I am finally taking a look at the new City theme road plates. They came out last January. As I collect road plates, I am also taking the time to review the kits they come in. Recently, I took a look at the Skate Park. Today, I examine Shopping Street (60306). Initially, I was excited upon hearing of this set. Shortly after, the first pictures surfaced, and my excitement faded a little. The box images make the shops on the street look like nothing more than facades. Regardless, I was keen to get the set for the road plates if nothing else. Let us see how the set fares as a whole.
Note: The LEGO® Group provided this set for review. However, the provision of products does not guarantee a favorable review. I will use my usual rating system (click here for more information) and provide my honest opinion.
SHOPPING STREET SUMMARY
- NAME: Shopping Street
- SET #: 60306
- THEME: City
- COST: $99.99 CAD
- BRICK COUNT: 533
- MINIFIGURES: 6
- RELEASE DATE: January 1, 2021
SHOPPING STREET QUICK REVIEW
- VALUE: 62% (Satisfactory cost-per-brick, but the build time is expensive.)
- BUILD: 70% (Buildings are pretty much just facades, but the street segments are nice.)
- MINIFIGURES: 91% (A good number of characters with nice designs and loads of accessories.)
- ENTERTAINMENT: 65% (This is an expensive brick box with a few nice road plates.)
- OVERALL SCORE: 72% (Satisfactory set.)
SHOPPING STREET (60306) REVIEW
VALUE: 62%
Shopping Street costs $99.99 in Canada. Additionally, the set comes with 533 pieces. The resulting cost-per-brick is $0.19. Similar to Skate Park, that is on the expensive side. My guess is that the new street plates are pricey to produce. Incidentally, this set includes two different sizes of road plate. Looking them up on Bricks and Pieces lends evidence to my theory. The smaller of the two plates costs $5.38 while the larger is $2.90. In any case, the bricks in Shopping Street do not come at a good value. However, the cost remains satisfactory (though even that designation is borderline). I rate the cost-per-brick at 70%.
I built Shopping Street in 66 minutes. Therefore, at full price, the cost-per-minute of build time is $1.52. Again, that is not cheap. On average, a minute of build time costs me $0.85. However, the City theme tends to be more expensive in that regard. My average cost-per-minute for City is $1.08. Either way, Shopping Street does not give a lot of build time for the price. I rate it at 53%. Averaging this with the cost-per-brick score gives an overall value rating of 62%.
BUILD: 70%
Sets in the $100 range usually come with more bricks in my experience. As such they normally also have more to build. Shopping Street includes two buildings and a strange arch. The box art suggests the arch area is meant for working out. I would not guess that if left to my own devices. It has random handles sticking off of it. I guess the handles are for triceps dips and pull-ups. This section of the build is a flop. The bricks could add detail to the other buildings instead.
The first of the two buildings is a bakery. It features a takeout window and tiny counter area. There is a small coffee machine, pretzel stand, and crate for bread. However, the interior of the shop is only three studs deep. This build is almost nothing more than a façade. I find myself wishing it had more substance. The sports store has a little more going on. At five studs deep, it has a bicycle window display, helmet rack, and cash register counter. It is still not majorly detailed, but it is better.
In addition to the two buildings, the set also comes with two cars. One is a yellow sports car; the other is a utilities truck. These cars are typical one-passenger City theme fare. Interestingly, the truck has a little bucket for hoisting a Minifigure up to change light bulbs. Incidentally, the light posts in this set come with glow-in-the-dark 1×2 plates. However, overall, the truck is merely a satisfactory looking build. There is nothing setting it apart from other City cars. I guess it lacks a wow-factor.
Shopping Street (60306) lacks wow-factor.
The sports car is marginally more interesting. It only fits one Minifigure. However, when you begin to build it, it employs an interesting technique that makes the car six studs wide despite a 4-stud base. Starting with that base, you can build a custom car that potentially holds two Minifigures. However, the car would look substantially different from this one as this was not meant to accommodate two characters.
Shopping Street does not offer much in the build department. Other than an interesting car technique, the set does not teach you much. Additionally, the buildings are not much more that outward-facing displays. While City buildings often offer little in terms of interiors, these offer even less. The real highlight of this build is the street. The kit comes with two larger street plates, and one smaller one that serves as a crosswalk. Additionally, there the set includes printed bike lane tiles. I like how the road plates come together and attach to each other and the sidewalk. They even include speed bumps. The road is not a crazy in-depth assembly, but in conjunction with the sports car, it makes this build satisfactory. I rate the experience at 70%.
MINIFIGURES: 91%
Shopping Street includes six Minifigures, of which one is stumpy kid with unmoving legs. I dislike those quite a bit. Otherwise, the rest of the characters include all the standard parts, and all of them have front and back torso printing. Sadly, only one has leg printing, and none have double-sided faces. Overall, they are good city-filler for your custom downtown scenes. In terms of accessories, the set also includes three bicycles, a wrench, a hammer, two bread loafs, two pretzels, a croissant, a banana, a trash can, a coffee cup, two helmets, and 10 or so printed tiles you can reuse in your custom build. I rate the character designs and accessories at 95%.
Six Minifigures in a 533-piece kit means you get 89 bricks/fig. For LEGO® sets in general, that is quite good. My average is currently 167 bricks/fig. However, City sets generally come with a better number of Minifigures than your average set. My ratio for the theme sits at 82 bricks/fig. Viewed in that light, Shopping Street contains a satisfactory number of characters. Ultimately, considering both those assessments, I still think the ratio is good for this set. I rate the character count at 87%. Averaging this with the design score gives an overall Minifigure rating of 91%.
ENTERTAINMENT: 65%
I am not going to lie; I disassembled this set faster than I built it. The buildings and cars held no display interest for me. I have so many nicer Speed Champions cars that I do not need these small, undetailed, one passenger cars filling up my streets. Additionally, the buildings did not inspire me in terms of customization potential. I already have nicer cafes and bakeries, as well as better inspiration for a sports shop. The best thing about this set is the road plates. Overall, the kit is simply a brick box for me. There are good pieces in it to re-purpose. From an AFOL perspective, I rate the entertainment value for this set at 60%.
In terms of kids’ enjoyment, I feel Shopping Street is marginally better for kids than for AFOLs. However, compared to larger sets like City Square or Main Square, it falls flat. The sports car in this set is interesting for play, but other sets also have sports cars. Additionally, other sets come with other vehicles like trams or tour buses that blow the utilities truck in Shopping Street out of the water. Finally, since the buildings are narrow even by City standards, I question how much play they provide. This is probably a street plate purchase and brick box for a lot of kids too. I rate the KFOL score at 70%. Overall, that brings the Entertainment score for Shopping Street to 65%.
OVERALL SCORE: 72%
Shopping Street is not a bad set, but it is not a particularly good one either. The highlights here are Minifigures, accessories, and the road plates that include a crosswalk. The cars and buildings are nothing special, and I have already recycled the bricks for MOCs as I write this. The buildings are not deep enough to offer any substantial detail. If the road plates actually cost the LEGO® Group that much to produce, I think they need an alternate strategy for these sets. One road segment per set with a more detailed shop is the way to go. What do you think of Shopping Street (60306)? Feel free to comment below or reach out on social media.
Until next time,
-Tom
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