Lego's new U.S. Capitol set gives you the building blocks of democracy See all Editor's Picks The Daily Dot Bazaar Photo by Peter Nowak (Licensed) With the election season quickly approaching its culmination, it’s fitting that Lego has chosen to get political with its latest Architecture Series set. Lego’s newest product recreates the U.S. Capitol—that hallowed hall of democracy where politicians decide the fate of the country. The $99 set aims to capture the essence of the grandiose real-world building in a relatively small 1,032 pieces. While the diminutive set doesn’t inspire grandeur, it does a nice job of getting the Capitol’s look and feel right and is sure to please fans of the series. As with other Architecture entries, the instruction booklet provides a Wikipedia entry’s worth of details on the building itself. The Capitol, it turns out, has a history as riveting as most horror movies—or elections.French-born architect Pierre Charles L’Enfant was originally tasked with designing the building, but he was dismissed in 1792 over disagreements with President George Washington.
Secretary of State Thomas Jefferson then announced a public competition to design the building, and the best entry came from unexpected quarters: William Thorton, an amateur architect from Scotland with a medical degree.Washington praised Thornton’s Greek Revival-inspired design, which formed the basis of the building we ultimately know today for its “grandeur, simplicity and beauty.” Professional architect Stephen Hallet was brought in from France to supervise the construction.Hallet, however, kept reworking Thornton’s plans with ideas from his own submissions to the contest. It got bad enough that he was eventually sacked for insubordination. Another architect, George Hadfield, came on board and also expressed displeasure with Thornton’s designs. Rather than get fired, he quit.James Hoban, yet another architect, oversaw construction until the bulk of the building was done in 1800. It was then partially burned down by the British in 1814, before being expanded in 1815 and 1850.
Finally, an underground visitor’s center was added to accommodate all the tourists in 2000.That’s an already colorful history, even without getting into the many stories of ghosts that supposedly haunt the building. The Lego structure is no less impressive with one single-square-like element making up the vast portion of its facade. Ordinarily used to connect horizontal pieces to vertical ones, this one key piece is ingeniously used to replicate the Capitol’s many, many windows in miniature scale.It’s fun putting these pieces together—and there are a lot of them—without knowing how it’s all going to turn out. It’s only when the building’s facade is complete that their purpose becomes obvious.The Capitol’s defining feature is obviously its dome, and Lego fittingly elects to save that part of construction for last. The best part is that it can be detached to expose the rotunda below where, just as in the real building, a circle of statues sits on a checkerboard floor.
The real statues—11 of them—depict the country’s greatest presidents, including Washington, Abraham Lincoln, and Dwight D. Eisenhower. There are only eight Lego statues, and they don’t actually replicate the presidents in detail, but they’re enough to get the point across. It’s an unexpectedly fun feature for the relatively staid Architecture series. The Lego Capitol, like its real-world counterpart, is capped with a statue. As with the rotunda replicas, it’s a generic mini-statue rather than the iconic Statue of Freedom—a woman warrior wearing a helmet and a sword—but it’s once again a symbolic representation.Brickrolled is a monthly Lego review column by Peter Nowak. You can read about his previous builds here. Up next after the break:Main Features:Made of BPA-free plasticMug with exterior building surface compatible with most bricksCreative decoration for your daily lifeGreat gift for you and your friendsSuitable for home, office, school, etc.Note: The side cartoon blocks are not available, you can add other blocks to the block mug as you like.
Package weight: 0.290 kg Product weight: 0.199 kg Product size (L x W x H): 13.3 x 9.5 x 11.5 cm / 5.23 x 3.73 x 4.52 inches Package size (L x W x H): 15.5 x 11.5 x 14 cm / 6.09 x 4.52 x 5.50 inches Package Contents: 1 x Mug, 1 x Pack of Part You Might Also Consider Cool Skull Design Stainless Steel 400ml Coffee Tea... 700ML Fruit Infusing Infuser with Flip Lid Up Yours Mug Middle Finger Mug Coffee Cup with Cer... French Fry Cone Dipping Cup 2 in 1 Ice Water Mug Vintage King Knight Skeleton Skull Shape Goblet Cargen MC013 450ML Plastic Sport Water Bottle Lehoo 13 Ounce Intelligent Vacuum Drinking Cup Cool Transparent Double-Layered Fishtail Design 30... Lehoo JXKJ - WDJQ 350ML Intelligent Water Cup CARGEN CG800 800ML PC Water Bottle Cargen R71010 600ml Portable Function Sport Bottle Cargen CQ801 800ML PC Portable Travel Water Bottle Creative Skull Design Whiskey Red Wine Glass UPAEAN SS - 1 Stainless Steel Suction Mug
Customer Questions & Answers do all the mugs come with wheels or are they all different Hello helena, Thank you for your inquiry.Please feel free to refer to the package content:Package Contents: 1 x Mug, 1 x Pack of Part Thank you, Let me know if you need any help.Have a nice day! Are these mugs compatible with lego pleaseMug with exterior building surface compatible with most bricks Hello, what is included? just the mug or do i get any brick? Can i use Lego bricks in this mug? or the sizes ar different? Hello,Package Contents: 1 x Mug, 1 x Pack of Part. do you get any lego people with the mug? Hi dawn,Thank you for your inquiry. Hi, i´m new in the page and i really have some kind of questions about shipping and payments of the product, i´m interested in the cups but i do have a question, in case i don´t get them would i have a refund? because in some pages i do have it and pay it back if i get it, but in some others i don´t i just lost money, so i really want to now that part before buying the cups.
I´ll really aprecciate your respond. Thank You (: Have a good day Please add the items to cart and Proceed to Checkout, then fill the detail destination information. You will see the Available Shipping Methods, Estimated Shipping Time and Insurance when you check out. The delivery cost depends on the shipping method, destination country, package's weight and volume.The Shipping Cost and Grand Total amount will be displayed for each shipping method. Thank you for your inquiry. Ask a question about this product Ask a customer service question Post Videos Customer Videos I really liked the mug and the quality of the product surprized me! Unfortunately I do not accept some riding parts that I own!... big cupgood lookingmy son loves it lego doesnt fit so good, only sometimes comprei 2, vem com caixa Não encaixam bem os legos caneca engraçada para presente alguns blocos não encaixam correctamente Resistente, senza crepe e ogni pezzo è ben fatto.