Set Review - #60234-1: People Pack - Fun Fair - CITY

This is the fourth year LEGO has released a People Pack for the CITY theme. We started with #60134-1: Fun at the Park, then #60153-1: Fun at the Beach, and then #60202-1: Outdoor Adventures. Next up is this set, #60234-1: Fun Fair. It has 183 pieces and 14 minifigures. It retails in the US for $39.99 which works out to be $0.219/piece or $2.85/minifigure. The release date was 2 Aug 19, but I waited for it to hit 20% off on Amazon.com. If you wait further, the discount should increase. #60202-1: Outdoor Adventures is around 30% off at the time of this post and the previous sets have done the same on Amazon.com close to retirement.

Onto the review…

It has the standard box layout with the front showing the full set and the back showing some play features.

The set contains 2 parts bags and an instruction manual. It feels light to me. A quick comparison:

Fun Fair - 183 pieces - 14 minifigures
Outdoor Adventure - 164 pieces - 15 minifigures
Fun at the Beach - 169 pieces - 15 minifigures
Fun in the Park - 157 pieces - 15 minifigures

You’re getting more pieces, but one fewer minifigure. A lot of the pieces are small so I’m not sure if you’re really gaining more with the additional pieces. I wonder if it was a conscious decision to do this or just how the set got designed?

Here is what the first bag builds:

-A ring toss game where minifigures can attempt to throw rings onto a duck The table with the ducks spins. I like the little duck part and I think they could go well in a pond type scene.
-A game where you have to hit a target with a shooter to get it to fall down. There are 3 plates connected with Technic pins that have a 2x2 round tile with a target print on them. The minifigure can then use a shooter similar to those found on Star Wars sets to try and knock them down. The shooter will actually knock them down, you just have to keep track of the 1x1 round plate.
-A clown on stilts.
-A face painting station with a small table filled with 1x1 tiles for the different colors. of paint.

The minifigures include (top to bottom and left to right):
-A boy minifigure with a propeller cap (awesome!) and Benny the Spaceman shirt.
-A female minifigure with a pink shirt and white pants, but nothing too out of the ordinary.
-A male minifigure with a dark blue and red striped plaid shirt and green-ish colored pants (not sure of the official color name).
-A mullet touting man with goatee and rock-n-roll tank top. Spot on for some of the county fairs I have been to around the US.
-A minifigure on stilts with a giant purple top hat and holding a balloon animal to give away.
-A face painter with some paint spots on her overalls. The set showed up with 2 brushes.
-A girl who looks excited to have a tiger design painted on her face.
-Another girl. We let her hold the purple teddy bear that I guess she won as a prize.

Overall the first bag has a good variety of minifigures which can be used in a fair scene or elsewhere in your CITY.

Bag 2 has 6 minifigures and 5 have food. One is playing a game of strength where you hit the spot with a hammer to drive up the part. In this case, a Technic piece drives up a 1x2 brick with rail attached up a larger rail to hit the bell. The only other build is the bike for selling ice cream. It’s a cool build, but a bit big. The minifigure needs a step ladder to get into the ice cream case. Not sure how to scale it back down to make it more to scale though.

The remainder of the minifigures includes (left to right, top to bottom):
-A female minifigure who is the ice cream vendor. Her hair is attached to her hat and I don’t recall ever seeing that shirt before.
-A male minifigure in a jacket holding a giant hot dog.
-A female minifigure in a jacket with a shirt underneath
-An older male minifigure in a workout suit with gray receding hair who bought some ice cream
-An older female in a purple workout suit with a coffee cup. I like that she has glasses and white hair.
-A younger male with a popsicle. This one is blue versus the standard green one I have seen in other sets.

Here are all of the parts of the set. I like the theme and I think they go well with some of the existing Creator Expert sets (Carousel, Roller Coaster, etc.) and some of the Creator 3-in-1 sets as well. I like some of the non-standard minifigures and the builds are pretty creative with the moving parts. If you’re going to pick this set up, I definitely recommend getting it on sale. I think $39.99 retail in the US is too high. It’s around 20% off now and will probably move to closer to 30% next year when it is getting ready to retire.

What are your thoughts?

Happy building!

Set Review - #60202-1 - People Pack - Outdoor Adventures - LEGO CITY

One of the things that LEGO has gotten right over the past couple of years is listening to fans. The People Packs associated with the CITY line seem to be a direct response to fans asking for more minifigures to be in their city scenes. The first one released in 2016 was #60134-1 - Fun at the Park and then they had #60153-1 - Fun at the Beach in 2017. 2018’s version is #60202-1 - Outdoor Adventures. Released on 2 June 2018 in the US, it is the third set in a line of CITY sets that includes minifigures for your CITY scenes. This set cost $39.99 in the US, but I waited for it to hit 20% off at Amazon.com before spending anything on it. If you are willing to wait even longer, right now (November 2018), #60153-1 - Fun at the Beach is 35% off at Amazon.com in the US. Not a bad deal if you ask me. Back to the set at hand, Outdoor Adventures is 164 pieces and 15 minifigures. It works out to $0.244 per piece if you get it at full retail in the US, but it’s misleading since you are also getting 15 minifigures. If you look at it by minifigure, that’s $2.67 per minifigure which isn’t too bad if you compare it to the Collectible Minifigures that run at $3.99 each.

Onto the set… The box is similar to most boxes. The front interestingly mentions that the boat floats. I’m wondering if the designed the raft intentionally to float or if it just happened that way and they decided to advertise it on the box that way. Is it just the boat? Do the minifigs add too much weight? Have these questions already been answered and I’m wasting your time?

The back shows all of the minifigures to include each piece of the minifigures that can be interchanged. It even shows how you can interchange them to make different combinations. With 14 options, I’m sure the math is out there to say how many zillions of combinations there are. The baby minifigure cannot be interchanged for obvious reasons.

The contents are 2 numbered parts bags, 2 instruction booklets, and a plastic sheet which is part of the camping tent. LEGO probably could have done this all at once, but looking at the age range, a 5 year-old probably needs it broken up. Also included is a small bag with an eagle in it.

Bag 1 starts off with a female minifigure with a camera (left of picture). She has a small bag around her neck that sits on her side. Her face has 2 sides. One side is both eyes open and the other is with one eye open as if she’s looking through the lens of the camera. Is that a first for LEGO? A character who is looking through one eye? The box shows this minifigure taking a picture of the eagle which caught a fish. It is the standard LEGO fish and the fish’s mouth attaches to the eagle’s claw area so it looks like the eagle caught the fish.

Moving to the right in the picture is a rock climber scaling a mini rock formation. The rock formation itself isn’t that great, but considering the size of the set you can’t complain. Build a bigger rock face for the minifig to scale on your own. The minifig itself has sunglasses on his face and a helmet.

Next up in my picture (center front) is a hiker with 2 hiking poles. The set comes with an extra pole just in case you lose one I guess. The minifig has a green outer shirt on with what looks like a wolf face on the shirt printed underneath.

Moving on is a boy with a back pack cooking over a portable gas cooker. He has a pot and is frying an egg. He also has a plate and a mug. The set comes with 2 fried egg 1x1 round tiles so you can put one on his plate and one in the pan or however you want to set them up.

Next up is a male minifigure with a baby carrier who is carrying a baby minifigure. As a Dad who has carried his kids in a carrier in front, I thought this minifigure was great. You have to tilt him back a bit so he does tip over due to the weight in front, but that’s what I do when I have my kid strapped to me anyways so it is realistic.

Finally is a female minifigure in racing gear and a helmet with goggles on a mountain bike. Unlike some of the bikes of the past, her legs don’t go down too far on the bike so it looks like she’s riding it pretty high up. It comes with a small jump for her to ride up and over a log. The log comes with a 2x2 round tile with the print of a log on it to make it look like it was sawed down.

The second bag starts on the left in the picture with a minifigure with a hammer who is supposedly setting up the tent. I have her standing by a lantern. Next up in the back are 3 minifigures posing for a selfie. There is an adult female with a portable lantern, the male in his Hawaiian shirt and the selfie stick (his face can be a posing face or a relaxed look), and then a girl wearing shorts who also has a portable lantern. Behind them is a sign with arrows pointing to attractions. One is to LEGO CITY and the other is to MOUNT CLUTCHMORE. A nice touch to the set I think.

In front of the picture is the raft (that supposedly really floats) and 2 minifigures with oars, life vests, and helmets.

Next up is child minifigure wearing a jacket. She has glasses on and is holding a pair of binoculars.

Finally is another female minifigure who has either sunglasses or her normal smiling face. She is holding a smart phone. My daughter helped me put this set together and insisted that we put her in the tent. Speaking of the tent, it is a simple build with 2 sleeping spaces. The plastic tent sets up nicely around the bricks and you can have both flaps open or closed as you wish.

Here are all the minifigures in a picture. I didn’t have anything to lift up the eagle and probably could have used some more bricks to stage these minifigures, but you’ll live. Bottom line, it’s a great set if you are a CITY fan and you want more minifigures to add to your CITY. Every time I get one of these People Packs, it makes me want to create a scene with all of these characters. I don’t seem to ever have the time to do that, but maybe some day. In the meantime I have the minifigures to add to the scene I’ll create. Has anyone built a scene with these minifigs?

If you want to buy this set, it is 20% off at Amazon.com in the US and Walmart too (as of November 2018). If you wait longer, the sets seem to discount further. Definitely don’t pay full price on this one.

Happy building!

Set Review - #60153-1 - People Pack - Fun at the Beach

This is the second set in what will hopefully become a trend for LEGO City.  The first was Fun in the Park - City People Pack #60134.  This one is Fun at the Beach.  It was released on 29 May 2017 for $39.99 in the US.  With 169 pieces it works out to $0.237 per piece.  That's a bit high, but when you consider that it's a minifig set it's not as bad.  It includes 15 minifigs so that works out to $2.67 per minifig which is cheaper than any of the Collectible Minifigure Series sets offered.  I picked my set up on Amazon.com for 20% off or $31.99 ($0.189 per piece and $2.13 per minifig).  Onto the set...  The box front shows all of the set and the back shows all of the 15 minifigs with their hair, faces, torsos, and legs.

Here are the contents:
-2 parts bags
-a kayak
-2 sails
-2 folded up instruction booklets

Bag 1 is half of the set.  It includes the following:

First up is a kayaker with a red kayak.  It also includes a wind surfer and a dolphin.  The wind surfer comes with 2 sails.  It doesn't seem like a part that would break easily, but it can't hurt to have 2.

It also includes a sun bather in a recliner with an umbrella.  She has a camera, but I think it needs a beverage for her to sip on.  It also includes a male and female with a volleyball and a volleyball net.  

This bag also includes a girl who has built a sand castle.  She has a shovel and pail and the sand castle has a red flag on it.  Also there's a man with a metal detector who has some gold pieces he can find.  As a kid, I remember the metal detectors from Classic Space, M-Tron and others.  The old versions had a stud and hole in the middle of the sensor part.  So this one is somewhat the same except for that part.  The original version can be seen here.

Onto bag 2...

First up is a boy/teenager on a hammock.  He has a smart phone which I think is a new piece for the LEGO universe.  It also has some plants where the hammock is hung up on for shade.

Next up the beach cleaner with his broom, trash can, and obligatory banana to clean up.

Next up is a kid in a tank top and shorts.  He has an old school boom box with a cassette tape player.  Do kids these days even know what that is?

And then there's the mean lifeguard.  Come on... I know you've been to the beach or a public pool and the lifeguard was some pissed off teenager or 20-something who just yelled all day long.  No running!  No diving!  No having any fun at all!  Well here he is with a parrot, megaphone, and binoculars to spot kids having too much fun.

Here we have a girl, her dog, her Mom/Grandma/Aunt/cool older neighbor/LEGO woman carrying a $100 bill buying some ice cream from the vendor on the beach.  Only one flavor... white balls of iced plastic.  Looks yummy!

Last up, the scuba diver (tank-less) with a helmet, mask, and flippers.  He has a fish and lobster to dive with too.

If you're looking to build a beach scene, this is a great set to help populate your scenario.  I recommend it... especially if you can pick it up at a discount from Amazon.com or elsewhere.  I'm a fan of having people packs for LEGO City.  They've done it for Star Wars and Ninjago and I'm glad to see it for City.  Back in the day, I recall that they used to do City people packs with fire fighters, policemen, and workers.  I'm hoping this becomes a yearly trend.  What would you like to see them do next year?

Set Review - Fun in the Park - City People Pack - #60134

There was some media hype about this one well before it came out (but not before the LEGO Blogs caught it).  The main reason was the minifigure in a wheel chair.  I found a number of articles and friends sent me links to articles about this one.  There was a lot of anticipation about this set, but is it worth all the hype?

I'm going to switch things up this time and give the final recommendation first and then follow it with the review.  Should you buy this set?  If you are a LEGO CITY fan or a minifigure fan, YES!  Besides the wheel chair and the baby minifigure, there are some new hair styles, torsos, and pants.  It's a great addition to any City build that you're working on.  I highly recommend it.  Did I mention LEGO's first hot dog bun?   Let's get into the details...

This set was released in the US on 22 May 2016.  The cost is $39.99 for 157 pieces which works out to $0.255 per piece.  Is this high?  You betcha!  Compared to most sets definitely.  The key thing for this one, there are 15 minifigures.  That works out to $2.67 per minifigure.  Is that a good deal?  Yes!

So here's the box.  The front is similar to most showing all of the contents in a park with a Photoshopped scene.

The back shows the different minifigures in action and the different minifigure parts.

The contents are 3 bags with 3 instruction books.  

The first bag includes the much talked about wheel chair with minifigure.  The chair rolls quite well which surprised me.  It's also done to scale quite well in my opinion.  Not a lot special about the hot dog cart other than it includes a bun that a hot dog actually fits into.  The hot dog has been in the inventory for a while, but this is the first bun.  The bicycle isn't new, but the biker suit is new to the inventory. They've done a smaller version of the merry-go-round before.  The kid minifigure has some new parts to include the blond short hair.  Also there haven't been too many businesswomen types in minifigure land either.   The bus stop sign and tree are nice additions too.

Bag 2 is also full of some new figures as well.  The 2 children playing soccer are new.  I wouldn't mind a LEGO SPACE shirt like that!  There's an older couple and a park bench for them to sit on.  The woman's hair is new and I don't recall seeing sweaters like that before.  The woman painting is new too.  There's been a few painters in the inventory, but I think this is the first female one.

Bag 3 has the family having a picnic or maybe based on the amount of food they have (a hot dog and a biscuit) they are just having a snack.  It includes a mother (the picture shows her with shades, but the head is dual sided), a father figure, a girl figure, and then the baby in the stroller.  The stroller is very simple, but definitely works for the new baby minifigure.  The baby bottle is also a new and interesting design.  I'm curious to see if they will add more in the future or not.  The set also includes a dog and a female minifigure mowing the lawn.  The lawn mower has appeared in other sets.  I'm not sure if it's the same design or not, but it's pretty similar.  It also includes a small tree and a picnic table.

I haven't been able to put a town scene together in a while, but am hoping to do so soon.  These will definitely be a great addition.  The last city minifigure set that I'm aware of was 9348 - Community Minifigures.  While it was another great addition to the collection, the diversity of figures and parts was pretty basic.  It included fire, police, and some other basics, but not the creative figures in this set.  At LEGO Shop at Home it's currently listed as out of stock with an expected ship date of 3 July.  The good part is that it's not going away anytime soon as it's brand new so be patient and place your order when it's back.