Vintage set of the week: Police Heliport
Posted by Huwbot,
This week's vintage set is 354 Police Heliport, released during 1972. It's one of 16 LEGOLAND sets produced that year. It contains 168 pieces.
It's owned by 656 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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24 comments on this article
The Legoland police are better equipped than the Lego city police today. They get their own heliport! whereas Lego city only get mobile units and stations.
@Maxbricks14 said:
"The Legoland police are better equipped than the Lego city police today. They get their own heliport! whereas Lego city only get mobile units and stations."
Also had enclosed buildings.
I wonder what @560heliport will have to say about this one.
@Maxbricks14 said:
"The Legoland police are better equipped than the Lego city police today. They get their own heliport! whereas Lego city only get mobile units and stations."
Too bad they blew the budget on tech and real estate, and couldn’t afford to hire any cops.
@PurpleDave said:
" @Maxbricks14 said:
"The Legoland police are better equipped than the Lego city police today. They get their own heliport! whereas Lego city only get mobile units and stations."
Too bad they blew the budget on tech and real estate, and couldn’t afford to hire any cops."
And when they finally could they had no working arms or legs until 1978!
@MeisterDad wrong heliport. it's actually 560-2
Too bad that car has to scrape its undercarriage just to get in its parking space.
@Maxbricks14: This is the European version of 560-2, so @560heliport may well weigh in.
Pretty sure I also had 560-2. But that was half a century ago, so…
Illegal building technique! the siren on top of the car is slotted side-ways between two studs!
@Maxbricks14 said:
"Illegal building technique! the siren on top of the car is slotted side-ways between two studs!"
Indeed, there are two issues with doing this with plates. One is that plates are a little too thick, so it creates a lot of stress. The other issue is that the studs on the vertical plate will land on the studs that pinch the vertical plate, preventing it from fully seating. This second problem is avoided by shifting the vertical plate half a stud to one side, but because it's just a 1x1, I'd think it would be likely to crush the corners where they're being pinched.
This same technique is not illegal if it's done with tiles, since tiles are just a tiny bit thinner than plates (except the 1x1 quarter-round tile, which is definitely thicker than other tiles). And there are no studs, being tiles.
You can tell it's vintage because, looking at that helicopter, it’s clearly before they discovered aerodynamics
Oh yeah, I had that one when I was little. I probably still have the S-21 printed brick.
@PurpleDave: If you're talking about https://brickset.com/parts/design-25269 then 10318 puts it between two studs, to serve as an antenna.
I misd these old sets and epically the use of blue bricks for buildings.
Does that P-sign say "Police vehicles only" on the back? Easy money......
One of my first big sets I got when I was a kid. I still have the instructions, all the bricks, and the baseplate [which had white printing on some studs to show where the building should go!]. The baseplate is a bit bent, but boy did I like this set as a kid. But then the Space sets were made and that was next level for me. I think I used this police station baseplate to build another lunar base, though the green color definitely didn't match up with my grey lunar baseplates!
You know you done messed up big time when the LEGOLAND Police come after you.
@Maxbricks14 said:
"Illegal building technique! the siren on top of the car is slotted side-ways between two studs!"
They say that the builder of this set is still doing time IN THIS VERY SET.
The scale is different, so it's not a perfect comparison, but I'd say this has a sort of foreboding presence lacking in most fig-scale Police facilities. All that blue is what you get in the 70s palette, but it's also grimmer than the white-dominant stations of later years.
I’m looking at all those tiles applied directly to the baseplate and remember that this was the era before tiles had those handy grooves on the bottom…
Okay, I'm here! ;)
560-2 was the U.S. version of this set.
My first Lego set, I got it for Christmas 1973.
The instructions are long gone, but I have the parts. The baseplate is in terrible shape- a large chunk broken off a corner, and I tried to paint lines on it to make a T road plate.
Those non-grooved grey 2x2 plates are probably why my baselate is broken!
@TheOtherMike said:
" @PurpleDave: If you're talking about https://brickset.com/parts/design-25269 then 10318 puts it between two studs, to serve as an antenna."
Yeah, that's the one. Build a field of tiles, and stick that one in the middle somewhere. Run your fingers across the surface, and it'll really stand out from the rest.
11036 : Creative Vehicles had a missed opportunity being closer to those Town style cars, instead they went for 24x https://brickset.com/parts/6338416/bearing-plate-1x4-double
Set still has a lot of wheels and transparent slopes to build your own tho.
The US version of this was one of the first sets I ever got as a child, when I was 5 or 6 years old. The box is long gone, and one of the four 1x1 red tiles without groove got lost over the years, but otherwise I still have it all, and recently rebuilt it. It brings back very strong memories. I remember being fascinated with the 3 stud-wide helicopter with staggered windshield pieces, and the footbridge connecting the landing pad to the tower.
1972 was the first year of my dark age, so it took me 45 years before I finally got this! Worth the weight though!
Wow, this takes me back.
I never had this set, but I very much remember sets like it, and in fact I had a *part* of this set, in a way. Sets 420 Police Car and 611 Police Car were standalone sets (the US and European releases, respectively) of just a cop car of the exact same design as the one here (huh - so one could buy this station and then multiples of just the car to expand one’s forces), and one of those releases of the car was the very first LEGO set I ever had.
My parents would have picked it up for me in probably 1974, and I’m not sure whether mine would have been 420 or 611 (I grew up an American military brat, and they got me the set not long after the family settled in the UK for a few years when Dad was stationed there, and they might have gotten me this at either a local English store or at one on the base), but either way that build (with its sideways-slotted 1x1 plate!) is burned into my brain forever. These days I tend to think LEGO’s lineups are typically a little *too* policed, but I still have tremendous affection for that early ‘70s cop car, and it’s pretty amazing to see the same design as part of a larger set of a whole station, as though LEGO were some sort of cohesive system or something :P , and I must say I’d love to have this slice of nostalgia.