Vintage set of the week: Double Tanker
Posted by Huwbot,This week's vintage set is 644 Double Tanker, released during 1971. It's one of 27 LEGOLAND sets produced that year. It contains 61 pieces.
It's owned by 346 Brickset members. If you want to add it to your collection you might find it for sale at BrickLink or eBay.
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32 comments on this article
I like those bricks with the word Lego printed on them.
I cannot say that I want it, but, if I had it, I would treasure it as a tribute to past sets. Not knowing 60s and 70s sets in any depth, I can't attest to it quality, but the design looks pretty good for its time.
That's not a tanker, that's just a big telephone.
@MCLegoboy said:
"That's not a tanker, that's just a big telephone."
I'd really like to see the original truck/trailer on which this is modelled. Never ever seen anything quite like it in 'recent' time (this set is more or less my age).
Are we to believe that tanker is filled with liquid LEGO?
0/10 uses illegal technique
They call it a double tanker, but those tanks look half the size as usual
One of several excellent articulated lorries I had at the time, all using the same matched specialised bases. Favourite one was 621-2 . I always thought of this one as a milk tanker. Cost me 52.5p so a definite pocket money set. The completed model fitted nicely in the box.
Was also a time when the box, the instructions, and the bricks rarely matched each other!
@Lego_mini_fan said:
"I like those bricks with the word Lego printed on them."
Indeed... the much better looking early Lego logo with the split 'O'
@R1_Drift said:
"0/10 uses illegal technique"
True but the beauty of this is: even back then they knew that 6 studs and 2/3 in height is equal to 8 studs in width.
A brick is 20LU (Lego Unit) wide and 24 LU high (plate is 8 LU high). 6.66 * 24 = 160 and 8 x 20 = 160. Hence, why the blue bar on top of the two tanks fits exactly with the (inter)studs. These calculations are mostly present when you do snot building and you want to completely fill the space. Same as 5 plates stacked (40 LU) is the same width as two studs wide (40 LU).
Maybe one of the first snot technique ever other than the police car roof light.
@HOBBES said:
"Maybe one of the first snot technique ever other than the police car roof light."
The headlights on 603-3 Vintage Car were earlier... Trans clear 1x1s guaranteed to fall off, get lost in the carpet then disappear up the vacuum cleaner!
Is it carrying liquid Lego?
What would that even be?
I didn't have it, but I remember it from the catalog. It was not a set that was ever on my wish list.
It's so interesting to see how old is some of the parts are. Just look at those 2x2 quarter round bricks. More than 50 years old today
@R1_Drift:
If you look really closely, the vertical plates are centered between studs, allowing their own studs to nest in the gap. This does not allow the plate to fully seat, but it gets very close. Certainly much closer than the headlights in 603-3 that @sjr60 mentioned, where the studs on the vertical roof plates land right on top of one of the studs that pinch it, resulting in a fairly large gap underneath. Combined with the fact that it’s only a 1x plate, that’s about as unstable a connection as you can make. Additionally, plates are just a bit thicker than tiles, so the pinch puts more stress on the edges of the part, potentially denting them, and it probably forces the gap between the pinching studs open just a bit which means the tighter fit actually holds less securely. So, yeah, definitely an illegal technique, and the reason we have so many different styles of bracket these days.
@Zordboy:
Without looking them up, I can’t speak for any of the other types of plastic used throughout the company’s history, but ABS doesn’t liquify. It’s an “amorphous” plastic, which means it has no crystalline structure. It gets the consistency of scaldingly hot chewing gum when heated up past its glass transition temperature. Hotter still, it just combusts. No melting. ABS pellets would probably need to be transported in a much different style of trailer, like what’s used for grain shipments.
When I was young I was given 655-1 and I had great fun with it and also used its parts in many of my builds. I still have all the parts and instructions which I have passed on to my son.
If this trick is not a milk tanker then maybe it's a truck transporting the raw materials that lego is made from? ;-)
So apparently lego used to have a side business selling milk. I just have to ask... why? And how? And from what?
@fmaas68 said:
"When I was young I was given 655-1 and I had great fun with it and also used its parts in many of my builds."
They'd almost run out of ideas for the lorry base by then... only used once more, a couple of years later, in 694-1.
@R1_Drift said:
"0/10 uses illegal technique"
Not back then. Still hanging onto the age of free love, free drugs, and free Lego building techniques!
Probably the most snotty set of the time, but I like it!
I love minifigs as much as the next guy but there's something to be said for the roughly HO scale of Lego models from this era.
And the best thing about the 60s and 70s...... Pathetic acronyms like SNOT, MOC and AFOL hadn't been invented. PEOPLE just built Lego.
I am not an acronym. I'm a free man!
@sjr60:
Did you let kids walk on your lawn back in those days?
@PurpleDave said:
" @sjr60:
Did you let kids walk on your lawn back in those days?"
Back in those days, there were not even fences between neighbours. Kids had plenty of space to play around.
I'm not even quite sure if this is an illegal technique. a plate wedged between a 1x2 studded surface would be illegal because the 'vertical' first stud would make contact with one of the base stud. However, a plate wedged in the centre on a 2x2 studded surface will not have any stud contact at all (hence no stress on any parts). Apparently a tile wedged on a 1x2 studded surface is valid as seen on Saturn V flag.
@HOBBES:
The lawn bit was because he seems the sort who spends much of his day yelling at kids to get off his.
And this is still illegal. The studs do make contact, and this time it’s edge-to-edge, which means you can dent them if you press down too hard. There’s enough room to fit a really narrow piece of paper underneath the vertical plate, so it’s not seating fully in the gap. The sides of the plates are
Now where the pinching studs make contact, which can crush the edges. And the plate is thicker than a tile, so using a tile is not proof that it’s a legal technique for plates. Minifigs are allowed to grip tiles by the edge, but not plates, and they probably haven’t pinched a plate like this since tiles were introduced.
@PurpleDave said:
" @sjr60:
Did you let kids walk on your lawn back in those days?"
I think your auto-responder script has got stuck in a loop again. That's 3 or 4 times it's churned that one out, and it still makes no more sense than the 1st time.
@sjr60 said:
"
And the best thing about the 60s and 70s...... Pathetic acronyms like SNOT, MOC and AFOL hadn't been invented. PEOPLE just built Lego."
I'm not familiar with this "PEOPLE" acronym. Is it short for
Perpetually
Enraged
Over
Peer
Lego
Enthusiasts
@HOBBES said:
" @R1_Drift said:
"0/10 uses illegal technique"
True but the beauty of this is: even back then they knew that 6 studs and 2/3 in height is equal to 8 studs in width.
A brick is 20LU (Lego Unit) wide and 24 LU high (plate is 8 LU high). 6.66 * 24 = 160 and 8 x 20 = 160. Hence, why the blue bar on top of the two tanks fits exactly with the (inter)studs. These calculations are mostly present when you do snot building and you want to completely fill the space. Same as 5 plates stacked (40 LU) is the same width as two studs wide (40 LU).
Maybe one of the first snot technique ever other than the police car roof light."
"Don't sweat the technique..." Rakim.
@HOBBES said:
"A brick is 20LU (Lego Unit) wide and 24 LU high (plate is 8 LU high). 6.66 * 24 = 160 and 8 x 20 = 160. Hence, why the blue bar on top of the two tanks fits exactly with the (inter)studs."
Of course this all fell to bits (literally) due to the base plate's tendency to flex!
@VintageDude said:
" Illegal technique? What does that mean?"
basically any technique that places too much strain on a part or is too flimsy, leading to more broken parts. Wedging 2 plates like that creates a slight bend.
LEGO is really wishy-washy on this, they rarely break the rules now (Saturn-V uses the aforementioned wedge), but can barely make knees that last even one disassembly without a huge loss in friction.
@R1_Drift:
Once again, doing this with a tile is _NOT_ an illegal technique because there’s no stud to intersect the ones that pinch the tile, and also because a tile is slightly thinner than a plate. It’s just not a technique that’s commonly used, because now there’s usually an alternate solution that’s possible. In that one case, the flag and pole were printed on a clear tile, so any parts used to mount the tile would have been visible through it.
In contrast, doing this with the 4x4 plate that has studs along one edge would still be illegal on the edge opposite the studs. That part uses plate geometry, so it’s thick enough to create an unacceptable amount of stress on the adjoining part.
@Zordboy said:
"Is it carrying liquid Lego?
What would that even be?"
Just ABS. It has no true melting point.