3+?

A 4+ set nowadays has bigger pieces than the ones in this set. A set like this would be at least 5+ today.

For a moment I thought Bruce Dickinson must have had 6 of these sets, but for that it should have been released about 10-15 years earlier.

Looking at that car, tell me that's supposed to be a Renault Project 900, the car that doesn't look that special until you realize what's the front and what's the rear...
(though a transparent slope would have worked better for that....you'll need a windscreen after all....)

Happy Elephant Noises

The direction the smoke is going I can only assume that train is running in reverse

Another saturday, another duck

The inclusion of homemaker maxifigs is interesting

You know, I have a 3 year old and this really is about what he wants out of LEGO.

(His older brother at the same age... not so much.)

Well, hello there sailor.

I hadn't realized how many of these universal building sets existed. Every time one comes up, I think "oh, that's the one I - wait - nope."

It's cool to dig through the list of those sets. Some of them had really cool models, and some of them look like precursors of much later things, like the hovercraft in black and yellow. (Res-Q, not Blacktron.) We see things now that are nods to old sets, so I wonder if that was happening earlier on.

Hmm...'123' members have this set...features a 'big bird' in the front-art...(narrator's voice): Today's set brought to you by the letter...:D

@WizardOfOss said:
"Looking at that car, tell me that's supposed to be a Renault Project 900, the car that doesn't look that special until you realize what's the front and what's the rear..."

https://www.hotcars.com/the-renault-project-900-a-backwards-concept-car/

This one? Clearly, the French thought there were too many people ending up in critical condition after car accidents, and wanted to make sure they had a clean death instead.

@Ridgeheart:
Yeah, some time ago, a younger person asked what set came with the first Mixel-style towball, and some other young person responded with something like part 2508 (itself in production since 1989). And I think I was the one who responded with part 3614a (first released in 1974).

@Brickalili:
On tall ships, the flags usually blow towards the bow, because they're running with the wind, but not as fast as the wind. All the direction of smoke indicates is that the train's speed in a forward direction is slower than the air's speed in that same direction. So it could be running backwards in dead air, or it could be heading forwards with a very strong tail wind.

@stepwise:
Yeah, there really wasn't a lot of thought put into naming a lot of those early sets. Someone was earning a full paycheck for the least amount of work possible.

My first Lego set! I still have the box, though it is cut up into six different panels.

Crazy that it came out in 1977, as I was born in 1976 which means that my parents gave me a 4+ set when I was just 1. Though I guess Lego stayed on the market for longer back then so, perhaps they got it for me when I was 2 or 3.

@PurpleDave said:
" @WizardOfOss said:
"Looking at that car, tell me that's supposed to be a Renault Project 900, the car that doesn't look that special until you realize what's the front and what's the rear..."

https://www.hotcars.com/the-renault-project-900-a-backwards-concept-car/

This one? Clearly, the French thought there were too many people ending up in critical condition after car accidents, and wanted to make sure they had a clean death instead."
I guess the guy designing it must have been really, really, REALLY worried about tailgaters....

@Librarian1976 said:
"My first Lego set! I still have the box, though it is cut up into six different panels.

Crazy that it came out in 1977, as I was born in 1976 which means that my parents gave me a 4+ set when I was just 1. Though I guess Lego stayed on the market for longer back then so, perhaps they got it for me when I was 2 or 3."

My first set was released just a couple years after I was born, so I have to imagine it stuck around long enough for it to be age-appropriate.

I never had slopes as a kid so seeing that bay window blows my mind.

Is that a duck, or some kind of weird flower?

@Librarian1976 said:
"My first Lego set! I still have the box, though it is cut up into six different panels.

Crazy that it came out in 1977, as I was born in 1976 which means that my parents gave me a 4+ set when I was just 1. Though I guess Lego stayed on the market for longer back then so, perhaps they got it for me when I was 2 or 3."

I got my oldest nephew a Duplo set for his first birthday, but I knew I was jumping the gun. But, as you say, maybe they picked it up a couple of years after it came out.