LEGO City 7641: City Corner

Hooray Hooray! For the first time in ages, we have Lego City stuff thats not a Fire or Police Station. Brilliant. being the overgrown manchild that I am, I emailed Lego earlier in the year and asked them why they didn't make more mundane City sets anymore and I was told to watch this space. Well, here we are!

First off, the bus is excellent. Has there ever been a Lego bus before? I'm not so sure there has been, but this version is excellent. It has plenty of seats, a nice colourscheme, lovely details (i like the adverts) and a cheery driver. Only some better doors would have improved this - or at least ones detailed to look like the sliding ones you get on real buses.

Next we drop off the jolly businessman at his bus stop (he must be an ethical city type, happy to mix with the hoi polloi on public transport!), which is a lovely detailed effort. I am particularly fond of the streetlamp. Yes, you may mock, but its a neat bit of engineering. there's no timetable, suggesting this is one of those mid-point stops where you just have to turn up and hope for the best.

Just along from this we stop off at the skate shop to hang out with Grizzly Mick (probably has tatoos and plays heavy metal or - God help us -Emo in his shop), proprietor of 'rad' skateboards and 'sick' bicycles. Oh yes, I'm down with the kids - and look here's one now on his skateboard! he's a nice touch, but i don't like the stumpy midget legs, it makes the figure look deformed (obviously, this is a personal thing). The shop is fairly sparse, but has the right level of detail for something its size, with a cheery sign and CCTV camera and funky window display. I do like the way the skateboard is hung for display. Lovely.

finally, after all that excitement, we go to the imaginatively titled Pizza restauruant (its called 'Pizza'. wonder what they sell there..?). This is a lovley old-school inspired set. The three floors are modular and clipped together, with the groundfloor containing the takeaway part with superbly worked Pizza oven and paddle for handling the Pizzas - just like in a proper pizzeria! The second floor contains the restaurant, which has a couple of tables and chairs and wine glasses. Its not big on detail, but it does the job. the attic is empty, unfortunately. It would have been good to make this some kind of office/ storage area perhaps. As with the old school sets, there's no stairwells (unlike with the highly detailed but massivley expensive Greengrocer's / Cafe Corner sets) so its down to your imagination to work out how the folk get upstairs, but frankly, that didn't bother me then and it doesn't now. The place is run by Brenda, who seems not to care that she should perhaps be wearing a hairnet so she doesn't get her hair in people's food. i'd watch out if I were eating there!

This is a smashing little set with loads of play value. It could have been improved with the addition of maybe two more minfigures, but decorated with the smaller City Mini-figures set, this really looks great. Hopefully, this will do enough business to allow further non-emergency service sets to be released and perhaps as individual pieces, rather than as a huge box set of mulitple items.

This is a good little set for any Lego City and is essentially a collection of buildings and vehicles that could probably have been sold separately, particularly as each comes with its own moveable base-plate allowing you to arrange the street however you like.

What you get:

A three-storey pizza parlour with an oven, counter, seating upstairs (no actual stairs to get there and an empty attic though) and of course some pizzas. It also comes with a female chef.

A skate and bike shop with bike, skateboard, helmets, counter, street-light and a nice little Lego CCTV camera. It also comes with a shop-worker and a kid on his own decorated skateboard.

A bus and bus stop, both are nicely designed, the bus can seat six and comes with a driver (who's dressed more like a chauffeur). The bus stop comes with another figure with a briefcase as well as a bin, some flowers and a street-light.

All in all a very nice set that fits in well with other Lego City sets, particularly the town plan (#10184). My only gripe would be the use of regular clear "building doors" on the bus which does seem odd. I'm sure that a folding version more reminiscent of those on a real bus would have been perfectly achievable.

Purchased this for my 8 year old daughter's birthday. Had trouble getting hold of it from Argos etc. but you can always count on Amazon! Great set of lego with lots of figures. It was about the only lego set (apart from the house) that was geared towards both boys and girls. She has spent hours playing with it and rebuilding it. Great purchase at a great price. Would highly recommend this lego set.