LEGO City 60285: Sports Car Review

One of 2021’s smallest new sets is also one of the most charming. The LEGO City Sports Car (#60285) is a minifig-scale blue car, with similar dimensions to a 2019 Speed Champions set. It, of course, doesn’t have the official branding of a Speed Champions car, but it has just as much charm. And for £8.99, you can’t go wrong.

What’s in the box?

Inside the teeny box you’ll find two numbered bags, an instruction booklet, and a black ‘car base’ plate. Small miracles: there are no stickers! The 89 pieces are split pretty evenly across the two bags, although there’s that few pieces here that you might choose to open them all at once anyway.

The set comes with one minifigure; a blonde-haired driver.

The build

Seasoned builders will finish the LEGO City Sports Car in around 10 minutes, but younger builders or beginners will likely take substantially longer. It’s a great set to start out with, actually. It’s very small, so it’s manageable for those who are brand new to LEGO building. There are no complicated parts to put together, either, and the instructions are very clearly laid out, with minimal parts to each step.

There are some really neat details here, like a dual exhaust and funky rear lighting. There’s also an adjustable spoiler, which can be raised or lowered depending how lairy you want your sports car to look.

Play or display?

Despite being a LEGO City set, solely designed for play, we happen to think that the LEGO City 60285: Sports Car works well for either play or display. If you have a Speed Champions car collection, the City Sports Car is not going to look out of place. Equally, if you have your own LEGO town set up, it’ll make a great addition to any road plan.

Of course, it’s the perfect small play set for children, too. Being minifigure scale means you can place the included minifig in the driver’s seat and introduce other minifigs to the vehicle, too (although there’s no room for passengers!). The roof comes off for easy access, but there are no car doors. Not unusual for a model this size, though it would have been a nice touch.

Value for money?

It’s hard to argue the value of any LEGO set that costs just £8.99. It’s pretty much the cheapest you can pay for a full set these days, and we think the LEGO City Sports Car is one of the better pocket money sets we’ve seen in recent years. Its similarity to old Speed Champions sets, previously costing £12.99, is hard to ignore, and its lovely design and eye-catching colour means it’s a worthy addition to anyone’s set up.

So whether you’re looking for a cheap and cheerful playset, or another car to add to a LEGO car collection, you really can’t go wrong with LEGO City 60285: Sports Car. Vroom vroom.