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Rufus

Review: 4645 CITY Harbour

  

57 members have voted

  1. 1. How do you rate this set?

    • Poor
      5
    • Below Average
      15
    • Average
      22
    • Above Average
      11
    • Outstanding
      4


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The whole raised baseplate thing I understand people not liking it without. But 95% of people's city layouts have the water level with all thier road plates anyways. So thier town layouts, everything is water level. Why the issue? I was one who also said the should be raised plates but then after looking at it, nothing else is raised anyways.

Still, a bad looking set regardless.

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This is a great review and I enjoyed reading it. I have to agree with the comments of other posters that it appears to be rather 'thrown together' and <insert that tiresome argument>. I prefer the Marina over this.

I didn't get 7994 from 2007 but I do have MISB copies of 6541 and 6542 :sweet:

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But people were able to build Lego sets for decades using instruction manuals with less luxuries than modern day ones. At the age of 5 I was able to build fairly large sets without too much difficulty (except if there was string...), and usually 10+ pieces were added each step with no special indication of where they went. Whenever I build modern sets I often find myself flipping a couple pages ahead between steps so that I can add more than 1-2 pieces. I believe TLC has gone a bit too extreme with the simplicity of their manuals. I have a larger stack of manuals from the past 3 years of collecting than I do from the 20 years before that - simply because manuals are so much longer or else there are multiple ones.

But you see, this difficulty applies to some people, not all people. LEGO certainly has a reliable fanbase among fans who could build those sorts of older sets without difficulty, but the sets shouldn't be designed to be exclusive to people with those sorts of thinking patterns. And in truth I tend to prefer the simpler building instructions because I tend to build with my siblings, alternating steps. Even when I don't, I am very comfortable taking things slowly and step-by-step rather than rushing through several steps at once.

I think Rufus was complaining more about the thin baseplates as opposed to the inclusion of baseplates. The general consensus seems to be that most of us want raised road plates for our harbours. While I'm on the topic of baseplates, it seems as though most AFOLs aren't opposed to regular 16x32 or 32x32 baseplates, but instead it's the elaborate raised ones that they are less keen on. I think you mistake that sometimes.

What I'm talking about is how many people seem to be terrified over the removal of baseplates from the Creator theme in favor of regular plates, and worrying that baseplates in general will disappear completely. You see the same sorts of complaints about the Marina set-- people think that the use of regular plates rather than baseplates is a cop-out, and that there should have been a large blue baseplate under the whole structure. This is a set that explicitly uses traditional baseplates, and yet it demonstrates that those baseplates are not a solution to all of life's problems, and that thicker plates would in fact be preferable for this sort of structure.

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This to me just screams of being 6543 with less stuff. ~200 less pieces (OK, 6543 had brick built boats) for a similar enough price here inflation wise - IE£45 in Smyths in 1994 for 6543, €90 for 4645 there now.

Long core section with road area, check

Pier off perpendicular, check

Pickup truck, check

Crane, check

Big boat, check

Edited by Cian

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The crane looks a little duploish to me. Maybe a change of colour?

Still its an ok set.

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Sorry to bump this topic, but I was pondering taking advantage of the recent TRU sales and getting this set and the marina but I just cannot pull the trigger. These harbour sets are a step back for the LEGO City theme, however the marina is not too bad and I'm cool with the four other recent harbour sets. As far as this set goes, besides the ridiculous colors, the design is just bad, TLG can do better. There is really no need for the conveyor belt when you have a claw crane. It was like they were just trying to add redundant features to boost the overall size of the set. As stated in the review no details inside or outside the structure. I could go on, but maybe I'm being picky. These sets are most likely geared toward younger kids and that's fine but I'm sure they TLG could have come up with better designs. But then there is that new cargo train... :hmpf_bad:

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Actually just built it last night. Seems like they put an emphasis on playability over detail, which seems to never take place in the best Lego sets. Still, I was surprised at how big both the Marina and Harbour are once you've put them all together. I have no previous harbour sets so I definitely wanted to add this one, and I don't regret the purchase. The DSS is laughably bad, I'll certainly admit that.

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Very funny. Great review. The 90's had some of the greatest lego sets. I call it the lego golden age

P.S. is it just me or is the lego company making the instructions more basic and simple as if all the sets were designed for little children

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Very funny. Great review. The 90's had some of the greatest lego sets. I call it the lego golden age

P.S. is it just me or is the lego company making the instructions more basic and simple as if all the sets were designed for little children

Some kids have more difficulty following simple pictorial instructions than others. I remember one time during my childhood having a LEGO-themed birthday party, and having the Technic Throwbots/Slizers sets as party favors. I can recall being extremely surprised how much difficulty some of my peers had building them.

To make a long story short, there are a lot of us who are just naturally attuned to LEGO building and who don't realize the difficulty others of the same age may have had. Still, TLG can't afford to alienate the audience of kids who has more difficulty following instructions by making the directions more frustrating for them.

Also, I'll warn you about that broad generalization of the 90s being LEGO's "golden age". True, some of the sets were good, especially in the early- to mid-90s (I may be influenced by nostalgia, as I'm a 90s kid), but at the same time the late 90s brought the "Town Jr." era, which hardly any AFOL would be proud of.

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Excellent review 'Rufus' and, that clip on the bottom is for a motor. A special orange motor came with the old police boat, and that clips onto the bottom.

7899-1.jpg

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Great review, Rufus :sweet: even though i think you're a bit too critical. Sure, the building is basic, at best, and the crane doesn't look appealing to me, however the return of the yellow crane part seems like a nice touch... Sure, the baseplate could have been better too and the boat may lack a few details and a crew. Still, none of these elements are impossible to correct. They're no design flaws, IMO. In any case, i've seen worse... a hell of a lot worse...

i love the truck, though. As you said, Lego is getting really good at creating these models and this could be a stand-alone set. I'm missing here a pneumatic support element for the tipper truck, but oh well, you cant have everything...

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Having missed out on the previous Harbour offerings, I was looking forward finally to getting my hands on LEGO's latest seaport diorama. At face value, it seems to offer a lot: a sizeable ship, harbourside structures with working crane and conveyor, an attractive and useful tipper truck. However, now we've scrutinised the various features in some detail, some major flaws have started to show.

[...]

Having built and reviewed LEGO's latest Harbour offering, I can't help feeling disappointed. It seems such a step down from the previous harbour incarnations, with second-rate buildings that look like mere support for the working features, a smaller than expected ship on an ugly hull, and flood-prone baseplates that are next to useless. And all this with a sizeable price-hike: blame inflation and the boat hull all you like, but at 13 pence per piece this set doesn't return nearly enough for your outlay.

Yes. Yes, yes, yes.

I felt exactly the same, having missed out on the 2007 harbor as well. I was looking forward to a new harbor theme ever since I realized I have a few small boats among my city stuff, but no harbor to put them in. This and the marina are both very disappointing. I know they're gearing these sets more towards play features than proper looks these days, but this stuff is just getting rediculous. A definite pass on both this and the marina set for me.

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Hi Rufus

Dont feel bad foor being over critical. Isn't that what a personal review is about. If it needs to be criticised them so be it. After building it with my son I agree with you whole heartedly. I missed out on the 2007 Harbour as I hadnt got back into lego at that point but want one.

For me the crane is too prone to breaking off its pedestal! Plus like you I can't understand why the conveyor tilts backwards. The colour scheme reminded me like others of the mechanic garage from yester year. And I'm another that doesnt understand why the road is not raised like previous harbours.

Onto the boat and this is probably now a standard base for lego. Makes economical sense for them. But for the bridge and accomodation well think not much imagination has been put into this. The cargo which is meant to be grain probably would have been better being round plates instead.

A couple more minifigures would have been nice especially another harbour labourer and a couple on the boat.

Anyway I was fortunate to buy this when ToysRUs had a 20% off weekend and coupled with a £5 off voucher it brought the price down to about £53 which for me makes it a more reasonable price.

Cheers

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Pros

My 22 month-old toddler *loves* this set (supervised play). Turning the conveyor tests his dexterity. He likes the mouse (rat), the fish, the figs, the truck and the crane.

The colour scheme is awesome. The set uses a wide range of colours, but each major item uses colour carefully.

It's retro. My first proper lego set was a blue-yellow garage in similar style. http://www.brickset.com/detail/?Set=6363-1 :wink:

Lots of play value. My toddler moves the grain pieces from truck to boat to conveyor and round again.

Crane is good + plays well. Better than crane in 7994 which breaks constantly.

Nice truck.

Cons

Red + white harbour light. Breaks a lot.

Pointless street lamp. Doesn't add much.

Weird unused space at the back of the ship. Should have moved the house back and had three holds, or put something in the space - either a dinghy or some cheap greeble parts (tools and such).

No anchor on the ship.

Would rather have had a little more ship greeble and a little less dock greeble.

Grain sticks under the lip of the first hold.

Meh / neutral elements

Too expensive at full retail price. I got it for about £54 on sale. Very happy at that price. If the set was a bit more polished (see above), would have paid ~£65 happily.

The 'flat' dock doesn't bother me. The dock parts in 7994 aren't as playable as these ground level parts. My toddler can drag this one around the carpet without bits falling off.

Would have been nice to have a way to load the ship. Maybe a bin to dump the truck into, then use the crane.

Think this will play nicely with the red cargo train - my toddler will love that on Christmas day.

Edited by andythenorth

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