21058 Great Pyramid of Giza – a wonder of the LEGO world

21058 Great Pyramid of Giza stands as not only a stunning tribute to one of the original wonders of the world, but a marker for LEGO Architecture and Icons.

Not as unwieldy as the likes of 10276 Colosseum or 10307 Eiffel Tower from LEGO Icons, nor as limited in capacity and detail as any of the Skylines series from Architecture, 21058 Great Pyramid of Giza sits in perfect balance for serious LEGO collectors as the ultimate marker for where best these dual themes (they share design teams) sit best in achieving both eye-catching scale and engrossing authenticity.

Zavvi very kindly sent us a copy of 21058 Great Pyramid of Giza to explore further, while it sits on promotion as part of their latest LEGO deals.

There is plenty to enjoy and admire about LEGO Architecture’s Skylines series, for just how much each set packs into its smaller piece count and even smaller building scale. The likes of 21044 Paris, 21034 London and 21028 New York City offer a whistle-stop tour of the architectural icons of the world’s most famous cities, cleverly condensed into Vegas-style strip presentations that sit perfectly on a shelf.

This series of sets, which also saw an addition earlier this year in 21057 Singapore, has offered some truly novel building techniques along the way and, in the case of 21043 San Francisco, even a brilliant use of forced perspective that cannot be overlooked, nor ever overestimated for its creativity. The Skylines series may be small sets, but they are no small achievement in LEGO design.

On the other side of the coin, the same team (and by team we basically mean Senior Design Specialist Rok Žgalin Kobe) has in recent years also been unleashed within the Icons line to offer up some of the biggest and most in-depth (and most expensive) LEGO sets of all time.

Both 10276 Colosseum and 10307 Eiffel Tower have set records upon release and rightly pulled in the plaudits for their stunning final beasts of LEGO sets that dominate entire rooms, let alone LEGO shelves. Building at such unrelenting size has unlocked a whole new world of LEGO exploration and technique for some of the biggest ‘wow’ moments this creative medium has offered so far.

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Yet, between these wonderful creations that skew quite wildly from sitting nicely on your desk to having you consider getting an extension to your living room are sets like 21058 Great Pyramid of Giza. Not as cute as a Skylines set nor as headline-grabbing as an Eiffel Tower, such mid-scale creations – still under the Architecture name for now – risk being overlooked by casual LEGO fans and more serious brick builders alike.  

Instead, such sets – and particularly 21058 Great Pyramid of Giza – should be lauded for offering a quite skilful balance between the size of the set and its authenticity to subject matter, all in a way that maintains so much of the subtle artistry that only these architectural LEGO sets can, without a mind-and-finger-numbing build experience to get you there, nor a financial investment that will break the bank.

21058 Great Pyramid of Giza of course offers an incredibly unique LEGO experience from build through to display piece almost purely for being based on one of the original Seven Wonders of the World, and smartly designed in LEGO form to look as it would have some 4,600 years ago. And so, very much for the one-of-a-kind creative opportunity building a giant pyramid offers, this is immediately a LEGO set like few before it, just as the completed model sits apart from anything else you may own in your collection.

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Beyond the strength of the source material, though, is the care and attention that has gone into offering a truly complete LEGO set that captures various key architectural and landscape features of both the pyramid and surrounding area in a detail and true-to-life way that is comparable only with the supermassive Icons sets.

In the case of this set, some of those details may only actually be truly recognised or appreciated by those who have studied the pyramid and its local geographic history, or who have visited and toured the pyramid and surrounding structures. Not a brick is wasted in 21058 Great Pyramid of Giza, nor misplaced, and everything is presented in such an intelligent and engrossing way that it rewards those with deeper knowledge of the source material and further intrigues the rest of us to learn more.

The best LEGO sets can indeed pique your curiosity and get the creative juices flowing, and 21058 Great Pyramid of Giza is exactly one such set. It may be between two more notable scales of build from the Architecture and Icons lines, but it stands apart for good reason, more worthy of your time, focus and enjoyment than you may first realise.

21058 Great Pyramid of Giza is available for pre-order at Zavvi, where it’s currently on sale with £10 off its RRP. You can get an extra 10% off for today only (December 12) using code LEGO10OFF. Check out a full, curated selection of deals from Zavvi over on the Brick Fanatics x Zavvi page.