City

Rocket Launch Center

A proper NASA launch day in a box, tower, rocket, and seven crew included.

Brick Rated Score

3.8/5

Set 60351 · 2022

Pieces1,010

Minifigs7

Year2022

Set number60351

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 is City doing its big-swing space set, and the rocket plus that tall launch tower are genuinely fun to play with.

The elevator actually carries an astronaut up to the gangway, which is the kind of working detail kids lose their minds over. It's a little overpriced for the part count and the smaller builds feel thin next to the tower, but the play value is real. Space-mad kids around 7 to 10 will get hours out of it.

Best for: Space-obsessed kids who want a rocket they can actually launch and crew

The full review

What it is

Every couple of years LEGO City takes a real run at space, and the Rocket Launch Center (60351) is the 2022 flagship of that push. It's a 1,010-piece LEGO® set built around two things kids actually dream about: a tall launch rocket and the gantry tower it sits against on launch morning. The rocket is loosely modeled on NASA's Space Launch System, the same booster behind the Artemis moon missions, and it stands over 16.5 inches (42 cm) tall once you add the boosters. There's room inside for two astronauts and a little planet rover, so the fantasy runs all the way from suit-up to touchdown. Round it out with an observatory that opens to a telescope, a mission control desk, a service truck, and a drone, and you've got a whole launch site rather than one showpiece.

The catch

I'll be straight with you about the money, because it matters here. At its $159.99 launch price this works out to roughly 16 cents a piece, which is steep for a City set, and the value math is the thing reviewers kept circling back to. The tower and rocket eat most of the good parts, and the supporting builds pay the price. The observatory and the control center are fine, but they're small and a bit plain, and next to that towering gantry they can feel like afterthoughts. It's not that anything is bad, it's that the set spreads itself a little thin, and now that it's retired you'll usually pay above the old RRP to find one sealed. If you're chasing pure pieces-per-dollar, this isn't the City set that wins that fight.

Who it's for

So who actually walks away happy here. If you've got a space-mad kid somewhere in the 7 to 10 range, this is close to a slam dunk. The working elevator that carries an astronaut up the tower, the rocket that opens up to load its crew, seven minifigures to run the whole operation, that's play value you feel the moment it's built. Grown-up fans who want an accurate SLS display model will be happier with the bigger 10341 Artemis rocket, and bargain hunters can find cheaper City sets by weight. But as a play set, as an actual launch day you can act out on the carpet, it delivers. It won me over on the tower alone. Just go in knowing you're paying for the experience, not the sticker-price part count.

The parts story

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

Building it breaks into clear chunks, which makes it a friendly project for a younger builder working solo or with a hand nearby. You start on the smaller stuff, the service truck, the drone, the observatory with its opening dome and telescope, and the mission control desk, so there are quick wins early before the big build lands. Then comes the main event: the launch tower and the rocket. The tower is the most rewarding stretch by far, mostly because of the elevator mechanism that genuinely slides an astronaut up to the gangway, a nice bit of function for a City set. The rocket itself goes together in stackable sections with the boosters clipping on, and it opens up so the crew and rover can load inside. Nothing here is technically hard, but the tower gives you real height and a satisfying payoff at the end.

On pieces, the headline is the minifigures. You get seven, all with front-and-back torso printing, two with printed legs and three with double-sided faces, which is generous detailing for City. The two astronauts wear a fresh orange suit stamped with the returning Classic Space logo, a lovely wink at longtime fans, and those torsos are the parts people most want to pull out. Beyond the figs it's a practical grab bag rather than a parts-monster: lots of light grey structural elements, plates and panels for the tower, and plenty of white and orange for the rocket body. There aren't headline new molds to chase, so the real draw for collectors is those printed astronaut torsos and the sheer volume of useful greys and whites for your own space MOCs.

Fun facts

01The rocket is loosely modeled on NASA's Space Launch System, the same heavy-lift booster built for the Artemis missions back to the Moon.
02The two astronauts wear an orange suit stamped with the classic 1978 Space logo, a deliberate nod to LEGO's original Classic Space theme.
03The launch tower hides a working elevator that actually carries a minifigure up to the rocket's boarding gangway.
04At 1,010 pieces this was the largest of LEGO City's four Artemis-inspired space sets released in 2022.