Vintage set of the week: Stage Coach
Posted by Huwbot,
This week's vintage set is 697 Stage Coach, released during 1976. It's one of 28 LEGOLAND sets produced that year. It contains 95 pieces.
It's owned by 437 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
Illegal technique... Shame on you LEGO. I know you didn't know at the time, and this instance is relatively harmless, but tsk tsk.
Why is it, in a set that has:
- the fig "sit" by detaching his legs
- illegal plate-ears
- a beautiful stetson
- plenty of blockiness to go around
... that I am most interested in the rubber tires on a horse-drawn carriage?
Stick 'em up, stage driver!
Er... nevermind. You don't have any arms to reach for the sky with in any case. Just point me towards the safe...
@MCLegoboy said:
"Illegal technique... Shame on you LEGO. I know you didn't know at the time, and this instance is relatively harmless, but tsk tsk."
Well, the era this is depicting was called the "Wild West" for reason...
Daww. I have a soft spot for brick-built horses are always cute.
I can just imagine the conversation between the original minifigs and the modern ones. Well, look at mister fancy-pants who can sit down without being bisected!"
@Murdoch17: You have to have arms to point, too.
The fig looks like it came out of a Las Vegas magic show gone bad.
So vintage that it was the good ol' days of the horse and carriage.
I continue to be stunned that years before the first minifigures there were already cowboy hats.
It's absolutely no chicken or egg situation, the minifig was made for cowboy hats to go on.
@TheOtherMike said:
"I can just imagine the conversation between the original minifigs and the modern ones. Well, look at mister fancy-pants who can sit down without being bisected!"
@Murdoch17: You have to have arms to point, too."
That's kinda the "point" of the joke. ;-)
That looks like one horse with two heads. I love it.
Poor horse must have been neighing in a high voice judging by how it's harnessed to the stage coach!
Looks like you get in and out like with the General Lee. Good thing you can split yourself to do it, too.
I didn’t know you could crossbreed horses with giraffes.
@Formendacil:
Ever been to Mackinac Island?
@SideSalad:
They had three headgears available in those days. Best I can tell, cowboy hat meant male, pigtails meant female, and then they did an officer cap for people in uniform.
Love those old wheels
Wait wait wait, is that one horse that seems to have two heads, or is that two very thin horses with only two legs each?
It took Lego until 2013 to release a remake of this set, and then it was part of the Lone Ranger movie merchandise. Whatever. It was a red stagecoach for minifigs, therefore it was a remake of this set!
I liked it very much as a child - everything was simply fitting
@Shadowcloner said: "That looks like one horse with two heads. I love it. "
I can't not see it, now.
What if this stage coach stumbled upon 215 Indians?
Had this as a kid and loved it. It didn't go with anything else I had but it was just a nice model to build.
Yes, blocky and illegal and all that, but this was 1976 so who cared? We hadn't seen Technic or Space or Castle yet...
I'm pretty sure there were no turntables, so this thing could only go straight. I wonder what happened when it reached the west coast? Or a curved ravine? Or a tree?
@SideSalad, it's even crazier to think that the cowboy hat disappeared for decades, only rarely used in Town. And then we got the Western theme in 1996. And then they disappeared again!
You wouldn't think the part from those sets from a brsnd new theme were THAT old!
@Binnekamp said:
"I'm pretty sure there were no turntables, so this thing could only go straight. I wonder what happened when it reached the west coast? Or a curved ravine? Or a tree?
But who needs turntables when you have modified plates with towball? So of course it could turn
"
There were turntables, but they were 4x4 and a brick tall.
Oops. I forgot the 2x2 turnable. There were 4x4 round ones I think. And yeah... i forgot that the towball is also older than the minifig because of its use in those 4-wide vehicles of the era.
Fun to see this, wow, 1976. I think I may have been unknowingly channeling nostalgia for it when I picked up 79108 and most of the Lone Ranger sets (missed the train) as an opportunity to revisit the West.
I've been through the desert on a horse with two heads
It felt good to be out of the dreads
In the desert you can't remember your heads
'Cause there ain't no one for to give you your meds
La la la la la la...
Now that I think of it, back in the day I probably had more of those cowboy hats than hairpieces....
Ah, memories. Had this set as a kid. Love the possibilities of today, but also the limitations from back then.
Bisecting the minifig to have it "sit". It simply worked.
I would have thought the larger spoked wheels would be more appropriate, maybe this is the boy racer version. Some vintage doors would allow access inside, although there is not much legroom or headroom, so you would need to leave your legs or stetson on the luggage rack. Strangely this cowboy did not swallow a 2x1 plate as in 617 .
What is the illegal technique? I don't understand.
@LegoEveryone said:
"What is the illegal technique? I don't understand."
The ears... plates wedged between studs. Fairly common back then!
@LegoEveryone:
The tops of the horses’ heads are 2x2 plates. Wedged between the studs are the edges of 1x2 plates. The 1x2 studs rest right on top of the 2x2 studs, preventing them from fully seating. Shifting them half a stud to either side lets them fit into the gap, and that allows the edge of the 1x2 plate to rest right on top of the 2x2. A jumper plate fits on grid without intersecting studs, but I don’t believe this has ever been done in an official set.
The other problem is thickness. The plate is just a tiny bit too thick to fit between the studs like that without stressing the parts. A tile is just thin enough to fit without stress, as well as avoiding any issues with studs. This was probably most recently done with the US flag in the Ideas Saturn V, but the earliest use I’ve encountered is 375/6075, where the horses looked very similar to these but with tiles for ears instead of plates.
And from the top: one and two, and one and two; and move toward the back...whoops, wrong kinda' "Stage Coach":)
Beyond that...see this set makes me want to watch a truly classic western: Blazing Saddles:D
Loved this set as a kid, was so happy getting 365 as an adult.
It's interesting (to me at least) that there were so many different designs for the brick-built horses -- I'd have thought they'd all be variations on a theme, but those in 372 and 726 and 375-2 and this set are all quite distinct from each other.
Almost forgot: Reeeeeally don't like those horses. The brick-built ones TLG put in the Castle/Kingdom series are a lot better, especially in the jousting set 6083 . Not talking about the 'ears', just the overall head 'shape'...
I got this when I was a little boy. Loved it so much.