Vintage set of the week: Police Officers and Motorcycle
Posted by Huwbot,
This week's vintage set is 256 Police Officers and Motorcycle, released during 1976. It's one of 7 Building Set with People sets produced that year. It contains 86 pieces.
It's owned by 535 Brickset members. If you want to add it to your collection you might find it for sale at BrickLink or eBay.
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30 comments on this article
This set is poorly designed, even for 1976.
"You whippersnapper modern minifigs think your dual-molded arms are so cool. Check THIS out! Three points of articulation in each arm, and one of those is a ball joint!"
"Stop! Sir, do you know how fast you were going?"
"Slow enough to keep this stop sign on the motorcycle. These wheels aren't exactly made for speed."
"Well that's actually kind of the problem, you were going too slow, it's a hazard to the other occupants of the road."
"I'm enforcing the law out here!"
"But not above it, and believe it or not there are such speed minimum laws."
"If this smile wasn't plastered on my face, you'd be getting a serious scowl right about now."
"Sir, please get off the motorcycle."
"Uh... I'm stuck."
Miss those arms...and those hands too come to think of it...Also, was Lego 'ahead of their time', I mean I've seen modern scooters that look like that one (not many though, I think scooter's are suppose to have four wheels now, although two wheel scooters are frequent for commuters).
You’d have to assume minifigure scale Lego was in development at this time right? If it turns out road signs for the whole of my childhood were scaled off a goofy accessory then that’s my mind blown.
At least the modern Belleville scaled foods look knowingly scaled to breach the‘don’t eat anything bigger than your head’ rule.
@Maxbricks14 said:
"This set is poorly designed, even for 1976."
659.
OG Battlepack
@PurpleDave said:
" @Maxbricks14 said:
"This set is poorly designed, even for 1976."
659."
That's a masterpiece in comparison.
Interesting that the standing figures appear to be armed. It seems Lego had not quite formulated their gun rules (which have always been a bit hazy) at this time.
@Maxbricks14 said:
" @PurpleDave said:
" @Maxbricks14 said:
"This set is poorly designed, even for 1976."
659."
That's a masterpiece in comparison."
I have to assume you've never built it, then. Besides the awkward three-wheeled design, not that it has a forward-mounted tiller to steer with.
Oh to have so much articulation in the arms and then stiff, immovable legs, what irony
Some little kid once said:
"When I grow up I want to be a police motorcycle!"
Would the guy himself know where his body stops and the bike starts?
In a parallel world Lego never created minifgs but sticked to these style of figurines. Now imagine the whole StarWars sest designed with modern parts but in the scale of these figures and all the characters made like that...
@PurpleDave said:
"I have to assume you've never built it, then. Besides the awkward three-wheeled design, not that it has a forward-mounted tiller to steer with."
Never seen a motorcycle with sidecar? Okay, the handebar is still weird, but hey, these guys are unarmed!
But back to the set featured this week, guess it was just an early version of these things in Japan (which I have seen used by the police!): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CeyAJsLId9c
Wow! I'd forgotten I had this set. For an 8-year-old in the 70s, it was superb!
I love that they built gun (gas canister? Flashlight? Water bottle?) holsters into their belts. One of the perks of this type of figure. Same goes for the black and white arms. It would take 42 years for minifigs to get dual moulded arm printing after this set. (I believe the Simpsons CMF line was (one of) the first instances of dual moulded arms in 2014).
They might drive your local Ridgeheart away, running with terror. But Maxifigs have some advantages compared to minifigs. Some.
I also like hoe it uses the 2x3 'Police' brick despite being out of scale with its other uses such as 420-1 Police Car. Yes, that's its actual set number for that police car. (Unless you have 611-1)
Po Po on a Moto
It's interesting how those road signs originated long before even the static minifigs in 1972/1973.
939 Flags, Trees and Road Signs
I guess this weird birdman figure from 1970 needed traffic directions : 622-2 Parcels trolley
Those must be nightsticks on their belts. The hands could certainly hold them that way. This might be a rookie initiation or we don't like snitches set...
insert obligatory “whoop whoop that’s the sound of the police” reference
@thor96 said:
"In a parallel world Lego never created minifgs but sticked to these style of figurines. Now imagine the whole StarWars sest designed with modern parts but in the scale of these figures and all the characters made like that..."
And the UCS Millennium Falcon takes up an entire room.
Terrifying.
@thor96 said:
"In a parallel world Lego never created minifgs but sticked to these style of figurines. Now imagine the whole StarWars sest designed with modern parts but in the scale of these figures and all the characters made like that..."
I've always wondered what the Star Wars line would have been like if it had been released in 1977, with the pieces that were available in 1977.
@WizardOfOss said:
"Some little kid once said:
"When I grow up I want to be a police motorcycle!"
Would the guy himself know where his body stops and the bike starts?"
He's a mo-taur cop.
"Never seen a motorcycle with sidecar?"
That's not a sidecar. It's a training wheel.
@WizardOfOss said:
"But back to the set featured this week, guess it was just an early version of these things in Japan (which I have seen used by the police!): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CeyAJsLId9c"
The very successful Honda Gyro (the vehicles in the video you linked) came out in 1982 and is still made, and was preceeded by a family of very similar three-wheelers in 1981 that weren't as successful. The basic design, however, dates back to 1970 as the BSA Ariel 3 (an utter failure that led to BSA's demise), which Honda licensed as the basis for the Gyro family.
It's hard to say if this set is meant to represent a traditional motorcycle, but built with a double wheel rear axle for stability, or if it was meant from the start to be a three-wheeler. If the latter, it probably takes inspiration from the Ariel 3, since BSA was a British company.
Got the US version of this set 192-1 back in 1977 which promptly was cannibalized for the Stop signs, 2x3 printed 'Police' bricks to build another 420-1 squad car, and the single wheel to build another 659-1 motorcycle (had a couple spare single wheels on hand).
One of the Stop signs eventually snapped off cleanly at the base. Fortunately the shaft fit nicely into the open stud of a 1x2 round brick so we could continue to utilize it mounted on a base plate. I later ended up shaving down the top of the broken base to clean it up so it could be utilized as greebling.
Those arm parts where fun to chain together to make one long serpentine device ala the service arm mounted to the front of 6901-1.
This shouts police mobility scooter to me, sort of 40 years ahead of its time...
@EvilTwin said:
"Interesting that the standing figures appear to be armed. It seems Lego had not quite formulated their gun rules (which have always been a bit hazy) at this time. "
They look like batons to me.
@kdu2814:
"Those must be nightsticks on their belts."
@Ridgeheart said:
"Monstrous. And not in the good way. Lego Elder Horrors."
Copthulhu?
@Blockwork_Orange said:
"I've always wondered what the Star Wars line would have been like if it had been released in 1977, with the pieces that were available in 1977."
That makes my imagination run. It would probably have influenced the development of the company in a severe way as well.