Vintage set of the week: Taxi Garage
Posted by Huwbot,
This week's vintage set is 368 Taxi Garage, released during 1976. It's one of 28 LEGOLAND sets produced that year. It contains 156 pieces.
It's owned by 651 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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27 comments on this article
Oooh, transparent 3x2.
So I guess the printed 1x2 that was used in 608-2 wasn't available at the time. But then, the "slabbies" didn't have eyes, so it didn't matter if the signs were blank. No-one could read them anyway!
Looking at the size of the door, mini slabs were definitely an afterthought in this design!
I never realized until now that this taxi is not the same as the 605 taxi. It is 9 studs long.
@TheOtherMike said:
"So I guess the printed 1x2 that was used in 608-2 wasn't available at the time. But then, the "slabbies" didn't have eyes, so it didn't matter if the signs were blank. No-one could read them anyway!"
And they can't drive because they have no arms! In fact, it appears that their consciousness is completely detached from reality, suspended in a limbo as their seemingly lifeless host bodies pose as statues just to please their human gods!
Truly the 70s were a cruel time in Legoland.
@Bart_66 said:
"I never realized until now that this taxi is not the same as the 605 taxi. It is 9 studs long. "
Umm... It's eleven...
Id love an updated minifigure scale version of this. We need more Lego taxis!!
I’d worry about they’re going to drive the taxi, with no arms, legs or eyes, but given there’s no way of actually getting into the taxi to drive it we should be safe
This is the first Vintage Set of the Week that I own. Even as a child it annoyed me that the figures couldn’t go inside the taxi or the building.
@Kynareth said:
"Looking at the size of the door, mini slabs were definitely an afterthought in this design!"
It is not so much that they were an afterthought for this design, they were an afterthought for the entire system of the time. Cars and other vehicles were essentially Matchbox or Hot Wheels style, building parts had not been designed for figures and kids were used to playing with LEGO alongside other toys and small figures. LEGO didn't want its product to be just another toy that was used to build scenery to use with other toys, and there was a lag between the older parts and new ones necessary once they set the figure scale.
Legoland in the 70s was more advanced than you realise. They didn't need arms or legs or even eyes because of they had self-driving AI cars.
In our innocence, we loved our slabbies. It was not until the revelation of the minifigure that we saw the light :~P
Talk about compact cars! There aren't even any doors, let alone seats!
This was the 3rd lego set that I received many years ago still have it built in my lego world
@Brickchap said:
"Id love an updated minifigure scale version of this. We need more Lego taxis!!"
Given that there are only thirty-four sets tagged "taxi," and relatively few of those contain minifig/minidoll-scale taxis (and some of those entries are the same as other entries, namely 315-3 and 315-4 are the same model, same with 6487481 and 6487483), yes we do.
I wonder how this cab ever made money with no space for figures to actually sit. Major design flaw!
@TheOtherMike said:
"So I guess the printed 1x2 that was used in 608-2 wasn't available at the time. But then, the "slabbies" didn't have eyes, so it didn't matter if the signs were blank. No-one could read them anyway!"
Nice catch! I think I like the full brick on the building, but maybe the tile on the vehicle looks better, so it works out for me.
@ToysFromTheAttic said:
"I wonder how this cab ever made money with no space for figures to actually sit. Major design flaw!"
No money at the time, either.
This takes me back.
I tried to tell the Taxi drive they were going the wrong way, but they couldn't hear me. Or see. Or move.
@560heliport said:
" @Bart_66 said:
"I never realized until now that this taxi is not the same as the 605 taxi. It is 9 studs long. "
Umm... It's eleven..."
Extra boot/trunk space for the driver to store his legs while driving!
Ah yes, the era of 6-wide houses.
And 10-wide garages.
I wonder if the designers of the Tiny Turbo sets in the late aughts had these pre-minifig Legoland cars when they were kids.
@MeisterDad said:
"Ah yes, the era of 6-wide houses.
And 10-wide garages."
The house is eight-wide. Granted, that's still smaller than the one-car garage...
It's not a house, it's a tiny little one-room office with a desk and a telephone for dispatching taxis. That can be smaller than the attached one car garage.
@560heliport said:
" @Bart_66 said:
"I never realized until now that this taxi is not the same as the 605 taxi. It is 9 studs long. "
Umm... It's eleven..."
Yeah, I guess I need to go back to grade 1 , and learn counting again.
This is one of the sets from my childhood collection, and probably my first with figures. They receive a lot of ridicule these days but at the time they were an exciting innovation!
Love these early Legoland sets - I never had any of them but it was easy to just build your own thing along the same lines. In about 1978, I used to leave a 1 stud space between the front wheels and the bodywork of the cars and use a 2x2 plate and mini turntable on a 2x2 plate wheel piece so that the front wheels could steer in a pretty basic way...