Globe 21332 Modifications

[CardinalBricks]

Many fans have voiced their complaints that the landmasses on the Lego Ideas Globe 21332 have not met their expectations. While I don't fall into this camp as passionately as some do—because accurately representing Earth using Lego at this scale is a tall order for anyone—there were definitely some areas I wanted to tweak once I got my set. After getting tired of my original Pangaea globe, funny as that was, here's a modification of the landmasses that fits my personal sensibilities.

I'll start by showing my revamped Europe as, in my opinion, it's the region that needed the most work.

 

It looks extremely simple, but I think it works well. The curve of the globe sets the 2x2 plate next to the Iberian peninsula at a slight angle, which is perfect. You may also spot a technique that I utilized quite a bit in my modifications here, which is to let plates bleed onto adjacent "pizza slices" and use the quarter tile to give it room. Greece and the Aegean Sea are present, which were just about absent on the original model. I also made sure include a proper Caspian sea, as Lego seemed to represent this using only the gaps in the plating.

The U.K. is in quite an unfortunate location relative to available studs, so my solution was to merge northern England and Ireland into a single 1x2 tile and angle it down, which came out okay. This is the same situation for Jutland, which should probably be about 1 stud east. 

Next, here's what I've done with Asia.

 

Essentially, I've added more land and extended the continent further south. By doing this, I was able to achieve greater detail, including Lake Baikal (quarter round tile ~ 9 o'clock of first image), the Kara sea (way up north by the white tile), and a suggestion of the Lena river (where wedge plate is not mirrored). I also better captured the shape of Vietnam, Hainan, and the gulf area (~7 o'clock first image). 

The continent extending south ultimately meant less room to work with when drawing Indonesia, as seen in the image below. Still, this looks more accurate to satellite maps in my opinion, and I was still able to get the larger islands including Samatra, Java, Kalimantan, the Philippines, and Papua/Papua New Guinea. 

I kept Australia, Africa, and South America basically the same, but there are a few very minor tweaks.

 

Lastly, here is North America, which I've also changed up quite a bit. The main issue I wanted to fix were the large amount of gaps, which I did by shifting the entire continent 1 stud west. This resulted in some weirdness with Central America as I kept South America the same, but I think it was well worth it. I'm most proud of the Hudson Bay, the Great Lake suggestion, and the Gulf of Mexico which came out much less rectangular looking.

Anyway, that's it! 

P.S. you can make this version yourself if you own the globe, as I only rearranged the pieces included in the set! (and made use of spare ones!)

[Lacdaran]

I think this is generally great.  Not sold on enlarging asia, but definitely utilizing some of your Europe and North America tweaks.

[williejm]

‘The U.K. is in quite an unfortunate location relative to available studs, so my solution was to merge northern England and Ireland into a single 1x2 tile and angle it down’

Have to admit I’m cringing in Scottish ;)

[CardinalBricks]

5 hours ago, williejm said:

‘The U.K. is in quite an unfortunate location relative to available studs, so my solution was to merge northern England and Ireland into a single 1x2 tile and angle it down’

Have to admit I’m cringing in Scottish ;)

Ahhh, duh. You gotta believe me when I say I really spent a lot of time trying to word this post properly, but even I'm susceptible to general American ignorance of world geography 

Edited March 7, 2022 by BrickRally217

[Dragunov2]

Very sweet!!!