Bogotá № VII

Andres Murcia

Reports from the experiment

Hidden Dispatch · The Brick Vault

Two hundred and twenty-four sets, and counting.

Yes, I'm a grown adult. No, I don't care. Building with bricks is how I decompress from building with code — tangible progress in a job that mostly isn't.

№I
The inventory

A small accounting.

224
Sets in the vault
~180K
Pieces, all in
2011
Oldest set on shelf
2025
Most recent build
№II
The crown jewels

The sets I'd rescue from a fire.

Each one a multi-week build. Each one earning its shelf.

10276 · 9,036 pieces

Colosseum

The largest LEGO set ever made. Three months of evenings. A meditation in bricks — you can't rush it and the build won't let you.

10256 · 5,923 pieces

Taj Mahal

Architectural masterpiece. The symmetry is what gets you — halfway in you stop building and start admiring.

71040 · 4,080 pieces

Disney Castle

The Magic Kingdom at 74 cm tall. A centerpiece set. The kind of thing that gets pointed at every time anyone visits.

21318 · 3,036 pieces

Tree House

Ideas set with real plant-based leaves. Builds out for the seasons — summer, autumn, then back again.

№III
The modular street

Ten buildings, one street.

Each one snaps to the next. The full row is the crown of any AFOL city.

  1. №01 Pet Shop 10218 · 2011
  2. №02 Palace Cinema 10232 · 2013
  3. №03 Parisian Restaurant 10243 · 2014
  4. №04 Detective's Office 10246 · 2015
  5. №05 Brick Bank 10251 · 2016
  6. №06 Assembly Square 10255 · 2017
  7. №07 Downtown Diner 10260 · 2018
  8. №08 Corner Garage 10264 · 2019
  9. №09 Bookshop 10270 · 2020
  10. №10 Police Station 10278 · 2021
№IV
Technic · the engines

Working gearboxes, tiny pistons.

42083 · 3,599 pieces

Bugatti Chiron

Working eight-speed gearbox. Steering. Suspension. Engineering toy disguised as a model car.

42115 · 3,696 pieces

Lamborghini Sián

V12 engine replica that actually moves when you push the car. Pure mechanical satisfaction.

42131 · 3,854 pieces

Cat D11 Bulldozer

App-controlled. Drives, lifts, scrapes. The closest LEGO has come to making a Saturday afternoon disappear.

№V
The 2024/25 grid

The Speed Champions paddock.

  1. P01 Ferrari SF-24 77242
  2. P02 Red Bull RB20 77243
  3. P03 Mercedes W15 77244
  4. P04 Aston Martin 77245
  5. P05 VCARB 01 77246
  6. P06 Kick Sauber 77247
  7. P07 Haas VF-24 77250
  8. P08 McLaren MCL38 77251
  9. P09 McLaren 2023 76919
  10. P10 RB20 · Technic 42206
№VI
The Ideas shelf

Fan-submitted, improbable, beloved.

1,969 pcs

Saturn V

Stands taller than the desk. Splits into three stages.

3,662 pcs

Grand Piano

Powered keys. The keys actually move. Absurd, perfect.

2,079 pcs

Typewriter

Carriage returns. Type bars rise. Working escapement. Mechanical poetry.

1,074 pcs

Fender Strat

Sunburst finish. Full-size silhouette.

1,070 pcs

Central Perk

Friends apartment with a side of nineties nostalgia.

3,955 pcs

Home Alone

The house, the booby traps, the chaos. Holiday tradition.

2,164 pcs

Blacksmith

Anvil, forge, half-roof timber framing.

1,265 pcs

Winnie the Pooh

Hundred Acre Wood, in beige.

№VII
Creator Expert · the garage

A small fleet, proudly parked.

  1. №01 VW T1 Camper · 10220
  2. №02 MINI Cooper · 10242
  3. №03 Ferrari F40 · 10248
  4. №04 VW Beetle · 10252
  5. №05 London Bus · 10258
  6. №06 Aston Martin DB5 · 10262
  7. №07 Ford Mustang · 10265
  8. №08 Porsche 911 · 10295
№ VIII · The case for plastic
“Unlike code, you can see
and touch what you built.”
Stress relief

After a day of debugging, sorting bricks by colour is therapeutic in a way I don't want to over-examine.

Tangible progress

The pile gets smaller, the model gets bigger. A feedback loop the day job rarely gives you.

Family time

Building together is a slower, better conversation than most of the ones we'd otherwise have over a screen.

№IX
The wishlist

The next two hundred and eighty.

The collection never finishes. That's the point.

The grails — one day
10307 · 10,001 pcs

Eiffel Tower

10294 · 9,090 pcs

Titanic

10316 · 6,167 pcs

Rivendell

10333 · 5,471 pcs

Barad-dûr

76269 · 5,201 pcs

Avengers Tower

42146 · 2,883 pcs

Liebherr Crane

Modular Buildings
  1. Boutique Hotel 10297
  2. Jazz Club 10312
  3. Natural History Museum 10326
  4. Tudor Corner 10350
Technic
  1. McLaren P1 42172
  2. Ferrari Daytona SP3 42143
  3. Porsche 911 GT3 RS 42056
  4. Bucket Wheel Excavator 42055
Architecture
  1. Notre-Dame de Paris 21061
  2. Neuschwanstein Castle 21063
  3. Trevi Fountain 21062
  4. Himeji Castle 21060
Ideas
  1. D&D Red Dragon's Tale 21348
  2. The Botanical Garden 21353
  3. Italian Riviera 21359
  4. Willy Wonka 21360
Marvel & DC
  1. X-Men · X-Mansion 76294
  2. Arkham Asylum 76300
  3. Batcave Shadow Box 76252
  4. Sanctum Sanctorum 76218
Harry Potter
  1. Hogsmeade Village 76457
  2. Hogwarts Express · CE 76405
  3. The Burrow 76437
  4. Malfoy Manor 76453
Icons
  1. Loop Coaster 10303
  2. Concorde 10318
  3. The Shire 10354
  4. PAC-MAN Arcade 10323
BrickLink Designer
  1. Mountain Fortress 910029
  2. Parisian Street 910032
  3. Venetian Houses 910023
  4. Thieves of Tortuga 910053
Stadium goals
  1. №01 Old Trafford 10272
  2. №02 Camp Nou 10284
  3. №03 Santiago Bernabéu 10299
End of dispatch · You found a hidden page

The vault is always open.

There may be other quiet pages tucked into the corners. Keep poking.