LEGO City 60380 Downtown review

60380 Downtown signals an amazing creative turn for LEGO City that breathes new life into a much-loved theme and offers one of the summer’s best LEGO sets.

Almost all of us will have had one experience or another with LEGO City since its launch back in 2005 when it first reinvented LEGO Town in size, scale, colour and creativity, as it looked to capture many aspects of modern city life in the cutest and most playable ways possible.

While in the 18 years since it has ventured down countless avenues such as exploration, demolition, farm, mining, space, arctic and airport – to name but a few – it has generally fallen into a wider pattern in recent years centred around police, fire and emergency services, painting the picture of a LEGO civilisation constantly in a state of chaos, with crime everywhere, fires burning in every building (and dustbin) you can see, and medical staff rescuing all sorts of misfortunate minifigures.

That focus on the emergency services is reflective of the general two-year attention span the LEGO Group believes that LEGO City has with its target audience – between the ages of six and eight, before they graduate to more mature themes. It means the theme goes big on the high-contrast, high-action settings and then changes it up every two years.

It was the same for the theme at the start of 2023 too, with a wave of new police sets. Yet, come this summer’s roster of releases, LEGO City has actually changed things up. Nothing’s on fire, no crime is being committed, nobody needs saving. Instead, LEGO City folk are living their best lives across a number of interesting, one-of-a-kind sets showcasing everyday modern life and its pursuits, and none of these is more eye-catching than the mighty 60380 Downtown.

— LEGO City 60380 Downtown set details —

Theme: LEGO City Set name: 60380 Downtown Release: June 1, 2023

Price: £179.99 / $199.99 / €209.99 Pieces: 2,010 Minifigures: 14

LEGO: Order now

— Where to buy LEGO City 60380 Downtown —

LEGO City 60380 Downtown is available now in the UK and Europe at LEGO.com and from selected retailers, and releases in the US in August.

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— LEGO City 60380 Downtown build —

LEGO City 60380 Downtown packs so much into its 2,010 pieces, offering up a modular-style, large-scale imagining of a cross-section of LEGO city life. Across a build that covers a floorplan of 52×50 studs (or 42x38cm) and reaching four storeys high (standing 42cm tall) you can find countless representations of modern day-to-day urban life, expertly built into the one truly massive set, all in a way that we haven’t seen before from this theme.

Also taking scale to a level that City hasn’t seen for a good few years (going back to those construction sets from over a decade and a half ago), 60380 Downtown includes a mini pizzeria, a noodle stand, a comic shop, hotel, mobile phone store, elevated walkway, party terrace, influencer studio, vet, barbershop, park and of course road complete with snazzy crosswalk design.

Each of these is designed as if they are their own mini LEGO City set before coming together in modular style, section by section. It may make moving the entire thing in one go virtually impossible (we have tried), but it makes putting it all together that much more engrossing, and certainly accessible for those with a shorter attention span.

Within each mini section different LEGO techniques, colours and parts are explored in a way that really goes beyond what you would otherwise expect of an 8+ LEGO City set, while coming together for a cityscape truly representative of a city centre that is vibrant and ever-evolving. This is a creation that explores as much as it can with 2,010 LEGO pieces, across both modern urban life and LEGO creativity, and the end result is as amazing as the box art and official images promise.

Indeed, for the quality, variety, scale and life that is built into every segment of this behemoth, and for how cleverly they all combine for such a busy and fun representation of LEGO city life, 60380 Downtown is a set that is far better compared to those from the NINJAGO City line, or even a number from the Creator Expert/Icons Modular Buildings Collection, and we don’t say that lightly.

Those are where our thoughts go to in building and playing with this imposing creation because, frankly, there hasn’t ever been a City set like this before – it’s otherwise incomparable and rightly stands as a flagship set for the theme this summer. It comes in a massive box, it is priced at the top end of the range (but still favourably so in comparison to other sets it should rank alongside) and delivers an engrossing, enormous LEGO experience, both in build and play.

— LEGO City 60380 Downtown characters —

LEGO City 60380 Downtown isn’t just supersized in its build, but also in its minifigure line-up, offering a staggering 14 characters. Placing them across the model gives the best context for why so many are included – they are all needed and still don’t fill up all the spaces as you’d perhaps hope. Additionally, there is nice cross-set storytelling to reward those who are a bit more experienced with the City theme, and a few new elements here and there too, including that BTS hairpiece in lime green.

— LEGO City 60380 Downtown price —

Coming in at £179.99 / $199.99 / €209.99 means that LEGO City 60380 Downtown isn’t the sort of LEGO set that everyone will be able to purchase on day one or just on a whim. Yet, for sitting comfortably into three figures, this creation delivers in every single way you would hope such a LEGO set could. It’s interesting to build, massive, colourful, has tonnes of things to play with, a huge line-up of minifigures and is like nothing you will have built from LEGO before.

In many ways this is best compared with the NINJAGO City subtheme of super-sized city sets, or with the Creator Expert/Icons line of modular buildings, and in both scenarios 60380 Downtown compares favourably, and most so in value.

— LEGO City 60380 Downtown pictures —

— LEGO City 60380 Downtown pros and cons —

LEGO City 60380 Downtown reinvents what LEGO City can and should be as a theme. While staying true to the introductory nature of this theme for younger builders, this set quite literally takes things to a new scale to showcase a side to LEGO life that this theme has in previous years been guilty of overlooking.

Capturing modern urban life with such a wow factor build is not what we were expecting from City this summer, but a glance at any of the sets from the theme’s mid-year wave suggests just the same – LEGO City has changed creative direction and we are very much here for it.

60380 Downtown pros	60380 Downtown cons
Truly massive	Moving it is difficult
Packs so much into a relatively small piece count	Makes you want to explore the rest of the theme, which could get expensive
Elevates LEGO City as a range older builders should again pay attention to	There aren’t any real faults with this one…

This set was provided for review by the LEGO Group.

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— Alternatives to LEGO City 60380 Downtown —

LEGO City 60380 Downtown leads the way for LEGO City this summer but can be perfectly supplemented by 60365 Apartment Building to give your LEGO minifigures somewhere to live nearby, or by 60363 Ice-Cream Shop that looks like it would sit quite naturally at the foot of this busy larger model.

— LEGO City 60380 Downtown FAQs —