Classic LEGO sets: Classic Town Shell
Posted by Huw,
This week's classic LEGO article has been contributed by Matthew, The Toymaker:
Classic Town was founded in 1978. Its zenith was during the 1980s when it grew into a sprawling metropolis that continued until its star faded in the late 1990s. It lives on today of course in AFOLs’ attics and cupboards throughout the world and doubtless, in the hearts of countless others.
It was a strange place to live, of course, being dominated by a vast public sector: policemen whose careers were devoted to setting up roadblocks or jailing non-existent criminals (at least until 6398 Central Precinct HQ in 1993); firemen who witnessed neither flames nor cats in trees; paramedics, doctors and nurses. There was little else going on: the dominant industry grew to be motor racing supported by a car repair sector. It’s all in stark contrast to the modern Heartlake City which showcases the rampantly entrepreneurial endeavours of the five girls and their fellow inhabitants opening pet salons, bakeries and riding schools, when they’re not practicing magic, inventing or juicing.
In this series of articles, we’re going to step away from the dominant emergency services sub-themes in Classic Town and focus on some of the all too infrequent other buildings in the city.
We will start with Classic Town’s only true corporation, one that has been in the news again recently as a result of TLG’s partnership with Shell. Shell had of course featured in previous System sets since the mid-1960s. The launch year of Classic Town was 1978 and out of a total crop of 28 sets (including promotional sets), five were devoted to a creating a comprehensive petroleum industry portfolio and a sixth set (673: Rally Car) featured Shell sponsorship.
377 Service Station
The lead set in the series was 377 Service Station, which featured two minifigures, a small car, four pumps, a shop and of course a straight baseplate, across which the filling station forecourt sat. One of the largest town sets of the year, it featured a scarcely believable 90-pieces. Early Classic Town was in a transitional phase so the car could not take a minifigure although this at least allowed a roof-rack. Other nice touches included spare tyres in case of a puncture. The pumps made use of an interestingly modified 1x2 yellow brick with a hole on each narrow side from which protruded a small piece of string, acting as the fuel nozzle – this piece was also used as the cartridge for the excavator framework in several other sets at this time.
Difficult to find in good condition, the complete set goes for around £30 on Ebay.
The Service Station was supported by four other sets: 601 Filling Station (in reality just an additional pump, a very rare Shell sign and a minifigure); 604 Service Car; 671 Petrol Tanker and 642 Tow Truck & Car. The first three all featured the same minifigure (with red cap, white Shell torso and blue trousers) that had also featured in 377. These are very rare second hand, so expect to pay over the odds.
6628 Tow Truck & 6610 Petrol Pumps
Perhaps in recognition that by now Classic Town was occupied by a number of Shell employees who could not actually fit into any of their vehicles, the next wave of Shell sets came in 1981. The first of these was a tow truck – by this stage, vehicles had evolved to seat their minifigures. The truck included printed doors as well as the new roof hinge assembly that debuted in that year and survived until 2004.
The other set that year was a set of fuel pumps and a female minifigure. The pumps were of a more advanced design than those of 1978 making use of two ‘headlight’ bricks and a proper nozzle for the fuel hose. Expect to pay around £10 each for the complete sets.
6371 Service Station
1983 was a seminal year for LEGO Town in many respects: it saw the release of several iconic sets such as 6692 LEGO Lorry and 6683 Hamburger Stall as well as a new motorbike assembly and the arrival of the archetypal LEGO saloon car. Both of these latter features were included in what was possibly the most exciting Town set of the year, 6371 Service Station. This replaced 377 and included several other exciting new features in its 261-pieces: a unique baseplate with a ‘layby’ lane adjacent to two stylish new pumps, a vehicle hoist for repairs adjacent to a service yard, a small tow-truck, plus a canopy that spanned the roadway thanks to an assembly of technic bricks acting as a girder. Three minifigures came with the set: a mechanic wearing a new baseball cap and wearing a non-standard Shell uniform with black trousers, a female (presumably the attendant) and a motorcyclist – showing off a newly designed torso print that became very popular in subsequent years. Expect to pay £20 for complete plus box.
6695 Tanker
By the following year, supplies at 6371 had run dry and so a refuelling tanker was needed. This time, there was both a minifigure and a cab into which he could fit. The fuel trailer was articulated to the cab which unfortunately could not be hinged forward as 6692 LEGO Lorry could. Fuel was dispensed via a long drum-rolled hose. The minifig was back in standard uniform of blue trousers. 6695 Tanker is surprisingly expensive on the second hand market: a complete set with stickers and box will set you back more than £20.
6378 Service Station
In 1986, it was time for 6371 to be retired and a new 291-piece filling station, 6378 Service Station, was released. This one looked far more modern with a number of new design treatments to the pumps, the canopy and the interior of the shop. The set reflected the change in Shell’s corporate identify back in the real world at the time with the canopy dropping the white detailing in favour of a deeper yellow. However, other than the addition of a jack and a small ‘postbox’, the changes were almost entirely cosmetic with little additional playability – indeed with no car hoist or any paying public, the set was arguably inferior. Perhaps the most interesting feature from a MOC perspective was the change of baseplate which created a slalom effect on the main roadway and allowed an island to be built, separating lanes of traffic, onto which the new pumps were placed. Two minifigures were included: a uniformed female and a mechanic in standard-issue blue LEGO dungarees.
Also in 1986, LEGO released a series of promotional sets with Shell but these were exceptionally basic and would have looked more at home in a layout from the 1970s. More in keeping was 6634 Stock Car which revived Shell’s sponsorship interest in LEGO rallying and pointing to further opportunities in future years.
Expect to pay £30+ for this including box and stickers.
6394 Metro Park
The final and greatest Shell set in Classic Town arrived in 1988 with the release of the set: 6394-1 Metro Park, a 620-piece multi-storey car park attached to a smaller Shell filling station. At the time it was awesome and has remained so ever since. Spread across two base plates, the set included a car wash and a vehicle lift to connect the levels, a Shell truck (that curiously lacked a tow hook), three small cars on a relatively recent shorter chassis that was popular in the late 1980s along with a motorbike. The actual filling station in comparison was somewhat lacklustre, although offered an air hose and a repair yard. The design was such that the two halves could be hinged to create a ‘back-to-back’ set-up, although the lanes did not align to make this of much use. Environmentally, Shell had cleaned up their act by this stage and for the first time trees and flowers were able to thrive in the immediate vicinity. As befits its status as the flagship of the range, a boxed, fully stickered set will cost upwards of £80 on Ebay.
Also that year saw the release of 6395 Victory Lap Raceway which displayed extensive Shell sponsorship, a pit crew and truck with trailer. This set has the distinction of supplying the largest number of minifigures ever seen in a Classic Town set – 13 in total.
Other Shell sets
Shell’s dominance in Classic Town was driven by their virtual monopoly – another indicator of the frankly unorthodox economic system in the, um, system. Throughout Classic Town, wherever fuel was needed, it was Shell fuel; demonstrated in sets such as 6369 Auto Workshop and 1497 Pit Stop and Crew. There were also several Shell sets as part of the Trains theme, including 7816 Shell Tanker Wagon and 7735 Freight Train Set.
By the early 1990s however, the company was ousted, with TLG opting for “Octan”, their own IP. Maybe the writing was on the wall from 1987 when 6393 Big Rig Truckstop (US only) featured anonymised fuel. The story of Octan has been even more successful, almost culminating in the takeover of the entire multiverse, as dramatized in The LEGO Movie. The current difficulties with the Shell corporation are nothing to what has been faced with Octan. But then that’s the difference between LEGO and reality!
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Note: comments relating to the current Greenpeace campaign will be deleted.
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30 comments on this article
This is something for me. I got both service stations 6371 and later 6378. What I now need is a 6695 tanker to deliver the fuel there (got only the Octan version tanker 6594 from 1992).
"There was little else going on..."
I'm not sure I'd agree with that. Sure, the current Lego town is police officers and fire-fighters and little else ... but back in the late 80s and early 90s, we had wharves and houses and stables and restaurants and service stations and caravans and boats and far more medical/hospitals than we do currently. And yeah, there was a lot of racing-related entertainment too, but I still think Lego towns had a lot more in them back then, than now.
When I entered Grade 3 in the 1990s, I got 6378 and a couple Canada Post 1xLongs in some hand-em-down Lego from my older cousins. Never liked the road plates as a kid so I had a gas station up on the Alpha Centauri base. Good read.
Really interesting read. Thanks!
There does seem to be a heavy police focus on current and recent City sets (which I was so happy to see the arctic stuff). How much crime is there in the Lego world? We need to see Judge Dredd taking on Lego City One. :)
Great article! I like reading and learning about old sets that I've never actually heard about before.
LEGO needs to re-release every CT set, remade with modern bricks & techniques but still keeping the actual model the same
Lego have released a *couple* of non-police sets for the city theme. Well, only the public transport, harbour, Arctic, Airport, Space Centre, pizza shops, bike repair, racing cars, caravans, off road vehicles, mining, a bank, a car park, forestry/logging, coast guard/beach, cargo trucks and forklifts, farming, racing cars, big rig trucks, hot rods, limousines, sports cars, compact cars, helicopters and tiltrotors, ... so yeah, pretty much all Police sets, then. Oh no wait, they also do trains. And the Creator houses. And the modulars.
In fact, Lego only releases new police sets every three years, which is about what they want if they are selling to kids age 5-10. If you don't like that, you can buy dozens of different sets in between. If that doesn't suit you, you can build something new... out of Lego!
Build something new? No instructions?? Wait. Wasn't there a movie about that recently? :)
Fair point Addicted, and perhaps it's about perception. Although a quick look at Brick Badger's top 100 City deals sees 35+ being police or fire related sets and LEGO.com has 24/64 sets being police or fire related. So it comes out at around 37% all told. Which is far from being 'all'. But a better policing presence than my city. :)
Great read, thanks! And I agree, there are too many Police and Fire Brigade sets being produced...
^^It's definitely more about perception than reality and I agree with earlier comments that Classic Town was definitely more varied than modern City.
The slightly odd thing was that in the Ideas books such as 250 or 200 showed much more variety in types of builds. I particularly remember 200 showing a town centre scene with a florist, baker, clothes shop and hair salon, all of which had stickers.
LEGO was also partnered with Exxon during this time as well, which featured fewer sets from this fuel company.
As kid I always wanted 6395 but never obtained it. It made the imagination run wild with all those race cars.
Those are cool. That article was the longest feature in this series yet; great job! I really like the car park, and the garage from 2012 is a feeble attempt next to it.
From the older Shell-related sets I only have 1254 Shell Convenience Store. This set was released in 1999, however I bought it for Shell ClubSmart points around 2006. I wish Shell and Lego continued this partnership and release sets to be bought for ClubSmart points!
In addition I have the promotional Shell-Ferrari sets 30190-30196 from 2012 (in Hungary 2013).
Great article Huw, but you need to tag it so it appears with the others in this list
http://brickset.com/news/category-Historical
how is it possible you made no mention whatsoever of EXXON sets???
(a) the article is about Shell
(b) the author is British
(c) Exxon is not a brand anyone outside the USA is familiar with and the sets were not released elsewhere
I have two 6634 sets and one 6503. When I get the second 6634 i was rather disgruntled and complained that I already had that set (it was a birthday present form another boy) and my dad promptly told me off and said that I should say thank you very much :)
Now many years later I am quite pleased that I have 2. Though the stickers are in rather poor condition and the doors have yellowed quite badly compared to all the other parts from these cars. I never cared for the political problems people have with Shell but have always enjoyed the tie that Shell gave me back to real life.
6378!
Yes, I know this was all before my time, but finally you guys mention a classic set I have!
- 6378 looks like one of the best!!! :)
Ah... 6610... I loved that string/nozzle/brick combo, although being a 7- year old Space fan hated the incongruity of having been gifted it when it clearly didn't match the blue and grey of my other sets. I think the female hairpiece is all that remains in my collection, now I'm going to have to re-buy it after reading the article!
AT least, 6371 is a must-have for every classic city layout.
And I always wondered why 6628 was released without a minifig, which makes this car/set very unique in classic town history.
Great article - love the focus of these articles!
6695 was my first set and I still have the bits and Minifigure (all looking very tired). They had the most play of any toy I ever owned and my kids are still using the pieces to make new models. Not bad value for money!
Wow, I feel old :-)
I had the first 3 sets....
My Bricklist from 2009: http://brickset.com/sets/list-416 lists them all. Not too shabby :)
6634 Stock Car remains my first and pretty much only Town set, being primarily a Space fan. Still, I have good memories of that set.
Always fun reading these Classics articles, keep them coming!
I still have my 6610, I loved it as a child, I remember the headlight bricks - they were my very first ones. it is not that clear in the picture but the minifig has the shell logo on her torso, printed not stickered.
There's also sets 1252 , 1253, 1254, 1255, and 1256 from 1999. They weren't released in the United States, but they were released in Europe and Asia with purchases of Shell gasoline. The Select Shop especially is a great building in the Classic Town style.
^ I thought about including those, but took the view that they come from the 'juniorised' town era rather than the classic town era.
What a trip down memory lane. Totally forgot about these sets! Everytime I visit Brickset I seem to stumble upon something that takes me back to my childhood memories that were forgotten in time!
All of the gas station related sets I had when I was very young were Exxon. Having all three, I was so accustomed to Exxon that the Shell stuff seemed odd. I did later get 6395 Victory Lap Raceway and the accompanying 6503 Sprint Racer which had Shell as the sponsor (no mention of this one in the article). For my play time then, this replaced one of the cars in 6395 which were all sponsor-less.