It is not uncommon that the largest set in a LEGO® CITY wave is some form of ‘omnibus set’ – containing a ‘best of ‘ of the range. The largest set in the January 2024 range of LEGO City certainly gives us this: a truck, a crane, an airplane and air traffic control tower, a laboratory and a cafeteria. Along with plenty of minifigures and pets, and a bit of scenery for good measure. Just not where you may have traditionally found them: it’s not downtown or the outer suburbs, but rather outer space.

This year’s trans-theme Space branding has generated a significant amount of interest between AFOLs of a certain age, particularly those who might have grown up with themes from the 80s or 90s. The sets appearing in LEGO City have been suitably impressive, offering some great value, not to mention play experiences at the lower end of the range. This set has lots of minifigures, a planet based rover, a building with a laboratory, as well as roof top crane, and command tower. The shuttle features a detachable module which can be used to transport scientific specimens from point A to point C. These were all integral features of Space Base sets that were available ‘back in the day’.

So, how does the largest set available at present shape up? Let’s take a look at 60434 Space Base and Rocket launchpad, the largest set in the current wave of CITY Space. At $AUD249.99/$USD134.99/£124.99/€139.99, this set has 1422 parts- close to the fantastical ideal of 10US cents/part.  The set sits well and truly in the realms of the omnibus grandparent set: at the top end of the range – typically reserved for special presents from grandparents, containing multiple different play scenarios.

Minifigures

The set comes with 6 minifigures, 2 aliens and a droid.

As with all of the general figures in the City Space Range this year, the torsos are identical, as are the legs. The colour of their sleeves and helmets designates their specialty, and seniority. Azure: Pilots/drivers; Bright Green: scientists; Bright light orange: junior engineer/miner; Dark orange: Senior engineer/miner.

There are two scientists: one is a young man with a goatee, who appears intrigued by what he has found. He was part of the crew on the 60432 Command Rover. The other is a repeat of the older woman from the 60430 Rover. Both scientists are wearing backpacks including a solar powered unit

We have two engineers: one senior, with a dark orange arm and helmet. He has a beard, as well as a scar on the right hand side of his face. He wears a drill piece on his right arm. I am unsure as to whether this is just a handy dandy drill, or an exchangeable prosthesis. The other engineer is a younger woman with a determined expression on her face. Determined not to lose an arm, I would suggest…

The pilot is a young woman with a hearing aid over her right ear. She is also part of the 60432 Command Rover driving team. (She also appears in the 30663 Space Hoverbike polybag, albeit without the backpack)

There is one figure with a different torso to the rest:  with a titanium metallic torso, golden arms and white gloves, the base commander also has metallic titanium legs as well as a space logo over the centre of his chest. He has a golden helmet and opaque black visor, while the golden epaulettes callback to Captain Magenta from Space Police 2. He carries a golden baton. He is the only characters in this dress in the entire CITY Space range to date.

Finally, we have two aliens, and a robot. The aliens are repeated from several of the other space sets: a bright yellowish crown, stud and printed head. The robot has a couple of rounded 2×1 plates to form tracks, as well as arms, at the level of a single lens visual unit. It is powered by a single power cell.

Overall we have three new characters here: the miners/engineers and the commander. The Pilot and scientists have appeared in other sets in the range.

Elements

One of the things that categorised space sets from 79 to 99 was the adherence to a colour palette: each theme had its own distinctive colour palette: a main colour and secondary colour, as well as a contrasting colour or two for trim. And these colours would represent the entire palette of the set.

Now, in recent times, things have changed, with the majority of hidden elements in most themes appearing in different colours, to make orienting the build experience a little easier, or to just provide an excuse to include a piece of a certain colour, tucked away in a vehicle’s core in response to a bet made in the mythical Designers’ Lounge over in Billund. NOTE: this might not be an actual lounge in LEGO HQ, but may more likely be the roof top minigolf course at the LEGO Campus, or a table in the back room at Billund Pizza.

But this CITY wave has been a little different: the majority of elements fit in with the established colour scheme: Black and White as the main colours, while the trim is typically gold, sand blue and the brand new reddish-orange. Windows are the relatively new transparent black – something which is poorly reflected in the renders in the box and manual art. We have three different window/cockpit elements presented in Transparent Black in this set.

The palette feels minimalist, but is used to good effect overall. Other colourful bursts such as the opalescent purple featured in the power packs, and the dark tan and dark orange of the landscape elements  highlight little features here and there. 

Like those days of old, stickers have had very little role in the sets that I have reviewed so far, but this set features a few  stickers: all around the size of view screens – providing information to the residents of the space base, but not obviously missing if left out during the construction. There are a few stickers in this set: about 5 or 6 all up. They were all relatively easy to apply squarely.

The Build:

The build is divided into 3 main sections: bag 1 brings us the rover,  some alien landscape along with 2 minifigures and a couple of aliens.

Landscape and Rover

Like previous alien landscapes this year, this is dark tan on the ground, with dark orange rock work, surrounding a multicoloured primordial slime, featuring some unicellular organisms, as long with the aliens we previously met in 60431.  As an expansion on the idea of the purple crystal being converted into the powered up sells, this build takes the transparent medium violet opal fern and, in conjunction with the bright reddish violet ice-cream, adds to the commodities on the planet’s surface for the minifigures to mine. 

The alien pool has a small gear to turn, which will blast away some of the surface rocks to reveal some the purple crystal.

From here, we put together a rover vehicle – a single seater truck, featuring similar joystick. The cabin is relatively cuboid, but far from simple in its construction, with tiled walls attaching to the SNOT bricks that make up the walls of the cabin.

The rear of the truck has its corners marked by corners of the now defunct DOTS frames – the arched 1xn elements/ A shovel and pick clip onto the rear of the cabin, providing additional equipment for the engineer/construction worker at work.

The Space Base

Bags 2-8 are filled up with the elements used in the base.

There are three main areas: the Cabins; the Crane and the control tower.

The cabins, at the bottom of the structure have 3 distinct areas which open up.

In the centre is a rotating rack, which gives our space travellers somewhere to hang their air tanks. Windows at one end are made up of a collection of transparent black 1x2x2 panels.

At the opposite end of this chamber is a sliding door, decorated with angled black and grey angled bands.

The living quarters have another feature window, as well as a table with 2 seats. A plated sandwich and cup of coffee awaits. There is a sink, featuring hot and cold taps, while the now ubiquitous power pack is mounted on the external wall. In the corners of the quarters are two columns, with footings to secure the base on the planet’s surface. They are decorated with a couple of stickers: a picture of aliens enjoying a sandwich, and some sort of meter on the other.

I appreciate the way angled bars are positioned to resemble hydraulics mechanisms , involved in deploying the footings upon arrival on the planet.

The third chamber is a lab, featuring a microscope, as well as a first aid kit, incorporating a syringe.  Between these stations is an airlock/docking ring designed to attach to the reddish orange docking rings that appear through 60430,60431 and 60432, as well as the Friends set 42605. 

Screens on the corner columns here demonstrate a vital signs monitor, as well as another monitor suggesting there is a new reaction between the medium violet fern and purple crystal that enhances the power generation seen by processing the crystals alone. what a plot twist!  

The roof features rounded corners, and is lined with sand blue tiles. 

After adding a door to the hatchway, we proceed with the tower. Starting with a stack of round elements, it is surrounded by a number of the girder elements, appearing in reddish orange for the first time. 

The boom for the crane is mounted at the top end, and is able to rotate through 360º.  The winch mechanism counter balances the extendable boom, and the thread for the crane is secured through a couple of small technic clips, and it remarkably difficult to lower the hook. I don’t see this as being much of a problem. The last part of this bag sees us building a load for the crane – a yellowish orange palette with a crystal and fern – ready for closer investigation.

The control room is attached to the very top, and is it a little unclear as to how any mini figures might successfully enter this room, although I am happy to imagine a lift through the central core of the crane. There are four panoramic window windows, made up of abutting 6x6x2 cockpit windscreens, appearing for the first time in transparent black.

There are two screens based on printed 2×2 45º slopes, while two 2×4 tiles with stickers make up some communications screens: one between the space base and the 60433 Modular Space Station, while the other appears to be communicating with the spaceship included in this set. The ceiling is based on a 12×12 sloped circle, and is easily pulled up to reveal the internals.  On top of the roof is a radar dish. This is a thing of beauty, with an 8×8 medium stone grey dish, and a reddish orange slotted dish.  A number of wands attached via clip and bar holders form a cone around the central antenna. the final result is very definitely an antenna designed to transmit and receive messages, and possibly, on rare occasions, blast hostile forces out of the sky.

The Spacecraft

The final section of the build brings us a spacecraft, along with its launch ramp.. The craft is built around a central core, designed to attach to a modular unit. This craft has dual finned wings, angled downwards,while the curved cabin brings us another transparent black debutante.  Dual power packs are attached at the back of the cabin, and a printed 2×2 tile tilts ever so slightly forward. The craft features the dual joysticks, as well as the transparent blue screen, mounted on a droid arm.

The Modular unit, mounted between the engines, behind the cabin, is 8×8 studs x 6 2/3 bricks high. The curve of the top of the module is formed using the 1x4x1 2/3 curved slope, as well as the 6x5x 3 1/3 arch/curved window.  This window is hinged to allow access to module, which has docking rings on both ends. It is attached to the rear of the cabin area using two technic connectors.

Within the module, we see a new experiment in progress: transferring the purple crystal and the bright light violet icecream into opalescent power modules. Energy is transferred via the relatively new stud with bar, bent 90º downward.

When the module is clicked into place, the spaceship is remarkably chunk and firm. While this year’s space sets have brought us a number of extremely swooshable spacecraft, I feel this one feels the most robust, and has a firm feel in the hand.

The spacecraft is launched from the launch ramp, based on a number of 6 stud wide plates, covered in  black and white triangular tiles, with dark stone grey up the body of the craft.  A STUNTZ jump at the bottom of the ramp diverts the jet blast from the rockets, while the new violet and purple power pack is attached to the back of the ramp.

The Completed Build

This set provides us with a sprawling complex of independent elements – the small portion of landscape, the base itself and the transport shuttle and launch ramp. The rover adds to the overall play value.

I appreciate the way the landscape explodes to reveal the hidden crystal, under the watchful eyes of the aliens. The addition of the bright reddish violet/transparent medium violet opalescent to the exploration mythology brings a level of intrigue: does it improve the output of the power cells? The duration? Just make them look more pretty?

The rover feels a little bit like a box on a plank, perhaps a little higher than you might expect for the overall size. I do like the way the sides of the truck are tiled to include the logo printed tile, as well as the consistent design language of the power pack at the rear of the truck.

The base does not suffer the from the need for  ‘imaginative force fields’ that classic space sets experienced, back in the day.  I appreciate the place to hang airtanks (and everyone seems to have their allocated space). The details in the sink are delightful.  I am curious about the aliens looking to prepare the sandwiches, and appreciate that the other screen has been used to program the music for the base.

The lab is relatively sparse, except for the microscope and first aid kit, but has plenty of bench space to fill up with experiments. Indeed, we can install the energy mixer from the transport module into tthe lab.

I love the use of the reddish orange girders to build up the tower and the crane adds a somewhat interesting play feature, and while it is probably not essential, does add a ‘thing to swing around.’ That said, the girders make for a sturdy handle to by which to lift the base up

The control cabin offers broad panoramic views, and roof top access simplifies the play experience. I appreciate little details like the lights around control tower, as well as the additional greebling added to the radar dish riding on top of the tower.

The transport spaceship is designed to accept a single module, which makes up the cornerstone of some of the space sets’ interoperability this year. It feels like a more heavy duty ship than the interstellar spaceship, and I appreciate the ramp to help get it launched.  I am curious about how the landing sequence operates – is it one of those areas where a perfect reversed landing is guaranteed thanks to the marvels of the hand of the person playing with it?

As for its swooshability? It’s Fantastic. It feels solid in my hand, and the angled wings make it feel like craft designed to go places. Not necessarily quickly, but to get there. 

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Final thoughts

I am not surprised to see some of the minifigures from smaller sets reappearing here, but the exclusive figures are a welcome addition. I particularly enjoy the callback to Space Police II’s Captain Magenta, with the use of epaulettes on the base commander, as well as the experienced female scientist on the team.

In fact, looking at the way that the senior staff on the City Space Base have aged, I can’t exclude that these are not, in fact, the same characters, with an extra 30+ years of experience. Whether it is intended by the story tellers/designers or not, I want to believe it!

This set impressed me: the minifigure selection and the structure of the main base impressed me, and the spacecraft feels so much more sturdy in my hands when swooshing it around. However, I feel the rover could have looked a little more ‘Spacy’, and less like a cardboard box on wheels. I happily give this set 3.5-4 Arbitrary Praise units: depending on its relative value for money in your country. If the set is within your budget, consider how it stacks up compared with other sets in the subtheme. Priced at $AUD249.99/$USD134.99/£124.99/€139.99 (link to this set at LEGO.com), the set is now available through LEGO.com, and other retailers.  Exchange rates are working merry havoc with pricing of sets in this range over the last few years.  At the end of the day, this set has the fourth highest piece count of all LEGO City sets. With regard to the pricing, most of the Space sets represent reasonable value between different international markets. However this set is relatively cheaper in the USA and Canada (where it is priced at less than 10c/piece) than the rest of the world. In Australia, I probably think it’s a little overpriced, but I have seen it priced more reasonably, at around $AUD212, at some retailers recently.

What do you think of this set? What about the This year’s Space range in general? leave your comments below.

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Until Next Time,

Play Well!