on.The build time took a total of one full day with me working on and off throughout the day. I would imagine someone who has the patience and determination could get it done in half a day, though half of the fun was building it little by little and taking a step back to admire how the build progressed. I would also imagine any child above the age of 13-14 shouldn't have too much trouble with the set as well, as long as he/she makes sure to keep track of the many pieces.I found during the build that the key is making sure you pre-sort the parts before building. Since there are just so many small pieces, you actually spend half of the time just looking for parts! I eventually started to sort out the pieces by color, relative size and piece style in small bowls and baking pans/sheets. It took me about 10 to 15 minutes to sort everything out but after doing so, I notice it made my build considerably faster.After reading some of the reviews posted, I was a bit worried at first that I too might have some pieces missing, especially since I no longer have any other Lego sets/pieces to cannibalize from. I was pleasantly surprised to find that in the end, I actually had some extra pieces left over. I went through the directions with a fine tooth comb to see if maybe I missed a step but I it looks like these are just extra pieces.The two towers can get repetitive when putting together but one great tip is to build both towers together at the same time, instead of completing one and then going back to make another. The same method could be done for the other repetitive parts of the bridge as well.The build itself isn't very challenging, as long as you follow the directions, you'll be fine. The directions are also very clear and easy to understand, just how I remember Legos to be. The directions come in three separate booklets, so you know you're in for some real building!The end result? Holly cow! Boy does it look good! I really admire how Lego was able to pull this off using much of the old Lego pieces that I am familiar with from many years ago. There are a few new pieces that I haven't seen before but they do look like pieces that could be used in other Lego sets already. The bridge looks amazing, the architecture, the attention to detail is superb (for a Lego set) and the engineering factor of how Lego was able to put together a set like this is exceptional. I am however a little disappointed in the fact that much of the interior of the tower is hollow and non-functional. It would have been even better if the interior was designed, though having only seen the real Tower Bridge from the outside, I would imagine the interior of it wouldn't be that interesting either. Then again, I could be wrong.The scale of the bridge isn't the same as the typical Lego sets so compatibility with other Lego play sets are quite limited. This surely seems more to be a display set and half of the fun really is in the build process. Despite the smaller scale, the bridge is still huge! Now I just need to find a place to display it in my house!Long story short, this set surely was an awesome build and it sure made me reminisce on my old Lego building days. It's sure worth the money and I would highly recommend it to any Lego fan, or even any bridge fans, architects, engineers, British fans out there. Lego pulled off a great one with this set and I find myself a fan again. I surely will be keeping my eye out for future Lego sets similar to this.

Lego has earned a reputation as a somewhat pricey but very dependable toy. Lego is very well built, so you always end up with a model that looks like the picture on the box.This model was a great build. Three instruction books were very easy to follow. So many pieces (over 4000) and building two identical bridge towers made this somewhat tedious at times. Great model for adults or older children. However, a kid with a good attention span can do the model, at least down to about ten years or so. Younger, & might need some help.There are two things I particularly liked about the London Tower Bridge model. First, it has wonderful detail. It was fun to stop while building it just to admire the decorations as it was being constructed. Great engineering meant it went together as expected, all pieces fit, and the final result is a showpiece worthy of your living room coffee table. At 40" long, it is just about large enough to fill most coffee tables.The second thing I liked was getting all the neat lego pieces for my collection. There are tons of good, unusual colors, and dozens to hundreds of copies of many of the pieces. This makes the pieces right for all kinds of other buildings and castles, and whatever you can dream up.I was able to get this from Amazon at retail ($239.00). Be careful you do not pay more, as many lego sellers here will charge 30-100% over retail if you just order without checking elsewhere. Unfortunate, but you cannot just buy lego from Amazon without checking.

First, this set is scheduled to be produced by lego until December 2013. Lego's price is $239. When available directly from Amazon, this set costs $216-232. Don't pay anything higher than $239, such as the $300 and up prices listed by third party sellers here on Amazon. After the set is no longer in production in December 2013, prices on this set will skyrocket. Until then, this set is an excellent deal at $239 or less.Others have already commented on the beauty and quality of this set... It is a large set, and at this time the third largest set in number of pieces. If you are a lego fan or collector, do make a point to try and grab this set before Lego ends production. The detail and quality of design are well worth the price.TO MOVE THIS MODEL:A number of people have commented on the model falling apart and breaking when trying to move the bridge around the house. Yes, this model is unstable when moved.. it really wasn't intended to be picked up and carried around. But, this isn't really a design flaw by lego, just requires more care and planning.Luckily, the tower bridge is a semi-modular model. Each tower can separate from the road portions between the towers and the road portions at each end. The "cables" running from the top of each tower to the road can be unhooked to completely uncouple the roads. Finally, the two light blue and white portions that span between the tops of the towers must be somewhat disassembled. To do this, just choose one of the light blue plates to remove, and take apart a few pieces until the towers can be separated. Now, you have the road portions and the towers separate, and the modules may be moved easily and safely to their final display location.I would not recommend picking up the entire bridge, unless you slide a board underneath and lift the board. But, I would not downgrade this model to anything less than 5 stars based on this minor issue.Happy building!UPDATE JUNE 2013:While moving to a new house this Spring, I had to move this model. I eventually disassembled the model as described above, to place into a box. Before disassembly, I moved the model around a few times while packing other items. I found that lifting the model by picking up from the roadway arches is best (one hand in each tower). If you assembled the model firmly (pieces fully pressed together), this technique should work well for carrying the entire bridge short distances.