Random set of the day: Derby Trotter
Posted by Huwbot,
Today's random set is 6355 Derby Trotter, released during 1989. It's one of 23 Town sets produced that year. It contains 140 pieces and 1 minifig, and its retail price was US$14.
It's owned by 2,002 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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41 comments on this article
Lego horses really haven't changed all that much, huh? (yes I see that it can't rear, but the head already moves down)
I know it says Derby Trotter, but my mind keeps thing Dirty Trawler. Not sure why.
This is the worst Ben Hur LEGO tie in ever...
1) the chariot is a sit-down model, not the stand up from the movie!
2) The minifig looks nothing like Charlton Heston
3) Not much of a dangerous race without the bad-guy's chariot featuring the spike-wheels!
I like this set. Might try to get my hands on a copy one day.
Im sure that due to inflation 14USD may have been a lot back when this was out, but still seems like a fairly good deal for 14 bucks, Horse and figure, a little building two 16x16 baseplates, shovel and broom, plus you get the black construction helmet along with a black saddle with one clip on it .
Another charming, clean, simple set. Love it.
I love this set. Have it currently built, along with a number of other Leisure subtheme sets. Honestly one of my favorite Town subthemes, they are just perfect for building out all the non-chase non-fight stuff a good Lego town needs!
I wish Lego would make something like this again. Friends seems to have snagged all the good designers in these sort of themes (vs Icons/Ideas and SC), but I can't get onboard with minidolls so I guess it's just vintage building for me.
I remember begging (successfully, as it turns out) my parents to buy me this set after we visited a Lego show down in the city. I still have it, over the years, this little stable featured in a lot of my Lego storylines. I know the rider eventually got married, and I ended up adding another horse to the stable. It's still together, but a lot of the bricks are a bit yellower than they used to be.
Those saloon type barn doors are the best. And the Technic wheels are perfect for this.
I just mentioned this set in a comment the other day about how City doesn't do that many horse-themed sets, and most of those are trailers. I liked how they did the whip.
@ItisNoe: They did some slight changes to the shaping when they added the rearing functionality, so I'm not sure if the new horses are still compatible with the horse barding piece.
@madforLEGO: That fourteen dollars would translate to about thirty-five dollars nowadays. Doesn't seem like such a good deal anymore, does it? Although the database lists the cost for a used copy as twenty-eight dollars (not sure how that's calculated), which is a little better. And certainly better than the two-hundred-plus cost listed for a new copy!
@MeisterDad: And the wheels were in a trans color, too! I always love getting pieces that are usually opaque in trans colors, or vice versa.
I wish they made that tire in either reddish-brown or white, as that wheel is what I ended up having to use to make the wagon wheel window on the Home Alone garage.
@NotProfessorWhymzi said: "We just need two more main characters, one of whom is physically incapable of making good decisions."
Well, I'm free this week.
Is that saddle on the very left floating, or is there a ghost horse included in this set?
Lovely design. Good example of not needing a gazillion colors in a set.
@Snifflegully said:
"Is that saddle on the very left floating, or is there a ghost horse included in this set?"
My guess is the grey piece with a bar connection is attached to the saddle clip. Can anyone confirm that lol?
Its hilarious that 140 pieces set has more playability than some of todays 700+ pieces sets.
Quite sad to be honest
@ekayto said:
" @Snifflegully said:
"Is that saddle on the very left floating, or is there a ghost horse included in this set?"
My guess is the grey piece with a bar connection is attached to the saddle clip. Can anyone confirm that lol?"
When you click this set number you go to the details about it and there is '3d view' option, ehere you can rotate, zoom in and out however you want and you can see the 1x2 plate with vertical shaft used as a means to connect the saddle. Alternatively you can see the instructions online. But I think the 3d view option is very underrated on brickset.
Ok, what’s the plot? Where’s the drama? Who’s the bad guy? Not even a fire og a policeofficer in it!
He is going to fall off that thing the first time the horse picks up speed
One of my favourite sets from my childhood (I was nine in 1989). I still own it, but I used some parts to recreate 9469.
@NotProfessorWhymzi said:
""Derby Trotter" makes me think of a British sitcom. we just need two more main characters, one of whom is physically incapable of making good decisions."
Then we can answer the immortal question - why do only fools and horses work?
@thor96 said:
" @ekayto said:
" @Snifflegully said:
"Is that saddle on the very left floating, or is there a ghost horse included in this set?"
My guess is the grey piece with a bar connection is attached to the saddle clip. Can anyone confirm that lol?"
When you click this set number you go to the details about it and there is '3d view' option, ehere you can rotate, zoom in and out however you want and you can see the 1x2 plate with vertical shaft used as a means to connect the saddle. Alternatively you can see the instructions online. But I think the 3d view option is very underrated on brickset."
The 3D view doesn’t work on all platforms, e.g. iPhone. Other tabs - images, parts etc - work fine.
Another old set with an image of absolutely impeccable quality. It looks like it just came out today!
I recently came across this one. My mind wanted to place it in Paradisa, but it's not. It just aged far better than the other 1989 sets because there's no tiny sized car as was typical of the era. A very interesting set for being ahead of its time.
I love the color scheme on the building. It would almost look classy if it hadn't been for the blue doors. Looks roomy too. And those lights outside add some nice realism. And there're even a cute little smokestack!
With the plain torso and smiley face on the fig, with those blue doors and red "shingling," this set has a real 1980s feel to it, giving it an unknown, mysterious quality to me (at least when talking Town sets), but I like it: it's like a depinked Paradisa set, and I was always very fond of the idea of Paridisa's horse-related sets (never had one, mind).
The 16x16 grey baseplate is also quite desirable.
Why can't Lego just look like this? I hate all the different colours we have now. It was better when we just had a more limited colour palette. That's what I dislike the most about new lego.
@Ridgeheart:
To be fair, I’m pretty sure Coral causes macular degeneration, like playing your stereo at a volume the speakers aren’t rated to handle.
Hey, it's NBA superstar Nikola Jokic
I wish LEGO would go back to issuing more equestrian sets in minifig ranges. Don't get me wrong, Friends has some of the best set designs in the entire LEGO range, but I have never been sold on minidoll or large animal designs in the sets. We have 60327, and that's about it (after a dry spell of several years). I have long been hoping the new foal mold sees some use in standard sets.
This little set is really nice. Back when I rode horses a lot about 15 years ago, I rode in a similar carriage. Not exactly that pleasant when you're on the rear end of a horse. Provided, people got around on horses around here well into the 1930s, and farmers didn't really quit using horses and mules until 4WD tractors became common in the '70s and '80s.
I am blaming the RSOTD for the Bricklink bender of horses, foals, and equestrian-related minifigs I'm about to do. I have only two horses (the old brown one from 7635 and Silver (my only new mold horse) from one of the Lone Ranger sets.
I mostly associate this set with the Blackpool Illuminations.
Why? Well, back when I was reeeeeeally little, my parents and I went up to see them. I don't have very clear memories of a lot of it, but one thing I do remember - and have the photos in the family album to prove it - was that one of the displays was Lego-themed, with large-scale illuminated renditions of certain Town minifigures and sets. And the one I remember most clearly was very distinctly based off this set.
I didn't realise it at the time; I was too young to have much awareness of Lego's catalogue of sets, it was just like "oh, it's Lego so it must be cool". But ever since I've been regularly visiting Brickset, when this set turned up in my browsing I realised very quickly that I recognised it from there.
Which, I dunno. I find it a pretty cool association ^^
-
(For reference, that must have been early-mid 90s. I don't know how many years the Lego display was there for, but I know it was a good decade or so until we visited the Illuminations again and by then it was no longer part of the display.)
@TheOtherMike I checked the barding piece on the new horse mould because I was curious, and the old barding piece still fits perfectly fine! Obviously it blocks the rearing motion, and it helps to have the neck lowered a little to put it on and take it off since the new horse has a slightly wider, more defined head, but otherwise no issues.
Not too surprising since the newer horse sticks very closely to the original profile, just with more rounded edges and natural shapes, but still very nice to see.
I also did not realise there has been a new barding element for 10 years now... looks very similar, but with a smoother bottom edge, but with a wider opening at the front to fit the head, and a longer one at the back to accommodate the tail when the horse rears.
This was one of the rare sets I owned as a kid. Next to couple of golden era castle ones.
I loved those old horse molds. New ones just do not seem so clean and smooth any more, regardless of the rounded molds. Luckily I have around 500-ish of them, and can ignore the new ones.
I am also unhappy that the more horse inclined sets are now mostly within the Friends lines. Friends also got all the cool horse coats with their "Friendly" horse molds (also couple of versions now).
And if the new set (even a castle) has two horses it is a grand exception...
@madforLEGO said:
"Im sure that due to inflation 14USD may have been a lot back when this was out, but still seems like a fairly good deal for 14 bucks, Horse and figure, a little building two 16x16 baseplates, shovel and broom, plus you get the black construction helmet along with a black saddle with one clip on it ."
It's about $34 in today's money (I know you were talking about how much it was then, probably compared to avg income), but for $34 you can get alot more nowadays. This shows the efficiency improvements by Lego (manufacturing, packaging, etc) and the larger economy(shipping, raw materials, etc). Yes, I'd still buy this set if it was $14 today, and they could probably still sell it at that price (I'm sure they'd remove the baseplate though), but I would not buy it for $34! And I imagine most would agree.
That all being said and also @cody6268 's comments, I agree about equestrian sets. This would be a great re-imagined gift with purchase (or just re-imagined old set as most of us would prefer!).
@cody6268:
I have a dozen of the demonic horses the LotR Ringwraiths ride. I wasn't really trying for that many, but I built one copy of the set...and then I found them marked down 50% at Meijer. I quickly hit every store in the area and bought five more copies so I could have a complete set of nine mounted Ringwraiths...and discovered that someone had stolen some of the contents of one copy (Bag 1, with the Ringwraiths and their horses, was completely missing, and the other bags had been opened and all the other minifig parts and most of the accessories had been pilfered). I was able to get _some_ of the missing parts replaced when I called Consumer Affairs. I know I got the Ringwraiths, horses, saddles, and swords from Bag 1, but I don't remember if I got replacement parts for Aragorn or the Hobbits.
@Rob42:
All forms of the minifig-horse saddle work with all forms of the minifig-horse (obviously the minidoll-horse is a different story). The barding sorta works with the modern horse. The horsey-hats, on the other hand, don't work at all on modern horses, and I'm not aware of any that have been created to work with them since they were introduced.
In the mid 90s I found a copy of this set in a Toys R Us. Even as a kid I could tell the set was older than normal and I bought it on sight for the sheer novelty of it.
Dunno what happened, guess they must have found a copy hiding in the back room or something. I still love the harness racer’s wheels and the little grooming station in the barn.
@Captain_Soybeard said:
"Why can't Lego just look like this? I hate all the different colours we have now. It was better when we just had a more limited colour palette. That's what I dislike the most about new lego."
It's a pain when piecing things together on Bricklink, I know that much. OK, I've got a plate I want to use in a model, and now I want a few more in the same colour. But is that colour Medium Lavender, Light Medium Lavender, Dark Medium Lavender, Distressed Lavender, Watery Purple or Wan Pink?
(Of course, "chuck it and do everything in Blacktron black and yellow" is another valid reaction in this situation.)
@Rob42: As I said, I wasn't sure. The only barding I'm sure I have without going on a Bricklink deep dive is the one in 8777, and that's in storage right now. And I hadn't played with it in a while even before it went into storage, I think I remember trying the barding from that one on one of the newer horse molds, but couldn't remember the result.
For some reason, I think the "Thill for Gig" part (aka: 'the hitch') is really underrated. I've been look at different thing it could be used for outside out of horses, and...WOOOW.:) My fave is stuff like: hovering scanners for 'Space', the base for motorcycles/scooter (w/some Akira-like results)...just a really good part, and come in so many colors (well between it's original and later version).
@PurpleDave: They made a new horsey hat (part 13745), but it was only used in three sets of the 2013 Castle theme (70401, 70402, 70404), and hasn't been seen since.
@thor96 said:
" @ekayto said:
" @Snifflegully said:
"Is that saddle on the very left floating, or is there a ghost horse included in this set?"
My guess is the grey piece with a bar connection is attached to the saddle clip. Can anyone confirm that lol?"
When you click this set number you go to the details about it and there is '3d view' option, ehere you can rotate, zoom in and out however you want and you can see the 1x2 plate with vertical shaft used as a means to connect the saddle. Alternatively you can see the instructions online. But I think the 3d view option is very underrated on brickset."
yes, you can see Light Gray Plate, Modified 1 x 2 with Bar Arm Up in the online instructions and on the bricklink inventory.
An awesome set, wish we got sets like these now. Those wheels would be great for vintage cars too.
I also like how this is a regular Town set that is neither for boys or girls. It's a bit of a catch 22 how Friends has actual town/city stuff that is useful (instead of increasingly unrealistic cartoony police & fire over and over), but everything is pink or 'way out' colours. (plus minidolls which are annoying, minifigures are better)
@PurpleDave said:
" @Ridgeheart :
To be fair, I’m pretty sure Coral causes macular degeneration, like playing your stereo at a volume the speakers aren’t rated to handle."
I like that LEGO added more normal bricks in coral this year with 11027 and 11030 introducing 1x1 , 1x4 , 2x2, 2x4 and 2x6 for the first time.
And more Vibrant Yellow bricks via 11022 and 11027 as well.
Those colors are generally too overwhelming as main colors, but as accents