Random set of the day: Mail Van
Posted by Huwbot,
Today's random set is 7820 Mail Van, released during 1980. It's one of 28 Trains sets produced that year. It contains 212 pieces and 2 minifigs.
It's owned by 602 Brickset members. If you want to add it to your collection you might find it for sale at BrickLink or eBay.
99 likes
42 comments on this article
Van? Pretty sure that's a train car.
I wish I’d been able to get more train cars as a kid. I had one of those catalogs from Europe, but the only sets I could find in America were the 4.5V cargo train, some switches, a little extra track, and the car loader station thing.
I asked for it all! Probably my most played with LEGO sets other than SPACE!
I miss those big doors.
And a decent Lego train system in general.
How long did the the 12V and 9V systems last?
It feels like Lego uses a new system every one or two years, these days.
Remember Train accessory sets? RSOTD does.
Always interesting to see sets from the year I was born show up as the RSotD.
Clearly full plate, not chain.
@chrisaw said:
"Remember Train accessory sets? RSOTD does."
Pepperidge Farm remembers...
TWENTY-EIGHT Train sets released in one year!!
Now we get 1 per year, if we’re lucky!?
That’s stupid.
TLG should realise train sets would sell - especially smaller, cheap accessory sets like this one.
@MCLegoboy:
“Pepperhead Farms dismembers.”
Old radio parody series…
Got this one in a eBay LEGO lot from Australia many years ago. That along with other 12v/4.5 trains, rails, and sets.. Pricey shipping to the US but was definitely worth it!
I miss these sets. Reminds me of the Sodor Mail Coaches on Thomas and the Tank Engine.
Blimey, 28 sets released in 1 year. The golden age of trains definitely passed me by! There was 1 released the year I entered my dark age 128-3, and 1 released the year I emerged 60098-1!
What a cool set. One of the reasons Lego trains don't sell is because Lego stopped making things like this.
Imagine if the City police line was restricted to one $200 police station (with a big juniorised helicopter and police trucks). It wouldn't sell very well now would it so naturally that's going to be the same for trains.
For anyone born pretty much after the year 2000, Lego trains means 2 sets every 4 years. One $199+ passenger train on a round track (with more or less the same basic design for the last 22 years) and one $250-300 cargo train set.
Now the sets themselves aren't necessarily bad, but not many kids can afford them and overall they offer very little play value compared to the amount of Lego you could buy with $250 for example. (you could probably buy an entire City Police wave of sets with that amount of money).
What Lego needs to do as has been suggested above is make smaller, more affordable sets like a $20 shunter locomotive, then maybe a couple of rolling stock in the one set and for say $40 you've got a nice little train (suppose the rolling stock was $20 hypothetically). Allow kids to expand their railway layouts, and connect it to the new road system and you've got a hit!
Railway haters often whinge only younger kids are interested in trains. Firstly, in that case Lego should just make trains for younger kids! It's not that hard. But nevertheless I would argue more kids are interested in trains its just that they cant afford the train sets and given how boring and same-old, same-old the train sets that are released are, no wonder they choose other themes. Also the amount of themes that have had trains like Hidden Side, Monster Fighters, Disney, there was even a proposal for a Ninjago train at one stage, so there's clearly still a market out there.
I'm not saying a full evergreen theme is necessary, even if Lego just did the next run of City trains with more sets and different price ranges, like they used to do with airport (where you could buy a small plane for say $10, a medium sized passenger plane and tug for $39, an airshow for $79 or the big airport and aeroplane set for $100.
To keep the price down lego could just include track to put the train on and then have that special piece introduced in the Hidden Side train (since most young kids play with trains on the floor anyway), sell the tracks separately and at least for the cheaper trains don't include power functions, but do include a way to add power functions separately. That would significantly lower the cost of the set so that you could have a big cargo railyard set for anywhere from say $100-150, but then have smaller locomotives cheaper than that so kids can still have a train without having to buy the 'big' set.
A large, detailed station would also be nice. And as I said, include the road plates so that trains become apart of your city layout, maybe a special road piece with the track built into it for level crossings and make a cargo terminal set with a truck on road plates and train and a crane to lift containers or other cargo from one to the other.
I see 12V sets, I upvote.
PU is nice, but "Trains" as a [sub]theme will never be the same.
Woah hey I thought the vintage sets weren't until Saturday!
Can’t help to get nostalgic here. This was a great theme. Also postal trains full of packages. This set is completely 202x approved!
People wanting a massive trains nostalgia kick should check out the old train catalogues archive:
https://brickset.com/library/catalogues?query=%Train%
The scenes created for these publications were amazing.
Nice to see this! Never had it in my collection though I did get the arguably superior 7819 released a little later. But those "barn doors" on 7820 were appealing all the same even if the livery is a touch bland.
Didn't realise until browsing the instructions that this Mail Van actually incorporates a passenger compartment, though somewhat cramped with two seats squeezed in there.
I've seen these train sets in the catalogs with every new set I got but they were always out of my reach somehow.
@Brickchap
True lego got pretty lazy buildwise and very annoying with switching traincontrollers with each wave.
https://brickset.com/sets/theme-Trains/year-2001 was their last moment of creativity.
@TomKazutara said:
"Oh Lego Train accessories, where are you ?"
Who needs train sets, when we can have such wonderful alternatives like Vidiyo, Dots or Avatar...?
I wonder if the blue collar worker is saying can you give us a hand lifting this? With the reply the only hand you are going to see is the one waving at you :) Great times and lots of stories possible with such a large collection of accessories, which were affordable for grandparents and other relatives to buy at birthdays and Christmas to add to the existing train sets.
Love this set - I bought it new with birthday money when I was a kid, and stuck it on the back of my 7740 It still gets a run out every now and again!
@Brickalili said:
"Woah hey I thought the vintage sets weren't until Saturday!"
The only vintage Lego is made out of wood. All the rest belongs in RSOTD rather than having some made up categorization!
This set was the direct inspiration for my mail and baggage car MOC, with the same color scheme and a very similar interior layout, only sans passenger compartment. I wanted sliding doors instead, but the old-school ones used in conjunction with 4510 and 32028 were hard to find so I brick-built a pair (or rather, built with plates and tiles — the sliding mechanism was fashioned with a SNOT technique and still using 4510 and 32028).
@MCLegoboy said:
"Van? Pretty sure that's a train car."
You didn't ask, but "fourgon" (French, not to be confused with the English "4-gon") roughly translates to "van", and was the common name for these things in those regions for quite some time.
@Zordboy said:
"I miss those big doors.
And a decent Lego train system in general.
How long did the the 12V and 9V systems last?
It feels like Lego uses a new system every one or two years, these days."
The following has links to the history of 12V, 9V and manual sets
https://brickset.com/search?query=trains&scope=All
In the last 10 years we have just had the minimum 9V (1.5AAA x6) batteries controlled with powered up or power function controller. Only when batteries are new can the train pull 2 carriages, definitely no slopes, and fails after a few hours when voltage falls (although batteries still ok for touches). I've tried usual AAA rechargeable batteries but are only around 7.2V (1.2AAA x 6) which was not powerful enough so kids lost interest.
@sjr60 said:
" @Brickalili said:
"Woah hey I thought the vintage sets weren't until Saturday!"
The only vintage Lego is made out of wood. All the rest belongs in RSOTD rather than having some made up categorization!"
Let me guess; alive in the period they’re calling vintage and don’t like being called old?
I got into LEGO trains in 1985, those where the days when you could still pick up older sets in toy shops - so the mail van was one of my first sets. Looking back there were a few more sets I should have bought at the time.
@Brickchap:
How many public displays do you do annually? I did 13 last year, on a light schedule that didn’t start until mid-June. For 10 of those, I participated in a Town/Train display, and at one of the other three there were several other people doing Town/Train. Telling you there’s no serious market for trains isn’t whinging. That’s an objective statement of observation formed over nearly 200 public displays. Whinging is constantly begging for a full Train theme when the only way that would work would be a Duplo/4+ theme that would not be well-received by the AFOL Train community. Space and Castle are far more viable as full themes, and I’ll tell you there’s not much of a market for those, either.
For modern trains, the switch to batteries was a major stumbling point, as now not only do parents and grandparents need to shell out hefty amounts just to get a child started with trains (compared to $10-20 starter sets that other themes offer*), but now parents also need to feed it a constant supply of batteries (grandparents at least get to foist that ordeal off on their own kids). 9v was great for diesel and casual train hobbyists, but apparently has legal problems in the EU. PF was great for steam and more hardcore train hobbyists. And PU is only great for people who want to show off that they can afford one of the three smartphones that’s capable of running PU until they stop supporting the app.
If you want a train theme, there’s really only two viable paths. One is low-budget kiddie-fare with preformed train bases that have incorporated wheels and don’t need track. The other is high-end stuff like the Crocodile where you only see one set every few years, with basic support provided via fairly basic and often repetitive retail sets. Maybe you could make a package deal like the Santa Fe work, but that might just spread out the release schedule.
BTW, running trackless only works if your wheelbases are short enough that you don’t need pivoting bogeys, or if you can lock them in place like the latest Hogwarts Express. Otherwise the bogeys just pivot and drag sideways.
*A shunter engine is not a “starter set”. It still needs track, and some sort of rolling stock to give it purpose. Going that route does not make getting started affordable. It just allows you to do so “a la carte”.
I still see kids playing with toy trains. And construction equipment. And police cars.
Lego seems to have forgot the first part.
At least in Germany there is no shortage of brick built trains on offer. Locomotives, carriages, buildings, tracks as well as accessories. Hundreds of sets to choose from actually. And affordable too.
There's just one catch - they're not from LEGO ;-)
@PurpleDave said:
" @Brickchap:
How many public displays do you do annually? I did 13 last year, on a light schedule that didn’t start until mid-June. For 10 of those, I participated in a Town/Train display, and at one of the other three there were several other people doing Town/Train. Telling you there’s no serious market for trains isn’t whinging. That’s an objective statement of observation formed over nearly 200 public displays. Whinging is constantly begging for a full Train theme when the only way that would work would be a Duplo/4+ theme that would not be well-received by the AFOL Train community. Space and Castle are far more viable as full themes, and I’ll tell you there’s not much of a market for those, either.
For modern trains, the switch to batteries was a major stumbling point, as now not only do parents and grandparents need to shell out hefty amounts just to get a child started with trains (compared to $10-20 starter sets that other themes offer*), but now parents also need to feed it a constant supply of batteries (grandparents at least get to foist that ordeal off on their own kids). 9v was great for diesel and casual train hobbyists, but apparently has legal problems in the EU. PF was great for steam and more hardcore train hobbyists. And PU is only great for people who want to show off that they can afford one of the three smartphones that’s capable of running PU until they stop supporting the app.
If you want a train theme, there’s really only two viable paths. One is low-budget kiddie-fare with preformed train bases that have incorporated wheels and don’t need track. The other is high-end stuff like the Crocodile where you only see one set every few years, with basic support provided via fairly basic and often repetitive retail sets. Maybe you could make a package deal like the Santa Fe work, but that might just spread out the release schedule.
BTW, running trackless only works if your wheelbases are short enough that you don’t need pivoting bogeys, or if you can lock them in place like the latest Hogwarts Express. Otherwise the bogeys just pivot and drag sideways.
*A shunter engine is not a “starter set”. It still needs track, and some sort of rolling stock to give it purpose. Going that route does not make getting started affordable. It just allows you to do so “a la carte”."
Hi @PurpleDave
Care to develop for all (at least for me) what were the EU problems with the 9v systems? Also, do you have a page where we can see your 'displays'?
I can somewhat understand that such an extensive train theme like in the '80s is not gonna happen anymore. But I am still baffled by how little there is now, especially considering the ginormous number of sets Lego is releasing nowadays. The least they could offer would be a few cheaper sets with just a single train car as an add-on. My nephews and niece (6, 8 and 9 years old) got both of the current sets last year and some extra track packs, all they want to spend their pocket money on now is more trains....which don't exist (at least not from Lego). And I've heard this form so many other families. Every single kid loves trains. The few sets Lego has are always placed VERY prominently in shops (even when the current ones are getting old), and are always selling strong. I honestly doubt many (if any) €100+ City sets will do better.
But luckily there are other brands indeed. If Lego doesn't want our money....
@LegoSonicBoy said:
@MCLegoboy said:
[[Van? Pretty sure that's a train car.]]
You didn't ask, but "fourgon" (French, not to be confused with the English "4-gon") roughly translates to "van", and was the common name for these things in those regions for quite some time.]]
thanks for the explanation!
@ambr:
Alkalines run a nominal 1.5v per cell. Rechargeable NiMH run either 1.2v or slightly higher (1.25v?), depending on exactly what type you get. 9v batteries pack six cells in series into a brick, so 9v rechargeables that do the same just end up pushing 7.2-7.5v. Alternately, you can shop around for NiMH rechargeables that use eight cells. They don’t last as long because the cells are smaller, but they’ll push 9.6v. Since rechargeables don’t have much of a power drop off until they’re just about depleted, one of these will run about as well as an alkaline 9v that’s fresh off the production line, even when the NiMH only has a few minutes of power left.
@HOBBES:
It involved the sale and/or resale of toys that plug into the wall. European outlets run 220-240v, which can be lethal if you ground a live wire with your body, so I can see why they wouldn’t want kids playing with toys that might have frayed wires.
As for pics of layouts, look for user “decojim” on Brickshelf to see some of our older layouts. We have a few members who have uploaded a bunch of slideshow videos to YouTube, if you search for “MichLUG”.
@sjr60 said:
" @Brickalili said:
"Woah hey I thought the vintage sets weren't until Saturday!"
The only vintage Lego is made out of wood. All the rest belongs in RSOTD rather than having some made up categorization!"
THIS! THIS RIGHT HERE! Allow ALL plastic Lego sets into RSOTD! I really don't get why it's limited to after a certain arbitrary year.
Does anyone know if these 4.5v sets will roll on the modern 9v/RC track system without modifications?
@Vladtheb said:
"Does anyone know if these 4.5v sets will roll on the modern 9v/RC track system without modifications?"
AFAIK all LEGO trains from the 70s onwards are compatible as far as modern tracks are concerned. Of course they can't draw power from them, but at least rolling isn't a problem. My old trains from back then can roll on modern LEGO tracks as well as those from third party manufacturers like FX Bricks etc.
@Vladtheb:
4.5v track was based on basic System geometry. Symmetrical rails were placed on studs 2 and 7 of a 2x8 plate. 12v used the same basic idea, but upgraded with a center rail that supplied power. Looks great for subway systems, but not realistic for open air trains. 9v used the same geometry established by 4.5v, but now each section of track was molded in one section, with sheet metal crimped on the rails to supply power. RC eliminated the sheet metal and uses solid plastic track that basically brings the 9v track design back to 4.5v functionality. I think PF introduced the dreaded “flex track”, which performs equally badly as straights as it does as curves. PU, so far, hasn’t introduced any new track elements.
All of these types of track have essentially the same geometry, with rails that are the same gauge (referred to by the fan community as L-gauge, which was referenced in at least one print ad by TLG), and ties that look like 2x8 plates. Well, flex track looks like nothing else that you’ll find in System, but that’s a different issue. Anyways, because the track geometry is essentially the same, all six generations will work on any track, with HOG power. Battery power (4.5v, RC, PF, PU) will run on all L-gauge track. 12v only runs on 12v track, because there’s no compatible battery system. 9v _can_ run on all types of L-gauge track, if you connect a battery pack directly to the motor bogey (I would avoid doing this on actual 9v track, since you don’t want to run opposing currents from the battery and the track).
@PurpleDave said:
" @Vladtheb:
4.5v track was based on basic System geometry. Symmetrical rails were placed on studs 2 and 7 of a 2x8 plate. 12v used the same basic idea, but upgraded with a center rail that supplied power. Looks great for subway systems, but not realistic for open air trains. 9v used the same geometry established by 4.5v, but now each section of track was molded in one section, with sheet metal crimped on the rails to supply power. RC eliminated the sheet metal and uses solid plastic track that basically brings the 9v track design back to 4.5v functionality. I think PF introduced the dreaded “flex track”, which performs equally badly as straights as it does as curves. PU, so far, hasn’t introduced any new track elements.
All of these types of track have essentially the same geometry, with rails that are the same gauge (referred to by the fan community as L-gauge, which was referenced in at least one print ad by TLG), and ties that look like 2x8 plates. Well, flex track looks like nothing else that you’ll find in System, but that’s a different issue. Anyways, because the track geometry is essentially the same, all six generations will work on any track, with HOG power. Battery power (4.5v, RC, PF, PU) will run on all L-gauge track. 12v only runs on 12v track, because there’s no compatible battery system. 9v _can_ run on all types of L-gauge track, if you connect a battery pack directly to the motor bogey (I would avoid doing this on actual 9v track, since you don’t want to run opposing currents from the battery and the track)."
Very cool, I like how consistent they’ve kept it over the years! Now that I think about it, the brick-built rail used in the recent Crocodile Locomotive set’s display stand uses the old 4.5v track pieces, doesn’t it?.
@Vladtheb said:
"Now that I think about it, the brick-built rail used in the recent Crocodile Locomotive set’s display stand uses the old 4.5v track pieces, doesn’t it?."
Correct. At least as far as the shape is concerned. In terms of colour it is closer to the 12v system, which was light grey, whereas the 4.5v tracks were blue.
@Vladtheb:
Bricklink shows that the 4.5v track system was phased out in 1980, with Type A straights, inside curves, and outside curves being replaced with Type B versions that would attach to special clips on the 12v ties, and have slightly different tip geometry, but which otherwise look the same. Type B curves last showed up in 1985, but the straights were used through 1996 in other themes. A very recent RSotD, 6761, was one of their final appearances*. Since then, a third straight rail was introduced, which eliminated the 12v clip mounts, but kept the 12v tip geometry. These Type C straight rails have appeared from the early 00’s through today, with 60351 being their most recent appearance.
*4714 is inventoried with Type C, but shows Type B in the box art, while 4852 marks the first appearance of Type C in box art. It’s possible they used old Type B rails that were sitting around for set photography, and had to cut a new mold before putting them into production.