Those minifigures are pretty epic..almost eerie in fact...but those make them all the more interesting... (still prefer these than Belville though haha)

Probably the first Vintage Set of the Week I actually own xD Even with box.

Some dislike the style of maxifigs, but I think they have a simple charm to them. And apperently they were a groundbreaking thing for Lego back then.

Bricks N Pieces even claimed, they could not fulfill demand back in 1974 in the UK (for this specific set).

I was utterly surprised, to find out that the "Aquazone arms" were THAT old, when I got that DK Lego book in 1999. Does anyone know if the torsos parts came pre-assembled with the arms? I could not find any unboxing video yet :P

EDIT:
Noticed that the hands have openings, but they are too narrow for 3.18 bars?

@TheOtherMike said:
""We are family!
I got all my bricks, plates, and me!""

Sister Sledge rocks.

Ah the giants grace us with their presence once more

Everything that can be said about family has already been said: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=teXyh5FFuqM

I had this as a child. I loved it, but always wondered what had happened to Grandad...

One of my childhood sets too. I still have the box!

I am honored and grateful to be present during such an iconic and momentous VSotW

One of only a few vintage sets I own (as in sets from before 1978). I was gifted it in 2008. It holds a special place for me due to personal circumstances that happened back when I got it. It's also THE maxifig set to me. You get all the hairstyles (all 3) except the 'indian' one, and none of the hats. But with it you get a fulll family.

If you didn't know, the male and female hairstyles are reversible for a different look.
Oh, and here's dark brown so early that I didn't realize the color existed back in 2008 (it did), let alone since the 70s. It's not the same kind of plastic of course.
Oh and finally, the grandmother displays the full versatility of the system's legs: you can use the 2x4 bricks as a wide skirt or use them to make her sit down. That's it, and you can't do it with the same bricks as easily with the dad for example. You'd need other bricks for that. But they are common bricks so that's not too hard. The 'slabbies' or proto minifigs 'improved' on that in that there was a specialized legs part. Now you can only put it in front of them. No choice on with what brick type. Saves any dilemma's...?

Omg- The mother-in-law in the widow getup!

With no nose, how are Grandma's glasses staying on her face? Perhaps she's a witch.

I own the set too and once I decided to create minifig counterparts for all the family members.

@Atuin said:
"Noticed that the hands have openings, but they are too narrow for 3.18 bars?"

You can see in the box picture for 5235-2 that they're not.

@Roloff said:"I own the set too and once I decided to create minifig counterparts for all the family members."

"And we shall call them, 'Mini-Us!'"

I knew I was getting old when I saw this set on display in a museum a few years ago in a temporary exhibition of old children's toys

Modern Family

I've always thought you could see the same design style in the maxi-figs and the earliest minifigs--to the point that, when I first encountered some and had no idea of the time, I assumed the more-familiar-to-me minifigs came first or at the same time.

What I'm calling the same design style might just be the limitations and consequences of the 1970s colour palette, but I think it's there too in the hair styles, smiley expressions, and lack of nose.

At this point I have about six of these fellas, and random heads/torsos to more (but not enough arms or hair). It's hard to give them any real purpose in my fig-centric collection, but I like them

@LegoStevieG said:
" I knew I was getting old when I saw this set on display in a museum a few years ago in a temporary exhibition of old children's toys "

I feel your pain. About ten or more years ago the first LEGO town space shuttle from 1995 was on display in my local Science Museum, right next to a Buck Rogers lunchbox, original Star Wars toys and a walking tin Gort toy from The Day the Earth Stood Still. (this was part of a display on toys inspired by outer space through the years) The LEGO set was the newest thing there, and is one year younger than me. I just about aged into dust on seeing it.

This was one of my favorite LEGO sets, when I was a child. This and 367-1 gave me endless options for play. The family would say “farewell” to the astronauts, greet them when they returned, and so on for hours on end. My mother got me a supplementary set with cowboy hats and caps, which added even more fun to my playtime. I don’t think it is registered on BrickSet.

@Murdoch17 said:
" @LegoStevieG said:
" I knew I was getting old when I saw this set on display in a museum a few years ago in a temporary exhibition of old children's toys "

I feel your pain. About ten or more years ago the first LEGO town space shuttle from 1995 was on display in my local Science Museum, right next to a Buck Rogers lunchbox, original Star Wars toys and a walking tin Gort toy from The Day the Earth Stood Still. (this was part of a display on toys inspired by outer space through the years) The LEGO set was the newest thing there, and is one year younger than me. I just about aged into dust on seeing it."

If you mean 6339, that wasn't the first. The first dedicated space shuttle set (8855 had a shuttle alt0build) was 1990's 1682, which I got as a present when it was new. "Ages into dust," pah!

@Atuin:
I believe the shoulder brick came preassembled with the first section of the arm (the one with a pin on the end), but the rest of the arm sections had to be assembled by the builder. However, while these sets included a double-mounted shoulder brick, stuff like Aquazone frequently only incorporated one arm section, with the other hole being left open.

This was my very first non-Duplo set! Don't think I have much of it any more, as I have given away most of my oldest (worn and dingy) parts to friends with kids.

@PurpleDave said:
" @Atuin:
I believe the shoulder brick came preassembled with the first section of the arm (the one with a pin on the end), but the rest of the arm sections had to be assembled by the builder. However, while these sets included a double-mounted shoulder brick, stuff like Aquazone frequently only incorporated one arm section, with the other hole being left open."

Aquazone used a then-new 1x2 brick with fingers to attach the arms. They were less bulky but couldn't rotate. For that it also introduced the arm bricks with one of the fingers rotated 90 degrees so the next sections go up and down. Two of those back-to-back allowed the arms to just go up and down at that section while the rest goes forward and back. The only part aquazone carried over was the actual straight arm sections. Even the claws were actually from Classic Space from the 80s.
The 1997 Divers subtheme did resurrect the parts that hold the hands again, only now holding new balljoints with a clip 'mechanical hand' instead.

Oh, and on the topic of homemaker part legacies: 4707 Hagrid's Hut contained a gray version of the 'hand' parts... but with a different shape for the hole. It was a second version introduced for Homemaker in 1976 and was last seen in a creator bucket in 2004.

It's kind of interesting that what is now often referred to as the 'mixels' balljoint was used as towballs earlier and even earlier than even the minifig was used for figures. Balljointed figures predate the minifigure.

@TheOtherMike said:
" @Atuin said:
"Noticed that the hands have openings, but they are too narrow for 3.18 bars?"

You can see in the box picture for 5235-2 that they're not.

"

That set is from 1982, not 1974.
By that time the part was reused in Space and required an updated mold. Authentic 1974 ones don't fit.

@Binnekamp:
The grey hand version actually did appear early in Arctic (2000).

@PurpleDave said:
" @Atuin:
I believe the shoulder brick came preassembled with the first section of the arm (the one with a pin on the end), but the rest of the arm sections had to be assembled by the builder. However, while these sets included a double-mounted shoulder brick, stuff like Aquazone frequently only incorporated one arm section, with the other hole being left open."

There were also two moulds for the top half of the shoulder brick - the ones originally used in classic space in the early 1980s still had the hole in the top for the head (I had one of these in 6822). Mid-80s versions like the one in 6940 had a flat top.

As others have said this is definately an iconic and very popular set for its time. I regularly see it (or parts of it) in second hand lots at thrift stores or yard sales and in mixed lots on ebay or marketplace.

@Binnekamp:
I only refer to the specific parts that were introduced in the theme as Mixel joints, because nothing prior offered the same grip in the socket, and the ball parts were all clearly developed with the same design considerations (all 1x2 plates, all with the ball or socket centered half a stud away at the vertical centerline of the plate, and partchitecture of the plates is all the same). The only part that matches this description and wasn’t introduced in the Mixels sets is the 1x2 plate with balls at both ends. It absolutely looks like it came out in a Mixel set. Except it’s black. And really, aren’t those Superhero/Star Wars mechs just hollowed out Mixel corpses, when you really think about it?

@SDlgo9:
Ah! Right! My brother had 6880, which had two one-sided shoulder bricks. I knew I’d seen them somewhere. I mean, Bricklink lists the component sections as individual pieces, but oddly that was a temptation that neither my brother nor I (but mostly just the one of us) succumbed to.

The personification of Lego awfulness that made me feel not so bad about being in a 45 year dark age when this was released!

I remember the picture of the swinging boy demonstrating trust in clutch power at https://rebrickable.com/sets/200-1/family/parts. I always liked the way you could rotate the hair pieces from cool boy to 70's dad, and daughter to mum.

@TheOtherMike said:
" @Murdoch17 said:
" @LegoStevieG said:
" I knew I was getting old when I saw this set on display in a museum a few years ago in a temporary exhibition of old children's toys "

I feel your pain. About ten or more years ago the first LEGO town space shuttle from 1995 was on display in my local Science Museum, right next to a Buck Rogers lunchbox, original Star Wars toys and a walking tin Gort toy from The Day the Earth Stood Still. (this was part of a display on toys inspired by outer space through the years) The LEGO set was the newest thing there, and is one year younger than me. I just about aged into dust on seeing it."

If you mean 6339, that wasn't the first. The first dedicated space shuttle set (8855 had a shuttle alt0build) was 1990's 1682, which I got as a present when it was new. "Ages into dust," pah!"

Hah! I was an adult when 1682 was released!

@560heliport said:
" @TheOtherMike said:
" @Murdoch17 said:
" @LegoStevieG said:
" I knew I was getting old when I saw this set on display in a museum a few years ago in a temporary exhibition of old children's toys "

I feel your pain. About ten or more years ago the first LEGO town space shuttle from 1995 was on display in my local Science Museum, right next to a Buck Rogers lunchbox, original Star Wars toys and a walking tin Gort toy from The Day the Earth Stood Still. (this was part of a display on toys inspired by outer space through the years) The LEGO set was the newest thing there, and is one year younger than me. I just about aged into dust on seeing it."

If you mean 6339, that wasn't the first. The first dedicated space shuttle set (8855 had a shuttle alt0build) was 1990's 1682, which I got as a present when it was new. "Ages into dust," pah!"

Hah! I was an adult when 1682 was released!"

Meh. I just passed for 28, and I’m older than minifigs.