Review: 60451 Emergency Ambulance

Rear of the truck can be exchanged for more play value with other city sets like 60452 Donut Truck or 60404 Burger Truck.

It's not a whambulance, it's a hearse!

Goodbye, fair skateboarder, we hardly knew thee. :(

As opposed to "Recreational Ambulance."

@Vangal said:
"Rear of the truck can be exchanged for more play value with other city sets like 60452 Donut Truck or 60404 Burger Truck."

Donut + Burger = Deathbulance

@Vangal said:
"Rear of the truck can be exchanged for more play value with other city sets like 60452 Donut Truck or 60404 Burger Truck."

Skateboarder: Yes, finally! I've been waiting on the ambulance for hours!
*Burgulance pulls up*
EMT: Welcome to the Burgulance, what would you like to order?

ISTR some types of ambulances actually are designed to have the rear section able to be detached. Basically it has a different life expectancy than the truck chassis so it's advantageous to be able to replace just half of the ambulance.

(But I suspect what's actually going on here is that the ambulance is shaped similarly to the food trucks so it has the food truck gimmick.)

How far we’ve come since 6680-1

Modular rescue vehicles incoming? It could be fun to have a plane and a helicopter that can pick up and transport containers like that.

I mean I wouldn’t want to do it in real life, but for a kids toy, why not?

I’m just glad that we’re getting a standalone ambulance in a mass market set; I don’t understand why this subject matter has been so rare in the Lego City range to date. Is medical subject matter just less popular than fire and police sets?

This is a cute little set. I like how it opens for a better look inside but closes almost seamlessly.

@StyleCounselor said:
"It's not a whambulance, it's a hearse!

Goodbye, fair skateboarder, we hardly knew thee. :("

I am so glad I'm not the only one who says "whambulance".

@benbacardi:
"Why does the ambulance come apart from the cab?" Because that 'the hill'...er, 'the style' (yeah, going with that:)) TLG has decided to go with ala Burger Truck, Donut Truck, and now this one...which, yes make NO SENSE with this one, but tell that to TLG...:)

Also, there IS another flaw: we're short one more paramedic. Unless rules have changed, there must be at least two paramedics/medical attendants w/an ambulance. Why? If the patient is having difficulty, how is ONE paramedic going to attend to them AND continue to drive them to the hospital? My dad was a paramedic, and that was one of the 'stickler' rules.:)

@peterlmorris said:
"Modular rescue vehicles incoming? It could be fun to have a plane and a helicopter that can pick up and transport containers like that.

I mean I wouldn’t want to do it in real life, but for a kids toy, why not?"

It'd be cool to get a fire response truck or a police prisoner transport in this format

The detachable part of the ambulance looks like it has the correct dimensions to fit in the cargo ship in last year's harbor 60422

Wow! No stickers!

Maybe this ambulance wants to get into the pop up food truck business too - offering perhaps, a side of ribs?

@Cergorach said:
"Wow! No stickers!"

That's normal for 5+ sets. It is assumed that most of the younger target audience cannot yet properly apply stickers.

You can get the donut truck and ambulance sets to switch out the container boxes for more play value.

@Maxbricks14 said:
"I don't like the futuristic designs Lego is going with."

What about this looks futuristic?

@Maxbricks14 said:
"I don't like the futuristic designs Lego is going with."

I'm American, and even I know that European ambulances have looked like this for decades.

All black interior. "I think it's my time. I see the light. I'm heading towards it. Oh its just outside thats ok"

Gotta say, I really like the colors they're using for paramedic/rescue focused sets these days! Not only does it avoid too much overlap with colors like red and blue that are already used for fire and police stuff, the teal also feels like a nice compromise between the green used in much of Europe and the blue often used in the US and Canada.

This particular ambulance is a very nice build, what with the nice smooth sides, curvy cab, and high-visibility stripes. It compares very favorably to 4431 from the very first wave of "Great Vehicles" sets, and definitely speaks to the continued strength of that subtheme!

My guess is that the back being removable is simply a matter of convenience — makes it easier to build the patient area separately before attaching it, whereas if the 1x6 pieces used for the stripes were plates instead of tiles, it'd require more effort for younger kids to push the patient area down fully onto the studs.

@StyleCounselor said:"It's not a whambulance, it's a hearse!"

"In an ambulance you had a chance, but a hearse, that's worse!"

One of the first sizeable LEGO sets I've bought in a decade.

First thing I did was raid my parts bin and rearrange the interior (I actually completely rebuilt it, going to bricks and panels--not the opening sides other than a 3-wide door on the right hand side) to fit a second medic (wish I'd bought the 4+ one last year for the second medic and printed Star of Life panels--thus I had to use some older personnel I had). I also took the printed monitor panel from 60459 and mounted it to a bar and double cheese slope to make a monitor/defibrillator. MUCH better than my previous two from older builds. In addition, I used the old-style folding stretcher. I think if I ditch the modular feature, I can get the load height a little lower. It's insanely tall for such a low-riding van with skinny tires.

Honestly, I wish LEGO would make an 8-wide one like Friends did a couple years back--with a massive amount of working room for the medics. Currently, I'm planning on making my own--made one back during my LEGO golden years at age 13-14, but structurally, it was a mess. It liked to split apart behind the cab.

PS: I think I'm leaving the dark ages now.

@paulvdb said:
" @Cergorach said:
"Wow! No stickers!"

That's normal for 5+ sets. It is assumed that most of the younger target audience cannot yet properly apply stickers."

I'm almost 50, and still cannot properly apply stickers!

@Vangal said:
"Rear of the truck can be exchanged for more play value with other city sets like 60452 Donut Truck or 60404 Burger Truck."

That makes sense as a play feature. I never considered that.
Fun Fact: there have been multiple ambulances turned into food trucks after retiring from medical use. There are two in the city that I live in, plus multiple more in other cities and states.

I think it's nice to have the back section detachable.

Not only will it increase play (like add an emergency hut near a beach, ice skating, jungle camp or whatever LEGO themes have going at the time.

And it also might give incentive to customize or create your own modules.

Could even airlift the rear section if you have 60405 Emergency Rescue Helicopter from last year , or it might even nearly fit into 60403 Emergency Ambulance

Call me nostalgic, but I'd rather like 4431 with its more classic white & red livery. It was one of the first 6-stud vehicles in the City theme that was neither a truck nor a bus, and it features two paramedics and detailed interior that can be seen through the windows. It may be simpler, but I think it has by far a better look than this bulkier exchangeable-container transport.

@Sandinista said:
"How far we’ve come since 6680-1"
Yet I still prefer that old one. For a start, there the doors actually fitted the scale of the vehicle whereas on the new one they look absurdly tiny.
Secondly I much prefer the older one's colour scheme which at least looks like an actual ambulance whereas this new one with dark turquoise and eyeburn-yellow looks like, well, I don't really know what it looks like. Anything but an ambulance at least. A quick Google search only showed white/orange or white/orange/yellow ones with certain variations. The only ones I could find with any kind of turquoise were images of the LEGO ones :-)

@AustinPowers said:
" @Sandinista said:
"How far we’ve come since 6680-1"
Yet I still prefer that old one. For a start, there the doors actually fitted the scale of the vehicle whereas on the new one they look absurdly tiny.
Secondly I much prefer the older one's colour scheme which at least looks like an actual ambulance whereas this new one with dark turquoise and eyeburn-yellow looks like, well, I don't really know what it looks like. Anything but an ambulance at least. A quick Google search only showed white/orange or white/orange/yellow ones with certain variations. The only ones I could find with any kind of turquoise were images of the LEGO ones :-) "

UK ambulances use a lot of greenish turquoise blocks with neon yellow background.

Scottish Ambulance Service in particular uses White vans with Turquoise/Neon Yellow blocks. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scottish_Ambulance_Service

@Rimefang said:
" @Murdoch17 said:
" @StyleCounselor said:
"It's not a whambulance, it's a hearse!

Goodbye, fair skateboarder, we hardly knew thee. :("

I am so glad I'm not the only one who says "whambulance"."

Bambulance, thank you ma'am. "

I think you mean "Thank you, ma'ambulance."

@Aanchir said:"My guess is that the back being removable is simply a matter of convenience — makes it easier to build the patient area separately before attaching it, whereas if the 1x6 pieces used for the stripes were plates instead of tiles, it'd require more effort for younger kids to push the patient area down fully onto the studs."

Besides continuing the modular nature of 60404 and 60452, there also the fact that Lego models are designed so that you don't have to connect too many studs at the same time, as pointed out in https://brickset.com/article/108104/lego-piece-count-inflation-what-s-up-with-that

@AustinPowers: But have you ever been to Scotland, or have you ever googled "uk ambulance" or "ambulance uk"? You'll get very different results with that Google search. Take a gander at this image on Wikipedia:
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/d/d5/Scottish_Ambulance_Service_New_Ambulance.jpg/440px-Scottish_Ambulance_Service_New_Ambulance.jpg

@WolfpackBricksStudios said:
" @peterlmorris said:
"Modular rescue vehicles incoming? It could be fun to have a plane and a helicopter that can pick up and transport containers like that.

I mean I wouldn’t want to do it in real life, but for a kids toy, why not?"

It'd be cool to get a fire response truck or a police prisoner transport in this format "

Hold that thought. I think you might have predicted some of next year’s sets…

@AustinPowers said:
"Edit: one final note, I just searched for Danish ambulance pictures, and apparently they are completely high viz yellow with dark turquoise accents. Yet no white there, or any bright turquoise like on the base here. In essence also a very different look even though some of the colours are present. "

True, the large parts of Turquoise are unique to LEGO, but the overall designs of recent years do seem very inspired by a mix of Western Europe.

Police designs did switch again in 2024, adding a lot more black, and also red/blue sirens, so now it's a bit of a hybrid of some of the US (Black/White with red/blue lights), and European (Blue/Neon Yellow/White).

Overall, I think LEGO does not try to stick to 1 particular country, but has had hints at specific ones , like the Gracie Goodheart figure having a very UK inspired police uniform, moreso then other generic ones.