What makes LEGO City sets so ripe for alternate builds?

Few sets manage to attract as many community-made alternate builds as those of LEGO City, and we’re here to find out why.

LEGO City is one of the LEGO Group’s longest-running themes, offering slice-of-life models for minifigures and builds that are ideal for placing around a town or city. This relatable nature hasn’t stopped the LEGO community from constantly remixing these realistic models into many different kinds of vehicles, though.

Even the likes of 60490 Snowplough can serve a very different purpose from their original intention. It begs the question of why LEGO City sets in particular are so popular with the alternate model-making community – and after trying out a couple of the fan-designed rebuilds of 60490 Snowplough, we have the answers.

Buy now at LEGO.com

LEGO City 60490 Snowplough features 263 pieces for £19.99 in the UK, $27.99 in the US, and €24.99 in Europe. While the base model is intended to shove snow off your busy streets and leave a trail of salt behind it, the community has taken the provided elements in completely different directions.

We’ll be looking at the Tugboat by PeterSzabo and the Racing Buggy by Keep On Bricking for this feature. The instructions for both are available for a small fee over on Rebrickable.

We picked these two builds for how they interpret the decorations in the model, and how they utilise the set’s elements to achieve fundamentally different builds. The answer to what makes LEGO City models work so well for alternate creations comes in four parts, starting with the core of any LEGO set.

Versatile parts

Even with just 263 pieces, the part selection in 60490 Snowplough is vast and incredibly versatile. When laid out all at once for the alternate builds, they form a veritable rainbow of hues in all shapes and sizes. Our original attempts at sorting these parts required much more desk space than expected, because of the sheer variety on display.

That’s undoubtedly a big part of the appeal for alternate builds. There’s so much potential to work with, and it encourages fans to find creative uses for parts that originally had a singular purpose. Take the orange ramps that form the plough at the front of the official truck model: in the tugboat, they become part of the dockside build to replicate the effect of a wave wall. You can imagine them pushing water back into the ocean, rather than having it flood on to the land. It’s a thoughtful detail that demonstrates the effectiveness of finding alternate uses for these elements.

In the buggy model, they’re used as part of the barriers at the side of the track. This serves two purposes. It not only protects minifigures if any vehicles crash into the wall, but also makes the finish line model more stable. Both examples demonstrate how some of the more specific elements can be interpreted to different contexts.

Printed pieces can be found across the official and unofficial models as well. The red and white decorations are used for everything from additional cabin details to a grille across the two alternate models. The snowflake prints also become part of the livery in the racing buggy.

The ladder elements, used for extra tools in the official model, even become part of the cabin in the tugboat. By contrast, the chest pieces only move further up on the racing buggy. They maintain their use but in a different way than officially intended. 60490 Snowplough is just one of the dozens of LEGO City sets to feature a highly versatile parts selection, encouraging creative remixes.

Affordable price tag

Another important aspect of how LEGO City sets appeal to the alternate build community is the abundance of smaller sets that are affordable. 60490 Snowplough is one of the larger traffic models from recent years, yet it only costs £19.99 / $27.99 / €24.99. It helps that LEGO City is an original theme with no licensing fees that would increase the costs.

60490 Snowplough is currently sitting at nine alternate builds on Rebrickable, while the larger LEGO City models don’t attract nearly as much attention from alternate build makers. It goes to show that more affordable models are easier to justify making alternate builds of, and LEGO City has plenty of them.

They’re easy to access for fans of all budgets, inviting anyone and everyone to get more out of the models. This consequently creates more alternative options for the official sets. The instructions are also often similarly affordable or free, creating an overall budget-friendly building experience time and time again.

Small and easy to rebuild

The affordable price tag of the LEGO City traffic sets also means that they’re generally smaller in size. While they have a versatile selection of parts, there aren’t thousands of pieces for alternate model designers to sort through while making their remix.

The experience is approachable, but challenging enough for enthusiasts online to experiment and create something new. They’ll frequently be left with additional parts, too, which can lead to some of the best aspects of these alternate builds. The dock from the tugboat and mascot from the racing buggy are some of the most memorable parts of their respective models, despite only using leftover elements. They don’t feel like an afterthought, even though they may well be.

A smaller parts total also serves to help those building them. It means that you won’t be creating a massive pile of pieces once you’ve opened all of the bags. For 60490 Snowplough, we only had to deal with a few bags of elements. After dealing with alternate builds for much larger models, this was a welcome sight and highly approachable.

Fewer elements and a welcoming experience are crucial aspects of the allure that LEGO City sets have towards alternate builds. 60490 Snowplough fulfils both, as do many LEGO City sets currently available.

A reliable base to return to

When putting together this feature, we knew that we wanted 60490 Snowplough to be back in its official form at the end, ready to be placed within our city. We learned much about the online community and how fans go about their alternate builds throughout this process. However, it felt good to have a reliable official base to return to.

This official option left no pieces on the side – except for the provided spares – and a suite of techniques that truly felt like they were designed with the part selection in mind. Being able to return to an official design allows us to appreciate what the LEGO designers go through, and how fans emulate their process with the inherent limitations that come with alternate builds. 60490 Snowplough is functional and looks realistic, but the alternative creations available online are nothing if not creative and have clearly shown us why this theme’s models are great and popular with the remixing LEGO community..

60490 Snowplough is available now for £19.99 / $27.99 / €24.99, and you can find all kinds of alternate builds over on Rebrickable.

This set was provided for review by the LEGO Group.

You can support the work that Brick Fanatics does by purchasing your LEGO using our affiliate links. Thanks!