City

Mountain Police Headquarters

A cops-and-crooks playset with a real mountain lion problem and one of City's best minifig hauls.

Brick Rated Score

3.9/5

Set 60174 · 2018

Pieces663

Minifigs7

Year2018

Set number60174

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

The cave with the pounce-happy mountain lion is what got me, because it turns a fairly standard police base into an actual little drama.

Seven minifigs for 663 pieces is a genuinely generous ratio, and the four officers (two of them with that lovely ponytail cap) carry the set. I'll be straight with you though, the base splits into three loose sections that shed bricks the second a kid moves it, and the red crook helicopter is filler. Worth it for the play value and the figures, less so if you want an engineering challenge.

Best for: City fans building a police world for hands-on play rather than a display shelf

The full review

What it is

Mountain Police Headquarters is the big centerpiece of LEGO City's short-lived 2018 Mountain Police wave, a 663-piece cops-versus-crooks playset built around a multi-level station carved into a rocky hillside. You get a garage with a ramp for the police 4x4, a jail cell above it, a control room with a computer and a coffee corner up top, a rooftop net shooter, and a separate helipad. And tucked under the cell is a little cave with a spring-loaded mountain lion that pounces out on cue. That last bit is what got me. It is a small thing, but it turns the whole base from furniture into a scene, and for a kid it is the first feature they reach for. There is a police helicopter, a red crook helicopter with a grabbing hook, and a motocross bike rounding out the chase.

The catch

I'll be honest about where it wobbles, and I mean that almost literally. The headquarters is assembled as three loose modules that sit next to each other rather than locking together, so when a child picks the thing up to move it, sections separate and bricks scatter. More than one owner flagged this, and it is a fair complaint for a set aimed squarely at play. The red crook helicopter also feels like it exists to pad the box count, a fiddly vehicle nobody really asked for. And if you are an adult builder chasing clever techniques or a detailed facade, this is not that. The architecture is functional and a bit plain, which is normal for City but worth naming. At its original 89.99 RRP it was fairly priced, though now that it is retired you are paying collector rates.

Who it's for

So who lands on the right side of this one. If you are building out a City police world for actual hands-on play, this is a strong pick, because the features are fun, the figure count is huge, and the lion gives every story a bad guy the cops can chase. Families and younger builders will get real mileage out of it. If you want a sturdy display model or a satisfying engineering build for yourself, look elsewhere, because the loose base and the mundane parts will frustrate you. It is a play set first, last, and always, and judged on those terms it mostly delivers.

The parts story

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

The build itself is quick and friendly, which is the point. You start with the rock base and work up through the cave, the garage, the cell, and the control room, and it never asks much of you technically. That is a plus if you are building alongside a child and a minus if you wanted to be challenged. The three-part base structure that causes the wobble is baked into how it goes together, so nothing you do in assembly fully fixes it. The vehicles are fast side builds, the police helicopter being the most satisfying of the three.

The real value here is the minifigures and the accessories rather than any exotic bricks. Seven figures (a police chief, a pilot, two officers, and three crooks) plus the molded mountain lion is a lot of populated play for the money. The standout element for collectors is the female officer cap with the printed ponytail, a piece City fans were pleased to see more of at the time. Beyond that you get a well-stocked accessory bin: four sets of handcuffs, a chain and hook, a crowbar, a net, mugs, a microphone, and a small tree. The rockwork uses plenty of gray slopes and cheese wedges that are handy for terrain if you part it out, but there are no rare printed panels or new molds driving demand. You buy this for the people and the play, not the parts.

Fun facts

01The set launched in the January 2018 Mountain Police subtheme and was retired by December 2019, giving it a fairly short two-year shelf life.
02With a 89.99 RRP and only 663 pieces, its value comes from the figures rather than part count, and sealed copies have since climbed to around 150 on the secondary market.
03Five of the seven minifigures were exclusive to this set at release, making it the anchor set of the wave for collectors chasing the officers and crooks.
04The spring-loaded mountain lion cave is one of the few LEGO City play features built around a wild animal predator rather than a vehicle or a door.