Vintage set of the week: Basic Set #8

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Basic Set #8

Basic Set #8

©1973 LEGO Group

This week's vintage set is 8 Basic Set #8, released during 1973. It's one of 11 Universal Building Set sets produced that year. It contains 776 pieces.

It's owned by 63 Brickset members. If you want to add it to your collection you might find it for sale at BrickLink or eBay.


24 comments on this article

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By in United States,

And apparently these were the predecessors to the Homemaker maxifigs?

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By in United States,

You know a set is old when it has a one-digit set number. Actually, I was surprised it was as recent as it was, since I saw the set number before I saw the date.

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By in United Kingdom,

The year to mourn the departure of the gap in the Lego 'O'.
And the iconic colour bar's days were also numbered.

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By in United States,

1973 universal/basic sets were the first ones I ever got, when I was 4 or 5 in 1973 or 1974. I got the US versions, 115 and 135. I guess in America everything had to be bigger, including the set numbers. :-)

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By in Canada,

How often do I have to say it, I didn't like the universal building set.

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By in Netherlands,

That house build in the small window on top is a thing of beauty with its vintage ‘layerdness’. Love it!

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By in Germany,

Loved those brick build animals. Red cows, blue elephants = plenty of room for your imagination.

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By in Jersey,

@TheOtherMike said:
"You know a set is old when it has a one-digit set number. Actually, I was surprised it was as recent as it was, since I saw the set number before I saw the date."

Bizarrely this wasn't the only 8 of the 1970s, but we'll never see the 1978 version picked as random Vintage Set.

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By in United States,

I love those old tree pieces. It's like they walked in from a different toy.

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By in United States,

So who else is feeling optimistic about that plane making it off the runway and arriving at its destination?

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By in United States,

@tmtomh said:
"1973 universal/basic sets were the first ones I ever got, when I was 4 or 5 in 1973 or 1974. I got the US versions, 115 and 135. I guess in America everything had to be bigger, including the set numbers. :-)"

I lived down the road from the Lego factory. So, I grew up with about 3 large cardboard bulk boxes full of those Lego. It seems like this set is just a smaller version of that.

On second thought, our bulk garage-sale boxes had much cooler parts.

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By in United Kingdom,

Wow, that plane's amazing... I've just removed Concorde from my Wanted List and plan to buy this instead! :-)

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By in Netherlands,

Wow, this set is not that old-looking-
*sees granular trees

Oh wow. This thing's ooooold.

That plane kind of looks like a multicolored concord...

I like the build of woman sitting in chair with man in uniform behind her. That looks weirdly good, just low res.

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By in United Kingdom,

For those keeping track we’ve now had Basic Sets 2, 4, 5, 6 and 8. Which will be the next to show up, place your bets now!

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By in United Kingdom,

@sjr60 said:
"
And the iconic colour bar's days were also numbered."


What was the colour bar for?

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By in Netherlands,

I probably just keep repeating myself, but looking at it purely as a toy for young kids, this stuff is still great! Love the variety of builds shown on the box.

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By in Jersey,

@cm5878 said:
" @TheOtherMike said:
"You know a set is old when it has a one-digit set number. Actually, I was surprised it was as recent as it was, since I saw the set number before I saw the date."

Bizarrely this wasn't the only 8 of the 1970s, but we'll never see the 1978 version picked as random Vintage Set."


Though the 1973 edition is much larger. I see from the parts list that it apparently came with not one but two of those "bin02" stackable storage boxes with studs underneath? The packaging for this set must have been enormous!

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By in Canada,

@Bornin1980something said:
" @sjr60 said:
"
And the iconic colour bar's days were also numbered."


What was the colour bar for?"


The colour bar was the Legoland flag. Back in the days, Lego bricks were only produced in these colours (and transclear). Green was solely used for base plate and old trees.

The 'Space' theme was revolutionary because it introduced light/medium grey (as well as wedge plates).

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By in United States,

@HOBBES:
Except the original five colors were Red, White, Yellow, Medium-Blue, and Green, in set 700-12. This was actually the reduced color palette, which was based on the color scheme of Piet Mondrian's paintings.

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By in United States,

If I had a city/town layout going. I would want the house on the left and the one at the top in it.

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By in United States,

Some people see Basic. I see Pure.

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By in United States,

More and more, I love seeing these oldies. I recently picked up a copy of 239. It's the oldest anything Lego I own and I love seeing how it all began.

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By in United Kingdom,

@ra226 said:
"More and more, I love seeing these oldies. I recently picked up a copy of 239. It's the oldest anything Lego I own and I love seeing how it all began."
That's exactly the logo I'd love to see them release as an Insider Tin Sign!

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By in Denmark,

In case you are interested: the sticker in the lower left corner means "introduced 1973" in danish.

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