Random set of the day: Police Motorcycle
Posted by Huwbot,
Today's random set is 5531 Police Motorcycle, released during 2005. It's one of 46 City sets produced that year. It contains 18 pieces and 1 minifig.
It's owned by 1,773 Brickset members. If you want to add it to your collection you should find it for sale at BrickLink, where new ones sell for around $41.00, or eBay.
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25 comments on this article
I've got this one. I don't know where half of it is though.
not wishing to be that guy, but-
"welll achtually, thats a- uh a tricycle motorbike"
How is there only one Bricklink seller selling this? Also, this is the middle years of what the previous two RMotDs looked like.
@Maxbricks14 said:
"I've got this one. I don't know where half of it is though."
But like 3/4 of it is just the base vehicle, so how exactly does that work?
@PurpleDave said:
" @Maxbricks14 said:
"I've got this one. I don't know where half of it is though."
But like 3/4 of it is just the base vehicle, so how exactly does that work?"
I'm missing the front half.
Sorry copper but the look of riding a beefy tricycle around is just not as cool as the imagery of riding a proper motorbike, no matter how slim the shades you wear!
I never experienced the overuse of trikes in sets when it happened (as I didn't get any of those sets and, to this day, still don't have a single trike in my collection), but I'm still happy that those days are gone!
That being said, since I really have nothing against trikes, one or two wouldn't hurt.
Does anyone know why Lego basically only had motor trikes instead of motorcycles in their sets between about 1995 and 2005? I had the 1997-ish version of this set, pretty much identical.
@Wallace_Brick_Designs said:
"How is there only one Bricklink seller selling this? Also, this is the middle years of what the previous two RMotDs looked like."
Guess it's the type of set that rather ends up in bulk lots.
@TransNeonOrangeSpaceman said:
"I never experienced the overuse of trikes in sets when it happened (as I didn't get any of those sets and, to this day, still don't have a single trike in my collection), but I'm still happy that those days are gone!
That being said, since I really have nothing against trikes, one or two wouldn't hurt. "
I wasn't around for the Tricycle Tsunami either, and I kind of regret that. This thing looks kind of awesome to me, and I'd quite like to have a few trikes scattered around my dioramas. So small, so dorky, so awesome.
Whose motorcycle is this?
- It's a trike, baby.
Whose trike is this?
- It's CTY0006's.
Who's CTY0006?
- CTY0006's dead, baby. CTY0006's dead.
@WizardOfOss said:
"Whose motorcycle is this?
- It's a trike, baby.
Whose trike is this?
- It's CTY0006's.
Who's CTY0006?
- CTY0006's dead, baby. CTY0006's dead."
Bring out the (Gimp custom built minifig)!
Somehow I feel the old Town Junior trikes feel a bit misplaced in 2005 City...
Wee-Woo... Wee-Woo... Wee-Woo...
AH! WEE-WOO! WEE-WOO! WEE-WOO!
@Worrissey said:
"not wishing to be that guy, but-
"welll achtually, thats a- uh a tricycle motorbike""
That was my first thought.
@iwybs said:
"Does anyone know why Lego basically only had motor trikes instead of motorcycles in their sets between about 1995 and 2005? I had the 1997-ish version of this set, pretty much identical."
My guess is that it was part of the juniorisation phase; the classic motorbike pieces from e.g. 6625 were very cool, but in my experience at least could be rather fragile - the one I had as a kid broke off at the front clip, even though I don't remember ever playing particularly roughly with it - so the trikes seem like they represented an overhaul of the design to have a stronger clip at the front that was intended to be attached and detached (and also allowed for the front wheel to turn), combined with making the vehicle chunkier and more stable for the younger end of the potential audience that the Town Jr years were aiming for.
Granted this *is* all just a guess, but it kinda lines up with the onset of Town Jr's very simple building philosophy, and stayed on a bit after that too, so I'd assume a correlation.
I personally didn't amass a huge collection of these trikes as a kid; I didn't really realise, in fact, just how *everywhere* they were at the time until later years. So I definitely didn't hate them; but at the same time, I can see how once you had a few they could have got boring. Three, though, I found was just about the right amount of them, especially when each was in a different colour to add to the variety! I had one in black from 2584 Biker Bob; one in yellow from 6459 Space Port Fuel Truck; and finally one in blue from 6732 Brickster's Trike.
The main problem I found with the trike piece, personally, was that the pins for the back wheels tended to pinch together, meaning that after a while the wheels just would not stay on under any circumstances; I'd always find them loose in the bottom of the drawer where I kept my still-built sets, no matter how carefully I'd put the trikes in there, and it happened with both the black and yellow trikes for me. Eventually I found that it was possible to slide the thin edge of a nail file into the slit in the wheel pins and wiggle it carefully to pry the two sides of the pin far enough apart for the wheels to attach properly again; but I feel like it wasn't great design for that to happen at all.
@ThatBionicleGuy said:
" @iwybs said:
"Does anyone know why Lego basically only had motor trikes instead of motorcycles in their sets between about 1995 and 2005? I had the 1997-ish version of this set, pretty much identical."
My guess is that it was part of the juniorisation phase; the classic motorbike pieces from e.g. 6625 were very cool, but in my experience at least could be rather fragile - the one I had as a kid broke off at the front clip, even though I don't remember ever playing particularly roughly with it - so the trikes seem like they represented an overhaul of the design to have a stronger clip at the front that was intended to be attached and detached (and also allowed for the front wheel to turn), combined with making the vehicle chunkier and more stable for the younger end of the potential audience that the Town Jr years were aiming for.
Granted this *is* all just a guess, but it kinda lines up with the onset of Town Jr's very simple building philosophy, and stayed on a bit after that too, so I'd assume a correlation.
I personally didn't amass a huge collection of these trikes as a kid; I didn't really realise, in fact, just how *everywhere* they were at the time until later years. So I definitely didn't hate them; but at the same time, I can see how once you had a few they could have got boring. Three, though, I found was just about the right amount of them, especially when each was in a different colour to add to the variety! I had one in black from 2584 Biker Bob; one in yellow from 6459 Space Port Fuel Truck; and finally one in blue from 6732 Brickster's Trike.
The main problem I found with the trike piece, personally, was that the pins for the back wheels tended to pinch together, meaning that after a while the wheels just would not stay on under any circumstances; I'd always find them loose in the bottom of the drawer where I kept my still-built sets, no matter how carefully I'd put the trikes in there, and it happened with both the black and yellow trikes for me. Eventually I found that it was possible to slide the thin edge of a nail file into the slit in the wheel pins and wiggle it carefully to pry the two sides of the pin far enough apart for the wheels to attach properly again; but I feel like it wasn't great design for that to happen at all."
Had that happen to a lot of my older wheel holder pieces (especially 4488 and 2441) but luckily never with any of the trikes. I guess it has something to do with pulling off the wheel at some bad angles.
Yes you can bend the pins back in place if you're careful, but you will still see some stress marks or even more damage.
EDIT:
To the original question:
The original motorcycle piece (introduced in 1983 to replace the somewhat clunky brick-built solutions from earlier years) got retired in 1998.
Reason 1 - Fragile: Yes, those were extremely fragile. Looking at the sheer amount of broken ones at Bricklink tells you about that. Both the handlebars and the front fork are very probelmatic. Kids trying to pull off the wheels (which was never intended) might only increase the number of broken ones.
Reason 2 - Juniorization: I assume part of the design concept behind these was to better fit in the rather blocky world of Town Junior, where the old bikes looked very tiny (=less marketable) in comparison to the vehicles.
Reason 3 - Production Costs: Keep in mind that the old Motorcycle was compromised of 6-7 single parts which were all pre-assembled at the factory somehow. Pre-assembled parts are highly expensive to make - the trike in comparison only has the main body made out of 2 pieces (in a rather simple connection too), the remaining ones basically come out finished from the molding machine.
The 2005 City motorcycles finally managed to pull it off ent
I never had any of the trike front parts, but I wound up with at least four of the backs from Star Wars and space vehicles.
There's another police trike set that's sort of identical and has a different build, but the same trike mold; however, it got canned. 4897
@Wallace_Brick_Designs said:
"How is there only one Bricklink seller selling this? Also, this is the middle years of what the previous two RMotDs looked like."
If I’m reading the BrickLink entry right, this particular set was only available in Germany, and was included in a puzzle
@Vladtheb said:
" @Wallace_Brick_Designs said:
"How is there only one Bricklink seller selling this? Also, this is the middle years of what the previous two RMotDs looked like."
If I’m reading the BrickLink entry right, this particular set was only available in Germany, and was included in a puzzle "
Said puzzle was made by Ravensburger (No. 09 157 7).
There was another City puzzle coming with a Fire Fighter set (5532).
Also available were 2 Knights' Kingdom puzzles, each coming with a loose (?) minifigure (one Jayko, the other Vladek, both with full armor, sword and shield in the 2005 version). I couldn't find any info if the figures were actually "sets" but there's a suspicious gap that would fit these two in the same range as the City sets: 5534 and 5535.
What the puzzles looked like:
Police: City diorama, focused on the 2005 Police Station (photo)
Fire: City diorama, showing burning building and some 2005 sets (photo)
Jayko: Group of the 4 "heroic" knights and King Mathias as their 2005 buildable version (drawn)
Vladek: Buildable Vladek with his army seen as shadows in the back (drawn)
Bricklink:
091577 Police
091584 Fire
091560 Jayko
091553 Vladek
Great set. Three-wheelers are really stable for little kids to vroom around on the floor.
For when you already had 7235 but still kind of wanted one.
@Atuin said:"The 2005 City motorcycles finally managed to pull it off ent"
Maximum post length ate something, there, I think.
@Maxbricks14 said:
" @PurpleDave said:
" @Maxbricks14 said:
"I've got this one. I don't know where half of it is though."
But like 3/4 of it is just the base vehicle, so how exactly does that work?"
I'm missing the front half."
"the front fell off??"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3m5qxZm_JqM
Interviewer: This ship that was involved in the incident off Western Australia this week...
Senator Collins: The one the front fell off?
Interviewer: Yeah.
Senator Collins: Yeah, that’s not very typical, I’d like to make that point.
Interviewer: Well, how was it un-typical?
Senator Collins: Well there are a lot of these ships going around the world all the time, and very seldom does anything like this happen. I just don’t want people thinking that tankers aren’t safe.
Interviewer: Was this tanker safe?
Senator Collins: Well, I was thinking more about the other ones.
Interviewer: The ones that are safe?
Senator Collins: Yeah, the ones the front doesn’t fall off.
Interviewer: Well, if this wasn’t safe, why did it have 80,000 tons of oil on it?
Senator Collins: I’m not saying it wasn’t safe, it’s just perhaps not quite as safe as some of the other ones.
Interviewer: Why?
Senator Collins: Well, some of them are built so that the front doesn’t fall off at all.
Interviewer: Wasn’t this built so that the front wouldn’t fall off?
Senator Collins: Well, obviously not.
Interviewer: How do you know?
Senator Collins: Well, because the front fell off and 20,000 tons of crude oil spilled into the sea caught fire. It’s a bit of a giveaway. I’d just like to make the point that that is not normal.
Interviewer: Well what sort of engineering standards are these oil tankers built to?
Senator Collins: Oh, very rigorous maritime engineering standards.
Interviewer: What sort of thing?
Senator Collins: Well, the front’s not supposed to fall off for a start.
Interviewer: And what other things?
Senator Collins: Well, there are regulations governing the materials they can be made of.
Interviewer: What materials?
Senator Collins: Well, cardboard’s out.
Interviewer: And?
Senator Collins: No cardboard derivatives.
Interviewer: Like paper?
Senator Collins: No paper. No string. No sellotape.
Interviewer: Rubber?
Senator Collins: No, rubber’s out. Umm, they’ve got to have a steering wheel. There’s a minimum crew requirement.
Interviewer: What’s the minimum crew?
Senator Collins: Oh, one I suppose.