LEGO Creator Australia Postcard Block Building Set, 19

I bought this ‘Australia' postcard to make a life story trio with my ‘London' postcard (where I lived for a while) and the ‘Paris' postcard (where my wife grew up), with this one reflecting where we now live. We don't live in Sydney, so I was delighted that LEGO has deliberately stepped away from what could have been a ‘Sydney' postcard with a predictable but entirely unimaginative Opera House/ Harbour Bridge theme, to create something different that reflects the whole country. Whilst some city buildings, Opera House included, are instantly recognisable, they hardly capture Australia's character whereas I think this postcard has achieved that well. It has something for any Australian, regardless of their state or territory, and while the selection of icons may not be front of mind for many tourists, they are nonetheless very recognisable by locals. I love the inclusion of the cockatoo, the foliage is nicely done, and arguably the shed, windmill and 'dunny' have been part of Australian architecture for much longer than the Opera House or almost any city structure for that matter. The chosen features work really well together, to include any city feature into this scene would simply not work. I agree that as an outback scene it might have been nice to include a reference to Uluru, but as this scale I imagine it would have been difficult to do it justice. And if the goal was to be location agnostic then that would have spoiled it. Nice touch with the aeroplane in QANTAS colours... ;-) As somebody who migrated to Australia nearly 20 years ago, and has lived in a regional town for the last 8 years, this postcard reminds me of what my Australian home feels like much more than any city landmark; as an example, I see and hear the extremely noisy but loveable cockatoos every day. If I wanted a Sydney/ Opera House scene, I would have bought the Architecture set 21032.

I bought this because of how much was crammed into such a small build, and based on other reviews. It's an easy, but satisfying build, with lots of thoughtful details: the cockatoo, the billabong, the Qantas plane, the old ‘thunderbox'. I moved the kangaroo sign to the back and the water to the front, because I felt that the billabong was too obscured where it was. There is room for some creative flexibility with this build. I recommend this as an ideal gift for practically anyone. It's fun, eye-catching, starts conversations and displays easily. It might be the build that got someone hooked on Lego.