LEGO City 60409 Yellow Mobile Construction Crane review

LEGO City continues its recent form with a supersized crane that will have you nostalgic for where it all began almost two decades ago…

A glance through LEGO City’s back catalogue of nearly 20 years will tell you all you need to know about the very best construction-based sets that the theme has produced. Go big. Indeed, standouts dating as far back as the theme’s 2005 rebrand from Town include the likes of 7344 Dump Truck and 7249 XXL Mobile Crane, and from 2006 7905 Building Crane and 7900 Heavy Loader – all imperious examples that remain classics to this day, quite literally in no small measure because of their impressive size.

Almost two decades on, 60409 Yellow Mobile Construction Crane is a return to building big, so how does 2024’s interpretation of ‘supersized’ measure up?

Release: June 1, 2024 Price: £94.99 / $109.99 / €109.99 Pieces: 1,116 Minifigures: 4 LEGO: Order now

Go big or go home

It’s as clear as the bright light orange colour strewn across the model that 60409 Yellow Mobile Construction Crane measures up in size, delivering one of the biggest City sets any modern LEGO fan will have seen from the theme. This thing is probably the longest wheeled vehicle most of you who pick this up will have built out of LEGO combined with one of the tallest extendable cranes too.

The building process starts you at the cabin and works section by section through to the back of the vehicle before putting together the crane on top and, honestly, it’s a process that keeps going and going, adding more and more sections than you’d even expect heading into this build. And everything else aside, building big like this is as fun as it is unique. It’s just cool to put together, puff your cheeks out and go ‘wow’, that’s big LEGO.

Importantly, it is intelligently designed too, with consideration in most ways to scale. Case in point is that whilst there are eight sizeable wheels running along either side of the crane (each one just under the height of a minifigure), the vehicle is not all wheels in construction or final model.

Measuring up in 2024

Indeed, this is 2024 LEGO City building and design, meaning that each section of the vehicle is compact and thorough in how it comes together and you can very much see and feel where 1,116 pieces have been used here. It’s an interesting process too as you fill out the cabin and add contoured bodywork to its exterior, before working back down the vehicle and assembling what turn out to be the support legs for the crane that quite wonderfully fold into the sides of the crane for transport.

The crane mechanism itself is equally as involved and clever to put together, with a complete 360-degree rotation at the base (with satisfyingly low clearance to the vehicle to which it’s attached), whilst it’s a ratcheted style that allows you to extend the arm of the crane upwards to a quite impressive height.

There’s space for the four minifigures to position themselves in and around the crane – two can sit in the cabin at the front, while one can operate the crane, with space again for two to stand at the base of the crane, perhaps to survey the architectural plans that the architect comes with.

The crane has a string pulley (so get practicing tying knots) and of all the things that could come with the set for it to winch up and down we have a portable toilet to swing around. Aha, another place for a minifigure…

Stick but no twist?

60409 Yellow Mobile Construction Crane is good fun to put together and even more fun to play around with, whatever age you are meant to be. It’s an intelligent design with a quite involved and interesting build process, with a very hands-on final model that looks great as it towers over your other LEGO City sets and absolutely dominates any road it is placed on.

One of two areas where such a model could draw scrutiny though is in how slim the vehicle is – it’s the one angle that doesn’t quite flatter the crane nor tie it into real-world proportions quite as well. The other point of contention is in the lack of ability to turn whatsoever. This is a 16-wheeler that is locked in a rigid forward and back motion, unable to do corners at all. That does put a slight cap on both display and play and is where something like 7249 XXL Mobile Crane still shines even 20 years on.

Neither are major criticisms, however, with the steering in particular representing something that would have certainly bumped the price of the set up quite considerably for how it actually works in such a vehicle (the wheels turn, the body doesn’t).

As things stand then, 60409 Yellow Mobile Construction Crane shines tall, bright and yellow – it’s great fun to build and even more fun to play around with. City construction is at its best when it goes supermassive, and this is the latest embodiment of that ethos.

This set was provided for review by the LEGO Group.

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Our honest opinion: Big, bold and brilliant, this is a set you look forward to building and playing with and that delivers on both fronts.