Classic LEGO Sets: Car and bike repair
Posted by Huw,
Here's another article on classic Town sets written by Matthew, The Toymaker:
A few months ago, we looked at Classic LEGO Town Shell sets with its numerous iterations of filling stations, tow trucks and fuel tankers. Whilst Shell was undoubtedly the largest corporation in Classic Town, their dominance didn’t stop a burgeoning cottage industry in car and bike repair springing up to service the large number of vehicles driven by the citizenry.
6363: Auto Repair Shop
Released in 1980, this mechanic’s garage featured a roofed workshop, a kiosk for the single mechanic – both in blue with yellow detailing – and a yellow breakdown truck. The workshop provided a good range of tools and used a minifigure seat as a hoist – a building technique I have rarely seen used since. Alongside the simultaneously released 6364 Medical Centre, the pair were perhaps the first genuinely modern buildings in Classic Town. Previous offerings between 1978 and 1980 were still in the transitional phase with non minifigure scale vehicles.
Expect to pay around £10 on Ebay.
1590: Breakdown Assistance
Of course as Classic Town expanded, it was no use just having a local garage to service your vehicle. Minifigures were travelling far and wide thanks to a proliferation in the number of baseplates. Despite the undoubted quality of LEGO production, sometimes vehicles do break down and therefore it was useful to have a recovery service. Sadly, only Dutch Lego collectors were able to benefit from the release of 1590, a limited edition with ANWB. It offered a workshop similar to 6363 (including chair hoist), a low-loader, a red car and an emergency vehicle. It also offered a very spacious telephone box so the poor motorist, whose vehicle was blocking a very awkward junction, could summon help.
This set has not sold on Ebay in recent months.
6373: Bike Shop & 6655: Car with Jack
The motorcycle enthusiasts were very well served in 1984 with this highly impressive offering. The set was remarkably spacious with a large showroom accessed through double doors and a side room for the mechanic to conduct his admin. A solitary customer perused the vehicles on display which included three of the newish (1983 released) motorbikes in yellow, blue and red – the latter with a sidecar. Additionally, a number of motorbike helmets were also for sale. The exterior of the building really looked the part: the yellow brickwork offset by red detailing and a black roof on which proudly fluttered four flags and a large shop sign – with a fairly tragic application of STAMPs.
Also released this year was 6655 Car with Jack. This was notable for a couple of reasons: firstly it saw the introduction of genuinely removable wheels thanks to a new connection system that did away with the metal rod; it also launched the new blue car jack, which meant in the UK the set was known as “Car with Jack” – although I always used to call the minifigure Dave.
Expect to pay over £30 for the Bike Shop but 6655 for less than £5.
6369: Auto Workshop & 6656: Breakdown Truck
The following year saw the release of a car repair double bill: 6369 Auto Workshop and 6656 Breakdown Truck. 6369 was a clear successor to the now discontinued 6363 but this time in red with sliding doors. The lone standard-issue mechanic had a small white open top car to fix up with the help of a hammer, spanner and jack. Adjacent to his workshop, a small desk, chair and telephone filled the reception.
Accompanying this, and possibly driven by the mechanic’s brother, was a neat little blue breakdown truck. Thanks to the recently introduced hinged plates, this had an angled red tow hook. It also made good use of two different types of “bar” to create an effective rig on the rear of the vehicle.
6369 fetches between £15 and £20 on Ebay whilst 6656 will set you back by around £5.
1966: Car Repair Shop & 1572: Super Tow Truck
The same year saw a very impressive Car Repair Shop released as a special edition in the Netherlands and Germany. This was on a 32x32 grey baseplate and provided a workshop, retail space, two minifigures and a low-loader lorry with triple-axle flatbed. Perhaps the main disappointment was the three vehicles were scarcely “cars”, being more akin to the 1981-released 6609: Race Car/Beach Buggy.
These puny vehicles certainly had no need for the next special edition 1572 Super Tow Truck which appeared in 1986. This chunky-looking set-up oozed macho Americana with its big wheels, powerful headlights, heavy grill and twin exhaust uptakes. Although Brickset lists this as a US-only release, I bought it in Woolworths in Lymington that year … it’s always been special and not just due to the 1xxx designation – it’s probably the best of all the Classic Town tow trucks.
1566 has not sold recently, but 1572 can be purchased from the USA for around £15.
6699: Bike Shop
In 1987, 6373 was retired and replaced with an altogether inferior Bike Shop that nonetheless tried to achieve a similar design treatment. Despite the lower piece count and associated price point, the smaller set still packed a punch with two minifigures, two motorbikes and now also selling a pedal bike. Both the open workshop and retail area were rather cramped. It was the second time that LEGO had introduced an inferior set in lieu of an outgoing classic: 1985’s 6689 was a manifestly poorer Post Office than the original 6362 in 1982. Big buildings clearly weren’t selling in the numbers needed to grow and enhance Classic Town !
This set sells for between £10 and £20 on Ebay.
1489: Car Breakdown Crane
If 1572 was powerful and impressive, 1489 (which arrived in 1989) was a definite case of overkill. This time, the female motorist whose vehicle had succumbed was collected by an almighty blue and yellow crane with vast wheels and a clanging metal hook. Exactly what happened to the vehicle once this behemoth arrived was unknown: the set appeared to lack anything as sophisticated as a spanner, neither was there anywhere for the recalcitrant vehicle to go, other than a connector allowing it to dangle behind the crane on its way to one of the above garages. Perhaps this is what happens in the US where the set was released?
Not a very common set at all, but one did sell for £10 in the UK in the last few months, so you may be lucky.
2140: Roadside Recovery Van and Tow Truck
As the Classic Town era drew to a close in the late 1990s, there was one further release, again by ANWB who re-imagined 1590. The set once again had a small workshop, a low loader, broken down vehicle and emergency vehicle. Both the latter were built on the 4x10 vehicle chassis which by this stage was somewhat becoming obsolete. The set had three minifigures, a wide variety of tools and road signs plus a phone box.
Car breakdown and recovery is something of an evergreen sub-theme for Classic Town as well as the more modern LEGO City. It is fascinating to see firstly how much the sets have evolved stylistically over the years but also how the fundamental basics of the genre have remained the same. There were a lot of limited edition sets that unfortunately many readers are probably unfamiliar with and unlikely to become so given their rarity on Ebay.
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21 comments on this article
Ah yes! 6656 the blue breakdown truck, that takes me back. I built a special bay in my fire station for this as he was needed for removing car wreckage after the firemen had finished. Always yearned for the 6373 bike shop.
This is another excellent article on the classics. Thanks for writing it up!
I guess my 1st LEGO addiction ended before 1984. I've never tried to put a date on it before, but these articles are making more obvious each time :-O
I only had the first of these sets. I remember also being in awe of using a chair as a hoist (and there's a word you rarely see).
6656 was also one of my first sets. It's still on my shelf.
I'm guessing that 1489 is used to removed wrecked cars... but that probably isn't very child-friendly, so we have a smiling driver instead.
I saw 2140 boxed in an (unofficial) Lego store about a year ago.
Not much useful information, but it's some type of contribution to this subject.
1590 and 1966 were awesome sets that really got me hooked on LEGO. My grandpa got me the 1590 ANWB-set for Sinterklaas, and my mother collected barcodes from UNOX sausage spread in order to buy me 1966 for my birthday. If I remember correctly they came out a year or two apart, but I was 5-6-ish at the time and might be wrong. Anyway, awesome article! I really love these nostalgiapieces!
The 1590 is declined on a second version:
1589-2: Breakdown Assistance, Touring Club Schweiz Edition
This set is also a promotional version but for Switzerland
Another great article!!
Had the 6373 motorcycle shop when growing up along with 6655 and 6656
Then later got most of the others when trying to complete my classic town collection.
Despite the STAMP sticker it was an awesome set with lots of play potential in it. It is a shame LEGO does not really make such city sets anymore.
I do not have any of the ANWB sets, but thanks to a fellow selling repro stickers on eBay I can bricklink those now.
I also think 6674 is a pretty good tow truck (not as good as the one in 'big rig truck stop but still decent)
I will have to force myself to stop reading these "CLASSIC SETS". They are starting to get persuading... ;-) Oh well, nice to see the little details of the sets! Great, as always. :-)
Coolness. That last tow truck looks like the original version of this year's blue truck, only it's very beefy next to the cars of its time.
I used to have one of those motorcycles-- however, it snapped into three pieces a few years back. That was certainly more scaled to minifigs than such monstrous motors as the mold used in 60000-1.
Love the last crane-- it seems like the original 'XXL Mobile Crane' from the '05 CITY lineup. That set always had something for me, I don't know why...
And I'll end with this remark: Sets were getting inferior remakes 25 years ago? We do live in the modern age, nothing we can do about it... not until I get my time machine up and running, that is...
I too got 1572 in the UK on its release. Such a handsome set. Still boxed and ready for the layout along with several of these others... when I have room again!
I'm starting to think I was born at an even more fortunate time than I ever realised. I know what entertainment was before computer games and 24 hour TV, but I was young enough when they developed to be fluent in and unphased by such things. And now I find that my first ever Lego sets were practically the 2nd generation of modern Lego sets and the forerunners of today's themes - I had the yellow bike shop and the red mechanic's shop with the rolling shutters! Good times!
(I'm also thinking my parents must have bought them in advance for me as I was only 1 when the bike shop came out, though I suppose it must have been available for a while.)
Yes, in the United States, it is quite common for mobile cranes to be used in the extrication of automobiles from accident sites. This is especially the case out in the Rockies, where even the Interstate system is plagued by ravines and deep gulleys, and motorists are constantly falling into them.
It's thus a little bit odd that LEGO used a picture of a flat road surface for the box of 1489. Perhaps they were thinking of accidents in New York, where mobile cranes are routinely "borrowed" by the police from construction sites to assist in clearing accidents at large intersections.
Ha, the first in this series where I can say I had the first set mentioned: 6363. And 6655, 6369 and 6656, the latter of which were the last sets before I entered my "dark ages".
^^ Interesting comment, @peterlmorris - thanks for the info. I suspected I was missing something ...
Thanks for the lovely review!
Oh how I wish Lego would look back in time and bring out city stuff like this ie vehicles with buildings more frequently. Wonder how much a set like 1590 would retail today
Ah, childhood memories (6363, 1590, 6369, 6655 and 6656) :) My parents gave me set 1590 as a Sinterklaas present back in 1982. Years later I found out that the red car of this set was the very first of many similar designs in the 1980s.
Beautifully! Nice review. I have several of these sets - 6363, 6655, 6369, 6656,1572, 6699, 1489. But from childhood I remember only 6655. In Poland in 80's we hadn't much more of them. I admit that it required a lot of patience. I love old town sets.
I paid only 35 EUR for 1966 (Lego Ebay Shop) and 45 EUR for 1590 (Dutch Bricklink Shop). By accident I found 1489 as ebay auction, I paid 20 EUR for this set. All of these sets are hard to find (especially on ebay).
Ah 6655...my second LEGO set ever. A true classic and a personal favorite. As for the Mobile Car Crane, I guess the fact it is lifting a woman's car is a bit odd. But the crane itself I thought was great.
Loved the 6363 as a kid; that set got almost as much play time as my beloved Classic Space 6861 and 6870...It probably helped that this was my only set with a wrench/spanner at the time! Still have it today.