Lego’s Art World Map is Google Maps meets plastic bricks – and the biggest Lego set ever

Move over Colosseum – there’s an even bigger Lego set in town. Lego Art World Map (£249.99, available 1 August) features a whopping 11,965(!) elements, most of which are round tiles that you plug into 40 interconnecting baseplates. The land is white, with a subtle shadow, providing contrast with ocean floors whose colours are inspired by bathymetric mapping. Once satisfied with your efforts, you can organise the map however you see fit, place it in its Lego frame, and hang it on the wall. Naturally, all this takes time – a lot of time – and so Lego has provided a soundtrack while you work, where travel experts tell tales about far-flung places they’ve visited. You can mark off those you’ve experienced too, with cone pieces that transform your plastic masterpiece into a kind of offline brick-built Google Maps. The finished article measures an impressive 104×65cm and is ripe for rebuilding. Lego suggests redesigning the oceans with your own custom patterns – although do so too often and your thumbs will hate you and suggest you’d get in the sea yourself.