LEGO City Town 60097 City Square Building Kit

My wife and I purchased the LEGO City Town Square (60097) set for our kids last Winter and we only fairly recently got around to building this impressive building toy! My little boys (3 & 5) are huge LEGO fans and we worked over the course of about a week building each little component of this set and the results are fantastic additions to our LEGO village!I really appreciate the way LEGO lays out their building toys, labeling each bag and providing instructions for just the components in each bag as you work your way through the build booklets. This is especially true when working with little kids (as in my case) and it allows us to concentrate on just a subset of bricks and components at a time. This set includes 16 brick bags! And an impressive number of build booklets too!--------------------► Assembly:--------------------There's nothing overly complex with this set, just a lot to build! That said, younger kids will almost certainly require adult assistance on the intricate details. Stand out difficulty in this build include:• Tow truck winch. You'll need to use string (included) and tie off the ends of the winch and hook. This requires a fair amount of dexterity.• Stickers. Always a bit of a challenge is placing the many, many stickers from the 3 sticker books accurately and straight. Dexterity and patience are required here.• Car lift. The auto garage has a working car lift that is a bit complicated to assemble.• Pegs. There is a myriad of little single piece pegs used in this build. The standout is the LEGO store that has a wall of tiny pegs hanging inside! It's a totally neat feature but again, for little ones the pegs can be hard to work with.--------------------► Set Standouts:--------------------I always like to write about what sets off a LEGO set that might not be immediately apparent from the product listing or pictures. With this kit, it's so difficult to pick just one thing as there's so much that we adore about it. For my sons, the clear-cut standout favorite is the small orange tram. They're huge, huge fans of trains and we own several LEGO train sets. The tram works on our existing LEGO track but can be used off track too if that's your wish.The tram looks super cool and is fairly easy to use too! Each large windows on the sides are hinged at the top an opens wide to allow placing minifigures inside. The chairs are offset, again making minifigure placement easy!I'm a huge fan of the LEGO toy store which just has a ton of neat features inside like a LEGO knight and a wall of multicolored pegs that looks like a huge, colorful hat wall!The tow truck is also really cool with a tilting flatbed and working winch!Another neat thing is the sheer number and variety of minifigures. You get an impressive 12 minifigures that include everything from a helicopter pilot, to husky to barista!--------------------► Closing:--------------------Whether you're just starting your LEGO collection or adding to one, the City Town Square kit is an amazing set that adds so much character and charm, not to mention a small population of minifigures! We're huge fans of LEGO and sets like this one are why - incredible value, fun, and replayability with this toy. Recommended!

I purchased this for my son. Expensive but he enjoyed building it.

My favorite parts of this ICONIC lego set include the following:1) The bright "happy orange" tram. This is only the 2nd time that lego has ever produced a tram and the first time it was more blocky/rigid and blue in color. This is a more sleek and modern version. The orange is the same color as those new "piece/block separators" that are included in most sets and are essential to any builder. (I sure wish we had had those separators when I was younger! Some of those pieces never came apart!)2) The Lego Store and matching Lego Truck. I've always wanted to have a REAL Lego store where I lived because growing up we didn't have one and now that I'm older I've moved to a city that is fortunate enough to have one! So it's totally awesome to be able to have a Lego store front in your own Lego City/World! This is the first time that they've ever created a Lego store set that can be purchased (the other ones in the past were gifts for the grand openings of stores around the world: Berlin, etc.) This is also a rare occurrence of there being a Lego truck/semi in a set! If my memory serves me well I think that this is only the 2nd or 3rd time that they've created one of these yellow Lego branded trucks/semis. This one is smaller than the original but it's perfect! I really love the details of having individual lego bricks and minifigures for the Lego Store and BEST OF ALL is the fact that there are Lego set pieces that go on "floating shelves" inside the store!3) The Coffee Chain Shop is a memorable part of the 2014 Lego Movie where the main character "Emmet" is part of a Lego City/World that pays a lot for their cup of "Coffee Chain/Starbucks-esque" coffee. Also the Lego coffee mug piece is one of the most iconic parts of Lego because it's so cute and just perfect. This "branch" of the Coffee Chain has a barista, espresso machine and a coffee grinder. Note: If you want to make it even better you should collect the original coffee barista from the movie which is a very fun minifig!The other parts of this lego set were mostly just fillers and random. I appreciated the TV news helicopter which is a nice update to a set that I got when I was a kid. The mechanic service shop with 1 ramp was kind of weak but made sense being attached to a car dealership (the tire sales rack was definitely a new and fun touch!) The tow truck is just a generic tow truck that wasn't too exciting so I won't say much about it. Then there's the tram/bus stop was kind of average. It was interesting that they added a little greenery to it but it basically reminded me of an update to a bus stop set from a few years ago.Basically this set is awesome but has it's high and low parts. I definitely recommend this set but I'm certainly very opinionated when it comes to certain Lego sets that have been produced recently especially since the prices have dramatically increased in recent years! I feel like people need to know the features, quality and value of each set before deciding to purchase them. Feel free to read and like my other reviews if you like what I have to say. Thanks for reading!

Much like Lego City, there's a lot going on in this set. You get a great number of vehicles in this set. You get a moped, three cars, a tow truck, a Lego store truck, a tram and a news helicopter. The highlight of this set in my opinion are the tram and the wonderful structrues. The lego store comes with masonry bricks to give it that city feel and the two classic minifigs on display add a nice touch as well. The dealership has a two storey showroom one of which has sliding glass doors. The service station comes with a ramp and lift so the mechanic could work under the car. Both the tram station and the Coffee Chain shop are just as impressive and charming as the bigger structures and easier to build. You get at least 14 minifigures and accessories include tools such as a wrench to food like pretzels and hotdogs. And speaking of dogs, if you're a dog lover then you will love this cute little husky that comes along with this incredible set.If I have anything negative to say about the set it's that I do not like the stickers. But that isn't a problem with this set, that's just my personal opinion. I prefer that Lego sets come without stickers. But stickers aside, this is an amazing Lego City set and probably makes for a great family or group activity. I strongly recommend this one for anyone who is either looking for a challenge or something something to do with family or friends. There's something for everyone in City Square.