Aww yeah, I had so much fun with this back in the day.

I feel like there should really be a Timmy standing underneath it to cushion the landing when it clips a wing on that airport terminal and spins wildly out of control.

Truly one of my favorite LEGO airport sets ever! It was such a modern take on the airport when it was released, really capturing some of the unique design elements of its era - the rare yellow railings, arched windows and panels, palm trees, and even space panels for the control tower. The result is a set that is iconic today and still looks great.

One of several sets I always wanted around that time period but never got.

when you see (fantastic) sets like that, the whole discussion on base plates becomes even more relevant.

It always amazes me how they could do such charming sets with so little pieces back then. Of course, everything is significantly more detailed nowadays but still, looking at this fine example, nothing is really missing...

Best part of this set is the angled glass tower, in my opinion, but there are so many other great features for fun and play: baseplates to make a runway, a host of figures, several vehicles and a terminal building. It's all there in one package.

I just love those big glass arches. So pretty.

@PurpleDave said:
"I feel like there should really be a Timmy standing underneath it to cushion the landing when it clips a wing on that airport terminal and spins wildly out of control."

I love the angle of the graphic design shot. It shows everything you need to see while making it an action shot where you (the beholder) are the center of the action.

Does that mean that Dave is the Timmy?

I love everything about this set. The figures, the plane, the control tower, everything, even the skinny chopper...

This set is from way before my time but it looks wonderful. This is the kind of set I wanted as a kid but my parents couldn't afford the contemporary counterpart. And now that I make my own money Lego doesn't make sets like this anymore.

Back when lego made proper airports.

An awesome set, I am sure every child that got this had heaps of fun!

I see the comments all seem to be gushing over this one but I dunno, I feel like this is guilty of a lot of things I’ve seen thrown out as criticisms of modern sets: there’s a lot of just empty space going on there and the things that are cool looking are achieved by big, specialised pieces, both of which would get howls of “juniorisation!” from any later set

Surely a GOAT contender? (I understand there are no actual goats included.)

@PurpleDave: They say 'Great minds think alike'...don't know what happened here though, but I was thinking the same thing about 'the Timmy'.:)

The set itself...don't have it, but remember first time seeing it: Spokane, WA at the White Elephant store...which sadly isn't there anymore..nonoNO, Spokane still there (just got a LEGO store ironically), W.E. went away a few years ago...still like to go back and see that city sometime...

And now, because someone's gotta do it:
Rex Kramer: Striker, listen, and you listen close: flying a plane is no different than riding a bicycle, just a lot harder to put baseball cards in the spokes.
:D

$70 is worth about $170 today with inflation. That does not look like a $170 set. But it would be. This is a note for people who say Lego is too expensive these days :)

Just look at her:

https://images.brickset.com/library/view/?f=catalogues/c90uk&p=14
https://images.brickset.com/library/view/?f=catalogues/c91uk&p=28

Perfection.

@SirRobin said:
"$70 is worth about $170 today with inflation. That does not look like a $170 set. But it would be. This is a note for people who say Lego is too expensive these days :)"

Yes! A set like this - with five (!!) baseplates - was unreachably expensive back in those days!

I love the action shot here. It's perfect. The airport color gradiant logo also works extremely well for the tower, as does the panels used for shaping.

@Brickalili good point on calling out cries of Juniorization. We could really do with that buzzword being thrown around less readily. Specialized large pieces aren't immediately a sign of sets pandering to kids who don't have the patience to build much, people! Sometimes specialized large pieces are necessary to not needlessly complicate a build.
For example, pirate boat hulls and masts from 1989, anyone?

But at the same time, I wouldn't say that's quite the case here. Sets from this era did use large, spectacular parts like the windows, baseplates, plane wings etc. But the rest of the set was always mostly basic bricks and plates. And parts were seldomly created for one specific scenario.

I'd argue real juniorization was the point where basic bricks started to become scarce because every other part was specialized, with lego buckling under the huge amount of new parts with few uses each. The point where everything's unique and special so nothing is anymore.

That said, in fairness the plane wings arguably were hard to use as anything else but wings however. Same goes for the fences.

Town in the early 90s had that Miami/Rio de Janeiro/Buenos Aires vibe...

@Brickalili said:
"I see the comments all seem to be gushing over this one but I dunno, I feel like this is guilty of a lot of things I’ve seen thrown out as criticisms of modern sets: there’s a lot of just empty space going on there and the things that are cool looking are achieved by big, specialised pieces, both of which would get howls of “juniorisation!” from any later set "

To be fair, it's an airport, so you can't have too much going on on the runways. Also, it's not a display model, but purely for child's play. That said, it does look very good for a City set of that era. You can in no way compare it to similar sets of later eras, because the design esthetic is very much of its time. In fact, it felt very modern when this came out in 1990. But there was no way you could achieve some of this building's shaping with standard rectangular bricks, especially not at the time.

Juniorizing, as @Binnekamp adequately explained, is the process of making (extremely) specialized pieces which you could easily replace by using existing bricks. You can't do that with all the clear panels you see here. I wouldn't even know how you'd achieve a runway like that nowadays without using a tonne of plates and bricks. So, no, I wouldn't say this set was 'guilty' of what was years later dubbed as juniorizing, because (unlike Castle or Pirates) it just didn't have any other type of bricks to create something like it.

Plus, there's nostalgia that helps with the rose-tinted view of this set. And it truly is as charming as any airport could get. Did you ever see so many people smiling at an airport?

@biffuz said:
"Town in the early 90s had that Miami/Rio de Janeiro/Buenos Aires vibe..."

I was going to say Mediterranean, but yeah, I see some Miami in here too.

Flying from this to 6597 was my childhood.

@TheRichrocker said:
" @SirRobin said:
"$70 is worth about $170 today with inflation. That does not look like a $170 set. But it would be. This is a note for people who say Lego is too expensive these days :)"

Yes! A set like this - with five (!!) baseplates - was unreachably expensive back in those days!"
I hear you. There were several sets I would have loved to get as a kid but that were simply not in the budget of my parents.
One such set was the predecessor of this one, 6392, which I finally bought used via ebay this year.

@biffuz said:
"Town in the early 90s had that Miami/Rio de Janeiro/Buenos Aires vibe..."

There is definitely a noticable shift there.

1978-1987 felt more like middle-north European (well very likely Danish, the police uniforms of that era are Danish inspired at least I guess).

Once they had the palm tree from Pirates, the designers went on a heavy southern coastal USA vibe (I have to admit I really liked that). Also the promotional imagery and box art shifted from rural green hills to skyscrapers and nightly harbor scenes.

Either they just got bored and wanted to try something new or this had to do with their increasing focus on the NA market after the Tyco case.

Always liked this set, but never got it. It probably looks pretty cool next to 6399.

I really like this era of Lego design (probably because I grew up with it). Just the necessary bricks to represent the essence of an airport, nothing wasted on unnecessary details.

This set today would have 3x the pieces, 10x the details, 2x the price, but none of the charm.

It's the same with 4-wide vehicles. Highly unrealistic, but Lego through and through.

This looks so much more fun than what LEGO releases today. More bang for your buck

I always thought 6392 was better. The terminal in this set was just to empty and open for me.

The fact that I got 6392 when it came out has no bearing on my opinion ;)

I always dreamed of owning this set.
My airport as a kid was 6377 Delivery Centre. Which paired well with the 6391 Cargo Center as it shipped boxes to itself.
6356 Med-Star Rescue Plane was even there for other shipping needs.

@Brickalili said:
" @ToysFromTheAttic
Not so sure most people abide by that definition of “juniorisation”. I spot similar complaints pop up in RSotD articles when, say, Insectoids sets pop up, bemoaning their use of big wing or bug eye pieces. Yet that kinda fits your definition; there was no existing way of getting that very distinctive look that theme has so they had to come up with something. And the gaps in this set are not confined to the runway: lovely though the air control dome is, there really nothing in the tower it’s resting on, or the buildings underneath it. Not even, like, another chair so you can fit another guy at work or break there. I’ve seen more modern police stations get mocked for such wasteful use of space."

The use of big pieces doesn't necessarily equal 'juniorisation'. The use of big pieces you can easily avoid by using existing smaller pieces does, however. But it's also weird to retroactively apply that term to sets that weren't designed with that mindset yet. Sure, there was an age range for each given set, but for its time and age range I feel this is quite an elaborate set.

That it didn't have much going on on the inside is typical for LEGO sets of that era. I don't think too many kids cared for the lack of interior detail, but were happy to just board their minifigs and fly them to wherever their imagination took them. My brother had a LEGO cargo plane and I know he didn't care there were no interior details. It's a toy after all. :-)

@Brickalili said:
" @ToysFromTheAttic
We’re at least agree on the cause, the rosy tinted view of nostalgia. I just wish sometimes AFoLs could shake that mindset off a bit more and not be so set in the “past good, modern bad” attitude that seem to crop up so often "

Yes, I also despise the notion that everything used to be better, which is very prevalent among internet fandoms in general. LEGO is certainly no exception. I mean, I have great nostalgia for most things from my youth, including LEGO, but some of my all-time favourite LEGO sets have been produced within the past decade. And if I don't like it, it's not meant for me.

@GusG said:
"This looks so much more fun than what LEGO releases today. More bang for your buck"

I'm not sure if you're aware of how inflation works, but this was a really expensive set in 1990 money. ;-) And LEGO certainly releases things today that are way more fun than an airport -- charming as this one is.

My wife owns this set. It gets played with all the time by our daughter. I always wanted an airplane/airport set growing up, but no way my parents would fork over $70 for this!! I just thank them for actually getting me the 6987 Blacktron Message Intercept base for Christmas.

@chief7575 said:
"My wife owns this set. It gets played with all the time by our daughter. I always wanted an airplane/airport set growing up, but no way my parents would fork over $70 for this!! I just thank them for actually getting me the 6987 Blacktron Message Intercept base for Christmas."

lucky you with 6987 and the wife pick, haha.