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Number - 6370
Name – Weekend Home
Theme – Classic Town; Subtheme – Leisure
Year – 1985
Minifigs – 2
Pieces – 187
Price – original selling price unknown but likely GB £6 – GB £7. Bought for GB £23.50 on e-bay.
(It was a present.) Only sold once through BrickLink (April 2011) for £3.26 Used (unknown condition). On 9 wish lists on BrickLink and wanted by 338 people on Brickset.Links: Brickset, BrickLink, Peeron.
Spring has sprung and summer is hot on its heels. With the advent of better weather, it’s time for our minifigs to get back to nature and enjoy some leisure time on their weekends, and where better to spend that time than in the: 6370 Weekend Home!
The Box
This set was purchased used and without box from e-bay, so in lieu of a 360° degree overview, the best we have is a small picture of the box as a whole from BrickLink. According to BrickLink its dimensions are 31.5x19x4.75cm, so a reasonably sized box, but not particularly big. It is bright and colourful, and emblazoned with the LEGOLAND logo - the classification used before the sets became LEGO System. Brickset list a picture of the instructions, rather than a picture of the box itself.
The Instructions
I received the instruction booklet, which is often lost in second-hand boxless sets of this age, and it is in reasonably good condition, despite a little crunkling at the bottom left and top right. The picture on the front is a cropped version of the set as a whole, with pictures of the minifigs underneath, and a diagram to indicate how to put a minifigs together. Just in case it isn’t blindingly obvious.
There are no part call-outs for the build, rather a sequence of “spot-the-difference” pictures that are easy enough to follow. For the beginning of the build, stud counting to ensure the basis is correct seems a little trickier on the eyes than in more recent sets. There are brief instructions on placing some specific parts and the placing of stickers is mostly left to the builder’s own logic and reason, unlike building the minifigs.
The first double-page spread of instructions covers the ground floor, which is mostly red bricks with some doors and large windows and the details for the kitchen.
The second double-page spread tops off the ground floor and starts the basis for the first floor, with the addition of furniture. Once again, the minifig is set in place and the building constructed around her, as with her fella on the floor below.
The third and last double-page spread then adds in the bold blue roof and the skylight windows. Here the pictures are larger making it a little easier to see where to place elements at the back of the roof. Unlike more modern sets, the pictures are always seen from the front, with no swivelly icon and rear picture to indicate to turn the model around and build that way.
The very back page shows the completed build, with an inset indicating how to piece together the lamp post and a charming weekend scene.
The Stickers
Again, this was something lost in the mists of time along with the box, however the majority of stickers had already been applied (reasonably well) thus removing any fear of applying them. The only sticker missing from the parts I received was the “picture” sticker (top right) which is the only one to be applied across more than one element. I can only speculate, given that there is no residual evidence of a sticker on those parts, that the original owner was also unwilling to stick across bricks and therefore that sticker is still attached to the original sticker sheet. Wherever that may be. The picture is from BrickLink:
The Parts
I must stress at this point, these are the parts I received from the seller, and unfortunately they do not exactly match those listed in the parts on BrickLink, nor those seen in the instruction booklet. More on that later, for now I’ve tried to split the parts into colour groups – there is a 16x32 green baseplate:
A reasonable selection of red bricks and plates, mostly for the ground floor. They are a little grubby, and they are someone else’s’ grubby at that.
Not the best feature of classic LEGO.
There’s a good amount of blue slopes, which, as one might expect, form the roof, and a few bricks for the first floor walls and a couple of cupboards – one of which is stickered to be the oven. As far as I can tell, this is the only set with the oven sticker, and the stickered door (not including the cupboard) is currently available on BrickLink for between GB £1.96 and GB £ 3.93 and is on 6 wishlists.
The yellow, black and white pieces are more for detailing and furnishing the house. Note the frying pan and the two white mugs, which are pleasant enough for adding detail, however they are far from rare.
The set comes with a good number of windows and doors, given its small size. The stickers had already been applied on mine and the “glass” of the windows was quite badly scratched. The three smaller windows open, but the floor-length panes are fixed.
To add external details and give a nice, relaxing countryside feel, there are some greenery parts (trees and flowers
) and a bicycle. The parts list on BrickLink and the instructions show a red bicycle but I received a black one, which I don’t really mind given that it’s a good colour, and ever so slightly rarer than a red one (not that either are particularly rare).
The Minifigs
The couple spending their weekend in this little house are a coordinating couple who like to wear different shades of the same clothes, which makes me want to name them “Howard” and “Hilda” after a similar couple in a distinctly unfunny sitcom of the same era. Those of you with eagle-eyes may also have spotted that something dreadful has happened to Howard’s right hand, in that it is now white rather than yellow. Again I must make assumptions: that he had had an unfortunate accident with a meat-grinder and his previous owner took it upon themselves to restore him with a hand transplant. How kind.
A brief further note on the parts. As mentioned this was a second-hand purchase, and you can’t always tell what you’ve got until you get your hands on it. According to BrickLink, there were supposed to be four of these 2x8 blue slopes:
But as you can see there are only two. The seller had instead replaced those missing parts with these 2x4 blue slopes:
They also neglected to supply a white 2x3 plate which forms the top of the dressing table upstairs, however, to make up for all that (and the fact that everything is grubby) I ended up with an extra one of these:
Lucky me.
The Build
The build itself is simple enough, and the red bricks and blue slopes grow around the minifigures to form a quaint little country cottage. An overall view of the front of the house shows the outside Bar-B-Que, greenery and lamp post. You can also see the dreadful condition of the far right ground floor window – it is scratched beyond belief.
Here you can see the Bar-B-Que slightly better. I’m assuming it is a Bar-B-Que and not a fireplace as it is situated outside, but it does look more like a fireplace to me. The bicycle has a trans-yellow stud attached to form a head-lamp.
From this angle you can see the Bar-B-Que is tucked in front of a short wall, forming a small front garden. It’s surprising to find a lamp-post in someone’s front garden in the countryside, but it adds another detail, and I’d rather have it than not.
The view from this side shows the outdoor table and chairs with a solitary coffee mug, and a good view of the kitchen through the far left window. Once again it is evident how appallingly scratched some of the windows are; the ghostly figure at the upstairs window is not a Poltergeist, but actually Hilda, sat at her dressing table.
The left side view shows another window in the kitchen, which makes a nice detail, and here you can see more vividly how the ground floor is red and first floor is blue. You can just about see Howard through the window, but we’ll find out what he’s up to shortly.
The back view shows the interior, which is furnished. Downstairs Howard is sitting at the dining table, lit by a lamp, and upstairs Hilda sits at her dressing table. I say downstairs and upstairs, but as with many LEGO sets, there are no stairs.
Howard and Hilda move about their house by the power of levitation, the hand of God, or by climbing up the brickwork.There is an attractive archway upstairs leading to a solitary and simply built bed. It doesn’t quite seem big enough for the both of them though, assuming more than one of them can actually get to it.
The view of the bed through the archway is pleasant, and makes me appreciate the archway even if it is a very small architectural detail.
The back, seen from a different view, shows the built in cupboard above (the back of the cupboard forms part of the roof section) and the kitchen below. Here you can see the much coveted stickered oven door, with an open fronted cabinet next to it for the storage of another solitary coffee mug. The frying pan helps, with the oven sticker, to mark this out as a kitchen, but this is before the days of trans-orange studs and black grills used to make a hob. The many windows give the interior a light and airy feel, making it a relaxing home ideal for the weekend.
Conclusion
Design 9/10 this is Classic Town and very much a Classic Town design with the solid front and open back. Spreading the house into effectively four quarters but keeping it open-plan gives the home a bright and breezy feel, whilst still retaining separate and distinguishable areas. The open back, latterly replaced in sets by hinged walls, allows full access to the admittedly limited play features. The colours are true Classic Town too, and the differentiation between red for ground floor and blue for first floor work better than a single uniform colour would, given the colours that were available at the time.
Parts 7/10 the bicycle, though not rare now, was only introduced in 1985 and this would have been one of the first sets to include it, making it a piece of interest for its time, and a bicycle is always useful. Similarly the frying pan had only appeared in 710 Universal Building Set in 1983 before its return in 1985. The oven front, as mentioned in the introduction, is still desired today. Overall, there aren’t a huge number of interesting parts, but that’s perhaps not why someone would but it today.
Build 7/10 nothing is difficult or fiddly and nothing is repetitive. The building comes together quickly and satisfyingly.
Minifigs 8/10 they are a pair of true Classic Townies, with coordinating jumpers. Both torsos are seen (like the rest of the minifig parts) in a number of sets, although this is the only set in which they appear together. Howard’s red stripy torso was last seen in 6314 City People in 1992, but Hilda’s blue stripy torso was last seen in 1991 in 9354 Town Street Theme which was a LEGO Education & Dacta set.
Playability 8/10 with easy access at the back of the build, and a variety of possible scenes within the house itself, there’s a reasonable amount for kids to play with, even though there are no play features per se. The bicycle is mildly “swooshable”, and the outside Bar-B-Que, although lacking in any Bar-B-Que-able items, adds to the outdoor fun.
Price I’m going to leave this unrated. Clearly this cost more than the going rate, but that’s based on the price of only one set sold on BrickLink, with no further sets for sale. At the time of release it probably represented good value for money, but as the exact initial price is unclear, that is merely speculation.
Overall
If you want your Town minifigs to have an abode, these days you can only really purchase a new one through the CREATOR line, the last true Town abode being 2010's 8403 City House. At the time this set was released, a lot of Town was about families and habitation, which is not really so much the case these days. There are features here which crop up in modern sets, such as the Bar-B-Que - which has been reinvented and modernised both for 5771 Hillside House and City House, and the multitude of windows and skylights, which also appear in both sets. This is a charming little weekend cottage, full of fresh air and wholesome goodness and it would make a sweet little addition to any Classic Town.
And as Howard stares glumly at the dining table, and Hilda stares despondently at her dressing table..
They both decide that a good ride in the country is much more fun!
Thanks for reading, for High-Res images here’s a link to my flickr
I have never seen something like that. Many of my windows are also scratched, but not like that.
I'm not sure the male inhabitant actually had an accident, it might be Michael Jackson trying to enjoy a quiet vacation. The place is a little cramped and the bed doesn't look too spacey either, so I can understand they're going for a bike tour at the end of the review. 
)
