Grab your berets and croissants, because today Lego revealed a stunning tribute to France’s most iconic landmark, the Eiffel Tower. The real thing towers 1,083-feet over Paris, and while Lego’s recreation isn’t quite so massive, at 59-inches from its base to the French flag flying atop it, it’s the tallest Lego set to date.
Were it not for Lego’s 11,695-piece World Map set released in mid-2021, the 10,001-piece Eiffel Tower would also actually be the largest Lego set to date, edging out the 9,090-piece Lego Titanic and the 9,036-piece Lego Roman Colosseum before that.
It’s a hefty build, and one that you’ll probably want to spread out over quite a few days, because unlike the Titanic model, which offers a variety of different building techniques and exciting sections like the hull, the interior state rooms, and the top deck, the Eiffel Tower looks like you’re recreating a lot of repetitive metal work.
A close-up of the tower’s mid-section reveals exactly what we mean. There’s some very clever parts use here to recreate the iconic appearance of the Eiffel Tower’s metal cross bracing, but at this scale, you’re going to find yourself building the same thing again and again and again, so this set will probably best be enjoyed as a longterm build, instead of one you try to power through in one night.
The base of the Eiffel Tower features an esplanade complete with Parisian lampposts, bench seating, and greenery, but again, due to the scale of this set, there are no Lego minifigures, or even microscale figures, included. They simply wouldn’t have the correct proportions to the rest of the landmark. That’s unfortunate, as a minifigure mime would have really helped tie everything together.
The Lego Icons Eiffel Tower isn’t being made available for pre-order. Instead, fans excited to drop $680 on a giant box of gray plastic bricks will have to set an alarm for midnight EST on November 25, when the set officially becomes available for sale.