Vintage set of the week: Fork-Lift Truck

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Fork-Lift Truck

Fork-Lift Truck

©1977 LEGO Group

This week's vintage set is 850 Fork-Lift Truck, released during 1977. It's one of 6 Technic sets produced that year. It contains 210 pieces.

It's owned by 2,198 Brickset members. If you want to add it to your collection you might find it for sale at BrickLink or eBay.


  • View previous vintage sets of the week
  • 42 comments on this article

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    By in United States,

    That's the worst Scala set I've ever seen. Not even a creepy doll or weird pastel colors.

    Oh wait, it's Vintage day. I'll give you a pass, but Scala tomorrow or we riot!

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    By in Australia,

    Are those turntables in the bottom right hollow studs?

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    By in Australia,

    Needs more Fabuland.

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    By in United States,

    Rebranding as "vintage" is all fun and games until we draw something from 2009.

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    By in United States,

    @Harmonious_Building said:
    "Rebranding as "vintage" is all fun and games until we draw something from 2009. "

    The Vintage set of the week only pick sets before 1978.

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    By in United States,

    @RaiderOfTheLostBrick said:
    "Are those turntables in the bottom right hollow studs?"

    The illustration certainly does show hollow studs, but when I look at the inventory, they're solid.

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    By in Canada,

    Check out the rack on that one.

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    By in Turkey,

    @RaiderOfTheLostBrick said:
    "Are those turntables in the bottom right hollow studs?"

    Yes, back when first Technic sets were introduced a hand ful of sets used them to make steering functional. They are dismissed very quickly though.

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    By in United States,

    That would be a nightmare to use, with the really thick “forks” that have no taper, tall blunt tips, studded tops, and lots of holes drilled through the sides to make them weaker.

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    By in Netherlands,

    Was a tricky one to build.

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    By in United States,

    Because of the 1978 cutoff, this is one of the only 6 Technic sets from the first year to be included and pulled as a "vintage set." I thought this was another normal random set because 1977 Technic doesn't exactly seem "vintage" compared to the Legoland sets.

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    By in United Kingdom,

    My 1st ever Technic set. I still have it on display. Got me thru a lot of my childhood. Absolutely love it.

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    By in Netherlands,

    One of the sets that Matt Denton made a huge 3d printed version of :)

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    By in United Kingdom,

    This was my brother’s only Technic set, but now I’ve got all our shared collection!

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    By in Germany,

    a) Those 16L beam for the fork made it look awkward because - in proportion - they are too long. A 12L beam would have beem more appropriate. But those were released only a few years later...

    b) What bothered me most at that time: It is a completly different scale than the 851 farm tractor.

    c) Got another one second hand a few years ago: I didn't remember that it has so many system bricks (without holes) & plates.

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    By in United Kingdom,

    Imagine if you actually had to hand crank a forklift

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    By in Netherlands,

    Aah, the good old first Technic set! My dad had this and gifted it to me when I was still a boy. I have fond memories of assembling it from all the sorted parts we had in storage in the attic. I also built 851 (that was my uncle’s, we returned it to them once it was complete) and 853, the latter of which I still hope will one day be mine as well. It’s such a marvel, outstanding how much they were already able to achieve with the very limited selection of available parts back then.

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    By in United Kingdom,

    @PurpleDave said:
    "That would be a nightmare to use, with the really thick “forks” that have no taper, tall blunt tips, studded tops, and lots of holes drilled through the sides to make them weaker."
    Back in the ‘70s, you had to provide much of your own imagination. Nowadays, LEGO does a lot of the imagining for you. Opinions on whether that’s a good thing or not vary.

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    By in United Kingdom,

    Back when Technic was very much an educational toy. It was about the gears and pulleys rather than how it looked.

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    By in Jersey,

    Great pick from @Huwbot. I hadn’t appreciated that “Technic” actually predates the minifigure era, though only just.

    Judging by the amount I see for sale, these early Expert Builder sets must have done pretty well for LEGO in the late seventies.

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    By in United Kingdom,

    My first Techinc set, at age 14, which delayed my (what is now known as) 'dark ages' by a few years.

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    By in United States,

    There aren't enough pictures lifting forks.

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    By in United Kingdom,

    What i remember about this set was the number of alternative models shown on back of box. Also in those days you got instructions for at least one alternative model with the technical models (as they were called in those days)

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    By in United Kingdom,

    This was one I aspired to as a kid, but never got. It still looks good, tough.

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    By in Ireland,

    First Technic set (few years younger than Huw ;- ) and boy did I love it. So the forks are too thick and a hand crank isn't realistic. Who cares? It worked. You could drive it around and lift things.
    The turntables weren't the strongest solution but you could make steering with a small turning circle.
    Instructions in poster format and with lots of hints for other models.
    The early years of Technic were great...

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    By in United States,

    @chefkaspa:
    Maybe for a standard forklift, but you can get them with extra long forks that will pick up two pallets at a time, or you can also get form extensions that will allow one with standard forks to pick up extra long pallets. The thermoformer I used to work for had removable 6’ extensions because our plastic would be delivered on 8’ long pallets in 1/2-ton or 1-ton loads. You try picking one of those up with regular forks and you’ll just shred the pallet as the forks won’t even reach the midpoint of the pallet.

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    By in Hungary,

    Oh! My first ever LEGO set! I got it from my godfather at the age of 6. I still have it in my parent's house, and after my nephews take it apart I use to build again. Together with the 851 Tractor, which was my second LEGO set.

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    By in United Kingdom,

    Lovely lovely beams with studs!

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    By in Netherlands,

    Pure yellow greatness!

    And not a blue pin in sight....
    (nor black pins, FWIW)

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    By in Netherlands,

    Also my first Technic Set, at 6. That was the start of a lot of Technic building.

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    By in United Kingdom,

    I still have this one with box along with the car chassis from childhood days - the grand daddies of technics :-)

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    By in Netherlands,

    Finally an interesting one, as it's a theme still in use today and pioneered a system that only became more integral to regular sets over the years.
    It helps that it's not another matchbox-sized cut-and-paste design vehicle.

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    By in United States,

    The 1979 US version 950 appeared in Random Set of the Day in March 5th, 2018, almost exactly four years ago. (it's actually 14 days until the 5th, and thus the anniversary, but's who's counting?)

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    By in United Kingdom,

    I remember wanting this set for christmas 1978 having had the tractor in 1977 so imagine how i felt when i recived this and the car chassis for christmas.

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    By in Canada,

    Back in the days, you had to 'observe' in order to build a model. Building steps included more than one piece as it is customary nowadays. I did not have this set but I had (and still have) 853 and 855 so I peered at every available pictures of this from all angle possible and managed to build it (in red) out of the parts I had. Did the same with 852 which I eventually bought later on.

    Personally, I think Technic sets' frames should be build with stud beam (much stronger) and decoration/finishes can be done with whatever - studless, System(I don't mind System at all, they were very present in early Technic sets), etc, etc. A little bit like 8448 a very solid frame and a very modular building: you build all the parts of the car separately(mostly) and then you snap them together on the frame - very much like it would be done on an assembly line.

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    By in United Kingdom,

    Well into my dark age by the time this came out. My first Technic set wasn't a Technic set 802-1

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    By in United States,

    Oh, how I miss this one! It used to be part of my childhood collection, but I haven’t had those bricks in decades, alas.

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    By in Netherlands,

    Always found this a charming set. Might build it from spare parts.

    The fork seems to be held in place just by friction - I see no ratchet or worm gear to hold it in place. Can anyone confirm this?

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    By in Norway,

    This was one of my 2 sets from the launch year of technic.
    My second was the tractor and also got the 853 later

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