This is how I say for the 2012 Garage.

Building:The building was sort of hard, but if you build it correctly, you have a working elevator.

Parts: The parts are slightly not so cohesive, but they can combine into awesome items.

Playability:This is EXCELLENT for animations, and actually has a good job for construction

Money:For $120 in the Lego Store, it is the perfect price

I bought this set for my 13 birthday last year (actually I chose this set and my mum bought it for me) so lets begin. the reason I gave 5 out of 5 bricks for everything is because I just love this set because of

1. it has 4 vehicle's a lovely VW Kombi (I bet lots of adults bought this set just for the VW Kombi)3 average sedans and finally a awesome orange tow truck.

2. it has 5 Minifigs. 3 citizens (every one needs citizens) a car mechanic (I want to be one when I grow up because I like cars and also I have the mechanic skill (I get that from my dad)also because my half brother works at VTNZ) and a security guard (because what if a crook steals a car)

3. lots of playability like who doesn't like driving cars of the top floor and watch them explode in flying Lego pieces.

4. great value for NZ$189.99 (I actually got mine 25% off)

that's why 4207 is the best set ever and that it was based on 6394 (my brother had that set when he was a kid. (that's so weird that what ever type of set he has had probably I'm going to have so I predict that there is going to be a new version of 6539) that's probably why he wanted to be a car mechanic) so what you should do is go and buy this set before its gone forever.

Just got this set for Xmas via legoshop.com (The Lego Store was sold out when I went to get it). I knew that this would be one of the RARE sets that would not be fire or police, so when images for this leaked during the summer, I was all over it and, sure enough, I eventually bought it.

Once opened, the set is split into 8 numbered bags and 5 instruction books (which along with the stickers came with a piece of reinforcing cardboard). The build is really not that challenging but it is still fun to stack plates and columns on top of each other. Build time for me was around 4 hours.

After completing the set you get 5 minifigures (3 civilians, one mechanic and one security guard) and 4 vehicles (2 sedans, one 2-person VW van, and a tow truck). You also have two gas pumps, and of course, a full-sized parking garage, which I will describe floor-by-floor.

In this set, you also get four 16x16 plates and twenty 2x2x13 columns. These form the basis of the structure and if you had many of them you can build an even larger parking garage.

I was very impressed with the size of the garage. It takes up a full 16x48 square studs and rises to about 38 cm in height. No doubt it will stand out in a city.

The first floor consists of a car wash and the garage entrance/exit. The car wash, located on the left, has three brushes (the traditional 2 vertical-one horizontal configuration) and a sign that indicates the prices for the different washes. To the right is the entrance/exit. Here, there is a gate with control pad and computer screen, and there is also a ramp that leads up to the elevator. I think it is awkward because, since there is only one way to enter and leave, cars will have to back out of the garage which would be dangerous.

On the second floor to the left, there is a security office with CCTV, computer, and mug. On the other side of the floor is the car repair area. Here there is a drawer that holds the mechanics many tools and also a tire rack that supplies 4 spare tires for those that gone flat. Finally, the third floor is all parking area. It is unrealistic to have a repair center in a parking garage and I would just remove all the stuff there for more parking space.

Each of the floors is accessed by the centerpiece of the set: the elevator. It operates by a simple string/wheel system that, when wound, raises or lowers the elevator. It works perfectly and does not jam or break at all. In terms of stiffness/resistance, it is also exceptional. All of the resistance comes from the string reel; the elevator itself rolls very smoothly without friction. This is necessary so the elevator can support weight without having you to hold the winder in place; it is also necessary to prevent the string from bunching or pulling off. I give the designers full points for the elevator mechanism. However, the elevator is too small and cars parked on the inside lot will have a hard time getting on. This can easily be fixed though, as there is plenty of room for expansion.

Note that larger vehicles, especially those that are more than 12 studs long or 8 studs wide, will be too large and will not go up the elevator.

The overall structure is very industrial in appearance. I'll admit, it looks skeletal, but in real life parking garages usually do not have solid walls as much as they do pillars. For the most part, the building is quite sturdy; the design is such that all the plates and columns overlap and are locked together (mostly using 1x3 flat tiles). However, when you're winding the elevator the whole building will shake in and out. This is because the structure lacks reinforcements along its width. I locked the garage in with the car wash to solve this problem, but really, you would need to add walls on the sides of the building to give it more strength.

Despite some of its shortcomings I enjoy this set a lot and I recommend it to all City fans. It is adaptable and modifiable. At $150 CAD the price is ok, plus it is uncommon for sets in the City theme like these to exist, so I would grab a box if I saw it.

This is a must get model, for £80, I thought it would be good, and I was right. This is a good add on for a lego city, and the possiblities are endless, now I did notice a few problems when building it.

Pros

• Four vehicles, and 5 minifigures
• Parking, carwash, petrol, security, mechanic
• Good pieces
• Good design
• The lift is just an incredible build, and it's design as well
• It is amazing, and that sums up the positives

Cons

• Tow truck cannot get broken vehicles up because the lift is too small for 2 vehicles
• Car wash could be improved by making the top bit move along, and not swing

Other information

It was a lot bigger than I was originally expecting, ( I now have to redisgn my lego city layout)

Is compatible with other vehicles

The garage has been a mainstay of Lego Town / City for what is probably approaching generations, and this, the largest single City set of 2012, is the latest version released to date. Like the set itself, this review is big and full of air - feel free to skip ahead to the 'Overall Opinion' at the end for a more concise overview!

Box/Instructions

The box is perhaps a little over-large, with plenty of space for the 8 numbered bags (or 9 numbered bags, minus a number 6, depending on how you look at things). The instructions and sticker sheet are thankfully sealed with a cardboard backing, so emerge beautifully flat and crisp. There are five (!) separate instruction booklets, the first two of which are dedicated entirely to:

The Vehicles

There are four vehicles included in the set – two cars, a tow truck and something the legal and licensing department would argue is definitely not a VW camper van. None are complex to build (unless you count applying the tiny stickers used for the number plates) nor do they feature functional doors, though the minifigs can always adopt a ‘Dukes of Hazard’ approach to entry and exit (the roofs also lift off for a more practical solution).

The stand out is the ‘not-a-VW-bus’ which, despite a limited piece count, hits all the required design cues nicely, including the recognisable silhouette, a spare wheel on the front, room for two minifigs inside, and even includes a mug so the passenger can enjoy a good cup of Darjeeling on their journey.

Both cars are fairly basic, though do differ slightly in construction – the yellow one gets a proper rear window and wide tyres which give it heavy-set look, whereas the blue car has a slightly more sporty, streamlined appearance. The orange tow truck follows a similar plain theme, with only room for a driver inside the cab. The rest of the short chassis is taken up with towing gear which is deceptively simple and compact, making especially good use of a click hinge and modified 1x2 plate for the lift arm.

Minifigures

There is a good mix of minifigs, including two garage employees and three Lego City inhabitants, most of whom feature printing on the front and back of their torsos. The employees includes a security guard and an Octan mechanic, the latter is the only one minifig in the set not to feature any back printing. The three civilians roughly correspond to the their vehicles: a woman with a dark ponytail in the coupe; the yellow saloon car belongs to a bald business man who appears to have borrowed his grandmother’s wig; and finally a relaxed looking chap resplendent in an orange hoody print gets to drive the van-that-could-be-camped-in.

The Garage

The ground floor build starts with a couple of baseplates, something becoming increasingly rare in sets. The structure is divided into the three roughly equal sections - with the ‘centre third’ left fairly bare apart from some grills and tiles (including a couple of yellow 1x4 tiles printed with a black hazard stripe pattern). The right-hand third gets a ramp leading to the centre section, access to which is restricted by quite a nifty barrier formed of alternating black and yellow Technic tubes, along with a control console featuring printed computer screen and keypad elements. The left-hand third is the most interesting at this level as a car wash quickly springs up from some large window pieces and three sets of blue brushes – two mounted vertically at the entrance and one hanging from the ceiling. The use of hose pipe elements to provide tension for the side brushes is genius as it not only forces them to rotate and flex around the vehicle going through, but fits in perfectly with what you would expect to see in a car wash – pipes for the water.

The first floor sits on the scaffolding-like structure formed from a multitude of white 2x2x16 pieces that give the set it’s vertical support – these have only appeared in one other set to date, but this is the best set if you’re after loads of them as you get 20 included. The left-hand side features a small open-backed security booth for the security man complete with security camera on the roof (you can’t have too much security), and printed computer screen and keyboard tiles inside. The right-hand side is a vehicle maintenance bay, with work bench, tools and a rack to hold spare tyres, which uses a few pieces (two parallel 1x8 balustrades with a 1x2 cheese slope at either end) to great effect.

The second (top) floor is the barest with just a couple of parking bays on each of the left and right sections, complete with lighting for performing nocturnal manoeuvres. This is where the lift which rises and falls through the empty middle section is constructed. A 6x14 plate forms a platform mounted on two studded Technic bricks which protrude out from under it. A wheel and tyre, facing inwards, are inserted into the farthest end of each brick, with two more wheel pieces (minus tyres this time) mounted four studs further forward. These guide the platform as it runs up and down a large column mounted at the rear of the structure, ‘powered’ by a winch mechanism which straddles the centre section. The use of a friction pin in the winch means that it can easily support the weight of the platform, along with any of the vehicles included in the set. Thanks to the wheels guiding it, the whole thing works very smoothly.

Right at the start you also get to build an entirely unconnected petrol pump section. I haven’t mentioned it until now because, though it’s well built and designed, it feels a little like an afterthought as it doesn’t really connect easily to any of the garage elements. It’s nice to have though and can be positioned elsewhere in any town/city setup.

Overall opinion

This is an imposing and impressive looking set which, despite slight overuse of large supporting girder-like pieces, still looks fairly full and busy. The vehicles included range from mundane (the cars) through compact but clever (tow truck), to excellent (it is clearly a VW Camper Van), but all are highly playable within the set, which is exactly what it is for.

Some old timers will notice a certain resemblance to the classic 6394, and while this has a smaller footprint and is never going to be quite as iconic, it still holds it own against the older set. The lift mechanism is excellent – perhaps more complex than it strictly needed to be, but then it works so well that I wouldn’t want to see a simplified version in it’s place. There is nothing particularly earth-shattering about any of the building techniques on show, but then it’s a City set, so that’s not really what it’s all about (and, strangely, the use of the hoses for tensioning the car wash brushes made it all worthwhile for me!).

The set provides plenty of scope for play and is probably one of the best in the City range recently – leaving aside the obvious endless fun you can have parking cars, the car wash is well constructed and good fun to operate, and the vehicle maintenance section could encourage some budding mechanics. And for the more wilfully destructive, pushing cars from the top floor to plunge down the lift shaft never gets old…