Vintage set of the week: Basic Set

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Basic Set

Basic Set

©1973 LEGO Group

This week's vintage set is 2 Basic Set, released during 1973. It's one of 11 Universal Building Set sets produced that year. It contains 184 pieces.

It's owned by 105 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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  • 25 comments on this article

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    By in United States,

    When are we going to see "Acidic Set?"

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    By in United States,

    The box says two, but I see three...

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    By in Germany,

    @DragonLord56 said:
    "When are we going to see "Acidic Set?""

    Must have been released around '88/'89. Lots of smilies, neon colours and aciiiiiid!

    Gravatar
    By in United States,

    @DragonLord56 said:
    "When are we going to see "Acidic Set?""

    Well, the White Rabbit set 31133 just got revealed today, so...

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    By in United States,

    You can have Standard House, Lost at Sea House, or M O D E R N I S T H O M E.

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    By in United States,

    I thought minifig sets had problems with scale, but at least minifigs can fit through the front doors of their houses!

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    By in Australia,

    Bit basic, though.

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    By in United States,

    Wow, throwing some shade at the vintage garba...I mean stuff. Yeah, stuff. Totally meant to say stuff.

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    By in Australia,

    Official set number for this set - ‘2’. It was a simpler time.

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    By in Canada,

    These are all the kinds of pieces I had as a kid. Operable doors, shutters and nary a fig. Built tons of houses and dogs like those and I had very few plates. It wasn’t until 2016 when I decided to make it a LEGO Christmas for my kids that I truly saw how different LEGO was.

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    By in United States,

    @anthony_davies:
    Well, look at the people. They can only count to two! Well, four, if they hold their hands above their heads…

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    By in United States,

    This was the first/earliest year of Lego that I got as a child; I got 115 and 135, which I believe were the U.S. versions of the two sets up from this one in the line. I loved those sets and built untold numbers of creations with them. The boxes are long gone but I still have all the parts.

    Obviously very simple compared to today - but an 184-piece 3-in-1 set where you can build entire houses with yards, people and pets? Pretty darned good if you ask me.

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    By in Canada,

    I never liked the basic sets, too simple.

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    By in Norway,

    Set number 2, that's awesome. A throwback to a wonderfully simpler time! It's like someone today saying their website is a.com.

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    By in United Kingdom,

    1960s/70s Lego wasn't simple... it was difficult! It took a lot of creativity to make a good looking model out of a limited selection of bricks.

    Current Lego is too simple... if you want a certain shape, it probably already exists. The real creativity now comes more from the element designers.

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    By in United Kingdom,

    What would a complicated set have been?

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    By in United Kingdom,

    It's possible I inherited this or part of it from an older cousin. Certainly the door, windows, shutters and big green base brick are very familiar.

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    By in United States,

    @Bart_66 said:
    "I never liked the basic sets, too simple."

    2 Basic, I think you mean. ;-)

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    By in Netherlands,

    @sjr60 said:
    "1960s/70s Lego wasn't simple... it was difficult! It took a lot of creativity to make a good looking model out of a limited selection of bricks.

    Current Lego is too simple... if you want a certain shape, it probably already exists. The real creativity now comes more from the element designers."


    My thoughts exactly. I don't mind all of those pieces nowadays, but it should start with, well, the basics. I'd say sets like this are much better than nowadays 4+ sets that are basically only made to build one very specific thing. Even nowadays Classic sets contain way too many special pieces and also way too many different colors. Start simple, expand from there.

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    By in United States,

    @CCC:
    If you stopped building MOCs, that’s on you. Don’t blame the bricks. The possibilities have expanded exponentially since you were a kid.

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    By in United Kingdom,

    In set 3 they invented the wheel and set 4 the roof slope. As there are about the same 2x4 white bricks as red, you could have a red building with a white roof for Christmas!

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    By in United States,

    Those are some long necks.

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    By in Australia,

    This was my first set Christmas 1973 I still have this set boxed but well played with.

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    By in United Kingdom,

    @jasper_611 said:
    "This was my first set Christmas 1973 I still have this set boxed but well played with."
    Quite a momentous festive season. 1st Lego set and 1st year of 'Merry Xmas Everybody'.... Could Christmas get any better!

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    By in Slovenia,

    My first set was 40-1. It was a great set.

    Saso

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