He’s going to chop up that carved-wooden truck and trailer and set them on fire.

You’d think he has a hose of some sort.

Why haul around an empty trailer?
Exiting the car from the right means he is from a LHT country (UK/OZ/IN/JAP/...), UK did have black leather helmets of that shape...

My brother had this. It was played with as a part of our town quite frequently.

This is a great improvement from the previous year, where the cars weren't designed for minifigs inside them. This was even the case for some of the sets in 1978.

My first Lego set. 6th birthday present, 1981.

Suggestion that the name be changed to Fire Go-Kart and Trailer? Because that’s not a truck XD

@holdre007:
@MeisterDad:
For a single-seater, you exit the vehicle like you get off a horse, from the left side. This is because right-handed soldiers wore their swords on the left hip, and it would get caught on the horse’ flank if you try to swing your left leg over it’s back. Clearly this guy is a bitter left-handed individual who is passive-aggressively thumbing his nose at the right-handed world.

@brick_r:
Oh, jeez, no! “Time saver” is just a cheerful way of saying, “I didn’t put any effort into this.” One of the great things about my LUG is that we go in together on the whole city when we do a layout. Where other LUGs have individuals build entire sections, and use filler for stuff like cars, trees, and sidewalk deco, we have members who treat everything above the baseplates as something that can MOCed. I’ve probably come up with at least half a dozen designs for headlights alone, and well over a dozen grille designs, so when we do a show I can explain how various cars were designed instead of just saying, “It’s a set I built from the instructions.”

@TransNeonOrangeSpaceman:
Wow, 1993? Because of the timing, I would have sworn Dragon Masters landed in 1992, or maybe even late 1991. I guess in one aspect, 1993 does actually fit better with my personal timeline, but it still feels wrong.

The slow transition to open top vehicles so the mini-fig can fit inside unlike the larger 672. Trailers were always popular for carrying tools, especially as that axe is very big and heavy.

I just rebuilt this a few weeks ago. Lego Town was such a different place to Lego City...

@anthony_davies said:
" @TransNeonOrangeSpaceman said:
" @MCLegoboy said:
"That fire must have been pretty small for this to be a one man job."

No worries. The LEGO fire piece wouldn't even exist until 1993."

You could say Lego first put out the fire in 1993.

"

I believe Lego had quite some experience with fire long before that...

You know what I loved most about this era of minifig sets? Loads of sets at a low price. Modern themes just get one set at each price point and it's just no fun to look at a catalogue any more - if you can even find one.

@Brickalili :
Clearly you don’t have kids driving 12v Power Wheels around their parents’ driveways in the UK. Or roller skates. Or carry-on suitcases with wheels on the bottom.

@ambr :
Early minifig-era Town was a bit weird in that minifigs, their vehicles, and their hand tools, were all about the same size. When you need a trailer to haul your hand-axe because it won’t fit in the car with you, you need to swap the entire rig in for a bigger car.

@sid3windr :
1993: fire
1996: dynamite
1998: those dangerous pieces of lumber

@PurpleDave said:
" @Brickalili :
Clearly you don’t have kids driving 12v Power Wheels around their parents’ driveways in the UK. Or roller skates. Or carry-on suitcases with wheels on the bottom."

All of those exist but I wouldn’t call them trucks either

There's something important to consider here. The hand axe, part 3835, was new for 1978, as was the steering wheel 3829, the car chassis 4212, the mudguards 3788, the doors 3822 and 3821, the fire helmet 3834, and the air tanks 3838. This set was really a way for Lego to demonstrate all the new molds they had recently developed. A lot of these molds are still used today.

@PurpleDave I see a horseless carriage here — maybe another time glitch? Plus. the guy clearly knows which side to exit in order to be photographed in front of said carriage rather than behind it.

@Brickalili:
Many Power Wheels toys are modeled after various types of trucks, and skates and carry-ons have components that are called trucks. Plus, this could be mistaken for any of the three.

@MeisterDad:
You should still exit a carriage on the left, even if it’s a single-seater. The reason being if you get too used to climbing on from the right, then the guy riding shotgun is liable to smack you in the face with his shotgun, should he have cause to need it. I’m not sure what bandits would expect to steal from this tiny rig that can barely manage to haul a hand-axe, but some of them can be quite stupid, and maybe one of their buddies told them this guy was hauling an entire bank vault as a practical joke.

@PurpleDave said:
" @Brickalili :
Many Power Wheels toys are modeled after various types of trucks, and skates and carry-ons have components that are called trucks. Plus, this could be mistaken for any of the three."

Said yourself, they're called trucks if they're modelled after trucks. This is clearly modelled after a go-kart. Name change ahoy!

Nice little set from a good year :-)

@brick_r said:
"....Still miss those printed front-ends w/the headlights and grille. Don't get me wrong, brick-built fronts look great on vehicles, but as a time/space saver..."

1x4 bricks with that print, in any combination of brick and print color, are deeply nostalgic parts for me; I had a few when I was a kid, and was very fond of them.