Vintage set of the week: Mobile Crane
Posted by Huwbot,
This week's vintage set is 490 Mobile Crane, released during 1975. It's one of 16 LEGOLAND sets produced that year. It contains 46 pieces.
It's owned by 339 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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37 comments on this article
brickset was down for a long time recently.
Yippie brickset is working again.
I have this set!
Hopefully this crane can fix Brickset's maintenance issues
@Lego_mini_fan said:
"brickset was down for a long time recently."
Thank goodness it wasnt just me!
This looks like a great little set. I would actually consider buying it if it wasnt for the fact that its illegal to remove the pieces from the box.
I love this little crane. Those old simple sets from the old days were great.
No, I was a bit lost without Brickset the last couple of days.
As an aside ... didn't we have this crane, last week?
Maybe it's just me, but does that claw look a bit oversized at this scale?
Also, everybody remember that March 10th, 2022 is the day that a Random Set of the Day never took place due to the site being knocked out. We need to remember to be grateful such a blessing is bestowed upon us daily.
You're back!
ITS BACK!!!!! YES!!! MY ADDICTION IS STRONG!!!!!
@Zordboy said:
"
As an aside ... didn't we have this crane, last week?"
This one is it's slightly bigger brother :)
@legomaniac:
So, like the army ant of cranes?
I so wanted this when I was a kid. Already I was a big fan of 'moving parts'. No wonder I ended up being a 'Technic-AFOL'. That said, I bought much more 'other themes' than Technic lately.
Also glad that brickset is back!
I simply adored this set as a kid. I put together and took it apart over and over. I loved playing with it, and the yellow “jaws” were the absolute coolest part ever back then. Hugely fun to pick things up with. So satisfying how they would snap shut. This set was a treasure.
Little surprised that the age recommendation was so low; Duplo was already a thing in 1975, after all.
How do we know it's not a box made of 38 pieces to store bricks in?
Yay Brickset is back!
One of the first sets I ever owned. Fond memories.
@TheOtherMike said:
"Little surprised that the age recommendation was so low; Duplo was already a thing in 1975, after all."
My first ever set was set 358 (276 pieces) at age 4 (just above the 3 years old threshold of the time!). Instructions have 8 pages - front and back are just summary so 6 pages. Hardest step was step 2 (nothing to do really in step 1) - step 2 was demanding (adding 23 parts at once) but feasible for a 4 years old (I managed). Today, step 2 would be done in probably 10,12 steps. Back then, you had to observe quite a bit to build something.
That is 3 in a row, from the vintage sets I had as a kid. Just threw the broken bucket out this winter when I cleaned out my broken pieces.
Welcome back, old friend.
Whew! I can breathe again. Maybe I need therapy. Love ya, BS!
The bucket was very functional & strong but also a pain:
- spring could come loose and was difficult to re-attach - even with kids finger
- the knob at the top could break off easily
The truck itself could only drive straight because of the double front & rear axles. (The three-axles truck from that time were much better)
It surprises me how long that bucket has been in service. I believe it was at least all the way to 2000 with 6600 Highway Construction, but I mostly remember it for featuring in 6195 Neptune Discovery Lab. So I looked it up, and it's been in use up to 2015 in 60098! Its use has been sporadical, but it's amazing that this part has remained in service for so long! The design was ahead of its time to the point where I thought 6678 must have been its first use at first because its more 1980s level rather than 1970s level useful.
Pretty cool to find out this set and 360 are its first appearance.
I have the 1974 UK version 689-1 which doesn't have the explanation of what Lego is, or where you can store the bricks, helpfully written on the box!
One of several 73/74 sets released a year or 2 later than Europe in the US.
@legomaniac said:
" @Zordboy said:
"
As an aside ... didn't we have this crane, last week?"
This one is it's slightly bigger brother :)"
Which one is the evil brother? :~P
Can you please remove the 3D views of models that don't have the correct parts? This is getting ridiculous, in this one they used parts that don't even fit together.
I hadn't realised how checking Brickset.com had become a morning ritual, until the outage hit! Thankful to Huw and the rest of the team who make this site tick.
The stuff of legends. These vintage construction themed sets from the early to mid seventies are awesome. Building things with which to build things, it didn't get much better than that back in the day. I have very fond memories of this set, and others like it. Makes me realise how lucky I was to have had them provided for me.
Outriggers optional.
The bucket seems a bit large relative to the lorry, have to be careful not to crash into it.
I remember pressing the two yellow 45 degree plastic plates together to open it was really cool. Until today I didn't know there was a plate coupling to attach it to as always seen on the end of a piece of string.
@Zander: Well, neither one has a goatee, so maybe neither one is evil?
Miss those hinge-plates...and come-to-think-of-it: I even liked the turn-table 'bricks' TLG use to make...even I never owned one until about 2-3 years ago. I mean: I love those turn-table/'pivot' plate (introduced in Technics IIRC...at least that where I first ran into 'em)...but those big round bricks were FUN. (I remember a friend having them, and making stuff like weapons platforms and such...). Oh, and the metal-axled wheels...although, I like the ones that connected to that modded 2x4 brick more...
@TheOtherMike:
That only works with mirror universe duplicates and maybe same-universe twins. With siblings from different pregnancies, there’s no guarantee that either one is evil. Or that either one is good, for that matter.
@PurpleDave: Yeah, I know, but I couldn't resist the joke.
I have just dug the yellow bucket out of my bin full of old bits and pieces - yes it has no spring and one of the plates to operate it has broken off but to be honest, all of the parts in that bucket really should be in the bin but I just can't throw them away...
I seem to remember the spring was pretty stiff and trying to attach it to my Dads ear during his post dinner nap! Miss you Dad...
This was my first set. I remember the spring eventually got lost or damaged and I replaced it with a spring from a pen. I bought a copy a few years ago and currently have it hoisted up by a more modern mobile crane.