So many construction and excavation vehicles are yellow in order to mimic Caterpillar's vehicles, so it's nice to see a blue tractor. Can any Europeans confirm, was blue a normal color for tractors in 1980?

This was amongst the first sets I got, if not the very first. Good stuff!

@crazylegoman said:
"So many construction and excavation vehicles are yellow in order to mimic Caterpillar's vehicles, so it's nice to see a blue tractor. Can any Europeans confirm, was blue a normal color for tractors in 1980?"

Ford tractors were quite common in Denmark in the 70's and 80's and they were blue. So I guess this one is a Ford.
Maybe the Ford 5000 was the inspiration for this set.
https://www.mascus.dk/landbrug/traktorer/ford-5000/eh5fbm4l.html
In Danish, sorry! :-)

@brickadier said:
" @crazylegoman said:
"So many construction and excavation vehicles are yellow in order to mimic Caterpillar's vehicles, so it's nice to see a blue tractor. Can any Europeans confirm, was blue a normal color for tractors in 1980?"

Ford tractors were quite common in Denmark in the 70's and 80's and they were blue. So I guess this one is a Ford.
Maybe the Ford 5000 was the inspiration for this set.
https://www.mascus.dk/landbrug/traktorer/ford-5000/eh5fbm4l.html
In Danish, sorry! :-)"

Ford tractors were very popular all over Europe and they are indeed blue. They used and still use tractors for construction work. The Ford 5000, or the smaller 3000 or 4000, were indeed probably the inspiration

Make that 1795 :)
The timing of this ‘set of the day’ choice is so ironic - I built this set just two nights ago, for the first time in 25+ years.

The stickered assemblies have survived since I got this set, even though I was just three years old in 1983. Ok, so there’s a bit of wear on two of the stickers (they’re paper-based) and some of the blue elements have yellowed... but on the whole, I’m so happy, this post made me join Brickset at last!

@crazylegoman said:
"So many construction and excavation vehicles are yellow in order to mimic Caterpillar's vehicles, so it's nice to see a blue tractor. Can any Europeans confirm, was blue a normal color for tractors in 1980?"

The ones I remember came in all kinds of colours. Mostly red, yellow, orange, green or blue. Sometimes even grey or silver.

By the way, this was one of my first sets too.

And as for tractors and construction work, when our local motorway was widened over the last few years, many tractors were used in addition to all the other construction vehicles.

A great set indeed, and a big favourite from my childhood. I revisited it with modern parts a couple of years ago: https://www.flickr.com/photos/legolago/34433194711

This was an era just before they started having large single base plates for vehicles, so fairly tricky build for a five year old using lots of blue plates. The pickaxe and spade were quite cool, as well as the workmans vest and signpost, plus I miss the single Christmas tree acting as background scenery.

@chrisaw said:
"Highway Repair with a...tractor? Well, anything goes in Legoland, and those little printed road signs were great. "

Here in The Netherlands it was labeled as Road Worker (Work in Progress) with tractor and trailer, that is better description for this set.

This was the first full set I got, and I got it from my mum who had it when she was young! It's still displayed on the top shelf of my display case, along with other sets that have a special meaning to me.

When I was seven years old my father, who worked in road works, took me to work with him. During his lunch break we popped into a newsagent which also sold some toys. My father said to pick something out for myself and this is what I chose.

Thanks dad, miss you. Thanks Huwbot for the memory.

It's funny how little things can trigger memories - for me it's that chevron vest!

I had a set but couldn't remember what, so a little dig through the Brickset database and it's 641 Excavator..

Do you mean ‘corn field repair’?

I have this. It's a perfectly fine set.

@L_go said:
"A great set indeed, and a big favourite from my childhood. I revisited it with modern parts a couple of years ago: https://www.flickr.com/photos/legolago/34433194711"

Wow, that's an awesome update. I would buy this in an instant if it was an official City set.

One of my favourite early childhood sets, for which I lost the red barrier.

Only years later did I manage to replace the lost piece with Bricklink.

I love this set.
It was my first minifig wearing one of those tabbards.
And the sticker is still pretty perfect today!

This was one of the earliest sets I ever got. There's a picture of me playing with it on the coffee table. It was brilliant what a vehicle, detachable cart, road sign, and one tree can do for a young boy's imagination

By today's standards, it feels absolutely absurd for a set this small to have STAMPs (Stickers Across Multiple Pieces)! Glad that's a tradition that LEGO ultimately did away with.

Of course, back in 1980, stickered patterns were still vastly more common than printed ones, with even stuff like minifigure torsos often using stickers instead of printing!