Lego City 60223 Harvester Transport review

LEGO City 60223 Harvester Transport could have brought in a worthy harvest but falls short of being a bumper crop

Price: £24.99 / $29.99 / €29.99  Pieces: 358  Available: Now

A sizeable piece count of 358 and a return to farm based sets in the City theme – the last combine harvester was released in 2009 – makes for an exciting prospect in 60223 Harvester Transport. The combine harvester alone, which is an excellent rendition of its real life counterpart, could be enough to tempt most into picking this up, so the inclusion of the flat-bed truck appears to be a welcome addition.

The build for the flat-bed’s cabin is decent and the colour scheme looks striking. The shaping of the front is well designed, using some great techniques and parts usage, the 2×3 pentagons in particular are an inspired choice. The trailer is less appealing and is far more practical than aesthetically pleasing to look at.

When placed next to the combine harvester, the scaling of the transporter just does not work. In the real world, the flat bed is much larger than the combine harvesters they are transporting and it would have been nice to have seen that represented here. It is quite disappointing as the set looks far more impressive on the box than it does out of it.

The combine harvester does go some way to make up for this. It’s smaller than previous designs but looks accurate, has a great colour scheme and putting it together is a pleasing experience. The assembly of the blades is probably where the most fun is to be had. They feel nice to construct and look great when assembled.

On certain surfaces when pushing the harvester the blades will turn, but it is hard to work out whether that was an intentional design. It would have been great if the designers had found a way to include a little Technic gear system so the blades could move. The blades need to be removed to be placed on the loader, but the rest of the harvester sits on the trailer very nicely.

Of the minifigures included, the truck’s driver looks completely out of place. It’s not often that the LEGO Group get it wrong but in this case it’s an odd inclusion. He just doesn’t look like the sort of person you would find driving heavy farm machinery.

The farmer, dressed in green dungarees and plaid shirt, feels completely in keeping within a farm setting. There’s also a buildable scarecrow included whose head piece is exclusive to this set. It’s wonderfully printed with button eyes and stitched mouth on the front and printed patch on the back.

It is a rarity to have a set based around the farming industry so it’s great that fans have an opportunity to add this to the collection, but overall this is a set that promised a lot but didn’t deliver. Whilst it seems good value to get two vehicles in the set the scaling is a real issue and perhaps the parts would have been better put to use building a single, larger combine harvester?

This product was provided for review by the LEGO Group.

60223 Harvester Transport is available now at shop.lego.com. You can help support Brick Fanatics’ work by using our affiliate links.