Vintage set of the week: Basic Set With Motor
Posted by Huwbot,
This week's vintage set is 140 Basic Set With Motor, released during 1969. It's one of 4 Universal Building Set sets produced that year. It contains 96 pieces.
It's owned by 57 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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Basic Set with a motor, which I imagine has to be battery powered, which are Acidic, making this a Neutral Set!
Wow. That'll wake you up in the morning. Or the middle of REM sleep.
Yummy windows, solid top cylinders & square faced headlight bricks.
The battery box isn't built into the model? So you have to carry it along side while you run it?
@Brickbuilder0937 said:
"The battery box isn't built into the model? So you have to carry it along side while you run it?"
Most of the time yes. Trains were the exception because they were the only vehicles large enough to consistently hide the massive battery boxes required. Most used C size batteries. Some trains had a whole full-size railcar disguising the battery box with stickers on it and everything!
A very versatile set with a lot of play potential. Included the brilliant new caterpillar tracks, which I thought were excellent.
@Brickbuilder0937 said:
"The battery box isn't built into the model? So you have to carry it along side while you run it?"
There wasn't really a 'the model'. Being a Basic Set the pictures on the box were only suggestions so the choice was yours where the battery box went.
The clever part was that the battery box could either connect with wires or fit directly on top of the motor, without wires.
Most 'remote control' toys of the time meant 'connected with a long wire' so it was common to have batteries in the handset rather than the actual toy.
When I saw this set (and others) as a kid, I thought it was exotic that LEGO could be motorized so, and the model possibilities with basic bricks seemed endless. I did not have the ability to purchase such a set, and my family couldn't afford it as a present, but it was the stuff of which dreams were made. Today's far more complicated and gargantuan sets are amazing, and yet I wonder if something hasn't been lost along the way. These are probably just the musings of an older fellow, so, if you are reading this, get off my lawn!
@Brickbuilder0937 said:
"The battery box isn't built into the model? So you have to carry it along side while you run it?"
I mean, this is Lego we’re talking about and the battery box has studs and anti-studs. I feel like it should be entirely possible that you could build a model that includes the battery box
Oh, so that's where the USB cable goes to.
He model of a vintage car... judging by how often such cars were depicted in the VSotW, you'd think they were still a super common sight. It makes the period's sets feel far older than they actually are. Same for the old timey steam train.
I guess they were easy to build and instantly recognizable compared to the era's trains and cars.
I need to bookmark this set for when people at shows are adamant that motors are a new-fangled addition to the "just bricks" that they grew up with.
@BrickTeller:
The last person who made a similar complaint (about detail elements, not motors) looked to be pushing 70, so may well have been college age by the time the first motor shipped.
Oooooh, come list-en to a story 'bout a man named "Jeb"...
What, if it were in black, It'd completely work.:D
That's a bit crude......
Oil that is...
Eight-wide cars: terrorizing your Lego-cities since 1969.
@Binnekamp said:
"He model of a vintage car... judging by how often such cars were depicted in the VSotW, you'd think they were still a super common sight. It makes the period's sets feel far older than they actually are. Same for the old timey steam train."
This set was from 1969 and that car is a style you might find in 1929. 40 years difference.
...so that's the equivalent of a car from 1983 today. 10321 is a 1960's Corvette which is a much cooler design than any of the crap that car manufacturers produced in the early 1980s...except maybe the Delorean (as seen in 10300 ).
Whoops, that should be "Jed"...think that'd be something I'd remember after seeing the movie, and a whack of the series...and, of course:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0WPzFnZkZmI
Ah, fun times:D
@PDelahanty said:
" @Binnekamp said:
"He model of a vintage car... judging by how often such cars were depicted in the VSotW, you'd think they were still a super common sight. It makes the period's sets feel far older than they actually are. Same for the old timey steam train."
This set was from 1969 and that car is a style you might find in 1929. 40 years difference.
...so that's the equivalent of a car from 1983 today. 10321 is a 1960's Corvette which is a much cooler design than any of the crap that car manufacturers produced in the early 1980s...except maybe the Delorean (as seen in 10300 )."
We now look upon the DeLorean with a massive surge of nostalgic appreciation thanks to the BttF-movies, but as a production-vehicle, it was a staggering commercial failure, owing mostly to the fact that it's one of the worst cars ever made.
BttF gave it an endless amount of cool-points, but you wouldn't want one of those abominations as your only mode of transport.
@brick_r said:
"Oooooh, come list-en to a story 'bout a man named "Jed"...
What, if it were in black, It'd completely work.:D"
"Just a poor mountaineer - barely kept his family fed,
Then one day he was shooting at some food,
and up through the ground come a bubbling crude... oil that is. Texas Tea."
Fun fact: The Beverley Hillbillies, in the story, were from the Branson, Missouri area, which is not to far from me. (about four or so hours, I think)
@Murdoch17: Weirder fact:
Beverley Hillbillies is part a "Filmways" universe along side: Petticoat Junction and Green Acres, but it's in that latter one where things get weird: w/P.J. Jed and clan were 'real' (as in they lived not far from Pixley and Hooterville...those are the names, not makin' 'em up:)); BUT on G.A., it's said that B.H. was "a TV show"...which makes no sense, as Jed an co. had been back to the area multiple times...
@brick_r said:
" @Murdoch17: Weirder fact:
Beverley Hillbillies is part a "Filmways" universe along side: Petticoat Junction and Green Acres, but it's in that latter one where things get weird: w/P.J. Jed and clan were 'real' (as in they lived not far from Pixley and Hooterville...those are the names, not makin' 'em up:)); BUT on G.A., it's said that B.H. was "a TV show"...which makes no sense, as Jed an co. had been back to the area multiple times..."
Didn't know that!
Also: The Green Acres theme song is an real earworm. I hear it once, and I sing it for weeks!
@brick_r said:
"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0WPzFnZkZmI
Ah, fun times:D"
Weird to see The Beverley Hillbillies in colour in that clip. I've only ever seen it in B&W, either because we didn't have a colour TV at the time or I've just seen the earlier B&W episodes.
@PDelahanty:
The DeLorean was a miserable design, as @Ridgeheart said. They were heavy because of the steel body, so they handled badly and got bad gas mileage. They were hard to get in and out of because of the low clearance bus shelter of a door. The door also posed a danger if the gas cylinder holding it up wore out, and the weather seals were never good. You had a tiny little roll-down window inside the main window, so forget hitting the drive-thru. Plus, silver was the only color because they weren’t painted.
There’s a warehouse that realized they had enough spare parts on hand to start assembling 100% OEM cars, and they weren’t selling them to anyone. They did lighten the frame, fix the weather seals on the doors, and would anodize the body if you wanted a different color. If you really want one, that’s the version to get. But really, the only success the car had was post-BttF. In that regard, it’s the most iconic film car of all time, since people will pose for photos next to a stock version.
@sjr60 : Well, ironically Beverly Hillbillies started in 'black & white' (62-65), but in their later seasons (late 65-71) they switched to color. MeTV here in North America (I watch a station of it out of Seattle) run 'both' during different times...also run Green Acres too:)
Speaking there of... @Murdoch17 : Yes, it's....an "interesting" theme...reminds me of another funny fact: also true story; Eddie Albert didn't want to be an actor, he wanted to be a singer....and hence how he got to sing the theme to his show (well, him and Ava).:)
@Murdoch17 said:
" @brick_r said:
"Oooooh, come list-en to a story 'bout a man named "Jed"...
What, if it were in black, It'd completely work.:D"
"Just a poor mountaineer - barely kept his family fed,
Then one day he was shooting at some food,
and up through the ground come a bubbling crude... oil that is. Texas Tea."
Fun fact: The Beverley Hillbillies, in the story, were from the Branson, Missouri area, which is not to far from me. (about four or so hours, I think)"
I recall them being from Bugtussle, TN.