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Set name: Post-Station (Post Office)
Set Number: 6689
Price: ? $, ? £, ? Euro
Pieces: 52 (+ 1 sticker sheet)
Year of release: 1985
Links: Peeron, Bricklink and Brickset
The Box
Front
(Picture from LEGO Wikia - Being this an older set, I do not have the full box anymore.)
The front of the box shows the little Post Station and the two minifigures interacting in what seem to be the outskirts of our Classic Town (where can you find a post office so far from the houses and surrounded by green fields?).
Please take a good look at the completed set with stickers. Since I do not apply stickers to my sets, this is the only chance you’ll have to appreciate the art TLG designers put in them.
One thing I never understood is why the time table had to be put at kids or dwarves level on the door, but I do not think we’ll never get to know it…
Contents
Inside
Here you can see the 52 parts in all their colourful glory! One of my favourite parts of this set is the Grey baseplate; I found it very useful over the years for a lot of MOCs and its diminutive size makes it very versatile in use (for example, you can include it to make the floor the second storey of a house without solidity problems).
Recoloured parts
The recoloured parts in this set include 4 Black Slope 33° 3 x 3 Double Convex, 1Yellow Door 1 x 4 x 5 Right with Trans-Clear Glass (this is the only set including this piece in Yellow) and 1 Brown Headgear Hair Female. I was not aware that this wig appeared in this colour only in 1985, and it was a nice surprise to discover it during the make of this review!
New pieces
One of the all time favourite parts for all LEGO Town/City builders, the Red Bicycle was released with this set. It is by far one of the most lovely parts TLG ever produced, and it always gives a worldly shine to Town scenes.
Instructions
The front cover (remember that during these years instructions were not released in booklets, but in foldouts) shows the same shot as the front of the box, plus the set number, the LEGOLAND marking and the LEGO logo. This has been for long years the trademark of the LEGO System sets (before we even knew this kind of sets were System), and I always scanned the toy aisle for boxes sporting these signs.
Random ‘page’ – Parts call-out weren’t very common in 1985 (they were in use in Technic sets and some of the larger System sets), and kids usually had to keep count of the parts and scan the figure twice to make sure they did not skip a passage. How many times we found ourselves with the ‘finished’ set and some ‘extra’ parts which we had to track back to their appropriate position?
It is worth noting that some instructions show the mail box with an opposite orientation (i.e., opening towards the outside). It is not clear whether this is a mistake or a (possibly) regional or temporal difference between subsequent releases of this set.
Minifigures
The figures have always been one of the best parts in LEGO sets (and this is why most of us do not really like mid- or micro-scale sets, isn’t it?). These two townies are well representative of the Classic Town population, and of the 1980s’ fashion.
The Woman torso is one of my favourite out of the Classic Town populace, probably because I saw people actually wearing this kind of horizontally stripped sweaters all my youth.
The Postman is a great addition to every Town/City and the Posts’ logo looked so appealing to me at the time.
I do not think the classic LEGO smile needs any introduction!
As expected from old times’ minifigures, there is no printing on the back of the heads or torsos.
Building
Start
The build is fairly simple and straight forward. Still, it is nice to see how LEGO set designers tried to grant the best possible use of the pieces to give solidity to the structures.
Good old times
Do you remember the time when TLG used a pile of bricks instead of a panel wall? Oh, the lovely memories!
Half way through - front
The most eye-catching feature of the front of the set at this step is the big yellow post box. These boxes were always source of infinite discussion: were they too big when compared to the minifigs, or were they the right size? The discussion still rages.
Half way through - back
The inside of our Post Station is a bit cramped, but LEGO sets have (almost) always been designed with the purpose of letting you imagine there was something more on the back and you could expand/complete them with your imagination and your bricks.
Finished set
Almost like Pizza-Hut
For some reason, this shot strongly reminds me of the Pizza-Hut logo…
Bonus images
Every day life of a Postman
Our friendly Postman is out to deliver some letters riding his shining red bike. The lovely scene makes two questions arise:
- Who will serve the Woman with Letter if the Post Station is empty?
- Is that the most secure way for the Postman to bring around the Townies’ correspondence?
Back to Station
The Postman is back, while our Town Woman, having found the Station un-attended, is posting her letter in the box.
Out to In only
The post box is designed and used so that it can be opened towards the inside of the Station, so that our Postman can easily retrive the mail and process it on his desk.
At your service Ma’am
As said, the inside of the Station is a bit cramped, but Postman is ready to fulfil his customer’s requests.
Final comments
Overall, this is a very nice little set. As typical of the times, it is full of bricks and the only really big element is the door (quite naturally). The presence of a small baseplate with enough free space for the minifigs to be attached and moved around the building is something we have seldom seen in more recent sets (fortunately, baseplates seem to be coming back again!). The minifigs are interesting and pretty well designed (of course, no double side printing on the torsos and custom expressions on the faces, but those came in later).
Colors scheme - 9/10 (I never saw a Blue and Yellow Post Station in my life, but this means little or nothing. And considering the colour palette of 1985, this set is indeed pretty nice.)
Minifigures - 10/10 (These two are some of my favourite Classic Town figs. The woman’s torso is by far my favourite and the Postman is a great addition to all Towns; It’s not a chance that the Postman theme is still so common in the Town/City lines!)
Parts - 9/10 (Did I say there are no panels, but only bricks? Of course I did! The only small con is that there are very few new or recoloured parts, but that’s fairly acceptable given the time and size of the set.)
Design - 10/10 (This design seems to have inspired the Pizza-Hut logo; what do you want more?)
Quality - 8/10 (All the parts are made of good quality plastic; unfortunately, as of the time, most bricks have the eye-catching mold mark on the sides.)
Overall: 47/50 Excellent
More pics can be found in this Brickshelf gallery.
As always, questions, comments, and pic requests welcome!
Edited by Zorbas, 20 February 2011 - 08:14 PM.
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