At $30 for 525 pieces this has almost twice the pieces-per-dollar ratio of a typical set. It's a bit on the simple side but there are enough wheels that you can make several cars (everything on the front of the box) at once. The only downsides are 1) the instructions only have one model per group of colors and 2) there are so many colors that you don't get a good variety of pieces in any one color--yellow only has straight slopes; red, white, and blue only have a couple curvy pieces each, etc. But it has a good variety of pieces and styles so if your kid is happy with lots of small cars (as many are) it's really good.

The pieces come in six bags--five are grouped by color and the sixth is random. There are instructions (in 2 books) for each of the models shown on the front of the box and each corresponds to one bag. (1: Green car and mechanic, 2: Red car and ramp, 3: yellow car, 4: blue truck, 5: orange tow truck.) The instructions have the address 'creative.lego.com' next to some alternate models but I couldn't find any additional instructions there. Hopefully they'll post them someday.

For AFOLs...

I often overlook these basic sets, usually you get a bunch of rories and bricks with eyes! But there are some fantastic parts in this, not available in many sets:

And at time of writing it's the only set with this:

At such a good price per piece (and I got a 3 for 2 discount yay!), I bought multiples. Downside is that you end up with a squillion wheels, but a great range of coloured slopes and there are none of those ugly pre-built chassis modified plates.

For kids...

A definite must buy for young builders that like cars. Any kid over the age of 7 might find the build too kiddy and the cars a bit chunky. I rated it a 2 for build as it is simple, but I'd rate it much higher if I was to context that for 4-6 year-olds. There's even a couple of basic SNOT moments.

It is a bagged build and the 5 bags create a range of vehicles and some other things you'd find in a vehicle repair shop. So together they make a scene ripe for imaginative play. Both minifigs are male which is a little sad, at that age it would be nice to show kids that girls can fix cars too! The yellow car is beautiful, it even has a bonnet that opens to reveal an engine. The 6th bag is "extra bricks for building your own ideas", which I think is a masterstroke in terms of encouraging children to continue after finishing the instructions.

Even better, there are several alternative builds pictured! Every LEGO set used to have these but they were stopped due to the volume of complaints that there were no instructions. Perhaps to counter this, three of the alternative models shown have online building instructions. Fantastic. But in a big screw-up, these are really hard to find, it took me a good 5 minutes of dedicated searching. The link in the instructions simply goes to creative.lego.com, and from that home page you're somehow expected to know to look in Products in the top menu, collapse the left-hand menu, choose Themed Sets and click 4635, then choose Building Instructions and download each model separately! Usability Nightmare! Why not just have a tiny url in the instructions that directly takes you to a page that downloads 1 PDF of all three?

So to save you that nightmare, here are direct links to the 3 additional vehicles:

• Blue Truck
• Green Race Car
• Yellow Race Car

So a big thumbs-down to the online team there and one star deducted from my overall score, but otherwise a really wonderful set.

Once upon a time, in the 80s when I used to play with Lego as a kid, the sets you bought had alternate suggested builds on the back. They wouldn't come with the instructions, but seeing a number of suggested builds made your child-like imagination soar. After being reintroduced to Lego a few months ago, I was exposed very quickly to a few impressive City-themed vehicles, with their elaborate parts, interesting builds, and intricate designs. However, many of these modern sets seem more designed for style and playability than for rebuilding.

Enter this set - the fact that on the back of the box they featured a number of alternative builds caught my eye. That, combined with the very high value for money meant that this set was something I wanted.

This set essentially contains a large number of pieces that you can build vehicles with. There are around five colors to play with: red, yellow, green, blue, and orange and a large number of tires and axles of varying shapes. The box comes with instructions to build five cars/trucks and two support vehicles for the "garage" that this set is generally themed after. It also comes with two minifigures with assorted mechanic-related accessories, which is a great addition to a set like this and adds immensely to the playability. The set also comes with a brick separator, which is surprisingly handy and helps prevent those cut up Lego fingertips.

One thing that I realised quickly about this set was that, compared to most of the City sets, the cars in this one are downright ugly. They're boxy, large, and clunky, and the odd bright color scheme (instead of orange, it would have been nice to have more blacks and whites) means that the cars aren't really going to be the most lovely thing in the world. In many respects though, that's okay. I'm sure that few people bought this set for the models on the box, and you'll have no problem breaking them all apart (with the provided brick separator) and building your own cars. In some respects, the City models (and other similar sets) with Lego look so downright pretty that you don't want to break them down, combine them with other sets, and make your own creations, which is why it's nice to take this one and let your imagination run wild.

Pros

• Great value for money
  
• Includes a large number of vehicle parts
• Has some interesting parts, like a crane, a 2x2 turnstile, the flexible tube, many long 2xN boards
  
• High playability - lots of wheels, figures, and swinging parts that you can build
  
• Brick separator
  

Cons

• Default models are somewhat ugly
  
• Odd colour choices
• Some parts aren't suitable for cars (there are an awful lot of 2x4 blocks that aren't used in many modern sets)
  

I essentially bought this kit for parts - and it's been a great source of them. There's enough in this to become comfortable building new models. I am certain that kids will be thrilled with the number of cars they can build in a single set, as well as the ability to take them all apart and build up something new. Adults will use this set to compliment some of their other sets to get pieces. None of the pieces here are extraordinarily difficult to get, but to get them in a single box is excellent. I personally combined these with a number of buckets of custom pieces that you choose from the Lego stores to make things like cow trailers and T-Rex cars. Nothing I build will win me any awards but it's sure fun to explore Lego again.