LEGO cars: 4 studs, 6 studs and everything in between
Posted by Huw,
Regular contributor Wouter Adriaensen is back with another historical article:
It seems fairly easy: LEGO cars used to be 4 studs wide (ah, nostalgia!) and are now 6 studs wide (ah, cool!).
So, when and how did the transition happen? How did LEGO trains play their part (pun intended) in this story? And is it true that 6 studs wide vehicles were officially released as early as the mid eighties, while 4 studs wide vehicles still appear today? (spoiler alert: yes it is!)
Let’s dive deeper into the LEGO automobile industry.
The year is 2003. These are dark times for LEGO. The company has seen the competition of other leisure activities increase. As a response, they build theme parks and focus on digital products. Bad decisions, it turns out. LEGO almost goes bankrupt.
Luckily, things were changed around by divesting the parks, closing down the computer games division and focusing back on the plastic bricks themselves. Licensing agreements for popular franchises such as Star Wars, Harry Potter and Lord of the Rings helped LEGO craft their way out of the crisis. Since then, it has returned to be one of the best known brands in the world.
Classic town: 4 studs, 1 minifig
But right around 2003, LEGO is at a loss, which showed in their product range. That year’s catalogue has NBA sets with weirdly designed minifig players, Galidor and Bionicle action figures and Jack Stone sets, among others. But it also features the very first World City outings, which are mainly trains and police sets. World City is the continuation of the Legoland Town/City subtheme, which used to include lots of civilian buildings and vehicles.
Along with Space and Castle, Legoland Town was one of the original subthemes introduced in 1978, the same year the flexible minifigure first appeared in sets. Some of the earliest cars were 621 Police Car, 623 Medic’s Car and 640 Fire Truck and Trailer. All of these had a 4 studs wide chassis and used pieces with thin car doors to create enough room to seat one minifigure, as these are also approximately 4 studs wide.
4 studs wide cars became the standard for classic Lego Town. A prime example includes the extravagantly named 6633 Family Car from 1985, which despite its name could seat precisely one single minifigure. But contrary to popular belief, Lego Town was not all about 4 studs wide vehicles. One early exception is the promotional 1651 Maersk Container Truck from 1980, which is 6 studs wide, but with an offset 4 studs wide cabin.
A 6 studs wide windscreen
1980 also saw the release of part 4176, a 6 studs wide windscreen. It was primarly used for some truly iconic 12V LEGO trains, such as the 7740 Inter-City Passenger Train (1980), the 7725 Electric Passenger Train (1981) and the 7755 Diesel Heavy Shunting Locomotive (1983). But it also made it possible to build 6 studs wide vehicles.
Oddly, the windscreen next appeared four years later, in 1984, in the 8020 Technic Universal Building Set. Although it contained less than 120 pieces, this set provided instructions for no less than 6 models with working mechanisms. Four of them used the windscreen to create 6 studs wide vehicles: a van, a jeep, a garbage truck (all with overhead steering) and a helicopter with rotating blades.
This obviously inspired the LEGO designers to delve even deeper into 6 studs wide vehicles and specifically trucks. In 1985, the 1651 Maersk truck was succeeded by the 1552 Maersk Line Container Truck. Basic Building Sets 720 and 740 each contained a 6 studs wide windscreen, used to build a jeep, a tow truck and a tipper truck. Furthermore, there were instructions for and several examples of 6 studs wide trucks and race cars in Idea Books 200 from 1985 and 250 from 1987.
Idea Book 260 from 1990 had instructions for a 6 studs wide dumper truck, a precursor to the simplified 6581 Dig ‘n’ Dump from 1996. And then there’s the truck with helicopter trailer in 6336 Launch Response Unit from 1995, which also uses part 4176.
5 studs wide in the nineties
In 1991, Legoland Town was replaced by Lego System Town, which in its first year included 6440 Jetport Fire Truck, a single seat, 6 studs wide airport vehicle with two firemen (tough luck for the one who was left behind…).
However, the trucks in nineties Legoland Town would shrink a bit to 5 studs wide vehicles. These can be found in 6346 Shuttle Launch Crew (1992), 6395 Victory Cup Racers (1993), 6348 Surveillance Squad (1994), 1831 Maersk Container Truck (1995) and 6335 Indy Transport (1996).
All are build using the same principle, with three rows of each time two jumper plates providing the foundation for the 5 stud wide truck cabin behind the driver.
Still, every vehicle mentioned so far only had room for one minifigure (or even none, as in the Technic set). This was to change in 1998 with the introduction of a premolded 5 studs wide vehicle base in 5918 Scorpion Tracker, which, I believe for the first time, made it possible to seat two plastic people next to each other. The piece was mainly used for exotic subthemes such as Adventurers (1998 until 2000), Indiana Jones (2008 and 2009) and Pharoah Quest (2011).
1996 also saw the release of 1821 Rally Racers featuring two 6 wide race trucks. Their chassis were widened by adding 2x4 (sloped) bricks, so the cabins are still only 4 studs wide. At the end of the decade, 2148 Imagination Celebration Truck was a nice 6 studs wide truck unit. It was rereleased in a different color scheme as 3442 Legoland California Truck and in its original incarnation in 2004 as 10156 LEGO Truck.
Transitioning from 4 to 6 studs
As I wrote above, 2003 saw the arrival of LEGO World City. For the first time, official town/city sets included both 4 and 6 studs wide vehicles. 7032 Highway Patrol and Undercover Van has a 4 studs wide jeep and van, while 7033 Armored Car Action features a motorbike and a 6 studs wide van. In 2005, piece 50745 was introduced, a single mudguard with a round arch. It is still in production today and an integral part of many 6 studs wide cars.
The change from 4 to 6 studs wide wasn’t one that happened overnight, which even shows in the roadplates. Up until 2001, LEGO towns/cities were build on 32x32 light grey road baseplates with driving lanes that were either 7 or 9 studs wide, depending on whether or not they also had bicycle paths.
This provided just enough room for 4 studs wide vehicles to pass each other comfortably. In 2002, LEGO introduced a new dark grey 32x32 road baseplate with larger, 10 studs wide driving lanes, quite literally making way for next year’s 6 studs wide World City vehicles.
4 vs 6 studs after 2020
Even twenty years after the introduction of 6 studs wide vehicles as a viable option for LEGO cities, lots of sets still have 4 studs wide cars. Recent examples include 60292 Town Centre from 2021, with a tiny 4 studs wide blue car, and 60398 Family House from 2023, with a 4 studs wide electric vehicle.
However, 6 studs wide cars with jumper plate seats for two minifigures, such as in 21330 Home Alone and 40448 Vintage Car (incidentally two LEGO Ideas sets from 2021), are considered by many to be the new standard. These are not only better scaled to the popular Modular Buildings than 4 studs wide varieties, but, using a variety of SNOT bricks, cheese slopes and other new pieces, it is also possible to add lots more details.
While this article focused on 4, 5 and 6 studs wide minifig cars, MOC’ers also build in larger sizes.
What size are the cars driving around your LEGO town?
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44 comments on this article
Omg, I love articles like this!! Please keep up with these! <3
Very good, thank you!
One of the major changes that moved Lego away from 4-wide vehicles was the introduction of the new "fat" wheels and tyres in 1991 - 6015 tyre and 6014a Wheel hub - both 12mm wide and effectively 1.5 studs wide. Frankly they make most 4-wide vehicles look terrible - the wheels and tyres aren't flush with the side of the vehicle and just look "wrong" - made worse with the 6157 extended plate 2x2 wheel holder. They still stick out the side of 6-wide vehicles!
Why didn't Lego stick with 4084 9mm wide medium tyre fitting on standard 4624 wheel? Set 6440 shows how a 6 wide vehicle looks much better with these tyres, than the awful 6015 and 6014a.....
(and, great article, thank you!)
First of all, thank you for the article! It was a fun read!
Next, I have a few notes about some small details:
- In the article the you mention: "LEGO is at a loss, which showed in their product range. That year’s catalogue has NBA sets with weirdly designed minifig players, Galidor and Bionicle action figures and Jack Stone sets, among others." The way this is worded might make it seem like Bionicle is amongst the ranges that caused Lego's financial decline, whilst it was actually a phenomenon that was one of the biggest contributors to the company surviving. In 2003 specifically it was one of the few themes that even made a profit, no doubt helped by a movie about it coming out that year.
- A minor point, but the minifigs in set 6440 do both fit inside, as can be seen here: https://www.promobricks.de/wp-content/uploads/2021/08/lego-6440-jetport-fire-squad-light-and-sound-029.jpg
- Finally, the transition of 4-wide to 6-wide personal cars in City is a complicated journey.
Lego City at first had mostly 4-wide cars such as 7236 Police Car, but the theme was so heavy on 6-wide or even 8-wide trucks that those weren't too common a sight. Some 8-wides are 7998 Heavy Hauler and 7900 Heavy Loader. It wasn't until around 2019 with sets like 6239 Police Patrol Car that 6-wide one-person cars would start to take over, although similar sets like 60113 Rally Car existed for a while already. They slowly started to outnumber the 4-wide format although both still appear whenever it's most convenient. I'd say that roughly around 2020 the 6-wide one-person vehicle started to become the most common one.
So I'd say it's a bunch of gradients and fuzzy lines right now, although there is a trend in there.
The transition to 8-stud cars should've stayed inside Speed Champions IMO. Like, those cars are actually designed to be detailed, but I'm not holding my City and Creator 3-in-1 to those same standards. 4-studs for cars and vans and 6-studs for larger vehicles is fine with me.
Great article. Thank you. Although the best 4 wide vehicles weren't bothered by troublesome minifigures e.g. 603-3
P.S. I think when 640 was mentioned, 640-2 was meant!
I guess Speed Champions is a topic for another day. I like the six studies format, but I have to admit, I like the tiny four studs wide cars. They’re just so toy-like. I like the larger six wide cars for their aesthetics, but they just seem too bulky for a single minifigure. It makes me wish there were an easier way to incorporate extra seats.
"LEGO cars: 4 studs, 6 studs and everything in between"
So.... 5 studs?
@sjr60 said:
"P.S. I think when 640 was mentioned, 640-2 was meant!"
Someone else linked to the one when meaning the other not too long ago (don't remember exactly where) and I was quite amused to discover that both sets with that number have been fire trucks with trailers.
@sjr60 said:
"P.S. I think when 640 was mentioned, 640-2 was meant!"
Sets with duplicate numbers are the bain of my life!
During reading the article I've found two picture link errors, if you have time, you could fix them:
1. 1651 Maersk truck link shows Basic Building Set Trial Size
2. 6359 Victory Cup Racers shows Horse Trailer
I would have liked some discussion on 8-stud cars as well.
@Binnekamp said:
"It wasn't until around 2019 with sets like 6239 Police Patrol Car that 6-wide one-person cars would start to take over"
Definitely not the police patrol car I was expecting, although it is indeed 6-wide.
@mrzeon said:
" @Binnekamp said:
"It wasn't until around 2019 with sets like 6239 Police Patrol Car that 6-wide one-person cars would start to take over"
Definitely not the police patrol car I was expecting, although it is indeed 6-wide."
Must be Frank Cannon...
Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa. Whoa, whoa. Hold it right there. Multiple LEGO employees have credited Bionicle as being the main reason they stayed afloat during the early aughts, not Star Wars, not Harry Potter, and certainly not a theme that didn't even show up until 2012 when the Hobbit films came out. And they most definitely did not lump it in with the likes of Galidor.
Interesting article to read. My mind is still on those old 4-stud wide vehicles, mainly since they fit nicely on my vintage town baseplates which I have a slew of!
@Binnekamp said:
"Lego City at first had mostly 4-wide cars such as 7236 Police Car, but the theme was so heavy on 6-wide or even 8-wide trucks that those weren't too common a sight. Some 8-wides are 7998 Heavy Hauler and 7900 Heavy Loader. It wasn't until around 2019 with sets like 6239 Police Patrol Car that 6-wide one-person cars would start to take over, although similar sets like 60113 Rally Car existed for a while already. They slowly started to outnumber the 4-wide format although both still appear whenever it's most convenient. I'd say that roughly around 2020 the 6-wide one-person vehicle started to become the most common one.
So I'd say it's a bunch of gradients and fuzzy lines right now, although there is a trend in there."
It sure is difficult to talk about cars and their width when ones like the cited 7236 may have a 4-wide body but then go above that due to the mudguard pieces overhang and up to 6 studs due to wheels.
I would really like a comprehensive look at all the cars that can seat either two minifigures side-by-side or four because that is the main thing I am looking for when it comes to the usefulness of a Lego car. I have a hard time coming up with many examples outside of Speed Champions that attempt to have realistic layouts. Useful 6-wides like 40448 seem to be really rare occurrences to me while most cars with two seats next to each other are either 8 studs wide or use the somewhat awkward Scorpion Tracker vehicle base which seems rather small being 5 studs wide.
It has always bothered me how themes constantly change between one seat wide and two seat wide cars. Especially bothersome when there are cars with two seats behind each other just so the cars with two seats next to each other can't simply be called "Two-Seaters".
@PurpleDave said:
"Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa. Whoa, whoa. Hold it right there. Multiple LEGO employees have credited Bionicle as being the main reason they stayed afloat during the early aughts, not Star Wars, not Harry Potter, and certainly not a theme that didn't even show up until 2012 when the Hobbit films came out. And they most definitely did not lump it in with the likes of Galidor."
agreed on all points.
@Anonym:
Short of creating a new mounting plate, the playtesting that all sets must go through puts some significant limits on what you can get away with in terms of side-by-side seating in a 6-wide car. For MOCs, however, if you don't mind having some weak connections, you can even work bucket seats with a center stick shift into 6-wides.
Like for 2 stud wide car supremacy
I'm more of an 8 stud wide person. *Gets angry stares*
Excellent article, thank you!
I used to build 4-wides back when I was a little kid, but after some speed champions I was converted to the 6-wide faith. 8-wides still haven't managed to win me over... something about the proportions bugs me.
@Maxbricks14 said:
"I'm more of an 8 stud wide person. *Gets angry stares*"
It gets a little odd when trains are less wide than cars. Even eight wide trains are too narrow in comparison to eight wide cars.
@Murdoch17 said:
" @Maxbricks14 said:
"I'm more of an 8 stud wide person. *Gets angry stares*"
It gets a little odd when trains are less wide than cars. Even eight wide trains are too narrow in comparison to eight wide cars."
This used to be discussed frequently in my LUG, because we had one member who liked to build 8-wide trains. Consensus seemed to be that 12-wide would be accurate for trains in the US.
Never knew my 8020 was such a revolutionary set.....bak in the day I mostly used its windscreen to create 6-wide trucks, most the notably the DAF Paris-Dakar trucks of Jan de Rooy. Though it always bugged me I only had one such windscreen, so the 1984 "Two headed monster" was a bit problematic....
@PurpleDave said:
" @Murdoch17 said:
" @Maxbricks14 said:
"I'm more of an 8 stud wide person. *Gets angry stares*"
It gets a little odd when trains are less wide than cars. Even eight wide trains are too narrow in comparison to eight wide cars."
This used to be discussed frequently in my LUG, because we had one member who liked to build 8-wide trains. Consensus seemed to be that 12-wide would be accurate for trains in the US."
Some people are now building in 10 wide... give it a few years, they'll get to 12. Personally, I stick with 6 or 7 with my MOC's. I had some eight wide's, but they were taken apart because they didn't fit in with the others. They're just too big, IMO.
@Murdoch17:
Traditionally, members of my LUG stick to 6-wide, maybe 7-wide, in terms of trains, for one very simple reason, which is that the bigger you make the trains, the more power it takes to get them around the track (nevermind that my Shellraiser is a 13-wide behemoth, with an 8-wide NYC subway car at the core).
In terms of my street vehicles, I do mostly stick to 6-wide, but have a few notable exceptions (including the aforementioned Shellraiser, which can be converted for street operation). I intentionally set out to make my Routemaster bus 8-wide, because I needed enough width to fit two seats and an aisle. With Lightning McQueen, I actually intended to make him 6-wide, but while everything looked good on the computer screen, he looked scrawny when I built a mock-up of the design. So I pulled out the die-cast Cars cars I'd bought to model my designs after, and realized Lightning really is wider than the likes of Todd, Rod "Torque" Redline, Acer, and Grem. So he got redesigned as 8-wide, and looks much better now. Having done that, I determined that Holley Shiftwell would also need to be 8-wide. I didn't really have any specific basis for I Am...Batmobile!, but it's loosely based off the Burton design, and 8-wide simply worked out best for the overall proportions given the parts I ended up using in key places.
Going forward, I'd like to build a full semi, and it'll be 8-wide. I want to build a Knight Bus based on my Routemaster, so that'll obviously be 8-wide. And if I ever make a school bus, 8-wide again. I'm not the one building trains in my club, so I'm not going to hold my designs subservient to those of other members. I'm building what I want to build, and I'm only allowing myself to be limited by the parts that exist, and my ability to figure out how to combine them.
@mrzeon said:
" @Binnekamp said:
"It wasn't until around 2019 with sets like 6239 Police Patrol Car that 6-wide one-person cars would start to take over"
Definitely not the police patrol car I was expecting, although it is indeed 6-wide."
Disarm the police! ...or at least take their cannons away.
@Murdoch17 said:" @Maxbricks14 said: "I'm more of an 8 stud wide person. *Gets angry stares*"
It gets a little odd when trains are less wide than cars. Even eight wide trains are too narrow in comparison to eight wide cars."
When dealing with Lego, you have to quickly come to terms with the fact that it's one of those toys that knows no consistent scale. If minifigures don't have the same proportions as human beings, how can the world the inhabit be expected to be like the real world?
@TheOtherMike said:
" @mrzeon said:
" @Binnekamp said:
"It wasn't until around 2019 with sets like 6239 Police Patrol Car that 6-wide one-person cars would start to take over"
Definitely not the police patrol car I was expecting, although it is indeed 6-wide."
Disarm the police! ...or at least take their cannons away.
@Murdoch17 said:" @Maxbricks14 said: "I'm more of an 8 stud wide person. *Gets angry stares*"
It gets a little odd when trains are less wide than cars. Even eight wide trains are too narrow in comparison to eight wide cars."
When dealing with Lego, you have to quickly come to terms with the fact that it's one of those toys that knows no consistent scale. If minifigures don't have the same proportions as human beings, how can the world the inhabit be expected to be like the real world?"
true.
IMHO, one of the best small scale but still well-detailed cars is the Speed Champion Mini Cooper 75894. Still scales well with a mini figure too. A real 5 -studs wide marvel!
Look at that--6634 is one of the few Town sets I had and it was a great little set. I had no idea it was a branded recolor of another set. And 8020, that was my first Technic set. Fantastic set, that one. The old multiple-model Technic sets were so great.
My "Town" will always be 4-studs, I'm just too old-school (really a Space fan, but plenty of 4-wide vehicles there, too). But I've been totally sold on 8-stud by Speed Champions. It's amazing what Lego has been doing in 6-stud scale, but 8-stud lends itself to even more detail.
Personally I prefer 6-wide for my LEGO town: 8 gets a bit too large when compared to trains and modular buildings.
But let's not forget the 6-wide car in https://brickset.com/sets/10232-1/Palace-Cinema with small wheels... I really need to do something about mine.
That said, 4-wide vehicles are good for train cargo, take for instance the 2 cars in 60336 (2022).
6440 Jetport Fire Truck isn't single seated. It fits comfortably two firemen one behind the other.
Got a mix of the two scales in my humble city. Normally at events, try to have zones in the city with only one of the scales displayed.
I forgot to add... there is just a certain charm to the 80s-90s 4-wide vehicles that the more modern vehicles (4 or 6 studs) don't have anymore.
Great article, my favorite 6 wide vehicle from the 90s was the F1 Hauler 6484. It had lights and a working crane/winch to recover cars.
I think that the design still holds up today.
Don't forget the fantastic 8 wide construction vehicles starting with 7249 and 7900
197 was one of the first sets I ever had, and it had 6-wide cars, but it seems this article is only concerned with the minifigure era. I think a follow-up on the evolution of vehicles before 1978 would be interesting.
@ambr said:
"Don't forget the fantastic 8 wide construction vehicles starting with 7249 and 7900"
7213 is also a fantastic 8 studs wide truck.
@raven_za said:
"I forgot to add... there is just a certain charm to the 80s-90s 4-wide vehicles that the more modern vehicles (4 or 6 studs) don't have anymore."
Like preschoolers puttering around in the yard in their Power Wheels…
"60398 Family House from 2023, with a 4 studs wide electric vehicle."
IMHO, a 4-wide windscreen does not make it a 4-wide car. And actually, I think the author agrees because all the 5-wide cars he mentions use a 4-wide wind screen.
I don't really care that much. I have 4, 6 and 8 in my city. If I like the car, I like the car :-D
Great article!
It's always nice to see articles that reminds us the good old days. New cars look more varied but I think 4 stud is still valid. I still build 4 stud cars with modern parts.
My current passion is converting 8 wide Speed Champions models to 6-wide versions. My city has between 4 and 6 wide vehicles. Some 8 wide larger trucks can also be spotted