Lego City Modular Galactic Spaceship review

We’re absolutely loving Lego’s continued focus on bringing new space-themed sets onto store shelves. Alongside the core City range — which has had a space sub-range for a long time — we’ve also seen space slip into Technic, Creator and even Friends. This set comes from Lego City and, while it’s a fun set in its own right, it’s been designed to interact with some existing sets, too, which is a nice touch.

Lego City Modular Galactic Spaceship is a new set for January 2025: It is the only City space set to release this year so far. It goes alongside some of 2024’s sets, including the Lego City Modular Space Station, which we reviewed (and loved) last fall. These two sets can be connected to make a huge playset, but it’s not necessary to enjoy what’s here.

By itself, the Galactic Spaceship is still a big set — it’s made up of 717 pieces and when it’s built up, it’s 15.5 inches long — and offers plenty of interactivity for kids. But where the Space Station earned a place on our best Lego space sets list, will the Galactic Spaceship follow suit or will it crash and burn?

Read on for our Galactic Spaceship review, or go read about some of our other favorite Lego space sets, including the Technic Planet Earth and Moon in Orbit and the Creator 3-in-1 Space Astronaut.

Lego City Modular Galactic Spaceship: The build

• Not the most challenging build
• Great for cooperative building, as sections are built separately
• Astronaut and alien minifigures

With bricks split over six bags, building the Modular Galactic Spaceship took me around two hours, going at a slow and steady pace. Kids will likely take much longer, but there’s nothing too taxing here — the set has an age rating of seven and above. I think most seven-year-olds should be able to build this with minimal supervision.

If you have already built the Modular Space Station, some elements of the Galactic Spaceship will feel familiar. With the same connector system and a couple of similar modules, the two sets go hand-in-hand. It might make some elements of the Galactic Spaceship a little repetitive, especially if you’ve recently built the Space Station too, but for the most part, this is an entertaining and varied build.

Essentially, the Lego City Modular Galactic Spaceship is made up of three separate objects. There’s a space shuttle and two separate builds that make up the landbase. Because you build each object separately, it keeps the build nice and varied — and it also means that multiple people can work on building the set together. It’s a great choice for multiple siblings to build together, for instance.

There are some interesting pieces used that I’ve rarely seen before, including some unique rail-like pieces that are used to attach the wings to the shuttle. Some great building techniques have been used, too, to create some interesting patterns with colors, like the white, blue and black layering on the wings.

You’ll need to build each of the three pieces individually before you can construct the Lego City Modular Galactic Spaceship into one huge craft. Thankfully, it’s a fairly easy process that only takes a few minutes — but you will need to remove and add a few different pieces. You’ll need to take the wings from the shuttle, for instance. Just make sure you keep any spare pieces safe so you can easily switch between the two forms of the set.

As you make your way through the six bags of the build, you’ll uncover a series of minifigures. There are four humans and one alien, all kitted out in space suits and helmets. I love that they’re all differently-colored, making the set fun to look at and play with. Even better, their space helmets can be removed and replaced with hairpieces, giving kids options for their imaginative play.

Lego City Modular Galactic Spaceship: Design

• Can be either a large spaceship or a smaller shuttle and base
• Not the most colorful
• Storage space for helmets and hair pieces

Whichever format you choose to have the Galactic Spaceship in — whether it’s the large spaceship or the smaller shuttle and base — there’s plenty of fun to be had. Keeping them separate allows you to access the inside of the base, which is filled with neat little details. There’s a lab, a medical bay and a kitchen, with each area filled with accessories that can be used by the included minifigures.

The shuttle also packs in some neat details, like a cockpit complete with a screen and seating for one minifigure. The back area can also be accessed, ideal for storage — maybe your minifigures’ helmets or hairpieces can be stowed away in here when they’re not in use.

Thankfully, these areas can still be accessed when you turn the set into a full spaceship, giving kids some options as to how they choose to interact and play with the set. When the set is configured into one large spaceship, it’s a little large, so I’d say to make sure kids are careful if they want to ‘swoosh’ it through the air. Drop it, and that’s more than 700 pieces of Lego that are going to go flying into all corners of the room — and nobody wants that.

I kind of wish that the Lego City Modular Galactic Spaceship were a little more colorful. Its color scheme of white, orange and gray-blue feels a bit too safe and almost corporate. Since this is very much an imaginative playset, I feel that the designers could have been more adventurous with their choices. It’s not a dealbreaker; it’s still a nice-looking set, but perhaps not the most exciting.

Should you buy Lego City Modular Galactic Spaceship?

There’s an awful lot to like about the Lego City Modular Galactic Spaceship and I think it’s a great set to buy for kids who love space. There are plenty of interactive elements, giving kids lots of opportunities for imaginative play. In terms of a display set, however, there are certainly nicer-looking sets out there. This is one that definitely deserves to be swooshed through the air (carefully, of course).

At $80, it is a little on the pricey side. I’d perhaps suggest waiting for a sale before you pick this up — and since we often see Lego City sets reduced by up to 20%, you shouldn’t have to wait too long before you see a decent discount here.

Other sets to consider

As I’ve already mentioned, the Lego City Modular Space Station makes a nice companion piece to this set but it’s also a great set in its own right. That set is even more expensive than this one, though, so if you’re looking for a fun space set on a budget, I suggest the Interstellar Spaceship (only $20!) or the $35 Space Science Lab.

For something a little more adult-friendly — or at the very least, a set that’s going to look great on display — I absolutely love the Lego NASA Artemis Space Launch System. It’s huge and not cheap, though, so you’ll need deep pockets and a lot of display space!