LEGO City 60422 Seaside Harbor with Cargo Ship review
LEGO City’s latest harbour trades a typical feature for the most realistic and visually appealing build yet, while subtly teasing the world beyond its borders.
LEGO City’s harbour is one of the most underrepresented sections of the metropolis within the decades-spanning theme, and there’s little doubt that LEGO City 60422 Seaside Harbor with Cargo Ship is the best iteration yet, combining industry and leisure into one seamless creation. Whatever reservations you have about what is only the third LEGO City harbour set, let them sail away and enjoy this efficient LEGO City seaside experience.
Release: June 1, 2024 Price: £94.99 / $109.99 / €109.99 Pieces: 1,226 Minifigures: 8 LEGO: Order now
A lesson in the efficient use of space
At 1,226 elements, LEGO City 60422 Seaside Harbor with Cargo Ship‘s lengthy building experience speaks volumes to just how much the designers have packed into every inch of the build. They have still left more than enough room to pose and play with minifigures too. 60422 Seaside Harbor with Cargo Ship‘s sections are equal parts efficient and detailed, cramming in every harbour feature you could think of without sacrificing appearances. They’ve even incorporated a modular design to rearrange the harbour to your liking.
Compared to 2007’s 7994 LEGO City Harbour and 2011’s 4645 Harbour, the difference in piece count, locations and available space is staggering. Despite this, 60422 Seaside Harbor with Cargo Ship keeps the price reasonable, given the recent improvements and increases. It’s not without some sacrifices, some of which we’ll save for later in this review. For now, the lack of a wheeled vehicle to transport cargo from the harbour to deeper within the city seems to be the most notable oversight.
60422 Seaside Harbor with Cargo Ship makes up for it by including multiple water-based vehicles and the exploration of both industry and leisure areas on the seaside, which is new for harbour sets. Making the model modular also presents the opportunity to customise the layout of the set to your liking, including removing the angular section to more easily display it within a city.
There’s a whole city beyond the set
The finer details featured in 60422 Seaside Harbor with Cargo Ship tease the city beyond its borders, as do a few other summer 2024 City sets. It’s an impressive level of synergy the likes of which the theme has never seen. In 60422 Seaside Harbor with Cargo Ship, there is a harbour map featuring a tease of an extended beach and a park as well as an expanded industrial area.
Including these would have greatly increased the price of the set and teasing what is just beyond the build doesn’t come across as a false promise, but inspiration for expansion since the base model wholly delivers on the areas it does cover. 60422 Seaside Harbor with Cargo Ship also has a few banners to connect with other LEGO City summer 2024 sets, advertising 60421 Robot World Roller-Coaster Park and 60400 Go-Karts and Race Drivers. These add cohesive world-building that LEGO City can benefit from in the short term with synergy on shelves, as well as having the option to explore further in the long term.
We can’t recall many other LEGO City sets – even in recent years – that so successfully tease the world outside the realms of the model while also delivering in the base build. It doesn’t sacrifice one aspect for the other but finds that fine line and balances the vanilla experience with the potential for expansion and world-building.
Trades typical feature for supreme realism
As successful as 60422 Seaside Harbor with Cargo Ship is visually and through its (admittedly small number of) functions, there’s no denying that it lacks something important compared to both previous harbour models – the cargo ship does not float. The LEGO City designers have opted to forego any of the larger boat elements that are still in use in LEGO City sets in this model. Instead, the cargo ship is made up of smaller elements.
Despite appearances, the cargo ship is sizable in person and comparable to the previous ships. The important features are present too, including space for cargo, an engine room and interiors that use all available space in the hull. That said, the lack of a floating feature is disappointing but including any such element would surely have increased the price of the set to a less-reasonable level. It’s a worthy sacrifice considering the quality of the rest of 60422 Seaside Harbor with Cargo Ship, but a sacrifice nonetheless.
What few play features the set contains are executed well, the highlight of which is the container crane and it’s easy but fun to hook the containers up and move them from the ship to the dock. The containers themselves are sparse and lacking half of their walls and while this makes the cargo easier to access, a folding wall could have been an excellent inclusion for the sake of accuracy.
The set’s play features are undeniably limited as the model focuses almost entirely on aesthetics, to great success. It’s undoubtedly the most realistic LEGO harbour we’ve ever seen and this feels like a new and exciting direction for LEGO City to explore further.
This set was provided for review by the LEGO Group.
Support the work that Brick Fanatics does by purchasing your LEGO City sets using our affiliate links.
Our honest opinion: This iteration of the LEGO City harbour surprises with its size and realistic details, making the best use of the space available – even on the cargo ship, even if it can’t float.
How long does it take to build LEGO City 60422 Seaside Harbor with Cargo Ship?
We initially predicted that we’d need an hour and a half to build this set but we were surprised to discover that two and a half hours had passed when we finished building 60422 Seaside Harbor with Cargo Ship. From this perspective, there’s excellent value to be had.
How many pieces are in LEGO City 60422 Seaside Harbor with Cargo Ship?
LEGO City 60422 Seaside Harbor with Cargo Ship has 1,226 pieces split across four instruction booklets and nine bags. This makes up the harbour, the cargo ship, the additional vehicles, eight minifigures and some accessories.
How big is LEGO City 60422 Seaside Harbor with Cargo Ship?
When connected in the configuration displayed on the box, the harbour in 60422 Seaside Harbor with Cargo Ship measures 25cm high, 45cm wide and 30cm deep. The cargo ship measures 13cm high, nearly 10cm wide and 32cm deep.
How much does LEGO City 60422 Seaside Harbor with Cargo Ship cost?
LEGO City 60422 Seaside Harbor with Cargo Ship launched on June 1, 2024 in the UK and Europe and August 1 in the US for £94.99 / $109.99 / €109.99.
Author Profile
- LEGO has been a part of my life ever since I was young. It all started when my brother passed down 7657 AT-ST to me. It’s guided me through my early years, through school and eventually through my degree in journalism. I still have all my collection proudly on display, including my many NINJAGO sets, my favourite of all the LEGO Group’s themes. Outside of Brick Fanatics I am an avid gamer and enjoy a good game of Dungeons & Dragons.
Latest entries
