In my second review of the Summer 2015 wave of LEGO City sets, I have the LEGO City Space Starter Set (60077). LEGO has been pushing these Starter Sets in this year’s LEGO City sets which includes a couple of small builds to help you start your City. The Space Starter Set isn’t an exception with its 107 pieces and coming in at a typical $9.99 price point. Just a note, this set is the largest, in terms of piece count, of all the smaller City Starter Sets. The contents of the box includes two un-numbered bags and one instruction booklet. There are a total of four minifigures in the set. The first one is the engineer wearing an orange safety vest over a blue shirt. He has a stubbled face with a smirking expression. He wears a white hard hat with a wrench as an accessory. The second minifigure is a female scientist. She also appears in the Spaceport (60080) but this is a easily the cheapest way to get her. She has some very nice printing for the torso which shows her badge on the front and the Space logo on the back.
There are two astronauts in the set. One of them isn’t wearing the full space gear but is in his suit which has the logo on both sides of the torso. His gear is on the rover buggy which I’ll take a look at later. However he does wear a blue cap. The other astronaut is in full space attire. He has the same torso and legs as the one but he’s also wearing the air tank piece with a gold visor. His gear is the same as the other astronaut but this one has a camera attached to it. His accessory is a neat little jetpack that he holds on to. As with many Starter Sets, there are a lot of small builds that go along with the set. First is the rover buggy for the astronaut who doesn’t have his gear on. It features a spot for the air tank piece in the back as well as a couple of attachments like an infrared camera and surface scanner on the front and a satellite radar in the back. The next part of the build is a rock formation next to a computer station. According to LEGO’s description, this rock area is to simulate the Mars terrain.
The computer includes printed tile pieces for the monitor and keyboard. There’s also a couple of trans-blue 1×1 round bricks acting as some sort of test containers. There’s also a couple of builds on tan 4×4 plates. One is a camera attached on a monopod. The other build is a couple of yellow lamps. Overall, there isn’t much faults I can see with the LEGO City Space Starter Set (60070). For $10, you get a really nice set with four minifigures, two of which are astronauts which can’t have enough of. I do like the little builds especially the rover buggy going over the rocky terrain that’s attached to the computer station. You can get a couple of these little sets to start building up your space facility then add on the rest of the sets in the summer wave to complete it. The Brick Fan Scoring SummaryDesign Playability Value Our Toys & Games Action Figures & Collectibles Creative & Pretend Play Electronic Toys & Games Sports & Outdoor Play
Check out our deals on: My son has fallen in love with the Lego City series. Alas, I let him watch a YouTube from the video game, and as we look to reward good behavior with reasonable sets, we are seeing very odd price patterns. Within the Lego City series, a simple set, like a small car or helicopter might be $10. But the police station might be 70-80 dollars. Ok, more complex set, I suppose I can accept that. But then we look at some of the medium size sets and the prices on Amazon seem very high. (Any prices I quote for specific things are meaningless since they seem to change). But we are seeing 200 and 300 dollar sets? That seems a bit extreme. Without examples, it's difficult provide a precise answer, but I'll give it a shot. Since you mentioned Amazon, I assume that's where you are getting your pricing information from. As you noted, prices from many retailers will fluctuate based on supply and demand, and that can often explain why a set is expensive.
Amazon in particular lists many sets which are no longer in production. As an extreme example, the UCS Millenium Falcon is currently listed at over $3000 USD even though its MSRP is just $499.99. Popular items tend to be more expensive on sites like Amazon after the item is no longer being produced by TLG due to shrinking supply. and others to find information about the year a set was released and its MSRP. In general, if a set was released more than 3 years ago, it is no longer in production and you will probably pay a premium to get it new and in its original box. where all of the sets will be currently in production. Just to add one more thing to jncraton's very nice and detailed response. You mentioned that your son really likes City sets. That is actually a good thing as far as getting standard prices because City is a perennial LEGO theme. The Police station your son sees at the back of an old instruction-manual may have been retired, but you can be rest assured that there is a newer version currently available.
LEGO City police, fire, construction and cost-guard sets are always available. I would suggest that you check the Online LEGO Shop for the current selection of LEGO City sets and have your son choose what he likes from there. You can also request a Retail Catalog LEGO will send you by mail every few months which contains some of the latest sets - it is very nice to browse through it. This might be a better way for your son to pick the sets he likes. If you still decide to shop on Amazon, shop only for current sets (the ones you have seen at the Online LEGO Shop), instead of retired sets. Current sets should be the same price or better then what's available directly from LEGO. Also make sure you are shopping directly from Amazon, and not from an Amazon reseller. Listings with the "Eligible for Free Super Saver Shipping" option included are directly from Amazon and should have the best price. The cheapest set for basic bricks if 6177. 650 Bricks for $30 (US). Most are the tiny ones, not the standard 4X2s, but it's still the best value out there.