60428 Space Construction Mech LEGO Review - City & Space, 2024

It might have limited poses, but it's still pretty cute.

TL;DR:

• Original Price:  $10.99
• Pieces: 140
• Minifigure(s): Astronaut bright light orange
• Sticker Sheet: Yes
  
• Pros: Efficient part use, cute
  
• Cons: Limited poseability

Assembly: 

• Interesting Steps:
• Step 18 has us (in three substeps) build a canopy from two handlebars and two extended weapon handles. It's simple but effective, and the matching black makes the final setup look like one piece. This could be useful for greebling, for example if you offset the handlebar pieces so instead of a loop it forms a zigzag, or for window frames or...well, a lot of things.

• Interesting Techniques:
• The printed tile on a satin trans-purple 1x1 round brick forms the battery pack used throughout the new Space sets, as power source (and MacGuffin), clearly mined from the satin trans-purple crystals also included in these Space sets. It's a wonderful color, and I like the simple-but-effective storytelling element (purple crystals are mined by the space miners to make the battery packs to fuel the space miners' technology) this adds to the new Space sets.

• Interesting Pieces:
• This set comes with an unusual piece, a "Technic pin connector perpendicular 2x2 bent"—here it's used to hold the mech's two battery packs (see photo above). The way it sits above the wheel hub below it, with space to tick back and forth, makes me think this might be useful as the pawl of a clockwork escapement, or possibly a Great Ball Contraption (GBC) gate.
  

•  I always like getting unusual tiles, and the half circle tile in reddish orange is both a fun shape and an interesting color. I could see this being used for a sunset/rise backdrop, for example. It also makes for eye-catching toe-caps on the walker's shoes.

Overall, this is a cute enough little set, and at a good price point (and low complexity level) to make it a suitable gift for a new builder. The robot and space rock side-builds are pretty charming, and give more context to the mech than you see in other mech sets (I'm looking at you, Marvel mechs). That said, this also doesn't have the poseability you find in those other sets: the legs do use Mixel-style ball joints at hip and ankle which make them flexible but also sturdy; the shoulders do have these joints, but the arms are surprisingly inflexible, with only the two grabber fingers on the left hand and the sliding action of the hammer-fisted right arm.

In short, it's a good addition to a larger Space-themed collection, but not quite noteworthy as a standalone.

Score (out of 5 🧱):

• Price: 🧱🧱🧱🧱
• Process: 🧱🧱🧱🧱
  
• Presentation: 🧱🧱🧱🧱
• Play: 🧱🧱🧱🧱
• Pieces: 🧱🧱🧱🧱

• Total: 🧱🧱🧱🧱

Lego Instructions: here