Review: 60154 Bus Station
Posted by Huw,It's been four years since the last City bus turned up so the arrival of one in 60154 Bus Station is long overdue.
It's priced at £39.99, the same as 60153 Fun at the Beach, but it trades expensive minifigs for more parts, and supplies us with our second minifigure wheelchair.
Minifigures
However, it still contains six figures, a good number for a £40 set. There are three males: a cyclist, elderly gentleman in golf jumper and a bus driver, and...
...three females: a young girl with a mobile phone that seems to be an obligatory accessory for youngsters in in City sets these days (much like real life, then...), a wheelchair user and a newsstand attendant.
None of the torsos are exclusive to this set although the wheelchair user's and newsstand attendant's are new this year.
Newsstand
The newsstand is a minimal structure that sits on a 4x12 baseplate. For sale are newspapers, cans of drink and apples. The shop sign is a sticker, the papers printed.
A pile of newspapers can be found on the pavement below a street light.
There's just about room at the back to stand the attendant should you wish.
Bus station
The titular bus station is more accurately described as a bus stop as it too is a minimal structure, providing not much more than a shelter from the rain, a rubbish bin and a bike rack. The yellow plate might be a bench for figures to sit on but it seems a bit low for that purpose. A sticker on a 2x4 tile indicates the route map and bus times, while a billboard on the side advertises a beach party.
The appendage at the front is a wheelchair ramp but it's not really fit for purpose as you'll see below.
Bus
The bus is undoubtedly the main attraction of the set and while it's one of LEGO's better efforts it's not without its faults.
The wheel arches are new in green, and the black train doors have not appeared in a set since 1998. The roof makes use of a new piece that I describe below.
A sticker on the front indicates that it's an electric hybrid vehicle.
The left side of the bus has no doors, as you'd expect for a vehicle designed for use in countries that drive on the right, while the back provides an ingenious means of securing two bikes.
The doors are not realistic of real buses at all, which usually fold in two and open inwards, but I guess this is the best we can expect with existing parts.
Now, about the cool new piece. The part on the right, Plate 4 X 6 X 2/3, was introduced in 2004 and has been used as vehicle bonnets and roof fronts ever since. However, until now there has not been a neat solution for extending roofs because the part's angles does not align with those on any others.
New part 32739 on the left solves this problem and the five of them used here give the roof a neat and tidy appearance, particularly when compared to the ones on buses in 7641 City Corner and 60026 Town Square.
Unusually, it's actually quite hard to get into the bus to seat the passengers: the roof does not lift off easily: I needed to poke a finger through the doors to push the new parts off to remove them.
I don't know why tiles weren't used along the edge and the five roof parts bound with plates underneath so they could be easily removed as one piece. Still, that's an easy modification to make should you wish to.
The interior is pretty poor with not much in the way of seats (if you can call them that), just these three, one at the front, and a large space for a wheelchair by the door. But I guess that's to be expected in a 4-wide interior.
Verdict
This is an attractive set full of bright colours that yields six useful minifigs and ample play opportunities.
However, I am not entirely satisfied with it.
- It's a shame the newsstand is not integrated into the bus stop to make it a more substantial structure. That then may have made it worthy of the 'bus station' title.
- The new roof piece is excellent and arguably long overdue: perhaps the next iteration of bus will have improved doors too as those utilised here are wholly unsuitable.
- The wheelchair makes a welcome return and the ramp to enable access to the bus is a great idea, but unfortunately it's not been executed too well as there's still a 2-plate high step for the poor woman to negotiate to board the vehicle.
- Access to the interior is very poor: usually designers go out of their way to make it easy to seat minifigs inside vehicles but that's not the case here.
Nevertheless, with its doors closed it's a very decent-looking bus that I intend to make use of on my train layout. The rest will end up in my parts bins.
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45 comments on this article
Well it's a start I suppose. I'm going to have to get at least two of these and then extend the bus station further.
Oh, and as someone who works in the field, we often get accused of putting seats too high in bus shelters.
Looks great, I wonder what that Beach Party is all about…
The bus driver's head should have an alternative expression of sullen disdain to let people make it more realistic
Very cute :) I love it, so want it!
I cannot explain why, but I love builds like this newsstand.
Careful, Huw. That bus is designed to drive on the right side of the road, USA style. If the driver doesn't know the laws over there, your city could be headed for a pileup.
My city desperately needs a bus... several bus stops w/no actual bus service is making my city's inhabitants very unhappy, and I'm afraid at some point they'll revolt. However, as great as this set looked I'm dissapointed by the shortcomings. How can they release a set w/such a difficult to access interior? Why include those backrest w/handle pieces instead of actual seats? I think I'll still have to pick this up to avoid a minifigure revolution, although only at a discount and I'll make some mods (actual seats and accessible interior).
Funny thing I build a much better one when I was building my W-Z Lódz Maqiete. And I do agree about the Kiosk + Bus stop!
Those new pieces are great though!
Thanks for the review! Looks like a nice set.
@Henry_D: Unfortunately overpriced has become a bit of a norm in City now. Star Wars tends to have much better prices, actually.
Project for the summer: swap the sides of the doors. Also bricklink a white and blue one to be Translink. Well I am from Northern Ireland! Why shouldn't I?
The bus itself looks great from the outside, and I love the bike carriers in back! Also quite nice that they included wheelchair/stroller access, even if it doesn't work perfectly. I do think this set is overpriced though. Will definitely pick one up if on sale, and maybe MOC a better bus station to go with it.
The logical next step after Lego introduced wheelchairs was the issue of disability access rights. Odd that Lego have dropped the ball with that with the poorly designed ramp. Need some access rights campaign minifigures now to protest at the bus company.
Nice review! The bus looks alright.
Also, is that a 19 year gap since the last time the train doors appeared? Is that a record?
There was a single black train door in the latest arctic theme. And a pair of white ones in the Jurassic world theme...
Am I wrong in thinking 60026 actually has 2 right-handed black train doors? Thus, I think Huw means the left-handed version...
I was actually eagerly anticipating this set, and am a little disappointed. The interior of the bus does not do it justice (even though I am aware it is going to be very tough to better in the space given), and the two "buildings" that go with it are underwhelming. As TheOriginalSimonB is going to do, I'm probably going to get 2 and use the parts for a more substantial newsstand, 2 buses and 2 busstops; but only if and when they are on sale.
^ Yes, I suspect I did just look up the left-handed one at BrickLink.
This looks like a rehash/recoloring of earlier buses (city square) and the proportions look off with the front wheels too far back. It brings nothing new to the city if you have the old sets.
Also disappointed that "NEWSSTAND" is spelled out with big capital letters. It will only work in an English speaking city; my kids' city is not. Lego once was language neutral. Seems like all sets are geared towards English audiences nowadays, despite being a Danish toy.
Now is the time for the Lego City theme to shape up; we've seen a lot of uninspired sets lately---for higher prices.
The bus station is about the same size as the ones in northern Sweden (:
While the bus looks quite good I think there could have been a bigger newsstand, and a slightly bigger bus station.
The female to male ratio is considerably good, although it is surprising how few female drivers Lego City has. I guess that is just nit-picking, but I don't recall many female bus/truck drivers over the past years.
Grammar error: "There's just about room at the back to stand the attendant should you wish." Maybe its just me, but that is worded very strangely... Great review though!
To add to my earlier comments: is the ramp attached to the busstop? If so, the bus stop is unusually located in respect to the "road"; I've never seen a busstop that is positioned so that the people waiting in it are not facing the road. Or is it just the way you positioned them as optimal for the photo, Huw?
@eMJee83 : you can put it in the direction you want, it's just attached with a 2x4 tile ;)
To me, it's not a great set:
- i don't like the inside of the bus (weird seats, odd yellow piece inside in front of the wheelchair space)
- the side with the doors is ok, but the other is not good, without any texture and some holes in the body
- the bus stop has a weird colour scheme (red / yellow) with a strange bench ; the ferris wheel one or the fun at the park one are a good example of how it's supposed to be build
- the bus stand is too small (with papers on the floor ?!) but finally, it's not the worst of this set
I expected a better set for 40€ :/ Quite disappointed.
Those roof pieces are great and indeed long overdue (though they could have also revamped the other piece to better fit to cheese slope style gradients, which would have given us even more flexibility). For that, this set is a bit interesting.
But wow, does that bus require some heavy modding to be a bit more fitting to the vehicles running around in my city. That interior is very sparse.
And in today's world wheelchair accessibility is usually realized by having the bus stop at a decent level matching the wheelchair ramp/low floor combination on the bus. The lay out of the busstop is just silly and in no way realistic. Another mod there.
The newsstand seems almost an afterthought to make the set feel worth it's price a bit more ("you get not one, not two, but three! builds in this box").
All in all a bit pricey for a set that requires some heavy modding...
@Furstynh: you mean, the side they drive on in Denmark (and basically the rest of Europe besides those silly Islands somewhere of the northeastern part)? ;-)
The gaps (or black pieces, I can't tell) around the wheelarches look very poor, and some inexplicable design choices have been made...
but I do kind of like it. Easy enough to replace the ramp with a taller one and replace some grey plates with tiles, and those two things alone make it a lot better of a set.
This set is great. Shame about the roof removal. The new roof piece is awesome. Hopefully Bricks N Pieces will have some so can modify my 'City Corner' Bus.
I thought those door pieces were used in the red bus from Town Square
eMJee83, yes it is a bit odd how the shelter is not perpendicular to the road. I built it as directed so I guess it's so that it photographed better for the front of the box.
If that 337 is right for the pieces, well, we have a non-helicopter/airplane set being worse PPP than one that is for once(compared to last years 60102, both being $49.99.)
I was looking forward to this set, but yeah. It's oddly under-whelming, and probably going to be quite pricey in Australian shops. Plus, it would require significant rebuilding (since those doors would not work on Australian roads where people drive on the left). That ramp is a bit silly too, but maybe it's one of those types of buses that can lower itself a little bit closer to the ground to let people in wheelchairs board the bus more easily?
@huw would it be possible to get a photo of the back of new part 32739? I'd love to make the 3D model for Mecabricks so that people can start using it in there digital MOCs.
Are wheelchair bus ramps a real thing? Around here, the buses can lower themselves a few inches, and then fold out a ramp for a smooth entry/exit.
^ Exactly. I imagine putting the ramp on the ground is a compromise because it'd be pretty hard to build that in at this scale. The fact that the ramp is too low is probably so the doors can still open when the bus "pulls up" next to it.
Edit: looking at the last pic, I am wrong. It could be at least one plate higher. Oh well. I hope they release that new piece in white so I can mod this. Yellow is primarily for school buses around here.
Thanks for review and photos, shame about the plain interior of the bus. It'd also be nice with photos of the driver's seat and the wheelchair and passengers inside the bus.
I think the doors match reality pretty good, at least for today's buses in Sweden with doors opening outwards without folding (they do however open more like the door on the 3182 etc aircraft). It was a long time ago we had those inwards folding doors.
@scrubs, https://www.flickr.com/photos/brickset/34749324935/in/dateposted/
By LegoSolo77 in United States, 18 May 2017 17:30
Ah, it's like Simcity, where your people protested against bad healtcare in a 2k population city, even if you had 4 hostpitals :)
Don't know about the rest of the world, but here in the UK we are trying to meet disability access requirements both ways - the buses kneel and have ramps but we also raise the kerb height at bus stops. You can see how the kerb face comes up here for example:
https://www.flickr.com/photos/26565770 @N02/15062002593/in/album-72157660443100220/
You can also get "bolt-down" sections to put on top of standard height kerbs which look a bit more like the ramp in this set.
Oh, and I have installed a couple of perpendicular (rather than parallel) shelters recently, but the other way round so you can at least see the bus approaching whilst sitting in them...
Nice set, but those "supporting structures" are quite miniscule compared to the bus itself. Then again, nowadays that is not at all unrealistic.
One of my first ever Lego sets was 379. Seeing how substantial that bus station was in comparison to the new one makes me appreciate the old one even more. Otoh, the bus in that set was rather small, with room for only two (!) passengers. Oh well, can't have everything, can we?
;-)
I love the look of the bus itself, and I'm surprised and pleased that they built it on a 4-wide scale, because that says classic Town to me. But it does make choices like the obstructed access through the roof seem odd - maybe it's easier for kids, with their small fingers, because otherwise it's hard to imagine how it got through play-testing...
Rueful laugh re: the borked disability access - art imitating life, there, in my experience, though as @TheOriginalSimonB points out, things are gradually improving.
I love @Speed champions fan's idea of giving it Translink livery - don't forget to order enough bricks for three, so they can all turn up at once after a mysterious lack of buses despite what it says on the timetable!
It's amazing because Translink is the same company running the public transport network here in the part of Australia where I live ... and that's exactly the same thing that happens here! Maybe some things are just universal.
@catwrangler: It's not 4 wide (Huw must have meant the interior?) but 6 wide.
I'm happy that Lego has given us another bus set, I love these kinds of 'everyday life' themes that get away from the constant build up of Lego City's police state :P I might be weird, but I'm not a fan of the colour scheme on this one. The green and yellow and black just seem to clash to me.
Actually, these black train doors appeared in 2014 in a couple of the City Arctic sets, 60036, and 60062.
The bus looks way too much like the 2013 city one that came in the Town Square. About the only things in this set that I looks are the minifigures and the new roof piece.
Love that new 6 b4 yellow plate I could of done with that when I made thunderbird 4 two years ago, I already have the bonnet pieces twice, nice addition and hope to see it in other colours..
I also like the 50745, green mudguards, I have them in the lime and 3 other colours but I might grab these from the bricks n pieces service very soon..
Nice set lego 8/10.
Good looking set! Will have to pick this up. Nice addition to the city.
Superhero magazines in City sets? Weird.
As much as you may balk at it, this is Enlighten's version...https://www.aliexpress.com/popular/enlighten-brick-1121.html I own a copy. And I actually think it's great in design and quality. Superior to the new Lego one even.
The owner of Totally Toys, an independent Toy Shop here in Bristol told me his Lego Sales Rep advised him "that this set, (60154) won't be a big seller" so not to stock it...He needs a new Lego Sales Rep...