It may have changed names over the years, but the bustling cityscape of LEGO® sets has been delighting LEGO fans for a while. Now known as LEGO City, this theme has offered a wide range of sets and has become a popular draw for LEGO fans young and old. Last year the theme had a little character injected into it, thanks to an animated companion TV show called LEGO City Adventures. This introduced a number of crazy characters, who have since started to appear in some of the LEGO City sets and it’s that TV show which has inspired one of the largest LEGO City set to be released in recent years. When the set was first revealed, one of the biggest sources of discussion was the pricing so it is worth the price tag? Let’s head off on an around LEGO City, with a review of set 60271: Main Square.
Product Description
Youngsters can dive right into the LEGO® City Adventures TV series with the amazing LEGO® City Main Square (60271) playset. There’s a city hall, city square, concert stage, classic diner and a tram station, plus cool toy vehicles including Mayor Fleck’s stretch limousine, Snake Rattler’s motorbike and Harl Hubbs’ handyman wagon. Add 14 minifigures, including an awesome lineup of LEGO City TV characters, and the scene is set for endless play.
- Set Name: Main Square
- Set Number: 60271
- Pieces: 1517
- RRP: £169.99/$199.99/199.99€
- Measurements: City hall building measures over 12” (32cm) high, 10” (27cm) wide and 5” (15cm) deep, while the tram measures over 4″ (12cm) high, 14″ (37cm) long and 1″ (5cm) wide
- Minifigures: Mayor Fleck, Duke Detain, Freya McCloud, Hurl Hubbs, Poppy Star, Snake Rattler & 8 LEGO City Citizens
- Availability: September 1st from LEGO Stores, LEGOLAND Stores and LEGO.com
The Set
The set comprises of several individually built elements which, when combined, create a city scene. This fragmented approach to the set actually plays into a key concept of it. You’ll notice a ‘Build Together’ logo on the box and within the instructions, it’s suggested this is a set which can be built as a family or group. I’m not sure if this is a sneaky way to get around having such a high priced set based on a kids TV show or not. But in these crazy times of staying at home more, a family project is a nice idea I guess. Regardless of how you build it, most of the different aspects are the result of a single bag of elements. It’s only the tram and City Hall sections which are crafted from multiple bags.
As you’d expect from a LEGO City set, the police and fire departments are never far away and the set includes the token fire helicopter and police ATV. Both are similar to the many others which have appeared across the LEGO City range, with the only notable difference being the use of a pale yellow in both emergency vehicles. Wherever the police are, there’s bound to be a bad guy up to no good and for some reason, the crooks of LEGO City favour the off-road motorbike. With the set featuring a snazzy red number, which uses the newer design.
Not so much a vehicle, but Harl Hubbs has his own mode of transport in the form of his strange looking work wagon. This odd contraption features all the random prices of junk, Harl needs to help the citizens of LEGO City, even if they don’t really need it. This does a neat good of recreating the same thing shown on the TV, just on a little more stable level.
One of the most divisive vehicles included in the set is a stretched limousine. Now I like the idea behind the build and it looks great. Not so much when it’s placed next to the other vehicles in the set. For example, Harl’s cart thingy dwarves it and makes it look a little too compact. If the scale was a few studs wider it would be perfect and maybe this is a vehicle which would have benefited from being a set on its own, instead of being part of a larger set.
The final mode of transport to be featured in the Main Square set is a bright yellow InterCity tram. LEGO fans tingled with excitement as it had a monorail vibe to it until it was realised it was a push-along tram. Now it may not be a monorail but it can run on standard LEGO train tracks. The tram has a similar build to the train from the Hidden Side set. So it doesn’t use the train wheel sections, instead, it has a 1×4 strip with connectable wheels. These perfectly sit on any tracks, so you could quite easily fiddle with the build of the tram to add powered functions. But as it stands it’s a modern-looking take on a tram, with the moulded sections used for the driver’s cabin giving it a sleek flowing shape.
The rest of the set is comprised of buildings and outdoor areas. The largest and least exciting of which is City Hall. As I build this it gave me a Hidden Side vibe, with the colours used and the style of building similar to those found in Hidden Side theme. The outside of City Hall is quite bland, which for a government building is to be expected I supposed. There are a couple of fun details like the golden detailing above the door, which is a nanofig and a couple of Wolverine claws. There’s also a sticker poster on the side of the building, which is a nod to the on-going rivalry of Sinclair and Fendrich in the TV show. It’s a nice solid build and could be a great base for town hall-style building MOC. One thing I did notice is the vast difference between the colour shades of the New Dark Red elements used on the building. Many of these coloured elements have a very noticeable variance in colour.
Things get a little more exciting inside City Hall, with the top-level home to Mayor Fleck’s office. Here you’ll find a simple desk and areas for the mayor to store is briefcase and umbrella. On the ground floor, there is a laser guarded key to the city. This is a fun play feature, although the dial needed to turn the lasers sticks out a fair bit, from the back of the building.
Beyond City Hall is a City Burger fast food restaurant, which combines aspects seen in other LEGO sets into a compact little restaurant. So there’s a brick-built burger on the roof and flashy coloured interior. Which I admit is quite cool, especially the curved serving counter near the till. Much of the front of the burger joint is created with clear panels, each of the ones I had in this set was marked up quite badly. I think it’s time LEGO started packing these large clear pieces in a better way. LEGO Customer Engagement will willingly replace these but if I had spent nearly £200 on a set and over 10 prices carried cosmetic damage, I’d be quite annoyed.
The other pieces of scenery offer a little more fun as these haven’t really been overly used in previous LEGO sets. So there is an outdoor stage for Poppy Star to perform on. This has a couple of cool looking speakers and a great multicoloured lighting rig and safety barrier. There’s also a small platform stop for the tram, which matches it’s colour scheme and includes a couple of nice touches, like the soda dispenser and tram network map, complete with the LEGO City Train logo.
But for me, the best part of the entire set is the small park-like square. This is home to a great stone statue of a handcuffed crook. This uses a uniquely coloured version of the Forestmen’s peaked hat. This may or may not be a fun nod to past LEGO themes. Dotted around the statue is an oddly low seating area and a separate picnic table, which seems to feature a set of LEGO oversized lunch boxes, obviously made simply with LEGO bricks, again a fun little detail. The whole thing is finished off with a colourful strip of bunting, strewn across the square. It could have been a much bigger part of the set. Lose the stage or one of the all too familiar emergency vehicles and expand upon the square, after all that’s the name of the set.
The Minifigures
With the set being based on the LEGO City Adventures TV show, many of the included Minifigures are based on characters featured in the show. One of the most exciting inclusions for me is Mayor Fleck. Now every city has a mayor, but not every city has a mayor who wears a corn on the cob suit, for no reason, every single day. In the TV show, Mayor Fleck’s odd choice of attire is never touched upon and he is never seen out of it. The Minifigure version is slightly disappointing, it uses the same corn on the cob suit element which was introduced in the Collectible Minifigures series. But it’s a darker green and the finish is a little sloppy. The yellow of the actual corn is painted and it laps over onto the green of the leaves. Underneath, the body of the Minifigure is the same dark green, with a printed mayor sash. Unfortunately, the trim of his suit sleeves hasn’t been included and there is no hairpiece, but to be entirely honest the Mayor is never seen without his corn suit so why would any hair be needed.
The rest of the named characters include Duke DeTain, the LEGO City Police Department detective. Harl Hubbs, the friendly handyman. Poppy Star, the international superstar signer best known for the smash hit Loud Song. Snake Rattler, the soda-loving outlaw and Fire Chief, Freya McCloud. All of these characters have appeared in other sets, although some have new outfits or face prints. For example, Poppy Star has a new outfit and face. Freya has a cool coffee splashed face (she’s going to need a napkin, seven chickens and a canister of custard to sort that out) and Snake is the most disappointing, in the TV show he is one cool looking character. Kitting out in a cowboy outfit, which is partly captured here, but instead of crafting a new hair/hat element to show his hair and cowboy hat, he’s just wearing a hat and it completely ruins the look of the character.
The rest of the Minifigures represent generic citizens of LEGO City, some of whom are named but are not considered main characters. So there are a couple of younger kids, both with the classic short legs. A couple of adults, who are their parents. A limo driver, a burger joint assistant, a tram driver and a young lady who is sporting a hearing aid. The tram driver is kitted out in the same outfit has the train drivers from the Hidden Side Ghost Train set. Although I love this outfit, it feels a little retro for the modern-day setting of LEGO City.
The lady with a hearing aid, may not seem like much, but as I discuss here, it’s a big deal for showing younger LEGO fans that they can be represented in the toys they play with. It’s been confirmed by the LEGO Design Team that is is a hearing aid, not an airpod headphone or a Bluetooth headset.
Overall
This is a tricky set to offer an overall opinion on. Is it overpriced? yes especially as it’s so connected to a show aimed at kids. Does it feel like a random collection of elements which would have been better suited to smaller sets? Again yes, but they are all aspects of things you’d find in a city environment and are no more disconnected than other similarly sized LEGO City sets. Yet it’s worth remembering the target audience for this set is younger LEGO fans and they will love bringing their own LEGO City Adventures to life with this it. The characters are fun recreations of their on-screen counterparts, even if a couple of them could have been done a little better. For AFOLs, there are plenty of things which could be tweaked to integrate the various sections into larger city builds. I had fun building it and I’m glad there is finally a physical Mayor Fleck Minifigure, even if it’s a little disappointing.
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This set was provided to BricksFanz.com by the LEGO Group for purposes of review. The thoughts within this review are that of BricksFanz.com and do not reflect those of the LEGO Group. Providing the set for free does not guarantee a favourable opinion of the set.
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