LEGO City continues to embrace a new look and feel this year, with one of the more unique-appearing sets for the latest wave being the 60363 Ice Cream Shop. We have seen plenty of ice cream and other frozen treat vendors over the last few years, mainly in food truck or slushy van forms, along with various ice cream stands and freezers. However, this is the first time LEGO City has given us a full shop for some time. Is it worth the $AUD62.99/$USD39.99/33.99€/£29.99 being asked for it? Let’s take a look.

Minifigures

The set comes with 3 minifigures. Two adults and a child.

The child has short lavender legs and is shown wearing a black singlet with a banana on under a cut-off flannelette shirt. This torso element has previously been shown with blue arms – implying a long sleeve shirt, but this feels like a weird combo for a child to wear in summer. They have short medium lavender legs and spiky cool yellow hear. There is a dual-sided face print, one with a look of surprise and the other with an excited grin. The child has only 2 teeth visible in their mouth and a slight gap, feeling like this is a small child with the first of their adult teeth coming through.

The child is being taken to the Icecream shop for what I presume is a special occasion by a significant male in their life. Father? Uncle? I’m not really sure. But there seems to be a bicycle ride, a balloon and a present of some description in question. They have a striped lilac singlet with horizontal stripes that feels like it could fit right into a revamped Paradisa line and teal legs. The single-sided-face print includes an unshaven face, red-tinted sunglasses and an unshaven face. I would say this fits in perfectly at the height of summer, probably late afternoon after a couple of days off work. He has a mobile phone, but there is so much going on that he barely has a chance to pick it up, thus allowing some quality time to be spent.

The Ice Cream Shop attendant has to suffer the indignity of being dressed as a polar bear, which is great for collectors of people dressed up in animal suits, but less great for the poor junior employee trying to earn some pocket money in the heat on a summer’s day. Hopefully, the shop is nice and cool, so she does not expire in the heat. She’s a trooper, maintaining a smile even when it looks like she is about to pass out. The suit features the shop logo on the front – an ice cream melting in the heat- along with one orange and one medium azure arm.

The Build

The build starts off with the external fittings, including the cargo bike, used to transport the young child to the icecream shop; the table, balloon and a few signs: some brick built details – yay; some stickered – also yay, because they look pretty cool! A quick call out to the bike: it features the rear frame of a traditional LEGO Bike, with a couple of bars to allow the box on from to be built up. It isn’t the first appearance of such a thing, but it is nice to see it again.

The building itself is set up on an L-shaped, 2 plate thick base with an 8×8 corner cutout. This is the same sort of plate element seen in the City Centre, with 1×4 indentations around the edges, allowing such plates to be joined together, wither to themselves, or just a little close to some of the road plates. one of the front corners of the shop is smoothly wrapping around a 4×4 quarter circle arc, while the other is square. The shop is fitted out with a fridge/freezer, containing ice and frozen chocolate treats, as well as a carton of milk. There is a large freezer, displaying the ice-cream flavours on sale, as well as a variety of sprinkles. There is also a soft serve or granita/slushy dispenser on the bench. We add in a vine in one corner, reaching for the roof.

The shop is built up around the edges, with a lower layer of white, covered with a layer of pale royal blue tiling. Transparent light blue window panels are set behind the rounded ends formed by quarter arches, which give the window a streamlined, total like look. The framing of the window is completed in pale light blue. a couple of brackets above and beside the door imply that something fun is going to come along in the final bag.

Here we add on the roof, reinforcing the outline of the building and adding a fantastic brick-built sign. This sign is great on its own, but the designers have gone the extra mile with this: not just an ice cream with 3 scoops crammed into a single cone, but they are melting, and the lines of flowing, melting icecream drip down towards the ground.

In conclusion

The final result is a rather charming model, with plenty of stories to tell: Is this a paternal access visit? A favorite uncle catching up after a few weeks away? But there are some details that we have started to expect in LEGO City of recent times: why is there no cooler or air-conditioner, dripping water over the customers as they walk through the door, as always happened at our local milk bar when I was a kid? Why is there no awning that would serve to improve the overall comfort of customers, jammed into a glass box under the beating sun, waiting for their turn?

The decorative lines of this set are terrific. and as I look at it I already feel the sticky coloured ice-cream running down my hand, warming up rapidly under the summer sun. The outside area to sit is a nice touch, and I get the feeling that this is more of a beachside resort business, rather than a main-street ice-cream shop. I am a little confused by the torso selection for the child: while it is a fun print, the flannel over singlet look doesn’t really scan with a four year old (presumed by the state of his teeth), along with being carried on the bike.

The price is the final sticking point for me. I would not purchase this set at RRP in Australia. Typically our pricing converts well from euro – but at that rate, I would expect this set to be around 10 dollars cheaper. that said, the US price (normally much cheaper than the Australian after conversion) is pretty similar. I’m left thinking that this is a set already priced to allow for your big box retailers to start with a 20% discount price at the outset, where on its release we already see it priced at $50AUD or less – compared to the 63AUD.

Overall, It gets 3/5 Arbitrary Praise Units, but its worth a bit more if you find it for a reasonable price.

What do you think of this set? Is the summer heatwave making you feel like you are melting, just like the sign? It this one to add to your LEGO City?

Why not leave your comments below and until next time,

Play Well.