Random set of the day: Fire Station
Posted by Huwbot,
Today's random set is 7240 Fire Station, released during 2005. It's one of 46 City sets produced that year. It contains 260 pieces and 3 minifigs, and its retail price was US$30/£19.99.
It's owned by 3,071 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 $79.20, or eBay.
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25 comments on this article
Stupid sticker split in half and stayed on the box they scanned for the image.
That fire pole looks even more fun to ride down on than the ones in real life!
love those shields above the entrance
90% sure someone somewhere in the castile community has army build it
Fire engine sold separately?
@Zordboy said:
"Fire engine sold separately?"
Darn budget cuts...
Some say Star Wars saved Lego. Some say Bionicle saved Lego. If you ask me, I say City saved Lego, starting in 2005.
Happy 20th anniversary last year, City! Just a plain simple modest theme that keeps chugging along without asking for recognition every five or ten years, and the last one standing of the original play themes if you consider it as the extension of Town, which in spirit it is despite the need for a relaunch and name change in 2005.
Cool set. Fun little 4-wide truck (4ish, really, with those wheels) and the old fire logo.
And following up on previous comments about this being a successor/extension of town - this is a lot like the '80s fire stations and police stations.
Looks nice for an early 2K set actually. I still prefer light blue windows to clear and darker windows.
At a glance I thought that said "Fire Skeleton" and got excited
@iwybs said:
"Some say Star Wars saved Lego. Some say Bionicle saved Lego. If you ask me, I say City saved Lego, starting in 2005."
Well, the second one is correct, at least. By 2005, the company was already saved, and City of that era (and really, World City before it) was merely the result of that process, not the instigator. And Star Wars was coming out of a two-year slump caused by the gap between Ep2 (2002) and Ep3 (2005), but people like to give it the credit it didn't earn until 2008 brought a multi-season TV series into the picture.
That ladder going to the tower isn’t an emergency in progress, it’s just like many Lego buildings there’s no actual stairs to take you to it
The 2005 City range made a lot of large leaps forward. The theme brought Town-like sets back in a big way and focussed again on the build and on the core things that had been the backbone of Town since the late 70s and early 80s, but in a sleeker, more modern way. The cheese slope debuted here, for example and the cars were full of specialized but versatile parts.
This set and the police station however, firmly had one leg in the design philosophy of years prior. In fact, compared to the coastguard HQ from World City, these two sets had more similarities to what people online called Town jr.
Most of the pillars are 1x2x5 or 1x6x5 bricks. The upper floor is made of chunky bricks (say, 4x10 or something in that size) instead of plates. The windows are from that era (especially the bay windows of the police station). And the build is split in multiple bags and modules. I recall each also had its own instruction booklet with a pamphlet to show the fully built set.
I mean, look at this: https://www.toysperiod.com/img/cache/49/0x0/d4e4o5g414f4w5w5n4z5m44426a4k4l4y5v2b4w294v2u23413y2z3j4l4f4s2u204q2.jpg
That said, this does use the new car build. The figs are modernised and it notably used stickers again. IIRC the shields are stickers, as is the logo. The 32L axle existed since the NHL hockey sets from Sports (they were also used in 7257 Ultimate Lightsaber Duel) but its use here was novel and I'm not sure if something like that would have been attempted in a set from the dawn of the 2000s.
City was like that for awhile but around 2008 it became more refined and less dependant on the larger parts. As it has been for the 5+ age range since the start, it had to carefully walk this line and I think they did well.
That said, City has come a long way in the 21 years it had existed. So it's fun to see where it had come from with this set.
I genuinly had a nightmare about this set as a kid. In the dream i got this set for christmas, built it, and it was TINY. And i was incredibly sad and dissapointed.
Oh I have this one. It's the only fire station I've ever had so I can't compare it to the others, but I liked it very much. I liked every building set I had (there weren't many) because they provided anchors to my little lego world, they grounded the scenery for the stories to play out, especially thanks to the baseplates that these buildings had during that time.
Nowadays, buildings without baseplates just don't have the same appeal.
There were better and prettier fire stations. before and after, but also worse. Here, you get almost everything a fire station needs, except a proper fire truck. Still, for 30 bucks, this is pretty good deal.
Not the worst Fire Station, but I prefer the ones I have (6382 and 6389).
7240 walked so that 7945 could run.
Still a little vibe of the 90s in these mid-00s sets.
@Binnekamp said:
"The 2005 City range made a lot of large leaps forward. The theme brought Town-like sets back in a big way and focussed again on the build and on the core things that had been the backbone of Town since the late 70s and early 80s, but in a sleeker, more modern way. The cheese slope debuted here, for example and the cars were full of specialized but versatile parts."
The cheese slope was introduced the year before in 10133.
Always wondered what the 1st (or 2nd) level with no windows was for? Probably the lowest priced modern era fire station ever, they managed to do a lot with 260 pieces. The fire truck and helicopter could be purchased separately, or in a combined pack 65777 (always found these had really limited availability though).
My first lego fire station, I remember getting this back in 2006, had a different keyboard print to what is used today.
@Zordboy said:
"Fire engine sold separately?"
Tbh focusing on the building instead of a giant fire truck is a good thing, and they started doing that again since 2019 (2024 even has 2 garages again despite just 1 truck)
2016 and prior of course had bigger buildings and more vehicles but relatively also cost more.
I know 2019 and 2022 had the biggest fire trucks in expensive sets with burning buildings but I think that format still works as playset with something tall to play with. And 2021 and 2023 "in-between" years still sold large command trucks.
60320 Fire Station still had a truck and helicopter but also came with a suggestion you could link multiple garages with technic pin system.
@PurpleDave said:
" @Binnekamp said:
"The 2005 City range made a lot of large leaps forward. The theme brought Town-like sets back in a big way and focussed again on the build and on the core things that had been the backbone of Town since the late 70s and early 80s, but in a sleeker, more modern way. The cheese slope debuted here, for example and the cars were full of specialized but versatile parts."
The cheese slope was introduced the year before in 10133."
I was today's years old. I had no idea the BNSF was from 2004.
@Maxbricks14 said:
"That fire pole looks even more fun to ride down on than the ones in real life!"
60110's pole would either be more fun as you corkscrewed down it, or make you sick for the same reason.
@LadBloke said:"I genuinly had a nightmare about this set as a kid. In the dream i got this set for christmas, built it, and it was TINY. And i was incredibly sad and dissapointed."
I had a Lego dream where the disappointment didn't come in the dream, it came when I woke up and realized that it wasn't real. I dreamed about reading a Brickset review of a Technic set (it was something like 42181), and the review featured reintroduced Technic figures.
@TheOtherMike said:
" @Maxbricks14 said:
"That fire pole looks even more fun to ride down on than the ones in real life!"
60110 's pole would either be more fun as you corkscrewed down it, or make you sick for the same reason.
@LadBloke said:"I genuinly had a nightmare about this set as a kid. In the dream i got this set for christmas, built it, and it was TINY. And i was incredibly sad and dissapointed."
I had a Lego dream where the disappointment didn't come in the dream, it came when I woke up and realized that it wasn't real. I dreamed about reading a Brickset review of a Technic set (it was something like 42181 ), and the review featured reintroduced Technic figures."
I once had a dream in 2013 or so where I walked into the Lego store (actually, maybe it was ToysRUs?) and there was an entire half aisle of trains and train-adjacent LEGO sets. The other half of that aisle was brand-new Adventurers (they were in the Antarctic looking at some lost civilization) and Bionicle. I woke up when I got to the register with both arms full of sets... I was very sad / disappointed when I realized it was a dream. I wish I could remember enough to replicate those amazing designs...