REVIEW: LEGO 40312: LEGO Xtra - Streetlamps

I haven't much time lately to devote to my LEGO City - and that includes building any new LEGO sets.  However, that doesn't mean my life has been completely devoid of LEGO goodness though since I recently bought a bunch of LEGO Xtra polybags to help me "scratch the building itch" when it occurs!

I've already gone over two of the bags in a full review (Sea Accessories and Bicycles).  I quite liked the Bicycles polybag and gave it a 7/10 in my review but the Sea Accessories pack didn't float my boat and only scored a 4/10.  Obviously, my first two forays into the land of LEGO Xtra elicited mixed reviews from me, so let's dip our toes back in the water and see if a third polybag can tilt the scales one way or the other.

For today's post, I'm going to look at LEGO 40312:  Streetlamps. 

The Streetlamps polybag comes with 34 pieces.  It also had a small instruction paper which wasn't present in either of the other two Xtra polybags that I looked at previously.  If nothing else, that probably tells you that there are more substantive builds in this set (and you've be correct).

Speaking of the builds, let's start with the set's name sake:  the streetlamps.

In the bag, you get pieces to build two large streetlamps and two smaller lights.  One of the large lights has a pair of street signs attached to it (but no stickers or printing on the tiles to indicate street names).  I like both large lights (though I wish the light poles were white and not black to better go with the modulars).  I don't necessarily love the smaller lights, though at least the parts for each light can be used in other ways within my collection.  I would also be remiss if I didn't point out the cute little hand lantern.  I'll definitely try and find a way to work that into my custom LEGO city at some point in the future!

The other portion of the bag could best be described as containing other things you'd find along the sidewalk besides streetlamps. 

Here, you can see you get a bench, a newspaper stand (with printed tile), a mailbox (but no letter to go in it), as well as a camera and a cellphone (another printed tile).  The set also comes with one single extra piece (the flat 1x1 trans clear stud).  Nothing in this portion of the polybag is amazing, but the cellphone piece is super useful (as is the mailbox).  I'm not sure who uses a lime green camera however!

The polybag comes with only two printed tiles, but as I already mentioned they are nice tiles.

I like the newspaper print, it's not one that I can recall seeing before - or at least not very often.  I also know that cell phone will be hot demand among my LEGO City denizens!

Overall, I give the LEGO 40312:  LEGO Xtra - Streetlamps set the following rating:
The Bottom Line (out of 10):
Fun:  2
Play Value:  1
Kid Value:  2
Adult Value:  8
Overall:  7

So far, each of the LEGO Xtra polybags that I've looked at has seemed to cater to a slightly different audience or purpose.  This particular polybag is definitely for the custom city creators out there.  There's virtually nothing in the bag that elicits reactions of "fun to play with" for a kid, but for adults there is very little wasted here.  Arguably, I'd eliminate the two small lights and put in a third large streetlight but otherwise pretty much everything can be plugged right into an existing custom LEGO city without much effort.  For that reason, I think overall that this is a great bag for adults (or older kids) but not a great choice for younger kids who are still interested in only the "play" aspect of LEGO.