[REVIEW] 60191 - Arctic Exploration Team

[MKJoshA]

Welcome to another of my Lego set reviews! We're going to be looking at one of the smallest sets from the 2018 Arctic line.

Set Information
Name:  60191 - Arctic Exploration Team
Theme:  Town / Arctic
Year: 2018
Pieces: 70
Minifigures: 3
Price: £9.99 / $9.99 / 9.99€
Resources: Brickset and Bricklink

This isn't the first time Lego town citizens have ventured into the frigged regions of the globe. Back in 2000 we got a rare, new animal mold of a polar bear as the first Arctic theme hit shelves. Then, in 2014 Lego town ventured back out into the cold, this time with a brand new dog mold. The 3rd ever non-Belville or Scala dog mold Lego made. The first was the mold used for the Grimm from the HP line. The 2nd was the Chihuahua found in CMF series 10.

Now, in 2018, Lego is back on the ice with 3 brand new animal molds! Something that seems quite fitting considering the history the Arctic line has in introducing new animals to the Lego menagerie. Unfortunately we only get a Husky in this set. But it's a great nod to the 2014 line and certainly something you would expect in one of the smallest sets.

The back of the box shows the "play features" which mostly consist of discovering and transporting the frozen insect.

Inside the box is a small instruction booklet and two unnumbered bags.

The instructions are very straight forward. The use of the 3L technic beams is a great, simple way of adding treads to the snowmobile.

The chunk of snow is extremely basic. It certainly could have benefited from some curved slopes or cheese slopes. The set only came with 70 pieces, a few more to add texture to the small piece of landscape seems like a reasonable request.

There are no stickers in the set. And besides the minifigures there are just 2 printed pieces.

The completed model works very well for such a small set. For the intended audience (children), it immediately offers storytelling and character interaction.

With the frozen goods acquired and safely stowed, it's time to move out!

Unfortunately for one of the intrepid explorers, this means either walking or being pulled along at break-neck speeds!

The set comes with 4 extra pieces. None of them are particularly rare, but it's nice Lego continues this practice.

The minifigures come dressed in warm, nicely printed jackets. The red Ushanka hat is new for this line and it looks fabulous! The dirt bike helmet is also new for 2018 and is also used in Dark Blue for the police sets. The jackets are all new prints for this line and have great details. The snowmobile driver looks very striking with his bi-colored arms.

Here's another picture with the headgear removed.

All 3 minifigures have single printed heads, no double expressions.

Final Thoughts:

Playability: 9/10 - The set instantly provides play opportunities. There are no functions or mechanisms. But that's okay because this is Lego. It's the kid's (or adult's) imagination that sparks the play possibilities.

Building Experience: 4/10 - This is an extremely simple set. You don't get it to have an amazing building experience.

Design: 8/10 - For 70 pieces it's very well designed. The snow landscape could just use a little attention.

Aesthetic: 8/10 - The Arctic color scheme emphasizes orange and blue. It works very well for this theme.

Minifigures: 7/10 - These are great additions to any Arctic or City layout. However, they have very little use outside their predefined themes.

Price: 6/10 - Being a $10 set with only 70 pieces this doesn't hit that AFOL sweet spot of $0.10/piece. That's pretty normal with the smaller sets, but still a little bit of a negative.

Verdict: 7/10 - Overall this is a great little set. If you're looking for a cheap way to get some of the unique pieces for the 2018 Arctic line, this one gives you the Ushanka hat, the bike helmet, and the printed frozen bug. If you're a kid looking for creative play value, this set also delivers. It's not the most amazing in the piece/price department, but $10 sets very rarely are. It's probably not something you'll buy multiples of but it makes a nice little purchase.

[TeriXeri]

Those starter sets are great , I have this one, but they stopped making them since 2019 in favor of blister-packs which are LEGO exclusive and more expensive 

 

[Merlict]

18 hours ago, TeriXeri said:

I have this one, but they stopped making them since 2019 in favor of blister-packs which are LEGO exclusive and more expensive 

That is lame. These '4 figs in a little box' are an absolute Lego staple going back 30+ years, I would have thought them a best seller retail stores would want.

[TeriXeri]

4 hours ago, Merlict said:

That is lame. These '4 figs in a little box' are an absolute Lego staple going back 30+ years, I would have thought them a best seller retail stores would want.

Yeah, I remember the small-set segment being very memorable, ever since the minifigure appeared many years ago there were many small boxed sets, I understand there are Polybags now, but they seem a lot harder to find here at least, only a small selection I can find in some stores if lucky.

Beside Starter Set type boxes, 2018 was also the year for City to have those even smaller boxes that cost €6 here: 

Of course 2020 City still offers €10 box sets with 1-2 figures, but LEGO still moved toward 4-figure blister packs since 2019, which aren't bad, but they do cost €13 at LEGO.com here and they have smaller builds, compared to Starter Sets.

Edited May 2, 2020 by TeriXeri