Worst City Sets?

[Crazy bricks]

I mean most seem to be overpriced, so can I say all of them since about 2013? :)

[Quandale Dingle]

On 5/1/2023 at 4:24 AM, Crazy bricks said:

I mean most seem to be overpriced, so can I say all of them since about 2013? :)

That seems fair, because the school from 2022 is overpriced, and Heartlake City Park (41447) from Lego Friends had only 1 less piece than this set, but guess how much it was? $39.99. Thats right. It was $30 cheaper than the school.  And as bright22 said, “How on earth is Friends getting better and City getting worse?” I agree.

[Some Guy With LEGO]

On 4/21/2023 at 3:07 AM, bright22 said:

Since 2020, all city series are bad except these sets

60253 - Ice-cream Truck

60271 - Main Square (it's not a good set, it's only just OK!) 

30569 - Lego Stand

30588 - Kids playground

The rest of the sets are overprice, and the City is definitely going to wrong direction

Always Police station, fire station, Hospital 

Another issues Lego is thinking More pieces = more details = better look .. it's completely wrong direction - look at the fire bridage this year - it's completely joke - out of scale.... how can these brigade are moving around in the city/town

It's devasted to see Lego City is in the wrong direction but still some people are "selling" they are good ...........

When I started to play Lego 40 years+, those sets are looking much better than what we are seeing nowadays...

I am not a person NOT willing to buy new concept, or new type of bricks - I love the idea for Dot series, Friends series mixing in my town/city

Friends series is completely KO City series now... 

How on earth is Friends series is getting better, and improving in this 5-10 years, City series is going backwards and getting from bad to worst?  

(Plus, I definitely don't want to talk about the new road system since 2021....)

It's funny you state this, as I've always considered 60271 Main Square perhaps the worst City set in ages, or even ever. I mean it's really subjective, but from a guy looking to build his town it was an instant 'no'.

City always straddles the line between 'simple mini versions of real life' that could be used by young and old (LEGO tractor, ice cream truck) and sets that bear no resemblance to reality and are simply for kids to play with for fun like 60320. For a firehall, I ended up going for that winter firehall and de-holiday-izing it, as I couldn't get past the regular ones though as a kid I'd probably have no problem with them.

[The Brick Boss]

11 hours ago, Some Guy With LEGO said:

It's funny you state this, as I've always considered 60271 Main Square perhaps the worst City set in ages, or even ever. I mean it's really subjective, but from a guy looking to build his town it was an instant 'no'.

Brooooooo!  The 60271 Main Square set was literally one of the very few sets from the 2020 wave that gave me hope for the City theme. 

Edited May 11, 2023 by The Brick Boss

[TeriXeri]

On 5/11/2023 at 1:07 AM, Some Guy With LEGO said:

It's funny you state this, as I've always considered 60271 Main Square perhaps the worst City set in ages, or even ever. I mean it's really subjective, but from a guy looking to build his town it was an instant 'no'.

I agree as a set taken as a whole, it wasn't good.

Jangbricks summed it up very good "Many things, but not much stuff?"

As individual builds, it's not that bad, but a lot of them should've been their own smaller sets, like the Park + Diner, Tram with a somewhat bigger station , and then the Town Hall or Stage could go with the Limo.

Too much mashed together LEGO City Adventures focus.

2023 took a turn for the better, with having building sets focus on the buildings for like 90% or more of the parts, instead of like 50/50.

But I kind of have a similar feeling about the 2023 3-in-1 Main Street, while not filled with vehicles, it just gets out-competed by other 2023 offerings like Friends and City for this June wave.

For me, In 2020, 60271 Main Square just got out-competed heavily by amazing sets like Barracuda Bay, and the Ninjago Dungeon wave, and the 3-in-1 Pirate Ship, and Townhouse Toystore.

Best 2020 City set was the underwater base imo, which only retired a the start of 2023 (which now we know City has new Diver sets coming up in that Artic/Explorer color scheme instead)

Edited May 13, 2023 by TeriXeri

[Quandale Dingle]

On 5/10/2023 at 7:07 PM, Some Guy With LEGO said:

It's funny you state this, as I've always considered 60271 Main Square perhaps the worst City set in ages, or even ever. I mean it's really subjective, but from a guy looking to build his town it was an instant 'no'.

City always straddles the line between 'simple mini versions of real life' that could be used by young and old (LEGO tractor, ice cream truck) and sets that bear no resemblance to reality and are simply for kids to play with for fun like 60320. For a firehall, I ended up going for that winter firehall and de-holiday-izing it, as I couldn't get past the regular ones though as a kid I'd probably have no problem with them.

60271 isn’t that bad.

[Quandale Dingle]

On 5/10/2023 at 7:07 PM, Some Guy With LEGO said:

It's funny you state this, as I've always considered 60271 Main Square perhaps the worst City set in ages, or even ever. I mean it's really subjective, but from a guy looking to build his town it was an instant 'no'.

City always straddles the line between 'simple mini versions of real life' that could be used by young and old (LEGO tractor, ice cream truck) and sets that bear no resemblance to reality and are simply for kids to play with for fun like 60320. For a firehall, I ended up going for that winter firehall and de-holiday-izing it, as I couldn't get past the regular ones though as a kid I'd probably have no problem with them.

By tractor, do you mean the tractor from 2009 or 2022, or the truck from 2010?

[Silverhurst]

I have to disagree about the city line being bad the last couple of years.. While most sets aren't to my taste, they tend to fit the targeted age market with some appealing to me as well,  After you've been around Lego for a number of years it's to be expected that many sets will no longer appeal to you, since you've likely filled those niches in your collection, but Lego has to market to people just entering the world of Lego.

This year I've added the Electric Sports Car and Park Tractor to our collection, and there are some nice looking sets coming. Last year saw the Grocery Store and lunar sets (my kid's favorites last year) and the sporty police car and very nice Mobile Crane, not to mention the farm stuff. I would have gotten the Sandwich Shop if it had been available to buy. 2021 gave us the Tractor and Fire Station starter and main sets, both very nice, but not much else besides the wildlife sets and roadplates (which we all love).

We didn't buy a single 2020 city set. So if anything, in our opinion the last couple of years have actually been an improvement from 2020.

[Ondra]

I will vote for sets, that are ruined for sake of action.

 

Like banks that are ruined with police vs crooks every time.

[Quandale Dingle]

14 hours ago, Silverhurst said:

I have to disagree about the city line being bad the last couple of years.. While most sets aren't to my taste, they tend to fit the targeted age market with some appealing to me as well,  After you've been around Lego for a number of years it's to be expected that many sets will no longer appeal to you, since you've likely filled those niches in your collection, but Lego has to market to people just entering the world of Lego.

This year I've added the Electric Sports Car and Park Tractor to our collection, and there are some nice looking sets coming. Last year saw the Grocery Store and lunar sets (my kid's favorites last year) and the sporty police car and very nice Mobile Crane, not to mention the farm stuff. I would have gotten the Sandwich Shop if it had been available to buy. 2021 gave us the Tractor and Fire Station starter and main sets, both very nice, but not much else besides the wildlife sets and roadplates (which we all love).

We didn't buy a single 2020 city set. So if anything, in our opinion the last couple of years have actually been an improvement from 2020.

I agree with this.

8 hours ago, Ondra said:

I will vote for sets, that are ruined for sake of action.

 

Like banks that are ruined with police vs crooks every time.

What sets are those?

[TeriXeri]

23 minutes ago, Quandale Dingle said:

What sets are those?

Basicly every Bank set after 1997 has had cops and robbers elements added to it.

As time went on, more criminals were added : 

• (2011) 3661: Bank & Money Transfer still had a criminal, but at least the biggest vehicle was a money truck. , 1 police 1 criminal
• (2017) 60140: Bulldozer Break-In already had 3 much larger vehicles, 2 criminals, 3 police
• (2022) 60317: Police Chase at the Bank went even bigger with the vehicles, 3 criminals , 3 police

Only exception being an alternate build on 3-in-1 31097: Townhouse Pet Shop & Café from 2019

(Brick Bank Modular from 2016 is an entirely different category so won't compare that)

 

 

Edited May 24, 2023 by TeriXeri

[Ondra]

Thats why bank from 1997 is best and my favourite sets.

Guess there were kids that like to play with bank, making transfers etc. Not roleplay "Heat" movie or something like this every time.

[Quandale Dingle]

On 5/24/2023 at 8:13 AM, Ondra said:

Thats why bank from 1997 is best and my favourite sets.

Guess there were kids that like to play with bank, making transfers etc. Not roleplay "Heat" movie or something like this every time.

And beside that, what are some other sets that are ruined for the sake of action?

[Ondra]

6 hours ago, Quandale Dingle said:

And beside that, what are some other sets that are ruined for the sake of action?

Any civilian buildings, when are police and firefighters involved. Lego city is spammed with them...

[MAB]

Even the 1997 Bank set has an armoured truck.

 

A bank without any action is probably just not interesting enough for 5-10 year olds. I doubt many young kids build complete cities and want to have a bank with a couple of clerks and no action. And for older kids and adults, there are the modulars.

[Ondra]

2 hours ago, MAB said:

Even the 1997 Bank set has an armoured truck.

 

A bank without any action is probably just not interesting enough for 5-10 year olds. I doubt many young kids build complete cities and want to have a bank with a couple of clerks and no action. And for older kids and adults, there are the modulars.

Seriously im convinced you work for lego and you are here to made idiots from people that express own opinion. Every single time you fight with my own opinion, like Im complete moron and lego company is always right.

Off course bank set has armored truck, guess what they use in real life for money transfer. Shocking, isnt it!

[MAB]

1 hour ago, Ondra said:

Seriously im convinced you work for lego and you are here to made idiots from people that express own opinion. Every single time you fight with my own opinion, like Im complete moron and lego company is always right.

Off course bank set has armored truck, guess what they use in real life for money transfer. Shocking, isnt it!

No, I don't work for LEGO. It could easily be turned around in that you could appear to work for a rival company due to the amount of hate you post about LEGO products on a LEGO fan site. Whereas the reality is probably closer to I enjoy LEGO's modern offerings and say so whereas you seem to enjoy only old sets and do not like anything modern and say so.

As to the set - why do they need an armoured truck? Presumably to stop the money being stolen. Adding one or two robbers to the set would have made it more interesting for role play and story telling for kids, which is pretty much what they do now with bank sets with the cops and robbers. Having the money stolen and a chase to retrieve it adds more interesting play value than having the money dropped off or collected safely by security staff, even if that is more realistic for day to day scenarios.

 

[Ondra]

32 minutes ago, MAB said:

No, I don't work for LEGO. It could easily be turned around in that you could appear to work for a rival company due to the amount of hate you post about LEGO products on a LEGO fan site. Whereas the reality is probably closer to I enjoy LEGO's modern offerings and say so whereas you seem to enjoy only old sets and do not like anything modern and say so.

As to the set - why do they need an armoured truck? Presumably to stop the money being stolen. Adding one or two robbers to the set would have made it more interesting for role play and story telling for kids, which is pretty much what they do now with bank sets with the cops and robbers. Having the money stolen and a chase to retrieve it adds more interesting play value than having the money dropped off or collected safely by security staff, even if that is more realistic for day to day scenarios.

 

My opinion is hate of company, seriously get things straight.  Opinion is hate, for Jesus. So we are on fan site and we will be licking lego boots till end of days. Right?

That company literally doesnt care about any afol opinion, if i hate for example stickers Im allowed to do because rival companies did prints for cheaper. Is this hate, no. 

Please mind you own business, and dont challenge every opinion here...

[MAB]

3 hours ago, Ondra said:

That company literally doesnt care about any afol opinion,

They are producing more adult aimed LEGO sets now than ever before, and yet they don't care about any AFOL opinions? Get real. They are fully embracing the AFOL market now.

[CDKiii]

So much hate and agressivness for something which should make us happy.

I'm not saying that TLC is right or not, just it is a private company which main purpose is to make money. It does it selling expensive toys which makes it to have to work on a good marketing and be sure to find its customers.

So kids get their sets, and Afol being more visible they make some special sets for them.

But we have to admit that what it makes us love lego (classic lego system sets) have very few heirs, because nowadays kids prefer licence themes.

And TLG will just keep going on it in order to get more and more customers. 

And they will not lose us because we love too much this little plastic bricks.

Buisness is business, and it dosen't deserve hate or to be angry.

So make love and not war. think about what it bring us together, clicking bricks together.

[The Brick Boss]

10 hours ago, Ondra said:

That company literally doesnt care about any afol

Given what Lego has been offering in the City theme recently, I'd say they care enough. 

[Quandale Dingle]

On 4/21/2023 at 6:07 AM, bright22 said:

Since 2020, all city series are bad except these sets

60253 - Ice-cream Truck

60271 - Main Square (it's not a good set, it's only just OK!) 

30569 - Lego Stand

30588 - Kids playground

The rest of the sets are overprice, and the City is definitely going to wrong direction

Always Police station, fire station, Hospital 

Another issues Lego is thinking More pieces = more details = better look .. it's completely wrong direction - look at the fire bridage this year - it's completely joke - out of scale.... how can these brigade are moving around in the city/town

It's devasted to see Lego City is in the wrong direction but still some people are "selling" they are good ...........

When I started to play Lego 40 years+, those sets are looking much better than what we are seeing nowadays...

I am not a person NOT willing to buy new concept, or new type of bricks - I love the idea for Dot series, Friends series mixing in my town/city

Friends series is completely KO City series now... 

How on earth is Friends series is getting better, and improving in this 5-10 years, City series is going backwards and getting from bad to worst?  

(Plus, I definitely don't want to talk about the new road system since 2021....)

Not all of these sets are overpriced or bad, and we don’t always get police stations, fire stations, and hospitals every single wave. 

[MAB]

18 hours ago, CDKiii said:

But we have to admit that what it makes us love lego (classic lego system sets) have very few heirs, because nowadays kids prefer licence themes.

 

Based on the top selling themes, I don't think that is necessarily correct. Kids like City, Friends and Ninjago enough to keep them in the best sellers. And that is probably why those three themes dominate the unlicensed side - together they typically have as many minifigure based sets per year as all the licensed themes put together. I imagine it is more that LEGO prefer a fairly even split of licensed themes and larger evergreen unlicensed themes since they are easier to sell, and do not need to develop new advertising / media every year. Doing a small range of 6-10 unlicensed sets on theme A one year and another 6-10 on theme B the next, is not cost effective when it comes to marketing. Whereas small themes do work for licensed as they barely need to advertise them as the license sells them. That is probably why so many varied ideas get put into City, Friends and Ninjago when in the past they might have stood as stand alone unlicensed themes. Ninjago really covers a lot of ground, from mechs to fantasy dragons to things close to space and steampunk, cars and modern / fantasy vehicles, ancient and modern architecture, ships, etc.

[CDKiii]

47 minutes ago, MAB said:

Based on the top selling themes, I don't think that is necessarily correct. Kids like City, Friends and Ninjago enough to keep them in the best sellers. And that is probably why those three themes dominate the unlicensed side - together they typically have as many minifigure based sets per year as all the licensed themes put together. I imagine it is more that LEGO prefer a fairly even split of licensed themes and larger evergreen unlicensed themes since they are easier to sell, and do not need to develop new advertising / media every year. Doing a small range of 6-10 unlicensed sets on theme A one year and another 6-10 on theme B the next, is not cost effective when it comes to marketing. Whereas small themes do work for licensed as they barely need to advertise them as the license sells them. That is probably why so many varied ideas get put into City, Friends and Ninjago when in the past they might have stood as stand alone unlicensed themes. Ninjago really covers a lot of ground, from mechs to fantasy dragons to things close to space and steampunk, cars and modern / fantasy vehicles, ancient and modern architecture, ships, etc.

You must be right.

Maybe the feeling of less sets comes from the fact that i regroup all system sets together when they were release on a several decades, when i was child.