So with all these exciting big sets out and coming up this 2015 we thought we take a look back at a CITY set that not only had the size and height but an awesome amount of playability as well; the 2012 LEGO® CITY City Garage 4207.
I'm no expert in LEGO® and their annual releases but 2012 seemed to have offered a rather dull lineup as compared to what we are seeing in the last 2 years so I guess new LEGO® fans & kids should be happy about that.
Over the past year since we started boxtoy.co we have come across various offers on retired and older sets and one of those offered was the LEGO® CITY City Garage 4207. To be honest when I first saw it I thought nothing much of it with its open walls and rather bare structure. Not until my son made a comment on how he wouldn't mind a parking garage for his few LEGO® vehicles, so that made me take a second look at the 4207 and that's the end of that story.
LEGO® CITY GARAGE 4207 CONCEPT
The City Garage 4207 is a 933 piece set that was apparently limited in availability during its release. I guess you could consider it the largest CITY set of 2012 that superseded the 2009 LEGO® CITY Garage 7642 set which had 953 pieces. So far I have not seen or heard any rumors of a new CITY Garage set but if there was meant to be one it should be this year or maybe next? But Anyway let's get back to the 4207 set.Without a doubt the City Garage 4207 was design for awesome fun and play for kids, I mean just sounding out the features spark fun and imagination: 3 story parking building, a car wash, parking ticket machine with boom gate and ramp, a security office, an auto workshop, a fuel pump, 5 minifigures and oh yes LEGO® threw in 4 vehicles in the likes of 2 cars, 1 tow truck and 1 super cool retro Camper Van....plus one last thing, a functional vehicle elevator. I mean come on, even as a parent I was excited for my kid and myself.
For most sets the included minfigures will give you an idea of the play that's offered. So the City Garage included a Security Officer to man the City Garage, a Mechanic who runs a workshop in the building, a friendly couple looking to wash or park their car and a businessman who just needs his regular season parking spot. So there's just a lot of stories to play up in this set.
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| Front, Back, Right & Left View of the City Garage Structure |
4207 GARAGE BUILDING
The City Garage set is what it is, a CITY set so we weren't going to get the level of detailing of a CREATOR nor the architectural design features of a Modular. What we did get was nice tall boxy structure with open walls for easy access of kid and adult sized hands just like the LEGO® Fire Station 60004 but even easier to access. This was achieved because it utlilised about 20 pieces of 2x2x16 tall Crain & Scaffolding part #6004925 which according to brickset.com has only been used in 1 other set; the LEGO® Chima Eagles' Castle 70011. Would be interesting to see what the boys will be able to use those tall parts for later on when they want to build something else from this set.Built upon a wide foundation of 48 x16 studs meant that LEGO® had to supply rather large baseplate and plates. The foundation was essentially made out of 2 Baseplates; a 16 x 32 and and 16 x16 in Dark Gray and to construct the other 2 floor LEGO® provided about 4 pieces of the large 16 x 16 Dark Gray Plates again all useful for future LEGO® structures and MOC's down the road.
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4207 VEHICLES
One of the best parts about the 4207 set were the vehicles and you were given 4, it definitely got my sons attention. Here's a run through of the vehicles included:
2 Coupes, one blue and one yellow.
A Tow Truck rendered in orange with a nice tough look with it's exposed studs on the hood, it came with a little hook and chain (string) to tow any of the 3 vehicles or any other LEGO® CITY vehicle for that matter.
And finally the cool looking Camper Van in Tan, which fits 2 Minifugures nicely and includes a standard LEGO® mug for the long drive. We liked the Camper Van so much we did an extra post on it here, if you want to build one too you can as we did a little how to build video with parts listed as well.
What was additionally a nice touch was the use of the 6x6x2 roof parts for the Coupes, the set included 2; a grey one shown above and a yellow one for the yellow coupe. My son immediately saw an opportunity to do a mini-mod and placed one of his LEGO® Bike Shop Cafe MOC Bikes on top of the car, works perfectly as a roof rack.
4207 FUEL PUMP
Apart from the vehicles the 4207 set came with only one other loose build and that was the Fuel Pump, I'm not fond of having additional loose parts because of storage but it was really nice to see LEGO® supply this extra effort because my son really enjoyed building this pump.
He additionally loved the play and idea behind filling up the vehicles, and he did this constantly....just in case they run out of LEGO® fuel. Through it's colours I assume it's owned by the great Octan company.
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4207 PLAYABILITY
Ok so lets get to the Building. Starting on the left side of the ground level we have the Car Wash. As you'll see from the images the set came with quite a few stickers and while I'm not fond of stickers the set would be meaningless without them. Besides the boss said they needed to be on so they went on.GROUND LEVEL - CAR WASH
With the supplied roller brushes and red frame windows we got have a nice Car Wash which vehicles can easily drive through.
As you push the car through you get to see the roller brushes do their thing and watch your car from the side as it gets a wash. Very cool and fun, a feature my son enjoyed no doubt.
Vehicles get to exit easily via the rear of the structure and car wash. Done.
GROUND LEVEL - PARKING ENTRANCE
On the right side of the City Garage is the entrance and ramp to the vehicle elevator, the ticket machine with boom gate was a nice and simple build with a touch of TECHNIC.
LEVEL - SECURITY OFFICE
On the first level and on the left you get the Security Office which comes with a cool security camera.
With the standard approach of CITY structures the Security Office offers an open back which allows easy access to the office and equipment to keep the place running safe.
LEVEL 1 - WORKSHOP
To the right side across the Security Office we have the Garage Workshop, rather unusual that a workshop is on an upper floor but I guess a Car Wash on a upper floor would be more unusual and impractical I guess.
What's nice about the workshop is that you get a pretty got setup of pieces. There's 4 spare tires that are interchangeable with the various vehicles for emergencies and the tool drawer comes with all the workshop tools required for the job including a broom to keep the workshop clean.
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LEVEL 2 - PARKING BAYS
Here's the main attraction the central elevator to bring all the vehicles up and down to their bays, this works by turning the TECHNIC gear/knob on the top of the building just by the signage. One could easily apply a Power Functions motor to this but my son enjoys the manual approach.
The vehicles move in and out pretty well, a little bit tight but it still does a good job of providing awesome play.
There's space for a vehicle on each side of the first level by the Security Office and Workshop and on the top floor you get to park a total of four vehicles; two on each side but mainly with 4 stud wide vehicles only due to the limited space.
CONCLUSION
Overall this is a really nice big CITY set, I'm glad we managed to find one, the boys really love it because it's just tall, has lots of bits, vehicles and the open access just calls them to come and play.
The core features of the Car Wash and Vehicle Elevators are great play functions, an aspect I always look out for in LEGO® sets.
Finally, the fact that you get four vehicles with this set means it's destined to help populate your growing towns' transport needs and when it comes to assimilating to a LEGO® Town with Modulars it does a pretty descent job with its height. That's if you don't mind mixing CITY and Modular structures as shown above next to the LEGO® CREATOR Grand Emporium 12011. Ultimately as a 933 pieces set it's an awesome LEGO® CITY set from the past with lots of playability for kids.
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