City

Custom Car Garage

Two little cars you can rebuild a hundred ways, plus the friendliest garage crew in City.

Brick Rated Score

4.1/5

Set 60389 · 2023

Pieces515

Minifigs4

Year2023

Set number60389

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The verdict

This is one of those City sets that quietly does more than the box promises.

The whole point is the two cars, which snap apart into swappable front ends, rear ends and engines, so a kid (or me, on a rainy afternoon) can keep remixing them for ages. It is not a display piece and the garage itself is fairly plain, but as an actual toy it earns its keep. If you want a set that keeps getting played with rather than one that sits finished on a shelf, this is a lovely pick.

Best for: Car-mad kids age 6 and up who love taking things apart and rebuilding them

The full review

What it is

The customizable cars are what got me. Each of the two vehicles is built in sections, a front end, a rear end and an engine, all connected with Technic axles and little angled connector rods, so you can pop them apart and mix them back together into something new. Different headlights, bumpers, spoilers, the lot. It sounds like a small thing on paper, but the first time you realize you are not building one fixed car, you are building a kit of parts that becomes any car you fancy, it clicks. That is a smarter idea than most City sets bother with, and it is the reason this one keeps getting pulled back off the shelf instead of gathering dust.

The catch

I will be straight with you about where it falls short. The garage building is not much of a build. It is an open-plan workshop with a configuration wall, a couple of ramps and an engine hoist, and it goes together quickly without any real cleverness or surprise. If you are an adult buying this for the joy of the build itself, you will be done in an evening and probably a little underwhelmed. At around sixty dollars for roughly 515 pieces it is fair rather than generous, and the play features around the edges (the hoist, the tool rack) are more suggestion than working function.

Who it's for

So this is a set for a car-loving child, plainly and happily. Six-year-olds and up will get months out of swapping the car parts around and running the little mechanic crew through their day, and that open-ended rebuilding is exactly the kind of play that lasts. If you are after a satisfying adult build or a display model, look elsewhere in City, this is not that. But as a proper toy that rewards imagination rather than instructions, it is one of the better small City sets of its year.

The parts story

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

Building it is quick and friendly, which is the point. The two cars come together in tidy sections and the modular joins are the interesting bit, Technic axles and connector rods that let the front, rear and engine detach cleanly and reattach in new arrangements. The garage itself is mostly plates, a few printed signs and some tooling props, so an adult will breeze through it while a younger builder gets a nice, achievable win. There is not a fiddly or frustrating stage anywhere in it.

The standout is genuinely the welder minifigure. Her hair mold appears in pink for the first time in this set, her welding mask is unique to it, and she uses the newer wheelchair element, the one redesigned to actually roll through a standard LEGO doorway, with her welding torch mounted to the chair. The male driver and the welder also get new printed torsos. Beyond the figures the parts are largely workhorse City elements rather than rare pieces, so this is not a set you buy to strip for exotic parts, it is one you buy for that thoughtful, well-observed little crew.

Fun facts

01The welder minifigure debuted a hair piece in pink for the first time, and her welding mask is unique to this set.
02She is a wheelchair user, using the redesigned wheelchair element that fits through a standard LEGO door, with her welding torch attached to the chair.
03The set launched at 59.99 dollars and retired at the end of 2024, with sealed copies since climbing to around 95 dollars on the aftermarket.