Review: 40526 Electric Scooters & Charging Station

Remember kids - they’re only legal to ride on private roads. Not pavements (sidewalks to some readers) or public highways (pavements to some readers).
Should include a police officer to issue fines, maybe set at £11.99?

"Remember kids - Laws are different in each country. Also no one enforces laws anymore so is anything as stupid and useless as electric scooters even illegal?"
...
Yes, on the roads in the UK its illegal as indeed the police thought too when I saw them impounding this guys scooter.

Nice little set tho, if not a tad expensive for what it is.

At this price it should come with a road plate.

@WemWem said:
"At this price it should come with a road plate."

And a narrow woodland path on which to dump the scooters.

I think we should all count ourselves lucky. Lego could have decided to add a squirrel to it - easily pushing the price to at least £19.99.

I hope there were no injuries when that solar panel fell off the Space Station.

The price is definitely high for its contents if you compare it to regular City sets, but it's pretty much in line with the prices of other blister-packed accessory sets/battle packs from recent years (and a lot cheaper than the licensed ones). Those sorts of sets always feel kind of overpriced compared to regular sets that come in boxes or polybags.

I've been keeping a BrickList on these sorts of sets for a while now (https://brickset.com/sets/list-15498), though I've fallen a little behind on writing up descriptions for some of the more recent ones.

Like the 2019 and 2020 City minifigure blister packs (40345 and 40372), this set has two exclusive elements — in this case, the torso and legs of the mechanic minifig. It does have fewer minifigures than those sets, but that is most likely so the standardized packaging has enough room for the two scooters and the larger supporting build. Certainly the contents seem to be packed in just as tightly as all the other minifig blister packs with this style of packaging.

Truth be told, I have mixed feelings about these sets. The blister packaging has always felt kind of wasteful to me, especially since it seems to be the main reason for these sets having such a high price compared to standard boxed sets with similar contents.

Certainly, there HAVE been some minifig blister packs that I considered a totally fair value in spite of their steep price per piece. For example, the Ninjago accessory sets 853544, 853687, and 853866 and the Minecraft skin packs 853609 and 853610 each contain three or four highly unique minifigure designs, and as such feel more comparable to a set of three or four CMF blind-bags than to boxed sets with similar minifigure count but fewer unique prints/recolors.

But since the shift to the newer style of blister pack (and 40 numbering) in summer 2019, new minifig blister packs have typically had a better price per piece than earlier ones, but also far FEWER new/unique prints and recolors — relegating them to a sort of a weird sort of grey area between CMF blind-bags (which tend to have more unique contents, but a steeper price per piece) and regular boxed sets (which have a lower price per piece, but more generic contents).

That weird middle-of-the-road value prospect means that I'm much less drawn to these minifig blister packs than I was during that bright period from mid-2016 to mid-2019, especially since I've gotten so much choosier about my LEGO purchases in general since getting married. This set would definitely be a tempting purchase for me if I had room for a larger City layout to integrate it into, but for now it's an easy pass for me, despite a generally strong design with two of the relatively uncommon scooter piece!

Hopefully these sorts of packs will skew more towards my interests again in the future. In the meantime, I hope other people get plenty of enjoyment out of them. Thanks for the review!

Remember starter sets?
We get around same ammount of pieces and 3 minifigs... for 9,99$!

@TheIronBadger said:
" @WemWem said:
"At this price it should come with a road plate."

And a narrow woodland path on which to dump the scooters."

Nice to hear this is a worldwide problem. We get them in nearby creeks and parked across sidewalks as well. And nothing beats getting hit by a fast rider on the sidewalk...I'm up to three times now...next one gets clothes-lined :)

@winbrant said:
" @TheIronBadger said:
" @WemWem said:
"At this price it should come with a road plate."

And a narrow woodland path on which to dump the scooters."

Nice to hear this is a worldwide problem. We get them in nearby creeks and parked across sidewalks as well. And nothing beats getting hit by a fast rider on the sidewalk...I'm up to three times now...next one gets clothes-lined :)"

I believe here in the UK it is completely legal to own an electric scooter, but illegal to use it in public areas.
I know, completely backwards…..things are a bloody nuisance and dangerous, not that the authorities really do anything about it

Even though I dislike the concept of electric scooters I appreciate the effort of this set but I just cannot un-see those battle droid arms that make up part of the scooters.

But it's nice that you can throw these randomly into your city diorama for a more realistic effect ^^

I agree that I think this is a bit too expensive for what you're getting. City minifigures tend to not be too overly detailed or require special molds, so I don't think skimping out on a fourth one is a good idea. I loathe them doing it to Star Wars, and I loathe them doing it here.

I wonder how much it would cost to get those scooter and solar panel pieces separately on Bricks and Pieces (assuming they're available. I'd imagine this set would be most appealing to people who already have city setting/layout. If I were a kid and I had to choose between electric scooters and clone troopers, you bet I'd go with the clones.

I almost never buy at full price except to get a GWP or redeem a VIP item code. I might get this, a chicken coop and some Stuntz bikes to get the two polybags. If I have an old VIP code that would make it worthwhile.

For anyone thinking this set is overpriced, I suggest a similar approach to take the sting out of it.

The temptation is there to PaB about a hundred of these scooters and just scatter them around our club’s layout, in piles, in the water, in the middle of the road…

@NatureBricks:
Local code regarding bikes varies quite a bit, but powered vehicles are governed at the state level. As far as I know, legally, anywhere in the US, you’d have to ride these on the street as they are technically motor vehicles. Licensing (both scooter and rider) and helmet laws are more variable. Whether the operating company is legally allowed to deploy them also varies at the local level. LA had a problem with Lime sneaking them into the city on the basis that they weren’t technically regulated as a business. LA residents didn’t take kindly to the “litter”, and LA city council quickly established rules that perhaps-not-coincidentally shut Lime out of the game.

@Aanchir:
True, the whole thing seems pretty standard for the minifig blister packs, both in price and contents. True, 40344 and 40511 have four minifigs, but the builds are pretty anemic. 40453, 40557, and 40558 only have three each, but the build is more substantial.

@lordofdragonss:
Yeah, but you don’t get the complementary minifig-shaped Jell-O mold.

@BigDaddy89:
I know there are some undead skeleton arms that could sub in, and I know there are long and short variants of each one, but I’m not sure if the proper clip orientation is available in a useful length.

@PixelTheDragon:
Dunno about in Iceland, but in the US the pricing is as follows:

$1.04 - solar panel
$0.57 - scooter body
$0.13 - scooter wheel
$0.13 - scooter neck
$0.10 - scooter handlebars

The logo tile is not currently available. Not “out of stock”, but actually not listed in the “for sale” section of PaB. To build just the scooters with a loose solar panel you’d be looking at $3.16…plus $10.50 in service fees (just the scooter neck is Bestseller, so you’d trigger both fees), and whatever they charge for shipping.

@kkoster79:
The Minions pack was on LEGO.com for about a minute and a half in the middle of last July. I actually missed it, but was able to grab one copy from the LEGOLAND Discovery Center, and had to resort to eBay for my second copy. I tried to buy the Batman one right when it launched, only to see the availability change from January 1st to a non-specific “Coming Soon!” There wasn’t even a link to set up a stock notification, so I basically had to just keep checking regularly so I didn’t miss it completely. Some have been gone in the blink of an eye, and others can be easily found for months. I’ve basically learned to buy them as soon as I see them, if I really want a copy. For 40344, I had passed on it repeatedly at first, but did finally buy a copy marked for clearance because I actually have a specific use for one of the minifigs now.

When it was announced, I was delighted, but the I did the math. Turns out, of the 50 pieces, 12 are minifig parts. The rest is very cheap and basic. Then I thought about all those scooters lying half dead around my town, waiting for some poorly paid juicer to pick them up. And then I thought, "Nah, scooter ban in my town" and deleted the set from my wishlist.

@NatureBricks
@PurpleDave

Good ol' federalism. The regulations governing electric scooters are as varied as the jurisdictions they try to dump them on. That's one of their justifications for 'disrupting' the status quo, and not bothering to ask permission or get operating permits.

State, municipal, other local laws, and potentially even federal law govern proper use. In the beginning, both San Francisco and Denver went back and forth determining whether any use was lawful. In Denver, they have changed the regulations several times. At first, they were classified as a toy, so they could only lawfully operate on sidewalks. Then, they reclassified them as similar to a bicycle, so only for street use. I think they may have changed it again.

Regardless, the largely ganja-n-alcohol-infused riders don't give a wit what the regulations are. They ride fast everywhere and dump them anywhere- all while staring at their phones. The only thing more annoying is the new COVID-dog owners who also have no control (and no understanding that they need any) over their hostile mutts (and they also only look at their phones).

Watching heavy pedestrian traffic in Denver is like a scene from Benny Hill and Keystone Cops mixed together. I recommend sitting behind a sturdy fence on a nice beer patio and letting the hilarity ensue.

So many pretty girls. So many horrible face plants...

This set could use some crutches, arm and gead bandages. I'd buy that!!

@StyleCounselor Now I finally want to visit Denver

Should come with a grumpy woman minifig that shouts the phrases -
"Oi...watch where you are going"
"Oi...get off the path"
"Oi...the red light means you have to stop"
"Oi...this is a supermarket not a skatepark"
The minifig would look like me.