What Makes a Great Lego Set?

I am asked this question on a regular basis.  Part of the answer is subjective, what appeals to one person does not necessarily appeal to someone else; the old adage of one man's trash is another man's treasure holds true here.  There are, however, some common characteristics that most of the sets considered great by Lego enthusiasts share.  These are the same characteristics that I try to use in my reviews to evaluate a set's merits and demerits.  They are as follows:

PLAYABILITY

As I have said in many reviews, playability out trumps all.  A set may have horrid pieces, be too expensive and be ugly as can be, but if it has great playability I will forgive it almost anything else.  The reason for this is that ultimately Legos are meant to be played with and if they meet that requirement then they have fulfilled their mission.  Playability is defined as how simple it is for a set to spawn original play.  A set with good playability will require almost no imagination to use and keep using.  A set with poor playability will be difficult to play with after a month or so because all of the options for stories that are easy to imagine it being a part of will have been exhausted.  A set that still spawns original play a year after it's purchase has good playability. 

One of sets with the greatest playability of all time (in my opinion) is 1996’s Fort Legoredo.  Its size, detail and setting make it a natural for hours and hours of play.  I quite literally played with this set for hours a week for several years. 

A recent set that serves as an example of poor playability is 8092 Landspeeder from 2010.  After you re-create the famous “These are not the droids your are looking for scene” exactly what are you going to do with this unarmed, non-flying, people mover? 

Great as a collector’s item but in terms of a set to play with, not so much.

PIECES

After playability comes the pieces.  In much the same way that a set with bad parts can be excused if it has great playability so a set with mediocre playability can be forgiven if it has great parts.  Inevitably sets get disassembled (some kids never put the sets together at all!) and when they do you want the part selection to be good so that original creations can be made with ease.  Good sets have pieces that are small to medium in size (modular pieces such as specialized roofs are bad because they can only be used for their intended purpose and not for anything else) in primarily basic colors (black, white, gray, yellow, blue, brown, tan, green or red).  Sets with primarily modular pieces or funky colors (orange, purple, lime green, or beige) should be avoided because they will be very limiting when they are incorporated into original creations.

An example from this year of a set with great pieces is 7066 Earth Defense HQ.  All the pieces on this set are small (no modular pieces), in excellent basic colors and are all very useful.

A set with an example of horrible pieces is 2006’s Piraka Stronghold.  This set is from the short lived (thankfully!) Bionicle playsets theme. 

Exactly what are you going to do with all those specialized pieces once you get bored with this set?  Sure that big mask piece is cool but what would you use it for? 

CROSSOVER

Crossover is an often overlooked characteristic that can be very important.  Crossover refers to a sets ability to appear in stories set in different themes.  My most often used example of a set with good crossover is a medieval blacksmith's shop.  That set can be used in its intended setting (castle) but will also look right at home in a dock town being raided by pirates or as part of a historical district in a modern city.  This ability to easily jump from theme to theme will add substantial play hours to a set thereby increasing it's value.

One of the sets with the most incredible crossover that I have seen is 10193 Medieval Market Village. 

This set would fit in almost any of Lego’s themes.  It could be a harbor town for pirates to raid, a historical district in a city, it could even be a technologically backward settlement in a space setting. 

PIECE COUNT

I put less emphasis on this than other collectors for the following reason, some pieces take more plastic to produce and they are worth it (boat hulls and castle walls are good examples).  Likewise, Lego will sometimes try to hide the fact that a set is not that good by inundating it with small pieces to boost the piece count.  A recent example of this is 4645 Harbor which is significantly smaller and less complete than any previous harbor offering.  This seems counterintuitive since the price and piece count are roughly similar until you see what Lego did which was boost the piece count by making the harbor a grain harbor and including a bunch of small cylinders to represent grain. 

Each of those pieces boosts the count while adding nothing of substance to the set.  In the reverse some sets have smaller piece counts but they are really good pieces which make up for it.  So I would recommend that you be conscious of the piece count (the rule of thumb is that a set with 10 pieces for every dollar is a good value) but don't rely on it. 

PRICE

Last but certainly not least is price.  This one is pretty self explanatory, some sets are just not good value.  More than any of the other characteristics this one is a judgement call because certain sets are worth more to one person than another.  If you want the set and are willing to pay what Lego is asking then go for it.  Trust your gut, I have bought several sets that I didn't have a good feeling about as it related to the value I thought I would get for how much I was paying, and that gut feeling has never been wrong; I have always been disappointed.  The biggest example of this for me was 6991 Monorail Transport Base from 1994. 

This set is captivating due to its size and uniqueness, but it is actually cumbersome to play with and does not come with enough track to really make anything cool with it.  Conversely I have bought sets that have been critically hated by other enthusiasts that I had a good feeling about and have never been disappointed.  One of the main examples of this was 6975 Alien Avenger from 1997. 

This set breaks a lot of the rules (big pieces, low piece count, not the greatest colors) but it was a blast to play with. 

There are exceptions to all of these but as general rules of thumb these characteristics can serve as excellent guides as you navigate the numerous offerings Lego has out there. 

Happy Building

The Lego Chronicler 

Falls Far Short...

4644 Marina
The Chronicler's Rating - 2/5
Price ~ $50.00
Year Released - 2011

The last true marina set was 1994's Sail and Fly Marina and for those of us who can remember that set this one, unfortunately, looks downright spartan by comparison.  In the City theme especially Lego has, over the past several years, reached back into its own history and drawn inspiration from some of the great sets of the past.  Many of the recent sets that have done this have been able to capture the magic and masterpiece of their predecessors (the last two police stations and last two fire stations are prime examples as is this years Queen Anne's Revenge).  Unfortunately, 4644 Marina fell far short of its inspiration. 

On paper these two sets have pretty much the same components, docks, a restaurant and sea going craft.  But the older set, in every respect, did each one of those so much better that this set looks incomplete by comparison.  Everything about this set feels shortchanged, the dock is pitifully small (Lego made it look bigger by adding the bridge so it would be longer but it's an illusion), the boat (it's really a raft) is small and essentially just one big piece and the restaurant and "life guard stand" are built like facades as opposed to actual structures.  Contrast that with the Sail and Fly Marina which had 2 gorgeous speed boats (comprised of no large pieces) as well as a small motor boat and a (beautiful) seaplane all with separate berths on a huge dock which was flanked by an enclosed restaurant and boat repair yard complete with crane for lifting the speedboats out of the water. 

FOR PARENTS

There is nothing in this set that your child cannot build with pieces I am certain they have in their collections.  Nothing about the construction of this is difficult and none of the pieces are rare.  Considering the price tag there is really no reason to get this set unless your child has requested it specifically and even then I would suggest you try to talk them out of it.      

FOR KIDS

Marinas are a blast and I would highly recommend that you get one for your collection, just not this one.  The pieces on this set are not very good and for the price you pay you don't get very many of them.  Furthermore you can easily make something as good as this set on your own with pieces from your collection.  Spend your money on some of the cool boat sets that have recently been released and build your own marina. 

CONCLUSION

The Sail and Fly Marina set the bar very high for this type of set.  Even factoring in the fact that this set is not meant to be a recreation of that masterpiece and taking into account the more expensive production costs Lego is facing this set still falls way short.  With as many other great sets as are currently available right now I would encourage you to spend your money elsewhere.

Happy Building

The Lego Chronicler

Take Advantage Of This Opportunity

4645 Harbor
The Chronicler's Rating - 4/5
Price ~ $90.00
Year Released - 2011

Over the years there have been several short lived themes that are revered as something close to holy by Lego enthusiasts.  One of these is the Nautica theme which came and went in the late 80’s and early 90’s.  If that theme is hallowed its holy grail would be 6542 Launch and Load Seaport, closely followed by that set’s little brother (for those who couldn’t afford the elder’s hefty price tag) 6541 Intercoastal Seaport.  Perhaps sales were not as high as we enthusiasts would think but for some unknown reason Lego waited over 15 years, until 2007, to release another harbor set: 7994 City Harbor which was so shamelessly inspired by the Launch and Load Seaport (and why not that set was pretty much perfect!) that it is safe to say it was essentially copied (though it was not quite as good).  When that last set vanished quickly from shelves I figured Lego would likely wait another decade and a half to release another so I was pleasantly surprised to see this offering only a few years later.  Harbors are wonderful sets enabling all sorts of adventures to be acted out that are hard to create on your own or with other sets and this one, though not the best, will work.     

This set differs from all its predecessors in that it is a commodities harbor as opposed to a cargo harbor.  The ship, crane, truck and conveyor belt are meant to convey and transport grain, represented by tan colored cylinders (most of you will know them as “cannonball” pieces).  My honest guess is that this change was driven less by Lego trying to be original and more by an attempt to drive up the piece count (and therefore the price they can charge) while minimizing the manufacturing costs (those cylinders take a lot less plastic than the containers found in previous offerings).  Even with that change the characteristics that make harbor sets great are still here. 

FOR PARENTS

There are some sets that any kid can easily make using pieces from their own collection (see my review of 7869 Battle for Geonosis as an example) and their model will be at least as good if not better than the official set.  Harbors however, are not one of them.  The boat hull in particular as well as the cranes and various other components are difficult to build on your own (boat hulls and other curved shapes are among the most advanced Lego building techniques and beyond the capability of most kids).  Your child will find endless uses for these pieces and they are not found on many other sets so I would recommend that you take advantage of this opportunity while you still can. 

FOR KIDS

Think of what you could do with that boat hull.  An exploration vessel?  A battleship?  A luxury ocean liner?  The possibilities are nearly endless not to mention playing with it as is.  If you missed (or were too young for) the City Harbor set from a few years ago I would recommend that you take full advantage of this second chance and get this set.  Who knows Lego may decide to repeat history and not release another one until you are in college (that was the case with me)!

CONCLUSION

In the limited pantheon of Lego Harbors this set is not the greatest, but none of its shortcomings diminish its ability to enable every type of story, adventure and creation that its predecessors did.  If you have any of the previous harbors there is no reason to get this set but if you don’t then I would recommend it to you as there is no guarantee a better offering (or if history is to repeat itself another offering at all!) will be coming and every collection needs a harbor, they are great sets.   

Happy Building

The Lego Chronicler