Doom2099

4-wide to 6-wide Vehicle Transition

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Just curious for those more knowledgeable about Classic Town and City, is there a year where Lego switched from primarily 4-wide vehicles to 6-wide?

Of course there were 6 wide vehicles before, like the Airport Fire Truck, and there are still 4 wide cars now on occasion, but is there a period of time you can point to where things made the big change?

Thanks!

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I am not too knowledgeable about the specifics but I just did a little looking around on Brickset.com and the town theme ended in 2004 and it seems thats when the 4-wide era started a big transition. You can see in 2005 the new mudguard was introduced which IMO is a defining part for the 6 wide era.

The cars are still a mix for a while after this but the trucks are definitely 6 wide at this time. 

You can see that in 6472-1: Gas N' Wash Express which is definitely 4 wide trucks. Compare that to 7239-1: Fire Truck and you see the shift. These are only release 1 year apart but to me they look like totally different eras of build. 

Hope this is helpful, this all happened in my dark ages so I have sets up to about 2000 and then new ones starting in about 2012~2013. 

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I'd say started in 2003; with transition complete around 2005. Classic "Town" was definately 4-wide (excepting some sets like 6440); and City is for the most part 6-Wide from it's inception in 2005. World City represents the transition era. Note the Police sets - both 4 and 6 wide vehicles released the same year. The first year of City (2005) still has the odd 4-wide vehicle too.

In reference to 6472 that @supertruper1988 mentions; I regard this as an outlier; given that it's a re-release of a 1992 set.

 

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2 hours ago, Grrr said:

I'd say started in 2003; with transition complete around 2005. Classic "Town" was definately 4-wide (excepting some sets like 6440); and City is for the most part 6-Wide from it's inception in 2005. World City represents the transition era. Note the Police sets - both 4 and 6 wide vehicles released the same year. The first year of City (2005) still has the odd 4-wide vehicle too.

In reference to 6472 that @supertruper1988 mentions; I regard this as an outlier; given that it's a re-release of a 1992 set.

 

Oh I didnt even know that the World City Theme existed. I knew about the sets but always thought they were town sets haha. That is definitely the transition then because the newer hood piece in some of the police cars and they stopped with the pre-molded vehicle bases. 

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I definitely agree with World City being the transition period. The 4 wide vehicles from then could easily have been Town era sets had they replaced the hood/roof cover with those hinged roof pieces with the sun roof in them that they used to use all the time.

Jumping off of that, but I think we are also in the middle/end of another transition period with fewer 4 wide vehicles and a lot of vehicles being 6-10+ studs. 60143 Auto Transport Heist from the 2017 police line contains 4 wide vehicles, along with the main Police Station, 60141, but the other police cars are all 6 studs wide. We also have a new 6 wide car base that was released in 2017 that I suspect will start appearing a lot more in the future. I can't imagine they would bother creating a 6 wide base for just a few cars. Looking forward, the Mountain Police line contains several particularly large police vehicles, with the only 4 wide vehicles being buggy's/offroad vehicles. Most notably, 60172 Dirt Road Pursuit's main vehicle is technically a 6 wide build, but the extra large fenders + massive tires push this build into the 10-12 stud range of width. A set of this size also seems to have appeared in a Jungle set as well, 60162. It'll be interesting to see if Lego continues this trend forward.

Edited by Yeow

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18 hours ago, supertruper1988 said:

You can see in 2005 the new mudguard was introduced which IMO is a defining part for the 6 wide era.

Thanks everyone, really appreciate the responses. I totally agree that this may have been one of the most definitive pieces Lego uses since its release.

14 hours ago, Grrr said:

I'd say started in 2003; with transition complete around 2005. Classic "Town" was definately 4-wide (excepting some sets like 6440); and City is for the most part 6-Wide from it's inception in 2005. World City represents the transition era. Note the Police sets - both 4 and 6 wide vehicles released the same year. The first year of City (2005) still has the odd 4-wide vehicle too.

Thanks for the specific timeline. I wonder if this had anything at all to do with Lego's dark financial times. They surveyed kids and said that four wide doesn't look cool, but six wide does. The fact it's sticking around for most of the Great Vehicles and sets says something about its staying power.

Finally, this is great to know about this new piece! It looks like it really is only old sets for me as someone who prefers 4 wide. 

8 minutes ago, Yeow said:

Jumping off of that, but I think we are also in the middle/end of another transition period with fewer 4 wide vehicles and a lot of vehicles being 6-10+ studs. 60143 Auto Transport Heist from the 2017 police line contains 4 wide vehicles, along with the main Police Station, 60141, but the other police cars are all 6 studs wide. We also have a new 6 wide car base that was released in 2017 that I suspect will start appearing a lot more in the future. I can't imagine they would bother creating a 6 wide base for just a few cars.

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I would say that 60007 High Speed Chase from 2013 was a milestone, if not a turning point, since as far as I can tell it was the first Town/City set that had a car (not a truck/van/SUV) on a full 6-wide frame. Granted, LEGO had cars this size before in other themes like Indiana Jones, not to mention much bigger cars in more fantasy-leaning themes like Agents.

I do prefer 6-wide vehicles to 4-wide, just in terms of them being more detailed and feeling more accurately scaled to figures. Of course, that might have something to do with growing up around bigger vehicles… my dad has a Ford Excursion and for most of my life my mom had a Ford Crown Victoria sedan, both fairly big vehicles. I would often have a lot of fun trying to build these both IRL and on LEGO Digital Designer, and almost invariably I would stick to 6-wide, which most accurately captured their proportions and details (and, in ideal circumstances, allowed me to fit a minifigure family of four inside — though even 6-wide cars in LEGO City rarely attempt to fit more than a driver and one backseat passenger).

Edited by Aanchir

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On ‎20‎/‎12‎/‎2017 at 1:41 AM, Doom2099 said:

Thanks for the specific timeline. I wonder if this had anything at all to do with Lego's dark financial times. They surveyed kids and said that four wide doesn't look cool, but six wide does. The fact it's sticking around for most of the Great Vehicles and sets says something about its staying power.

I think so. From 1997-2005 there were a large number of gaffes with regard to Town sets (and surrouding themes) which I'm certain caused a substantial loss of revenue. The key issue was, do sets need to be juniourised to appeal to a younger audience, or should they be detailed to appear to an older one; and if both, how do you do both at the same time.

You can clearly see this conflict in a number of places; but again, the World City line is a good place to look - the trains sets are in many ways a continuation of classic 9V trains - reasonably detailed, complicated builds, while the police sets are clearly aimed at 6 year olds, and have few redeeming features for older collectors in terms of either design or parts. 

The City line to me, marks a clear re-launch with a new brief around what the lines wants to be, and they've stuck to that well. Especailly from say 2007 onwards, the line is quite unified and clear; with 6-wide vehicles; higher price-points, and a certain quality standard.

I'm not sure if City would've done quite so well with AFOLs where it not for the painful period preceding it. I think many of us where relieved to have something new and decent, and as such started buying; and didn't need to forgive the changes given that it was such an improvement on what came in recent years before. Moreover, the new scale also integrated nicely with the new Creator and Modular sets (for the most parts) which also clearly appealed.

Interestingly now, 10 years on, I'm starting to see things becoming stale from an AFOL perspective. Many AFOL's have stopped buying every subtly different police/fire station, and the same applies to vehicles. Obviously these models still do well with the target audience (kids). I suspect this is part of the reason why Lego is looking to move ever more AFOL money into D2C sets as AFOL spend on regular sets has been diminishing in recent years (and D2C sets tend to evoque a higher loyalty, buying every modular or every Winter Village set). I can certainly see room for a re-hash of the formula that's made City what it is; but it probably won't come for a few years yet.

 

 

 

 

 

 

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This is a really interesting discussion. TLG clearly introduced 6-wide trucks in the World City theme of 2003/2004. Cars, vans and pickups were still 4-wide back then (with clear 1990s Town vibe to them).

 7034-1.jpg?200301060235 7032-1.jpg?200301060233 7030-1.jpg?200301060232 

 

When City was introduced in 2005, trucks were still 6-wide, but vans and pick-ups were upgraded to 6-wide and cars largely stayed 4-wide

7239-1.jpg?200411060237  7245-1.jpg?200411060243 7236-1.jpg?200411060234

 

TLG stuck with this scale until today. It only recently started introducing what I see as "sports cars" in sets (for the first time in 60007 as pointed out). These are 6-wide in order to reflect their lower and wider profile. I am not sure if this marks the end of the 4-wide City car as they continue to appear in City sets (like 60143). However, browsing through City sets released in recent years certainly shows less 4-wide cars and more 6-wide vehicles.

60007-1.jpg?201210110437  60143-1.jpg?201611300919

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