I had the opportunity to pick up one of the latest sets in the Lego Architecture range this past weekend, and it was one that I'd had my eye on since it had been released as I am a huge fan of Rome and it's sights - I had to have it in my collection!

Box/Instructions

The box is the typical type for the Architecture range, and I like them. Very smart and strong box. The instruction manual came in at around 140 pages in book form, with a few pages at the beginning giving a brief history of the fountain. I like the books from a presentation point of view, but it can be a bit fiddly when trying to keep the page open and fnd the parts you need. As it was, I managed to open the book a bit too much and break the binding near the back *sob*. The instructions themselves are broken down very well into good small chunks, so that anyone can approach them without it being too complicated.

Parts

731 parts makes it a pretty substantial model to build. The only fairly rare pieces I think are the small 'statue' pieces that were included, I don't believe there were any unique pieces here.

Minifigures

No minifigures with this model.

The build

I'm not a fast builder, so the build probably took me about two and a half hours altogether. The majority of the pieces are small; there's a lot of 1x1s and 2x1s which can be quite fiddly to put together. There are still a few bigger pieces though, particularly around the base. It was a very enjoyable build however and I had fun putting it together.

The completed model

The complete model looks as good as it can do for one this size (the size is decent) - I am very impressed with how good it looks and very pleased with the outcome. The general detail is very good, and I thought the horses were a nice touch.

Overall opinion

Very, very good. A great model at this price point, and I am really pleased with the outcome and whole process. The designer has done a great job in capturing the shape and detail of the fountain and it's one that I am really happy to put on display in the house. It doesn't have a huge amount if 'playability', but I don't expect it to. This doesn't detract from the model at all for me.

Now I just need to get some Lego coins to throw into the fountain...