Taj Mahal (New Official Set)

Name of Model: 10189 Taj Mahal

Created by set designers at the LEGO company

Found at: LEGO Shop at Home

Details: Sorry to sound spammy here, but when LEGO releases an awesome new set, it's a sure thing that'll be a "model of the day" within a week (Unless a bunch of cool new sets come out at once, in which case I usually pick one or two and let the rest sit in the backlog). Of course, we recently featured Arthur Gugick's fantastic Taj Mahal model, but when your inspiration is a building this grand to start with, there's lots of room for excellent interpretations in brick form. I'm not really going to get into comparing details between the varios Taj Mahal models we've seen - it seems a bit too soon without detail pictures of this model - but I can comment on a few of the larger techniques here. The sculpted top is the most eye-catching, but the use of 2x2 turntable bases on the outer floor area here is pretty surprising - that technique once involved dismantling turntable bases by hand, and I believe this is the first time LEGO's specifically used bases without tops like that in an official kit. Stats time! $299 in the US, 299 Euro, 199 GBP 5922 pieces 20 inches / 51 centimetres wide (which I read as 4 32x32 stud baseplates) 16 inches / 41 centimetres tall