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[TheBrickster]

Street Crew

Set #: 542
Year Released: 1979
Piece Count: 40
Minifigs: 2
List Price: under $10 (USD)

A great little addition to any town in 1979 and/or the early 80s was this little Street Crew set.

Starting with accessories which no road repair crew would do without:



And the set included two happy road crew, one; I always thought, was a bit fancy dressed for street work:



And a great little digger, esp. considering this set came out in 1979:



The complete set pictured on a "vintage road plate":



FLASHBACK:

I loved setting this set up with a car or two, or even the Exxon Fuel Tanker playing "pretend road work", "auto accident", or even "fuel spil".
No Classic Town/City set would be complete without it!

[WhiteFang]

This is a very nice small little set, which offer 2 "happy" crew members and a mini-digger, working hard to repair the streets under the scorching sun. It is a very tough life for them, to make sure that the roads are in working order.

What I like about this set, is it's simple design and a wide variety of accessories for them to work with such as spade, pricket, barricade and the lovely sign post.

I agreed with you, that these torsos do not seem suitable for these kind of manual work. However, these torsos are very useful to create a typical citizen in a town. Furthermore, it has a nice safety vest for one of them to wear on. Nowadays, the vest is just a orange piece for them to wear on. And, it's only available in City theme, under Airport if I remembered correctly.

The mini-digger is a good and simple design. I have no complains over it. Basically, there is no major faults, and it's great to have them in any of your towns. Be it now or present, this is a timeless classic.

I give it a "4" because of the torsos do not match with each other in this theme. Other than that, it's one lovely set to have!

Thanks Brickster!

This post has been edited by WhiteFang: 15 July 2008 - 05:34 AM

[hewman]

Thanks for the review. I've never actually seen this set before and it definitely has that classic lego charm about it. if you take away the vehicle it looks like the sort of things you might find in a modern advent calendar. I have to admit I have a soft spot for classic town because as a kid when there weren't any affordable classic space sets at the shop I'd get a classic town one instead. In fact I've been pulling them out over the last few nights...the strange things a grown man does while his girlfriend is away...

This post has been edited by hewman: 15 July 2008 - 05:40 AM

[Shadows]

It's a great set for it's simplicity. I figure that the guy in the black vest is the boss, so he stands around drinking a lot of coffee and when he needs to look busy, he mans the sign while the other guy does all the real work. A timeless concept, proven here in a nearly 30 year old set.

The figures are winners, the accessories are winners (when was the last time we saw a road sign?) and the little digger is pretty nice for some basic scooping and moving action.

You just can't go wrong with a little set like this, it's perfectly suited to be sitting off in a corner of any display, going about it's own business and making room for the big sets. Or, put it right out in front and make it the center of the action. I don't think I ever did "fuel spill" but that's a good one I'll have to try sometime. Er, I mean, um...

I'm giving it a 4. It's very nice, but I'd have to be sure just how "under $10" this was. At $9.99, it's overpriced, at $5.99 it's very good.

[WhiteFang]

ImperialShadows, on Jul 15 2008, 01:49 PM, said:

It's a great set for it's simplicity. I figure that the guy in the black vest is the boss, so he stands around drinking a lot of coffee and when he needs to look busy, he mans the sign while the other guy does all the real work. A timeless concept, proven here in a nearly 30 year old set.

I never thought of that before.
He is actually walking around looking important.

ImperialShadows, on Jul 15 2008, 01:49 PM, said:

The figures are winners, the accessories are winners (when was the last time we saw a road sign?) and the little digger is pretty nice for some basic scooping and moving action.

The last time I ever saw road-signs are these wonderful accessories pack!

[Axle]

Does the oddly dressed street worker have printing on top of his body?

[TheBrickster]

Axle, on Jul 15 2008, 04:55 AM, said:

Does the oddly dressed street worker have printing on top of his body?

The fig with the yellow construction vest has a plain blue shirt (without any printed torso).

[rriggs]

Great review! Love the old skool high vis vest!

Cheers

Rog

[Section8]

WhiteFang, on Jul 15 2008, 02:48 AM, said:

The last time I ever saw road-signs are these wonderful accessories pack!

I had that pack; sadly about half of them are broken. They were very fragile parts, especially at the base.

As for the set reviewed, it's pretty good. I don't much care for the tractor but I know it would have been pretty good during its time period. The minifigs and accessories make the set. It would have been at most a 3/5 if it was just the tractor and one figure (as later sets tended to be), but the extras are worth 4/5.

[Grevious]

Great review, Brickster.

This was a great set for its time. You have everything you'd need in a construction accessory pack: a vehicle, tools, and minifigs. The vehicle isn't the best, IMO, but it looks like that even kids back then could easily mod it with a few extra parts.

[Skipper 24]

Loving these clasic town reviews! Why don't LEGO make town sets like these anymore.

[TheBrickster]

Skipper 24, on Jul 19 2008, 02:40 PM, said:

Why don't LEGO make town sets like these anymore.

Good question. I think that these sets prove that simple can be better. It doesn't take a lot of pieces or fancy specialized pieces to make a good set. I would say that Lego's return to City has been great over the past few years. It's just that the sets have gotten much bigger and more expensive.

[otaznik]

I am pretty sure this set should have light gray brick 1 x 1 round with solid stud, not hollow.
Are these pictures made really with original pieces of this set? Thx.

[Natman8000]

otaznik, on Mar 8 2009, 06:26 AM, said:

I am pretty sure this set should have light gray brick 1 x 1 round with solid stud, not hollow.
Are these pictures made really with original pieces of this set? Thx.

That was random. Why would you dig up such an old thread just to say that?

[legofan]

Wondeful Review Brickster! Thank you!

I'm loving the work vest that the workers wear! Very neat! Yap, the only vest you get now are the ones in City Airport, the plain orange one... There was one which i especially like is the one featured in World City 7033 Amoured Car action, but that's a police force vest... Wonder where we can get these sweet little vest for my workers??

Thanks again for the review! And just to add the conditions of your bricks are very good considering the fact that the set is made in 1979~ Wonderful protection done to preserve them!