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2018 LEGO City Mountain Police review

by on February 10, 2018
in LEGO City

We have discussed the LEGO City Mining sets already (see: 2018 LEGO City Mining Sets Review & Thoughts), but we haven’t talked about the other 2018 LEGO City sub-theme; the LEGO City Mountain Police. LEGO City Police sets have been a staple of the LEGO City line, as playing cops and robbers is a popular pastime with young boys. So, let’s check out what the latest LEGO City Police sets are about. 🙂

Releasing interesting LEGO City Police sets every year is not an easy task. There is always the police station, and the various police vehicles, but there also has to be something to keep the line fresh. LEGO attempts to solve this problem by occasionally placing the police department in different environments outside of the standard LEGO City setup. We got the LEGO City Forest Police sets in 2012, the LEGO City Swamp Police sets in 2015, the LEGO City Prison Island sets in 2016, and now the LEGO City Mountain Police sets for 2018.

Another feature LEGO has been adding to the LEGO City Police sets is quite a bit of humor. There are always some funny ways the badguys end up getting themselves in even more trouble than they anticipated. This year, they are hiding out in the mountains, which means they also have to keep an eye on wildlife like bees, bears, skunks, and mountain lions.

The 2018 LEGO City Mountain Police collection includes seven sets; three small ones in the $7-$20 range, three medium ones in the $40-$60, and one large set still under $100. And even the smallest sets include both cops and robbers, fun play-features, and new and interesting pieces.

➡ SMALL LEGO CITY MOUNTAIN POLICE SETS: The smallest of the LEGO City Mountain Police sets is the #60170 LEGO City Off-Road Chase with two minifigures, a police motorcycle and a little brick-built hiding spot for stolen gems. Note that the police officer’s dirt bike helmet is brand new piece, and his printed pants are another very useful part. Also, the motorcycle comes in the very rare blue color (it only appeared once in a LEGO Jurassic World set from 2015).

The second smallest LEGO City Mountain Police set is the #60171 LEGO City Mountain Fugitives with two cops, two robbers, a small vehicle a small tree, and a tree log. This is the smallest set with the new beehive piece, which, conveniently fits on top of a minifig’s head! Great little set in every way!

The #60176 LEGO City Wild River Escape includes two minifigs two boats, a few accessories and a skunk. I would say that from the three small sets this is the least interesting, especially considering that it has the highest price ($20). It is not a bad set, it’s just offers less variety, play-features, and new parts than the other two small sets. You can get both of the smaller sets for less than this one, and end up with six minifigures and better play-features and parts-selection overall.

➡ MEDIUM LEGO CITY MOUNTAIN POLICE SETS: If you want to get deeper into the LEGO City Mountain Police collection, the three medium-size sets offer a lot of options. The #60172 LEGO City Dirt Road Pursuit includes three minifigures, two vehicles and another one of the very rare blue motorcycles. The #60173 LEGO City Mountain Arrest features a large police helicopter, a mountain hideout for the badguys (with another beehive!), a small vehicle, and the always very desirable bear. And you also get four minifigures, including one badguy in his undies with fun paw prints! The #60175 LEGO City Mountain River Heist includes three great vehicles, a small tree, and four minifigures. This is a great set for playing out a fast action robbery scene.

➡ LARGE LEGO CITY MOUNTAIN POLICE SETS: The largest of the LEGO City Mountain Police sets is the #60174 LEGO Cit Mountain Police Headquarters. This is an interesting take on the usual police station, with a more rugged feel. There is net shooter on the roof, jail cell with breakout wall/door, and a cave under the jail cell with a mountain lion. There is also a separate helipad and a small hiding spot for gold bars, a police helicopter, a second helicopter for the badguys, a police 4×4 vehicle, and a blue bike (the third in the collection!). The seven minifigures include a police chief, a pilot, two officers and three badguys. And check out that fun tree-stump costume! (You can use the video-player below to watch reviews of all seven sets.)

All in all, the LEGO City Mountain Police collection is a winning series with not a single bad or boring set. And there is something for every budget! Lots of new parts, great vehicles, nicely decorated minifigures, and fun play-features. You can’t really go wrong with any of the sets here. If you want to take a closer look, you can find them under the LEGO City section of the Online LEGO Shop.

What do you think? How do you like the LEGO City Mountain Police collection? Do you have any of the sets already? Feel free to share your own thoughts and reviews in the comment section below! 😉

And you might also like to check out the following related posts:

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Building 3D LEGO models with MecaBricks

by on February 9, 2018
in Useful Resources

(Written by Thomas – BrickProject)

There are a number of design tools to build LEGO models digitally, including LEGO’s own LEGO Digital Designer, LDraw, MLCad, Stud.io by BrickLink, and MecaBricks. These powerful programs allow you to design LEGO models either via your browser or through a downloadable software, create parts-lists and shopping lists for your model, and generate building instructions and impressive renders that you can share with others. 🙂

Each of these tools have their strengths and weaknesses, and it is worth trying all of them out to see which one you like the most. In addition, most of the tools allow you to transfer files in between them, so you can do one part of the design process using one tool, and use another tool for another task.

For example, you could use LEGO Digital Designer to design your custom LEGO model, as it is an easy and intuitive program even for beginners. However, LEGO Digital Designer is poor at creating realistic renders. For that task, you can transfer your LDD file over to MecaBricks to add some very impressive finishing touches.

I have been using MecaBricks for creating realistic renders of my own LEGO creations, so I thought to share some of my experiences with the program. I would say that MecaBricks is a perfect mix of LEGO Digital Designer and LDraw. LEGO Digital Designer is easy to use, but it has too many restrictions when connecting LEGO elements. On the other hand, LDraw allows pretty much any connection, which is great when you want to use some unconventional building methods, but it could also make you end up designing a LEGO model that is unrealistic and unstable in real life.

MecaBricks is somewhere in between LEGO Digital Designer and LDraw when building a virtual LEGO model. It gives you more possibilities than LEGO Digital Designer, but this also means that it is more difficult for beginners to grasp. However it is not as difficult as LDraw. If you spend some time with the help section, and just exploring what each of the different buttons do, you should get the hang of it. And as I mentioned above, you can always star building in the easier to use LEGO Digital Designer, and then transfer your model over to MecaBricks for steps LEGO Digital Designer can’t or doesn’t allow you to do.

Again, for designing your models you can use any of the above-mentioned programs. Where MecaBricks really stands out is its capacity for realistic renders. This means that you can make your digital LEGO model quite lifelike with shadows and backgrounds, and even add textures like scratches, fingerprints, and wear. Basically, MecaBricks allows you to make images of your virtual LEGO models that many people will mistake for real builds with real LEGO bricks.

MecaBricks also has a very active community section. Members share their own models, as well as virtual models of official LEGO sets. Playing with these models within the program will improve your virtual building and rendering skills as well. And the community is also there to help in case you get stuck with your own project. The creator of MecaBricks, Nicolas Jaraud, is regularly updating the features, so the tool is continually evolving and improving.

You will find many of the project creators on LEGO Ideas use MecaBricks to share their models. The video below demonstrates a recent project that is currently gathering support on LEGO Ideas by saabfan (also the co-creator of the #21309 LEGO Ideas NASA Apollo Saturn V). The LEGO version of the Fiat 500 F was built in MecaBricks and rendered using Blender with the help of another LEGO fan, Gabriele Zannotti. Looks really good, isn’t it? A couple of other LEGO fans who regularly share amazing virtual LEGO models are Renderbricks and Carlierti.

You can also check out my own LEGO Ideas project here to get some other examples of using MecaBricks. Speaking of my own LEGO creations, currently I’m working on a 10-minutes short animation titled “Life”, which I’m hoping to release in April of this year. I’m using MecaBricks to add realistic textures in the film. If you would like to get updates on the progress of this project, you are welcome to follow me on Twitter.

What do you think? Have you tried MecaBricks already? What was your experience with the tool? And what is your favorite LEGO design and rendering software? Feel free to share your thoughts and own reviews in the comment section below! 😉

And you might also like to check out the following related posts:

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