LEGO City 60290: Skate Park Review

If you stick to packaged LEGO City sets when building your own, er, LEGO city, you’ll likely find that it’s quite business-driven. You’ll have shops and maybe an auto repair centre, while emergency services also buzz around to keep everyone safe. But what about when it comes to simply having fun? The residents of LEGO City haven’t been given much to do recreationally over the years, but this Skate Park aims to change that.

What’s in the box?

Inside the box are two bags, unsurprisingly labelled 1 and 2. There are also two instruction books – one for the actual skate park, and another for the accompanying juice truck. Four minifigures are included with the set, spread across the two bags.

There’s also a sticker sheet with four stickers, and a new road plate. Chances are you’re going to accumulate lots of these new road plates over time, as they seem to come with most new LEGO City sets over a certain size.

The Build

Starting with bag 1, you’ll first build a minifig – an orange juice saleswoman, to be exact. She’s got a nice printed torso and holds a mobile sales terminal. After that, it’s onto building the truck that carries the juice from location to location. It’s a simple but fun build, and the end result is rather sturdy. You’ll use three of the set’s four stickers building the truck: a number plate, and two strips that adorn each side of the vehicle.

Upon finishing the truck, you can get on with building the real star of the set – the skate park. Though not before building yet more minifigs; three of them, in fact. There’s a young girl who rides a skateboard, a BMX biker, and someone who doesn’t let being in a wheelchair get in the way of their love of extreme sports. All three have printed torsos, while the young skateboarder also has a double-sided face – you can make her look very happy, or shocked.

When it comes to the actual skate park, you’ll find yourself building the obstacles first; that’s two ramps, one bigger than the other, and some kind of pivoting platform. Once that’s done, it’s time to bring the road plate into play. You’ll fill in its blank spaces with two road markings and two plates, which can be used to attach a couple of your obstacles.

The largest ramp is attached to the periphery of the road plate, as well as a plate with an attractive-looking tree. There’s also a small wall on which the last sticker is placed – a rather cool-looking piece of graffiti. The final touch is building a couple of additional railings and some flag poles that you can place around your model if you wish.

Overall, it’s an easy build but a varied one, keeping your attention from start to finish.

Play or Display?

As this is a LEGO City set, it’s very much meant for play. It’s quite good for play, too, thanks to its fun nature. Kids will enjoy moving the car around, as well as manoeuvring the skateboarder, biker, and extreme wheelchair user up the included ramps and through the park. It does also make a nice display piece, though. If you have a substantial LEGO city built up and want to inject a bit of joy into it, it’ll do the job quite nicely. The new road plates are great, too.

Value for Money?

Like many LEGO sets, LEGO City 60290 Skate Park is much more impressive once built than it looks on the box. the juice truck is fairly substantial, though its inclusion is questionable; it really isn’t necessary. The skate park itself, though, looks really great, and the four minifigs included are varied and rather neat.

For any LEGO fans who’s into extreme sports, LEGO City 60290 Skate Park is a must-have. Even more so if they have their own LEGO city that’s in need of an injection of fun.