Vintage set of the week: Gravel Depot
Posted by Huwbot,
This week's vintage set is 351 Gravel Depot, released during 1971. It's one of 27 LEGOLAND sets produced that year. It contains 170 pieces.
It's owned by 512 Brickset members. If you want to add it to your collection you might find it for sale at BrickLink or eBay.
71 likes
21 comments on this article
Very charming.
This set rocks
Really nice little set. Conveyor belt, conveyor belt, CONVEYOR BELT!!!
Wow, I love this set. Petition to bring back the MINE City subtheme and include a revival of this.
Wow, the Tiny Turbos theme is older than I am.
We must feed him gravel!
@MCLegoboy said:
"This set rocks"
If you took it for granite, I'd give you schist. But you expressed a gneiss sediment.
Great little set. Got it boxed. £2.20 in 1971, equivalent to £27.72 today with inflation. So pleased that current Lego is actually cheaper in real terms!
My very first set. I got it for my sixth birthday in 1972. Didn't even know what LEGO was until that day. Conveyer belt is long gone. Also lost the black 1x4 with LEGOLAND on it, it felt through a crack in the floor in the house I grew up, I am sure it is still there after 52 years. Got many more sets after this set, until my last set in 8860, then the dark ages started.
One of my early, but certainly not my earliest, sets. Fairly simple build, but so much playability because, for the time, it was a much more dynamic LEGO set than most. Certainly, there were some train sets available, but their pricing was a greater hurdle than this set. For those old souls that complain about LEGO having too many custom parts these days, please check out that fabulous conveyor belt from 54 years ago.
Just what every kid wants, a gravel depot! :)
Where Lego sends your money.
@TheOtherMike said:
" @MCLegoboy said:
"This set rocks"
If you took it for granite, I'd give you schist. But you expressed a gneiss sediment."
Perhaps we’ll coal it even then, wouldn’t want you having to slate anyone now would we?
Dirt dump.
Oddly, the photo here has the conveyor belt on the right, while the building instructions at Peeron have it on the left.
"LEGO was better in the 70s, when there were no specialised parts!"
The only truth to that, I think, is that there WERE specialised parts in the 70s, but they tended to be the ones that broke and that didn't survive into later eras.
In other words, that conveyor looks like it's probably breakable.
@SDlgo9 said:
"Oddly, the photo here has the conveyor belt on the right, while the building instructions at Peeron have it on the left."
It may be the first ambidextrous LEGO set! Wow LEGO was inclusive long before it became the norm!
@Blockwork_Orange said:
" @SDlgo9 said:
"Oddly, the photo here has the conveyor belt on the right, while the building instructions at Peeron have it on the left."
It may be the first ambidextrous LEGO set! Wow LEGO was inclusive long before it became the norm!"
Either that, or one of these set versions is from the mirror dimension... but which one?
@Brickalili said:" @TheOtherMike said: " @MCLegoboy said:"This set rocks"
If you took it for granite, I'd give you schist. But you expressed a gneiss sediment."
Perhaps we’ll coal it even then, wouldn’t want you having to slate anyone now would we?"
You're right, I should go back in my shale.
@Formendacil said:""LEGO was better in the 70s, when there were no specialised parts!"
The only truth to that, I think, is that there WERE specialised parts in the 70s, but they tended to be the ones that broke and that didn't survive into later eras.
In other words, that conveyor looks like it's probably breakable."
As soon as I saw that conveyer belt, I thought of this article: https://www.newelementary.com/2014/08/when-lego-was-never-just-bricks.html
@Murdoch17 said:
" @Blockwork_Orange said:
" @SDlgo9 said:
"Oddly, the photo here has the conveyor belt on the right, while the building instructions at Peeron have it on the left."
It may be the first ambidextrous LEGO set! Wow LEGO was inclusive long before it became the norm!"
Either that, or one of these set versions is from the mirror dimension... but which one?"
Does either one have a goatee?
@Formendacil said:
""LEGO was better in the 70s, when there were no specialised parts!"
The only truth to that, I think, is that there WERE specialised parts in the 70s, but they tended to be the ones that broke and that didn't survive into later eras.
In other words, that conveyor looks like it's probably breakable."
Found one a few weeks ago in a multi-generational bin I bought from Northern Ontario. Not even a stress mark on it and cranks like the day it was made. Even the rubber is still pliable. The bin has the rest of the set in it as well, including the granular tree, but I haven't reconstituted everything yet. Some kids took care of their stuff!
Oh man, I've always wanted a gravel depot!
Seriously though it would be a cool set in a construction subtheme of Town/City rather than a 20th rendition of diggers and street cleaners.