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After having a look through a 2014 Lego catalogue, I can announce which 2014 city sets will be released next year.
The police sets look very much like the last wave ones especially the mobile unit which seems to be smaller than the 2011 one as well as the police station also being noticbly smaller than the last 2 however there will be a small helicopter included.
There also seems to be a smaller range of great vehicles including a race car, light repair truck and monster truck which I expect to cost around £8-£10.
In terms of the great vehicles, the tow truck looks very nice with a. Beautiful blue colour scheme whilst e camper van is similar to the 2010 one but includes an oar boat as well. The jeep with boat though is a bit of a cross between the small robber getaway set and the coastguard water jet set released last year.
The highway transporter is another great looking truck which includes a car with a yellow colour I think and the airport fire truck is quite a large scale one and looks interesting however not one I'm too interested in. So what des everyone think?
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I am looking forward to seeing the great vehicle sets, they are perfect for my son. Like the sound a blue tow truck
Funny how I always end up in the off-topic parts of a discussion... :-P
Then again, if it's a choice of ask about the new police station or Duplo, were there any Duplo elephants?
As for what do I think about City 2014? It all sounds beyond boring. My son will not even look at any of that. I do appreciate you sharing, though.
Any word on creator houses?
Harbor in 2011 was nice and they have just re-released some Airport cargo and "Coast Guard" sets that are great!
Plus 2 trucks with Monster Truck and a Formula Car, City Garage... Honestly, that is enough variety, specially when we can combine all that with the modular buildings and creator houses and trains...
Growing up through the 80s I don't remember having vast swathes of city lego. My friend had the airport and some planes, i had a few bits but in terms of interest/desire it came a long way behind space, castle etc. I enjoyed playing with my friends airport for about 5 minutes, where as castle would keep me entertained day in day out.
To me it seems that CITY really provides a way to get young children into LEGO. There is that time in almost all boys (and girls) lives where seeing a fire engine is about the most exciting thing in the world, but they quickly grow past it. Theres a time when fire and police lego is the most exciting, they get hooked on what is probably seen as about the perfect toy for that age of child by many parents. A year or two later when they have the entire range of police lego they move on to more exciting/challenging lines. Its like the gateway drug of the LEGO world, and it works perfectly for them.
I have identical twin boys at the age 7. One kid loves everything City, Creator and dreams of having the modular pet shop. Loves the "Real Life" situations and simulations.
The other does not bother with any "real life" stuff, loves Star Wars, Super Heroes and Monster Fighters. Recently, he is into Lord of The rings and has been through plenty of Harry Potter and NinjaGo. Pretty much anything that has a weird monster on it attracts him, and he did not went through the City phase.
Just two sides of the same "coin", lol!
I blame it on the 5-10 year old boys TLG uses as focus groups. It's all their fault.:D Going by the fact that TLG does release a wide variety of buildings in Friends, I'm quite sure they'd do the same in City as well if they saw the demand.
For that matter, Heartlake City is so idyllic, that they don't even need police or any other emergency personnel, even when they leave their homes wide open while cruising in their yachts and being featured on Lifestyles of the Brick and Famous.
Police motorbike-£4.99
Police car chase-£12.99
Prisoner truck-£17.99
Mobile Police unit-£29.99
Police 4x4-£39.99
Police helicopter-£49.99
Police station-£79.99
Vehicles/
Light truck,monster truck & race car-£7.99 each
Tow truck,jet ski transport,camper van & logging truck-£17.99 each
Highway truck & airport fire truck-£24.99 each
So the police stations gone up £8 since the last one, definitely won't buy since I have the 08 one which cost just £50. Most sets aren't bad value but £18 for the prisoner truck and camper are a bit much though.
I've heard some complaints that the real issue with today's LEGO City buildings vs. the LEGO Town buildings of yesteryear is that today's vehicles are larger — thus, if you put a vehicle in a set it will eat up more of the budget, and it will take a bigger building to seem substantial in comparison. I guess this is a valid point, but I personally like the switch to 6-wide for larger vehicles. Makes the vehicles feel a bit more diverse than if all vehicles were using the same size chassis.
In any case, I do think it'd be great if there were more structures in LEGO City. Unfortunately, vehicles have a lot of inherent play value that buildings can't easily match. To a young kid, a building will always just be a place where things move about, while a vehicle actually does the moving about.
Another issue, naturally, is that other than flagship sets like police stations, fire stations, and garages, the TYPE of buildings that you find in LEGO City are typically fairly small in size. The biggest buildings in a real city tend to be things that would probably bore a lot of kids if built to scale, such as office buildings and warehouses. Perhaps more importantly, these are places that younger kids don't spend a whole lot of time and so might not fully understand what goes on. A school might work, but then again that doesn't have the same sense of escapism, does it? :P
On a side note, the bias towards vehicles is hardly new. In the debut year for LEGO town, there were 28 sets, not counting road plates. Of these, only six included permanent structures, and two of those six were promotional sets! That's hardly any better than this year, especially if you only count standard retail sets rather than polybags, co-packs, and advent calendars. Out of 27 such sets this year, nine include permanent structures, and only two of those are retailer exclusives.
In the olden days, years with fewer sets tended to have a better ratio of sets with structures to sets without structures, but I think that's partly because back then sets were not retired as regularly, so there wasn't a constant need for a new wave of affordable vehicle sets to come in and replace the old ones.
I agree that LEGO should make more buildings though. I think they are relying on whenever the City Corner is re-released to everyone, and you have the Town Square now. But I agree that they need cheaper smaller buildings and could do them.
Heck How about a Gas station again FINALLY. I love how you can sell a gas tanker, but with no place to go.
I'm guessing they do not sell that well, but I fail to see why. Lots of activities can occur at the Gas station (especially if you also add a garage to it -hint hint LEGO). Heck if they love police so much, have the station getting held up or something. But the city desperately needs a gas station (and no I do not count the one in the city Garage set)
They also have enough bits to make a small corner grocer type store as well.
I mean they have milk cartons, orange juice cartons, meats veggies fruit, etc.
If LEGO needs inspiration just go down to the vault and get an early to mid 80's catalog.
I look at it as them making money on things like this allow them to branch out and make Exclusives like the Modulars that they might not make as much money from.
My daughter is just nuts for the Friends stuff... :)
With all the LEGO police, there should be a Donut shop set. ;-)
Police sets: "I just got all of those last year"
Race Car: "It's cool but who does he race? If I buy 4 of the, they will all be the same. Where is a track?"
Light Truck: "I have that but mine is better."
Town Square: "I have a Piazza house and bike store."
Only thing of interest is the Car Transport. "But where do I take the cars to?"
So, yes, they sell like crazy but if someone started collecting 3 years ago, are they too smart for City now? That's one boy who won't be buying much of City this year.