Featured set of the day: Shell Tow Truck
Posted by Huw,
Today's set has been chosen by Michael S:
I received this for 6th birthday in 1983. Bizarrely I remember it very clearly, being allowed to unwrap it in the car sat in bright hot April sunshine in the swimming pool car park (I know I’m weird) as we were on our way to visit relatives.
I loved this set dearly, and still have it with original box and instructions. I don’t recall where he came from, but I also have a Shell branded minifigure which I have always had with this set as the driver. He might be possibly from 377 Shell Service Station but I still have the minifigures for that set too, so I don’t know.
I have had many Lego Town vehicles over the years, some of which I really like but none have ever appealed to me as much as this one. I’m not sure why but perhaps it could be that there was a similar vehicle in the small Herefordshire town in which I grew up and it caught my imagination.
It was used everywhere, picking up vehicles and taking them to the service station to be repaired or refuelled, and I even used it with my matchbox cars too even though the scales were completely wrong.
The hook component was to me an amazing piece, still is really, and was very versatile, and I recall trying to build the alternate builds, one of which puts the hook at the front of the vehicle. That was just something else for me. The other component that stood out was the radiator grill and combining this with the two from set 6927 I could build the big lorries that I used to see on the main road outside our house.
This set now lives built up in its box in a Zip-lock bag, rarely sees the light of day and means a great deal to me and even when I get the service station built up again I doubt it will become part of it as I really would like to keep it in as original condition as possible. That’s unusual for me as I see Lego very much as the toy that it is rather than a display piece but maybe one day, I’ll get it out again and wheel it around a bit.
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12 comments on this article
Another stone cold classic, but maybe I feel that way because it happens to come from my childhood too! The overwhelming feeling from this era of vehicles is so much play value from such simple models.
My dad has this, but it is currently being stored at my grandparents. My brother and I used to play with the pieces in the miscellaneous box of parts and the tow always featured in the Classic Spacemen’s escapes.
I really like these stories and I wished I had one to share with you but I can not remember getting any lego set. I remember playing with them. And the towtruck above and the mentioned Shell station with the 671 Shell patrol tanker were part of my childhood. It towed a lot of lego cars to the Shell station to get fuel or the 361 garage for repairs.
My favourite Town vehicle has always been 6634 the Shell stockcar. I got it for my 9th birthday and with other pieces use to build a few variants in different colours. I made an estate version as well. It was dumped into my pieces box during my dark ages and got hidden inside the upturned bucket of 8853 at the bottom of the box. Thinking I'd lost it and not finding a single piece (because it was still fully built) I bought one of eBay. Shortly after during a tidy up it was found again and the original is on my desk.
This was my first Town set, a present for my birthday in 1983. Still got it, but had to replace the doors (the Shell print wore off) and the black hook part (snapped!)
I also got this around the same time while being about the same age, and liked it very much! :) I find it peculiar though that this set came without a minifig, because at the time practically all other town vehicle sets had minifigs with them.
Great playability for so few parts, and it uses some pretty advanced building techniques for an early 80s set. Just a solid set all around.
I own 6363 Auto Repair Shop. The tow truck in that set (nearly the same design) has a red towbar with a light gray hook, the only one I own. Whenever I look at a picture of this set with the yellow towbar and black hook, it feels like I'm looking at a photo negative of my set...
I remember purchasing this set at a local department store - it was one of the first times I bought a blister pack of multiple town sets. However, the suggested 3-for one deal that is listed here on BrickSet is not the same blister pack I purchased all those years ago. Funny thing, this is the only vehicle I have without a mini-figure to drive it! It does work well with the 6363 Auto Repair Set and looks good next to my Exxon to truck from 1980. Town memories are still the best memories!
These sets are like 1950 Ford Pickup trucks of the Lego world. They are old, and outdated but you gotta love them out of pure nostalgia.
This is bringing back memories! I’m about 90% sure I had this truck as a kid, but I had a very long dark age and don’t remember a lot.
1983 was a revolutionary year. As a child I felt that the bulidings, cars evoluted to much more complex and much much better form that they were before. There was a clear progress in the design back in those days. I didn't have this set a child, I just saw it in the catalogs. It was so strange for me, why do not include a minfigure in the set. This set is part of my collection now, but sill odd, that there is no minifigure in it :)