Best of BrickNerd - Article originally published March 28, 2022.

The old adage “What Happens in Vegas Stays in Vegas” doesn’t necessarily apply to LEGO bricks. Living in Las Vegas, I’ve always been interested in all the hotels and entertainment venues that this (admittedly somewhat crazy) city in the desert has to offer. From the Roman architecture of Caesars to the Canals of Venice at the Venetian, the striking Pyramid at the Luxor to the stunning fountains of the Bellagio, the Vegas skyline changes yearly. So is it possible to capture the Strip in LEGO, and if so, how do I keep up with all the changes!?

Many years ago, I started a project to build a LEGO Las Vegas Strip (and surrounding area including hotels and entertainment venues) in microscale. The problem was each Las Vegas “block” along the strip was 2,600 feet long or about half a mile. So, what should my scale be? To utilize the largest base plates that are readily available, 48x48 studs seemed like the best choice to represent 2,600 x 2,600 square feet, which gave me a scale of 1 brick equalling approximately 54 feet of the Strip. It was a choice that I’ve had to live with that has both made the resulting build have the details of a sprawling city—while also being incredibly frustrating at times.

But I needed to start somewhere. So the foundation of my LEGO Las Vegas strip was the corner with the MGM Grand. I used aerial maps and my own extensive knowledge of the strip to build from Las Vegas Blvd to Koval street, from Tropicana to Harmon the other direction. I used a modified MILS-style base plate for added strength and to allow room for any wiring for lighting—because Las Vegas has millions of lights! I wanted mine to shine as well.

I quickly realized that by building each square block, I was going to have to add many things that don’t necessarily pop into your mind when you think of the Las Vegas Strip. I added the MGM Garden Arena, Top Golf, Signature Hotel, Polo Towers and the Marriot Grand Chateau—all the bigger buildings in the area. Then I moved to the smaller things which were a challenge to replicate at such a small scale—roads, walkways, mini-malls, the Coke Store, M&M’s Store, and Target store. Some were only a single stud wide. I then added some admittedly massive palm trees, but the color and foliage were needed to give the model a bit more realism. The block was completed!

Next up I began working on the New York, New York block. That block was interesting because it already had a sort of microscale version of New York City in hotel form, so I guess this is a micro-micro version of the Big Apple. I used a minifigure for the Statue of Liberty, tried to replicate the striking skyscrapers, added in the rollercoaster circling the hotel and even built a microscale Brooklyn Bridge.

Up the street, I added the Hershey’s Store, T-Mobile Arena complete with lighting to achieve the pink signage. I also built the Park MGM, began the Aria, City Center and Waldorf Astoria. It is interesting that for what is seemingly straight street, nothing around it is square at all. The city meanders at odd angles and I realized that there might not be a true “front side” to this MOC.

For a bit of a break, I decided to build a pyramid next so the Excalibur and Luxor “block” came next. I added as much detail to Excalibur as I could at this scale, trying to replicate the faux-castle. Then came scaling the Pyramid at the Luxor with a brick-built Sphinx out front. And no Luxor would be complete without a high-powered LED shooting a sky beam through some clear bricks representing the capstone of the pyramid.

I continued onto the Mandalay Bay and Convention Center along with the Delano. I utilized a similar technique for the Mandalay Bay as LEGO did in their canceled Las Vegas Skyline set. (After the shootings in late 2017, LEGO redesigned the set to exclude the hotel but not before a few of the original sets appeared in the wild—that initial Las Vegas LEGO Architecture set may be one of the rarest LEGO sets in the world!)

I then worked my way back up the west side of the Strip, completing the Aria, V’Dara and City Center complex, as well as the Veer Towers and Cosmopolitan. Building the Bellagio was a welcome break being able to build water features and not just buildings and roads! (You better believe I added some lights to that!)

Continuing north, next up I added in Caesars and part of the Mirage. This section has a mini-Colosseum, a bit more greenery and water, and an angled road. The large signs and billboards have also been fun (and a challenge) to replicate. I also started adding in mini cars—just don’t think about how big they would actually be at this scale!

Next up the Mirage (soon to become the Hard Rock—I’ll have to demolish that and rebuild it when construction is complete), Treasure Island, and the Fashion show mall with Vegas’s only LEGO Store (which a few BrickNerd contributors have travelled to according to our maps)!

At this point, it was time to start down the east side of the Las Vegas Strip. I am currently working on the Venetian and Palazzo then will head back down to the MGM Grand. I look forward to the challenge of building the massive High Roller Ferris wheel and new Sphere Arena.

You can also see here my growing problem (literally) that the display is actually quite large. It is also best viewed in 360 since no one side is the true front of the Strip. Hopefully the various events this will be displayed at can accommodate, offering the chance to see Las Vegas from all angles.

As a break from the Strip, I also started to build an off-strip “attraction.” I wanted to choose something that, when built at the same scale as the LEGO Las Vegas microscale Strip, would show off how big it actually is: the Hoover Dam. It was quite fun building the canyon walls and raised highway over the curved wall of the dam, but I admit I’m a bit optimistic about the water level in Lake Mead. It hasn’t been that high in a while.

Here is the Bellagio section right next to the Hoover Dam so you can see the difference in size. Each are at roughly the same scale which blows my mind. The Dam was built from 1931-36 and is almost double the height of the Bellagio which was built in 1998 almost 65 years later. It really is one of the man-made Wonders of America!

For fun, I had to add a movie reference… “Fools Rush In” didn’t quite work out at that scale for the scene at Hoover Dam, so added a bit of Michael Bay sci-fi Transformers action with Megatron and Starstream duking it out.

a Quick Megatron and Starstream Microscale Build.

Ultimately, I will continue building the Strip, though with the rate of construction in Las Vegas it may actually never be “done.” (It is certainly a project size rivaling Wayne Tyler’s microscale National Mall.) My next project is to build the Stratosphere tower and then a separate build in the same scale for the older Downtown Vegas and Fremont District that is actually some distance away from the Strip. I might even venture across the highway to build Allegiant Stadium, the Rio and more. But those are projects for another day.

I also must mention, adding Brickstuff lighting effects really has helped with the overall look of the design at night. Adding light might have been a given, but it truly has made the MOC come alive.

Thanks for stopping by and looking at this labor of love. The Las Vegas Strip keeps on growing and changing, so keep an eye on BrickNerd for further updates. LEG GODT!

What Las Vegas hotel do you think would be the most difficult to replicate in LEGO microscale? Leave your thoughts in the comments below.

Do you want to help BrickNerd continue publishing articles like this one? Become a top patron like Charlie Stephens, Marc & Liz Puleo, Paige Mueller, Rob Klingberg from Brickstuff, John & Joshua Hanlon from Beyond the Brick, Megan Lum, Andy Price, John A. and Lukas Kurth from StoneWars to show your support, get early access, exclusive swag and more.