This set survived my Dark Age and I am glad that it did. I remember building this with my brother Jason and I'm not sure if it is his or mine. He is not into LEGO anymore so it is mine now!

This is a rather large truck for Legoland Town vehicles. It is larger so that it looks to scale when next to smaller cars like the Rally Car and Dragster from the same time period. If you have older LEGO sets and wanted to build this out of your own bricks, the only parts that might be difficult to obtain are the hook/towing part in the rear and the windshield. Other than that, this set can be built rather easily.

The size of the truck is impressive when compared to smaller LEGO sets and it works well when towing smaller cars. The grill piece up front is nice (but mine faded after owning it for 20 plus years). This is a great example of the types of sets I loved as a kid and still do as an adult. Unlike other tow trucks from LEGO's history, this one is a "Super" tow truck and large enough to tow a truck without tipping backwards. A quick search of tow trucks on peeron has confirmed what I already thought I knew, that this is the largest minifig scale and most impressive tow truck LEGO has ever created.

Check out my brickshelf gallery:
http://www.brickshelf.com/cgi-bin/gallery.cgi?m=notenoughbricks

I remember buying this in the UK, it was available to Lego Club UK members but I remember stumbling across this in a now defunct newagents chain, John Menzies, during the early 90s. How they got hold of a stock of these is anyone's guess.

The Vehicle

It's obvious to see the design style change from the Tow Truck 6656 released a year earlier and there is no denying its American style. It looks cool with that big grill, two sets of front lights and twin stack exhausts. It certainly looked the part, being a big high-power tow truck, and was easy to build. My only criticism is shared with the the crane block as used on set 6656, it doesn't really grab hold of other lego vehicle baseplates properly. A set of tools might have been a good addition too.

The Minifigure

A standard workman figure with the obligatory red baseball cap.

Personal Development

None. The basic vehicle just looked so perfect that I never broke this set up and it continued in service for many years. A gem of a truck to own.

A definite improvement over previous trucks, this model somehow predates by almost 20 years the improvement on truck design by simply making them more massive.

The design doesn't use any car base piece, but only smaller pieces, which adds some building value. The color scheme is nice, as is the truck front design with grill and double headlights. The extra wheel pair in the back makes sense for the added weight when carrying a vehicle.

Two minor gripes are the narrow front, which doesn't seem to possibly contain a decently powerful engine (would have been great to make the front larger and opening, to see an engine inside), and the wasted space behind the driver which could have been used to make the cabin bigger.

I am being a bit harshy, but compared to some of the later tow trucks (the one with the Big Rig Truck Stop, for example), this one was not that great. It was a big and powerful looking, but the tow crane on the back is a bit dinky. Still, a fun and useful addition to your town.