Review: 40583 Houses of the World 1

I love this idea and would love to see more sets that introduce the world through LEGO. I really do hope that this, and others in the series, end up being accessible.

Edit: less excited about the pronounced use of stickers, though… must be a GWP… :)

Microscale does not appeal to me. If I want small and cute, I choose Mini- (Loz) and not Lego bricks. The rumored price threshold is incomprehensible.

Even with my above comment, I like the idea. The problem is that we will need to see about 3 or 4 items before being able to decide if it is worth doing the collection (this first item is nothing to brag about IMO).

Now if they could do 'planes of the world' - i.e. most countries have a flying squad of planes doing aerobatic air shows. I would go to extreme spend threshold to get that. Or even better an all new series that you can buy normally at retailers - like a speed champion of the air!

Come to think of it, I'm slightly reminded of the microbuild city scenes that were a Toys R' Us exclusive a few years ago. I saved all my TRU rewards points to get those. (They were pretty pricey independently.)

I think this is quite an interesting GWP.

Any rumoured threshold is irrelevant until it's known what else is being offered alongside. If it's £250 as recently, that's very likely to include 2 or 3 other GWPs as well. I'd be happy with this set, Year of the Rabbit, and a VIP Add-on pack included with any D2C set I wanted anyway.

Wondering if it’s part of a series. I would definitely buy a house from Paris, London or Barcelona

Ruddy 'ell that chihuahua looks about five feet tall!

... also, I think microscale modulars should be more of a thing. For cost and display room I'd much rather collect a dozen sets similar to these and connect them in a street. Yes, I know, I could make my own...

Looks like part of Encanto's house.

I don't see any appeal to this set, and I'm trying to understand why anyone would want it. It has no connection to any IP, no connection to any Lego nostalgia. Is it going to be a theme with more houses released for purchase later on? Or will each later house be another gift with purchase? I feel like this might draw more people in if there had already been a few houses released, and this was a new one that could only be collected this way

And it has an open back....

Very cute set. Love the colors and details.

@historynut said:
"Nice idea but .. why include a minifig scale dog if it's a microscale build?"

I think the dog works perfectly fine as a larger dog breed at this scale.

Looks rather bland. Seems like it should be a normal Creator set like 40469 that probably wouldn't sell well unless it had the Limited Edition GWP badge on it.

Lego keep doing GWPs like this please! It will save me a lot of money as I won't be buying!

@curtydc said:
"I don't see any appeal to this set, and I'm trying to understand why anyone would want it. It has no connection to any IP, no connection to any Lego nostalgia."
I hope this statement is meant to be a satirical take on the state of affairs that is most of LEGO's current portfolio and how the stereotypical AFOL only seems to want nostalgic sets these days (well, provided it's not paywalled as a GWP at least).

@lippidp said:
"Still wondering how to get
6427893: Fantasy Adventure Ride
6427896: Space Adventure Ride"

I'm afraid you'll have to rely on BrickLink or secondary market.

Hasn't anyone noticed how badly those bricks and plates in the walls fit on top of one another?
Honestly, what has happened to LEGO's quality standards, the precision and tolerances?

This looks worse than the first Lepin set I bought years ago.
No kidding, back then everyone said how could I, and how bad the tolerances were versus LEGO. Interesting to see that by now LEGO's quality level has reached 2015 Lepin standards.

A bit mixed feelings about this. It looks nice from the front. And I do like the general idea, and am curious what more they come up with.

That said, while the front looks nice, everything else looks a bit lacking. I feel it might actually have been better as just a facade. As it is now it mostly reminds me of the series of small Chinese (and a few Japanese) houses by Loz, built in a similar scale. Those are quite a bit more detailed though, with tiled floors and overall a much more intricate constructions. And as a result have about double the parts count (not even including the absurd amount of spares....). I tjink Lego could do better than this.

@AustinPowers said:
"Hasn't anyone noticed how badly those bricks and plates in the walls fit on top of one another?
Honestly, what has happened to LEGO's quality standards, the precision and tolerances?

This looks worse than the first Lepin set I bought years ago.
No kidding, back then everyone said how could I, and how bad the tolerances were versus LEGO. Interesting to see that by now LEGO's quality level had reached 2015 Lepin standards. "

I am currently building a rather large MOC (about 8000 pieces so far - nowhere near finished). In it, there is a segment where I have six 1x5x6 panel (part 3754); when you look at this with a light in the background there is so much light coming at you it could blind you. My Moc is full of offsets of different length (most of them are calculated on a sheet of paper with the proper Lego pieces' dimensions - I am using LU (Lego Units) - the Lego tolerance are so bad nowadays I often have to double check my construction and calculations since the pieces are so far apart. I don't want to make it a mission to blow the whistle on how bad they have become because it is a lost fight but I am also not to shy away from telling it like it is. I know you have been quite vocal about it and I support (somewhat silently) your quest for a return to quality.

Pretty high price threshold for such a lackluster set.

I still wish had back building....
or removeabal wall!
how hard is it add few more bricks

It's unusual to get a review for something not revealed yet...

Unless I've missed the annoucement

@Huw said:
" @AustinPowers said:
"Hasn't anyone noticed how badly those bricks and plates in the walls fit on top of one another?
Honestly, what has happened to LEGO's quality standards, the precision and tolerances?"

I agree it's not great, but the harsh light from above makes it look much worse than it is."
Maybe, but I've noticed this on many recent sets I built myself as well.
Parts quality is definitely on a sharp decline.

Same with injection points. Formerly those were often well hidden, like for example on tiles, which had their injection points on the inside, while nowadays those points are on the side of the piece and also larger than in former times and often badly cleaned up, leaving bits of plastic sticking out from the pieces that then you have to clean yourself using a fingernail or sharp object.
BlueBrixx used to have the same issues in the beginning, but that's a thing of the past on most sets since they switched to GoBricks as supplier for their parts.
Strange to see something like that on LEGO pieces now.

Same with scratched pieces from the factory, especially tiles and larger bricks, and of course any large window piece made from their new trans-milk instead of their former trans-clear material.

Or take current stickers as another example. One reason why I hate those nowadays is that when you apply them to a piece and press them down firmly to make sure they stay on for at least some length of time, the glue squishes out at the sides and gets smeared over the rest of the piece and partly over the top side of the sticker as well.
I never had such issues with the vinyl like stickers LEGO used back when I was a kid in the Eighties.

@Peeeeeeet said:
"Ruddy 'ell that chihuahua looks about five feet tall!"

!Ay, carumba, Chihuahua Gigante!

The scale is the silly. The quality is awful (thanks @AustinPowers n @HOBBES). Perhaps the state of Lego is becoming "nasty, brutish, and short."

That said, it's interesting enough to add to a big pile of GWPs to get something I already want like @sjr60 said.

I don't know. Moving things around for holiday gatherings has reaffirmed just how much Lego I alteady possess. Yikes!

Is that upstairs sofa a 23969 in dark orange? If so it's the first time without print, there was one in 10306 with ATARI printed.

like the house!
like the idea of a series!

but won't join the train if I can't just buy them directly. too much spending on things I only semi want, too much danger of missing one out and later hunt it with too much effort. with such marketing moves, Lego is too much about buying and too little about building.

Seems like something I could build right now with my own collection, like I just stumbled across a cool picture of a MOC that gets the creative juices flowing and now I'm working on my own take of a house.

But nope, turns out this isn't a MOC, it's a set, and rumors suggest that you'll have to put down a LOT to get one. Feels pretty goofy to me.

@AustinPowers said:
"Hasn't anyone noticed how badly those bricks and plates in the walls fit on top of one another?
Honestly, what has happened to LEGO's quality standards, the precision and tolerances?

This looks worse than the first Lepin set I bought years ago.
No kidding, back then everyone said how could I, and how bad the tolerances were versus LEGO. Interesting to see that by now LEGO's quality level has reached 2015 Lepin standards."
All my bricks from the 2000s, 90s and 80s have the same "issue". It hasn't gotten worse over time as far as I can tell. If this wasn't a problem before, I don't see why it has to be one now, other than that there hasn't been an *improvement*. But implying that the quality has *regressed* seems disingenuous.

Love the set and the idea thats it 1 in a series.

Cautious about the rumoured access price point, so fingers crossed I guess.

If it is in the £250 range will struggle, January is my birthday month and I will be getting Jazz Club modular, but not got anything else I want to crack the £250 (does Speed Champs not normally launch more sets in Jan?)

While attractive this would probably only tempt me if it was a little higher and maybe a little wider to be a small minifigure scale building. If that extremely high threshold is correct, I think TLG could afford to increase the brick count to make that possible. But clearly some like this scale, and it does allow for a more detailed interior in the space available.

Ultimately, I wish TLG would simply *sell* affordable, open backed buildings like this but at minifigure scale and with minimal side builds (but still offer the more expensive Creator 3-in-1 fully enclosed buildings too).

It’s nice but they have released GWP that seemed to be part of a theme never to be continued… 40291 Creative Personalities. I was expecting future “personalities” to swap out the book pages with.

What’s up with the little glyph in the upper right corner? Is that a new GWP bug?

@Yooha:
Based on this being Central America, I’m guessing they’re planning at least one per continent and subcontinent, which is still problematic. I mean, how many styles of home construction is just the UK responsible for? How do you pick one housing style to represent all of Africa, South America, North America, or East Asia? I mean, at least Antarctica will be simple.

@imemine98:
This gets…messy. Scientifically, Central America is defined as the region connecting Mexico to Colombia, because it sits on its own continental plate. The UN definition lumps Mexico in with them, and another definition for “middle America” carves off Colombia and Venezuela from South America. South of the US, most people just use the very Eurocentric Olympics definition of the Americas as a single continent. Within Central America, there are five nations that are former members of the Federal Republic of Central America, who consider that to be one distinct definition, while also counting all seven nations under a different definition. One definition even rolls the Antilles in (and the Dominican Republic is even part of a Central American EU-like alliance). So, Encanto, being set in Colombia, could be included in Central America by one of these definitions, and there’s probably enough cultural overlap with parts of Central America that you’d find similar housing styles throughout. Except for the color scheme, it looks architecturally similar to the Spanish Mission style that extends all the way up into the SW United States.

@chrisaw:
It’s a Newfoundhuahua.

@xboxtravis7992:
Well, Argentina is at the far other end of South America, and this is supposed to represent that little bit that sometimes gets lumped in with North America, even though it’s technically on its own continental plate.

@HOBBES:
I’m more nervous for what they might pick from the US. Cape Cod or ranch would be fine, but southern plantation houses are very much out of style these days.

Anyways, Greek would be white with blue trim. Dutch has a lot of stepped triangles done in brick.

@legoapprentice:
So, for the $50 GWP, what should they start with, the houses of Gilligan’s Island?

@Peeeeeeet:
I know someone who did start building microscale MOCs of the Modular series. Then 10230 was released as a GWP that precisely duplicated his efforts…and stopped. He moved across the country soon after, so I have no idea if he ever expanded his own run.

@dingbat591:
I would expect the third to pop up in the Rewards Center on the 1st, and the fourth to be tied to some other event date down the road (perhaps International LEGO Day?).

@Interstellarpig:
I think 40291 is the predecessor to the Tribute series that includes 40410, 40450, and 40530 (but hopefully not 40548). If so, they expanded the scope to include any historically notable person, not just authors (and presumably other types of artists), and they didn’t really finish nailing down the format until at least Earhart. The Dickens tribute has his name with the book’s title on the spine, similar to how they added HCA’s name as text on the page for his, while Earhart and Goodall have what looks like a more standardized name plaque. However, the red wax seal emblem in the upper right corner does appear to have originated with HCA, though even that has been updated from a simple line drawing representing the subject to a full black/red image of the minifig.

Speaking of which, we haven’t seen any word of a 2023 Tribute set, so I wonder if that theme is now done. Isn’t this about the time they would release the next one?

@PurpleDave said:
"What’s up with the little glyph in the upper right corner? Is that a new GWP bug?

@Yooha:
Based on this being Central America, I’m guessing they’re planning at least one per continent and subcontinent, which is still problematic. I mean, how many styles of home construction is just the UK responsible for? How do you pick one housing style to represent all of Africa, South America, North America, or East Asia? I mean, at least Antarctica will be simple.

@imemine98:
This gets…messy. Scientifically, Central America is defined as the region connecting Mexico to Colombia, because it sits on its own continental plate. The UN definition lumps Mexico in with them, and another definition for “middle America” carves off Colombia and Venezuela from South America. South of the US, most people just use the very Eurocentric Olympics definition of the Americas as a single continent. Within Central America, there are five nations that are former members of the Federal Republic of Central America, who consider that to be one distinct definition, while also counting all seven nations under a different definition. One definition even rolls the Antilles in (and the Dominican Republic is even part of a Central American EU-like alliance). So, Encanto, being set in Colombia, could be included in Central America by one of these definitions, and there’s probably enough cultural overlap with parts of Central America that you’d find similar housing styles throughout. Except for the color scheme, it looks architecturally similar to the Spanish Mission style that extends all the way up into the SW United States.

@chrisaw:
It’s a Newfoundhuahua.

@xboxtravis7992:
Well, Argentina is at the far other end of South America, and this is supposed to represent that little bit that sometimes gets lumped in with North America, even though it’s technically on its own continental plate.

@HOBBES:
I’m more nervous for what they might pick from the US. Cape Cod or ranch would be fine, but southern plantation houses are very much out of style these days.

Anyways, Greek would be white with blue trim. Dutch has a lot of stepped triangles done in brick.

@legoapprentice:
So, for the $50 GWP, what should they start with, the houses of Gilligan’s Island?

@Peeeeeeet:
I know someone who did start building microscale MOCs of the Modular series. Then 10230 was released as a GWP that precisely duplicated his efforts…and stopped. He moved across the country soon after, so I have no idea if he ever expanded his own run.

@dingbat591:
I would expect the third to pop up in the Rewards Center on the 1st, and the fourth to be tied to some other event date down the road (perhaps International LEGO Day?)."

I was just saying white and blue because these houses are pretty 'big'(i.e. popular) as a souvenir from the Netherlands. (they are small: 3x5x2 inches - width*height*depth roughly!)

https://media.istockphoto.com/id/894063680/photo/souvenir-from-holland.jpg?s=612x612&w=0&k=20&c=RapxWzgope1HLi6SrKLLHtnDoIJOQXYY8YEsS0B9ajk=

https://www.istockphoto.com/photo/traditional-souvenirs-from-amsterdam-rows-of-delftware-porcelain-dutch-style-houses-gm1150217343-311280312

It looks nice, but it's definately smaller compared to even most 3-in-1 scale builds, ground level is only 4 brick high with a tiny door.

As a directly sold set, it would have potential to combine into a regular build, and some nice colorful pieces, but as a GWP this is not very interesting imo.

@HOBBES:
Ah, I kinda wondered if that’s where the mixup came from. Those are Delftware, which is so closely associated with The Netherlands that it’s easy to find in the more touristy parts of Holland, MI. It’s a type of porcelain or ceramic that is _always_ blue on white. You can see the stepped triangles that I mentioned on the roofline of some of these houses, but from what I can tell that’s just a result of making the walls out of bricks with a steeply pitched roof to shed snow and rain. Rather than cutting the bricks at angles, they just set the roof inside of the end walls and overlapped the edge with these stepped bits. It’s very distinctive, and there are several buildings in that style on Hope College campus in Holland, MI. There’s also one really tacky example of a modernized version (built in the late 90’s?) where they kept the basic geometry, but eliminated all of the steppes on the roofline.

https://hope.edu/directory/buildings/voorhees-hall/index.html

Voorhees Hall, which is the third oldest building on Hope campus, and I assume fairly traditional Dutch architecture from the time.

https://hope.edu/directory/buildings/cook-hall/

Cook Hall (the attached Haworth Center was built at the same time, in the same style). Looks like trash.

Now, if you look up pictures of the Greek Islands, in particular Santorini, they have tons of white buildings with blue roofs. The buildings are made of volcanic stone, which is dark, and _hot_ during the summer months. So they started whitewashing them, up to three times a year, to deflect the sun’s rays. All white gets boring, so people started doing the roof or trim in a bright color. Blue was cheap because there was a cleaning agent that you could add to the whitewash to change it that color. Then they had a change in government, the leaders saw blue and white as a patriotic combo that supported _their_ regime (Greek flag is blue and white), and they mandated that everyone use that color scheme from then on. I don’t know if that rule is still in effect, but I can’t imagine it would be beneficial to their tourism industry if they suddenly made those iconic roofs any other colors. I mean, back when pretty much everyone used travel agencies to book flights, a poster showing those buildings was probably posted in every agency in the US. It didn’t matter if you wanted to go there. It mattered that they could get you someplace so foreign to what you were used to that every building in town was color-coordinated. Plus it evokes images of white sandy beaches and clear blue water.

I like this scale, and the color combinations look great. I think the stickers look good too. Looking forward to seeing the other houses!

Architecture from around the world? Yes, please! Hopefully some Scandinavian, Indian, Mediterranean and African architectural styles will be represented soon. I'm not sure if I'm in love with the micro scale in general, but it' done well here, but I despise the fact that this may be a GWP series. Just put it on the shelf and let me buy it when I'm able to afford it.