Vintage set of the week: Aircraft
Posted by Huwbot,
This week's vintage set is 657 Aircraft, released during 1974. It's one of 13 LEGOLAND sets produced that year. It contains 37 pieces.
It's owned by 603 Brickset members. If you want to add it to your collection you might find it for sale at BrickLink or eBay.
60 likes
30 comments on this article
lol flying machine go brrr
Ooh I have this one. Except the sticker on the tailfin on one side is missing and I have no manual. But I still consider it owned. We had a similar one a while back, and those pieces with window prints are great.
Hmm. 7893 this is not.
Ah, The Good Old Days of incredibly imprecise names.
Not even "Airplane." Goes well with Building, Wheeled Vehicle, Animal, and Miscellaneous Objects.
I miss that fin piece. I never had any break, but I wonder if other people did, and that's why Lego stopped making it. I can see where it might be fragile, what with the way it connects.
I’m pretty sure someone left this set on the play table at a show we’re doing this weekend.
"Aircraft". Thats it? What a lame set name. Reminds me of another booooring set name: Hogwarts, from yesterday's RSoTD.
“Smithers, I've designed a new plane! I call it the Spruce Moose, and it will carry 200 passengers from New York's Idlewild Airport to the Belgian Congo in 17 minutes!“
“That’s quite a nice model sir.”
“…model?”
@TheOtherMike said:
"I miss that fin piece. I never had any break, but I wonder if other people did, and that's why Lego stopped making it. I can see where it might be fragile, what with the way it connects."
Because it would stab people and break the skin was why they retired it. Throw four dozen of these on the floor and NO ONE escapes.
When LEGO was LEGO.
@TheOtherMike said:
"I miss that fin piece. I never had any break, but I wonder if other people did, and that's why Lego stopped making it. I can see where it might be fragile, what with the way it connects."
Yes, I have had the top snap off and the teeth at the bottom break off. Very breaky.
These new Lego Ideas submissions are getting out of hand
This was my first ever Lego set and I still own it! Missing a few pieces, the sticker, box and instructions. The tail piece are intact. I do have a few that snapped from my space set I own.
@NotProfessorWhymzi said:
"is the aircraft behind the funny-looking pencil?"
I bet it flies like a brick.
Man, I've encountered those 2x4 brick with windows pattern so many times in random bulk lots. Both in blue and in white. And I still have them because nobody wants them!
Yet I never encountered any tail. The newer version with side supports between the studs at the base of the tail was way better by the looks of it, although it too was far from perfect. I miss that part though.
For all the, er... squared-off nature of this "aircraft," I'm giving it a high grade--you can TELL that thing is swooshable.
Always preferred 687 and 698... Spent hours playing airport with those three back in the day.
Very aerodynamic.
I love that so few bricks make something very playable and recognisable. Imagination is a wonderful thing.
@Koentinius said:
"Very aerodynamic.
I love that so few bricks make something very playable and recognisable. Imagination is a wonderful thing."
...As aerodynamic as a flying brick.
Hey! I have it!
@MCLegoboy said:
"lol flying machine go brrr"
Incorrect, this is a jet, not a propeller aircraft.
I could have sworn the windows were drawn on with a Sharpie :)
@Zander said:
"When LEGO was LEGO."
Actually when LEGO was Lego.
At least on the box, if not in the catalogue!
I always figured those jet engine pieces were from Space, though I knew they were slightly older. Didn't realize they were this old, though.
@ra226 said:
"I always figured those jet engine pieces were from Space, though I knew they were slightly older. Didn't realize they were this old, though."
They've had MILEAGE out of that part--it's still around today (albeit tweaked in its latest mold). I always think of Christmas 1995 with 6879 and 6835 kicking off my Space collection, but they were twenty years old already then.
Come to think of it, Christmas 1995 was closer to the release of this set than to the present day...
@TheOtherMike said:
"I miss that fin piece. I never had any break, but I wonder if other people did, and that's why Lego stopped making it. I can see where it might be fragile, what with the way it connects."
I'm guessing that piece (as well as https://www.bricklink.com/v2/catalog/catalogitem.page?P=4746) was eventually kicked out of the catalogue because that weird, wobbly wedge-connection would lose clutch over time. 4746 is one of my favourite vintage pieces, but it had the further disadvantage of being out of system in almost every conceivable way.
I'm amazed at these 2x4 bricks with prints. At first glace, I was certain that they were just stacks of plates that someone had defaced with a Sharpie. But yeah, for its age, this is pretty great.
@Norikins: When, curiously, was the last time you saw "Airplane"...it clearly goes 'brrrrr', and it too IS a JET:D
And on that note 'too':):
Prosecutor: Over Macho Grande?
Witness: No. I don't think I'll ever get over Macho Grande.
Striker: My orders came through. My squadron ships out tomorrow, we're bombing the storage depots at Daiquiri at 18:00 hours. We're coming in from the North, below their radar.
Elaine: When will you be back?
Striker: I can't tell you that. It's classified.
@Brickalili said:
"“Smithers, I've designed a new plane! I call it the Spruce Moose, and it will carry 200 passengers from New York's Idlewild Airport to the Belgian Congo in 17 minutes!“
“That’s quite a nice model sir.”
“…model?”"
"Now, to the plant! We'll take the Spruce Moose! Hop in!"
"But, sir..."
*click* "I said, hop in."
Oh yeah, I have that one. Lost the instructions in my move from France to the US.
Actually, I lost all my instructions pre-1981, so that makes it hard to catalog what I have.
I remember getting the 687 Caravelle and being annoyed that the window-printed bricks were white instead of blue and I couldn't build a longer plane with parts from both.