Architecture

Dubai

A skyline that earns its shelf space on height alone.

Brick Rated Score

4.0/5

Set 21052 · 2020

Pieces740

Minifigsn/a

Year2020

Set number21052

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The verdict

This is one of the tallest, most theatrical models in the whole Architecture Skylines line, and the Burj Khalifa is the reason.

Standing it up next to the other city sets, Dubai just towers over everything, and that silhouette is genuinely lovely on a shelf. The catch is that the tower you fall for is also the part that tests your patience, because it is almost entirely stacked round plates. If you love the actual buildings of Dubai, you will forgive it instantly.

Best for: Skyline collectors who care more about the finished display than the journey there

The full review

What it is

The first thing that gets you with Dubai is the height. I have built a fair few of the Skylines sets, and this one just refuses to sit quietly on a shelf, because the Burj Khalifa climbs to over 325mm and makes every other city model in the range look modest. It packs five real landmarks into 740 pieces: the Burj Khalifa, the sail-shaped Burj Al Arab hotel, the twin Jumeirah Emirates Towers, the ring of the Dubai Frame, and the little tiered Dubai Fountain out front. As a portrait of a very modern, very vertical city, it reads beautifully from across a room. The Burj Al Arab is the piece I kept turning over in my hands, because for something so small it captures that swooping sail shape with real care.

The catch

I will be honest about the part that divides people. The Burj Khalifa is built almost entirely from stacked round plates, alternating grey and transparent light blue, roughly 149 of those little trans blue 1x1 rounds standing in for windows. On the shelf it looks fantastic and catches the light. In your hands, section after section of the same stack, it can feel like a slog. My one real grumble is the running order, because that repetitive tower is the climax of the build rather than something you knock out in the middle, so the set ends on its most tedious stretch instead of its most satisfying one. The Dubai Frame and the Fountain, by contrast, are over almost before they begin, which leaves the pacing feeling a little lopsided.

Who it's for

At its original 59.99 it was a fair buy for the drama you get, and even now, retired, it holds a strong presence for the footprint it takes up. If you are a skyline collector or you have a genuine soft spot for Dubai itself, this is an easy one to love, because the finished model more than pays back the patience the tower demands. If what you live for is inventive engineering and surprising techniques, I would steer you gently elsewhere, because this is a display-first set and it does not pretend otherwise. Buy it for the silhouette, not for the journey, and you will be very happy with it.

The parts story

What the build is actually like, and the pieces worth knowing about.

Building this is a tale of two halves. The lower landmarks, the Burj Al Arab, the Emirates Towers, the Frame and the Fountain, come together quickly and give you those small satisfying moments where a handful of pieces suddenly become a recognisable building. Then you reach the Burj Khalifa, split across three sections, and settle in for a long rhythm of threading round plates onto stacks. It is meditative if you are in the right mood and a chore if you are not, and there is not much middle ground.

There are no headline new molds here, which is worth knowing going in. The star part is really the humble transparent light blue 1x1 round plate, used in bulk to glow as the tower's windows, plus 1x1 rounded corner tiles for the observation decks. As with every Architecture set you get the collectible printed nameplate, a black 1x8 tile with white Dubai lettering, which was new to this set. For part-count value at 740 pieces it is fair rather than generous, since so many of those pieces are small repeated rounds, but the payoff is a model that stands taller and prouder than almost anything else in the line.

Fun facts

01The real Burj Khalifa opened in 2009 as the Burj Dubai, then was renamed a year later in honour of Sheikh Khalifa bin Zayed Al Nahyan after Abu Dhabi stepped in during the financial crisis.
02The full-size Burj Khalifa stands nearly 200 metres taller than its closest rival, the Shanghai Tower, which is why the LEGO version towers so dramatically over the rest of the model.
03Around 149 transparent light blue 1x1 round plates go into the Burj Khalifa alone, standing in for its windows.
04The set retired in December 2021 after roughly two years, and sealed copies have since climbed well above the original 59.99 price.