Set Review - Airport VIP Service - #60102

It's been a while since I've had the space to set up a large city scene, but I'm a fan of LEGO City and mixing in the modular buildings and LEGO Trains that I have.  While LEGO puts out a large number of fire fighter and police sets in the CITY theme yearly, they rotate through aircraft every 2 years or so.  One of them is the set I'll be reviewing today, Airport VIP Service (60102).  It was released on 22 May 2016 in the US and is priced at $39.99 with 364 pieces ($0.137 per piece).  In my opinion it is a bit overpriced, but I caught it 20% off on Amazon.com for $31.99 ($0.088 per piece).  A little better in my opinion.  I'm glad I waited 5 months for it to go on sale.

The box shows the set which includes 4 minifigures (business woman, pilot, car driver, and airport worker), business jet, limo, and airport vehicle on the front.  The back shows all of the things you can do with the set.  The set is listed for ages 5 to 12 so I am not LEGO's main customer, but it works.

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The contents come in 5 bags (which are numbered), 3 instruction manuals (shoved into the box), a sticker sheet, and then the bottom of the nose of the fuselage.

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Instruction manual #1 is the airport truck with the "follow me" sign on the back and the pilot and business woman.  The airport truck could stand some re-design as the worker has to keep his arms up in the air to sit in it and drive.  The worker comes with a radio.  The business woman comes with a laptop and smart phone.  The pilot does not come with anything.

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Instruction booklet #2 goes with bags 2 and 3 and it makes the aircraft.  It's a simple design with a few BURPs (big, ugly, rock pieces) and the stickers definitely help to make it look better, but are a challenge to put on.  I can't see a 5 year old putting them on as listed without adult help.  Here are pictures of the aircraft with the top off and then a view with the pilot and business woman.  The aircraft comes with a glass for her to have a beverage and a croissant to eat.

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Instruction booklet #3 and bags 4 and 5 are the limo.  It includes the vehicle and driver.  Below are pictures of bag 4 complete and then bag 5 complete.  There isn't anything special to the vehicle.  There's a space for the driver and the passenger.  The vehicle comes with an "ice box" that you can put a popsicle in.  It doesn't really fit in much, but again I'm not the right age range.  Also I debate whether this vehicle should be 4 studs wide or 6 studs wide.  You could easily modify it to make it a 6 wide.  I'll leave it as 4 for now.

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Here's a view of the inside with the minifigs.  There's space for the business woman to put her phone and laptop.  There's also a chart sticker that she can stare at on the cooler.  You can decide whether it is pointing up or down.

From this view, the cooler is a waste of space and adding a second seat in would be better.  Or maybe you could change the design of the cooler as the minifig has to take the roof off of the car before she can take the popsicle out.  Not very convenient if you're driving.   

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Here's the final set with minifigs inside.  It doesn't have a lot of interesting building techniques and the piece selection isn't all that great, but if you're a CITY and airport fan, then it's a nice new addition.  If you can catch it on sale (it was 20% off on Amazon today - 22 Oct 16), it's even better.

Happy building!