LEGO City

The sole playset for a proposed 1920’s Prohibition theme in the 1980’s

## Collectible Information

### Status

Lost (the original hospital, Holiday Village, and Prohibition prototypes)Found (the 2000’s Arctic and City sets with instructions & pieces listed online)

## Product Information

### Year(s)

1979-2008

LEGO City (also known as LEGO Town) is a line of products that are based on city life, depicting civilian and emergency services; and are one of the three original themes started by the company.

## **Summary:**

The theme first began in 1978 as LEGO Town with a completely new range of buildings and vehicles that were introduced for the European markets, although LEGO sets with buildings and vehicles had been commonplace since the late 1960's. In 1975, a precursor to the minifigure was introduced, in the same scale but without moving parts. These mid-1970s Town sets had buildings and vehicles functioning more as models, with minifigures unable to ride the vehicles, which continued with the new minifigures. In 1980, the Trains theme was completely revamped to complement the Town sets. By 1983, the remaining vehicle based sets that were not minifigure compatible had been discontinued.

All sets were originally released under the "Legoland" label until it was discontinued and replaced with "Lego System" branding in 1991. Eventually, different subthemes under the "Town" brand were used to tie together related sets, such as police, coast guard, emergency services, airport, road rescue, trains, fire, and harbour. During the Christmas season, a City-themed advent calendar set is sold through the online Lego Shop and at retailers. In 2011, two to five minute short films produced by M2 Films and were aired on Cartoon Network and released on the LEGO website. New films have since been released every year. A video game developed by TT Fusion called LEGO City: Undercover was released for the Wii U on March 18th 2013 and was ported to several other consoles on April 4th 2017. A prequel for the game was released for the Nintendo 3DS on April 21st 2013 and content based on the game was added for LEGO Dimensions Year 2 in 2017. On June 22nd 2019, LEGO City Adventures aired on Nickelodeon during a Saturday morning lineup. Following the death of George Floyd in May 2020 which led to massive BLM protests and riots demanding "police reform" (along with defunding in extreme cases), LEGO announced they would temporarily stop marketing police-related City sets. Due to misinformation claiming they were being removed forever, this led to backlash and prompted LEGO to issue a follow-up statement; clarifying that they were still for sale while digital advertising for the sets would be temporarily halted. In January 2021, LEGO released a brand new plate-based road system whose height equaled one-half of the previous plates; leading to criticism from members of the LEGO community due to its incompatibility with the former baseplates, which had been gradually reduced in usage and limited to sets like Modular Buildings.

Outside of Lego City's generic city and town life based sets that are released regularly, the theme has had various subthemes, many of which are recurring. Under the Lego Town theme, the subthemes released during the 1990s and early 2000s also had individualized branding and labeling. In 2003 and 2004, the only town-based sets were released under the "World City" label. They included Arctic, City Center, Divers, Extreme Team, Flight, Launch Command, Nautica, Outback, Paradisa, Res-Q, RSQ911, Space Port, and Town Junior. Since the launch of City in 2005, they are just labeled as City sets but often have multiple sets based around a single concept released at the same time during Lego's release schedule. Many of their subthemes include Airport, Cargo, Coast Guard, Construction, Deep Sea Explorers, Emergency, Farm, Fire, Great Vehicles, Harbour, Jungle, Mining, Forest/Mountain Police, Space, Volcano Explorers, Wildlife Rescue, and Stuntz.

Octan (the Danish word for Octan) is a fictional oil company that has appeared in multiple LEGO sets since 1992. Before that time, LEGO used the logogs of real-world brands like Esso, Shell, and Exxon. Octan has appeared in a number of LEGO video games like *LEGO Island* where they run a gas station and sponsor the race track (several Town/City sets feature "Formula One" style racecars that are sponsored by the company). Octan is the base company for villain Lord Business in *The LEGO Movie* where they produce all of the commodities in his dominion. LEGO set 7747 Wind Turbine Transport shows a variant of the company's logo that reads "Octan Energy;" implying a new division responsible for renewable energy.

## **Cancelled Sets:**

Given its long and varied history, it should be no surprise that several set prototypes were made as ideas for the Town/City theme, yet never fully took off. Let's take a small stroll down memory lane now, shall we?

In 1979, a LEGO hospital set was shown off in yearly catalogues and would’ve had either of these entry numbers: 380 or 570. If you disregard the London exclusive set that came out in 1975,  this would’ve been the very first LEGO hospital to be released and had a specially printed “HOSPITAL” window that can not be found in any other set.  It was remained for reasons unknown and will remain: **LOST.**

While it’s unclear if this was intended to be a subtheme for the original Town line, this story is too good to not include here. In the 1980’s, LEGO planned on releasing a series of sets featuring American towns as they would’ve liked during the 1920’s Prohibition era with police stations, Ritz restaurants, boats packed with citizens onboard, and old fashioned cars. The reason as to why this set may have never been unreleased was due to the topic of alcohol and gangsters being “unsuitable” for younger audiences (never mind topics like zombies and fictional Nazis being present in their future themes).  Given the prototypes were made several years ago, the planned Prohibition set will remain: **LOST**. Though that has not stopped LEGO fans from building their own style of 1920’s American buildings  and the modular Detective’s Office set from 2015 features a storyline where robbers can smuggle cookies through the barbershop and into the pool hall.

Listed in a vintage UK catalogue from 1996 was 6500 SYSTEM Holiday Village which would have included a shop, pizzeria, snack bar, and an assortment of bricks available for customized builds.  Since it was never released, the prototypes will remain: **LOST.**

Two unreleased sets from the 2000 Arctic subtheme include 6570 Snowmobile featuring a minifigure of Scooter and 6576 Sledge which was to include minifigures of Captain Ross & Crystal pulling a sled that contains a first aid storage box; featuring the Star of Life insignia, with an antenna attached to it. 6570 would be included in the set 6520 Mobile Outpost,  though 6576 would never see released anywhere else. Interestingly, the set’s building instructions were labelled “Copyright 1998;” despite Arctic not being established until two years later.  It is worth noting that there is a prototype model of an Arctic Research Base dating back to 1987 and was retooled in 1996 where the minifigures were planned to come with skis. While it can be recreated if you have the right pieces, the only part that can not be accessed is the red parka headgear which was to be an exclusive for this set. Implying you have the pieces and instructions available, these Arctic sets can be considered: **FOUND.**

In 2005, LEGO had plans on releasing 5531 Police Motorcycle (could have been an early design for 7235) and 5532 Fire Car (could have been an early design of 7241) as stand-alone sets; which never came out. They would instead be included in a 60-piece “LEGO City” jigsaw puzzle by Ravensburger that was exclusive to Germany, but it is unknown if any sets got released and if they are available.   Very similar to 5531 was 4897 Police Trike from 2008 which never got released. Their parts are available through Brickset and if one has them compiled, 5531 and 5532 can be recreated which can make them: **FOUND.**

4933 Street Sweeper was an impulse set from 2007 that never got released, though it could have very well been an early design for another street sweeper set labelled under 5620 and had 22 more pieces.  Another unreleased impulse sets from 2007 was Police Swamp Boat, whose figure was unique in that it had a U.S. cap on rather than the regular police one.  The required pieces are listed through Brickset and if one has them together, this set is considered: **FOUND.**

## **Gallery:**

6500 LEGO System Holiday Village; last seen in a 1996 UK catalog6570 Snowmobile, which was later included in 6520 Mobile Outpost4897 Police Trike4934 Swamp Boat5531 Police Motorcycle which was said to be have been released with a German jigsaw puzzle5532 Fire Car which was said to be have been released with a German jigsaw puzzle6576 Sledge, which included a red parka headgear accessory that was never released anywhere elseA LEGO Hospital that was shown for the first and last time in a 1979 catalog

## **References:**

1. ↑ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lego\_City
2. ↑ http://www.brickinvesting.com/lego/363
3. ↑ https://brickset.com/article/21579/the-case-of-the-missing-hospital
4. ↑ https://brickipedia.fandom.com/wiki/6570\_Snowmobile
5. ↑ https://www.brothers-brick.com/2010/03/06/prohibition-makes-a-comeback/
6. ↑ https://www.lego.com/en-ca/product/detective-s-office-10246
7. ↑ https://brickipedia.fandom.com/wiki/6500\_Holiday\_Village
8. ↑ https://brickipedia.fandom.com/wiki/6570\_Snowmobile
9. ↑ http://www.peeron.com/cgi-bin/invcgis/scans/6576-1?ct=1
10. ↑ https://brickipedia.fandom.com/wiki/5531\_Police\_Motorcycle
11. ↑ https://brickipedia.fandom.com/wiki/5532\_Fire\_Car
12. ↑ https://brickipedia.fandom.com/wiki/Unreleased\_Items
13. ↑ https://brickipedia.fandom.com/wiki/4934\_Police\_Swamp\_Boat