LEGO Las Vegas Strip: The Past, Present and Future of Microscale Sin City

Las Vegas, Sin City, the Entertainment Capital of the World, or the Gambling Capital of the World… call it whatever you like. We have 32 million visitors a year to our fair city in southern Nevada that features a plethora of entertainment options, food, wedding chapels, and, of course, gambling (not necessarily in that order). As the adage goes, “What happens in Vegas, stays in Vegas.” Though not necessarily in LEGO brick form…

Past: Ready, Set, Vegas

It’s been a little over a year since I’ve updated everyone on the progress of my microscale Las Vegas Strip. To summarize, my original creation was made up of eight 48x48 stud base plates which when placed together measured 7.5 feet long and 2.5 feet wide. That was enough space to build Las Vegas in microscale representing about 3 miles of the Las Vegas Strip. This is close to a scale of 1 brick = 50 feet, so a 48x48 baseplate represents roughly about half a mile in each direction.

Las Vegas Microscale Mandalay Bay to the Wynn

Working at this scale is sometimes daunting. Building a feature like a sign, monolith, roller coaster, etc., that is less than 50 feet in reality is an extreme challenge because it ends up being less than a stud in size. This section is one that stretches from the Mandalay Bay on the south end of the Strip to Treasure Island in the north, along with a few other blocks on the east side of Las Vegas Boulevard.

Present: Vegas State of Mind

Since the article was published in March 2022, the display has tripled in size. I’ve added 17 more 48x48 blocks for a total of 25, plus five 16x16 smaller plates to fill in a few areas. The microscale display now represents 4.5 miles by 2 miles wide of the Las Vegas Strip. The display doesn’t fit in my living room anymore either, measuring 12 feet long and 5 feet wide at the widest part.

Las Vegas Microscale Strip from Stratosphere to Mandalay Bay

I’ve added major hotels and attractions extending beyond Treasure Island including Wynn and Encore, Resorts World, Trump Tower, Founatine Blue, the WestGate (formerly the International - Elvis’s 1st Residence in Las Vegas), Sahara, Circus Circus and Adventure Dome, along with the Las Vegas Convention Center. I’ve also added a moving High Roller (the Ferris wheel), Planet Hollywood, the Flamingo and Harrah’s as well. Here’s a gallery that you can scroll through to see some of the updates.

Adding in the new MSG Sphere has been quite the challenge given the round nature of the structure and the fact that it is a gigantic LED screen. I’m opting for a glowing sphere using transparent parts so the whole thing can light up. I’ve also been working on the new Formula 1 (F1) paddock for when the street races come to town.

Future: Viva Las Vegas

So what does the future hold for the microscale Las Vegas Strip? I don’t think the size will triple again in a year, that is for sure. I have two more 48x48 blocks left to build: one east of Wynn’s golf course and one east of the Sahara to finish the Monorail track line. But the main challenge is keeping up with the city itself. Las Vegas seems to reinvent itself every few months, with the addition of the new Sphere, a new baseball stadium going up where the Tropicana will be destroyed, and a new purple guitar-shaped hotel that is replacing the volcano in front of the current Mirage which will be renamed The Hard Rock. But that is the fun of building Vegas.

Easter Egg

I’ve also had a bit of fun adding an Easter egg to the build in the form of the MUTO from the film Godzilla (2014) as they go through the Strip destroying the hotels along Las Vegas Boulevard. If yo know of any other fun things to add, let me know! They just have to be BIG to register at this scale. Of course, I’ll be adding more as I start enhancing the build with more lights. What would a Las Vegas build be without lights, right?

As Elvis sang and the songwriters Doc Pomus/Mort Shuman so eloquently put it,

“I'm gonna give it ev'rything I've got
Lady luck please let the dice stay hot
Let me shoot a seven with ev'ry shot, ah
Viva Las Vegas, Viva Las Vegas
Viva Las Vegas, Viva, Viva Las Vegas”

Thank you, thank you very much.

What are your thoughts on this project? Should Lorren build the Flying Elvises? Let us know in the comments below.

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