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I blame Caprinut for this – I was quite happy not having any Lego in my life until recently

I gave away what remained of my Lego some time ago, all the discrete sets and carefully sorted parts had gradually got churned into one large plastic tote (with no instructions or boxes surviving) by my sister’s kids. My principal driver in thinking I’d never want to use it all again was the lack of realism – no matter what you build, in whatever scale it’s still Lego first, thing second… although I know that’s the point for a lot of people.  Now that some of the next generation are getting old enough to be trusted not to ingest or insert Lego, I’m questioning whether I should have kept it, I know they’re not getting their hands on any of the Lego I’ve collected recently – not unless they inherit it  


I don’t see any likelihood of getting back in to the “Legoland” (later, “City”) sets, and the Space theme is right out – but the early “Technical” Lego is another matter.

Nb “Technical” Lego (from the “New Technical Set” logo on the boxes) is not official, but in light of “Technic” not coming in as a sub-brand until 1982, I’ll stick with what we called it at the time. “Expert Builder” AFAIK was a US marketing label, not something from Lego.   

So far I’ve collected a small number of sets (and inevitably, have my beady little eyes on a few more), all cleaned, hopefully complete, and now housed neatly in Ikea card boxes (more on that at some point), and will be building them as and when, and in what order I feel like at the time. I’ve also got a number of the 1970-1974 precursor “Gear” sets – although hopelessly crude in comparison to even the earliest “Technical” sets, they were my first exposure to Lego at Christmas 1974, when a well meaning but distant relative gave me them to keep me distracted while everyone else fussed over the new baby … as a toy, they were hopelessly “old” for me (I was less than two and a half at the time) but I delighted in following the instructions, and also building all the other photographed but not explicitly laid out options.

For comparison, I’m not sure where I was on reading in my early years, I seem to remember being behind at some point, but then I also remember later reading comic books, then lightweight stuff like Biggles novels, then on to Cold War Spy thrillers like Len Deighton in my own time, while at the same time (1978) being forced to read the same dreck at school my classmates were struggling with, where a 300 word “book” was meant to keep me busy for half an hour. Not a book with a 300-word vocabulary, a 300 word _book_.   I’m struggling to remember what I was actually taught at school, but that’s a whole ‘nother tangent...

851 Tractor

Bought as: loose parts from BrickOwl (multiple sellers).

Released in 1977 (and as # 952 in the  US, in 1978), from the colours it’s clearly meant to represent a Massey Ferguson tractor - the consensus seems to be that it’s the MF135 (1964-75).

Features are steering, 3-point hitch (with a clever lever system that only needs a surprisingly light touch, and goes over centre to holds any attached implement up), and the right rear tyre drives a power take off – although a lot of torque is put through the tiny teeth of the crown gear. The rest – with the exception of the exhaust and rear light, which fall off if you so much glance in their general direction – seems robust enough.I downloaded scanned pages of the manual & cleaned them up as best as I could, but the red came out a bit muddy and it wasn’t always clear what was meant to go where. I got frustrated enough with my first attempt to dismantle it & start again with a better set of scans, viewed on a tablet instead.

The instructions give three options of implement, I built the grass cutter as it’s the best looking of the three (and uses the most parts). This is not a set I had first time around, I don’t know if I would have been disappointed at the time if I had one from new, but it doesn’t compare well to the bigger/better/more realistic sets that came later.

I’d expected the scale to be all over the place, but it’s remarkably consistent when compared to published data for the 1:1 135.Wheelbase (real 182cm vs 135mm for the Lego version) and width (162cm vs 120mm) both come up at 1:13.5. Length (306cm vs 217mm) and height (137cm vs 107mm) - which I’d expect to be a bit more problematic due to the limitations of brick standard dimensions - come out at 1:14.1 and 1:12.8 respectively. The arithmetic mean of all four results is … 1:13.5.  

324 parts (of 67 types) is not a large count for a “Technical” set, I think there’s scope for a bigger/wider/more realistic 135 while still using the “giant” 81.6x24 tyres on the rear, though you might have to move to the much later 62.4x20 tyres for the front. I don’t really care enough (not for this particular tractor anyway) to pursue it. The driver’s seat on the other hand – as built it’s way too small, and so far forward you couldn’t fit even a mini figure in there.

I know I mentioned a lack of realism as a “problem” with Lego, but as someone who is currently struggling to start anything RC related, let alone finish anything,  being able to completely complete something in a couple of short sittings is something I really appreciate right now … 


857 Motorbike with Sidecar

Released in 1979 (1980 in the US), c. 409 pieces.

Another “set” bought by me as loose parts from BrickOwl  from (multiple sellers. 

I’m kind of assuming it’s meant to be a earlier Harley – which might go some way to explaining the foot brake on the “wrong” side (though not why it acts on the transmission) – but in that case, the single cylinder engine is disappointing.  I would have liked to see some suspension at the rear, a rigid back end is a legitimate choice but could still have a sprung seat.

Frame geometry (especially the front down “tubes” looks wrong, and overall length (and the length of the sidecar) make it look very stubby.

Scale, maybe 1:8 ish?

Handlebars fall off if you even think about looking at them, otherwise I wouldn’t call it tough, but nothing seems to be overly problematic.

The set of instructions I have (printed out from an online source) show alternate builds of a “chopped” trike using the same frame/engine core, from that I infer that a chopper would be perfectly possible, as would the regular bike sans sidecar. The instructions also show, well, I’m not sure what it is, some sort of very short 3-wheeled chassis with an elevating ladder? Some literature (and possibly the box?) also shows a motorcross sidecar outfit.

Glad I can influence in either right or wrong direction 

These was before my time.
My eariest Technic kit was the 8851 Dune Buggy from 81`. I guess I got mine in 84`at age of 8. As I clearly remember getting the 8851 Excavator in Jan 85.
I`m pretty sure I got the 8843 Forklift for my birthday in 86.
The Model Team 5540 Formula 1 Racer was released 86 and I clearly remember having the poster of it up in the place we moved from in summer of 87.
So I would guess I got the Formula 1 for my birthday in Jan of 87.
I never got expensive gifts for Xmas, so they were spared for my birthday.
So the Formula 1 is probably the last Lego set I received ever, at age 11.
From 88 or 89 my father would buy me a 2 year subscription of RCCA magazine as he clearly saw my interest in rc. I bought the first issue in 87, which was the June edition.
This was the only gift I would receive for my birthday from then on till 18 or so...

As Lego is Danish, Lego comes natural as a a norse. Most kids here got Lego of som sort in the 80s and 90s.

Would be fun to know how many of us here got Lego as kid. I guess there is a few.

Btw, the 3 wheeled with ladder bar is in fact a motorcross with sidecar.
Sounds strange, but those was a popular undergroup of motorcross back in the day.
I guess they mainly exsisted in US.



Edit: I see what you mean now.
I was looking at the US release cover...

I think the 3 wheel ladder thing is a convyor belt with wheels. Obviously missing the belt part.
But a bit dumb to include that in instructions since that thing don`t make sense without the belt part.
Could also be a airports staircase, but too oversize wheels and missing the step part.
If they had included a extra rim tire they could had build something that made sense.....

I'm offended you'd think I wouldn't know what a motorcross sidecar looked like

Having built the ladder thing I'm not really any clearer on what the ladder thing is meant to be, the mechanism moves it from flat to 45 degrees but is very fragile, the low end of the 4 long axles doing all te work come out of the axle/pin connectors far too easily.

Very strange contraption indeed!

Don`t know what Lego designers was thinking with this, but it clearly is nothing from real life in that format, that`s for sure!

Could it be heyball lifter?? thumbs.dreamsti...228023.jpg

During my first eliminating rc collection go fast 3 years ago at my dad's home,  I felt on a small part of my 80's 90's lego. So the virus was back darker than when my wife offered me the vw camper bully. Since, I collected several vintage sets from classic town Legoland and lego system . Last september I did another elimination rc collection go fast and took my big legos lego team trucks, pneumatic and technic I had in my bedroom. And felt on several mtron serie ones and blacktron in a box in the cave. Crossed fingers if I could find other ones and my last sets like fire stations and sound and light Legoland  and my other mtron and blacktron in the garage during my next go fast. 

A couple of builds from the 8888 Lego Ideas Book from 1980: 

Identified as the 8888-1-c1 Buggy on most Lego adjacent sites, or as RD803 Buggy by the author of a PDF of build instructions at www.bouwstone.n...-8888-1980

I couldn’t get the 4x3 grey sloped bricks for the nose initially, so substituted two blue ones to match the rest of the bodywork. The red 1 x 6 holed beams in the front end of the chassis should be black & will get replaced before it goes back in its storage box.

It uses the “giant” tyres but is only a single seater, and has a 2-cylinder horizontally opposed engine at the rear, but that is not connected to the rear wheels in any way and operates only when the pulley is turned by hand.

Front and rear covers plus the seat all swing up, but I think that’s more to do with getting them at the correct angles than intentional operation. No suspension but does have rack & pinion steering.

I had no interest building this one BITD, but have gained an appreciation of this type of vehicle thanks to Tamiya and the Sand Rover.