Just looked the instructions up on Peeron, and was rather disappointed to discover that the car has nothing under the hood. There's room for it; they could have stuck a couple of black 1x1 round plates under there.

I built my LEGO Store ten years ago, and today was the first time I heard someone refer to it as a “fire station”, but another member of my LUG says he’s been hearing those comments for years. Apparently those are the only buildings that are allowed to be red.

Adorable! A set exactly as old as me! I love the simple look (and very studdy feel) of these retro sets. Would love to own it but I'll happily build with the instructions instead. The minifigs are cool too.

May have been much simpler but I still much prefer the 347-1 Fire-Station that I got for Christmas more than 10 years before. Who needed minifigs when you had trolls and imagination!

I got this one in a used lot!

*Checks again*

No, wait, I got one very similar. *Shrugs*

Got this one put together in our Old Town collection. Nothing fancy by today's standards, but enough for the imagination. Quite fancy with the skylights by the classic standards.

Been on my bucket list of desired sets for years. Maybe I'll try to find a nice copy with the box.

@scottd said:
" @TheOtherMike said:
"Just looked the instructions up on Peeron, and was rather disappointed to discover that the car has nothing under the hood. There's room for it; they could have stuck a couple of black 1x1 round plates under there."

Bit difficult as they weren't around for another 10 years."

That doesn't seem quite right...just look at the 1980 Train line-up: almost all use studs for the headlights. That said, seems like before 1985 they only did transparant colors.

EDIT: I'm too slow....

@paulvdb said:
" @scottd said:
" @TheOtherMike said:
"Just looked the instructions up on Peeron, and was rather disappointed to discover that the car has nothing under the hood. There's room for it; they could have stuck a couple of black 1x1 round plates under there."

Bit difficult as they weren't around for another 10 years."

That's not true. They were introduced in the 12V train sets from 1980 but only in transparant colors. In 1985 they also got solid colors.

I remember that this was the first set with the garage door rollers. Was it also the first red fire station? I also had the yellow one from 1978 that was the first fire station with minifigures."

It was the first red fire station in Europe, the second in America. The first minifig station came in a yellow variant 374 for Europe and in a red variant 590 across the Atlantic

Very natty waistcoat that pigtails in the middle is wearing there; that make her the fire chief?

I think this was just about my earliest “big” set after 6372 but the only part of it that’s still assembled is where that sticker is across multiple bricks and the large red plate.

It stayed in the catalogue a few years, the 6385 replacement didn’t seem to bring much more to the party.

I remember I bought this set together with the blue house way back in the early 80s. I mod them to death! Hahaha! I think I still have that baseplate.

I had this set as a kid, unfortunately I lost a few bits (mainly the door rollers) and gave it and most of my other Lego to my nephew in my dark ages....

This is a reply to PurpleDave's message above, for some reason it hasn't linked to it even though I did press reply!

Anyway....

Only fire stations allowed to be red you say?

https://brickset.com/sets/361-2/Garage , https://brickset.com/sets/379-1/Bus-Station and https://brickset.com/sets/560-1/Town-House say different!

@cm5878 said:
"I think this was just about my earliest “big” set after 6372 but the only part of it that’s still assembled is where that sticker is across multiple bricks and the large red plate.

It stayed in the catalogue a few years, the 6385 replacement didn’t seem to bring much more to the party. "

I don't know, 6385 has those cool angled-out windows. Other than that, though, yeah, not a lot of improvement.

Oh, the LEGO fire station of my infantry. Still have it assembled.
I've a nostalgic link with it.

Later stations got better I think, but this one is also charming. No modern stuff for me though, I cannot fit fire trucks bigger than the whole town.

@Calabar said:
"Oh, the LEGO fire station of my infantry. Still have it assembled.
I've a nostalgic link with it. "

You keep an army in there?

Found this in box, in a charity shop once. Almost complete. Classic Lego building experience.

@Maxbricks14 said:
"Still easily a contender for the best ever Lego fire station after all these years."

Seconded.

Makes me wonder why they don't re-release sets such as these, just as they are: without their having to be 'modernised' necessarily.

Would beat having to pay $954.60 in the after-market, although I wouldn't put it past them to stick that price onto it...

I still have this one on display and somewhere in "the archives" iare the original instructions and receipt as well. Too bad I didn't keep the box.

@jason1976 said:
"This is a reply to PurpleDave's message above, for some reason it hasn't linked to it even though I did press reply!"

Yeah, I've found that before; if I've put something in the comment box - even if I've then either posted it or deleted it - I find that the reply buttons won't work correctly after that; I have to reload the article (by actually clicking the link to it again; just refreshing the page won't help, in my experience) for it to work like normal again.

This, together with 381-2, formed the core of my childhood's Lego city. Which probably mostly means that I am old... :) The roller doors have been a great feature, even if I remember that childhood me had some troubles occasionally putting them together.

¿Es tan complicado que lego vuelva a sacar una serie de juegos nostálgicos con este tipo de construcción?. Es decir, ladrillos + tejados + puertas y ventanas retro + placa base. ¡Ah!, y la vuelta de la hoja de palmera y las flores y árboles de la vieja escuela...

@GLS468V said:
" @Maxbricks14 said:
"Still easily a contender for the best ever Lego fire station after all these years."

Seconded.

Makes me wonder why they don't re-release sets such as these, just as they are: without their having to be 'modernised' necessarily.

Would beat having to pay $954.60 in the after-market, although I wouldn't put it past them to stick that price onto it..."

One reason they couldn't re-release this set as is is all the molds it used that Lego doesn't have anymore. The window frames and panels, the flower stems and the flowers that attach to them, the tree, the ladder, the hinge piece the ladder is mounted on, I could go on...

@Brickalili said:
"Very natty waistcoat that pigtails in the middle is wearing there; that make her the fire chief?"

You say "she might be the firechief", I say "he might well be Busta Rhymes". Fire it up! (Fire it up!)

@jason1976 said:
"Only fire stations allowed to be red you say?"

That seems to be what some people think. It's a 16:1 red 2x4 brick with a giant LEGO logo mounted on a pole in front of it! It's only slightly more subtle than clubbing people upside the head and shouting, "Look, it's a LEGO Store!"

@GLS468V said:
"Makes me wonder why they don't re-release sets such as these, just as they are: without their having to be 'modernised' necessarily."

For the enirely simple reason that they don't sell. They tried it with the Legends theme. Just look at the ownership numbers on these:

https://brickset.com/sets/tag-Legends

They only sell to a certain class of AFOL. To any AFOL who already owned the original, these didn't hold much appeal. To any AFOL who didn't own the original but wanted to, they often still ended up low enough on the priority list that they ended up buying something else instead. To anyone who was born too late to have seen the originals, they didn't hold a candle to modern sets. If it was tied to a specific theme, nostalgia was probably the main driver of interest. Neither 10497 nor 10355 sold well. BDP sets are the one exception, but those sets are produced in incredibly low numbers compared to general retail sets. Boutique releases can sell a few thousand units and be considered a smash success, while a retail set that moves ten times as many units would be considered an unmitigated disaster.

@ThatBionicleGuy said:
"Yeah, I've found that before; if I've put something in the comment box - even if I've then either posted it or deleted it - I find that the reply buttons won't work correctly after that; I have to reload the article (by actually clicking the link to it again; just refreshing the page won't help, in my experience) for it to work like normal again."

There's one exception to that. If you click one Reply button, but you haven't actually typed in the box, you can click a different Reply button and it will replace the first with the second.

@PurpleDave said:"

@GLS468V said:
"Makes me wonder why they don't re-release sets such as these, just as they are: without their having to be 'modernised' necessarily."

For the enirely simple reason that they don't sell. They tried it with the Legends theme. Just look at the ownership numbers on these:

https://brickset.com/sets/tag-Legends

They only sell to a certain class of AFOL. To any AFOL who already owned the original, these didn't hold much appeal. To any AFOL who didn't own the original but wanted to, they often still ended up low enough on the priority list that they ended up buying something else instead. To anyone who was born too late to have seen the originals, they didn't hold a candle to modern sets. If it was tied to a specific theme, nostalgia was probably the main driver of interest. Neither 10497 nor 10355 sold well. BDP sets are the one exception, but those sets are produced in incredibly low numbers compared to general retail sets. Boutique releases can sell a few thousand units and be considered a smash success, while a retail set that moves ten times as many units would be considered an unmitigated disaster.
"

I’d argue that Legends re-releases came too early, and that is why ownership numbers here are so low. They were all released in 2001-2004, and you could argue that the target group would be people who were kids in late 80’s and early 90’s, who oogled these sets in catalogues, but never got them. Like me, for example. I’d gladly buy most of them, but I came out of my dark ages only in 2005, right after Legends line was discontinued. But even then, I was still an university student and most of these sets would have been beyond my means. On top of that they were sold exclusively via Lego e-shop, which I’m pretty sure was not delivering to my country (Slovakia) at the time.

If Legends were released about a decade later, when my generation was around 30 years old, and therefore had much higher purchasing power, I believe the line would have been more successful. Also e-commerce was much more developed then, in both more people buying online and Lego e-shop delivering to more locations. Plus generally more physical Lego stores.

That whole line was about a decade early to be successful.

@myth said:
" @PurpleDave said:"

@GLS468V said:
"Makes me wonder why they don't re-release sets such as these, just as they are: without their having to be 'modernised' necessarily."

For the enirely simple reason that they don't sell. They tried it with the Legends theme. Just look at the ownership numbers on these:

https://brickset.com/sets/tag-Legends

They only sell to a certain class of AFOL. To any AFOL who already owned the original, these didn't hold much appeal. To any AFOL who didn't own the original but wanted to, they often still ended up low enough on the priority list that they ended up buying something else instead. To anyone who was born too late to have seen the originals, they didn't hold a candle to modern sets. If it was tied to a specific theme, nostalgia was probably the main driver of interest. Neither 10497 nor 10355 sold well. BDP sets are the one exception, but those sets are produced in incredibly low numbers compared to general retail sets. Boutique releases can sell a few thousand units and be considered a smash success, while a retail set that moves ten times as many units would be considered an unmitigated disaster.
"

I’d argue that Legends re-releases came too early, and that is why ownership numbers here are so low. They were all released in 2001-2004, and you could argue that the target group would be people who were kids in late 80’s and early 90’s, who oogled these sets in catalogues, but never got them. Like me, for example. I’d gladly buy most of them, but I came out of my dark ages only in 2005, right after Legends line was discontinued. But even then, I was still an university student and most of these sets would have been beyond my means. On top of that they were sold exclusively via Lego e-shop, which I’m pretty sure was not delivering to my country (Slovakia) at the time.

If Legends were released about a decade later, when my generation was around 30 years old, and therefore had much higher purchasing power, I believe the line would have been more successful. Also e-commerce was much more developed then, in both more people buying online and Lego e-shop delivering to more locations. Plus generally more physical Lego stores.

That whole line was about a decade early to be successful."

Justo!

@paulvdb said:
" @scottd said:
" @TheOtherMike said:
"Just looked the instructions up on Peeron, and was rather disappointed to discover that the car has nothing under the hood. There's room for it; they could have stuck a couple of black 1x1 round plates under there."

Bit difficult as they weren't around for another 10 years."

That's not true. They were introduced in the 12V train sets from 1980 but only in transparant colors. In 1985 they also got solid colors.

I remember that this was the first set with the garage door rollers. Was it also the first red fire station? I also had the yellow one from 1978 that was the first fire station with minifigures."

Interesting that they brought out so many opening bonnets in the early '80s, with nothing to go under them, only to cease making them in the early '90s. Only in the last year has that feature realy made a comeback.

This is a much better looking fire station than anything we've seen for a long while. I would love to see Lego return to more tradition building design with certain sets.

This set has eluded me for years. Finding a complete used set with the STAMP intact is the biggest hurdle for me (can't pay $1000 for a Lego set these days...).

@myth said:
"I’d argue that Legends re-releases came too early, and that is why ownership numbers here are so low. They were all released in 2001-2004, and you could argue that the target group would be people who were kids in late 80’s and early 90’s, who oogled these sets in catalogues, but never got them. Like me, for example. I’d gladly buy most of them, but I came out of my dark ages only in 2005, right after Legends line was discontinued. But even then, I was still an university student and most of these sets would have been beyond my means. On top of that they were sold exclusively via Lego e-shop, which I’m pretty sure was not delivering to my country (Slovakia) at the time."

You can argue it however you like, but the fact of the matter is the theme was a complete flop. You can't make the same argument about 10497 and 10355, since those were both released post-pandemic, but people inside the company have confirmed that both of those sold badly to the general public. Here, the former shows over 15k ownership, but there are 14 Modulars with higher ownership, and they objectively hold more appeal to the mass consumer. Only five of the Winter Village show more ownership, but again, those sell very well to parents with kids. And you also have to consider that even in the US, the Galaxy Explorer was frequently marked 25-50% off MSRP.

AFOLs are in the age of gluttony. There are simply too many desirable sets for everyone to be able to keep up with their want lists, and these vintage throwbacks just don't hold as much appeal within the AFOL crowd as the AFOLs who prefer vintage over modern believe. I've never had a dark ages going back to the dawn of the minifig, and I didn't find any of the Legends sets to be appealing except 10021 (which I still didn't buy).

"If Legends were released about a decade later, when my generation was around 30 years old, and therefore had much higher purchasing power, I believe the line would have been more successful."

They would have been even less appealing to the general public, which is where the bulk of their sales come from.

"Also e-commerce was much more developed then, in both more people buying online and Lego e-shop delivering to more locations. Plus generally more physical Lego stores."

True, but I waited in line for over an hour to buy 10355 on day of release, and I saw not a single copy sold before I was allowed to enter the store.

"That whole line was about a decade early to be successful."

That whole line was about a decade too late to be successful. They faced intense competition from Bionicle, from Star Wars, and from Harry Potter, and the range of competing "must have" themes has only grown since then.

My first Fire Station. My Parents gave it to me for my Birthday in March 1982 when I was 9 Years old. And it is still around

@myth said:"On top of that they were sold exclusively via Lego e-shop, which I’m pretty sure was not delivering to my country (Slovakia) at the time. "

I bought 10037 at Toy's 'R' Us, so they were available elsewhere, at least in some regions.

@calculus_teacher said:
" @MCLegoboy said:
"Just looked at the instructions. 7 steps for the car, 11 steps for the truck, and 18 for the station, all across 8 pages. Old school LEGO was hardcore. I haven't rebuilt an old set from the late 90s and early 2000s from my childhood in awhile, but when I have, I've found it a bit difficult, but 80s sets must have been a different beast making sure you got every part placed before moving on. That challenge is not nearly as prevalent today."

I have this set in my collection to this day. And after all these years, I can still put the set together without the instructions, even though I still have them with the original box yet."
Was going to say the same thing. Sets back then were so simple in construction that you could basically build them just by looking at pictures of the finished set on the cover of the box.
And LEGO apparently thought so too as they gave lots of pictures of alternate versions of their sets on the back of the boxes, and no instructions were provided. It was simply expected that a kid of that period would be to figure it out by themselves (and boy did we ever).
Nowadays LEGO treats all their customers as if they were idiots with their totally dumbed down instructions that insult the intelligence even of an average five-year-old.

There's always the apologists' argument of "but it makes sure that absolutely everybody can now build any set".
You can absolutely call me an arrogant exclusionist but I am of the firm opinion that not everybody needs to be able to build every set if it means phone book-sized instructions and single piece steps where five to ten steps could often easily be summed up into one. After all, isn't there enough help already with the pieces needed for a step shown in an extra box and coloured lines around where the pieces are meant to go?
Most of the time we didn't have any of that back in the day and somehow we still managed to have fun building and playing with those sets.

Incidentally this was one of my earliest sets which I got when I was about five years old.

I recently bought a second, mint condition copy via ebay, along with the successors 6385 and 6389, the holy trinity of classic Fire Stations.

@kfr said:
"This, together with 381-2, formed the core of my childhood's Lego city. Which probably mostly means that I am old... :)"
Same here. They were joined by the Bus station 379 and the Shell service station 6371 and the holiday home 6374. From then on the town slowly grew during the Eighties, peaking in the early Nineties.

@MCLegoboy said:
"Just looked at the instructions. 7 steps for the car, 11 steps for the truck, and 18 for the station, all across 8 pages. Old school LEGO was hardcore. I haven't rebuilt an old set from the late 90s and early 2000s from my childhood in awhile, but when I have, I've found it a bit difficult, but 80s sets must have been a different beast making sure you got every part placed before moving on. That challenge is not nearly as prevalent today."

I lived through the 80's building these sets and I lived. It wasn't difficult.

@paulvdb said:
" @scottd said:
" @TheOtherMike said:
"Just looked the instructions up on Peeron, and was rather disappointed to discover that the car has nothing under the hood. There's room for it; they could have stuck a couple of black 1x1 round plates under there."

Bit difficult as they weren't around for another 10 years."

That's not true. They were introduced in the 12V train sets from 1980 but only in transparant colors. In 1985 they also got solid colors.

I remember that this was the first set with the garage door rollers. Was it also the first red fire station? I also had the yellow one from 1978 that was the first fire station with minifigures."

The U.S. version of the 1978 one was red. My best friend had it.

@MCLegoboy said:
"Just looked at the instructions. 7 steps for the car, 11 steps for the truck, and 18 for the station, all across 8 pages. Old school LEGO was hardcore. I haven't rebuilt an old set from the late 90s and early 2000s from my childhood in awhile, but when I have, I've found it a bit difficult, but 80s sets must have been a different beast making sure you got every part placed before moving on. That challenge is not nearly as prevalent today."

Some people are of the opinion that if you're having fun building a LEGO set, you're not doing it right. Or they're not doing it right. Or you're not someone who should be allowed to build LEGO sets. Or someone needs to beat you up in the middle of it, so you've invested the requisite amount of suffering. Remember, that's not an age recommendation on the box. It's how many times someone needs to punch you before you finish building it.

I think we can probably assume that the vintage remake sets are somewhat disproportionately represented on Brickset ownership stats, too.

(I don’t have nostalgia for childhood sets because all my Lego was loose parts, and the straight remakes hold no interest for me at all. I do like the updated ones sometimes. Most old sets just aren’t very interesting, whereas seeing how an old set can be made modern is at least an interesting intellectual exercise — although I wouldn’t expect that aspect to have broad appeal, either, since it takes too much explanation and background research for instant shelf appeal.)

I thought it was funny when I’ve seen it commented elsewhere that adults don’t need help with instructions so 18+ sets shouldn’t have colourful internals, pegs etc. In my experience a lot of adults need more handholding than a lot of kids in order to enjoy the experience and end up with a good result, simply because they’re less likely to have recent experience with building anything hobbyish.

@PurpleDave said:"Remember, that's not an age recommendation on the box."

"That's a suggestion. They have to put that on there."