Random set of the day: Rescue Helicopter
Posted by Huwbot,
Today's random set is 6482 Rescue Helicopter, released during 1989. It's one of 23 Town sets produced that year. It contains 198 pieces and 3 minifigs, and its retail price was US$35.
It's owned by 2,570 Brickset members. If you want to add it to your collection you should find it for sale at BrickLink, where new ones sell for around $161.50, or eBay.
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49 comments on this article
Look out! It's about to land on the medic and the patient, who is only wearing underwear for some reason...
Maybe the pilot was distracted by the awesome light and sound brick?
A masculine being has plummeted into the gargantuan stream flowing through the midst of the plastic municipality!
I don't think they're gonna make it to the Hospital...
Hey, they remembered to have no tail rotor. I know Lego's double-rotor helicopters have a problem with that sometimes.
Someone better rescue her from that helicopter.
My brother had this one (I got the pieces when he gave me his collection years later). It was a lot of fun. @Maxbricks14: There wasn't a "light and sound brick" in the sense of a single element, there was a light brick and a sound brick, and both were attached to a battery box.
I still have this from when I was a kid. Great set. I loved that it was a chinook and the light and sound was awesome. Hours of play.
From what I can tell, the first twin rotor helicopter!
@TheOtherMike said:
"My brother had this one (I got the pieces when he gave me his collection years later). It was a lot of fun. @Maxbricks14: There wasn't a "light and sound brick" in the sense of a single element, there was a light brick and a sound brick, and both were attached to a battery box."
That explains the chunkiness!
I know LEGO has plenty of stills of dangerous situations with aircraft that pass as official set images, but in my view a hulking helicopter falling (at 30 degrees) out of the sky onto a stretcher takes the cake. And they all look so happy about it. Was the photographer during this era a sadist?
Uh - The second wave of Town Light & Sound System!
The other set in the wave was 6481 (which I always found way more interesting). They filled up the other Town sub-themes, as the first wave already had Police and Fire (6450 and 6480).
Notice how those were the only Town sets back then that used the 64xx numbering! This was entirely reserved for 9V sets until Paradisa somehow landed in that spot. Later on also Time Cruisers and it pretty much became a mess at that point xD
The number marking's LL stands for 'Legoland' obviously, which was the branding of minifig sets in that era. It surprisingly matches up very well with real European aircraft ID codes.
Thought that was a Snell promo set at first glance.
Color scheme makes it look like it was made by Shell...also wonder if that 'LL-6482' is a sticker or printed ala the Space ID bricks on/in the first 'big' ships (Transports, Cruiser, and Explorer)...miss those:|
That patient and stretcher are soon to become One.
@brick_r said:
"Color scheme makes it look like it was made by Shell...also wonder if that 'LL-6482' is a sticker or printed ala the Space ID bricks on/in the first 'big' ships (Transports, Cruiser, and Explorer)...miss those:|"
It's a sticker attached to the battery box. The battery box never had any printing added to it.
@BeerBugBarney: Thank you, I kinda' figured as such...also just realized, that patient's about to be 'Super Daved' (as in, the chopper's about to land on him...). Stretch attendant too come too come to think of it...
@BeerBugBarney said:
" @brick_r said:
"Color scheme makes it look like it was made by Shell...also wonder if that 'LL-6482' is a sticker or printed ala the Space ID bricks on/in the first 'big' ships (Transports, Cruiser, and Explorer)...miss those:|"
It's a sticker attached to the battery box. The battery box never had any printing added to it."
There were two printed battery boxes:
https://www.bricklink.com/v2/catalog/catalogitem.page?P=4760c01pb01
https://www.bricklink.com/v2/catalog/catalogitem.page?P=4760c01pb02
Very cool helicopter. Very wholesome classic smiles.
I always thought this was bigger purely because of the angle of this image and the smooth if blocky bodywork. It looks so good! A memorable one for sure!
@lluisgib said:
" @BeerBugBarney said:
" @brick_r said:
"Color scheme makes it look like it was made by Shell...also wonder if that 'LL-6482' is a sticker or printed ala the Space ID bricks on/in the first 'big' ships (Transports, Cruiser, and Explorer)...miss those:|"
It's a sticker attached to the battery box. The battery box never had any printing added to it."
There were two printed battery boxes:
https://www.bricklink.com/v2/catalog/catalogitem.page?P=4760c01pb01
https://www.bricklink.com/v2/catalog/catalogitem.page?P=4760c01pb02
"
Indeed. The latter having been used on the legendary 6990 Futuron Monorail.
It’s clearly trying to warn people it’s coming with the light and sound brick flaring like that, so really if you’re about to get squished it’s your own fault
I finally got it three weeks ago, it has been such a long time on my wish list. Great set with cool play features. I dare to say it was good for my parents that they never got me any of Light&Sound sets when I was a kid. Those sound effects can be annoying :D
This was a perfect design and it still looks readonably modern, given the relative studlessness. As I already had 6356 in my collection at that time, I rather got 6481 instead, wich I absolutely loved and still do.
I love how this looks like an actual helicopter picture from 1989.
A very cool set.
Could be easily modified into a chinook. What are the military rules again?
The opening back for the stretcher was a great feature leaving room for the medic inside.
My brother in law has this. Not so much a rescue helicopter as an air ambulance (it has no winch). Also, why give a helicopter a siren?
Even when at the time my interest had strongly shifted towards Technic, this was one cool set! And I loved the Light&Sounds system! Never had it myself, my younger brother did have a few sets with it, but guess who always confiscated those pieces....
As someone who also grew up with Fischer Technik, where you had to figure out all the electrical connections yourself and make sure you didn't accidentally short circuit everything, the concept of conducting plates with contacts in the studs was kinda mind-boggling. Didn't matter how you positioned those plates, you would never short circuit them. Also, And don't forget about the fact that the effects changed based on the orientation of the pieces, that was so cool. Lego really put some thought into this system...
And what also helped was that at the time I was very much into plastic model kits, and the first one I ever built was the Revell Piasecki H-16, also a tandem-rotor helicopter. And this to me was basically the same thing in Lego form....
@BeerBugBarney said:
" @brick_r said:
"Color scheme makes it look like it was made by Shell...also wonder if that 'LL-6482' is a sticker or printed ala the Space ID bricks on/in the first 'big' ships (Transports, Cruiser, and Explorer)...miss those:|"
It's a sticker attached to the battery box. The battery box never had any printing added to it."
Bricklink suggests that it was a printed element...
https://www.bricklink.com/v2/catalog/catalogitem.page?P=4760c01pb03&idColor=1T=S&C=1&O={%22color%22:1,%22iconly%22:0}
Wanted this set sooo bad when I was kid. Loved looking at it in the catalogs.
@WizardOfOss:
While I don’t know that it would actually short out the components, I’m pretty sure it would be possible to cross-wire things in a variety of ways. You’d just need to get creative about some of them.
One of the easiest would be to feed two power supplies into each other. Sometimes when my LUG does a particularly large layout, we’ll double up the regulators on each track, connecting them at 180° increments to reduce the power drop on the far side of the layout. As long as you sync the two controllers when you adjust power/direction, things are fine. If you reverse one but not the other, the train tends to park where the two power flows meet and cancel each other out.
@choo_choo said:
" @BeerBugBarney said:
" @brick_r said:
"Color scheme makes it look like it was made by Shell...also wonder if that 'LL-6482' is a sticker or printed ala the Space ID bricks on/in the first 'big' ships (Transports, Cruiser, and Explorer)...miss those:|"
It's a sticker attached to the battery box. The battery box never had any printing added to it."
Bricklink suggests that it was a printed element...
https://www.bricklink.com/v2/catalog/catalogitem.page?P=4760c01pb03&idColor=1T=S&C=1&O={%22color%22:1,%22iconly%22:0}"
I had this, can confirm it was printed, in fact I don't recall any stickers in this set.
I loved this set as a kid...two access doors to the rear compartment, steerable rear wheels via turntable plates, and of course the light and sound function (even if it didn't make much practical sense on a helicopter)
This thing does a great job at concealing the 9V battery case, which is kinda huge
Oh my god, all these years I haven't noticed the rear hatch. I've thought the patient was loaded from the side hatch. This set has just become better.
You'd better tell the Captain we've got to land as soon as we can. This woman has to be gotten to a hospital.
@PurpleDave, while it would indeed be possible to connect two battery boxes directly, is that even really considered a short circuit?
But without tampering with the stuff, I don't think it was possible to make an actual short circuit, so a direct link from the + to the - of the battery box without any load.
@MeisterDad said:
"I know LEGO has plenty of stills of dangerous situations with aircraft that pass as official set images, but in my view a hulking helicopter falling (at 30 degrees) out of the sky onto a stretcher takes the cake. And they all look so happy about it. Was the photographer during this era a sadist?"
That is a far narrower angle than ninety degrees,].
@kdu2814: A hospital? What is it?
I just remembered...even the medic's med bag (briefcase) had a storage spot within the rear compartment near the stretcher. This was such a well designed set!
@WizardOfOss:
9v wire harnesses could be connected in a variety of ways, and a wire has two ends. I could definitely come up with a few ways to feed the positive back into the negative. The PF harness may have even been designed to prevent this sort of thing.
Of more critical significance, the RCX used an 9vAC adapter, and frequently people would go a more budget-friendly route and accidentally buy a 9vDC adapter from another source like Radio Shack. If you ran too heavy a load, the twin power bus was only designed to carry half the max load on each side, and you could fry whichever side you’d run the DC power through. That is cheating, however, as it requires a non-LEGO electrical component to screw up that badly.
@BeerBugBarney said:
" @brick_r said:
"Color scheme makes it look like it was made by Shell...also wonder if that 'LL-6482' is a sticker or printed ala the Space ID bricks on/in the first 'big' ships (Transports, Cruiser, and Explorer)...miss those:|"
It's a sticker attached to the battery box. The battery box never had any printing added to it."
I cannot confirm this. I own this set and know this inside out. The battery box is definitely printed for my version. Perhaps it was different in other countries, as this is a special set and the battery box is a very specific part. But mine is not factory stickered, it’s printed.
@PurpleDave , but then again, the fun thing about those 9V batteries was that you didn't even need wires or anything to connect two of them. Two of them connect right to each other, with the + to the - in either way. As a kid I was always disappointed this didn't cause some big explosion....
And of course, back in those days, no screw to prevent kids from eating the batteries....
As for PF, I only have 1 battery box, but I don't think there's anything preventing you from connecting 2 of those? And considering you can change the polarity of those....at least the 9V battery box was just on or off...
@MeisterDad said:
"I know LEGO has plenty of stills of dangerous situations with aircraft that pass as official set images, but in my view a hulking helicopter falling (at 30 degrees) out of the sky onto a stretcher takes the cake. And they all look so happy about it. Was the photographer during this era a sadist?"
Perhaps. He may have also been familiar with exactly what a hook can do...
https://youtu.be/EzjqVfXpvoA?si=lDv7spTy2fb-qECF
@PurpleDave said:"Radio Shack..."
RIP.
@WizardOfOss: Did you ever lick a nine-volt to shock your tongue?
@TheOtherMike said:
" @MeisterDad said:
"I know LEGO has plenty of stills of dangerous situations with aircraft that pass as official set images, but in my view a hulking helicopter falling (at 30 degrees) out of the sky onto a stretcher takes the cake. And they all look so happy about it. Was the photographer during this era a sadist?"
That is a far narrower angle than ninety degrees,].
@kdu2814: A hospital? What is it?"
It's a big building with lots of medical people in it. But that's not important right now.
@RaiderOfTheLostBrick said:
"Could be easily modified into a chinook. What are the military rules again?"
LEGO has made many Chinook sets, they’re just not in military form aside from maybe the Black Widow one.
@yamaki said:
" @BeerBugBarney said:
" @brick_r said:
"Color scheme makes it look like it was made by Shell...also wonder if that 'LL-6482' is a sticker or printed ala the Space ID bricks on/in the first 'big' ships (Transports, Cruiser, and Explorer)...miss those:|"
It's a sticker attached to the battery box. The battery box never had any printing added to it."
I cannot confirm this. I own this set and know this inside out. The battery box is definitely printed for my version. Perhaps it was different in other countries, as this is a special set and the battery box is a very specific part. But mine is not factory stickered, it’s printed."
This is also a childhood set of mine. The battery box is printed in my set also.
I really have to rebuild it soon. I have the battery box, and lights but I am not sure I still have the sound brick or the light covers.
@WizardOfOss:
I think there is a way to feed one PF battery into another, but I believe the 4-wire PF system was designed to prevent it from happening. However, it seems like if you connect two battery boxes with a 9v wire attached to two PF jumpers, it should be possible to feed them into each other.
@MLF said:
" @yamaki said:
" @BeerBugBarney said:
" @brick_r said:
"Color scheme makes it look like it was made by Shell...also wonder if that 'LL-6482' is a sticker or printed ala the Space ID bricks on/in the first 'big' ships (Transports, Cruiser, and Explorer)...miss those:|"
It's a sticker attached to the battery box. The battery box never had any printing added to it."
I cannot confirm this. I own this set and know this inside out. The battery box is definitely printed for my version. Perhaps it was different in other countries, as this is a special set and the battery box is a very specific part. But mine is not factory stickered, it’s printed."
This is also a childhood set of mine. The battery box is printed in my set also.
I really have to rebuild it soon. I have the battery box, and lights but I am not sure I still have the sound brick or the light covers."
I just checked mine: the battery box is printed, instructions don’t even hint at stickers
This one was a real dream for me at the time. This design was awesome ! I found one recently, and I'm so happy.
It is so cool with the 6380 hospital I had for my birthday in 1988, and the 6356 Med-Star Rescue Plane, I bought around 2004, after my dark age.