Review: 40654 Beijing Postcard and 40519 New York Postcard

Lady Liberty is to die for and the Brooklyn Bridge has an interesting build, although looks incomplete without the other tower which I would have preferred to One World Trade Center even if this left a hole in the postcode wall.

The New York postcard is fantastic!
Fair value too.
Can’t wait to add it to my collection, and have Lady Liberty join the CMF minifig, the Brickhead Liberty, the newer Architecture model, and the tiny model in the NYC Skyline set!

Regarding that flag, LEGO was in an awkward spot on this one. …The set was obviously meant to have it. …Perhaps they never should have intended for it to be a stickered piece? Maybe that would help eliminate some of the ire?

I'm not particularly interested on this line but I got the New York postcard already because of the Statue of Liberty minifigure. It was a great idea to blend it as part of the landscape, yet it makes me think if they had included a minifigure in other postcards it would make the product more attractive to us, minifig fans, therefore more inclined to purchase this line (perhaps a missed opportunity?). The postcards are nice but without the minifigure they are primarily parts packs to me. On the other hand I understand their appeal to other fans who enjoy this type of builds and are totally fine without inclusion of minifigures, which are probably the main target audience.

lego's gotta sell in hong kong too

@CCC: They did update it with a new part - the torch uses the newer flame piece.

Beijing is a beautiful city with a tonne of iconic buildings. The summer palace is not one of them! A strange choice, though the colours do look good.

@TheOtherMike said:
" @CCC: They did update it with a new part - the torch uses the newer flame piece."

Is that not the same one we've had for a while? Or was there an updated mould?

I think that the author hasn't noticed, but the roof of the summer palace looks different in the revamped model. The color of the roof seems to have been changed, too.

Also, the position of two piilars in the front is different :)

For those interested, the Chinese on 40654 specifically says "Beijing, China."

At the time of writing this comment, only the New York postcard is available in the US store.

The only difference in the lady liberty I see is the tabula ansata which is not printed any more, just a blank piece. They literally erased the declaration of Independence. Definitely not a nice move and no improvement.

@Givememorebricks said:
"Also, the position of two piilars in the front is different :)"

Roof color appears to be teal in both images, and looking at the official set image it would seem the pillar position was a build error rather than a design change.

I very much like the idea of these sets, and for once the price seems very decent.

The New York one is easily the better one for me, simply because it is instantly recognizable, this just can't be anything else than the Big Apple (couldn't they have included an apple somewhere as an easter egg?). Only one thing I really don't like and that's the number of (very much essential) stickers. But considering the price, I might gloss over that for once and still get it.

The Beijing set on the other hand just doesn't do it for me. The Great Wall is only somewhat recognizable as such, but is also feels like a weird choice te represent the city. And the Summer Palace just doesn't remind me in any way of the real thing, and feels like a difficult subject to capture in the first place. As a whole, this just doesn't feel like Beijing, but at best an approximation of some generic bit of China. Why not the Forbidden City (obviously with a Minifig-version of the Mao portrait! Sure that would happen....), the Temple of Heaven, and some modern building like the instantly recognizable CCTV Tower. And maybe then with that simplified Great Wall in the background, sure. Maybe some other buildings, but they sure could have made it more recognizable.

But I sure hope they'll make more sets like these. I already saw Hong Kong mentioned, that should be perfect. And I'd love to see one from Tokyo, hopefully better than the disappointing Skyline set. Or basically just any big city I've been. Make a good set of it, and I'll buy it!
(looking forward for the Lego postcard of Oss....)

@ambr said:
"Lady Liberty is to die for and the Brooklyn Bridge has an interesting build, although looks incomplete without the other tower which I would have preferred to One World Trade Center even if this left a hole in the postcode wall."
Out of context, reading “World Trade Center” and “left a hole” hits differently.
@mr_joshua That is absolutely horrible and far from the only atrocity the CCP has committed but I personally could still buy the set in good conscience, I highly doubt it’s directly donating to Xi or anything. There’s not even a Chinese flag in the set anymore. :P

@Givememorebricks said:
"I think that the author hasn't noticed, but the roof of the summer palace looks different in the revamped model. The color of the roof seems to have been changed, too."

Not sure about the colour, but the roof has remained the same. @MeganL has built it wrong :)
Not only the roof, also the pillar thing at the front seems to be placed incorrectly.

Edit: sorry, that was already mentioned.

The London edition also has the flag, so it seems weird to miss it on Beijing.

It doesn't appear so but I'll ask anyway. Do these have a magnet to place on the fridge like some of the other sets, they are called postcards after all :) , or are they too big for that?

Lol they took flag out beijng set. Not lego, fault flag is gone, china has law saying flags can't be on stuff like that basically.

@Reinier said:
" @mr_joshua said:
"Hard pass on the "china" one. I don't like being slightly political, but look up" bags of cats during covid " and you'll be horrified at what that crap nation is capable of."

You are from the US and you call China a crap nation? Are you out of your mind?"
I don’t want to cause an argument but since we’ve all opened this can of worms I feel I should add that I was going to mention something about America and other countries also having problematic stuff going on and not just China but I couldn’t come up with anything specific to leadership (past or present) that wouldn’t escalate things further.

Before this gets any worse I’d like to give my thoughts on the sets themselves, they’re surprisingly detailed and great deals for parts and skylines. The Architecture line has been unusually informative for me as I was unaware of many of the locations adapted and I would’ve forgotten the Summer Palace existed if it weren’t for the Beijing card, I think we saw a documentary about it in world history class.

@MisterBrickster: The CMF used the flame/feather piece, the piece this one uses didn't exist back when the CMF was made.

@TheOtherMike said:
" @MisterBrickster: The CMF used the flame/feather piece, the piece this one uses didn't exist back when the CMF was made."

This one still uses the flame/feather piece for the liberty torch.

@ytjedi : So it does. I thought it was the newer, smaller flame piece, but after double-checking, I see I was wrong.

@Zander: I'm not sure how some of those would work, but a Heartlake City postcard would be cool. Question is, which sets to miniaturize for it.

I feel like the Beijing is a huge missed opportunity to include a Terracotta Warrior minifig. I reckon it would have rounded the set out quite nicely and given it that 'pop' that the NY one has.

@Zander said:
"LEGO should do postcards of fictional places such as Star Wars locations and LEGO’s own IP/themes such as Friends, Ninjago, Monkie Kid, Modular Buildings and Classic Space."

I would be VERY interested in some of these. Would be cool to see “exclusive” Legoland park postcards too.

I was absolutely interested in the NYC set but at the price LEGO wants for it in Australia (and the other sets that have the same price point as a comparison) I don't think its going to happen.

@lusci:
I’m not seeing it either. Same 2x2x2 slope, same design, even the same colors (they did a Lou Ferrigno Hulk minifig and keychain minifig where the torso used the same design in dark-green or black, depending on which version you were looking at).

@CCC:
Updated parts coming right after choice minifigs is a minor pet peeve of mine. There are several Batman and TLBM minifigs with 2x2x2 slopes that I’d love to swap for the new minifig skirt, but they’re all printed. The other one that’s started to concern me is minifigs with printed designs that might be made of brittle plastic. I even have Apollo studs in yellow that I can snap in half with my bare hands.

@TheOtherMike:
It’s hard to tell in the one image where you’re looking directly at the edge, but the past pic looks like it’s the same rooster-tail flame as the CMF on my fridge.

@Givememorebricks:
Also the double cheese on the far right isn’t fully seated.

@Binary_Code:
Same parts, different construction. The image with the centered pillars shows a center peak on the roof. The off-center pillars has a trough running down the center.

@brick_me:
_A_ terra cotta warrior probably wouldn’t read as such, so you’d probably need at least a row of them.

It took me long enough to research and write this response for the previous article that it got shut down before I could post it. Since I never deleted the file,

@N_Cat:
There have been 28 official US flags, each very specifically associated with a historical era. Every July 4th, if new states have been admitted during the past year, the number of stars is updated to reflect the current total. This was last done on July 4, 1960 to bring the total to 50, following Hawaii’s statehood. This replaced a 49-star flag that was used for only one year after Alaska became a state. If you look at the flag design included with 10294, it’s the 46-star version used from 1908-1912, following statehood for Oklahoma, and preceding statehood for both New Mexico and Arizona. Muddying the waters, until 1912, the actual layout of the flag was never established by Congress, so there could be dozens of variations of what was technically the same flag. Size, orientation, shape, and arrangement of the stars varied quite a bit. Stripes were merely described as “alternating red and white”, so some had an extra red stripe, while others had one more white stripe. A few historical communications (including one by Ben Franklin) even described it as having “red, white, and blue stripes,” which I’ve never seen as an actual flag. And officially, all of these historical designs, like all US currency, are still legitimate for use even today.

Then there are official flags and unofficial flags. Officially, the flag should be nearly twice as long as the hoist, and is required to be so for flags that are being flown in an official capacity (military, federal government buildings - excluding those that are flown briefly from the capitol building or White House for distribution to the public). Consumer flags aren’t subject to the same restrictions, so the ratio between fly and hoist tends to be closer to 5:3. They’re easier to handle (I helped fold the famed “holiday flag” at Fort Mackinac when I served on Michigan’s Governor’s Honor Guard), they require less wind to get them fluttering, and they’re probably less prone to damage in high winds.

Now, the reason it seems like our flag is unchanging is because the current design has been the preferred design the longest (62 years), with the 1912 48-star design being the second longest (47 years).

@PurpleDave said:
" @Binary_Code:
Same parts, different construction. The image with the centered pillars shows a center peak on the roof. The off-center pillars has a trough running down the center."

Ah, you're right I missed that. Looking at the official set image for 40654 it seems that's another build error rather than design change though.

@brick_me said:
"I feel like the Beijing is a huge missed opportunity to include a Terracotta Warrior minifig. I reckon it would have rounded the set out quite nicely and given it that 'pop' that the NY one has. "

That would be very cool indeed.....just not for a Beijing set. Xi'an is over 900 kilometers from Beijing, and is a great city in itself. It would be like including Sears Tower in the New York set...

@brick_me said:
"I feel like the Beijing is a huge missed opportunity to include a Terracotta Warrior minifig. I reckon it would have rounded the set out quite nicely and given it that 'pop' that the NY one has. "

The Terracotta warriors are from Xi'an, which is 1000km and several provinces away. Let's call that a future opportunity to feature a different city. Maybe it will get a build too, someday.

@PurplDave: Yeah, Or you could just do what I did and check the set inventory to be sure.

If you think applying the stickers to the transparent pieces is challenging, how about lining up those cat hairs in both builds! New fangled organic parts getting included this year as TLG slowly moves away from purely petroleum based plastics.

@darkstonegrey, I’m baffled why the application of stickers remains a problem for AFOLs when there’s an easy, cheap, commonly known and LEGO-approved way.

@brick_me said:
"I feel like the Beijing is a huge missed opportunity to include a Terracotta Warrior minifig. I reckon it would have rounded the set out quite nicely and given it that 'pop' that the NY one has. "

I’d much prefer that they make a postcard for Hobart and include the Sydney Opera House and a Croc Dundee minifigure holding a koala.

In all seriousness, I think Xi’an would probably make for a much more interesting postcard than this Beijing one, but that’s mainly due to the fact they totally dropped the ball on Beijing. Seriously, the Summer Palace may be beautiful, but it is probably the least recognizable landmarks in the city. Of course the Great Wall isn’t even in the city. Really this is just a generic Great Wall postcard. For all I know it could be Dandong.

@Reinier said:
" @mr_joshua said:
"Hard pass on the "china" one. I don't like being slightly political, but look up" bags of cats during covid " and you'll be horrified at what that crap nation is capable of."

You are from the US and you call China a crap nation? Are you out of your mind?"

Cant they both be crap nations for a variety of reasons? Unfortunately, no one has the monopoly on repression of their own citizens.

This is such a nice concept!