Random minifig of the day: ext011

I never even knew the set this guy came from was an outback set until a few years ago. I knew of the other 4, Amazon Crossing being one of my oldest and favorite sets. A bit odd how two completely identical figs spoear in the same town set. Normal for Castle and Space, but much odder for town.

So if Outback was 1997, how did this get lumped in with Extreme Team in 1998? When did Bricklink start? Is this another case like the Blacktron minifig being number 1 in Space because it's clearly the awesomest Space minifig ever, and everything in the backlog got added out of production order?

@Brickalili said:
"I love watching the TV Network, it’s where I can catch up on Sports Team "

Gooooo Sports Team!!!

I never knew that this fig reappeared in that one Extreme Team set!
I always thought that new crew was Outback exclusive (why was a news rew part of Outback again? What even wás Outback's thematic throughline outside of being vaguely desert and/or far from a city in theme?

I always liked 6553 Crisis News Crew, but it was never CLEAR if it was truly an Outback set--I don't recall ever thinking to look at the packaging in the store (doing "research" on sets you weren't buying never occurred) to me. It was always grouped with Outback sets, but Town could be weird: 6563 from the previous year was ALSO usually grouped with Outback sets, but since it predated that subtheme, it didn't REALLY belong (fit just fine, though). There were definitely catalogues or magazines where it didn't seem like a "true" Outback set.

Actually, Googling "LEGO 6553 box," it does appear there's some variation: the North American image that pops up with the part count, etc. has the Outback corner logo in the top right--the European version lacks not only the part count stuff, but also the Outback logo.

(Am I remembering right that Outback was a North American exclusive? A few mid-90s waves were: Dark Forest and Unitron being the prominent ones. If so, then 6553 really is sort "not really Outback" if it had an anomalous, separate-from-the-rest release worldwide without the Outback branding.)

Anyway, this fig isn't super odd, since he's a white 90s Town fig, with a 90s Town cap and a 90s Town head print--but I wanted him as a kid and am happy to have one, setless, copy now.

Hope he was getting hazard pay for sitting outside the helicopter without a safety harness.

I don't know why but I always thought this minifigure was so cool! I loved the Outback theme, and I wanted set 6553 as a kid but I never had it. I think it was mainly because of the helicopter. I've always loved them. One of my first ever sets was 1607. It must have made an impression on me because I had most 90s helicopter sets as a kid. I own 6553 now and its one of my favorite sets.

@TheOtherMike said:
" @Brickalili said:
"I love watching the TV Network, it’s where I can catch up on Sports Team "

Gooooo Sports Team!!!"

This RMotD must be from Bricksburg.

Almost, but not quite. Still looking for tee-vee

@ElephantKnight said:
"I never even knew the set this guy came from was an outback set until a few years ago. I knew of the other 4, Amazon Crossing being one of my oldest and favorite sets. A bit odd how two completely identical figs spoear in the same town set. Normal for Castle and Space, but much odder for town."

Not that odd, actually. Fire stations in the arly days often came with multiples of the exact same fireman, sometimes (but rarer) Police stations too.

There's also stuff like this - 6383-1 and 6645.

Outback even had one named character (though unfortunately none of the TV figures) - "Dingo Melbourne", who's this guy (and/or some minor variants of him):
https://brickset.com/minifigs/pck006/jacket-green-with-2-large-pockets-green-legs-white-cap

@Atuin said:
"Outback even had one named character (though unfortunately none of the TV figures) - "Dingo Melbourne", who's this guy (and/or some minor variants of him):
https://brickset.com/minifigs/pck006/jacket-green-with-2-large-pockets-green-legs-white-cap"

In order to get maximum use out of that one provided name--and because we had our Town figs sorted into surnames based on their headprints--my brother split that into the two sunglasses-wearing figs from 6444: i.e. one was Dingo and one was Melbourne.

@gunther_schnitzel said:
"Hope he was getting hazard pay for sitting outside the helicopter without a safety harness."

Not a problem:

https://cdn.idntimes.com/content-images/post/20200616/4-0b9ee225a796bc0c80ac140dfe6c4f45.jpg