LEGO City 60430 Interstellar Spaceship review

LEGO City 60430 Interstellar Spaceship is exactly everything we hoped for from a first completely new and fictional LEGO spaceship in years.

With an eye-catching, sleek, arrowhead design, 60430 Interstellar Spaceship stands as not only a simple and affordable entry point into LEGO City’s Space line, but as an example of why we’ve missed LEGO Space for so long. That makes it a must-have set for the start of 2024.

--- LEGO City 60430 Interstellar Spaceship set details ---

Theme: LEGO City Set name: 60430 Interstellar Spaceship Release: January 1, 2024

Price: £17.99 / $19.99 / €19.99 Pieces: 144 Minifigures: 1

LEGO: Order now

--- Where to buy LEGO City 60430 Interstellar Spaceship ---

LEGO City 60430 Interstellar Spaceship releases as part of the January 2024 LEGO City Space line and will be available at LEGO.com, in LEGO Stores and from select third-party retailers.

--- LEGO City 60430 Interstellar Spaceship build ---

Part of the reason we got so excited in our review of LEGO Disney Lightyear 76832 XL-15 Spaceship in mid-2022 was for how it offered a first non-Star Wars, fantasy-based spaceship (albeit still licensed) in LEGO form for the first time in ages, and with modern LEGO design techniques behind it, nailed every aspect of it so well.

Jump forward 18 months and LEGO City offers us our first, official unlicensed LEGO spaceship from a new LEGO theme – that is not a remake or inspired by a previous theme – for the first time in a decade. It has been a long 10 years and whilst almost any sort of brand new LEGO spaceship would likely have been well received, 60430 Interstellar Spaceship is skilfully put together in such a way that it cannot be described as just ‘any sort of spaceship’.

Creatively, of course it ticks all the boxes that a new and modern fantasy LEGO spaceship needs to, cleverly meeting immediate expectations that many of us would have for such a fictional vehicle, but it does so at the same time as packaging it all into something that feels as new as it may do familiar to any sci-fi fans.

Putting together LEGO City 60430 Interstellar Spaceship does feel like a step up in building technique, compared with the younger (but equally great) other small builds in this subtheme, for levels of intricacy that the sleek exterior to the model perhaps betrays. And while there isn’t much of an interior outside of that large cockpit to play with, it’s for the best play feature imaginable that whatever your age will certainly make you smile when you first discover it.

Push down the purple power pack behind the cockpit and watch the engine at the back open out, as if the ship is powering up to go faster. It’s a simple explanation of an advanced and incredibly effective interactive feature that we can’t stop playing with.

How it’s built is intelligent enough, but just how well and smoothly it plays out again and again is so satisfying and serves as a perfect play feature – whatever your age – for how it takes an already gorgeous-looking spaceship and elevates its design and playability to a level you wouldn’t otherwise imagine it could reach. As we say, this isn’t just ‘any sort of spaceship’.

--- LEGO City 60430 Interstellar Spaceship characters ---

LEGO City 60430 Interstellar Spaceship comes with one dark blue pilot minifigure, complete with blue backpack, the design of which we last saw in a couple of LEGO Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker sets. That blue pack includes a stud that a buildable drone can attach to and double up as a jetpack for the character.

It’s a nice idea that looks great in action, but for how good the ship is, you’ll more often than not have the minifigure piloting it, leaving the drone awkwardly hovering around outside with nowhere to go. The trans-clear connecting rod pictured displaying the drone alongside the spaceship is for demonstration purposes only and is not included in the set.

--- LEGO City 60430 Interstellar Spaceship price ---

60430 Interstellar Spaceship comes in at £17.99 / $19.99 / €19.99, which is fair value for 240 pieces. While the set only comes with the one minifigure and no aliens, the quality of the main model is so advanced for such a sized set that you’ll give it no thought once built. For sets this good there is always value felt in the price.

--- LEGO City 60430 Interstellar Spaceship pictures ---

--- LEGO City 60430 Interstellar Spaceship pros and cons ---

LEGO City 60430 Interstellar Spaceship delivers everything we would have hoped such a return to fictional LEGO Space could produce in a lead spaceship, and then a whole lot more. This spaceship looks modern, sleek, fresh and familiar all at once, to pull in sci-fi and space fantasy fans of different generations all the same and deliver something they can at once appreciate and enjoy. And then, the set surprises you with a simple but wonderfully realised play feature that will keep you playing with it for a long time to come.

This set was provided for review by the LEGO Group.

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--- Alternatives to LEGO City 60430 Interstellar Spaceship ---

LEGO City 60430 Interstellar Spaceship will be one of the only spaceships on shelves come January 1, as we are expected to say goodbye to the retiring 10497 Galaxy Explorer and 76832 XL-15 Spaceship. Alternatives are then best considered by price – what else is great at around the £18 to £20 mark? 76906 1970 Ferrari 512 M offers some advanced building from Speed Champions, while 71453 Izzie and Bunchu the Bunny is an underrated set we would recommend.

--- LEGO City 60430 Interstellar Spaceship FAQs ---