I came across this toy at a closeout store and bought it for $7.00. I enjoy the book the most because of all of the ideas included in the instructions. One would think that this idea would be successful. I know there was a space themed set just like this but I didn't buy it because I enjoy the city theme the most. I guess these sets were too expensive at their original retail price through LEGO. It is a great idea. The book included with this set is beautifully designed and I am glad that I own it. The book is geared towards young fans of LEGO and has many many ideas and directions so you can build different vehicles to travel through your city set up. It includes 1 minifig to drive these vehicles. Some of the models range in detail and realism from excellent to poor. I would recommend this set to children and see what wonderful things they create out of this set.

It may not be obvious from the main image, but this set is a case that comes with a book and some pieces. It's basically the Town counterpart to 3059-1. This set came out in 2000, but it drug along with it all the undesirable aspects of the 1990s.

I acquired this set unopened in 2018, so there was a bit of nostalgic charm to it, such as parts in True Light Gray, and the minifig's head was already attached to the torso. The case that everything comes in has a front flap that opens like a book. The edge of the flap has hidden magnets inside so that the cover stays in place when closed. However, just like 3059, the compartment that holds the pieces has 3 circular open holes. That means that once you open the bags that contain the parts, you'll need something like a Zip-Loc bag to hold them once you put them back in. The 3 open holes really should have had clear plastic behind them to make the case functional. It does, however, provide a nice place to keep the instruction book so that it doesn't get banged up. The back of the case and the inside of the book both say that the set includes over 50 pieces, but unlike a regular boxed LEGO set, it doesn't tell you exactly how many pieces are supposed to be there, which is weird, even for the year 2000.

If this set was made today (2023), then it possibly would have the big red and white "4+" logo on the front. The parts that are included are quite basic, even by the standards of 2000. The colors included are mostly black, gray and yellow, with a few small transparent parts, and of course the minifig. (There is also a sticker sheet included, but it appears to be just a fun add-on, since the book never shows the stickers used.) As one can tell from either the case or the book cover, this Busy City set concentrates on vehicles.

The book shows instructions for several models. None of them can be built at the same time, but that's expected. Each model has a difficulty rating from 1 to 3. The printing in the book makes it hard to see which parts to use when there are black parts on other black parts. All of the models are quite lackluster. I don't consider any of them to be worthy of being a regular boxed set from that time period.

In my opinion the only redeeming grace of this set is the variety in the instructions. While none of the models are very good, there are 15 different ones presented. There are vehicles for land, water and air, so a kid using only the instructions to build would be able to make plenty of things before they'd have to repeat one. However, including the "Masterbuilders" subtitle is misleading, unless there was some kind of Masterbuilders program for kids aged 8 and under in 2000 that I'm unaware of.

Overall, this set is rather disappointing, even when the release year is taken into consideration. It's like some LEGO employee was tasked with making a set where the instruction book was the focus instead of the parts, and the parts department was being stingy about what could be included.