City

Mining Experts Site

A whole gold mine, three vehicles, and the LEGO bear that stole the show.

Brick Rated Score

3.9/5

Set 60188 · 2018

Pieces883

Minifigs6

Year2018

Set number60188

Check price on Amazon

Affiliate link. We may earn a commission at no extra cost to you.As an Amazon Associate we earn from qualifying purchases.

The verdict

This was the big centrepiece of the 2018 City Mining wave, and it earns that spot with a proper crawler grinder, a dump truck, a front loader, and a little mine wall you strip for gold.

What actually got me was the animals: a brand new black bear and a glow in the dark spider that genuinely holds its charge. Some of the builds are on the simple side and one driver can't reach his own controls, but the play value here is huge. Best for a kid who wants machines that dig, tip, and blow apart, or a City fan who loves an unusual scene.

Best for: Kids (and City collectors) who want proper working construction machinery

The full review

What it is

The Mining Experts Site was the flagship of LEGO City's 2018 Mining subtheme, and you can feel that ambition the moment everything is laid out. You get a big tracked grinder with a raising drill arm and a minifigure cab, a front loader with a working shovel, a dump truck with a tipping bed, a mobile lab, and a small mine wall studded with golden nugget elements that you crack loose and cart away. It is a full scene rather than a single model, and that is exactly what makes it fun to have on a table. The first thing that got me, though, wasn't any of the machines. It was the bear. A brand new black bear mold arrived with this wave, and paired with a glow in the dark spider tucked into the rocks, the little wildlife touches give the whole site a personality that pure construction sets usually miss.

The catch

I'll be straight with you about where it wobbles. For 883 pieces, several of the sub-builds are simpler than you would hope, especially the smaller vehicles, which come together fast and without much technique. There is also a genuinely odd design slip on the front loader: the joystick controls are built from little bars that the driver minifigure simply can't reach, so an adult builder notices the pose looks wrong even if a seven year old never will. And the price stings a little in hindsight. At its 99 dollar launch RRP this was firmly a play set asking display money, and it works far better as a toy that gets handled than as a shelf piece you admire from across the room.

Who it's for

So who should get this one. If there's a kid in the picture who loves diggers, dump trucks, and anything that strips, tips, or explodes apart, this is close to ideal, and the mine wall gives them an actual objective to play toward rather than just vehicles parked in a row. City collectors who enjoy building an unusual mini world scene will also get a kick out of the bear, the spider, and the sheer amount of activity packed onto one baseplate spread. If you build mainly for engineering elegance or clean display models, though, this is not your set, and you will notice the basic sub-builds long before you forgive them. It is now retired, and sealed prices have climbed well past retail, so grab a used copy if the play features are what you're after.

The parts story

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

Building this is a pleasant afternoon rather than a challenge, roughly two to three hours split across a handful of small models, which is honestly the point for the age range it targets. The grinder is the standout to assemble because it introduced roller coaster track pieces that plenty of fans had never handled before, and watching the crawler roll along them while the drill wheel scrapes nuggets loose is the moment the set clicks. The rest is classic City construction: sturdy, forgiving, and quick, with satisfying functions like the tipping dump bed and the mine's little explode gimmick that resets in seconds.

The parts headline is the animals. The black bear was a genuinely new mold for 2018 and only appeared in a couple of sets that year, and the glow in the dark spider is exclusive to this Mining subtheme, printed and formulated to glow brighter and longer than the old glow elements. Add the gold nugget pieces, the chute and track system with its two mine carts, and a solid haul of everyday City parts in useful earth tones, and the part-count value holds up nicely for a parts-monkey even if the individual models are simple. If you part it out, that bear alone carries real weight.

Fun facts

01The black bear that debuted here was a brand new mold for the LEGO animal lineup and only turned up in a handful of 2018 sets.
02The glow in the dark spider is exclusive to the City Mining subtheme and was tuned to glow brighter and hold its charge longer than earlier LEGO glow parts.
03It was the largest set in the 2018 City Mining wave, carrying a 99 dollar RRP before it retired in 2019.
04Sealed copies have climbed well past retail since retirement, with new-in-box values reported at roughly double the original price.