Context

It’s all too easy to condemn 6636 along with its era, so it seems to me desirable to attempt to situate the set within its historical context and approach it on its own term. As other reviewers have made clear, 6636 exemplifies the era of juniorized construction, a design style widely criticized in recent years on aesthetic and ludic grounds. LEGO’s precarious financial state the late ‘90s and early ‘00s would seem to bear this criticism out. (I can recommend Brick by Brick, by David Robertson and Bill Breen, with whom I am not affiliated, for its account of this period.)

2002 was a year of re-releases: busy churning out the likes of Jack Stone and—infamously—Galidor, LEGO elected to reanimate classics like Black Falcon’s Fortress (1986), Breezeway Café (1990), and Pizza To Go (1994). 6636 is one such re-release, of 6332 from 1998. LEGO releases a new police station every two or three years and rather than design a fresh one for 2002 they just slapped a new number on an old design.

Content

Given its simple construction and large, single-purpose parts, what might be said about 6636 specifically, rather than the juniorized town generally?

The set includes a few unusual parts and worthy minifigures. The two 1x2 tiles with information about criminals are quite rare, having appeared only in three sets, and the mast that supports a light above the jail cell is almost unique in yellow. The two black fences are a new part since the original release and far surpass their predecessors in terms of versatility.

The police officers in suits make a nice change from the usual heavily-zippered figures and are a throwback to slightly older sets, while the female officer is certainly a welcome inclusion. Most exciting is the criminal: unlike today, in the late ‘90s criminals only came with the largest police sets and officers apparently spent most of their time running around. At the time, I recall being quite excited to finally have a criminal! LEGO have since become more comfortable with the idea of conflict.

In terms of its construction, the set is built on three small baseplates which allow several configurations and indeed constitute an early, tentative step towards modularity. The three vehicles, seven figures, and many tools and odds and ends have the potential for a great police operation.

Synthesis

Uniformity defines the juniorized town. All the police windows are green; because all the buildings are made out the same few parts they differ little except in color; vehicles are restricted to two basic sizes due to standardized chassis. As one of the largest and longest-lasting such buildings, 6636 does retain some sort of status as an immediately recognizable yet anonymous icon, a status reinforced by its prominent position on the cover of the 1998 Lego Creator computer game. This may explain why it remains so difficult to separate from its era: 6636 offers no true content, but merely juniorization in the thin guise of a police station.

What on earth did they want to go and re-release this monstrosity for? Especially when there are so many far superior Town sets (including police statons) in the Lego back catalogue. For any of you who missed this set the first time round, this police station is an example of the kind of dumb-down Lego Town from the late 1990s aimed at kids who are too lazy to build Lego sets and want everything done for them. There are the usual dumb-down fare of the late 1990s - open-top convertable police cars (?) and a building made of very little except full-length windows and pre-fabricated blocks. There are bridges which serve no apparent function, a camera useful only for watching buildings across the street and very little in the way of alternative building possibilities. By this point Lego had abandoned their "it's a new toy every day" logo. Can't think why!