LEGO^® Venetian Neighbourhood 11388 review

Here's the question this set raises for me: does a model of Venice have to look like Venice? Brickset's reviewer says yes, firmly. I've come round to thinking the review is right, though I'd score the set above where its tone suggests.

I haven't built it. LEGO's press release and Brickset's review of 25 October 2026 are my evidence, and Brickset notes that LEGO supplied its copy. The opinions are mine.

Dates and the gift

LEGO Insiders got early access from 1 November 2026. For all buyers, the date is 4 November 2026. So if you're reading this on publication day, it may not be open to you yet. Status at your LEGO.com: Coming soonComing soonComing soonComing soonComing soonComing soonAvailable. The set page has the rest.

The gift has a deadline. Purchases between 1 and 8 November 2026 come with set 40898 Venetian Water Taxi, while stocks last. It's a water taxi and dock, with a captain, a tourist and 2 pigeons. Past 8 November, the case for hurrying goes away: it isn't listed as retiring soon on LEGO.com, checked 3 Nov 2026.

Your market's price: £449.99 on LEGO.com in the UK, checked 3 Nov 2026.$549.99 on LEGO.com in the US, checked 3 Nov 2026.€499.99 on LEGO.com in Germany, checked 3 Nov 2026.€499.99 on LEGO.com in France, checked 3 Nov 2026.€499.99 on LEGO.com in Spain, checked 3 Nov 2026.€499.99 on LEGO.com in Italy, checked 3 Nov 2026.€499.99 on LEGO.com in Portugal, checked 3 Nov 2026. That buys 5,682 pieces, with an age mark of 18+. It works out at 7.9p9.7¢8.8c8.8c8.8c8.8c8.8c per piece, higher than set 10316 Rivendell at 7.0p8.1¢8.1c8.1c8.1c8.1c8.1c in each of our seven markets, checked 3 Nov 2026. How it sits among the season's other releases is in the autumn sets by price per piece.

What's in the scene

Over 48 cm high, 64 cm wide and 33 cm deep. LEGO describes the first cityscape-style display model of this scale from the company. The left side is a merchant's house with a glass shop, a workshop above and a living room. The right side is a clock tower, a canal, an arched bridge and a gondola. Two sections, joined by Technic axles at the base, and they can be rearranged.

Brickset compares the detail on the house to the modular buildings. It singles out ski poles used as balcony railings, the shallow terracotta roofs, and doors on the shop's side that open onto steps down to the water. 17 minifigures live here, and LEGO lists gondoliers, musicians, tourists and two masked carnival-goers.

I'd want the two play features explained before paying for them:

• The street piano. Turn the vase on top and it plays notes. Brickset says it's 3D printed, the second retail set to include such a part, and works like a music box with a drum and five plastic strips. "It does not sound very good."
• The clock. A knob on the side of the tower moves the astronomical calendar. Brickset rates the clock face as a good copy of the one in St Mark's Square.

The tower problem

This is why the score stops where it does. Brickset's complaint is specific and checkable. Venice has around 80 bell towers, it says, and no free-standing clock tower. No tower there has an onion dome, a shape it places in Baroque churches further east. Brickset's point is that the dome is where your eye goes first.

There's more. Merchant houses don't have bell towers, and Brickset notes that glassblowing has been banned in the city since 1291, which is why the trade moved to Murano. Its workshop here is thin as well, with two gas cylinders and a furnace. The back of the house is very plain.

I can forgive those last few. A designer has to compress a city, and Brickset itself reads the choices as compromises: they wanted a bell tower, a famous clock and something tall without building St Mark's. The dome is harder. It's the first thing you see, and it's wrong in a way that's obvious to anyone who's been there. I'd be fine with an invented canal corner. A landmark that belongs in another country is different.

"Ruins the whole model" is Brickset's phrase. I wouldn't go that far. It still rates the build as quite easy and fun, especially shared, and its two manuals let two people work at once.

Should you buy it?

If you've walked those canals, look hard at photos of the tower first. If you just like a busy, lived-in scene to display, it does that, and the piano's novelty may charm you more than it charmed Brickset.

Compare it against the wider series in our Icons explainer. And if you're choosing purely on scale, the biggest sets by piece count puts its count in context. The Icons series page lists what else is on sale. Personally, I'd buy Rivendell first.