Now a days, these are polies and for the mid legged figures, or maybe dogs lol.

Looks like the truck itself may need some repairs. There's some big gashes in the base of it!

Lego: We need a small set designed and put together, around 50 pieces.

Designer: How long do i have to work on it?

Lego: 10 mins

Designer:

It's an emergency! Repair that truck so it actually looks like a truck!

Missed this when starting to go into my dark ages, but really is a great little set that can offer a lot of pay options in fixing other vehicles in your LEGO city.

This was one of my first sets!! Yet oddly, my parents gave it to me as a toddler in the late 90s. I have no idea how/where they got the set, since it had come out 10 years prior

The yellow/black balance is rather backwards, but it still has those two important colours as the only colours.

Though the Blacktron 2 wheels are throwing things into a Meteor Monitor Blender.

Dude looks like a real pro holding that wrench!

What is the logo on the side of the truck supposed to be?

Had this set when it was new, and recently bought it again to collect. This is one of my favorite sets I have. This is when Lego was Lego. You couldn't give me the new City stuff.

It's a small thing but I like how accurate that wrench picture on the roof is, looking identical to the one actually being carried

This was (still is) one of my favorites from when I was a kid!

A hammer and a wrench. That's all this guy needs to fix any broken 4-wide car.

@madforLEGO said:
" @Brickbuilder0937 said:
"What is the logo on the side of the truck supposed to be?"

I believe it is the European symbol for a Highway."

Yes, indeed it is.

I think the American name is a bit misleading here. It's rather a ute, but the term does not seem to have widely spread yet (same for Europe).
Nevertheless, gorgeous set I always wanted to have, in an appropiateemergency-repair, easy to spot yellow. Got it after the dark ages and it makes me just sooo happy =)

An autobahn sticker is something I never expected to see in a Lego set.

Always liked the way the boxy 1980's Lego cars reflected that the real family cars of the day were also rather boxy compared to today's curved SUV cars. Looking back everything out of scale is also really funny, e.g. that massive spanner is unlikely to be able to take any nuts off those tiny wheels hubs, strange it didn't bother me at the time.

Also the fact he just squeezes into the car, where they needed to create a special car plate which had a 1 plate depth recess for the driver to sit in so that you could just close the roof while he was wearing a hat. Never has a 1 plate width made such a difference to all the Lego drivers.

Those 4 wide Town cars still have some big charm.

But before we go super nostalgia mode, LEGO actually still makes those 4 wides with a roof , but usually part of larger sets like 60292 : Town Centre or 60258 : Tuning Workshop

The small cars without roof still appear in Polybags too 30366 : Police Car or 30568 : Skater

60295 : Stunt Show Arena also comes with 2 small cars, but the roof is made to crush so no windows.

The difference to today however, is that there are 6 - 8 - 10 wide vehicles in themes like City / Creator / Speed Champions now, so that those 4 wides look way more comical scale, compared to back then.

Back then most trucks and trailers and aircraft were just 4 wide as well.

Great pick @Huwbot! The nostalgia is strong for this one, right in the middle of my Lego childhood. The 65xx set numbers were new this year which had a surprising impact on an 8 year old!

In the 1980s it seemed like there were significant new parts released every single year and I used to love looking out for them each January. I think this was the first set I ever got with a 1x4 tile and 1x2 grille.

Other favourites from the same year, 6501 small car and 6693 refuse truck. Still got all the pieces in takeaway food boxes, I must reassemble them soon!

Aww... it’s perfect!

Being a classic space collector as a kid, this was one of the few town sets I have from that era. Love it very much, as others have noted!

@bricksintheattic:
Yeah, but what they gave you in quality, they made up for in (lack of) quantity. A decent minifig-scale car would need about 4x as many parts. A golf cart would probably only need 2x as many. 58pcs might get you a serviceable motorcycle.

Loved this set as a kid. This guy was the main character in all my lego stories. Fixing things in the town, rescuing stranded motorists, adjusting the catapult for the king, oil changing the space ships, stopping crime by dismantling getaway cars. Best hero ever.
And while his vehicle is simple by today's standards, it was really detailed back then. 3 Printed Pieces! A lot of detail for such a simple car that was less then $4. First set I got with the grille piece.

Cars like these always look a bit cookie-cutter from a distance to me. But on a closer look it's astounding how they were always a unique build.
It's probably the windscreen, wheels and proportions that make them look less complex than they are.

nice one! i own this set since my childhood. nowadays it is packed in a bag in its original box together with the instructions. probably not that long anymore... thinking to build it tonight. there is no stickers by the way! all printed parts.

@bricksintheattic said:
" @Jack_Sassy said:
"An autobahn sticker is something I never expected to see in a Lego set."

One cool thing about this set was that those parts are actually printed."

So even better, it's a printed piece!

The yellow chassis in this set was a rare variation. Loved this set as a kid.

@PurpleDave said:
" @bricksintheattic:
Yeah, but what they gave you in quality, they made up for in (lack of) quantity. A decent minifig-scale car would need about 4x as many parts. A golf cart would probably only need 2x as many. 58pcs might get you a serviceable motorcycle."

And this is the evolution of the term profit. A "kid's toy" that was affordable by a kid. Just a few bucks for a few pieces that added to a manageable and affordable hobby. That minifig scale car is going to cost four times as much too. And it's going to park in a garage of a set that cost four times what it's counterpart did. But, I suspect there are more adults buying Lego now than the kids it's made for.

Ahh fond memories

@michael4me:
My LUG does a lot of shows, and one of the common reactions that I’ve observed is disbelief that hat what they’re looking at is built entirely with LEGO pieces. They see the layout, take in the view for a few seconds, and only then realize what they’re looking at. A few even have to be told that it’s all LEGO construction, and even take a little convincing before they believe it. If our layouts looked like a 1980’s set catalog, I very much doubt this would be the case. I also doubt we’d be in such high demand.

@ElementHoarder:
Heh. An official model likely doesn’t need more than 2x as many pieces to produce a serviceable 6-wide vehicle. My tastes run a bit more on the expensive side. I designed a Dodge Tomahawk motorcycle (4 cantilevered wheels with a Viper V-12 engine), which is probably just a hair longer than this “truck” and uses 63pcs. After making a few Pixar Cars cars in 2014, I was finally able to make Mater in 2019. I pulled about half of the 323pcs from my own collection, and still spent over $100 ordering the rest. He’s a bit on the extreme end of things, since I needed such a weird variety of reddish-brown pieces (and a few pieces that I could only get in old brown). But at 6-wide, I was able to work in all the various running lights (including the missing bulb on his roof), and I’ve got other cars that can seat a family of four. I’ve got The Beatles in a Beetle. At 6-wide, I’ve been able to incorporate rumble seats, adjustable headrests, bucket or bench seats, tailpipes, gearshifters, and retracted ragtops. At 8-wide, my double-decker Routemaster bus has enough room to put seats down both sides with an aisle in the center. So the cost to build may “evolve”, but the level of detail does as well.