[REVIEW] 60422 Seaside Harbor with Cargo Ship

[MKJoshA]

INTRODUCTION
I grew up playing with Legos in the 90s and 2000s. And while I had plenty of castle and pirate sets, whenever I played within the city theme Scruffy Sam was my go-to hero. Who's Scruffy Sam? Let me educate you.

Introduced in 1994 Scruffy Sam appeared in a number of sets through the 90s. Bricklink refuses to name him, but if you look at this ad (which I found on Pintrest) and watch this commercial you'll see why Scruffy Sam always drove, piloted, or otherwise was involved in any of my town scenes. (If you want to see more old commercials check out this topic here on EB.)

When I saw the new Harbour set it immediately brought back major nostalgia for me. The old Sail N' Fly Marina was featured heavily in the TV ad that left such an impression on me as a kid. I never owned the set growing up, but I re-enacted the scene from the TV using my own pieces many times.

So can this set satisfy my nostalgia or will it leave me wanting the good old days when sets had names like "Sail N' Fly Marina"?

SET INFORMATION
Number: 60422
Title: Seaside Harbor with Cargo Ship
Theme: Town
Released: 2024
Part Count: 1226
Box Dimensions: 47.6 x 37.3 x 8.8 cm
Weight: 2200g
Set Price (RRP): £94.99/$109.99/€109.99
Price per Part: 7.7p/9.0c/9.0c
Links: Brickset, Bricklink

THE BOX AND WHAT'S INSIDE

You'll notice on the front of my box that the name of the set is just Harbour. I checked the listings for AU, FR, DE, and US and I could only find the only name of Seaside Harbor with Cargo Ship listed on Lego.com. Does Lego really need SEO help with words like "Seaside" and "Cargo Ship"? It's been awhile since I've been in an industry concerned about SEO, but is it really that bad? Where are the days of world-building names like Sail N' Fly Marina? Why not something like "Catch Of The Day Harbor"? And none of that answers why only "Harbour" made it onto the box front.

We get a warning that the models don't float. So I decided to test it.

I can confirm they don't float.

We also got a new style box where the top is actually a lid. This was also the case for the new Dark Falcon set I bought recently. Not sure what size the box has to be, but it seems Lego is using this new style for bigger sets and I really like it. It actually feels more like old sets used to when the flap would lift up and you could see what was inside the box. If we're going for nostalgia the new box ticks the box (pun intended). You can also see that each section of the build has its own instruction book.

THE BUILD
First up I built the cargo ship.

There are new reddish-orange and dark green stripes throughout the ship and the color scheme looks really good.

The control tower uses a neat combination of parts to add a flourish to these stripes.

And the boat looks good from all angles. I find the teal container to be a jarring contrast to the rest of the set. But it certainly wouldn't look out of place in a real world setting where cargo containers can be any color.

From the top you can see the very plain cargo section. Though the modified tiles with studs around the edge in the new reddish-orange make up for the plainness. There is a small hold at the front of the ship and you can access the engine from the back.

Next up was the crane. I love the bright red. The use of sandwhich tiles to continue the striping on the front is a great touch. And the crane is easy to operate. The tires on chains is very true to real-life and they look great.

The middle portion of the harbor includes some tourist information and the lamp post posters advertise other Lego sets currently in production.

In this section we have orange, reddish orange, and red all represented. I included the wedge plates for color balance. I really like this new color. It's a very subtle difference that will allow for more variety in MOCs.

In the last section we find the seaside snack bar and restaurant. The outside facade is built using SNOT bricks. And you can see the ugly injection mold points on the back of the clip plates.

This building looks really good and it's height doesn't make it look small next to the giant crane.

On the far side is a bit of beach for sunbathers. The umbrella works really well here and ties together the two sides with a pop of red to match the crane. The shower under the stairs is a nice, subtle detail.

From behind you can access the snack shop and seat people for the shrimp platter at the restaurant. I'm not sure what kind of wine they are serving but I know you don't put grape juice in those kinds of glasses. The box says 8+ Lego...

I placed the inhabitants of this set in the setting and they seem comfortable. Speaking of inhabitants, this set comes with 8.

We get a nice mix of workers and people having fun.

Now for a public service announcement.

If you've been collecting Legos for more than 5 years you may have noticed a decline in quality, especially with the injection mold points or sprue marks. It didn't use to be this bad as you can see in this photo I sent to Lego CS:

Injection marks have always been present in Lego, but they have gotten either more noticeable or even include rough edges around the mold point. I encourage you to ask Lego for replacements for any pieces that have really bad injection points. I've noticed they are especially bad on tiles and curved slopes. Lego's moto is "Only the best is good enough." Hold them to that. They will only change their production method if it starts to hurt them financially to keep using shoddy methods.

OVERALL

When it's all assembled the Harbor takes up a large footprint. The little jet-ski and water boat fit inside the shipping containers to be loaded on the boat if you don't want to use them in the harbor. There are many different play elements and my kids have been thoroughly enjoying the set. The number of times they have loaded and unloaded the containers is a credit to the set designer understanding what kids want with their Legos.

But what about the nostalgia factor? This set has a lot of similar elements to the 1994 version. I doubt the designer was trying to copy it exactly, but it seems like they were inspired. With all the 90s references showing up in sets now a days like Johnny Thunder and the straight up Eldorado Fortress re-make I really wish they would have paid homage to Scruffy Sam. I need an updated bomber jacket and aviator wearing stubble-bearded man in my Lego collection!

SCORE
How do I rate this set?

DESIGN 10
This is not a creator expert set, so I don't expected all tiled floors or crazy building techniques. That in mind I think this set is perfectly designed for a standard, City line set.

BUILDING EXPERIENCE 8
This was not a boring build, but there also weren't a lot of cool techniques. Overall it was fun to build.

FEATURES 9
The missing feature is Scruffy Sam. If they had included him it'd be a perfect 10.

PLAYABILITY 10
With how much this set has been played with, more than even the other two sets Lego sent me to review, it certainly succeeds in playability.

PARTS 8
There are a good amount of parts in the new reddish-orange color. And overall the parts are varied and used well.

VALUE FOR MONEY 10
Even with inflation accounted for this set is a good value. Yes, it's just over that $100 mark. But you get the parts to support the price tag.

FINAL SCORE: 9
My nostalgia itch has been scratched by this set, not to perfection but it gets close. This is a nice set with lot of play value. It allows for fun world building and storytelling which is what Lego is all about for me. It takes up a large footprint and uses the space well to include fun features. This set isn't going to be for everyone, but if you like Town/City or just want to get your kids something besides Star Wars Legos to play with for a change (guilty) this is a great choice.

[Brick900]

It’s a pretty good set. Not perfect, but pretty good. I wonder how it would fit into a city.

[LEGO Train 12 Volts]

Despite being a modern set it maintains a certain retro feel that makes it fascinating!

The review is very interesting and well done...the only thing I wouldn't eat at the restaurant would be the crabs collected in the polluted waters of the port!

In any case I find the snack bar and restaurant layout very characteristic.

[Mr Ogel]

Luckily I have still the old harbor sets 6540, 6541, 6542 and 2* 6543. Together with extra platform pieces and realated sets a nice setup. 

But this set is certainly for nowadays a nice setup, too. About floating ships - I had the old floating ones from the 70s - I need once to put a ballon inside the hull trying to make it float 

[SpacePolice89]

This seems to be a very nice set. Thanks for the review, it was a very interesting read!

[Jim]

4 hours ago, SpacePolice89 said:

This seems to be a very nice set. Thanks for the review, it was a very interesting read!

Agreed! This is a very nice set.

Thanks for the review!

[Etwas]

Edited September 21 by Etwas

[MKJoshA]

On 9/21/2024 at 11:07 AM, Etwas said:

That is a fantastic mod and the perfect way to add this set to a train layout

[Etwas]

34 minutes ago, MKJoshA said:

That is a fantastic mod and the perfect way to add this set to a train layout

Thank  for raiting my MOD. Unfortunately, Im new here and dont quite understand it. There was a desire to show the desing of the MOD in more detail, but unfortunately it turns out that I spent the entire limit on file attachments, alas. Besides, English is not my native.

[Jim]

12 hours ago, Etwas said:

Thank  for raiting my MOD. Unfortunately, Im new here and dont quite understand it. There was a desire to show the desing of the MOD in more detail, but unfortunately it turns out that I spent the entire limit on file attachments, alas. Besides, English is not my native.

Hi. Welcome to EB. We don’t host images here on EB. You can upload images to Bricksafe (free) or Flickr. Then you can use the link to the image to embed it here.

[Kalhiki]

I keep eyeing this set. It really does have a fun, retro appeal. Thanks for the review!