Travel souvenirs you can build yourself

Oh souvenirs…like small time machines that takes us back to our happy place (“to a place where we ache to go again.”). Okay, maybe that’s just us, but we’ve noticed that souvenirs have a special place in our hearts. Maybe it because humans rather like to collect things; at our core, we are hunter gatherers. Or maybe, we just love to share what we’ve done and where we’ve been. Which is why the modern souvenir phenomenon occurred, tapping into those natural instincts and also functioning as cunning word-of-mouth advertising for destinations.

From the Latin, subvenire (‘occur to the mind’), a souvenir actually gets its name from a keepsake object that sparks the memories you personally associate with it, linking you back to a place and the emotions associated with it. Although there is evidence that souvenirs existed in the ancient world, the more modern forms of souvenir collecting are thought to relate back to the 17th century German concept of ‘wunderkammer’ (or cabinet of curiosities) containing various found and created bits and bobs. Almost like early precursors to museums. Later, the privileged Grand Tours adventurers brought home miniature replicas of the European sites they visited.

And it’s the memory sparking aspect that is particularly relevant to the development of our Architecture theme over the last few years, from exclusively singular tourist hotspots (Leaning Tower of Pisa, Burj Khalifa, Big Ben etc) to full city landscapes. Because we thought (and we do ever so hope you agree), that a souvenir should fire as many of those memory triggers as possible.

Take, for example, Paris. Now, no-one is denying that the Eiffel Tower is undoubtedly the most Instagrammable part of the city… but would an Eiffel Tower souvenir alone remind you of your walks through the Parisian parks, Champs Élysées strolls or the glow of the Lutetian limestone buildings? That’s where the Paris Architecture Skyline provides the perfect distillation of the entire city in one tasteful and cool LEGO build that should of course, be undertaken while eating baguette and fromage.

And yes, the Empire State Building is a striking building... but there are a few of those in The Big Apple. And any New York souvenirs should reflect that. Of course, you could buy a cheesy t-shirt with a logo (and we are partial to them too) but the New York City Skyline from LEGO Architecture has much of the mind-boggling architecture of the city, cleverly rendered down into a single build, and even including a cheeky Lady Liberty.