City

Space Science Lab

A little domed lab with a big heart and a wheelchair ramp built right in.

Brick Rated Score

4.1/5

Set 60439 · 2024

Pieces560

Minifigs3

Year2024

Set number60439

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The verdict

This is one of those cheerful City sets that punches way above its price.

The whole thing folds open like a doll's house to show a control room, a sleeping nook, a kitchen and a tower of alien plants, and at roughly six cents a piece it's genuinely hard to argue with the value. The interior is a touch sparse if you go looking for proper sci-fi hardware, but the clear domes, the printed Classic Space torsos and the little wheelchair astronaut won me over completely. Perfect for a young builder who wants a scene they can actually play inside.

Best for: Kids around 6-9 building their first proper space base

The full review

What it is

The Space Science Lab is a domed little research base that unfolds to reveal everything inside: two workstations in a control room, a sleeping nook, a kitchen, and a tall botanical tower stacked with alien blossoms. There's a special air-lock element on the side so it clips onto the other 2024 City Space sets, plus a tiny planet-exploration vehicle parked out front. The first thing that got me was how bright and toy-like it all is, four clear domes catching the light, the whole structure swinging open so small hands can reach right in. It feels designed for play first and display second, and I mean that as a compliment.

The catch

I'll be straight with you about where it falls short. If you're expecting a lab crammed with instruments and screens and clever sci-fi gadgetry, this isn't quite that. Several reviewers landed on the same word for the interior: sparse. There's room to breathe inside but not a lot of hardware filling it, and most of the finer detail arrives on a small sticker sheet rather than as printed parts, so you're doing a bit of careful placement to make it pop. It also reads as slightly small and standalone on its own. The design clearly assumes you'll dock it to a bigger complex, and it genuinely looks better once it's part of a sprawl of connected City Space buildings.

Who it's for

None of that dents the value, though, and that's the headline here. At around six cents a piece it's one of the better bang-for-buck City sets of the year, and the build is pleasantly a step up from your average 6-plus box, split across separate numbered bags so a younger builder can work through it in stages without getting lost. What really sets it apart is the inclusive design: one of the astronauts uses a wheelchair, and LEGO built the world around that instead of just dropping the figure in. The main door uses curved slopes as a ramp, and the little hoverbike has a rear ramp so the pilot rolls straight on. If you're buying for a kid who loves space and stories, this is an easy yes. If you're an adult collector chasing dense detail and printed everything, I'd point you toward one of the larger sets in the range instead.

The parts story

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

Building it is a friendly, low-stress affair. It's a modular four-stage build with its own instruction booklet per bag, so the pace stays manageable and a child can genuinely do it solo. There's just enough going on to feel like a proper project (the folding structure and the dome placement give it a satisfying shape as it comes together) without ever tipping into fiddly territory. It's the kind of build where you look up and realize a happy half hour has gone by.

The parts are where the charm hides. You get four of the clear domed roof elements, which is generous at this price, plus a 1x6x4 angled brick with a cutout (part 49699) that handles the air-lock connection to other sets. The alien is a real treat, reusing the Grimspawn mold from LEGO Dreamzzz molded in white with three little eyes, and the frog elements turn up in bright reddish violet doing double duty as alien tree blossoms. The astronaut torsos carry proper printed retro Classic Space logos rather than stickers, a lovely nod for anyone who grew up with the old sets. Add the wheelchair and hoverbike ramp pieces and you've got a small parts pack with a surprising amount of personality.

Fun facts

01The alien reuses the Grimspawn creature mold from the LEGO Dreamzzz theme, molded in white with three eyes for its space cameo.
02The set's inclusive design goes beyond the figure: the front door uses curved slopes as a wheelchair ramp and the hoverbike has a rear ramp so the pilot can roll straight aboard.
03The astronaut torsos feature printed retro Classic Space logos, a throwback to LEGO's original 1978 space line.
04At roughly $0.06 per piece it was one of the strongest value picks in the 2024 City Space wave, with Brick Architect handing it a rare 5/5 Must Have rating.