Hate to say it, but I cribbed this one from the evil empire. Still, credit where credit’s due. Some fairly interesting thoughts, it seemed to me…

u/Vak_001:

As a person with rather a lot of books on shelves, I LOVE the idea of the Book Nooks that have been released recently. It’s tough to think of a cooler set of bookends than a pair of LEGO mini-dioramas mimicking the basic dimensions of, say, a large paperback or small hardcover. The issue - at least for me - is that some seem to work, visually, a lot better than others. And I’m curious on opinions, and where you folks think LEGO could take this. There are other sets that are available at the moment besides the three that are in the header image, but I think they’re representative of the range.

THE GOOD: The Sherlock Holmes Baker Street Set is absolutely fantastic. The forced perspective absolutely works, and the details are lively while still keeping a mostly muted color palette, appropriate for the setting. The “covers” are absolutely fantastic, mimicking the edges of a leather-bound volume and the first few and last few pages, complete with an embossed Holmes silhouette on the front cover. I grabbed this one as a long-time Holmes fan and love it. The only issues are that I wish it were, say, 2 tiles wider to better show off the details. A quick mod is doable, yeah, but in a perfect world that would also entail a background for the wider street - both of which would remove the “opening” feature. Not a big deal for me, as it’s going on a bookshelf after all, but I’ll have to chew on that. And the only other issue is that it really needs to be on a high-ish shelf to be just below eye level, so you’re getting the full effect. Meaning I’ll have to rework some shelf items. (Tomorrow’s project is an aftermarket lighting kit for it, as it’s kind of screaming for that, but that’s not really LEGO as such, so not the point here.)

The other two images show the extremes of the - in my humble opinion - NOT-SO-GREAT book nook sets. The new library/bookstore one is obviously a natural. And it has a back wall, which is great. The problem is that it’s a bit of a tight, jumbled mess when closed and viewed end-on as shown here - it’s really designed to be opened up and displayed lengthwise. While the Gandalf / Balrog one kind of has the opposite issue - it ONLY looks right when closed up like this and viewed end-on, and because it lacks the forced perspective, most of the detail on the sides isn’t really visible. That’s a shame - the minimalist effect focuses attention on the two key figures, but the background/sides could have been emphasized a bit more.

There are a couple of Harry Potter ones as well, but I think the three above kind of detail the range.

So…thoughts? I snagged the Holmes one, not only because of the subject matter, but because it really works as a fun book nook. The others, I’m kind of iffy on, just because I’d always have them “closed.” But my opinion isn’t the only one out there. Anybody else thinking of these, bought a couple, wildly disagree with me, whatever? I’m just wondering if there’s a consensus of what works, and what doesn’t, that LEGO might actually hear it. I’d love to see this little genre/line continue for awhile.