When I was but a couple of years old I remember I already had lots of old lego which probably came handed down from family members. Since it all came disassembled and without box or instructions I never really knew just what I had until recently I dug up all my old lego from the attic for my children. Brickset and Peeron have been an immense help in this, without them I'd still only have a lot of random parts!

Box/Instructions

Never even having seen them I can't really comment on them. One thing that struck me even with the online scans on Peeron though: 15 steps in total for 101 pieces, 7 for the excavator and 8 for the truck. Just before this we built the vehicles from #60023 City Starter Set and for the ambulance and fire van (each about 100 pieces too I guess) the instructions list 40 steps each!

Parts

Back then these must have been great parts: lots of wheels and hinges, lots of plates with a large red 6x24 plate (which I also have in yellow but that one has an entire edge just beyond the last stud broken off, weird place to break that) and my favourites: the digger bucket and caterpillar tracks. Like I said, I never knew what they were for but I always tried to make something with them.

The build

The build itself is sufficiently simple, but the low amount of steps sometimes makes it difficult to see what is added where, although this could also be the quality of the online scans or my monitor. Because of this it sometimes has more of a guessing game. I should have tried this together with the children to see what difference it makes compared to the new instructions but I hadn't thought of it beforehand. There's always next time though...

The completed model

Looking at it with today's eyes it is exceedingly simple, the truck and trailer above all. The excavator still looks surprisingly good though for just being built out of yellow bricks and red hinges. My children don't mind at all however and happily play away with it (even though even for them the excavator is clearly the star in this set), raising and lowering the bucket works well, the body can rotate, the caterpillars work and in the end it can be driven back on the trailer (I have some long hinges there which works better than the short ones depicted in the photo here) which can then drive off with working steering.

Overall opinion

A piece of nostalgia really, even though I never saw it completed. That it still is being played with is, however, a testament to the original design which works really well for young children. How ironic that they now, 30 years later, do get to see the set in it's original form...

I can't comment the 'value for money' but on the moment of writing this the cheapest one on BrickLink goes for €25 (with instructions) and they go all the way to €175 which is only something for collectors.

EDIT: it has been almost a year now since I did this review and despite the fact that the kids received more lego sets in the meantime, this set is still being played with so if you have young children you can easily give this set a five star score... if you can find it in your attic.