Review – LEGO® City Hospital [60204]

I was pretty excited about this set as soon as I saw the first press release photos. I have the older hospital (7892, click here to read my review), which has the same color scheme. I thought it would be a lot of fun to amalgamate the two sets into one big hospital. Acquiring this year’s hospital was a bit of an experience, and introduced me to my first case of LEGO® fraud (click here to read about it). But, the headaches involved ended up being worth it, as this is a great set.

SET SUMMARY

NAME: LEGO® City Hospital
SET #: 60204
THEME: City
COST: $109.99 CAD
BRICK COUNT: 861
MINIFIGURES: 11
OF INTEREST: A baby, a skeleton, a wheel chair, a light brick
RELEASE DATE: June 2, 2018

SUMMARY REVIEW: 84%

VALUE: 87% ($0.13 per brick is pretty good, especially for the City theme.)
BUILD: 84% (Nice overall design, could have done without the helicopter.)
MINIFIGURES: 90% (Average townsfolk, loads of accessories, great brick:fig.)
ENTERTAINMENT: 75% (Good overall look, average build time.)

REVIEW

VALUE: 87%
City sets tend to be among the most expensive sets. In the last LEGO® catalog, the average cost of a brick in the City theme was $0.16, while the overall average cost of a brick was $0.12. With a price tag of $109.99 in Canada, and 861 bricks, the LEGO® City Hospital comes in at $0.13 per brick. While not a phenomenal value when compared with sets like the Creator modular buildings, for the City theme, it is great. Overall, I would rate this set at 87% for value.

BUILD: 84%
There are multiple builds in this set: an ambulance, a helicopter, and the modular units that make up the hospital. I am going to try something new with this review, and I will weight each build to make an overall score for this set. We’ll look at the helicopter and landing pad first. These builds represent 88 pieces, or about 10% of all of the parts in the kit. I am not really a fan of this build. There is nothing wrong with it, but it is nothing special either. It doesn’t stray very far from the typical City theme helicopters that are found in far too many sets. This one has a little organ transport box, or something like it, on the side. The landing pad doesn’t attach to the hospital anywhere, and just sits on the ground. I think these pieces would have been better served adding more detail to the main build. There are too many helicopters in LEGO® City already. I won’t take off any points from the helicopter, but I will only add one for the little organ transport box, which I thought was a nice touch. The helicopter gets 6/10 (60%).

The ambulance is comprised of 167 bricks, which represents about 19% of the set. I absolutely love this build. The cab has doors (which are sometimes left out of City set cars), and you can remove the roof to easily place a Minifigure inside. The rear opens up hatchback style to fit a stretcher with another Minifigure. I suppose I would have liked this ambulance a little more if the rear compartment had actual doors. I have never seen an actual ambulance that opens up like this. I give this ambulance build 9/10 (90%).

The brunt of this set is its namesake, the actual hospital. Again, this build is a lot of fun. There is a fair amount going on at every level. The ground floor has a small reception area with a gift shop/sweet stand, and the emergency area for the ambulance to unload. There is a little cart of medical supplies for the ER. This floor is probably my least favorite part of the hospital, but that does not mean that it is bad. I just feel as though it is a little bland compared to other floors. I like the sliding door feature, but I have seen it built more nicely in other sets.

The second floor has the ophthalmology department, a small lab space, and an x-ray projector. I love everything about this floor, and it is probably my favorite. You get eye charts, a microscope, and the projector actually works. There are little window pieces with Minifigure anatomy stickers on them that you slide into the machine. The light brick built into the machine actually projects the image onto the hospital wall. There are three different x-rays to view. It is a really nice touch.

The top floor appears to be a delivery room/maternity ward. There is a cot for the baby, and delivery table. The wall has a kid friendly, underwater scene painted on it, and there is a movable light fixture above the bed. It is a nice set up.

Looking at the hospital as a whole, I like that it is modular. This allows you to easily access the different parts of the structure. I am generally not a fan of the open-rear design of City buildings though. I know they are meant to be this way to make them more playable, but I would much prefer the style of the Creator Expert sets.

My complaints about the hospital are pretty minor. I will take off half a mark each for the not-so-sleek door design, the bland ground floor, and the open back concept. I give the hospital building 8.5/10 (85%). If I weight these build scores based on the percentage of the brick count that each makes up (10% for the helicopter, 19% for the ambulance, and 71% for the hospital), you end up with an overall build score of about 84%.

 

MINIFIGURES: 90%
There are 11 Minifigures in this set. In terms of design, all of them have plain legs, double-sided torso print, and only one has a double-sided face (the ophthalmology patient has glasses on one side, and a squinting expression on the other). The torsos are all prints we have seen before. You do get one new hairdo in this set, on one of the female medical personnel. I also like that this set comes with another of the female baseball caps with the ponytail, this time with a red hat. The last time I got one was in the Mountain Police Headquarters (click here to read the review), and the hat was blue. Using my rating system (click here for more info), I give these Minifigures a score of 111/165 (67%) based on look alone. However, there is a plethora of accessories to consider. For starters, you get a wheelchair, a baby and a skeleton. Then there’s all the small stuff: an extra hairpiece, a head bandage, a cast, two stretchers, two walkie-talkies, six syringes, two pairs of scissors, a helicopter pilot’s helmet, a miners’ helmet, and a baby bottle. The accessories bring the design score up to 132/165 (80%).

 

With 11 Minifigures and 861 bricks, you are looking at a brick to Minifigure ratio of 78:1. That is really excellent. The Minifigure count is one of the strong points with this set. You get a lot of great characters, both hospital personnel and patients. This set gets 100% for its ratio score. Averaging the ratio score and the design score gives these Minifigures an overall score of 90%.

 

ENTERTAINMENT: 75%
The LEGO® City Hospital took me two hours and twenty-six minutes to build (146 minutes). With a price tag of $109.99 in Canada, that means that each minute of build time cost me $0.75. That is satisfactory, but not the best value I have seen. I rate this set at 3.5/5 (70%) for build time.

 

I do like this set quite a bit. It is really nice to get a different type of building from the usual police and fire stations. While I can go for a while without another hospital at this point, I would like to see more diversity in the types of buildings that come out. I will be keeping this set more or less as it is. By that I mean that I will keep the overall feel, and much of the look of building. Like I mentioned in the introduction, I want to combine it with my older hospital set, and build up the rear wall. I also want to add an elevator or something to allow Minifigs to get from floor to floor. For that reason, I give it 4/5 (80%). With that open-for-play concept, it limits how and where the set can be incorporated into a city layout. Averaging the build-time and enjoyment scores gives the LEGO City Hospital and overall entertainment rating of 75%.

OVERALL: 84%

For a City theme set, the LEGO® City Hospital is actually a good value. City sets tend to cost more in the area of $0.16-0.17 per brick, but this one comes in at $0.13. You get an ok build-time for that price too. The hospital has a really nice, modern looking design as well, but its real strength is the number and variety of Minifigures that come in it. They are generic townsfolk, and not the hyper-detailed characters you get in some licensed themes, but every city needs normal folks to populate it too! I like this set a lot, and will stay true to the spirit of it as I redesign it to fit into my own LEGO® City. I recommend the LEGO® City Hospital to anyone looking to expand their own town. All full price, its a good buy, but waiting for a sale will make it even better.

What are your thoughts on the LEGO® City Hospital? Feel free to drop me a line in the comments below. Until next time,

-Tom