7641 - City Corner

7641 - City Corner

 

Year: 2009
Pieces: 483
Retail Price: $59.99 (paid in full)
Theme: City (Traffic)

 

This set was purchased on a whim at a store in Louisiana. The bus was unique and the buildings themselves looked fantastic which was the deciding factor. Daniel "picked" this set with string encouragement from, well, me...

 

The set comes in 4 parts - the first part is the bus stop, the second part is the bus, the third being the bike repair shop, and the last part being the pizzeria. The set holds up well to play and has a nice old town type of atmosphere.

 

The first part is the bus stop. It's a nice bus stop, but nothing that jumps out as an "OMG" moment. Really, it's hard to make a bus stop stand out. Having said that though, it does have a nice street light and a fire hydrant (for the earlier fire truck) and would look good in any city scape. It's also simple enough that it could be easily replicated throughout a LEGO city to ensure the residents have plenty of opportunity to ride on the mass transit.

 

The second part of the set it the bus. The bus looks fantastic but has some obvious faults. Given that this was one of LEGO's first attempts at a modern city bus, I'm willing to forgive them but more time should be given to the bus in future iterations. This part was somewhat complex to build for Daniel, mainly the top portion of it. The entire top row of the bus is all single studded and they are very loose. When placing the roof of the bus on, it can be difficult to line all of the sides up. Even when aligned, any big pressure placed on the pieces when trying to connect them can cause the sides to cave in. For an experienced builder it isn't too much of a problem, but for a kid it can be difficult.

 

The seating inside of the bus is awkward at best. LEGO decided the bus should keep in line with the 6 stud wide vehicles as of late, however busses are usually much wider than a normal car (thus why a bus can seat 5-6 across vs. a car which can seat 3 across). Because of this, no seats are in a row and instead the seats are just oddly spaced throughout. The doors on the bus are also slightly odd. LEGO used normal doors on the bus. Maybe they use normal doors in Europe, I don't know, but every bus I've seen in the US uses folding doors. Outside of these minor flaws, the bus itself looks great in a  city setting. Playability is moderate, mainly because it is difficult to get passengers in the bus seated properly (you have to remove the roof and maneuver them inside using two fingers). The ads on the side of the bus are also welcome and help solidify the look of the bus. The bus comes with a bus driver, complete with suit and bus cap.

 

The third part of the set is the bike shop. The store sells bikes, skateboards, and accessories. A young child complete with a skateboard and a helmet seems to be the patron of the store and a mechanic in back is there to both sell and repair the merchandise. The store is wide open and seems to be more of a mechanic shop that happens to sell items too. On display in the store is a bike helmet, baseball cap, and skateboard. It's a small shop looks good as a storefront in a city scape. It also comes with a billboard outside and  security camera. Apparently the young hooglins that visit the store like to shoplift or cause vandalism...

 

The last part of the set is the pizzeria and is made in three floors. The first floor contains the cash register and the pizza oven. The oven is nice but isn't anything spectacular and the chef is the same. The pizza flipper is normally used in LEGO land as a canoe oar, however it apparently works well as a pizza flipper as well. Trick of the trade apparently: If you ever need to flip pizza but don't have a flipper, use a boat oar.

The second floor contains the diner portion of the restaurant. It has two tables and four chairs. I'm slightly upset about the tables due to their small size though. The pizza itself fits perfectly on the table, however the set also comes with cups, so any patrons wanting to eat pizza must hold their glasses in their hand while eating. It's a small thing, but larger tables would have helped.

 

The third floor is empty and appears to be there just for decoration. Personally, I would have preferred if the plate on the third floor was removed and a chandelier was hung from the ceiling into the diner myself. Instead, the third floor can probably be used as storage or as a secret hideout for the Italian mafia.

 

All together and despite it's misfortunes, the set is a great set and addition to Legopolis. The buildings look great and aren't connected which helps a city builder place them wherever they see fit around the city. The bus helps any city look more like a city and the set comes with 5 minifigures. One of the main problems with LEGO city sets is that unless you're a police officer, firefighter, or airport support staff, you have no where to work. This set is a great asset in that department. Even though it is not one of LEGOs modular building sets. I think it could still be placed on the same city block and hold it's own.