Lego City Harbor -551pcs.

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This is an accusation I often heard leveled against BIONICLE sets back when I was extremely active in that community. The cab itself is a little bare - not even a gearstick breaks the monontony; there's also no handy place for Terry to put his mug. The dock could have been really good if they would have constructed it the 'Creator way', with a combination of big plates and 8x16 tiles. Note the small but nicely striped funnel; what purpose it serves I don't know - this ship has neither engine nor propeller.

Here, a few bricks and a mast are the only decoration, but there's a nice perspective view up to the bridge.Join the LEGO City minifigures for some fishy adventures down at the harbour in this awesome activity book. My 4 1/2 year old managed to put this together by himself with the clear instructions and loves the little beach buggy that is part of the set. Building Techniques: How much skill do you think the creator of this MOC has, in terms of building technique? I was worried there for a moment that you might use your amazing reviewing skills to sell me on a set that I'm really not keen on. The floor of the harbour, and the road the baseplates form, is a mere baseplate-thickness above the waves, with a meagre brick-wall separating road from water.

I have had a number of similar experiences when building a set with someone who's less adept at the process, and witnessed even more when watching friends build independently. On the whole, the offloading action - the centrepiece of this set - works really well, and is fun in the process (though I can't imagine doing this for hours on end). However, something that's often ignored is that not everyone has the sort of thinking patterns that make LEGO building so easy.

It's all really about the crane/conveyor, and all else - design, aesthetics, figures, build enjoyment - were sacrificed. I wasn't thrilled when I first saw photos of the new one and although that this review shows every detail of it I'm still not impressed. Back when I was nine or ten years old, I had a LEGO-themed birthday party, and my dad bought several of the then-current ThrowBots/Slizers sets for people to build for a disc-throwing competition. So we can't always assume that everyone understands the simplicity inherent to the building process in LEGO City sets. It's an interesting technique, and probably the most advanced construction method in the entire set.

Even the crane (which people say was a good point) couldn't handle large loads and was very easy to break. The twin cargo holds are each covered with a bley grille plate attached to two 1x8 plates with door rail; these allow a little movement, as you can see from the forward hold. The ship is great because it has a big hull, it's blue (blue is my favourite colour), it fits as many cargo boxes as you want, it floats, and is very detailed. Use the crane to unload the grain from the cargo ship, then drop it onto the conveyor belt and move it into the awaiting truck. It surprised me how many kids at the party had difficulty following the simple pictorial instructions-- many would put pieces in the wrong places or at the wrong angle.All images of LEGO products and scans of original building instructions are copyright The LEGO Group. Not even a coffee machine There's also no ladder or stairway to access the crane, requiring either the Hand of God or the magical gift of Levitation to allow Clive to do his job. I'd rather have had some track and a little bit of Technic than this single piece, but I guess LEGO need to keep things simple for the kiddies. Only the farmer torso, seen before in the Farm range ( 7634 Tractor to be precise), has any back printing. For me, it'll supply a few useful but rather expensive pieces to the collection, while the boat hull and baseplates will go into the useless parts bin next to the Fight in the Flying Wing's wing-piece.

As an owner of 7994 this set isn't highly compelling, but I still haven't got a hull of that design so we'll see! There's plenty to do with this set: dock the ship, grab the bricks, swivel the crane, move the conveyor, load the truck, drive the truck, tip the cargo onto the floor, drive the truck into the the water, swing the crane so the bucket knocks over the figures and bashes the ship, sink the ship into the murky depths of the bath. The tipper is a simple construction of wall element panels on plates; two black 1x2 cheeses prevent the tipper's contents spilling too easily.Looking beyond the size, the three main elements come together nicely, and form a colourful arrangement that does promise a load of fun play features, the centrepiece of which we'll look at presently. The red knob at the rear winds the windlass, which raises and lowers the grab-bucket; however, you can just move the jib to attain much the same effect. 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. One is spare; in contrast to the ones found in the Collectible Minifigure sets, these have a very small closed hole at the tip - no handy slit - inducing needle-threading anxiety as we shall see later.