"Force-fed" emergency services? No-one's making you buy them...

That said, it is nice to have something a little different like this. I can see it providing a nice bit of visual variety in a harbourside scene.

I wonder if they are bringing back that harbour sub theme.

Reminds me of the Fowey ferry down in Cornwall. Nice set, definitely on my "to buy" list.

Finally something for my 100 fire boats to rescue. Can't tell if the car is supposed to be a convertible or an el camino with a chop top.

It is quite basic for a ferry (or a bit of read with short walls on the side and a little bridge), but I guess it can be accurate. I know I was hoping (unrealistically) for something like the bigger Washington State Ferries.

What isn't surprising, however, is the red mug in the ferry (Captain? Pilot? Driver?)'s hand...

I don't like it, plain and simple. The design is just too basic... road with a bit of angled wall and a 6x8 cockpit doesn't look any good in its current state.

I like it, "force fed" is a bit strong, but it is true that City has too many police and firefighters IMHO, but then it's possibly in line with the younger audience that buys them.

I agree completely with comments above. A little too basic and plain...unfinished looking. I don't know exactly what I was envisioning...but this wasn't it. Not impressed with any 2016 City sets so far.

To me, it looks great, basic, yet effective. We need more sets like this in City line, I know that firefighters and policemen sales best, but city is more than that.

But it's not a police ferry...(sarcasm)

But can it ferry emergency vehicles? Glad to see them branching out for sure, but I hope it's not an overly expensive set because it's not amazing.

It looks a bit...basic. I'm not sure why.

I think it looks great. It is great to have a "basic" looking set. Not everything has to be complicated. Not everything is complicated. I think this has greater play value than a building that has one wall or another single seat helicopter. Parts look really good too.

All those people moaning about too much police and fire in the city range should really check their facts... According to brickset only 10 out of 37 city sets released in 2015 were police or fire related (including poly bags, not including super packs, collections). I'm sure Lego could do better in some areas, but this is no longer the problem it once was.

"It's not often that there's innovation in LEGO City"... apart from the mining, farming, public transport, construction, harbour, racing cars, off road vehicles, service stations, shops, car parks, caravans, campers, a limousine, a bank, deep sea divers, arctic explorers, secret agents, UFOs, wind turbines, coast guard, recycling and garbage collection, cargo and postal trucks, stunt planes, airport and spaceport... no innovation at all. Not to mention it's Lego so you can build what ~you~ want!
Edit: The ferry is a nice set; I think I will buy one.

"Force fed," as if TLG is somehow making you buy sets or has any reason to care about collectors at all.

Hopefully it will slide smoothly over the floor but wonder if vehicles will move about with mind of their own with such a smooth interior. Good to have somewhere for those roads at the edge of the layout to lead to without looking like that is where the budget ended. Simple design but not obviously missing anything necessary so should do the job nicely.

I hope we get next a Hospital set (maybe Modular), but I like it hopefully it's under $70 to acquire.

Wonderful! It's nice to finally see something new and different from the City theme.

Car ferries aren't fancy things...they are basically floating platforms with a boat motor...the last one I was on didn't even have a bridge (and some are on underwater cables). I think it is wonderfully accurate and I welcome such a unique addition to City!

But wait, the Black Widow hair piece in a non-Marvel set!

Is it ugly? Well... yeah. It's flat, basic, saturated in color, and spindly. Just... like... actual ferries... are?

I like it. I can't really imagine it in my collection personally, but it looks like a good set to play with and a fresh breeze for City. I'll most likely pick it up, given I can find room for it. Also, the smartphone invasion is coming...

What a great addition to the Lego City! I always love seeing new types of sets, and this one looks pretty dandy.

City is a theme more for play value, and hey, emergency vehicles have a ton of playability for kids. A good line for kids' gifts and toys; For display, not so much.

But this one is very nice. It looks so vintage as well... When I saw its picture I thought it was an old set being discussed. I'll probably pick up one.

For some, the air would appear to be full of seagull poo and bladderwrack.

JD_Graham--I guess getting free sets for review purposes can sometimes feel like force-feeding....

AddictedToStyrene--But apart from that, what have the Romans ever done for us?

I sure was excited when I saw this set name listed in one of the leaks this summer....

Seeing pictures though...doesn't look like they finished it. Great concept. Bland execution.

I had high hopes for this thing when I saw that it was coming, but the finished product is a let-down for me personally. It's probably about as realistic as anything they've done in the City line, but it just looks terrifically plain. I thought it'd have 1 full brick worth of hull height beneath the deck, ramps a bit longer to match, more than one passenger seat, and a way for the operator to get up to the control cabin. Of course, those hopes paid no mind to the fact that LEGO costs money, and what I envisaged would probably retail for 50% more than this will, even at a reasonable price/part level.

That model is so meh. The flatness doesn't even look like a boat. I like the variety of submarine and ice sets which I assume fall under City.

I would've preferred more Sandbanks-ferry than Dartmouth-ferry but that is an almost perfect replica of the latter. Perhaps the reason some people think it's boring is the lack of vehicles on board? Or the colour scheme? But this would go perfectly with my 90s harbour setup!

The best part of this set is that I'll be able to get the Black Widow hair piece in what looks like a $25 set.

@yuffie my thought exactly

Dunno how I feel about its aesthetics. If the price isn't too bad I'll definitely try to get one as a cheap parts pack.

Lovely set!

Is that a mobile phone?!

More importantly for the set, I sense a lot of complaints wil commence when it turns out the 8x8 plate with grate in the middle does not have plates under it. I don't expect the set to have plates under it, as standard sets usually don't have additional plating underneath a large plate like that.

If it is the case nothing's underneath, I'd laugh.

Regardless, it's probably there to provide a studless surface for that size. But still. For the set's image sake, I hope people are not going to nitpick too much about such a detail again.

Now I can transport my rocket jet-ski car powered by rainbows and piloted by Skeletons to LEGO Island!

Agree that Friends does City better than City does City.

The best thing I can hope for is that, eventually, Friends and City themes will merge. Minidolls become minfigs, City benefits from a range of buildings other than Police Stations, and we head back to the heyday of 80s-90s Town with restaurants and houses.

I could love if City had some small houses and small shops.

Would have been nice if they provided a small check-point that vehicles had to go through before boarding the boat, a simple shack with a red-and-white striped barrier, and maybe seating for passengers. That said, I like the way it harks back to the simpler sets of the 90's leaving more room for imagination

I do agree with everyone saying that it looks unfinished. It's to flat on boat and it doesn't very look very boaty. Cool set, but not going to be set I would have to get.

What chrisaw said ^

The ferry looks nice, something different from the usual City sets. Hopefully TLG will continue to add more variety in the City line...

Everyone familiar with the real deal will know that those types of ferries are utterly functional, they are nothing more than a boxy hull, some railing, ramps and a wheelhouse. They are all over Europe as well, much used for short crossings. Personally their utilitarian nature appeals to me, though I can see why some people would find them ugly. Personally I feel a bit nostalgic towards them because my father used to captain one of them for most of my youth and I got to steer them several times. Like the OP I think it is a nice addition to the usual LEGO City assortment.

The one critique I have is that it seems to lie too low in the water. It should have some more freeboard.

I'm a big City fan and it is all I buy, but I alos have a problem with Forced fed emergency sets.... HOW MANY POLICE STATIONS AND FIRESTATIONS CAN BE IN A CITY???? WHERE IS THE POST OFFICE? GAS STATION? MILKTRUCK? SHOPS? PLEASE LEGO STOF WITH ALL THE POLICE AND FIRE SETS ITS SOOOO BORING!!

Set is 33 euro, but that appears to be a TRU-like mark-up, my guess is 29.99 USA/Eu, 24.99 UK, 39.99 AUS/CAN, 49.99 NZ.

Those against the phrase "force fed" are completely missing the point. Obviously LEGO isn't forcing you to buy the sets but when all they have are the same tired police stations (which I will give them credit for mixing them up recently with the forest police, swamp police, and now the island prison), fire stations, etc. the very ideas of the same themes within 'City' ARE being forced upon us. I always like the one-off sets like this ferry, and though my City collection is entirely land-based, this will still prove to be a nice addition and I like the idea of supporting variety with my wallet.

Riaan, Kliq, et. al.--While I understand your sentiment (and would like more civilian sets, too), we have had four regular police stations in the past ten years.* That's the same number as are in my real-life city of less than 445,000 people. Even if you collected all the police stations since 2005, your Lego city would have four. Now, that is still a lot compared to the number of civilian sets we get, but it's not an unreasonable number for a city.

*To be fair, I'm not counting this year's prison island (which is a prison, not a police station) or the forest and swamp stations (since those two seem to be outside the regular city)--just the "proper" city police stations.

I was very excited when I first heard they would make a ferry. But this is very underwhelming. Looks like a poor MOC.

Indeed sets like this are a fresh breath of air since they are mostly recycling previous City sets. So the 'forced fed' sentence is indeed true for that matter!

The set is not too much interesting. I am disappointed a bit. However, imagine how nice it could become if modified for trains!

It looks a lot like quite a few ferries that run across rivers/channels in the part of the world where I grew up. They go back and forth all day, one shore-to-shore trip often takes less than 3 minutes. These boats are really not much more than this model. Two 'ramps' at both ends to drive onto the boat, some flat area to stop your car on, and a small cabin (if even) for the driver.

I think it is quite accurate overall (at least not less accurate than most city sets). I like it very much!

City sets aren't usually on my wish list. But this set is really neat. I probably will buy this one. It will go really great with my Modular buildings scenery.

An off-the-cuff comment has induced foaming-at-the-mouth responses. How very Brickset. For what it's worth I agree with Huw, Lego force feed the market police and fire sets for no reason other than they know it works. It's nice to see them take a risk on something new for all those kids who aren't into law vs order. 2016 seems to be the year of the prison island for Lego, so this set still manages to fit in nicely to their police theme.

I think the set itself is quite good, you only need to search for "small car ferry" on Google Images to see that it's quite evocative of its subject without going over-board on the piece count. These things are used the world over to help people reach small offshore island communities and to traverse rivers and lakes, but it has to be said the vast majority of people will never have used one. Much larger versions do exist obviously, but Lego's primary concern is to provide a play-set, not to indulge our appetites for bigger Lego sets.

Accurate or not, it's still ugly and too '90s.

a few modifications, and that vehicle turns nicely into a fire vehicle! lol. Actually, the hood of the car has nice personality for a simple set. The overall parts collection will be great for MOCing after the initial build/tear down places all the pieces to the creative bin. One small sticker sheet to be included and ignored, and by the smiles on the passenger and captain, it seems to be a wave-free day on the harbour! Honestly, a really nice basic set for future free-builds. My favorite kind.

Feels like a blast from the past, a breath of fresh air. I will admit I'm not the biggest fan of the colour scheme (despite having been on multiple yellow car ferries with green floors), but I do appreciate them giving us something else than the usual stuff. Will definitely consider a purchase, depending on the price.

Yeah, I have to say while I really like the ferry, the car is a bit boring actually...

What is disappointing to me is the price point if really at 29.99 USD. Hard to want this set at retail price. Mercifully will likely be on sale a lot during its run.

This set looks great - and exactly like the Howe Island Ferry which operates near my hometown:

https://www.flickr.com/photos/wiless/4402944104/

It only hold 2 vehicles.

I think it is a breath of fresh air to the City theme and look forward to what else is coming down the line.

Very cheap design for a 40 or 50 $£€ set. Oo 2016 first city sets are not very inspired, except the garbagge truck and the big fire truck. And of course police ...AGAIN ! After the swamp police, the forest police, the sea police....ideas for 2017: the farm police !

This is very similar to the Canby Ferry and Wheatland Ferry in western Oregon. Although I think the Wheatland Ferry may have closed since I left the state 8 years ago. Anyhow, I will definitely be getting this one.

It's not very pretty but ferries aren't, usually. It's functional, and I kind of like it for that reason.

Besides, if you don't like it, you can always buy the next 20 fire engines that they're putting out next year!

I sort of start not even looking at the police and fire, anymore. They're all the same set. Everything that came out this year has an almost-exact duplicate set that came out a couple of years ago. Police stations and fire stations all start to look the same, particularly if you're looking at a "new" one every two or three years on repeat. For me, it's not that they keep sticking to these two themes, it's that, in doing so, they're just putting out the same police car, the same police boat, the same fire engine, the same fire station and the same fire cars year after year after year after year. And it's just very hard to get excited about it anymore.

Ooh, this is nice.

^ Indeed. Definately on the 'to buy' list. Needs to be modified though to have the bridge run from side to side above the car deck rather than just be on one side.