I'm sure the new Lone Ranger sets are fine, but seeing them only made me want to dig out this golden oldie, from 1977.

It's a simple pleasure, but a pleasure all the same. Building it is straightforward, and I do like the fact that you build the horses as well. There are four of them, two of which are yellow for some reason, and six faceless cowboys. These 'hands in pockets' minifigures were only current for a few years and they do lack personality. Substituting the heads for smiley ones does make a big difference. Still, having six figures in a smallish set is pretty good going, and it's enough to create all kinds of Western-style scenarios using just this set.

There's instructions for the main model only, but the box is covered with illustrations of all kinds of ideas for using the excellent mix of basic parts here. If I have a criticism, it is simply that almost all of the permutations of building - including the main one - are too small to be of any use; another fifty or so red bricks would go a long way.

It's the horses that really make this set. Having four of them is great, and the fact that you can take them to bits and make a (small) herd of cattle for the cowboys to drive across the plains adds to the fun. Or tweak a few pieces for a bucking rodeo horse... loads of possibilities. Better still is the fact that the riding cowboy's legs wrap around the horse, rather than being embedded in it...

Overall, this makes an excellent play set. There's so many things you can do with this, helped by the presence of a good-sized baseplate, that it can provide many hours of fun. For a vintage set, it's pretty affordable too.