City

Arctic Mobile Exploration Base

A whole convoy plus the first LEGO woolly mammoth, frozen in a block of ice.

Brick Rated Score

3.6/5

Set 60195 · 2018

Pieces786

Minifigs6

Year2018

Set number60195

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The verdict

This is the flagship of the 2018 City Arctic wave, and the thing that got me is the mammoth: it was the very first mammoth LEGO ever molded, and here it comes locked inside a chunky block of white and trans-blue ice.

You get four connecting vehicles, six well-designed minifigures, and a genuinely fun dig-it-out play story. I'll be straight with you though, the price per piece is high and a lot of those pieces are big purpose-molded elements, so parts hunters will feel a bit short-changed. As a play set for a kid who loves polar adventure, it sings.

Best for: kids who love vehicle convoys and prehistoric-animal rescue play

The full review

What it is

The Arctic Mobile Exploration Base is the big one in LEGO's 2018 City Arctic push, and it leads with something LEGO had never made before: a woolly mammoth. Not just any figure either, it arrives frozen inside a hefty block of white and translucent blue ice that you build around it, so the whole play premise is a rescue dig. That single idea is what carried the set for me. You roll the convoy out across the tundra, you crack the beast out of the ice with the saw truck, and there's a satisfying little story baked right into the box. For a kid, that is exactly the kind of open-ended setup that keeps a set in rotation instead of gathering dust on a shelf.

The catch

Now the honest side of it. This was 119.99 at retail for 786 pieces, and that math never quite adds up in City terms, where you usually expect more brick for your money. A big chunk of the count goes into large single-purpose elements: crane arms, ski pieces, window frames, and those chunky trans-blue rock chunks that make up the ice. They look great assembled, but they don't give you much to reuse in your own builds, so if you buy sets partly to feed your parts drawer, this one leaves you a little cold. The mammoth itself, gorgeous mold and all, has no printing beyond its eyes, and a touch of color on those fur tufts would have made it something special. Small gripe, but reviewers kept coming back to it.

Who it's for

So who lands on the happy side of this? If you have a kid who loves vehicles that hitch together into a long train, and who lights up at the idea of freeing a frozen mammoth, this is a genuinely lovely play set and worth chasing. Arctic and animal fans will adore it too. If you're a display-focused adult builder or someone hunting for a cheap parts pack, I'd point you elsewhere in the range, because the value just isn't there for that use. It retired in early 2020, so sealed copies now sell well above the old sticker price, which is worth knowing before you commit.

The parts story

What the build is actually like, and the pieces worth knowing about.

Building it feels breezy and quick, which is very much on-brand for City. You're assembling four separate vehicles plus the ice block, so it never bogs down in one long slog, and each little unit gives you a small hit of completion. The crane hauler with its posable arm and hook is the most involved section, while the lab unit with its radar dish and opening rear door and the saw truck with its spinning blade are fast, playful builds. The ice construction around the mammoth is the standout moment, layering white and trans-blue to get that frozen-solid look.

For parts, the headline is that mammoth mold, which debuted with this wave and is the reason a lot of people track the set down. Beyond it you get a generous pile of trans-light-blue elements for the ice, useful skis, and the crane and saw arms, though most of that is purpose-shaped rather than general-use brick. The minifigure printing is the quiet win here: four unique torsos across dark blue, azure, and orange, each figure with its own face, and one figure exclusive to this box. It's a nicer minifig haul than a lot of City sets its size, even if the loose brick count underwhelms.

Fun facts

01The woolly mammoth in this set was the first mammoth element LEGO ever produced, debuting with the 2018 City Arctic wave.
02The 2018 Arctic sub-theme pivoted from the 2014 line's crystal-mining premise to digging out frozen prehistoric animals like the mammoth and saber-toothed cats.
03It retired around February 2020 and sealed copies have since climbed to roughly 200, well up from the 119.99 launch price.
04This is the largest set in the 2018 Arctic wave, forming a four-vehicle convoy that links together into one long train.