Review: 60292 Town Centre
Posted by benbacardi,
Last year’s 60271 Main Square was the flagship set in the City range, featuring a number of different buildings and vehicles inspired by the current LEGO City Adventures animated series. 60292 Town Centre appears to be 2021’s equivalent, albeit on a smaller, and therefore lower priced, scale.
However, this is also LEGO’s introduction of their new road plates system, included in three upcoming sets so far, in addition to a separate road expansion pack. Huw took an in-depth look at these in a recent review, so I recommend checking that out for more detail. Previously, sets that feature multiple disparate builds can struggle to feel cohesive as a whole, especially when compared to the enticing box art that draws you in, but I have a feeling the road plates will go a long way towards rectifying that.
Minifigures
Nine minifigures are included—two of which are direct characters from the show (one making their debut appearance in a set), highlighted on the box with their names. The first of these is Shirley Keeper, the town’s sanitation worker. She’s wearing a high visibility vest over blue overalls, underneath which you can see the neck of a white sweater. This is a new double-sided print unique to this set, and is pretty close to the on-screen character, although some leg and arm printing would have completed the look. Her face print is also new, as this is the first time she has appeared in a set, but looks fantastic with large round glasses and a beauty spot. She’s completed by some striking orange hair, new in this colour.
The second named minifigure is Madison, the daughter of the deputy mayor. She’s dressed in what I’m reliably informed is bogu armour, worn by those practising the Japanese art of kendo, a martial art in swordsmanship. This torso is also a new print, and a fairly detailed one too, including the straps and tie on the back holding the armour in place. Her face features a double expression, one of only two in the set, with a girlish grin on one side and a closed-eyes smile on the other. Madison also appeared in last year’s 60271 Main Square, although she wasn’t explicitly named, but the exact same face print and hair piece were used.
The remaining seven minifigures are not named, although I am sure some bear a resemblance to characters in the show. The pizza chef wears a customary chef’s hat, and his torso depicts a traditional double-breasted chef’s whites with a red neckerchief. The print is very similar to the previous one, used up until last year, but the crease lines across the stomach and on the rear have been removed, making for a cleaner look overall. He sports a large moustache above his smiling mouth.
The next two minifigures go hand in hand—a police officer and a criminal. The policeman is wearing a dark blue mountain bike helmet with no visor, opting instead for a pair of orange goggles, with yet another new face print. It looks great, with a confident smirk leaving us with no doubt that he will catch the crook! His torso looks relatively generic (police are somewhat common in LEGO City, in case you hadn’t noticed…) but seems to actually be a new print; an open-necked shirt, with a utility belt holding a walkie-talkie on the rear that loops over his shoulder to the front.
The criminal is exactly as we’d expect from a LEGO City thief—beanie hat and striped torso (why are all criminals in the city already wearing prison outfits?!) In fact, he could have stepped straight out of a set from 2013, as both the torso and head debuted in that year. Old they may be, but they do the job well, and his determined expression indicates that he hopes to give the police officer a good run for his money!
A second service personnel in the set is a female firefighter. Although not named, there are a few female firefighters in the show, such as Freya McCloud (who made an appearance in a couple of sets last year) and Feldman. However, as Feldman is explicitly named in the upcoming 60282 Fire Command Unit, we have to assume this particular minifigure represents somebody else. She is one of the more detailed in the set, featuring printing on both the torso and the legs. The torso is yet another new print for 2021, and is incredibly detailed, with a sturdy belt, high visibility stripes, some equipment, and a fire service logo on the rear. Although not new, her face is also highly detailed and double-sided, with a determined expression on one side and a smiling-yet-muddy face on the other.
Next up is an older gentleman, also dressed in the same kendo outfit as Madison; presumably her instructor, or uchidachi. This time, however, the printing is extended onto the legs, completing the traditional armour worn in the sport. He features a friendly expression with a grey beard and a raised eyebrow, and grey hair that suits the face perfectly.
The last two citizens in the town centre are, at first glance, fairly generic. This is certainly true for the woman, whose casual hooded sweatshirt over a purple t-shirt has been quite common in City sets over the past few years, although it is suitably detailed and looks good. She’s wearing faint lipstick on a lopsided smile, and has fairly short wavy reddish-brown hair; two also fairly common parts. However, she comes with a baby carrier (only its third appearance since it was introduced two years ago) and a baby, which are also still relatively uncommon.
The final minifigure, however, is LEGO’s first to represent a blind or partially-sighted person! A new face print features a pair of dark glasses above a slight smile, and although the glasses themselves could easily represent a sighted person wearing sunglasses, the minifigure is coupled with two brand-new parts—a cute-but-serious-looking guide dog and a harness. The new dog looks fantastic, and appears to be modelled on a Labrador or golden retriever, two common breeds used as service dogs.
The Completed Models
Inside the box we find ten numbered bags, two unnumbered (containing the road plates and the other larger plates), a sticker sheet, and five instruction manuals. Much like Main Square last year, the set is mostly made up of a number of smaller builds.
The first couple of items to be built are a small blue car and an electric charging station. They’re both pretty basic builds, but the car is adorable, and seats a single minifigure. A sticker provides a number plate for the front, MP60292. I presume MP is the initials of one of the designers; Mike Psiaki, perhaps?
The charging station gives us the first glimpse of how models are designed to be connected to the new road plates system. Initially, the overhanging 2x4 tile looks strange, but it makes a lot more sense later when connected to the edge of one of the road plates, providing a small bay beside the charging point which the little blue car fits in perfectly.
The charging point itself is adorned with the relatively new OctanE logo (presumably E for Electric. There’s something ironic in the name for Octan’s environmentally-friendly branch spelling the word “octane”, a compound found most commonly in petrol!) A new printed 1x2 tile provides some detail, depicting a pair of gauges alongside some buttons and a display with the number 82. Never having owned an electric car, I’m unable to say how accurate this is compared to real-life charging stations, but it looks good here.
Next, another two vehicles are built, this time for the emergency services: a mountain bike for the police officer, and a motorbike for the firefighter. This is only the fourth set the mountain bike’s frame has appeared in, and it is also now available in four colours - three of which are a shade of blue! It would be nice for some more variation, but the choice of dark blue does suit the police officer particularly well.
The firefighter’s motorbike is a little more interesting to build and look at—stickers on either side provide some detail, with the fire service logo and the words FIRE-82. I wonder what the significance of the number 82 is, given that it appears both here and on the electric charging station? A blue light sits on the back of the bike, and a stud shooter is clipped behind the seat. Presumably the trans-light-blue stud attached represents water, and this is some kind of hand-held water gun for dealing with relatively small fires!
The first building to be put together is an Octan-branded car wash. It’s built upon a 16x16 plate, and again we can see the overhanging 2x4 tiles with a 4-stud gap between them used later to connect the structure to the road plate system. The build comes together relatively quickly, with eight large trans-light-blue panels forming glass walls on either side of the car wash, and yellow and black tiles to guide the car through the bristles. It’s very clearly an Octan car wash, made obvious not only by the large Octan logo on the roof but also the colour scheme of white, green, and red. A pair of green and red lights indicate when the car wash is safe to enter, and a pair of yellow floodlights look down on the road from the roof.
The wash bristles inside are slotted onto axles connected to Technic lift arms, which are themselves only attached by rubber axle connectors, allowing them to push apart as the vehicle drives through, and spring back when passed. It’s a simple but very effective mechanism.
A sticker on a tile next to a small number pad on the entrance provides some simple usage instructions: put in money, water comes out, now your car sparkles (?).
Finally, five jets of water are ready to spray the car from above as it enters the car wash, and are loosely attached to an axle allowing them to be pushed out the way of taller vehicles.
The car that was built previously fits perfectly in the car wash, putting slight pressure on the bristles as it passes, ensuring that both sides of the car get a nice even wash. It’s a shame there’s no overhead bristles too, but that would have limited the headroom; not a problem for our little blue car, but it may be for any larger vehicles around the City.
The two models we’ve built so far are attached to the road system next to each other, creating a small parking space between the charger and the car wash that is just the right size for the car. As you can see below, the charger connects to one half of a new 16x16 road plate, and the car wash connects to two different road plates that are joined together. You can see clearly how they fit flush with the roads, creating a seamless join.
I noticed after I’d taken this particular photo that I had the second road plate rotated incorrectly—I fixed this for the later photos!
The next model to be built is the final vehicle in the set, a flat-bed truck with a lift arm. The completed truck is very striking, predominantly orange with black and grey highlights. Stickers on either side indicate that this is a recycling vehicle, but what it recycles we have not yet built! The lift arm is also stickered on both sides with traditional black and yellow stripes that indicate heavy machinery, and can swivel freely in a full circle. The click hinges provide some degree of articulation.
The truck is intended to be driven and operated by Shirley Keeper, and a remote control is included for operating the lift arm. The part chosen for the front grill of the truck has only ever previously been used as armour plating on a mech or a creature, but looks great in its new role here. Another number plate sticker, JM60292, completes the look—do these initials also represent another designer?
Four studs on the bed of the truck indicate that something can be attached and removed using the hook on the end of the articulated lift arm, so I’m sure we’ll get to build that soon.
However, we’re next led to constructing something a little more organic—a small green park area, with a tree and some foliage, a bench, and a little sit-and-ride machine for children. Once again, the park is lined along one edge with grey tiles, and a couple of 2x4s that overhang for connecting to the road system. This time, however, one of them is printed with a white stripe; we’ll see why in a minute.
The park is small, fitting within an 8x16 plate, but the sit-and-ride machine looks fantastic for such few parts and can rock backwards and forwards. The attachment point for somebody to ride is only a single 1x2 jumper, so this is clearly designed for the baby, rather than an actual minifigure. The mother can sit on the nearby bench and keep a close eye on her little one as they ride back and forth.
The park is then connected to the road, where the printed white stripe on the 2x4 (the same as those used down the centre of the road plates to indicate lane markings) completes a zebra crossing.
One of these 8x16 zebra crossing pieces is included in the road expansion pack that Huw reviewed previously; what is new, however, is the unprinted 8x16 road plate it is paired with here to create a full 16x16 road module. I was relieved to see this part, fearing that if you were to include a zebra crossing in your road design all subsequent road plates would be off by 8 studs, but the existence of the unprinted version mitigates that. You can see below the parts that make up the road section above.
Next, a small recycling centre is built. This also fits on an 8x16 plate edged with grey tiles including the 2x4 overhangs we are now used to; it seems that anything you want to join to these new road plates in a cohesive way needs to be a multiple of 8 studs long to be able to seamlessly connect. Here we find a bin used as storage for a broom and a shovel, and two recycling bins, one marked for bottles and the other for paper.
At first glance, they are constructed identically, but the openings in each are in fact tailored to the type of recycling they’re meant to accept. Three bottles are included, which fit snugly through the hole in the front of the green bottle bank. Not pictured here, but three loose 2x2 white tiles are also included to represent paper, which can slide easily through the slot in the blue paper recycling bank.
At the rear of each bin, a door can be opened in order to retrieve the recycled items.
A lifting ring on top of each recycling bank provides a means for the lift arm on Shirley’s truck to pick up the full container and place it on the bed of the truck. The bins are connected to the base by only two studs, and are therefore easy to disconnect to move around, although I found it quite tricky to get the angle of the click hinges on the lift arm correct to be able to lift each container and place it correctly on the truck. Additionally, once both have been loaded on, the lift arm no longer reaches to fit snugly between the lights on top of the truck, and can therefore swing freely in all directions, which could prove hazardous to any pedestrians as the truck drives off!
The recycling centre is then connected to the road system next to the car wash, which you can see in the later photos of the completed model.
We move onto the final model of the set, starting by building a small takeaway pizza joint along one edge of a 16x16 plate. Thanks to the use of some stickers, the outside is immediately recognisable, with a City Pizza logo above the door and a picture of a pizza slice on the window. A path leads from the door to the road (where another printed 2x4 tile with a white line indicates this is due to be placed at the other end of the zebra crossing), along with a short fence and a small table. Next to the restaurant is small lean-to underneath which is a stack of pizza boxes, apparently on fire!
Inside we find a new till design printed on an angled brick, with a keypad, a slot for a credit card, and a contactless symbol, which is particularly appropriate for this year, given that many places are trying to avoid cash payments currently! The interior is very small, but the designers have found room for a small counter and a pizza oven, with a chimney leading to the ceiling and a pizza sitting in front of the flames.
You can also see in the photo below a small play feature that has been included. The flame behind the stacked pizza boxes in the lean-to is connected to a small gear and can be rotated out of view behind the set. The inclusion of a stud shooter with water pellets now becomes clear! The firefighter can put the fire out by firing water from out the front of the building to hit the flame and knock it down out of sight.
After we’ve completed the pizzeria on the ground floor, the first floor of the building is constructed. For such a small size, there are some nice architectural elements included, such as the recessed floor to ceiling windows with an arched top. A sticker on a sign hanging on the wall indicates that this is the Dragon Dojo, a place for Madison and her instructor to practice kendo. Through one window, we can see a gold sword attached to a stand on which a men sits, the helmet worn by those engaged in the martial art.
Inside, another helmet sits on a smaller stand, and there is a very small training area with floor mats indicated by red tiles. Three more swords (likely bokuto, wooden training swords) are stored in a barrel.
The building is finished with a roof garden. Here, brown palisade bricks indicate planters very effectively, with a variety of green foliage growing from them. A small cherry tree stands in the corner, making effective use of a single plant leaf element turned vertically to represent the entire tree.
The front of the roof includes some very nice architectural detailing, with dark grey minifigure trophies representing carved stonework sitting on the parapet. 1x4 bricks with a groove are used effectively for more detail, and overall I think it looks impressive for such a small facade.
Putting the models together creates a thin but tall building which looks fantastic. The designers have included a fair amount of detail in a very small footprint, and I like the two-tone path from the door to the road.
The building attaches across the street from the park, completing the zebra crossing, and our build is complete.
Unfortunately the completed model is too large to fit inside the fairly small lightbox that I usually use for photography, so you’ll have to make do with my dining room table! When all the individual parts of the build are put together around the road plates as intended, it comes together into a single larger model that looks sparse in places, but much more cohesive than if the road plates didn’t exist at all. Obviously, there is the opportunity to create more layouts than just the one suggested in the manual.
With all the figures and vehicles added to the scene, it really comes to life. There’s plenty of playability with the nine included minifigures and four different sections of the model - the car wash, recycling centre, park, and restaurant/dojo - and the road plates join it all together into a fairly enticing scene. The small car fits perfectly on the street, although the recycling truck is perhaps slightly too large. As Huw suggested in his previous review, additional tiles could be used to widen the road if necessary.
When combined with the road expansion pack, you can create a wider variety of layouts, and if you had more models from previous sets they could easily be added in. The traffic lights, road signs, and lampposts help add to the realism, and my children spent some time before I chased them away to take the photos happily pushing the vehicles around the scene and making up stories with the minifigures.
Conclusion
The individual builds in 60292 Town Centre may not be as impressive in number or detail as in previous sets such as 60271 Main Square or 60097 City Square, but that’s also reflected in the price point, which is much lower at £89.99 / $99.99 / 99.99€ for the 790 pieces. For a set that also includes five of the new road plates, that’s not as high as I would have expected. With an age range of 6+, there’s not much in the way of complicated or advanced building techniques, but that’s not particularly the purpose of the City range (although some previous City sets have offered a little more complexity in their builds).
As a whole the set offers a lot of play value, and it’s certainly been interesting to see how the road plates work together to create a more cohesive feel to what can often feel like a set made up of entirely disconnected mini builds. I understand that for many AFOLs they may not be a suitable replacement for traditional baseplates, and would especially require additional effort to integrate into a street of modular buildings, but they seem very well-designed to fit into the usual style of builds found in the City range and I hope that we see more variety in the prints and designs available in future as they expand the system.
It’s also great to see LEGO continuing to add minifigures representing a wider range of people, with the partially-sighted man in this set following the introduction of the dedicated wheelchair piece a few years ago.
I’m sure the minifigures that represent characters from LEGO City Adventures will appeal to those who watch the show—there’s even a page in the back of one of the instruction booklets highlighting all the characters that are available in minifigure form and which set you’ll need to purchase to get your hands on them!
For those with a number of City sets already, this set would not only bring a few new buildings but also be a great way to add the new road plate system to your city; especially if combined with the expansion pack.
60292 Town Centre will be available on 1st January from LEGO.com.
Thanks to LEGO for providing the set for review. All opinions expressed are my own.
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70 comments on this article
To each, their own...
This looks terrible. It reminds me of those awful town sets released in the late 90s, early 00s. Still not a fan of this new road system. Easy pass for me.
Those roads actually make it look like some of the "complete" City buildings (like the car wash) might fit well next to modulars. I'm convinced, I think those roads really glue things together really well. Onto plating the modulars!
@huw , you said that he was the first LEGO representation of a blind person.
That isn’t true, Chirrut Imwe from “Rogue One” was blind.
Great review though! (:
@Be_hapi said:
" @huw, you said that he was the first LEGO representation of a blind person.
That isn’t true, Chirrut Imwe from “Rogue One” was blind."
The review wasn't written by Huw, it was by me. I'm not a Star Wars fan (and have no idea who you're talking about!) so I apologise for missing that detail.
I’d buy the pizza shop/dojo separately if it was its own set in the $20-$30 range.
New dog :D
One of my pet hates is sets that consist of loads of little subassemblies with no coherence that display badly as a result, so I'm with Ben. I think the road plates tie it all together nicely.
I do worry that they've added £20 to the cost of the set, though, but I suppose I can't have it both ways!
Kinda cool, really like the pizza building! it looks a little off that there's only one real building, though.
@Snazzy_Bricks said:
"New dog :D"
I love the new dog!
$140 CAD is bit much for this, for $80 it could've been a nice "filler" to use in a city.
And while I dislike the new road system, and will use the base plates as they just look so much better, at least they are adding something to make it one whole set.
I hope we're past the era of random building thrown together that started when they removed base plates. They should use it for "Friends" sets as well.
I like this new system, but I'm hoping for a curve variant of these new road plates!
Also the recycling "bins" do remind me a lot about set 4206 (released in 2012), and I fully support more of these "recycling" theme sets/parts!!
The road plates are genius
I need that doggo!
I think "visually impaired" is the current politically correct term.
I love the new road plate system for sets like this. I do hate how they drive up the price (every new City set with road plates that I want seems $20 too expensive), but the plates tie the builds together very well. I think I may try integrating them with my road baseplates at the edges of my planned city display if possible. I'm excited to get my hands on the new sets and build out my first city!
I know it’s a “6+”, but it feels incredibly juniorized to me. I’m curious what percentage cost (of a set) this new road system represents, because it looks high. I’m sure we’ll have a better idea soon enough. It just seems a really extravagant solution to the old 80s/90s flexible base plates in various sizes.
@Huw. I mentioned this in the other road plate review: but do you have any info as regards the rumour of Lego and it’s vac forming machines? The story goes that Lego, when in dire financial need, sold off the machines to an outside company, with an agreement to buy the parts back in. Any truth to this, or is it just internet nonsense?
These road plates add more value to the City line than a dozen different launchers, parachutes, flying helicopters, or other specialized gimmicky parts put together, and being able to attach every little sub-assembly together into a coherent layout out of the box is great. A serious improvement over the likes of 60271 just on the grounds of a logical compilation of builds, although I don't think any of them are anything special.
As for the cost - City sets are so expensive anyway that I don't think these plates are actually making a huge difference, except for the 60290 Skate Park. Contrary to the database, that thing is going to retail for $40, which is awfully steep for some ramps and a car.
I have mixed feelings about the new road plate system. Even though it does help put together neatly all those loose subassemblies -and I'm with Huw in not really enjoying the idea of seeing them sprinkled around in total chaos - I still think the old baseplate system does a better job in giving that "Lego city" feel. The new system appears bulkier, narrower, more expensive. The upside is that kids can spend some building time by assembling the road, which is nice. However, the (temporary?) absence of curves makes me want to wait and see if the new system will develop into a slightly more complex layout in the future by adding more piece variety.
This is the best looking town/city set I've seen in a LONG time. I know everyone may not like the new road system, but to me this is SO much better than previous year's town sets (basically since they ditched road baseplates in sets). It really does make it look like a cohesive set once it's all connected. Assuming they continue this system for the foreseeable future it'll be a great way for kids to expand on their cities with sets that all join together. I think it's brilliant.
Typically these kinds of sets, as of late, haven't included a road baseplate (From City Center to Town Plan)? So in some ways, this is an improvement, there are roads! I wonder if this is partly a push with the LEGO box sizes as well. Baseplates, especially those with roads, take up double the width and height of these road plates. If LEGO is serious about reducing packaging waste, these modular roads could lead to smaller boxes, with the largest single element taking up 256mm to a side.
Good review!
One thing that occurred to me recently is I'm eager to see exactly how many animals the harness for the guide dog fits onto. It seems to be a basic enough shape to hopefully fit on some of the other types of dogs, and if you're feeling a bit silly I bet it would also fit on a pig!
99.99 USD and 20USD of that is going to the road system. Cannot help to think how much nicer the buildings ( or cheaper the set) could have been if not for the road system....
Pictures provided are astonishing! Well done!
@Veyniac said:
"I think "visually impaired" is the current politically correct term."
Blind, visually impaired, and partially sighted are all widely used and accepted here in the UK, with neither one particularly preferred.
@Lyichir said:
"Good review!
One thing that occurred to me recently is I'm eager to see exactly how many animals the harness for the guide dog fits onto. It seems to be a basic enough shape to hopefully fit on some of the other types of dogs, and if you're feeling a bit silly I bet it would also fit on a pig!"
Thank you! I can confirm it fits on the husky-style and daschund dogs (although the man has to stoop somewhat with the daschund!) but unfortunately couldn't find my one pig to test for you! I think it would fit, though.
@Kostur said:
"Pictures provided are astonishing! Well done!"
Thank you!
Seems like the only way you can make an actual building and so on, is if you acquire two, not one. Again, these road plates are useful but too small in size for some vehicles. The Speed Champion Cars I normally also use as basic cars. Basically built with no stickers.
The buildings are definitely way too small. Why they are compacting most buildings is beyond me. Even that Shopping Street’s Buildings might be too small in size....
@Spartan_Ghost said:
"“why are all criminals in the city already wearing prison outfits?!”
Now, THAT is a fantastic question, to which no satisfactory answer will be forthcoming."
I posit that all the criminal figs in our city sets are prison breakers that haven't bothered to remove their jumpsuit before returning to their shenanigans.
The car wash is cute and I'd get parts from Bricklink to make that.
@benbacardi said:
" @Be_hapi said:
" @huw, you said that he was the first LEGO representation of a blind person.
That isn’t true, Chirrut Imwe from “Rogue One” was blind."
The review wasn't written by Huw, it was by me. I'm not a Star Wars fan (and have no idea who you're talking about!) so I apologise for missing that detail."
Yeh I think this is the first City or modern day set that represents visual impairment, the first instance of it is in 1989 with the first pirate eyepatch printing (although some say pirates wore eye patches to keep night vision intact after a bright flash). Eyepatches and cyborg/bionic/magical eyes have been ubiquitous in Lego ever since appearing in fantasy/sci-fi/historical themes. Chirrut Imwe, as stated above, was released in 2016, the same year as a brick built visually impaired person with a cane, dog and harness in 45802 for Lego Education's First Lego League Mindstorms challenge. There was also another blind character from Star Wars in mini figure form, Kanan Jarus, from Rebels in 2017. (You can tell I once spent a lot of time compiling a Brick List on disability!)
@Galaxy12_Import said:
" @Spartan_Ghost said:
"“why are all criminals in the city already wearing prison outfits?!”
Now, THAT is a fantastic question, to which no satisfactory answer will be forthcoming."
I posit that all the criminal figs in our city sets are prison breakers that haven't bothered to remove their jumpsuit before returning to their shenanigans. "
I expect that President Business of Bricksburg, like Lord Vetinari of Ankh-Morpork, is a believer in "organized crime." They all have striped shirts to show that they're accredited dues-paying members of the Thieves' Guild, and they'll be happy to provide you with a receipt for your goods.
"A sticker on a tile next to a small number pad on the entrance provides some simple usage instructions: put in money, water comes out, now your car sparkles (?)."
I think the first symbol is soap bubbles? In that case, it would be showing a fairly typical three-stage car wash process: soap, water, wax. At least, that's my interpretation ^^
Love the plates from a design and assembly and product perspective...just wish they weren’t covered by a sheet of ice.
Hey everybuddy...CHILL!!!
Very nice review!
I don't have that many road baseplates, but I think I like the new ones more, it only will be perfect if LEGO makes a curved version. The buildings LEGO makes the last couple of years fits better with these. And they make a more completed city/layout.
The thing I don't like is the more and more changing of 4 wide cars to 6 wide cars in City sets, if you put some 6 wide cars on these roads, it soon will be to crowded I guess, and I find it more realistic if there's difference in size between a car and a truck for example.
I agree with the commentary on the road plates. I have no interest in them, but fabulous for kids to pull their buildings together and give them a place to drive their vehicles right iut of the box.
The pictures here cement for me that these new roads just look weird. Narrow. No paths. And higher than the surrounding land. I guess you can correct that yourself, but it’s bizarre to see roads doing the opposite of what they do in the real world.
@TypoCorrecto said:
"To each, their own...
This looks terrible. It reminds me of those awful town sets released in the late 90s, early 00s. Still not a fan of this new road system. Easy pass for me."
Just as terrible as the show it is based on.
Having just rewatched some kids TV shows from my time with my own kids, I can only shake my head at what current shows like the LEGO City one throw at kids today. Godawful.
@Lyichir said:
"Good review!
One thing that occurred to me recently is I'm eager to see exactly how many animals the harness for the guide dog fits onto. It seems to be a basic enough shape to hopefully fit on some of the other types of dogs, and if you're feeling a bit silly I bet it would also fit on a pig!"
I found my pig, and I can confirm that the pig is too fat. Sorry!
@benbacardi said:
"I found my pig, and I can confirm that the pig is too fat. Sorry!"
It's funny if it's taken out of context.
Anyway, I just can't help imagining how much better and cheaper this would be with baseplates. And the roads wouldn't reflect everything on top of them. I also think these roads are just waiting to be scratched up.
They've clearly put a lot of effort into creating a modular road system, but it just looks like so much hassle to switch things up / disassemble / reconfigure. Classic road plates could be reconfigured in literally 2 seconds and connected by placing a tree or something like it on the seems between two plates. And I don't think children will much care for this, but they're so shiny...
@benbacardi said:
" @Snazzy_Bricks said:
"New dog :D"
I love the new dog!"
Is there a possibility that we can see the new dog without the harness?
I'm sold on the new road system - not having a lot of space for display the new roads are going to be much more versatile than the couple of baseplates I have at the moment (16 studs width and as much or as little pavement as I have space for).
I'm in two minds about this set, though. On the positive side I can use all those road pieces, and plenty of the set at least could see use for MOCs (Named characters that wouldn't look out of place, for once). On the negative side I think £90 is a lot to ask for what really boils down to a couple of small buildings and a vehicle.
Getting the modulars to sit together with these is going to be an unholy mess. Challenge accepted.
When I saw these new plates, a week ago, I was really looking forward on having them.
Since the retired ones that i have most ( 7280 & 7281 ) are 20 wide by flat + 6+6 studs on the sides, the fact that new ones are 16x16, which is by 4s narrower and lack of curves at this moment, drops me in a dilemma on whether or how to combine the two road systems.
I get it, that designers had in mind the module that 16x16 is 1/4 of the standard 32x32 plate and good for arranging with existing modulars etc...
If these pieces were cheaper, they would have been ideal for making boulevards and dual carriageways or highways!
Greetings from Serbia & Merry Christmas to all!
I'm puzzled by the inclusion of a zebra crossing.
Given the lack of any pavements, it's clearly a town just for drivers & not pedestrians.
Somewhere in the US then ? :-)
@craiggrannell said:
"The pictures here cement for me that these new roads just look weird. Narrow. No paths. And higher than the surrounding land. I guess you can correct that yourself, but it’s bizarre to see roads doing the opposite of what they do in the real world. "
And I think the weirdest is roads having centre stripes the same width as zebra crossing stripes. It just looks daft.
I really see these as an alternative to road play mats, not road plates.
Unsure of the roads yet, although I think my kids will enjoy them. I wish they would have made the main plate be 8x16 instead, but nice to see one in this set. May have to see how much those are on bricks and pieces.
Also, a green 1x3 arch!! Very excited about that!
Thanks for a great review of what I think looks like a great set, way better than last year's 60271 Main Square. Sure, the builds may be simple but there still are a lot of nice details.
I really appreciate the use of tan tiles and plates for the floor above the pizzeria - no off colour striping unlike the new modular 10278 Police Station.
Great in depth review! The set actually looks really good with these new road plates, just like those classic town sets but with modern parts!
This definitely isnt the best city set ever, and personally I think that other one with the bakery, sport shop and 1960s looking cherry picker is better value (speaking of which, Huw, will we see a review of that set soon?) however its not bad.
Modern 'City' theme really needed these plates to fix the 'random building' problem, and I realised these will go really well with both some of my older buildings but also those Creator 3 in 1 'mini modulars' as I like to call them (the most recent was a aqua coloured toy shop I believe).
For modulars these will be REALLY annoying though and as Ive said previous, if kids were not interested in buying road base plates why would they be anymore interested in random sections of road attached to a couple of buildings?
Out of interest, how high is two baseplates? Like if you stack a baseplate on top of another baseplate does that come up to a regular plates' height? Hopefully it does since Im sure we all have plenty of excess crossroad baseplates we could put underneath our modulars to bring them up to the new height.
@craiggrannell said:
"The pictures here cement for me that these new roads just look weird. Narrow. No paths. And higher than the surrounding land. I guess you can correct that yourself, but it’s bizarre to see roads doing the opposite of what they do in the real world. "
I think it depends on where the road is, and the age. Here in the US, the ground is higher wherever there is a curb and drainage, like in cities and newer suburbs. In many other areas like major interstates, rural roads and older neighborhoods, it’s a slab of asphalt on the ground and is higher than the surrounding land.
So for cities proper, I agree that it does look weird. Adding a curb would help.
@MrJay520 said:
"Seems like the only way you can make an actual building and so on, is if you acquire two, not one. Again, these road plates are useful but too small in size for some vehicles. The Speed Champion Cars I normally also use as basic cars. Basically built with no stickers.
The buildings are definitely way too small. Why they are compacting most buildings is beyond me. Even that Shopping Street’s Buildings might be too small in size.... "
I'd be interested to know what you think these buildings are "compact" in comparison to. The vast majority LEGO Town/LEGO City buildings over the years have been fairly shallow with open backs so that it's easy for kids to reach in from behind and play with their contents.
The specific 6-stud depth of the Family House's upper stories, the bike shop in the Shopping Street set, and the dojo and pizzeria in this set are a particularly common standard for City buildings and shops, appearing in sets like 60203, 60216, 60132, 60050, 60026, 60003, 8403, 7848, 7641, 7633, 4644, 3661, and more!
And the vast majority of shops, restaurants, and post offices in 80s and 90s Town sets had interiors just as narrow, if not narrower! Even in sets as iconic as "Main Street", "Town Square - Castle Scene", "Hamburger Stand" "Cycle Fix-It Shop", "Town Bank", "Breezeway Café", "Pizza to Go", and "Sail & Fly Marina". All open-backed, and all with interiors less than six studs deep.
The acclaim that the Modular Buildings Collection has received from AFOLs for their massive size, elaborate detail, and fully walled-in interiors has definitely been well deserved, but it's important to remember that when the Cafe Corner was first released, fully-enclosed buildings that required builders to separate them floor by floor just to access the interior were a considerable departure from the norm, with little to no precedent in official sets.
And even since then. open backs have remained the norm for many other types of AFOL-targeted set like the Sesame Street, Diagon Alley, Upside-Down, Joker Manor, and Winter Village Collection sets. So it's kind of weird to me how often I see comments about sets, particularly in themes as play-oriented as City, only being "half a building", when there's NEVER been any reason to expect fully-enclosed buildings in those themes.
@benbacardi said:
" @Veyniac said:
"I think "visually impaired" is the current politically correct term."
Blind, visually impaired, and partially sighted are all widely used and accepted here in the UK, with neither one particularly preferred."
Indeed. DBlegonerd7 on the Eurobricks fora has limited sight and describes himself as ‘blind’ (his word). I don’t know where he’s from, but as far as I know, no-one from any location has called him politically incorrect for describing himself that way.
In 1994, when I was a KFOL, my favorite set was 6543. Presumably, today's KFOLs feel a similar level of excitement for a set like 60292. The complexity of the builds and the overall aesthetics are pretty much comparable 26 years later, although the box art for today's City sets is less imaginative than it was then.
Will this set help create the next generation of AFOLs? Hopefully.
This set is so visually painful.
I personaly think new street system is amazing as it allows for much more versatility than previous style.
Now you can customize them with prints. Made 16 wide roads, make huge highway, make landing pads or even just use them for roofs!
"The next two minifigures go hand in hand"
Hopefully not literally, as that would be unprofessional at best and illegal at worst.
Great stuff! The new roads are well designed for their target audience, especially as modulars are for a different demographic. Two systems which can work together, but for different needs.
All Lego needs to do is introduce a 45 degree curved piece, and we can move beyond the 90 degree grid system we were limited to before.
Even though the new road system probably isn't for me, I think it's fantastic that today's kids can build a cohesive town from just a set or two. I can't imagine my 1980s experience of Lego being as fun without a road layout. Might pick this set up with a good discount. The car wash would go well with 60132 which I have. Something seems off to me about the City Pizza/Dojo building's proportions though - the top floor looks a bit too tall to me.
I see this as an overdue step beyond the limited road baseplate system. Concerns about baseplate modular compatibility seem overblown. It also fits TLG's overall philosophy of minimizing the number and longevity of elements that have limited applications.
I see potential for these "road tiles" to be used to replace the large tile-over-plate structures and some flat walls of stacked brick in sets. Recent "18+" sets recreating real-life objects tend to have a lot of this. Recolored 8x16x2/3 tiles could reduce the part count and cost of some future sets.
It's hard to argue that most City sets aren't currently overpriced, and without third party IP to blame. While driven by profitability and popularity with the target demographic, this also makes them less popular with AFOLs, myself included. Inclusion of these plates changes that equation. I, for one, will much better tolerate $0.12-0.14/piece prices if I know a few of those pieces are these new road tiles.
@miies said:
"They've clearly put a lot of effort into creating a modular road system, but it just looks like so much hassle to switch things up / disassemble / reconfigure. Classic road plates could be reconfigured in literally 2 seconds and connected by placing a tree or something like it on the seems between two plates. And I don't think children will much care for this, but they're so shiny..."
Once you've built a few buildings on the classic roadplates they certainly become a great hassle to reconfigure, as the buildings often would be built on more than one roadplate as the studded area is so narrow. With this new system, the buildings are independent of the road, making is much easier to reconfigure the street layout! I agree the new roadplates are very shiny/glossy though, a more matt look like the 6x6 tiles certainly would have been preferred, but then the shiny 4x2 etc tiles would stand out too much.
@Brickchap said:
"Out of interest, how high is two baseplates? Like if you stack a baseplate on top of another baseplate does that come up to a regular plates' height? Hopefully it does since Im sure we all have plenty of excess crossroad baseplates we could put underneath our modulars to bring them up to the new height."
To make up for the height of the new roadplates you need to put a building built on a baseplate on top of a plate - another baseplate won't be enough. See https://www.newelementary.com/2020/12/lego-city-review-mocs-60304-road-plates.html
Rather easy to solve then - a greater issue which I haven't seen anyone mention is that the modular pavements/sidewalks are dark grey - just like the new roadplates - while the street parts in 10197 Fire Brigade and 10264 Corner Garage are light grey.
@MrClassic
Thanks for replying. That article was very helpful and interesting!
Not sure about overseas or the rest of Australia but my local Target, BigW, Kmart have third party 'rip off' 16x16 and possibly? 32x32 plates which seem a reasonable option to put underneath modulars as they are cheap (the only way to get proper Lego 16x16 plates here is a Bricklink order or Bricks N Pieces, all the way from Denmark.....) and hidden.
Is that what people intend on doing or are you sticking to only Lego pieces? (normally I would but Lego is so hard to get here)
As for your query MrClassic, well the old road baseplates were also dark grey and didnt pose a problem (although they were good if one wanted to have parking spaces next to modulars) and as for FB and CG, I took them to be concrete driveways, most houses Ive seen have an asphalt road and concrete driveway, while the 'servos' (petrol station/garage) also tend to have concrete parts that the cars drive on while the road is black/dark grey bitumen.
In Australia a lot of our older bitumen roads could be considered dark grey after years in the sun. Maybe thats different in Europe?
@Be_hapi said:
" @benbacardi said:
" @Snazzy_Bricks said:
"New dog :D"
I love the new dog!"
Is there a possibility that we can see the new dog without the harness?"
Here you go: https://flic.kr/p/2kiDz4u
100€ for two very small buildings, a car and a truck? Seems a bit expensive.
@MrClassic said:
"
Once you've built a few buildings on the classic roadplates they certainly become a great hassle to reconfigure, as the buildings often would be built on more than one roadplate as the studded area is so narrow. With this new system, the buildings are independent of the road, making is much easier to reconfigure the street layout! I agree the new roadplates are very shiny/glossy though, a more matt look like the 6x6 tiles certainly would have been preferred, but then the shiny 4x2 etc tiles would stand out too much.
"
You're right, as a kid I never placed buildings on road plates though. Always on the side ;-) But both systems have their pros and cons.
@Brickchap said:
"as for FB and CG, I took them to be concrete driveways, most houses Ive seen have an asphalt road and concrete driveway, while the 'servos' (petrol station/garage) also tend to have concrete parts that the cars drive on while the road is black/dark grey bitumen.
In Australia a lot of our older bitumen roads could be considered dark grey after years in the sun. Maybe thats different in Europe? "
Swedish roads are made of asphalt for which I think dark grey is probably the best colour. The pavements/sidewalks are often made of square concrete blocks, perfectly replicated with 2x2 tiles in light grey. So ideally, all modular pavements should be colour swapped! There are concrete driveways here as well, but I'd rather colour swap those as well so that they don't have the same colour as the pavements. ;)
Me likey
@wasn said:
"100€ for two very small buildings, a car and a truck? Seems a bit expensive."
I think you're downplaying just how substantial this set is when you consider all of its components, and how quickly the value of those components can add up.
I mean, the restaurant/dojo building is similar in size to sets like 41365 and 40305, which cost 25€ each. The car wash is at least the same size, if not larger. The recycling truck and bins could easily be packaged as a 20€ Great Vehicles set, while some of the smaller ancillary builds like the car, motorcycle, and electric charging station easily add up to the size of a 10€ City starter set.
That's enough to account for at least 80€ of the price before even considering the value added by the roads and park area. So I don't think the price seems inflated (at least, not by very much). 90€ is the LOWEST price I could imagine a set like this one going for, and even that feels a bit optimistic compared to typical LEGO City prices.
@MrClassic said:
" @Brickchap said:
"as for FB and CG, I took them to be concrete driveways, most houses Ive seen have an asphalt road and concrete driveway, while the 'servos' (petrol station/garage) also tend to have concrete parts that the cars drive on while the road is black/dark grey bitumen.
In Australia a lot of our older bitumen roads could be considered dark grey after years in the sun. Maybe thats different in Europe? "
Swedish roads are made of asphalt for which I think dark grey is probably the best colour. The pavements/sidewalks are often made of square concrete blocks, perfectly replicated with 2x2 tiles in light grey. So ideally, all modular pavements should be colour swapped! There are concrete driveways here as well, but I'd rather colour swap those as well so that they don't have the same colour as the pavements. ;)"
American roads and sidewalks/pavvement are often the same way, and I suspect that the Dark Stone Grey roads and Medium Stone Grey sidewalks in City sets like this one are probably based on that relatively common international standard.
That said, the Modular Building sidewalks seem to more closely resemble historic stone paving blocks (judging from the color, the more numerous seams between individual paving blocks, and the early to mid-20th century time period that the sets are typically inspired by). Compare with some of the examples shown on these pages:
http://www.historicpavement.com/flagstones
http://www.archipedianewengland.org/1600-1699/historic-paving-and-sidewalks-in-new-england/
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Bluestone_sidewalks_in_New_York_City
@TypoCorrecto said:
"To each, their own...
This looks terrible. It reminds me of those awful town sets released in the late 90s, early 00s. Still not a fan of this new road system. Easy pass for me."
If you dont like this then you have NO taste in anything
Anytime I see a company named "City something", I can't help but think of the City Wok episode of South Park. It doesn't help that there's a local company called City Taxi, which uses a faux-asian font for their brand name...
@Lyichir :
If you're feeling really dangerous, maybe try a goat.
@Toc13 :
That would be LA. Rural areas don't bother with sidewalks, either, but they tend to have dirt medians, and large lawns.
@DavidBrick :
The road baseplates would only cost $15, but these road tiles also don't come with all the scenery bits.
@Brickchap :
A plain baseplate resting on studs sits at almost exactly the same height as a plate attached to the same surface. The layer beneath it, however, does not change. If you stack two baseplates, it's like adding a layer of plates to a third baseplate. Building on top of a layer of loose plates is really the only way to match baseplates to plates, unless you want to put baseplates under _EVERYTHING_. The other tricky part is that roadplates don't work like regular baseplates. The raised baseplate trick works because the studs nest just a tiny bit. If you put a roadplate on top of a regular baseplate, the road surface has no dimples on the underside, so it can't nest properly, and will sit just a little higher than if you stacked two identical roadplates.
@Zander :
It takes a peculiar amount of gall to tell someone that they're using the wrong term to refer to their own condition, which is why it really only seems to happen in the US over the last three decades. No, seriously. I read about a family in the next suburb over who have an autistic child, and, not wanting their son to get mowed down by a passing car, a charity organization paid to get two road caution signs installed that said "Autistic Child In Area". Someone covered up the first two lines with _non-reflective_ yellow tape, and scribbled "Child With Autism In" to go with the original "Area" on the fancy high-vis, reflective background. The result at night is that you see a patchy black box over the word "Area", and during the day the new text is too tiny, too light-colored, too rough, and not in a bold enough font to be easily read as you're approaching (meaning there's a good chance you'll be so distracted by trying to read the sign that you won't see the kid it refers to run across the street in front of you).
@TheOtherMike :
At least by Hollywood standards, a moderately common method of ensuring you don't lose a prisoner is to handcuff one of your hands to one of their hands.
@MrClassic:
In non-pandemic years, my LUG has been doing 20+ shows per year since 2010. We use standard roadplates, and can set up a small (100 square feet) layout in a few hours. The trick is to remember the sidewalks. Roadplates have a built-in space to accommodate them, and won't collapse into chunks if you hold them by one edge. Build the buildings on one or more whole 32x32 baseplates, and your entire town becomes a grid of standard baseplates. Some will have buildings (or a section of one large building), and others will have a road with sidewalks on both sides.
@MrClassic:
I have seen all kinds in the US. If you exclude dirt/gravel roads (still common in rural areas, particularly where repeated freeze/thaw cycles will cause a paved road to buckle), the two most common types are asphalt (blacktop) and concrete. But in the town where I grew up, they used a weird trick to avoid having to tear everything up and repave at an enormous expense. They covered the old, beat up roads with a layer of tar, and then poured small pebbles on top. Paint jobs took a bit of abuse for a few day, maybe weeks, but eventually the weight of the cars driving over the road pressed the pebbles deep into the tar and turned it into something like a micro-sized cobblestone road. The Detroit Historical Society has a fake town built in their basement, with three eras of early "improved" roads. The most recent generation was cobblestones. Before that was fieldstones, and even earlier than that they chopped trees up into short sections of equal length and set them all on end so you were driving over the cut surfaces. The last time I was in Chicago, I also noticed that some newly repaved sections of their freeways have a distinct reddish tinge to them, apparently resulting from color bleeding through from whatever aggregate they sourced. And in the middle of a recent freeway renovation near where I live, they were stripping the topmost layer off and simply recovering it. Before they could do that, they had to repair any structural problems. So, major defects were cored out of the original blacktop and concrete was poured in to provide a solid base before they shaved the top layer off the entire surface. The result was a mostly black lane with occasional bands of light-grey.
" (likely bokuto, wooden training swords)" No, these are most likely Shinai, practice swords which consists of 4 bamboo slats tied together. It still hurts when hit by one, even when you are wearing a men! I can tell from experience ;-)
Regards, a kendoka
PS: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shinai