Random set of the day: Air Police
Posted by Huwbot,
Today's random set is 1149 Air Police, released in 2002. It's one of 8 Town sets produced that year. It contains 24 pieces, and its retail price was US$3.
It's owned by 62 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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31 comments on this article
This must have been a Space Police II prototype. The Trans-Green windscreen gives it away. So you have Space Police II in the 90s, and then you get its prequel in the 2000s.
Huwbot continues his current obsession with air-related travel.
But I always thought this was really cute.
It appears that some sort of anti-aircraft weapon in the background is targeting the police craft.
This is the Galactic Chief’s day car from Space Police 2.
“Town”
The police station released that year used green windows, too, but yeah, this does look like SPII. It does look like a fun little polybag-type set.
One of 8 town sets produced that year, though, and half of those were road plates.
Just looked at the sets released that year... Wow, not a banner year for the Town theme. You've got road plates and nothing.
Space Police Mi-24?
It even looks like it's operating on frickin' Mars.
This thing's always listed on Bricklink as a Town Jr. set. Wonder why that is. It's not reallllllly one, what with not even being minifig scale.
How did LEGO fit this in Town? It's the only non-minifig scale set in that whole year of Town. Perhaps there were so few Town sets that year they threw this in?
That’s, um...yeah. Did they forget Town was a theme in 2002? Eight sets. Two were Legends rereleases, _four_ (50%!) were roadplates, then there’s a minifig-scale police station and this set that looks like a polybag mini. And people try to pretend Bionicle didn’t keep the company afloat...
Hold on there. This air’s nitrogen content is too high. You’re under arrest, buddy!
2001 and 2002 were the years that Town died before the general concept was relaunched as World City for 2003 and 2004. City as we know it today was launched in 2005 as a replacement for Town.
Air police? Looks more like Scum Police to me! I bet the jelly alien from yesterday's MM set could take this on and win.
Is...is that little build an anti-aircraft emplacement? I'm genuinely struggling to come up with anything else it could be because that seems unexpectedly militant for police
@Brickalili:
Judging by the parts list, the missile launcher and...floor fan(?) are an alternate build to the helicopter.
2001 and 2002 are the only two years between 1982 and 2021 that I own ZERO sets from…and the lack of sets (as evidenced by the Town line this year) make it clear why.
Ah, yes, LEGO's own dark ages
@PurpleDave said:
" @Brickalili:
Judging by the parts list, the missile launcher and...floor fan(?) are an alternate build to the helicopter."
Damn, I was hoping to get 8 jet engines to extend my mega spacecraft!
How bold of them to fly helicopter on Mars.
For some reason I’m getting Blade Runner cross Mad Max vibes by the box art.
A Police helicopter with jet engines on the bottom and green windows, plus an anti-aircraft missile launcher that can only shoot horizontally unless someone tips it, plus a wind turbine, on Mars, with a chemtrail.
Makes total sense.
@PurpleDave said:
"That’s, um...yeah. Did they forget Town was a theme in 2002? Eight sets. Two were Legends rereleases, _four_ (50%!) were roadplates, then there’s a minifig-scale police station and this set that looks like a polybag mini. And people try to pretend Bionicle didn’t keep the company afloat..."
And the police station was a rerelease too, though I don't know if it was under the Legends banner - the original was 6332 from 1998 - so this was literally the only new Town set that year. I don't know if it was even categorised as a Town set at the time, or if it was just grouped with them retroactively since it didn't fit anywhere else. According to the set page, this set was a Lego-exclusive polybag, and has no unique pieces, so it may just have been a 'using up surplus parts' kind of deal.
I think I recall hearing that after the double-fiascos of Town Jr. and Jack Stone, those in charge at Lego reached the conclusion that Town as a whole just didn't sell - not taking into account that it was those specific themes, more than the concept in general, that was responsible - so they took a few years out from the whole theme.
According to the set's designer this was an homage to Space Police 2 sets 6984 and 6957 with their distinctive double cockpits. However the reason for this set's Release remains unclear... to me this looks more like a 2001 Creator Set than anything else. However the Box Art looks like 1999's Space Port with the color scheme being taken from the weird Green glass Police of 1998's town Junior.
@PurpleDave said:
"That’s, um...yeah. Did they forget Town was a theme in 2002? Eight sets. Two were Legends rereleases, _four_ (50%!) were roadplates, then there’s a minifig-scale police station and this set that looks like a polybag mini. And people try to pretend Bionicle didn’t keep the company afloat..."
Wow, seriously? That’s just stunning - not about Bionicle, I mean (I knew it saved them), but about Town having such meager offerings that year. I actually hadn’t realized until seeing these comments that their offerings in the “City”-type line of the time, one we tend to think of as one of their most central core themes, were so anemic.
2002 was the year Star Wars pulled me out of my dark ages with 7200 and 7201, Final Duel I & II; my first non-Star Wars set that I bought after rediscovering the brick was the Arctic polybag 6626 from two years earlier. I wasn’t really aware at the time of what was coming out, what sets I saw on shelves had come out a year or two earlier, etc., but I do know now about the troubles they faced at the time and some of the unfortunate decisions that helped contribute to that. But I did not know until reading these comments that they let arguably their central play theme just languish like that. That’s nuts!
This could belong in the universe of AIRWOLF (which always looked more like AirOrca to me).
@ThatBionicleGuy:
There were only ten Legends sets, with numbers ranging from 10000 to 10151. The police station had a 4-digit number, so it was just a regular reissue.
Oof. The Dark Times.
In my mind they extend beyond the launch of Barnicle and Star Wars. It took a while to right the ship and get everything running smoothly.
Though it is interesting the set designer meant this as an homage to SP II.
@PurpleDave said:
" @Brickalili:
Judging by the parts list, the missile launcher and...floor fan(?) are an alternate build to the helicopter."
I think it's supposed to be a windmill.
@TheOtherMike:
The graphic indicates it’s spinning awfully fast for a bird-whacker. Looks more like a non-oscillating, old-school floor fan with no protective cage to keep young fingers from getting too close. My dad had a desk fan with no cage and rubber blades, and my maternal grandfather had a table fan with a wire cage that had openings big enough for a young kid to put their whole hand inside. I’m sure at some point in the past, cage-free fans where an everyday thing.