While LEGO Architecture has been restricted in the past to giving us some great (and some not-so-great) builds of famous buildings, TLG is switching things up in 2016! Why settle for one building from the most recognizable cities in the world, when you can have a whole skyline?! Coming winter 2016: LEGO Architecture New York City, Berlin and Venice cityscape sets!

LEGO Architecture remains one of the most unique themes that TLG produces, with a limited number of retail chains carrying the line and only a handful of new sets being released each year. But this winter, LEGO is putting a new twist on an old favorite, as three of the four new sets coming our way will focus on a variety of buildings from iconic cities instead of just being one big landmark!

And as far as the United States goes, if there’s one city that’s meant to be the first representative in this new sub-line, it’s got to be the most populous city in the U.S. (and the most expensive city in the world): New York City!

The LEGO Architecture New York City 21028 consists of four micro-build buildings and the Statue of Liberty (floating out on an island, as it should be). I’m no expert on buildings, but luckily I lived in New York for eight years, so even I can identify some of these NYC buildings!

21028 New York City features the Empire State Building, the One World Trade Center, the Flatiron Building and the Chrysler Building. The three buildings are all placed right next to each other on a long black base plate. This style of tiny buildings next to each may not be to some collectors’ liking, but I think it looks awesome!

The Statue of Liberty is being represented by a sand green version of the oft-used Minifigure trophy accessory. I know some folks wanted to see the actual Statue of Liberty Minifigure reissued here, but unfortunately that just wouldn’t be to-scale in this instance.

The New York City Architecture set includes 598 pieces, so I’d expect a price-point of around $50-$60 on this set.

LEGO Venice 21026 Architecture 2016 Set

Next up, representing Italy, it’s the LEGO Architecture Venice 21026 set! And oh my, is it ever beautiful!

I’ve never been outside of North America (and likely won’t be), but this brick-built representation of the city definitely makes me pine for doing so a bit. And as beautiful as this set is, it also ought to be available for under 30 bucks, as it’s only 212 pieces. At that price, it’s a must-buy for me!

LEGO Architecture Berlin 21027

The last of the three Architecture Skyline sets shifts the scene to Germany for the 21027 Berlin set!

The biggest component of the LEGO Berlin set is the Brandenburg Gate, which was previously released as its own (underwhelming) set. Glad to see TLG doing justice by Berlin by releasing this very cool Berlin skyline set to make up for that past disappointment! The famous Fernsehturm Berlin TV tower and Reichstag Building are also present and accounted for (and looking fine!).

If you look closely, you can also see painted portions of the Berlin Wall present in this set! Awesome!! And as Berlin consists of just 289 pieces, this is another superb skylines set that I expect to see prices at $29.99 or less. These are some really good-looking low-priced Architecture sets, this time out!

The fourth of the Architecture 2016 sets goes the traditional route of capturing a single building from Dubai of the United Arab Emirates: 21031 Burj Khalifa, the tallest skyscraper in the world.

This is actually the second go-around for the Burj Khalifa, as the skyscraper was originally released in set 21008 way back in 2011 (when dinosaurs roamed the Earth). But while that set contained just 208 pieces, the new 2016 version is a much nicer (and larger!) build overall and gives us more than 50% more pieces at 333 total pieces.

The official pricing for these sets has yet to be announced by TLG, but based off of past releases, I think we can reasonably assume that these sets will all be priced right around 10 cents per (tiny) piece.

LEGO Architecture sets tend to be much tinier than your usual sets for the cost, but they’re also a whole other beast than the fictional-based themes. In general, I consider them to be a very fair value despite their somewhat smaller stature.

These four 2016 LEGO Architecture sets are scheduled to be released online and in stores on January 1st, 2015. I would not be surprised at all to see these sets turn up at retail in mid-December, though, so if someone in your life would love these architectural builds as a holiday gift, stay tuned for updates!

How do you feel about the introduction of cityscapes to the Architecture LEGO theme, brick fans? Would you prefer that TLG stick to intricate builds of individual structures, or do you like the idea of capturing whole skylines at once?