@Harmonious_Building:
It's the stickers. 7235-1 has red and green Police stickers. 7235-2 is the same set but with blue police stickers.

I remember getting two of these(the blue sticker version) from my brothers as a birthday gift. They also gave me 8402 for police chases. I was a big fan of the show CHiPS at the time.

This, the accompanying police car and transport van are only sets I know of whose variants are defined by sticker colour -- as opposed to box colour (as in a few Star Wars Original Trilogy sets) or main part colour. (as in 10030). I am sure I have seen something from much earlier with the same distinction, but I can't remember it now, right before beddie bye time.

@MeisterDad:
What about the various airline-branded jets, or the soccer sets?

I got this in a charity shop. Unfortunately it’s missing a wheel. He can only ride wheelie style which is obviously a bit awkward being a cop and all.

I got this as a gift but I've never liked the size, it's just too big. And the parts a re so speialized, it's not easy to use them in any other way. Right now it sits on the shelf, rather than cruising in the town.

'Dawn take you all, and be stone to you!' said a voice that sounded like William's. But it wasn't. For just at that moment the light came over the hill, and there was a mighty twitter in the branches. William never spoke for he stood turned to stone as he stooped; and Bert and Tom were stuck like rocks as they looked at him. And there they stand to this day, all alone, unless the birds perch on them; for trolls... must be underground before dawn, or they go back to the stuff of the mountains they are made of, and never move again....

I never really liked these motorcycles, I was so accustomed to seeing the dirt bikes from the LEGO Indiana Jones Motorcycle Chase set that when I got the 2012 Catwoman set I didn’t love the design of the upholstery (is that what I’d call it?). Ironically, this piece would’ve been more accurate for the Indiana Jones motorcycles, but for whatever reason (LEGO wanted to reuse the mold after previously introducing it in a Batman set, they felt the need to distance the design from the ones Nazis used IRL, etc.) we got the dirt bikes instead, which I still have way more of.

Not this one but the earlier, 7235-1, was one of the first City sets I ever got. A small set, but I have fond memories with it.

@PhantomBricks said:
"I remember getting two of these(the blue sticker version) from my brothers as a birthday gift. They also gave me 8402 for police chases. I was a big fan of the show CHiPS at the time."

I have 5 siblings. I never received any kind of gift from any of them until I was an adult (we were raised by wolves).

Jealous.

@cm5878 said:
"Absolutely millions of these must have been sold, they seem to have turned up in practically every bulk lot I've bought over the years. Along with the 7239 fire truck. "

Ayy the 7239 was one of if not my first LEGO (city) sets ever! I distinctly remember building at my neighbours' house, althugh I don't remember if they actually gave it to me...

It is also currently the oldest set in my collection, although that might change soon as I am looking into getting some Vintage sets like 8855 and some classic space stuff...probably spyrius because it is comperatively cheap on the aftermarket and I like the asthetic...

@Ridgeheart: Your story reminds me of my brother's birthday last ywar, when I gave him 76908. Since he turned forty that year, I got him a midlife-crisis-mobile.

@Rimefang: Any particular reason you just quoted The Hobbit?

@Trigger_: The piece used here is too modern for the motorcycles used in The Last Crusade. I think they used the dirt bikes because there were no better options at the time. Better options have appeared since, though.

@bookmum said:
"I got this in a charity shop. Unfortunately it’s missing a wheel. He can only ride wheelie style which is obviously a bit awkward being a cop and all."

The Unicycle Squad was a very short lived division of Lego City’s police departments

Got this as a reward from my speech therapist when I was five I think. I got the exact same model from 7744 a year previously so I didn't give it much attention. I did build it, but I have no idea where its gone to.

I remember this set - well, the -1 version - because my friend bought it from Legoland one year. For a while by that point, my annual birthday treat had been a trip to Legoland Windsor (since we live too far away to make it a regular thing, but still near enough that we could make a single day-trip of it) because of, you know, my obsession with most things Lego. 2006 was the final time we did that, because it was the last year I was still able to get in under child ticket prices - after that I would have counted for adult prices, which my parents deemed too expensive.

And we'd always taken one friend or other on these trips too, because theme parks are always more fun with someone else. I would guess that the guy who came with us that time probably felt like he were growing out of Lego by that point (as my other friends already had; I was the only one refusing to let go!); but he still brought himself this set as a little souvenir, and that memory of it has stuck with me.

...meanwhile I, still deep in the Lego-obsessed hole for another couple of years, splurged out all my birthday money to get 6210 instead!

Ah yes, the motorcycle they've been selling for 5+ years in various guises. It was the 31058 Mighty Dinosaurs or 31088 Deep Sea Creatures of its day in terms of sheer longevity, although technically the blue sticker version is not exactly the same set.

In fact, multiple early police and fire sets had extended lifespans, such as the 7236-1 / 7236-2 Police Car (2005-2010), Prisoner Transport 7245-1 / 7245-2 (2005-2010) and Fire Car 7241 (2005-2010) and Fire Truck 7239 (2005-2011).
To a lesser extent there's 7942 Off Road Fire Rescue (2007-2012).

Apparently the road plates 7280 and 7281 have been listed from 2005-2018!
Same goes for the tracks 7895 and 7896 (2006-2018)

For those who don't know, back then sets would stick around for 1 year most of the time and sometimes up to 2 years if they were either succesful or slow to sell. Seeing something from last year happened every once in a while, but 2+ years was usually quite uncommon. Except for the early City sets. They stuck through multiple eras if the tumuluous early 2000s.

And yet we get a new Police station every single year for the last few years almost without fault XD

Ah, the weird time period when motorcycles were Very Wide.

The kind of creepy cop you see in horror movies

@Andrusi said:
"Ah, the weird time period when motorcycles were Very Wide."

Ninjago- “Hold my beer”

@Trigger_:
The only upholstery on most motorcycles would be the seat, and even that's molded rubber instead of actual cloth upholstery in many cases. The outer shell is referred to as a fairing or body. The first two designs were introduced in the original Batman theme, with this style being produced in dark-purple for the 2006 Catwoman set (it was reprised for the 2012 Catwoman set). The dirtbike fairing was introduced in the Bat-tank set, and happened to be the closest in size to the style of motorcycles used during WWII. Ironically, when the Crystal Skull sets released, they included an even better option with Mutt's motorcycle, so you'd think they would have simply used that instead.

@PurpleDave said:
" @Trigger_ :
The only upholstery on most motorcycles would be the seat, and even that's molded rubber instead of actual cloth upholstery in many cases. The outer shell is referred to as a fairing or body. The first two designs were introduced in the original Batman theme, with this style being produced in dark-purple for the 2006 Catwoman set (it was reprised for the 2012 Catwoman set). The dirtbike fairing was introduced in the Bat-tank set, and happened to be the closest in size to the style of motorcycles used during WWII. Ironically, when the Crystal Skull sets released, they included an even better option with Mutt's motorcycle, so you'd think they would have simply used that instead."

Sorry to be that guy, but this fairing debuted in 2005, a year earlier. And with this very RSOTD (albeit the black and green sticker version). (And 7237-1)

This is a set you – if you wanted to build a fairly large metropolis – got several of, along with the various police cars through the years. Really help build up your police force this way.

Of course, you'd acquire different minifig heads to create different officers, but still ... .

@StyleCounselor said:
" @PhantomBricks said:
"I remember getting two of these(the blue sticker version) from my brothers as a birthday gift. They also gave me 8402 for police chases. I was a big fan of the show CHiPS at the time."

I have 5 siblings. I never received any kind of gift from any of them until I was an adult (we were raised by wolves).

Jealous."

Yeah, I didn't realize how good I had it until much later. Although as the youngest, I was still jipped since no one accounted for inflation. My brothers and I would buy each other birthday presents each year, but it dropped off when my oldest brother was nearing adulthood. We haven't really done anything since, except for my oldest brother joining my best friends in getting me sets upon my full return to Lego.

Ahhh, yeah, I remember this one, and learning of the different sticker sheets. I remember thinking I’d like green ones, and I actually emailed LEGO to inquire about getting more of the stickers with green. They said they could, but it’d cost four dollars or something like that. Wasn’t there one that also had English / German options, letting one mark it either “Police” or “Polizei”? If memory serves, a lot of the City police sets from around then had such sticker options, but it’s been a while…

I got a couple of these, and built one; I don’t even remember what color I opted for. I’ll have to dig it out.

@Binnekamp:
Oh, you are correct. I somehow keep forgetting about those (possibly because I don't generally buy Town/City).

@Blondie_Wan:
The first version had three black "Police" stickers and three green "Polizei" stickers. This version has three of each in blue.