Random set of the day: Fire Engine
Posted by Huwbot,
Today's random set is 6486 Fire Engine, released during 1997. It's one of 47 Town sets produced that year. It contains 64 pieces and 1 minifig, and its retail price was US$10.
It's owned by 1,088 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
Brave little firefighter, I too would run from that horrible contraption.
People are no doubt going to complain about the juniorization, but this set also has only 7 steps with one sub assembly. A set like this today for the Juniors line would have way more, at least double. Just because it's simple doesn't mean LEGO was necessarily holding back in the assembly process. But yeah, this one's a bit odd looking. Also came with two instruction sheets, like, that's really weird, too.
If all else fails, the firefighter launches surface-to-air missiles to level the burning building to save the rest of the city block I guess?
I had an updated version of this set. This looks horrible, but I love it to death.
@Rimefang:
He's not going to get very far away, if he doesn't let go of that hose. It's just the little golf cart, so I could see him actually being able to pull that behind him without wrenching his back out of shape. Someone else will have to be sent to retrieve the detached trailer-looking thing.
Ah, the mid 90s.
Still, I'm just going to say it. Printed pieces.
Oh no. Red Engines again. Controversial.....
100% would have bought this if I wasn't born 9 years after release
The juniorization era (1997–2000) coincided with a time when Lego felt the need to randomly make sets S-at-H exclusive in the U.S.
Other Town Jr. sets that were exclusive in the U.S.: 6564, 6566, 6548, 6420, 6325, 6422, 6329, 6330, 6439, 6425, 6447, 6435, 6464, 6423.
@MCLegoboy said:
"Also came with two instruction sheets, like, that's really weird, too."
That was pretty normal for the Town Jr. era.
@phi13 said:
"The juniorization era (1997–2000) coincided with a time when Lego felt the need to randomly make sets S-at-H exclusive in the U.S.
Other Town Jr. sets that were exclusive in the U.S.: 6564, 6566, 6548, 6420, 6325, 6422, 6329, 6330, 6439, 6425, 6447, 6435, 6464, 6423."
That is strange, because a lot of those sets were available in any toy store, here in Australia. I remember buying a few.
Ok, ok, ok...it's fired, happy now TLG...yesh, probably had three days 'til retirement...:D
Or...is this the 'engine' that generates the 'ring of fire' from a few days ago.:)
The rare fire engine/dune buggy combo
Do you actually have to plug the hose into the trailer somehow, so that the truck can tow it?
@cm5878:
You lasso it with the hose, as one would with a sea turtle.
Cute set. Would’ve loved this as a kid.
Great play value in a small package.
If mom got me this, would’ve been hours of fun.
@cm5878
No, there’s a small ball joint back of fire buggy to attach to trailer:
Printed parts and even small alt builds too!
I just can't give it a like. Some things (and people, too) in life just exist to make others look prettier. =/
At the time this released I was seven years old and just happened to be in a lego firefighter phase, so of course I got this one. Back then I already saw that it was juniorized (older sets were way more fun to build) and its form seemed somewhat strange to me, but only today I see just how strange. Still, fond memories of this one, especially since I always found the interplay between helmet, mask and oxygen tanks fascinating.
Would you believe me if I told you this is one of the better looking Town Jr vehicles? It's at least consistent with the white line, there's some functionality to everything, and it overall looks very undersized and cuter due to it.
It just doesn't look in any way like a real fire engine. Everything outside of Town Jr did it better. And Town, World City and City did this subtheme miles better! They never should have let juniorization escape to other themes, and they never should have discontinued not-jr Town sets!
But there's far more horrid designs in Town Jr.
You just wait...
Speaking of, why is there no Town Jr tag in the database? I'm pretty sure that it was the actual marketing term and thus sub-theme name, at least in 1997 when these came out!
EDIT: I've checked. Apparently it wasn't. Learnt something new.
Fun fact: Town Jr is the first major step to numbered bag building. So without it we wouldn't have gotten to builds like The Titanic being doable.
@Binnekamp said:
"Fun fact: Town Jr is the first major step to numbered bag building. So without it we wouldn't have gotten to builds like The Titanic being doable."
LOL Imagine the Titanic coming in a box from the early 1990s.
Has a giant flap on the front of the box showing off a few large pieces, then approx. 80 of those old cellophane bags with the holes in them inside rattling around.
You get one instruction manual the size of a phone book with no callouts on which pieces to add at each step.
@WemWem said:
" @Binnekamp said:
"Fun fact: Town Jr is the first major step to numbered bag building. So without it we wouldn't have gotten to builds like The Titanic being doable."
LOL Imagine the Titanic coming in a box from the early 1990s.
Has a giant flap on the front of the box showing off a few large pieces, then approx. 80 of those old cellophane bags with the holes in them inside rattling around.
You get one instruction manual the size of a phone book with no callouts on which pieces to add at each step.
"
Except for the phone book size. That's a post-2010 feature.
@jkb said:
" @WemWem said:
" @Binnekamp said:
"Fun fact: Town Jr is the first major step to numbered bag building. So without it we wouldn't have gotten to builds like The Titanic being doable."
LOL Imagine the Titanic coming in a box from the early 1990s.
Has a giant flap on the front of the box showing off a few large pieces, then approx. 80 of those old cellophane bags with the holes in them inside rattling around.
You get one instruction manual the size of a phone book with no callouts on which pieces to add at each step.
"
Except for the phone book size. That's a post-2010 feature."
It would also only have about 850 pieces.
@cm5878 said:
" @jkb said:
" @WemWem said:
" @Binnekamp said:
"Fun fact: Town Jr is the first major step to numbered bag building. So without it we wouldn't have gotten to builds like The Titanic being doable."
LOL Imagine the Titanic coming in a box from the early 1990s.
Has a giant flap on the front of the box showing off a few large pieces, then approx. 80 of those old cellophane bags with the holes in them inside rattling around.
You get one instruction manual the size of a phone book with no callouts on which pieces to add at each step.
"
Except for the phone book size. That's a post-2010 feature."
It would also only have about 850 pieces."
The closest match would be 10030 Imperial Star Destroyer from 2002. That booklet was so large it used ring binding! I can't really find if it used bags anymore, but if it did then it sure isn't clear in the instructions! In 1997 the biggest set up to that point was 5571 Giant Truck from the previous year, at least AFAIK.
First generation "star wars" set. Very funny.
@Zordboy said:
"Ah, the mid 90s.
Still, I'm just going to say it. Printed pieces."
Unless I’m misremembering, I thought that side piece was a sticker. Someone who still owns it can clarify though.
According to the inventory on Bricklink everything is printed. There are no stickers in this set.
@paulvdb said:
"According to the inventory on Bricklink everything is printed. There are no stickers in this set."
Ok, nice. I must be thinking about a similar piece that floated around in my Lego pile as a kid. :D
@Binnekamp:
If they hadn’t already gotten the idea in their heads, I suspect 10179 would have pushed them in that direction. It had almost 5000pcs, I think 80 bags, and there were as many as nine repeated copies of the same bag. Parts were divided up between these repeated bags, with any remainders being added to a couple catch-all bags. And this whole system may have resulted in them shorting the 1st Edition sets by _one_pair_ of 2x4 wedge plates, and apparently made it so difficult to correct directly that my copy had one extra bag that contained nothing but 23 left and 24 right. That’s the full complement of the set, making sure that however many you got shorted, there were definitely enough to build the set out of the box. This system likely would have resulted in tons of packing errors, and would have made correcting them difficult. If correcting the error changes the way it divides, do you reallocate things according to the original system, or do you just ignore it and pack the parts in whatever bag makes sense? Or do you finish out the current run the way they did with the first UCS MF, by overcompensating with a separate bag that assumes you didn’t get any? Overages might be too difficult to correct to be worth bothering.
I haven’t opened my copy yet, but I believe I could build the UCS MF2 in less time than the first version, even with 60% more pieces, just because the second was packed for efficiency of assembly, and the first was for efficiency of packing. Any corrections to the second version would have only involved a single bag, and been fairly easy as a result. And then there’s all the phone calls they’d end up fielding, complaining about how hard it is to find any of the parts you need for each step. For sure, they would have lost customers if they’d continued down that road. It makes sense for mosaics, where you can pack whole bags of one part, but sets that use hundreds of unique elements in smaller quantities.
@Zordboy said:
" @phi13 said:
"The juniorization era (1997–2000) coincided with a time when Lego felt the need to randomly make sets S-at-H exclusive in the U.S.
Other Town Jr. sets that were exclusive in the U.S.: 6564, 6566, 6548, 6420, 6325, 6422, 6329, 6330, 6439, 6425, 6447, 6435, 6464, 6423."
That is strange, because a lot of those sets were available in any toy store, here in Australia. I remember buying a few."
It was especially strange for this set, considering 6407 and 6554 had normal availability.
As godawful as this set is, there is something endearing about it.. maybe its the fact it has a trailer, a string fire hose, and a firefighter with the breathing apparatus..But then again.. those awful Junior-ized frames making everything look like an off- road vehicle and those lazy printed slopes with headlights and grill.
@Binnekamp said:
" @cm5878 said:
" @jkb said:
" @WemWem said:
" @Binnekamp said:
"Fun fact: Town Jr is the first major step to numbered bag building. So without it we wouldn't have gotten to builds like The Titanic being doable."
LOL Imagine the Titanic coming in a box from the early 1990s.
Has a giant flap on the front of the box showing off a few large pieces, then approx. 80 of those old cellophane bags with the holes in them inside rattling around.
You get one instruction manual the size of a phone book with no callouts on which pieces to add at each step.
"
Except for the phone book size. That's a post-2010 feature."
It would also only have about 850 pieces."
The closest match would be 10030 Imperial Star Destroyer from 2002. That booklet was so large it used ring binding! I can't really find if it used bags anymore, but if it did then it sure isn't clear in the instructions! In 1997 the biggest set up to that point was 5571 Giant Truck from the previous year, at least AFAIK."
In between 10030 and 5571 there was also 3450-1 Statue of Liberty, which took the honour of being Lego's largest retail set inbetween those other two sets.
I got this as a stocking stuffer at Christmas as a kid. It was disappointing to say the least. I had the set 6643 that I preferred.
Using the "fire truck" tag to search, the previous System fire truck was 6614 Launch Evac 1, which has nearly twice the piece count for about the same cost. Sure, it wasn't red, and it has STAMP issues that limit three of the parts, but it contains all the amenities (minus one barrel for the water cannon, plus a hammer and spare extinguisher) on less axles. Also, it fits well with the 6346 Shuttle Launching Crew procession.
10740 : Fire Patrol Suitcase was a more modern "junior" version of this
7942 : Off-Road Fire Rescue probably comes closer to a normal City version, or 60111 : Fire Utility Truck if bigger
In the UK, this was named 'Fire Ranger.' As others have said, it might actually be the best Town Jr vehicle. I regret giving mine away. I hope the next owner loved it.