Exxon Version of 6371

[Grrr]

I was flicking through some classic US market catalogs and noticed something unusual in one of the photos of a 1984 catalog (106517/106617-US).

Notice the Exxon gas station in this layout. I'd always presumed this to be set 6375; but it's actually not. It appears to be an Exxon branded version of the European market Shell set 6371, with some minor differences (see subsequent photos for picutres of sets 6371 and 6375). My question is; did this particular service station ever go up for sale; or is this a prototype that somehow wound up in a catalog image? The earlier catalogs I have all show 6375.

[julesvincent]

That is an interesting find. As I'm in Europe I seriously don't know, but checking the familiar sites (Bricklink, Brickset,..) I couldn't find anything. If you look closely, the big sign on top of the shell station is 8-wide as it is just 6-wide on the exxon. My guess is, they swapped out the shell logos for existing exxon logos from the 6375, as I guess a Shell station would look awkward in an US catalog. The exxon logos all look bad stickered in my opinion.

[Evans]

Hello Grrr,

This service station is indeed one of the few prototypes that Lego made appear on their catalogs. This set was never released, and was basedcon our European 6371 set.

Another famous case is the 1979 hospital, that was shown on US layouts from catalogs and roadplates packaging, but was never released.

[Brickviller V2]

Indeed an interesting find. I do however wonder why it was never released though.

[Grrr]

11 hours ago, Brickviller V2 said:

Indeed an interesting find. I do however wonder why it was never released though.

I suspect some sort of situation with the agreements with Shell and Exxon. I note that 6378 Shell branded set was released in the US in 1986, so if this license was already in the works, it's likely the life of the Exxon set (assuming it would've released in 1984) would've been a very short two years - would've made more sense to keep producing 6375.

[Mr Ogel]

Sebastian from1000steine did a rebuild of the station, you can see here the pictures.

https://www.1000steine.de/de/gemeinschaft/forum/?entry=1&id=370908&showall=1#id370968

[Justin]

10 hours ago, Mr Ogel said:

Sebastian from1000steine did a rebuild of the station, you can see here the pictures.

https://www.1000steine.de/de/gemeinschaft/forum/?entry=1&id=370908&showall=1#id370968

Here's a translation of the website I made using Google Translate: https://translate.google.com/translate?sl=auto&tl=en&js=y&prev=_t&hl=en&ie=UTF-8&u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.1000steine.de%2Fde%2Fgemeinschaft%2Fforum%2F%3Fentry%3D1%26id%3D370908%26showall%3D1%23id370968&edit-text=&act=url

It's a very interesting subject. I like the fact that LEGO had to create an official "MOC" to make up for the fact that the set wasn't available in some countries, by taking some creative liberties with the set's design, like replacing Shell's brick colors with Exxon's brick colors and making various sticker and part substitutions.

Edited February 24, 2018 by Justin

[paul_delahaye]

I like the way the cars back then actually had a fuel filler, now days we are lucky if we get doors!

How times have changed.