Why does it say it has 17 pieces if this site says it has 21 pieces?

So that's where they got the idea for graphic warnings on cigarette packs!

@chefkaspa : Never thought of 'the lift' as a catapult, more like a slingshot...also I got reeeeeally good at using tweezers to reattach the spring, which yes; was surprisingly strong...

My first LEGO set :-)

Memories….

That’s not a proper hard hat! Get this man some appropriate PPE stat!

By chance, I came by its European twin, 615, when I bought a box full of LEGO in a second hand store. The spring and the operator's cap are missing, though. I guess the former thing might be the hardest to replace when building this little set again. Maybe a small rubber band can be used?

One of the best. Perfect for pinging bricks all over the place!

@MCLegoboy: Obviously, the "slabbies" were telekinetic.

That fork assembly is very useful for Blacktron space base MOCs...

Funny how the driver has no eyes or mouth even though they would need perfect precision to line up with the brick. I never had this so does the forklift yellow plate reach all the way to the ground to slide under the brick as the black chute stops half a brick short?

I always wanted a Lego forklift as a child but some reason never got one, however I managed to get the fork part (Lego spares - back of catalogue ?) and then got a second 6607 and converted it to a forklift. - I believe I still has this made up in a box somewhere.

Never realized that forklift piece was this old.

Nice little set, nothing fancy but perfect little toy.

Used to use the spring part to launch Lego cars when I was a kid :-)

@chefkaspa:
I think we had one of these “fork” assemblies in our collection, but not from any set that I can recall (we did end up with a bunch of used parts from someone else, either through a garage sale or from friends of the family whose kids aged out). I remember having to reattach the spring, but quickly figured out that using a tool to do so made it a lot easier. I think I was using the tip of a Bic “Stick” pen. You’d just hook the loop on the narrowest section of the ballpoint end, maneuver the loop over the post, and “tip” it off as you pulled the pen free. The beauty of this solution was we had that style of pen all over the house, so you didn’t have to go hunting for something we only owned a few of (like tweezers), and you didn’t get yelled at if you forgot to put it back where it belonged (like tweezers when someone had to pull out a splinter).

@Brickalili:
Generally speaking, hardhats are not required in warehouse environments per OSHA rules in the US. If you’re assembling or repairing the pallet racking in a warehouse, sure, but the overhead cage on a forklift is considered protection enough from falling boxes.

That said, I’ve seen surveillance video from either a Jack Daniels or Jim Beam warehouse where an entire pallet of booze crashed down on the overhead cage of a forklift, and I’m thinking the operator might have wished he’d been wearing a hardhat in that instance.

@ambr:
I don’t remember if it presses flat against the ground, but the “fork” goes lower than the bottom of the mast to get within that one-plate gap under the “pallet”.

@legospaceslug:
My dad grew up in the Detroit area, and he said that back in the day, if you worked for one of the Big 3 auto brands and showed up to work in another brand of car (say, Chevy at a Ford plant), when your shift was over and you went out to the parking lot, you’d find that someone had picked it up with a forklift and deposited it in some random part of the massive parking lot. Good luck finding it in the days before key fobs. Now, they post signs indicating where you’re allowed to park other brands. It may be one of the farthest corners of the parking lot, but at least your car will be where you left it.

I don't have this one (I tend to avoid sets with these hideous figures!) but I do have 652-2 and 684-1, both with springs in good condition.
I think they suffered in the same way as the metal axles in the miniwheel assemblies. People washed them without dismantling them which led to the metal parts trapping water and rusting.

@ambr said:
"I never had this so does the forklift yellow plate reach all the way to the ground to slide under the brick as the black chute stops half a brick short?"
Yes, it goes to the ground and beyond... it's only the spring that stops it!

@PurpleDave
Damn, you yanks living on the edge. Plant operators I’m used to at least have to have a hard hat even if we all know they take it off when they’re sat in their cabin. More used to 20 ton excavators than forklifts though so maybe different calibres of vehicle means different rules

I had one! Great simple set.

My brother had this set. The forklift assembly broke long time ago.

@Brickalili:
Oh, on a construction site, driving a telehandler, yeah, hardhats are probably required. But I’m a warehouse setting, it’d probably require unusual circumstances to force the use of hardhats. Safety toe shoes/boots are usually all you need.

"This is the song written for the train chase.
This is the song, Rocky and Ken...
HE TRIED TO KILL ME WITH A FORKLIFT!"
-Mystery Science Theater 3000

@PDelahanty said:
""This is the song written for the train chase.
This is the song, Rocky and Ken...
HE TRIED TO KILL ME WITH A FORKLIFT!"
-Mystery Science Theater 3000"

That reminds me a of a German educational forklift manufacturer training video I saw once on Youtube... it's very graphic on what NOT to do with your forklift, and what can happen if you do it anyway!

@Murdoch17:
When I was working in thermoforming, my boss wanted to teach me to drive their forklift, but decided he should get certified as a forklift operator trainer first. It was probably an unnecessary step, given the fact that I was the only employee who wasn’t family, but he came back and told me about a video they had his class watch. A guy was driving a load across the street with a forklift, and left the mast fully extended. He hit power lines running overhead along the street. The charge flash-fried him before he knew what happened, and caused a US post office across the street to burn down ($3 million in damages).

In terms of danger to the operator, the most common one is probably what is politely referred to as “early departure”. This is when a forklift operator is inside the trailer, loading or unloading, and the driver is an idiot, or been given bad information by a third party, and believes they are clear to pull away from the dock. When this happens, if the forklift is near the back of the trailer, it can fall off the back of the trailer, and the operator (if they’re not using their seatbelt on a sit-down model, or if they’re using a stand-up model) can be crushed underneath a tiny forklift that weighs maybe four tons. People don’t win those fights. The other is one that’s probably more of a danger to others. One of the videos I’ve had to watch showed a Home Depot employee driving down an aisle on the sales floor, with a long narrow item laid across the forks. Sticking out several feet on either side, all it took was one bit of lapsed attention, the tip hooked one leg on the pallet racking to one side of the aisle, caused the leg to buckle, and the entire row of racking collapsed into the aisle.

The operator was _probably_ okay (aside from needing a fresh pair of undies), due to having the overhead crash cage on the operator compartment. I hat you can’t see in the video is if anyone was standing in the aisle behind the forklift, because the camera was pointed into a 4-way intersection. If the aisle had been narrower, there also would have been the possibility of that row of racking collapsing onto the next row of racking, setting up the world’s ugliest domino cascade. And any pedestrians in the direction of collapse would be unlikely to survive.

The risks they prepare for best are collision (most have flashing warning lights with 360° visibility, and obnoxious horns to get the attention of anyone in the area) and falling objects (besides the overhead crash cage, retail environments usually block off the entire aisle before anyone is so much as allowed to set up a ladder to retrieve items from a higher shelf).

With *only* 17 interlocking pieces they have created such a detailed set!

@VintageDude in Sweden, 15 Jul 2022 21:32

I own the European version of this set, 615-2 .

As a 4-year-old, I always carried it with me -
it's even pictured in my family photos taken by a proffesional photographer in a
photo shop!

Mom, dad, my baby sister, me - and the Forklift - all in the same photos...

---

Can you show us this photo?

@Murdoch17 said:

That reminds me a of a German educational forklift manufacturer training video I saw once on Youtube... it's very graphic on what NOT to do with your forklift, and what can happen if you do it anyway!]]

That would be forklift driver Klaus https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IAHzP4umE4M

@Miwa:
The knife was the best. Filming it was probably not safe, since it has breakaway blades, and I saw a few sections of blade go flying when he grabbed the handle.

@Miwa said:
[[ @Murdoch17 said:

That reminds me a of a German educational forklift manufacturer training video I saw once on Youtube... it's very graphic on what NOT to do with your forklift, and what can happen if you do it anyway!]]

That would be forklift driver Klaus https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IAHzP4umE4M
]]

Bingo; that's the one!

--
You'll have to take my word for it. My name is shown when you look at my profile. Those photos are in my mom's possession and we don't have any contact.]]
--

Not that I don't believe you. I am just curious (and maybe I'm not alone).

Wow, this brings back memories. I *think* I had this set. I certainly had something with the spring-loaded “fork” part, possibly more than one, and certainly built a very similar forklift if not this very one.