10253 - Big Ben

mnbvc · May 2016

I am so excited for this.

I've not been posting recently because I've been trying to curb my Lego spending - I found myself nearly justifying £1000 of sets that I didn't really want; I just felt like the collector in me needed them.

So I logged out of everywhere - and then this popped up on my Facebook, and I am so excited, it's reminded me of what spending money on Lego should be like: because I desperately want to build something, not because I fear it being part of a set that I "need".

Covi · May 2016

€249,99 in Belgium
€219,99 in Germany

chrisalddin · May 2016

Covi said:

€249,99 in Belgium
€219,99 in Germany

if you lived in Belgium,
would it be better to go to Germany to buy it?
that after all is €30.

Istokg · May 2016

FYI.... my b/w pic of the Palace of Westminster was a USA Samsonite glued display model, from circa 1963. It was created at the Detroit LEGO model shop... and those are 3 Samsonite executives behind the model, not AFOLs.... ;-)

From 1961-65 all USA Samsonite LEGO elements were produced at the Stratford Ontario Samsonite plant (until April 1965 when the Loveland Colorado USA plant opened up). And all USA bound sets had their boxes produced in the Detroit Samsonite plant... which also had the USA LEGO model shop... until 1965 when it moved to Colorado.

Here is a 1962 Toys & Novelties magazine article talking about it......

Image: https://us.v-cdn.net/5015319/uploads/editor/7c/e6nw2edwxttg.jpg

Images from Chapter 73 of my Collectors Guide... "LEGO Production by Country".

Paperballpark · May 2016

Wow - a sign of the times, when the article starts by saying "In Detroit, 12 pretty construction workers..." (my emphasis).

MattsWhat · May 2016

^I dunno, I reckon they would still pass as pretty these days.

TigerMoth · May 2016

MattsWhat said:

^I dunno, I reckon they would still pass as pretty these days.

But you're not allowed to SAY it in these enlightened times.

CCC · May 2016

Shipped without charge to lego retailers ...

Does owning a bricklink store count? :-)

TheLoneTensor · June 2016

I find this photo amusing. Since it uses wrenches for the clock hands, someone at Lego clearly thought it would be a good idea to include in the marketing all the other leftover tools from the "tool wheel."

Either that, or Big Ben requires a LOT of maintenance!

Istokg · June 2016

Here's a circa 1960-63 UK glued retailer LEGO display model of just the tower, on a much larger scale...

Image: https://us.v-cdn.net/5015319/uploads/editor/5v/h9i4apm1hz7c.jpg

Definitely the smaller tower has much nicer detailing... but then again back in the early 1960s there were only about 138 different LEGO parts available to build with.

MattsWhat · June 2016

^apparently of those 138, 0 of them came in brick yellow. Buy hey, it was the 60s, I'm sure nobody noticed.

bricktuary · June 2016

Are you sure that Swinging 60s London hadn't painted all its key landmarks groovy colours? Maybe it's totally authentic.

chrisalddin · June 2016

i placed a order for Baby Big Ben, (the £24.99 one.)
i plan one day to display the 2 of them side by side,

VorpalRyu · June 2016

^ That is something I am considering since @xiahna has decided she wants Big Ben, she wants to turn it into a working time piece... Guess I'm going to have to brush up on my Technics skills.

Don · June 2016

I think the problem with making it a real clock is going to be that there appears to be a single shaft which both hands attach to. Coaxial shafts is going to be a challenge I think!
(I would love to be wrong, as making it actually tell time is appealing to me as well.)

Aanchir · June 2016

Don said:

I think the problem with making it a real clock is going to be that there appears to be a single shaft which both hands attach to. Coaxial shafts is going to be a challenge I think!
(I would love to be wrong, as making it actually tell time is appealing to me as well.)

Agreed. The main way I've seen coaxial shafts done in past sets is with Technic turntables, the smallest of which is still much too large for this model!

Chances are the only way to make this model actually tell time would be to integrate actual watch faces (LEGO branded or not is your choice).

Don · June 2016

Another option is to live with degraded information. As in, animate both hands as they are to get a decent indication of the hour but not the minutes.

Might be able to do something crazy like decouple the shafts for one or two of the faces and have one face show hours while the other shows minutes. You'd just have to know which hands and faces to look at to coalesce the time.
A notable drawback with this hack is that the faces would disagree which might look too goofy.

In these schemes I'd leave both hands on each face, you'd just ignore the minute hand for example.

Option #3 would be to fabricate some shaft and hand components smaller than existing Lego parts to actually allow coaxial shafts. But then of course it's not pure Lego...

TigerMoth · June 2016

You can probably have one hand fixed to the dial, or the central part of it, and rotate that instead. That might mean that you'd have to lose the numerals, but it depends what you want and on what you're prepared to compromise to get it.

Bumblepants · June 2016

I am betting the #40220 London Bus poly will be the August promo item with this. Might be worth waiting to see if it is before jumping on the early release.

AdeelZubair · June 2016

Bumblepants said:

I am betting the #40220 London Bus poly will be the August promo item with this. Might be worth waiting to see if it is before jumping on the early release.

Don't you mean July as it's released on July 1st? If so I hope they produce a Mini Volkswagen Beetle as the August Promo.

Bumblepants · June 2016

^Oh, thought the VIP early was July. Yeah a mini Beetle would be excellent.

AdeelZubair · June 2016

#40220 - London Bus

Image: https://us.v-cdn.net/5015319/uploads/editor/8y/jrxklh2r1vvk.jpg

chrisalddin · June 2016

Adzbadboy said:

#40220 - London Bus

hot dam, that looks good.
scrap that. that looks amazing.
GIVE ~ME!

bricktuary · June 2016

The instructions are up - mostly common parts and a simple quick build - and an ad for Big Ben at the back.

Seems likely it'll be tied to BB.

SumoLego · June 2016

There is no way that is microscale.

Maybe we'll see a Creator 'full size' version of this further down the road?

Paperballpark · June 2016

I suspect it'll be a small box set, rather than a poly. Polys are numbered 30XXX.

TheOriginalSimonB · June 2016

Could have sworn I already posted this, anyway: As a bit of a bus nerd, that's a must have for me.

chrisalddin · June 2016

Paperballpark said:

I suspect it'll be a small box set, rather than a poly. Polys are numbered 30XXX.

has a poly ever had stickers?
i think with it having stickers it will be in a box.

William_Townsley · June 2016

chrisalddin said:

Paperballpark said:

I suspect it'll be a small box set, rather than a poly. Polys are numbered 30XXX.

has a poly ever had stickers?
i think with it having stickers it will be in a box.

40079. The mini camper van

SumoLego · June 2016

TRU Rocket Racoon and TRU Hulk polybags have stickers as well.

tallblocktoo · June 2016

SumoLego said:

There is no way that is microscale.

Maybe we'll see a Creator 'full size' version of this further down the road?

This would be awesome!

SumoLego · June 2016

^ Iconic, red and easy to engineer.

TigerMoth · June 2016

SumoLego said:

^ Iconic, red and easy to engineer.

They might have a lot of fun trying to create all the subtle curves of the current model.

spicypig · June 2016

WESTMNISTER printed on the stick...

Bumblepants · June 2016

spicypig said:

WESTMNISTER printed on the stick...

I cannot wait for "after careful consideration our designers decided it would be better to redesign the spelling of words for the stickers for better adhesiveness. Stickers are not the ultimate open source design product but I guess you can try and make your own with Ms paint and a crappy inkjet printer."

TheLoneTensor · June 2016

This is a picture of a model from the 70's right?

SumoLego · June 2016

Bumblepants said:
Stickers are not the ultimate open source design product but I guess you can try and make your own with Ms paint and a crappy inkjet printer."

That's how I roll... except I use a dot matrix printer.

Fuddruckus · June 2016

Another idea for how to make this set tell time...

Image: https://us.v-cdn.net/5015319/uploads/editor/i8/0rbi30pj1ff5.jpg

piratemania7 · June 2016

A sure fire purchase for me; only reinforced by the castle promo coming up beginning of the month.

LEGOMAD73 · June 2016

purchased - yay

piratemania7 · June 2016

^It's out - but I am waiting for the June 30th to July 10th(?) Castle Promo.

William_Townsley · June 2016

Wait there's a castle promo :(. I should've waited

piratemania7 · June 2016

^yes in a couple of weeks - similar to the classic space and classic pirate promos each of the last two years.

77ncaachamps · June 2016

I couldn't wait for the castle promo, so I guess that means I get a second: one to rock and one to stock!

Batman · June 2016

How rare will this set be?

piratemania7 · June 2016

^ I don't know if that's quite the question yet as opposed to, how well will this sell next to the Tower Bridge - and then how well will it do POST Tower Bridge? I think both of these models together will be quite fancy - standalone, maybe not so much but that's just my opinion.