Random set of the day: Nursery
Posted by Huwbot,
Today's random set is 297 Nursery, released in 1978. It's one of 5 Homemaker sets produced that year. It contains 167 pieces and 1 minifig.
It's owned by 101 Brickset members. If you want to add it to your collection you might find it for sale at BrickLink or eBay.
38 likes
27 comments on this article
Minifigures as babies/ dolls are terrifying. They will never not be terrifying.
Okay, so first the minifigures were babies, but now they're dolls, too?
If that doesn't say demon-possessed, I don't know what does.
And the soul of the poor mini figure was forever trapped as a plaything for the monstorous bulbous head children.
The Lego Movie 3: Horrors of the Past
I thought minifigures as babies was horrifying, but minifigures as dolls for bigger-figures to play with?
Well, that certainly won't keep me awake tonight, at all.
You know, Toy Story minifigures would fit in well with this set.
What's the blue thing on the desk supposed to be, I wonder? A toy phone, maybe a toy plane perhaps?
The presence of the minifigure on the counter evoked that scene from "Edward Scissorhands", when Edward has a flashback to his construction. Much like the minifigure, he is seated up, rather stiffly, on the counter while his inventor (played by Vincent Price) reads to him. Also like the minifigure, Edward has a stiff, almost dead, expression on his face until Vincent reads a silly limerick, which causes the eerie, first awkward smile upon Edward's countenance.
Anyway, that's all I've got on this.
@Wavelength said: "What's the blue thing on the desk supposed to be, I wonder? A toy phone, maybe a toy plane perhaps?"
Yeah, I was thinking, it looked like an early attempt at a Lego toy plane.
It's a phone. You're probably too young to remember phones like that! :-)
@560heliport said:
"It's a phone. You're probably too young to remember phones like that! :-)"
Why is there a phone in a seemingly unsupervised nursery?
@Robot99 said:
" @560heliport said:
"It's a phone. You're probably too young to remember phones like that! :-)"
Why is there a phone in a seemingly unsupervised nursery?"
Because it's a toy telephone?
Kind of cute. Just need to remove the possessed doll and its perfectly safe for the kids to fiddle with! ;)
Interestingly the minifigure is more advanced than the big figure. Maybe Lego should have designed articulated legs for big figures, too.
I had a bunch of those big figures from my first sets as a toddler and preschooler. The moment I got minifigures in Classic Space and Town, I never used them ever again. They are my most neglected LEGO pieces.
Do all these sets look like some terrifying giants have captured a minifig for their own amusement? I’m getting serious Laestrygonian flashbacks here guys
@MCLegoboy said:
"Okay, so first the minifigures were babies, but now they're dolls, too?
What set were the minifigures as babies please?
Amazed that these were first used as small versions. I just thought there was a complete swop to using these and not introduced in sets in this way.
^268 family room
@SimonSpace70s said:
"I had a bunch of those big figures from my first sets as a toddler and preschooler. The moment I got minifigures in Classic Space and Town, I never used them ever again. They are my most neglected LEGO pieces."
Same here, though the arms and hands sometimes had their uses the heads/hairs/hats were never used again...
FWIW, they also did the 'minifigure-as-doll-or-baby' with those early, unarticulated, minifigures and I think that worked better, cfr. 215 Red Indians where half a minifig is used as a baby.
I sort of like this. Good size for a dolls house. Infact in the V&A Museum of Childhood in London one of their doll houses (they have loads) has Homemaker Sets inside.
@Paul007Weston said:
" @MCLegoboy said:
"Amazed that these were first used as small versions. I just thought there was a complete swop to using these and not introduced in sets in this way."
That happened as well. Slabbies - minifigure-sized unarticulated figures with fused arms, static lower bodies and no face printing - were replaced by minifigures (e.g. https://brickset.com/sets/368-1). I had all three: large figures, then slabbies, then minifigures.
I actually kinda like those Homemaker Figures to be honest.
I remember the sliding drawers to the table had very hi-tech smooth precision opening and closing and I couldn't stop pushing in and out at preschool, while all the other kids played with the bigger cruder bricks. I think there were other kitchen type sets which had more appliances, e.g. oven etc. Interesting the adults had double articulated arms with elbows, while the kids just had single. This must have being one of the earliest appearances of the minifig, but probably already lost before I arrived.
@SimonSpace70s said:
"I had a bunch of those big figures from my first sets as a toddler and preschooler. The moment I got minifigures in Classic Space and Town, I never used them ever again. They are my most neglected LEGO pieces."
It's a similar phenomenon to how 3 3/4" action figures replaced the 12" "dolls" in the late 70's: it's easier to sell vehicles and playsets for the smaller-scale figures than for the larger sized ones. Although a maxi-fig-scale Galaxy Explorer would have been pretty cool...
Who'd've thunk the entirety of the LEGO Universe sprung from dolls becoming possessed and killing off their giant bulbous overlords?
@GSR_MataNui said:
"Who'd've thunk the entirety of the LEGO Universe sprung from dolls becoming possessed and killing off their giant bulbous overlords?"
Or, all Lego sets up to now are really toys for these spoiled kids.
in the land of the giants.
@CCC said:
"One of the best selling toys throughout the 60s and 70s was the Fisher Price chatter phone. "
Homemaker Lego sets and the Fisher Price chatter phone... that sums up my childhood right there.