And another collection completed: https://brickset.com/article/37063
Honestly, it doesn't even really feel like they're the same set despite just being a color swap, but Brickset says it's so, so I guess it is.

I've seen proper minifigures with stickers (in fact I have two, https://www.bricklink.com/v2/catalog/catalogitem.page?M=sp065&T=I and https://www.bricklink.com/v2/catalog/catalogitem.page?M=gen156s&T=I), but I think this is the first time I've seen pre-minifigs with stickers. I like the use of jet engines as pontoons.

So that smaller little vehicle looks kinda like a jet that rides on the water. A waterjet, if you will.

I thought that was such a cool set when I was a kiddo. I've never seen it in any store though. It has all sorts of cool (juniorized ;-) ) parts for the time.

I just realized that this has no less than four of those two-bladed propeller pieces.

@MCLegoboy said:
"And another collection completed: https://brickset.com/article/37063
Honestly, it doesn't even really feel like they're the same set despite just being a color swap, but Brickset says it's so, so I guess it is."

Is this the first both random AND vintage set?

I remember it from the catalog when I was about 10. I didn't have it but I liked it.

LEGO Coast Guard is coming back!

Awesome set! Gotta love how it even has both the tow ball pieces, but using both for completely different purposes. Old school NPU!

@MCLegoboy said:
"And another collection completed: https://brickset.com/article/37063
Honestly, it doesn't even really feel like they're the same set despite just being a color swap, but Brickset says it's so, so I guess it is."

They look like the same set to me, adjusting for the changes made for the different figures.

@Norikins said:"Is this the first both random AND vintage set?"

Looks like!

Nostalgia bomb! My very first ‘minifig’ set… it felt like a huge set at the time, and I played the heck out of it.

When you spin the helicopter's main rotor too fast - or assymmetric - you would knock off the pilot's cap (resp. head).

- Does not float.
- Inverted slopes were pretty new.
- Those large black plates were much more useful for railway cars.
- Wrong height to dock the floating boat hulls (312-3, ...).

One of (if not the only) few sets to come as both a minifig and protofig ("Stage Extra") version.

Probably just a coincident in this case without deeper meaning - the set got released 1 year later in the US, putting it already in the minifig age.

I think there were some minor alterations to the vehicles as well, so they could fit the new figures. Still looks more fitted to the original protofigs than modern minifigs.

Also, was this the first set with a blue baseplate? Only counting "real" (thin) baseplates of cause.

@AustinPowers said:
"A complete (and sizeable) station building - plus three swooshable vehicles, and five proto-minifigs.

275 pieces

Let that sink in.

Versus 77254, to name but one current Speed Champions vehicle - 339 pieces for one small car plus 1 minifig. "

Or this year's City bulldozer, which has more pieces than all the 1981 Town vehicles combined...

Forget the coast guard, someone call the police on that illegal towball plate connection!! And also maybe on that small craft, for it might be a bastard child of the other two machines.

@AustinPowers said:
"A complete (and sizeable) station building - plus three swooshable vehicles, and five proto-minifigs.

275 pieces

Let that sink in.

Versus 77254, to name but one current Speed Champions vehicle - 339 pieces for one small car plus 1 minifig. "

Yes, yes, we know. They tried to do far too much with way too few pieces, and it shows.

The later version with the white vehicles and “faced” minifigs, was the first set I remember having.

@PurpleDave said:
" @AustinPowers said:
"A complete (and sizeable) station building - plus three swooshable vehicles, and five proto-minifigs.

275 pieces

Let that sink in.

Versus 77254, to name but one current Speed Champions vehicle - 339 pieces for one small car plus 1 minifig. "

Yes, yes, we know. They tried to do far too much with way too few pieces, and it shows."
It doesn't. It shows that you don't need tons of useless 1x1s to achieve a result that is both fun to play with as well as stylistically cohesive with the medium used.

Modern sets like the Speed Champions try to achieve a scale model look with LEGO pieces - and fail miserably, because if you want a scale model of something, anything, you simply buy a scale model. LEGO can never achieve this, unless they go the Cobi route and use even more specialized pieces.
Even worse when they try to use Technic to achieve scale model results, because that medium lends itself even less for said purpose.

LEGO is best and has always been best when they acknowledge what they are and have and make the best of it. Pretending to be something they are not has never been their strength.

This was my first ever set! Still have the baseplate with the white dots on it somewhere (so you would know where the struts attach).

By today's standards it's unbelievably simplistic and bare bones (even if it's stylistically cohesive with the medium used) but it generated so many stories (until Space came along and blew it out of the water, so to speak).

@AustinPowers said:
"Modern sets like the Speed Champions try to achieve a scale model look with LEGO pieces - and fail miserably, because if you want a scale model of something, anything, you simply buy a scale model. LEGO can never achieve this, unless they go the Cobi route and use even more specialized pieces."

6-wide, minifig-scale Mater, 378pcs, looks awesome, looks accurate, and always gets tons of comments at shows. But what would I know? I’ve barely done 200 public exhibits.

"Doug? Doug, I like your jetski, but how are you sitting down?"
"I, I think I'm in trouble, Frank. I should not have sliced myself in twain just so I could appear to be in a seated position. I may need a hand."
"Doug, we don't have hands, don't you see?"
"FRANK, WE DON'T HAVE -EYES-, HOW -CAN- I SEE?!"
"HOW ARE WE EVEN SAYING OR HEARING THIS?!"

One of my first sets - a true legend!

It moved me to tears when I found a MISB copy with the cellophane wrap still intact on a shelf some years ago.

@PurpleDave said:
" @AustinPowers said:
"Modern sets like the Speed Champions try to achieve a scale model look with LEGO pieces - and fail miserably, because if you want a scale model of something, anything, you simply buy a scale model. LEGO can never achieve this, unless they go the Cobi route and use even more specialized pieces."

6-wide, minifig-scale Mater, 378pcs, looks awesome, looks accurate, and always gets tons of comments at shows. But what would I know? I’ve barely done 200 public exhibits."
I've never done exhibits, never been to one, and never intend to visit one anyway since there are none in our area. And I certainly won't drive hundreds of kilometers just to visit one in a place like Hamburg or Berlin or wherever else.

as 575 it's one of my favorite sets, many happy play memories!

Nowadays we sometimes hear the expression "bending yourself backward" to get a favor or something. But that's nothing, in the mid-70s you had to split yourself in half just to sit. Using a wheelbarrow 550-2 was even more gruesome, you had to wedge a plank in between your torso and legs.

This set has crude 'snot' technique to hold the ladder in place. Incidentally, 550-2 also uses snot technique for the windmill fans. The 1x4x1 fence was one of the very first piece (aside from the wheels) to do snot technique back in those days. Surprisingly, it is not often used for that purpose nowadays. A 1x2x1 fence would be quite useful.

For some reason we had two of these. I rebuild it a lot. It was such a cool set to play with and to build. The only flaw was the small building with small doors which wasn’t really playable

Never had, yet sotta had...I got the shortly released after minifig version one (Canadian version natch), and...it's funny see how: The Platform looks pretty well the same, the vehicles are generally the same (different colors and slight reconfiguration...ironic wording, to allow the new seating...), but otherwise...has Lego ever just rereleased a set with little-to-no changes...(and yes I KNOW the minifig was a BIIIIIG change.):)

@brick_r said:
"Never had, yet sotta had...I got the shortly released after minifig version one (Canadian version natch), and...it's funny see how: The Platform looks pretty well the same, the vehicles are generally the same (different colors and slight reconfiguration...ironic wording, to allow the new seating...), but otherwise...has Lego ever just rereleased a set with little-to-no changes...(and yes I KNOW the minifig was a BIIIIIG change.):)"

Legends. The Apollo moon rocket and Ship-In-A-Bottle. Taj Mahal.

@PurpleDave said:
" @brick_r said:
"Never had, yet sotta had...I got the shortly released after minifig version one (Canadian version natch), and...it's funny see how: The Platform looks pretty well the same, the vehicles are generally the same (different colors and slight reconfiguration...ironic wording, to allow the new seating...), but otherwise...has Lego ever just rereleased a set with little-to-no changes...(and yes I KNOW the minifig was a BIIIIIG change.):)"

Legends. The Apollo moon rocket and Ship-In-A-Bottle. Taj Mahal."

Among others: https://brickset.com/sets/tag-Rereleased-Sets

@TheOtherMike said:
" @PurpleDave said:
" @brick_r said:
"Never had, yet sotta had...I got the shortly released after minifig version one (Canadian version natch), and...it's funny see how: The Platform looks pretty well the same, the vehicles are generally the same (different colors and slight reconfiguration...ironic wording, to allow the new seating...), but otherwise...has Lego ever just rereleased a set with little-to-no changes...(and yes I KNOW the minifig was a BIIIIIG change.):)"

Legends. The Apollo moon rocket and Ship-In-A-Bottle. Taj Mahal."

Among others: https://brickset.com/sets/tag-Rereleased-Sets"

I wouldn't count 10231 in that category. 10213 had a stack that was so fragile they had to issue a patch kit that you could use to rebuild parts of it. The second set had a third design for the stack, so it was modified quite a bit from the previous version.