So, I just finished building the Town Hall modular. While I love the overall buildings in this theme, I'm especially a fan of the micro-builds that go along with them. When I got to building the globe that appears on the third floor of the TH, I was amazed by the piece's fantastic printing. The globe printing is amazingly accurate and I was just in awe of how cool the micro-build turned out. However I was stuck by one little detail more than anything:

 

 

Do you guys see it? California is clearly separated from the rest of the United States. Now, this cannot be an accident as it would be harder for lego to design and print the little extra piece of the state rater than put it in with the rest of the US "blob". Is LEGO trying to tell us something? Haha, the conspiracy theorist inside me would like to think so.  

Good eye...I guess this one won't EOL until the earthquakes separate us from the rest of the US.  Hahaha!

Good eye...I guess this one won't EOL until the earthquakes separate us from the rest of the US.  Hahaha!

 

Yeah! I just found it really odd. I mean, it obviously made printing slightly harder as it would've been easier to just make it a true part of the US. You can clearly see that California has a whole separate outline around it. What does it mean????

What does it mean????

That a TLG graphic artist failed US geography.

many years ago before the entire U.S. was explored and mapped correctly California was thought to be an island. explorers came upon the waterway in Washington state that is connected to the pacific ocean and assumed that it flowed all the way down the entire continent, which would make California an island. old maps actually show this, plus I just saw it on last week's episode of pawn stars...lol. rick was in England buying a couple of old maps and they showed the same thing.

many years ago before the entire U.S. was explored and mapped correctly California was thought to be an island. explorers came upon the waterway in Washington state that is connected to the pacific ocean and assumed that it flowed all the way down the entire continent, which would make California an island. old maps actually show this, plus I just saw it on last week's episode of pawn stars...lol. rick was in England buying a couple of old maps and they showed the same thing.

 

Wow, pretty cool. But would LEGO think to create the map based off of that? I would think they would want to make it accurate to this day. 

To go with what Terry stated, maybe Lego really wanted to be 'old world' authentic. I don't know really but it is pretty funny seeing California just floating away like that. I thought it was a mistake one time I looked up the Town Hall parts before.

Or perhaps they have a set planned which includes Lex Luthor's grand scheme to seperate california from the rest of the US. More likely the guy who made the map just watched Superman before he made the globe.

I see something funny about south of Chilie there as well

That is very interesting. I have never noticed that. The one thing I do know is that about 500 years ago, when explorers were mapping out North America, they put California as an island.

This globe was made for POTC, and is accurate to that time period.

At least it's not a sticker...

If they wanted to print a blob, they could have just done Pangea right? (That is what it is called, right?)

Yeah terry is right check out this pic of an old map:

 

This globe was made for POTC, and is accurate to that time period.

 

This is the right answer...nice catch, Pirate.

If they wanted to print a blob, they could have just done Pangea right? (That is what it is called, right?)

right on - was just trying to remember the name of the super continent the other day!

If they wanted to print a blob, they could have just done Pangea right? (That is what it is called, right?)

Yep, and before that was "Rodinia"!

Or was that after?.... Damn Geology class mumbo jumbo....

LEGO can only just dream like the rest of us.  BAZINGA

dosnt the building have a year in the 1800s?

 

if so that would explain it

1891

Yeah terry is right check out this pic of an old map:

 

when was this map made?

This globe was made for POTC, and is accurate to that time period.

 

This was my response. In one scene during the second film there was a discussion of the world's map filling in, with the backdrop of a map with more detail being added to it.

1891

 

That's when the building was "erected" not necessarily the time period that the modular series takes place in.

 

This was my response. In one scene during the second film there was a discussion of the world's map filling in, with the backdrop of a map with more detail being added to it.

 

Very cool, and thanks for sharing info everybody. I never dealt with any POTC sets or knew that old maps were setup like that. Great info!

when was this map made?

Not sure actually, sorry. I forgot the link to where I got it from, but if it is not a reproduction I would imagine it is from the 16-1800s.