Lunar Research Base Review (60350)

Hey everyone! Today we’re zooming into the LEGO City Lunar Research Base, a large set full of space technology and astronauts galore!

Ever since the new LEGO City space theme came out, I thought that it was extremely sick. The builds actually looked like something a real space agency would make. It turns out the sets are based off NASA’s Artemis mission to the moon!. They were nothing like any LEGO City space set I’d seen before. So, when my dad said our friends at Zavvi were sending us this one, I was super pumped!

The set starts off with the spaceship and the astronauts, along with their vehicles, before moving onto the main lunar base. The set actually comes with a massive variety of tech, so I’ll start off with the main spaceship and move onto the smaller bits after.

The spaceship included in the set seems like a ship that would go up and down from the Moon’s surface, and maybe attach to an orbiting station above. It has a cockpit and solar panels that line its sides, along with some radar dish looking things. But the coolest part of the spaceship has to be the 4 moveable landing gear poles that the spaceship stands on when it has landed. Even better, inside of these landing gear poles, is a flame that uses gravity to come out when you lift the ship off the ground!

There’s a huge variety of tech that comes with the set, including a moon buggy, a remote-controlled drone, and a little vehicle with a drill. The buggy has some controls inside a frame where the astronaut sits, and a mini bulldozer blade is attached to the front, so you can push things out of the way. The mini drill thing seems like it’s some sort of autonomous robot, but you can turn a thing at the top and the little drill spins at the bottom.

Finally, there is also an extremely cool drone. This thing has 4 rocket boosters that power it, and a rope that can be wound up. You can swap the bottom of the rope for either a grabber claw or a hook, which can be used to pick up a moon rock that is included in the set.

Once the vehicles are done you move onto the main lunar base. The base is built to look like it was constructed into the lunar surface, using some BURPS to do so. On the main floor of the base is an open garage, with is filled with tools and has a big frame piece that covers the entrance. The garage can fit all the vehicles in the set snuggly, minus the drone and the spaceship.

Once the garage is done you move onto the other areas. These are detachable and come in small segments, so technically you can move them around and choose where you want them to go. The first segment built is a little science lab, it has some dishes of bacteria and even a cool microscope.

The small segments have opening lids and you can easily access everything inside, the designers have managed to pack a lot into a small space without it looking crowded. The next segment is a helmet holding area for the astronauts’ helmets. This is pretty self-explanatory and compared to the science lab it isn’t the most detailed thing.

The final thing that gets added onto the segments is group of walls that are clipped together so that they look like the other segments but can also move up and down. By moving the walls up, you can connect to the base the Lunar Rover, another set in the theme. It’s almost like how you board a plane at the airport, and I think it’s really epic.

After the segments are done there is one final part of the set, the dome. This is built separately on its own base, and then sits on top of the garage. The dome area contains some planets the astronauts are growing, as well as a small living area, with beds and some tables. In this area the astronauts don’t wear their suits, so you can assume it’s like a biology area sort of thing where it’s almost like Earth. The dome is covered by 4 massive blue transparent pieces, which really sell the Earth-like habitable dome idea. It’s also very satisfying closing the glass pieces so they create the dome.

As for the minifigs, the set actually comes with a ton of them, and they are all pretty epic. There are 3 astronauts in full spacesuits, which also come with hair for when you take their helmets off. There is one pilot for the spaceship, as well as 2 other astronauts. The ones who are inside the actual base are in their normal blue gear. These are the clothes astronauts wear when not in space. All of the figures have their own hair that can be swapped for a helmet (other than the 2 astronauts in the base) and they also all have great designs. I much prefer the new space helmets to the old, big chunky ones.

Overall Thoughts

Overall, this set lived up to my expectations and almost exceeded them. It has a ton of minifigures, as well as lots of vehicles for them to ride. It really seems like a legitimate lunar base that humans might one day make if we go to the moon again. The set has a ton of playability and is a great set to have as one of the biggest of the recent LEGO City Space line.

Hope you enjoyed this review and have a great day!

A special thanks to our friends at Zavvi who supplied this set for us to build.