LEGO City: The City Tower announced!

I mean....
That top flat better have some good sound insulation, what with the guy with the jack hammer in the next room and a literal spaceship taking off from the roof.

This set is insane.

I kinda like it

I dub thee Frankencity

I suspect kids would love this! If it weren’t so expensive… It’s a fun combination of all the major sub-themes of City, if rather odd for the adult collector

Interesting! I probably won't buy this - as $210 is no trivial sum, and I'm saving up for other summer sets, including the One Piece ones - but I respect this for doing some interesting things. I'm a big fan of the crane and the waste chute on the side of the building. I also like the building on top of the train tunnel that is the centerpiece - it reminds me of those buildings in Japan and China with trains going through them.

And of course Lego City Space is some of the best stuff they've made in recent years, so I appreciate the top part with the distinctive new orangish-vermillion shade. It's a little nonsensical to take off from the top of a building, but I don't mind.

Overall: Set is bussin but I probably won't get it.

Subtheme Megazord.

LEGO is giving kids a bad idea with the graffiti on the rail car. There is enough of that vandalism in the world without giving kids ideas that that is ok. Two streetcars in my local train museum were vandalized last January or so with graffiti by teens / kids around 3 in the morning, and seeing LEGO give them and their ilk the thumbs-up for this deviant behavior is sad.

I don’t collect Lego city anymore, but this set is amazing

I wish I could be this creative with all the spare parts in my giant Lego tote.

"Just give me a little bit of everything."

Umm... Where is the skateboarder going to land? Ouch!

That has to be the worst apartment to live in :P
Live on top of a subway/rail tunnel. Between fire and police departments, random skate ramp next to your walls, construction with a guy using a jackhammer inside your apartment. Not to mention a space ship launch on your roof!

I really like the look of this one. Really doesn't seem like $200. I bet the review will change my mind.

It's a cool playset, and a very cool (huge) Starter Set , for kids new to LEGO or something, but it's a big mash up and not a good City expander compared to 60380 Downtown

Especially the train part on it's own is just meh even tho the train car is nice.

It's one of those sets, that really invites you to expand with other sets and even the description says so, and makes sense from a marketing stand point , as City currently has Space, Construction, Trains and the usual Police/Fire and action (skating/racing/monster truck) sets.

So a kid snuck in the lego designers room and created this.
It´s not bad but to much of a mashup te be good.
More pigeons and a new green flower piece is allways great.

That's an expensive front wall.

Overpriced. And just... a muddled mashup of ... stuff.
Did LEGO lose set designers or something? The last few years have been rough.

So, this is an awesome set on the basis of sheer bananas Lego creativity. Full on “how would a Lego kid build a city hall”. Love the design.

But, and there’s a frustrating amount of this but lately, $209.99 is *insane*. That’s adult-theme-collectible pricing, not “kids will love this for creativity” pricing. I know tariffs are at least a small part, but another part of me also feels like a kid designer could have figured out how to do this with a lower, less-bloated part count to get it to a max of $150-$160. How about combining the fire and police cars into one unified vehicle? Same with the fire and police stations, mishmashing the colors the way a kid would? Combine the launch pad and construction crane in a wild way? Or skip the launch pad and make a way that the skate park elements could be put at the end of the train tracks to make a “ramp”, give the train a front nose like the rocket, and give the train fold down wings and rocket boosters to have it “launch” down the tracks and off the ramp to transform into the space rocket, flying into the air ala the Rescue Train from Power Rangers Lightspeed Rescue?! If you’re going to go for full creative bananas to appeal to kids, you have to also keep it vaguely affordable for their parents, so use that as an excuse to go all in on even *more* bananas stuff to make sure the set is affordable via wild combos you wouldn’t get away with in another set.

@nymnyr8694 said:
"Overpriced. And just... a muddled mashup of ... stuff.
Did LEGO lose set designers or something? The last few years have been rough."

No, they brought in fresh blood. I disagree with your statement. the last few years have been some of the best City set ever produced.

"A little bit of this a little bit of that" aah set

I like that pigeon piece (but I hate pigeons - flying rats).

And just what is that utter mess supposed to be?

@Murdoch17 said:
"LEGO is giving kids a bad idea with the graffiti on the rail car. There is enough of that vandalism in the world without giving kids ideas that that is ok. Two streetcars in my local train museum were vandalized last January or so with graffiti by teens / kids around 3 in the morning, and seeing LEGO give them and their ilk the thumbs-up for this deviant behavior is sad."

My partner asked me to reply:

“ You don't seem to have noticed that the art on the side of the train is advertising for local facilities like the skate park and the space launcher amongst other things. It also references other Lego sets which also feature the "No Limits" logo e.g. 60460.

It is not uncommon for skilled artists to be commissioned by local government to create community street art in the graffiti style. Advertising companies often imitate the style themselves in print ads and those ads often end up on public transit.

As for graffiti itself much that was once maligned is now celebrated. Ever heard of Banksy or Basquiat?”

And I would personally like to add, while vandalism and basic tags can certainly be unpleasant, more high-effort grafitti can often be very beautiful and enhance the overall appearance and culture of a city. I’m glad to see Lego celebrating street art, whether officially placed or not.

The longer I look at it the more bonkers it looks, and the more I like it.

Honestly though, it feels like a really good, if big, rebuilder's 'starter' set. Like this is one option but you could build a little town street out of this and has a ton of play action. Nice crane, spaceship (spaceship, spaceship), cars and all. Feels like a set made to be re-jigged, not collected, which makes a nice change.

@Hiratha said:
" @Murdoch17 said:
"LEGO is giving kids a bad idea with the graffiti on the rail car. There is enough of that vandalism in the world without giving kids ideas that that is ok. Two streetcars in my local train museum were vandalized last January or so with graffiti by teens / kids around 3 in the morning, and seeing LEGO give them and their ilk the thumbs-up for this deviant behavior is sad."

My partner asked me to reply:

“ You don't seem to have noticed that the art on the side of the train is advertising for local facilities like the skate park and the space launcher amongst other things. It also references other Lego sets which also feature the "No Limits" logo e.g. 60460.

It is not uncommon for skilled artists to be commissioned by local government to create community street art in the graffiti style. Advertising companies often imitate the style themselves in print ads and those ads often end up on public transit.

As for graffiti itself much that was once maligned is now celebrated. Ever heard of Banksy or Basquiat?”

And I would personally like to add, while vandalism and basic tags can certainly be unpleasant, more high-effort grafitti can often be very beautiful and enhance the overall appearance and culture of a city. I’m glad to see Lego celebrating street art, whether officially placed or not.
"

1. Trespassing and vandalism are illegal, full stop.
2. Painting rail cars like so is dangerous, even life threatening if you aren't extremely careful.
3. Try telling my local (unpaid) museum volunteers that the spray-paint covering their 111 year old one-of-a-kind streetcar from top to bottom, left to right, is 'beautiful' and should be 'celebrated'.
4. Vandalism is vandalism, no matter if it's considered 'Art' or not.

Ninjago City lite

The phrase "jack of all trades, master of none" comes to mind.

@Murdoch17
I'm going to trespass on your heart.

@actioncharles said:
"The phrase "jack of all trades, master of none" comes to mind."

Jack of all Playeds, Master of Fun.

Lots of confusion in the comments, but perhaps also in part for the coverage?

2015 city square
2020 main square
Or other way around? Both at the time the biggest sets, and a great grab bag for Xmas or birthday splurge with combined purchase an option

So this is simply the 2025 version, and instead of spreading outwards they went tall, and made a more playable and likely lot cheaper version of the Avenger tower or Bugle etc. and unlike the last two sets, this opens up better for extended build with the police and fire being mostly entrance point for creative play.

I like that spaceship, looks like 60430's little brother.

@Rimefang said:
" @Murdoch17
I'm going to trespass on your heart."

@Hiratha

Awwww. :)

This isn't the only one. Haring's figures 31216 became iconic because he spread them around NYC like Basquiat before him.

Tagging sucks. However, my city, Denver, has embraced street art with an annual festival that brings some of the world's top artists into town to beautify our urban landscape.

BTW, this set is a hot mess.

when you want to buy 8 different sets but only have enough money for 1

@Dean_Dingus_2000 said:
" @Murdoch17 said:
"LEGO is giving kids a bad idea with the graffiti on the rail car. There is enough of that vandalism in the world without giving kids ideas that that is ok. Two streetcars in my local train museum were vandalized last January or so with graffiti by teens / kids around 3 in the morning, and seeing LEGO give them and their ilk the thumbs-up for this deviant behavior is sad."

Adult Lego "fan" has a problem with creativity and breaking rules, how shocking. Im sure you watched the Lego Movie and wondered why the plot wasnt about them trying to work together with the authoritarian dictator and glue everything together perfectly according to the rules. "
Wow.

there's really 1900 pieces in this ? Downtown from a few years ago looks way better. There's not even a fire and police station ? it's just 2 garages

@StyleCounselor said:
BTW, this set is a hot mess.]]

Finally... Chelsea Green has arrived in the Brickset comments section!

I guess this set goes well with the new train station.

Regarding the graffiti debate: seems like those commercial stickers they use to decorate public transport vehicles with?

We aren't the target audience for this, but I don't like these city sets that combine small, bad versions different city subthemes into one big set and charge an exorbitant price for it. I wish city could take a page from the Friends book and do actual cool, new and innovative ideas for their bigger sets rather than piecing together a collection of underwhelming parts.

I am usually successful rationalizing the 18+ set pricing, the licensing tax, “oh it’s got large molds”, and the “but it includes a motor.” But this is simply ridiculous. I know the current tariff situation muddies the U.S. waters but it’s not like the £ or the € are any better.

Sidestepping the pricing and to borrow a phrase from the Gordon-less @StyleCounselor, this set feels like a hot mess to me. I guess I appreciate the attempt to merge subthemes but I would think they could have done a better job doing so. LEGO City has been killing it the last couple of years but here, you get a poor or duplicative rendition of each aspect.

Why go with almost the exact same spaceship design as the last 2 sets, 60429 and 60430. Why not provide a few more train tracks to allow for more play in that section? The last big comparable City set 60380 Downtown runs circles around this thing.

I have an excess of children (lol) including 3 under 10 and I can’t see how any of them would pick this over the MUCH cheaper and way more interesting 60446 Galactic Spaceship, 60414 Fire Station, 60422 Seaside Harbour, 60423 Downtown Streetcar, 60457 Custom Police Garage, 60445 F1 Truck, 60409 Mobile Construction Crane, and 60434 Space Base. Laughingly, parents could get multiple of the sets above and throw in additional smaller sets for this kind of money. Heck, for this much, we’re already oohing and awwing over the forthcoming 60470 Explorer Train.

Who would have guessed that we finally get a City Scrapyard set in 2025…not to mention 60472 Scrapyard.

This would have been a decent idea, IF they were all separate sets that could be combined into one large playset. As-is, is way too expensive for what it's trying to do.

Also, not a fan of the large graffiti on the train. Doesn't look like "street art" style advertising to me, just vandalism. Depressing that it's expected part of the urban landscape. I don't think the message from The Lego Movie was, "Damaging other people's property is okay if it looks cool!".

The ultimate irony is that Lego doesn't want deceptions of fossil fuel powered vehicles, but petroleum based spray paint is fine.

@yellowcastle said:
"I have an excess of children (lol) including 3 under 10..."

Clearly, we have another candidate for 'hot mess.'

You go, Big Daddy!! ;)

@MLF said:
"This would have been a decent idea, IF they were all separate sets that could be combined into one large playset. As-is, is way too expensive for what it's trying to do.

Also, not a fan of the large graffiti on the train. Doesn't look like "street art" style advertising to me, just vandalism. Depressing that it's expected part of the urban landscape. I don't think the message from The Lego Movie was, "Damaging other people's property is okay if it looks cool!".

The ultimate irony is that Lego doesn't want deceptions of fossil fuel powered vehicles, but petroleum based spray paint is fine."

They are meant to be in world decorative/commercial stickers, not graffiti. Have a good look.

This is really pressing up against my "it has a spaceship, I must have it" impulse...

My ten year old self would go nuts for something like this.

I see what they were going for. Many smaller towns and even cities will combine town hall with fire and/or police. My town's most-recent town hall is combined police and town hall. Couple towns over--police AND fire were in the same building as the town hall prior to the FD expanding into a larger building a couple blocks down the street.

Honestly, though, I think it's too everything all at once for adults, and way too expensive for parents to buy for kids.

However, that fire ute is beyond cool!

What a mess of a build. Nasty. Some comments say bonkers and insane. Perfect visual definition of hodgepodge.

I kind of miss the realistic layout of the classic "Main Street" sets versus this ADHD-riddled mashup, but I know, this set's not aimed at me. Maybe at least if it were modular and the sections could be stacked freely.

It's like the City equivalent of the Submarine from the first LEGO Movie...

Welp, I was expecting this set to be controversial among folks here on Brickset on account of its wacky mashup vibes. I certainly WASN'T expecting the graffiti on the train car to generate some of the most heated comments, particularly since there are *checks notes* already 50 other sets with the "Graffiti" tag in the Brickset database: https://brickset.com/sets/tag-Graffiti

Like it or not, graffiti is an intrinsic part of most urban landscapes — even before getting into the ambiguity of whether this is meant to depict vandalism or commercial street art. Frankly, I feel like there's more cause for concern in how the City theme glamorizes policing year-in and year-out than in it including the occasional tasteful bits of graffiti across the theme.

Anyway, this is definitely a different approach to a flagship City set than a lot of those we've seen before. I can't say it excites me as much as a lot of its predecessors, personally, since subthemes like fire, police, and construction, and space are already so well-represented across other sets. As such, they don't quite evoke the same sense of novelty here as the more varied sorts of workplaces and public spaces in sets like 60200 or 60380. It also bums me out a bit that there have been way fewer City sets this year using the City road system to encourage converting individual locations into interconnected cityscapes.

That said, the build certainly feels nice and fresh, not to mention extremely playable. It's cool to see a nice big tower crane in the colors and branding of the current construction work fleet, and using the roller coaster tracks as trusses! The apartments feel very classy and tastefully furnished in their own right, even if one is in the middle of renovations. An Earth-based launch site also nicely fills a void within the recent the City Space range. And there have been woefully few train tunnels in the City theme's history, so even a short tunnel entrance like this is very welcome, especially with such a colorful tram to accompany it!

I suspect even some City builders who don't care for the cartoony juxtaposition of this set's various elements might still end up getting it to mod some of these component parts elements into separate structures (or taking inspiration from elements of the build for their own MOCs). And for the target audience of kids, I have little doubt the set will be loads of fun. So while the end result is not quite my cup of tea (and I'm not really much of a City collector anyhow), I definitely think the designers did a standout job here.

@Aanchir said:
"Like it or not, graffiti is an intrinsic part of most urban landscapes — even before getting into the ambiguity of whether this is meant to depict vandalism or commercial street art. Frankly, I feel like there's more cause for concern in how the City theme glamorizes policing year-in and year-out than in it including the occasional tasteful bits of graffiti across the theme."

Very much agree.

Lots of different City subthemes in one set, but they should have included an ambulance. With that ramp the skateboarder is going to need one.

This set is just such a weird mishmash of concepts and none of them really work

There are so many elements that are great.

The construction debris tube is cool, the two cards are great, the bus is great, the minifigs are all awesome, I like the spaceship and the crane

But the skate ramp on top of the building? The space ship on top of the building? Construction right behind the TV?

Lots of great elements that just mashed together.

It does look like a kid just went nuts and threw stuff together, which is great.

But at that price? It's not really a kid set.

@paulvdb said:
"Lots of different City subthemes in one set, but they should have included an ambulance. With that ramp the skateboarder is going to need one."

With that ramp, and how silly LEGO City can be at times, they have to pick up that skateboarder mid-air with 60465 Air Ambulance

It's very interesting so read so many unfavourable comments about this set, because I think it's absolutely stunning. Looks like a City Statement Piece, which might be a bit more popular among adults than kids, because like many of you pointed out - playability compared to some other "big city sets" seems a bit limited.

It feels on the expensive side, but maybe (just maybe) it was designed with adults in mind. I'd love to see it in my living room, the overall composition, color choices, and the main building design are excellent.

The only downside I see could be hidden in the fire/police garages, but I'll still be saving money to get this set some day.

@SummerSanta said:
"As a kid I would have hated this. Reminds me of the Time Twisters disaster that we all despised. "

Speak for yourself, I liked Time Twisters! As a kid I had fun with the sets. And that's all that matters to me looking back.

The jack of all trades is the master of none..

I like the idea of a kooky tower, but would have cut the police and firefighter garages for the train platform and more detailed construction site. The space rocket part needs redesign too, IMHO,

I quite like the look of this, but I rarely collect City outside of the recent Space subtheme, and the launch tower in this set probably isn't quite enough to convince me to get it.

@Block_n_Roll said:
""Assault On City". Definite echoes of 75098 with this. As a play set it's shambolic. No coherence whatsoever. And for anyone outside the "play" demographic this is no more than an expansive (and expensive) parts pack. The thing is, there's the basis for some fun and interesting modifications. And let's face it, the bottom line is that this is LEGO - you modify, you rebuild, you do your own thing.

I think I'm going to buy this ridiculous mess....

(Once it's discounted, of course. At retail price it's just *too* ridiculous!)"

Honestly I don't see any similarities between this and Assault on Hoth. One of the biggest criticisms of Assault on Hoth was that it was a whole bunch of disconnected subjects, which despite depicting the same scene had no cohesive composition or connectivity tying them all together into a unified whole. For this set, it's almost the opposite—despite the subject matter being extremely varied, the composition is quite unified, with the garage bays, train tunnel, tower and launch site all emanating from the same central point almost like a scene from a pop-up book.

@CapnRex101 said:
"There is really no need for the graffiti discussion to become heated, so any comments we consider overly personal will be removed."

So what you're saying is, be careful who we... tag?

@yellowcastle said:"Why go with almost the exact same spaceship design as the last 2 sets, 60429 and 60430."

"Almost the exact same design?" Yes, the shapes are similar, but those two are clearly bigger ships.

@Gorbor said" @SummerSanta said:
"As a kid I would have hated this. Reminds me of the Time Twisters disaster that we all despised. "

Speak for yourself, I liked Time Twisters! As a kid I had fun with the sets. And that's all that matters to me looking back."

Yeah, I only got 6493 and 6495 from the Time Cruisers line, but really wish I'd gotten 6496 , and wouldn't mind having 1853, either.

@PurpleDave said:
" @Aanchir:
Are you aware that the CHAZ, during its short existence, had a per capita murder rate that was higher than any nation in existence?"

I feel like the whataboutism implied by bringing up the CHAZ - which @Aanchir never came close to alluding to - could lead this comment thread into some very dark places. We don't need to trade political jabs about crimes committed by people on either side of the law. I think you should apologize for bringing this up, and then this thread should move on - or be closed, or have some posts hidden. There's nothing wrong with having a police car in a Lego City set, and there's nothing wrong with having some graffiti-style in-universe advertising stickers on the side of a little tram car in a Lego City set, and there's nothing wrong with having both in the same large Lego City set.

My two cents. Some see graffiti while I see vinyl advertising wraps. Every bus in my town has a complete wrap even over the side windows (you can see out but not in. The yellow Subway restaurant bus, anyone?

Also someone mentioned building on the police station and fire station. The construction crane is on the Police station roof and the skateboard ramps goes flat across the fire station roof with a small curl on the opiisite side. Per the LEGO website video the two side garages also can be detached which means if it was cheaper, I would use not just for parts but in separate sections around my town (move the crane into the ground, put the police garage behind or next to police modular etc.

Alright so I cant point out the hypocrisy of an "adult lego fan" having a fit about graffiti because it "breaks the rules of the law" but this guy can go on an unhinged rant about a half decade old political topic that no one brought up and that he has shoe horned into the conversation. Really?

The tram/street car is a really solid, compact build, and I want to work out how it’s done,

The construction chute is an inspired use of the tube elements.

There’s a real sense of fun in this set. I think there are some good mocing starts here. I’m undecided if I’ll get it, but it will forever be the set that brought us the pigeon.

For anyone saying it’s too expensive for children, try looking at your childhood big sets in todays prices. The train sets of the 90s, which obv included electrics, cost about 50% more than this

@Dean_Dingus_2000 said:
"Alright so I cant point out the hypocrisy of an "adult lego fan" having a fit about graffiti because it "breaks the rules of the law" but this guy can go on an unhinged rant about a half decade old political topic that no one brought up and that he has shoe horned into the conversation. Really? "

I'm kinda fascinated how wild the comment section is on this LEGO product that's clearly meant to be a playset for kids. Kids don't care about any of the stuff discussed here, and I'm sure they'd love this wacky thing. It's so random and fun. Adults are just the worst.

At least when you buy sets with graffiti/police in them it doesn't mean part of your money goes directly to some kind of graffiti/police IP owner who uses it to influence her country's Supreme Court to rule in favor of vandalizing museum exhibits/shooting people for no good reason and then celebrates with a cigar on her yacht.

@Andrusi said:
"At least when you buy sets with graffiti/police in them it doesn't mean part of your money goes directly to some kind of graffiti/police IP owner who uses it to influence her country's Supreme Court to rule in favor of vandalizing museum exhibits/shooting people for no good reason and then celebrates with a cigar on her yacht."

Unless when you buy them off Amazon.

This site's comment section continues to be one of the most parochial and reactionary places online. I genuinely had no idea there were still adults who had problems with graffiti, or who breathlessly supported police impunity. This is wild.

As for the set, it would be really cool as a branching-off point to continue building each theme in a different direction. Not sure how feasible that it with the current layout.

This site's comment section continues to be one of the most enjoyable and interesting places online. I genuinely appreciate that there are still adults who can discuss a variety of issues with open minds and who breathlessly support LEGO. This is wild.

City Planner: "Good news, we have the budget to build: A skatepark expansion, a Fire Station detachment, likewise one for the Police, a SPACE..."
City Councilor: "Please don't do that..."
Planner: "...Sorry, a launchpad, additional track route for the rail transit, City Works extension, AND some some additional apartments."
Councilor: "Ok...that is 'good'...what's the 'bad news'?"
Planner: "Well...we can only build ONE building...":D

Seriously (rocks hand back/forth), what AM I looking at...I feel like saying/writing; "I'm gonna' start yelling; as soon as I stop counting 'Safety Violations'..." I mean, YIKES...The rocket on top of the apartment/office building alone...:|

Part of the reason we have so many pigeons in cities, and in such fabulous variety, is because once they were pets. Domesticated, now feral. Pigeons are very good pets: Their eggs and meat taste good, their poop is fantastic fertiliser, they can carry messages, they don’t take much space or feeding, they’re pretty, they’ll tolerate and even enjoy petting and cuddling, they’ll love you back.

We abandoned their pigeon ancestors, I think we owe them a little better than disdain.

I refuse to get into a lengthy debate on the history of crime and punishment in the comments of a Lego announcement post, but as a point of fact: Opposition to police forces has existed as long as, and arguably longer than, police forces have. General public approval has been fairly uncommon. The idea that any particular opposition must spawn from a fairly modern and not particularly popular slogan and a month-long experiment that covered a couple of blocks of one American city is not supportable, logical, or sensible.

@Lexomatic said:
"I'm guessing this isn't just "LEGO CITY" the generic urban theme, but specifically connected to the "LEGO CITY: NO LIMITS" series of over-the-top-action shorts -- a video product, but less prominent than Ninjago, Elves, etc. The phrase "NO LIMITS" appears twice, on the subway car and the sign pointed at the skate ramp) -- although it also seems to be a motto for the theme. I don't see the show's named characters (BYTZ, Extreme Eddy, Just Jason, Mech-Max, Wanda About) but the seven minifigs might be recurring background characters."

The bits that say No Limits are certainly intended to tie into that subtheme, but I’m pretty sure the space bits are meant to tie into the Space subtheme, construction bits tie into the Construction subtheme, etc etc. I think it’s a fun celebration and combination of City subthemes, although I do wish they’d included “food place with giant sign on roof”. :D

LEGO is giving kids a bad idea with the vert on the fire station. There is enough of that extreme behavior in the world without giving kids ideas that that is ok. Two roofs in my local fire brigade museum have collapsed last January or so by skateboarding teens / kids dropping through them around 3 in the morning, and seeing LEGO give them and their ilk the thumbs-up for this deviant behavior is sad.

The above text may or may not be a hommage to the most idiotic post I've read today. (Admittedly, I'm not on social media anymore.)

@TheOtherMike said:
" @Lexomatic said:"Wanda About..."

Okay, that punny name has me wanting to watch these shorts. Are they on YouTube?"

I just had a look and they are! I watched one and it was a lot of fun.

@Murdoch17 said:
" @Hiratha said:
" @Murdoch17 said:
"LEGO is giving kids a bad idea with the graffiti on the rail car. There is enough of that vandalism in the world without giving kids ideas that that is ok. Two streetcars in my local train museum were vandalized last January or so with graffiti by teens / kids around 3 in the morning, and seeing LEGO give them and their ilk the thumbs-up for this deviant behavior is sad."

My partner asked me to reply:

“ You don't seem to have noticed that the art on the side of the train is advertising for local facilities like the skate park and the space launcher amongst other things. It also references other Lego sets which also feature the "No Limits" logo e.g. 60460.

It is not uncommon for skilled artists to be commissioned by local government to create community street art in the graffiti style. Advertising companies often imitate the style themselves in print ads and those ads often end up on public transit.

As for graffiti itself much that was once maligned is now celebrated. Ever heard of Banksy or Basquiat?”

And I would personally like to add, while vandalism and basic tags can certainly be unpleasant, more high-effort grafitti can often be very beautiful and enhance the overall appearance and culture of a city. I’m glad to see Lego celebrating street art, whether officially placed or not.
"

1. Trespassing and vandalism are illegal, full stop.
2. Painting rail cars like so is dangerous, even life threatening if you aren't extremely careful.
3. Try telling my local (unpaid) museum volunteers that the spray-paint covering their 111 year old one-of-a-kind streetcar from top to bottom, left to right, is 'beautiful' and should be 'celebrated'.
4. Vandalism is vandalism, no matter if it's considered 'Art' or not."

Sorry, you haven’t fully read and understood the response.

@Murdoch17 said:
" @GregD said:
" @Murdoch17 said:
" @Hiratha said:
" @Murdoch17 said:
"LEGO is giving kids a bad idea with the graffiti on the rail car. There is enough of that vandalism in the world without giving kids ideas that that is ok. Two streetcars in my local train museum were vandalized last January or so with graffiti by teens / kids around 3 in the morning, and seeing LEGO give them and their ilk the thumbs-up for this deviant behavior is sad."

My partner asked me to reply:

“ You don't seem to have noticed that the art on the side of the train is advertising for local facilities like the skate park and the space launcher amongst other things. It also references other Lego sets which also feature the "No Limits" logo e.g. 60460.

It is not uncommon for skilled artists to be commissioned by local government to create community street art in the graffiti style. Advertising companies often imitate the style themselves in print ads and those ads often end up on public transit.

As for graffiti itself much that was once maligned is now celebrated. Ever heard of Banksy or Basquiat?”

And I would personally like to add, while vandalism and basic tags can certainly be unpleasant, more high-effort grafitti can often be very beautiful and enhance the overall appearance and culture of a city. I’m glad to see Lego celebrating street art, whether officially placed or not.
"

1. Trespassing and vandalism are illegal, full stop.
2. Painting rail cars like so is dangerous, even life threatening if you aren't extremely careful.
3. Try telling my local (unpaid) museum volunteers that the spray-paint covering their 111 year old one-of-a-kind streetcar from top to bottom, left to right, is 'beautiful' and should be 'celebrated'.
4. Vandalism is vandalism, no matter if it's considered 'Art' or not."

Sorry, you haven’t fully read and understood the response."

I did read, and understand it. I don't like graffiti - IMO it is a scourge and not a art form in the slightest. Look at subway cars in NYC from the 70s and 80s where you couldn't even see out the windows, and tell me that's art. I've seen enough of these 'artists' work in my local downtown and it sickens me. Put that 'artistic creativity' into something more practical than gang tags and marking your territory. We aren't animals - we should respect public property and other people's belongings... I know that's a hot take with some percentage of the population!"

I’m with GregD. You might know the words, but you don’t seem to understand the message that’s being sent. Or – more likely – you simply don’t want to. You just want to bitch. Noted.

@Murdoch17 said:
" @GregD said:
" @Murdoch17 said:
" @Hiratha said:
" @Murdoch17 said:
"LEGO is giving kids a bad idea with the graffiti on the rail car. There is enough of that vandalism in the world without giving kids ideas that that is ok. Two streetcars in my local train museum were vandalized last January or so with graffiti by teens / kids around 3 in the morning, and seeing LEGO give them and their ilk the thumbs-up for this deviant behavior is sad."

My partner asked me to reply:

“ You don't seem to have noticed that the art on the side of the train is advertising for local facilities like the skate park and the space launcher amongst other things. It also references other Lego sets which also feature the "No Limits" logo e.g. 60460.

It is not uncommon for skilled artists to be commissioned by local government to create community street art in the graffiti style. Advertising companies often imitate the style themselves in print ads and those ads often end up on public transit.

As for graffiti itself much that was once maligned is now celebrated. Ever heard of Banksy or Basquiat?”

And I would personally like to add, while vandalism and basic tags can certainly be unpleasant, more high-effort grafitti can often be very beautiful and enhance the overall appearance and culture of a city. I’m glad to see Lego celebrating street art, whether officially placed or not.
"

1. Trespassing and vandalism are illegal, full stop.
2. Painting rail cars like so is dangerous, even life threatening if you aren't extremely careful.
3. Try telling my local (unpaid) museum volunteers that the spray-paint covering their 111 year old one-of-a-kind streetcar from top to bottom, left to right, is 'beautiful' and should be 'celebrated'.
4. Vandalism is vandalism, no matter if it's considered 'Art' or not."

Sorry, you haven’t fully read and understood the response."

I did read, and understand it. I don't like graffiti - IMO it is a scourge and not a art form in the slightest. Look at subway cars in NYC from the 70s and 80s where you couldn't even see out the windows, and tell me that's art. I've seen enough of these 'artists' work in my local downtown and it sickens me. Put that 'artistic creativity' into something more practical than gang tags and marking your territory. We aren't animals - we should respect public property and other people's belongings... I know that's a hot take with some percentage of the population!"

Given that you left comments on the Keith Haring articles - in which you made no objection to his history of unauthorised street art, interestingly - to the effect of admitting you don’t get almost any art, I must gently suggest your claim that you don’t get the artistry in graffiti might carry very little weight with regards to its general artistic value.

I wasn't going to post anything on the topic but seeing as the thread is still going, I can't resist:

This is Lego. There's no defined good / bad side here. If @Murdoch17 thinks graffiti is a bad thing, they can choose to play with their kids showing the brave police tracking down the nasty anti-social criminal who defaced the train carriages and locking them up to the praise of the good citizens. While if @Hiratha thinks graffiti is artistic expression they can play with *their* kids showing them the nasty police trying to enforce rigid uniformity and obedience and failing to suppress signs of emergent freedom from the brave artists who come out at night and paint symbols of liberty. Or whatever you like! Like it or not the real world contains both graffiti (a lot of) police and Lego is right in my opinion to portray them both, but what story you tell with those elements is up to you and your children!

I was talking with a colleague at work the other day about 90s pirate sets and it struck me that he said he thought of the pirates as the "baddies" and the soldier as the "goodies", while with me it was the other way around - it made me curious if kids today playing with police sets universally identify with one side or the other, or it depends on the kid, or it varies from one play session to the next? I haven't personally given my daughter any police sets, not from ideological reasons but just because she prefers others, but I'm tempted to get one and see which side she takes :)