LEGO CITY 60330 Hospital review

Arriving just four years after the last version, can 60330 Hospital prove to be a medical marvel in the LEGO CITY line-up?

With the denizens of LEGO CITY always going on adventures – whether that’s a bicycle ride to the park, or white water rafting in a canoe – there’s bound to be some accidents. Thankfully, the LEGO doctors are on hand to patch up anything coming their way, and there’s even a clown mascot advocating vitamins. 

With a vibrant colour palette showing off the new neon yellow elements, 60330 Hospital certainly looks the part. So, is it just what the doctor ordered, and how does it compare to its recent predecessor 60204 City Hospital from 2018? 

— Set details —

Theme: City Set name: 60330 Hospital Release: January 1, 2022

Price: £89.99 / $119.99 / €99.99 Pieces: 816 Minifigures: 13

LEGO: Available now

— Build —

Spread across several 6×14 baseplates, one of the new LEGO road elements, and an adjoining waiting room, this model certainly has a lot of footprint. Initially this is put to good use on the ground floor, with a pretty realistic waiting room that is complete with a drinking fountain and even some transparent cone elements as soda bottles. A new green plant element provides some calming vibes, though it’s big enough to be at home in Day of the Triffids.

Beside the giant plant is a little children’s waiting area that has a cute woodland theme, with a forest mural on one wall and chairs that are meant to look like tree stumps. There’s only two chairs though, so anyone else has to go wait on the roof – the CITY residents better hope it doesn’t rain. 

Unfortunately, things start to go downhill on the upper floors. In the maternity unit, the hospital bed – if it can be called that – is simply a stretcher element with feet attached, while the baby’s crib uses a printed 1×2 sloped tile that was also used on Han Solo when he was frozen in carbonite, which looks really out of place.

Around the back a bathroom has been included, and while it has some great parts usage, surely the designers could have come up with something more original for a hospital. Compare this to 60204 City Hospital from 2018, which had an X-ray machine with working light-brick, an ophthalmology unit (that’s the fancy name for eye-testing), and an operating theatre. 60330 Hospital is much more basic, which doesn’t make much sense considering its predecessor had more pieces at less cost.

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Unusually for a CITY set there are some interesting angles, which use some clever techniques to create a scanning room above the ambulance bay. This particular room includes what appears to be an MRI machine, though nothing near as complex as the one by the LEGO Foundation. It’s also one of the few working features in the finished model, as the examination bed can slide through the machine. By the side of it are a few stickers that have scan images on them, including a clever one of a minifigure brain. 

60330 Hospital just feels like it has taken a lot of shortcuts. While there are some nice details, there isn’t much to actually build, even for a 7+ set. There’s not much for a child to interact with and few engaging features for play. The emptiness of the finished model is only highlighted by all the massive windows, which look on to the sparsely-furnished floors. A lot of the piece count has also gone into irrelevant details and an excuse to include one of the new cute LEGO squirrels. Flowers decorate everywhere, but the doctor doesn’t even have a stethoscope!

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Does 60330 Hospital have some redeeming features? Well, the ambulance is a good design, reminiscent in style and colour palette of a British one. The new neon yellow makes it truly look like an emergency services vehicle. If the reds and whites of 60204’s ambulance were imitating a vehicle from the USA, then 60330’s looks like its UK equivalent. It’s also sturdy enough to go on high-speed rescues through any living room or CITY display.

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As for the little helicopter, that should be familiar to anyone who’s built 41432 Alpaca Mountain Jungle Rescue. Its open-air design is practically the same, just with the colours swapped out and the typical medical insignias on the tail-fin. Fun fact about the stickers: the sceptre is Asclepius’s from ancient Greek mythology, as he was the patron of medicine.

— Characters —

Now this is where 60330 Hospital really outshines its predecessor. The cast of 13 minifigures is absolutely brilliant, and finally there’s enough staff to actually run the hospital. Apart from the baby, they are all unique to this set. Wallop, Dr. Spetzel, and Dr. Flieber are all from the LEGO CITY Adventures animated series, so should be familiar to fans of the show.

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As Wallop is a stunt biker, his inclusion makes a lot of sense, and he’s got an alternate expression with a dazed look and several missing teeth hinting at a stunt gone wrong. Another stand-out is the vitamin clown (unless you’ve got coulrophobia, in which case, hard luck), who’s got fun face-paint printing and a crazy banana yellow afro hairpiece. The women in STEM representation is also fantastic to see in a CITY set, and there’s a female paramedic alongside Dr. Flieber. 

— Price —

60330 Hospital is a tough pill to swallow at £89.99 / $119.99 / €99.99, especially because there are other LEGO sets at the exact same price point in themes such as NINJAGO or Monkie Kid that offer better value for money. At the higher end of the CITY price spectrum, this set is simply not engaging enough to hold attention for role-play, and it’s not much of a display piece either. 

For it to have justified the price tag, 60330 Hospital needed a lot more to actually do within the walls of the hospital, along with more accessories. Fans who may really want this set because of the exclusive minifigure line-up or the new neon yellow parts would definitely be better off waiting for it to be discounted. 

— Pictures —

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— Summary —

LEGO CITY has always been about bringing elements of the real world into accessible and fun role-play, but 60330 Hospital falls short. Playing with it could also prove quite frustrating as the finished model isn’t modular, so reaching the cramped interior will be tricky even for small hands. In fact, the design could have been improved by focusing solely on making the hospital really packed for role-play and then providing the ambulance and helicopter as separate sets, as is the norm for the LEGO CITY police range.

It really is a conundrum, as 60330 Hospital benefits from pieces and colours not available for 60204 City Hospital, yet it is not as good as its predecessor. The large road element has probably played into pushing up the price, but it hasn’t added that much to the model beyond a bit of realism.

This product was provided for review by the LEGO Group.

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