Random set of the day: Shell Filling Station
Posted by Huwbot,
Today's random set is 601 Shell Filling Station, released in 1978. It's one of 34 Town sets produced that year. It contains 13 pieces and 1 minifig.
It's owned by 590 Brickset members. If you want to add it to your collection you might find it for sale at BrickLink or eBay.
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25 comments on this article
That is one tiny service station.
So what's the goal here, is he going to drink the fuel? That can't possibly be healthy.
This set perfectly could be used to expand set 377 Shell Service Station.
Also those sets could be added for the Shell theme of 1978.
604 Shell Service Car and
642 Tow Truck and Car
671 Shell Petrol Tanker
And while 2020 City does have a small Octan service station and a seperate Repair Garage set.
There are small Octan gas pumps in 70428 from Hidden Side, or 70823 from Lego Movie 2 (2019) , but nothing like a standalone small set in City.
Octan certainly still is present in City, and other themes(even Monkie Kid) , currently there's just no real focus on it.
Corner Garage also had Octan brand.
But since some vehicles shifted to Octan-E obviously City is going electric and the world , including LEGO going more "green" I don't expect an increase on fuel related sets.
How’s he going to put gas in the car if there’s no nozzle?
@Mr__Thrawn said:
"How’s he going to put gas in the car if there’s no nozzle?"
The driver drove off without returning the nozzle to the pump thus leaving the nozzle sticking out of the car. Thats where it is. People are absentminded, it happens so often that the Shell employee is more amused than angry.
I didn't even realise there are places and countries today where self-service filling is illegal (Brazil, South Africa, New Jersey) therefore this attendant minifigure is not absolete at all. A Petrobras CMF with the recovered nozzle would thus be appropriate.
Poor little minifigure, with no car to fill, forever lamenting that LEGO ended it’s partnership with Shell...
@MCLegoboy said:
"So what's the goal here, is he going to drink the fuel? That can't possibly be healthy."
Lego's original bong set.
Keep on smiling, even though the world has stolen your nozzle...
Looks more like he's holding the end of a large fuse. Now I bet he's wondering where he put those matches...
Despite being a bad company, Shell has a wonderful logo
That's small enough to toss in the back seat of a proper minifig-scale car, meaning you can carry an unlimited supply of gas with you wherever you go!
How long is a piece of string?
What happened to the nozzle?
He is ready to fill some shells alright.
But where are you supposed to fill all those shells into? And what to do with them afterwards?
Oh wait, is this from the rumored Demolition Man theme?
;-P
The lack of the nozzle is a real problem with the service station themed sets of that time (also set 377). Not so much for optical reasons but for practical ones. It was just impossible to place the cord in the minifigures hands. So to play with it you had to take the minifigure in one hand and the cord in the other hand. So you had no free hand to move the car or whatever would need the fuel. The introduction of the nozzle a few years later (in 1981 I think) really helped.
I never knew that filling up your own car with fuel was illegal in New Jersey. Every day's a school day.
@namekuji said:
"How long is a piece of string?"
6-8 studs long
Actually, a good addon to expand your previous Shell station
I was completely obsessed by the Shell sets back in the 80s, I thought they were all great.
Everytime I see a classic set, wheter it's 10 pieces or 1000 pieces, puts tears in my eyes.
@TeriXeri said:
"
But since some vehicles shifted to Octan-E obviously City is going electric and the world , including LEGO going more "green" I don't expect an increase on fuel related sets.
"
In the Space Police III box art we saw Earth absolutely littered with trash, with browned out landscapes and rings of space debris. My personal head canon is that LEGO City got so big (spreading from the arctic to jungles) that it pumped out insane amounts of pollution, causing a revolution where the city went green and the astronauts of Classic Space started building moon cities like Futuron and Astro City to escape the pollution.
The 3x2 trans clear brick 3002a only appeared in this set, 308, 690 (which also included the sign) and a few helicopters, basic sets etc. around 1978 before disappearing, making it worth around $10 today although most have gone frosted with age rather than as clear as the image ! The shell sign first appeared in 325 and 491 in 1966, before again disappearing after this set.
Why are so many giving the petrol attendant guy such a hard time??!!
I rediscovered that I have this set about 2 years ago, including the intact Shell sign, but the stickers on the minifig and petrol pump long gone...As a kid, these little sets were all I could afford to buy with pocket money. But that was part of the joy...being able to gradually build up a collection of small sets that could compliment each other. With plenty of vehicles in the Lego line-up, the attraction of this set was obvious!
Until the advent of the LEGO nozzle, petrol (US = gas) spills were common. Petrol stations, their employees and customers would be caught up in terrible conflagrations. The fires were horrible! How did minifigures react? They just kept on staring and smiling. Minifigures back then were pure evil, I tell ya.
Fortunately, no children minifigures were ever hurt as they did not exist yet. It would be decades before minifigures worked out how to reproduce.