Review: LEGO Creator New York City Postcard 40519

Can’t afford LEGO Architecture? Looking for a fun new postcard? Want a small build to have on the desk and talk about in the office? Look no further!

LEGO 40519 – Creator New York City Postcard

RRP AUD $24.99 – CA $18.99 – EUR €14.99 – UK £13.49 – USA $14.99
253 pieces
Available from LEGO.com and LEGO Stores shortly.

About This Set

A surprise that no-one saw coming. LEGO has come along and started making postcards that you can build!

I, for one, think that this is a great initiative to be able to get iconic locations without putting yourself massively out of budget, and giving yourself the chance to ‘try out’ what the bigger architecture sets are like.

The New York skyline gives a small micro build collection of the Empire State Building, the One World Trade Centre, the Statue of Liberty, and the Brooklyn Bridge. This postcard, by comparison to the Beijing one, is making use of the sheer number of New York locations that exist, and cram them all into one!

New York City Skyline

First off, I didn’t expect there to be as many parts in this as there actually is. You would assume something marketed as a postcard would be a little flatter. Yet it takes a small amount of depth and rolls with it to create as many shapes as it can.

Brooklyn Bridge gives us an example of this depth-usage by building it on a wing piece and making it recess deeper into the build to a tiled backdrop. I do like the American Flag on top of the bridge. In case you forgot what country this is all from. The idea to incorporate a taxi on the roadway, an iconic part of New York at this point.

Now for those of you with the Statue of Liberty Series 6 CMF and Magnet, hold your horses. This Minifigure isn’t the same! The tile she holds is unprinted, so yours is still unique. Technically. I didn’t expect to see a Minifigure in something like this, but she’s a welcome addition nevertheless.

The One World Trade Centre building uses some stickers to imply the more odd shape it has in real life, and although not correct, this is probably the best way to do it and still keep the iconic look.

The Empire State Building is the most detailed building out of the two, but also admittedly my most disliked. It has a significantly large amount of stickers. Stickers everywhere. Once you push past that, it holds up well on its own.

Couple this all together with the implied skyline in the distance, the riverbank across the front and the New York sign, this is a nifty little thing.

Verdict

This is definitely a set I would recommend snatching up if it holds your interest in some way. It’s cheap, it has a dabble of what the Architecture sets provide, and has all the charm of a quick little build.

That being said, there is quite a lot going on here, and it detracts from the backdrop aesthetic. If anything, the sheer amount of things make the cloud at the back seem very, very out of place.

Overall, this is a good, neat little set, even if it is a bit cramped. I think that this new line of postcard sets are going to be a big thing, and to be honest, it might replace the skyline sets altogether – I hope not, but that’s how much I believe this would succeed.

Also check out the review of Beijing here.