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xtremegoogler

Lego 4207 City Garage review

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Lego 4207 City Garage

Released: June 2012

Pieces: 933

Recommended Retail Price: €99,95.

Okay, so I received this huge box last Tuesday and have been building it on and off in the evening times.

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By the way, small mistake in the box art: the ticket machine is behind (left of) the barrier, in the instructions it is before (right).

The back of the box shows that there are eight bags included:

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and indeed, that is what you get.

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Also included are a 16x32 baseplate, a 16x16 baseplate and four 16x16 regular plates, all dark-bluish gray.

I started building with the garage, because I was not that interested in the cars.

Bags 1 and 2 are for the cars, so I opened bag 3.

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The white supports are new to me, but they were used before in Cars set 8639 Big Bentley (info provided by Lyichir)

The decals:

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There aren't that many of them and are easy to apply.

Building the gas pump...

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and on with the ground floor, this finishes bag 03.

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Contents of bag 04:

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Building the car wash:

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Sorry that some of my other City sets are in the background, like the harbour and modulars.

I have to grab some dinner now, I'll continue (and hopefully finish) this review later this evening.

I'm gonna pause now with another small scan of the box back cover art.

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Great review 'xtremegoogler'! :thumbup:

It's great to get baseplates in this set and regular plates... I hope this comes to the US soon! :sweet:

Also, I can't wait 'til you finish this review!

Edited by just2good

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Part 2: the first floor

bags 5&6

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Contents of bag 5:

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I guess he's not a security man after all, computer screen is printed btw.

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Three decals are used for this sign, it is used for structural integrity and to cover up those ugly holes...

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Contents of bag 06:

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Four tires and an oil can:

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and three decals for the sign on the right as well.

You have to make sure to align the 'P' decal with the other two.

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Brick built Octan support in the middle:

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And that concludes part two, I'll be back with part three shortly (bags 7&8).

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Part 3: roof and elevator

bags 7&8

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Contents of bag 07:

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You have to built this roof part twice:

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Finished the roof!

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Elevator shaft:

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Contents of bag 08:

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The elevator itself:

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You have to slide it on at the top, i put that grey technic piece there for taking the picture:

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Rope mechanism:

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The finished product:

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Now that the garage is finished, what's left to review is the cars and the minifgs.

The elevator works fine, except when not loaded with a car and going downstairs, it often slips a bit at the end, maybe because of the knot, I don't know why. It does not really bother me that much.

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Great review! I think this set is brilliant. It's sturdy-looking, aesthetically pleasing, functional, and a great addition to any LEGO City. The elevator is very nice and it's good to know it works as well as it should.

Of course, it will tower over most other buildings from the City theme. Perhaps TLG needs to release some skyscrapers in the City themes. But of course AFOLs can make do with the modular buildings!

As my brother has pointed out, the simplicity of this model will likely make it easy to expand if you happen to own multiples.

The only addition I could think of that would greatly improve this set would be a stairwell or a smaller elevator so that people who park on the upper floors don't have to take the same elevator down as is used for the cars. I have never been in a parking deck that uses an elevator to move vehicles between floors myself, of course, so I don't know what the "convention" is.

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Part 4: Cars and minifigs

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I decided to built the boring looking cars first, so here is the contents of bag 02:

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Finished build:

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I only took one picture of these two cars, they are, as expected, uninteresting. The yellow car has no redeeming qualities, the wrecking car is okay I guess, but I have no use for more standard looking cars in my city.

One last bag to go!

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The blue car is almost the same as the yellow, but at least it has a grey roof and the back is a bit different. Meh.

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The van is the only great looking car of the four, it will have a permanent place in my city.

Woman in back, man in front is just a coincidence by the way.

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City Garage is finished, tadaa:

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I did not forget to photograph the spare parts:

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Minifigs front:

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I really like the orange sweater torso, don't know if new, but new to me.

All have back printing, except...

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except the Hey!-man, he did not get out of the mould unharmed, looks like a factory error to me.

Luckily it isn't the orange sweater guy.

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Okay, so that concludes my review. Almost, because I still have to give my two cents.

This thing is big! So unless you have a lot of modular buildings, it will be the highest structure in your city.

Cause that is what it is, a structure, it reminds me more of a Technic set than a City set.

The new supports also make it difficult to expand this garage, unless you buy two or more.

It is not very realistic, the elevator would not be safe in real life and when you're parked on the left top deck, your car can't leave when someone is parked next to you. Unless it is moved by The Hand, of course...

That said, still an essential purchase if you're a City collector (like me). I did not care for three of the four cars provided, the cars could have been made more interesting or left out altogether. Simple build with all the big elements, but you gotta have some physical strenght for this building as well I guess.

Final rating : 85%

Edited by xtremegoogler

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Great review. I think this is a great set to add more civilian style cars to your city. I will definitely buy this as soon as it comes to the U.S. :thumbup::classic:

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I'm loving those new tall support beams. They're like the ones from Jack Stone sets, only way better.

And those new wheels are beautiful :o

Very cool set, and it's nice to see something truly unique for LEGO City. :3

Perhaps TLG needs to release some skyscrapers in the City themes.

OH YES PLEASE.

though this doesn't look much taller than the modular buildings. How tall is it compared to those?

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Thanks for all the comments!

The garage is about 40 centimeters in height. I'll make a picture tomorrow comparing it to a modular.

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Thanks for all the comments!

The garage is about 40 centimeters in height. I'll make a picture tomorrow comparing it to a modular.

{video}

Nice! At first I didn't like LEGO's idea of using string with the elevator, but it looks like it works pretty well. :sweet:

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Another quality review. The City theme is not a favorite of mine, but this set in particular is very nice. A very good buy.

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Great review! I think this set is brilliant. It's sturdy-looking, aesthetically pleasing, functional, and a great addition to any LEGO City. The elevator is very nice and it's good to know it works as well as it should.

Of course, it will tower over most other buildings from the City theme. Perhaps TLG needs to release some skyscrapers in the City themes. But of course AFOLs can make do with the modular buildings!

As my brother has pointed out, the simplicity of this model will likely make it easy to expand if you happen to own multiples.

The only addition I could think of that would greatly improve this set would be a stairwell or a smaller elevator so that people who park on the upper floors don't have to take the same elevator down as is used for the cars. I have never been in a parking deck that uses an elevator to move vehicles between floors myself, of course, so I don't know what the "convention" is.

I would love to see not only a large scale, 3 story or so, skycraper but also expansion "floor packs":)

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Great review! This is a neat set. The tow car...is a bit weird. I would've liked another regular car instead. The structure is a bit bare bones though. I would've liked it to be brick built instead, though. This will look good plopped in a layout. The gas pumps though...I don't know. If you want to put the garage in a downtown setting, the pumps won't really look good. I'm sure some great city builder will incorporate it.

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Thanks for the review. I have no interest in this set, but I can see the appeal. I'm glad Octan is still a flourishing business in Lego-world.

That van is adorable. I definitely would like to build that and have it in my city.

This build is more extensive than I expected after seeing all of the different installments.

Keep up the good work!

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Very nice review! :thumbup:

I like this set, it is simple and does the job well. The original Metro Park was a classic set and it is nice to get a new version finally. The stickers are quite useful and the selection of vehicles is alright. The elevator feature works nicely.

Overall I would rate this set at 3.5/5.

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Having been away from the City/Town themes for a long time, I love the way the elevator looks like it works and has wheels to keep things smooth. I do not know if there are other sets that have an elevator as detailed as the one in this set.

Thanks for the photo review!

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Thanks for this fantastic and extensive review of this new Octan parking station 'xtremegoogler', there are positives and negatives in this set.

First, the positives.

The look of the whole design takes me back to my childhood :wub: , I had more than one parking garage with lift to park your Matchbox/Hot Wheels cars in with petrol bowsers down the bottom plus a boom gate too.

Those new vehicle designs allowing two minifigs and/or using more realistic wheels and tyres are a huge bonus :thumbup:

The DSS is important and needs to be used to i.d. every part of set :thumbup: .

The guy in the orange open shirt, cool to get another new torso, plus business man looks typical and perfect to fit in a modern city layout.....going to the bank or pizza bar for lunch. :wink:

Now, the negatives.

No jack and flat bench top in the workshop area :thumbdown: .

The petrol bowsers....even though cool automotive ones (reminds me of someone's idea months ago.....I wonder who ? :laugh: )

I just don't see the design being totally realistic, especially the nozzle mounting and overall shape of the bowser :thumbdown: .....though a good note the sticker for the screen including a pay point is clever. :thumbup:

No small shop to sell ice creams, drinks, vehicle top-up fluids, wiper blades or brake light globes :thumbdown: .

The tow truck....a bit small eh ? :thumbdown:

The yellow car and tow truck having those wide wheels still :thumbdown: .....what ? Does Lego City have streets which are slippery and vehicles need more grip on the road ? :wink:

Another Octan uniform....same for five years...how about something fresh Lego.

Only one female minifig :thumbdown: , oh, come on Lego....a female business person or a female security officer or even female mechanic could have been included in the set. :hmpf_bad:

Even after those negatives I'm looking forward to buying this, more for the fact it's the first petrol station of any sort since 2007 and 2008 Town Plan plus that feeling of being a kid again with his old wind-up lift parking garage. :wub:

I'll be proud to build this and display it at home (stuff what the wife says) and at the next train show I'm invited to join in with. :wink:

Edited by lightningtiger

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Thanks for the review.

I'm not too sure if I want this set as a set, I think it will be out of place in anything other than a really large city layout, and I can only dream of having that much space. But after this review, I think I'll grab it for a parts pack. 16x32 and 16x16 baseplates in dark bley, plus 4 16x16 plates, they're so hard to come by.

The van looks cool too, will have to mod the other vehicles though, or make something else entirely, and I do like the new wheels, those wider ones just don't work on a normal family car.

Hopefully this set is in the shops for the upcoming toy sales so I can get it at a decent discount, $150 is a bit much I think.

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As promised, two comparison shots with the modulars.

The cars rise just above the green grocer.

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Measurements of the garage: top of the elevator 40 cm, upper deck 30 cm, so with cars on top about 32, 33 cm.

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I've just read all the comments by the way, thanks again!

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Thanks for those shots to compare heights of different Lego structures, this is a tall build indeed....I hope the scaling is at least realistic ? :wink:

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I didn't realize my original comment was before the review was totally finished... my bad for not paying attention! :blush: Anyway, regarding the cars, even though they're a bit generic, I think it's good that a number of vehicles were included. I don't like it when a set's play value is completely dependent on the owner having additional sets to use with it.

The blue and yellow cars are nice although their proportions are a bit peculiar... they're very narrow but very long. The van is indeed awesome and shows TLG is still capable of creating unique 4-wide vehicles. I'm actually fond of the mini tow-truck. It's rare these days to see a convincing truck shape at this sort of scale. I think the cab could possibly stand to be a bit taller (perhaps using the 2x4x2 windscreen rather than the 3x4x1 1/3 windscreen), but overall it's a nice-looking build and a nice contrast from the sports cars and compact cars we had gotten used to seeing in 4-wide.

I am a bit curious how the tow truck and van look next to a typical 6-wide vehicle. While I appreciate a good 4-wide vehicle, I'm also a big fan of 6-wide vehicles, especially if they can be made to accommodate a "passenger's seat" next to the driver. I'm a bit worried that a 6-wide SUV would dwarf the tow truck (although it might still be realistic; I know small tow trucks exist). For that matter, I wonder how well a 6-wide SUV-type vehicle would fit in the garage. Perhaps one could fit, but I doubt you could fit two side-by-side without making the parking deck look cramped, especially if they have mirrors.

Part of my fascination with 6-wide vehicles is that my dad has a 2000 Ford Excursion, which is a behemoth of a vehicle even today. So of course if 6-wide SUVs have trouble fitting in a parking deck like this, it's not completely inaccurate-- we've had some harrowing ordeals with parking decks in the past!

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Thanks a lot for this review1! Great review for a great set! :thumbup: :thumbup: :thumbup:

This is a must for every Lego City! :thumbup: :thumbup: :thumbup:

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I didn't realize my original comment was before the review was totally finished... my bad for not paying attention! :blush:

Don't worry about it, the comments are part of the review in my opinion.

Anyway, regarding the cars, even though they're a bit generic, I think it's good that a number of vehicles were included. I don't like it when a set's play value is completely dependent on the owner having additional sets to use with it.

No but two cars would have been sufficient, if you're willing to buy a 100 euro City set for your kid (or for yourself), you probably have a lot more cars lying around.

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Don't worry about it, the comments are part of the review in my opinion.

I'm sorry, too. :grin:

I think the building is a bit too tall, but it will still fit in my upcoming City. :sweet:

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This set looks great... but I already ordered the entire Lord of the Rings collection... *sigh*

I'll probably have to wait until next year when TRU inevitably have a sale, 20% off city sets.

The minifigs are great (except the Octan guy), I especially like the security guard.

Edited by SheepEater

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