REVIEW: 7641 City Corner

[CP5670]

The yellow is also very poor quality in this set, you will be displeased to note! The bus suffers particularly badly from the 2 types of yellow - 'alien and glowing' and 'almost transparent'. I know you said someone at Brickworld said they were clearing out old parts in the poor quality, but 2 years after the horror of Cafe Corner I don't buy it. I think we're stuck with colour issues for the near future.

Ouch, that sounds really bad. And the bus is the main attraction of the set too. Are the bad parts common or more specialized things? (I'm hoping it's the latter)

I thought they were starting to getting it right, as the 8259 Mini Bulldozers I got recently mostly had nice looking yellow parts (except for the 1x4 panels, a less common part), although the Beach House largely contained the junk yellow. I figured that was because it was an older set and packed a longer time ago.

Red does seem to have improved lately, although white is still inconsistent. At least white minifig torsos look a lot better than they did last year.

[Teddy]

The yellow is also very poor quality in this set, you will be displeased to note! The bus suffers particularly badly from the 2 types of yellow - 'alien and glowing' and 'almost transparent'. I know you said someone at Brickworld said they were clearing out old parts in the poor quality, but 2 years after the horror of Cafe Corner I don't buy it. I think we're stuck with colour issues for the near future.

Dear svelte_corps,

Thanks for your review.

Got this set today and I can second the difference in color of the yellow bricks.

Nevertheless, I really like this set a lot.

So I can second the 9/10 score as well.

Kind regards,

Teddy

[SlyOwl]

Thanks for the review Lucky so-and-so

Not being a Townie, I'll pass on this. The modular houses really put me off; I've no problem with Cafe Corner style modularity, but when it's just a plate with some sky-lights? Come on The "glass" ground floor also makes the building look like it's floating...

The bus, however, looks great, as good as it gets. Good to see Octan is still at it.

I would assume that the 1x2 cheese slope is purely for the purpose of putting stickers over the top, to avoid them tearing in the middle when you take it apart In this instance, it would seem that there was originally a sticker for the dashboard, but got scrapped.

My two cents

[Svelte]

Ouch, that sounds really bad. And the bus is the main attraction of the set too. Are the bad parts common or more specialized things? (I'm hoping it's the latter)

I thought they were starting to getting it right, as the 8259 Mini Bulldozers I got recently mostly had nice looking yellow parts (except for the 1x4 panels, a less common part), although the Beach House largely contained the junk yellow. I figured that was because it was an older set and packed a longer time ago.

There's probably a regional difference between the production facilities. The Construction sets didn't strike me, on the whole, as being too bad but the Farm sets and the bus here were a bit mixed. The bus looks fine when built, it's just weird to see the different shades as you actually put it together. it doesn't seem confined to specialised parts. Plates and tiles seem different from bricks, I guess that's the density issue.

Dark bley seems to be the problem colour du jour. I'm also not thrilled that in both markets, dark red seems to have been adjusted to a notably more browny colour (since last year's Clone Wars sets, but it took me a while to notice). It's more consistent, yes, but not as vibrant as it used to be. Something like the Trace hair in 8970 Robo Attack almost seems a shade of its own.

[Brickthing]

I just got this set today, and it's a great set! I love the buildings and the bus is magnificent. However, on the page of the instructions telling you to sort the pieces properly, the graphics were all garbled up behind the giant red cross. Does anyone else have this?

On another note, now that I can see the detail of this picture in my instructions, it appears that there is a man in the background who has the terror face and is running from something...

[xenologer]

If I had to guess, I'd think that the new 1*2 cheese slope is less expensive than a pair of 1*1 cheese. So it makes sense to have as a part in models where so often cheese is lined up...

It's also going to be prettier in many cases by eliminating seams between usual cheese pairs...

[wackyfm]

I got this set for €40- at Maxitoy in France 10 days ago.

I started building it with the bus today:

- indeed, there is "yellow issue" is this set :-(

- I find the bus a little bit to high... It's weird when you look at the front or the back... I've put it next 7991 - Recycle Truck, and in my mind the bus should have been lower but they are the same height.

But overall it's a great bus, and the fact if can fit as many passagers is great.

Wakwak

[brickzone]

A good review showing off the great features of this set. I think it acheives a reasonable compromise between detail and simply having more things in the set. With the amount of bricks included (and thus the price) it is doing very well to have a two storey (plus attic) building, 1 floor shop, bus stop and bus. I too think it has a very classic look about it, and for all the nostalgia, some of those classic buildings were *way* plainer than what's in this.

I also think yellow isn't the nicest colour for the bus, and I would have preferred red or green. Still it looks good all the same. I love the new window pieces, and merely judging the amount of pieces you get in this set (which is good for the price) doesn't take into account the great source of window/glass this is (pricy to get on PaB/bricklink) as well as large elements (panels, plates, baseplates).

Art and Hobby here in Ireland have it for €42 which is a fantastic bargain (other shops are €50). Lego themselves seem to think they should rip off Irish customers using S@H and have it listed at a steep €60 for Ireland.

I'm delighted with my copy, and I got one for my brother's birthday too.

[Svelte]

A good review showing off the great features of this set. I think it acheives a reasonable compromise between detail and simply having more things in the set.

It's a testament to this set that I've kept it built since I did this review, as I do like the little bike shop, bus stop and the Pizza house and the yellow bus. I find it much more preferable than any of the other City sets released as part of the same wave. It definitely has a certain charm about it and all the window and glass pieces are very useful.

[UsernameMDM]

Pretty cool set! The only bad thing about it is that if I bought it, I would want to buy more town sets and have my own little Lego city.

[sens1992]

I own this set and love it. It reminds me of my first LEGO sets early 1980's with a touch of modern LEGO. The downside for me is the huge walls used for the buildings. They are probably cost effective for TLG but you are getting 1 big piece instead of a wall of smaller parts.

Also, on the bus file (could not wait for that one since I drive a real bus!)... Well, it is nice to finally have a bus but it seems like a lot of efforts were put on the windshield issue (with closed corners) instead of the doors... Too bad. It would have been so nice to get two small (2 wide) doors to close like they do on real buses. I have never seen a bus with doors opening like that yellow one built buy TLG.

BUT, we will take it as it is because it seems like ages since we saw a city bus in Lego City! :-)

[Justin]

It would have been so nice to get two small (2 wide) doors to close like they do on real buses. I have never seen a bus with doors opening like that yellow one built buy TLG.

BUT, we will take it as it is because it seems like ages since we saw a city bus in Lego City! :-)

I agree. If only LEGO decided to address this issue by introducing a French door-type piece that would only be half as long as those doors currently being used on the bus in the set.

Edited July 8, 2009 by Justin

[Vestabuyer]

Greetings!

I think this set is wonderful! However, I am not a big fan of what lego has done to change the vehicle designs (call me old fashioned). I am so used to having the smaller vehicles in my city layout. Because it is a bus it might be more allowable as a bus is suppose to be bigger. I know from when I got the Vestas set #4999 the van that came with it was pretty cool but it stuck out like a sore thumb in my layout. But enough ranting about the vehicle! I think this set looks great, it gives a town a little more of a realistic inter-city feeling. I would love to have this set and maybe I could modify the bus like I did the mail van so it will look more in place!

[Legoist]

For me it's a solid 4.

The bus is brilliant, as already pointed out.

If we compare the buildings with the modular houses on a strictly design basis, they obviously lose. But I think Legoland town needs smaller and simple buildings too like it had in the past. It's cheaper and easier to build, and I like the minimalistic look of a traditional Legoland town.

The only things which I don't like about this set are the excessive number of large panels for walls instead of bricks (perhaps to make it cheaper) and the look of the current dark grey bricks.

[Cavannus]

I bought this set and expected something small but brillant, as TLC has done for a while.

But I've been disappointed :

- the small shop is really small, you even don't get a door to close it, neither a cash drawer or any furniture;

- you get big wall metapieces instead (one brick to build an entire wall, I don't call that "Lego");

- the restaurant is not much better;

- the pizza oven doesn't work properly: you can open it with the knob but you must close it using your fingers;

- the third floor is very small and empty, even the child can't stand on it;

- both buildings are not thick enought.

Well, it could better, I'd prefer a detailed restaurant instead of two poor buildings.

However the bus is fine -- but why yellow?? In Noth-America, yellow buses are school buses!

[Svelte]

- you get big wall metapieces instead (one brick to build an entire wall, I don't call that "Lego");

I see a lot of criticism of these pieces, but I don't mind them. Actually the red panels serve a functional purpose in this set - the hollowed out section allows the leaning backs of the chairs to fit inside the restaurant. If the walls were made of solid bricks, you wouldn't be able to fit 4 chairs in the restaurant

[Cavannus]

I see a lot of criticism of these pieces, but I don't mind them. Actually the red panels serve a functional purpose in this set - the hollowed out section allows the leaning backs of the chairs to fit inside the restaurant. If the walls were made of solid bricks, you wouldn't be able to fit 4 chairs in the restaurant

I thought about this when building the set ("oh, without this, there could be only three chairs in the restaurant") but:

- either they could have put some windows without changing the building size;

- or they could have created a bigger building (wider,larger, and higher) and use brick walls;

- or both! :)

But I understand that for marketing reasons and due to the target (5+ children), two small buildings with metapieces are better than one single building with more bricks.

Edited July 10, 2009 by Cavannus

[Justin]

However the bus is fine -- but why yellow?? In North-America, yellow buses are school buses!

Yellow city buses are quite common in countries like Denmark, the home to our favorite building toy.

Here's an example of a Danish city bus:

[Brickthing]

I was just looking at the inventory of this set on Bricklink, and it says that the hat that comes in the bike store is the old type of hat, however the one in my set is the newer version with the shorter rim. Is this an reasonably common instance of alternate parts, or am I just lucky?

[Svelte]

I was just looking at the inventory of this set on Bricklink, and it says that the hat that comes in the bike store is the old type of hat, however the one in my set is the newer version with the shorter rim. Is this an reasonably common instance of alternate parts, or am I just lucky?

I had the new hat too in my set (I didn't notice at the time)

The red cap in the Carousel set is also the new mould, so it looks like it is just in this colour at the moment.

[Cavannus]

Yellow city buses are quite common in countries like Denmark, the home to our favorite building toy.

Here's an example of a Danish city bus:

OK, now I understand!

I'm French and I've lived in Canada for a couple of years, and in my mind a "typical bus" is white or blue. I can understand that a city bus is yellow -- and this colour is nice --, but my Canadian girlfriend spontaneously interprets this Lego yellow bus as a school bus, then she has to do an conscious effort to see it as a city bus!

[Perterz]

I was just looking at the inventory of this set on Bricklink, and it says that the hat that comes in the bike store is the old type of hat, however the one in my set is the newer version with the shorter rim. Is this an reasonably common instance of alternate parts, or am I just lucky?

I even had 1 of each?! A snew short one (a lot better imo) and an older long cap.

I still do not know exactly why I bought this set since it wouldn't fit the modular buildings of TLG but I found it to be rather original, at least since a long period and a nice reminder of my classic town set up I used to have as a child.

Deffinatly the most appealing set of the new City line imo. I gave it a 3 since there are a couple small buggers which are already mentionned.

[Darth_Legois]

I had the new hat too in my set (I didn't notice at the time)

The red cap in the Carousel set is also the new mould, so it looks like it is just in this colour at the moment.

Apparently (according to Bricklink) the Wind Turbine transport also has the new shorter cap. (in red). Also doesn't PAB have them in blue & red?

And I got some Lime (new mold) caps off Bricklink, I think the lime cap was in the pics when the new pirate minifigs were discovered.

[Brickthing]

Thanks for clearing that up guys. Someone might need to fix Bricklink though.

The Mechanic still has a normal blue cap, which is a bit of a pity. I think the purpose of new cap though is that it's one stud away from the window, and I don't think an old cap would fit pointing forwards, nor would it look nearly as good.

[kabel]

I wonder why they didn't put in 7686, because the only way to fit the minifig into the truck is by turning the cap sidewards