This and a few other Arctic sets were still lingering on store shelves on clearance when Star Wars pulled me out of my dark ages in 2002-‘03, and the very first non-Star Wars set I bought them was an Arctic one (although not this one). But I did get this as well, and thought it was very cool (if you’ll pardon the expression), though being only very newly back to LEGO it’s likely I didn’t fully appreciate what it brought to the table, like the polar bear.

@StyleCounselor:
Follow up to yesterday, the X-Wing you’re thinking of is 6212, which has a printed tile with five hash marks for Luke’s Red 5, and alternating red and white 1x1 tiles to change it to Wedge’s Red 3. We’ve seen a few other Ep4 Red Squadron pilots (Biggs and Porkins, that I can recall), but not their X-Wings.

That’s not the issue, though. The hash marks make it really easy to tell which X-Wing you’re looking at. But if the X-Wings are distinguished in that matter, is there some identifying mark on all the Y-Wings, A-Wings, and B-Wings? If so, can you pick out the specific starfighter that each LEGO model represents?

Also, where’s the polar bear at?

I only have the big set 6575 and am glad for it.

@GSR_MataNui said:
"I always love it when tiny-sub-models have their own bags and/or instructions (The former of which seems to be the case here) instead of just having one giant model. Makes it easy to build with friends! It's a trend that seems to be coming back lately, and I'm all here for it."
I agree!

In the US this was called cellular outpost.

This Arctic theme was very nostalgic for me.

It also always reminds me of the Lego Magazine that had a picture of the prototype theme that looked fantastic, used red instead of orange, and had penguins!

Besides the colors and old style hinges this wouldn't look out of place today

I only ever had two Arctic sets (6577 and 6579) but the minifigures in them were so cool to me when I was a kid, with those snow goggles and the big parka hoods.
I'm pretty sure I drooled over this set in the shop at home catalog, and then never got it like everything else in those catalogs.

@PurpleDave : Wedge was Red 2, Biggs was Red 3. 9493 has stickers and tiles to make it Porkins' Red 6. 75218 can be Luke's Red 5 or Biggs' Red 3. And by trimming those stickers, you can make Wedge's Red 2 or Jon D's Red 4- using the dark red helmet of 75204 Sandspeeder Pilot for Jon D.

From the Designer’s Bricklist under this very set:

“I specially recall the fun I had building with the Orange LEGO bricks. That color was launched for the first time for this product line.”

I knew I had read it somewhere!

@560heliport said:
" @PurpleDave : Wedge was Red 2, Biggs was Red 3. 9493 has stickers and tiles to make it Porkins' Red 6. 75218 can be Luke's Red 5 or Biggs' Red 3. And by trimming those stickers, you can make Wedge's Red 2 or Jon D's Red 4- using the dark red helmet of 75204 Sandspeeder Pilot for Jon D. "

Gotcha. That makes sense. Strong work!

@bookmum:
Flying cars was 2015. Specifically, October 21st.

@HAL_9001:
I remember when 2000 meant everyone was running around on the last year of the millennium all excited about it being the first year of the next millennium.

@Atuin:
I never paid any attention to Duplo, so that could have very easily passed without me noticing. However, the 1998 explanation is more palatable. The internet wasn’t what it is today, and neither was the online AFOL community. For a new and very rare color to go unnoticed for a year makes more sense than never having anyone point out that it’d been around for 6+ years when Star Wars launched. Now, that does raise an interesting question, though. If it was used that sparingly in 1998, did that only happen because they had to add it to the color palette during the development of the first wave of Star Wars sets? Ep1 opened in late May, and the toy blitz began a few weeks before that. There’s no way they cranked out that initial run of sets on short notice, and regular development schedules ran at least a year out in those days. I could just easily see orange pellets being procured early enough for test shots and marketing photos that _someone_ was able to find a way to take advantage of the opportunity and dip into the supply a bit early.

@560heliport:
Ooh, you’re right. I wasn’t really thinking about what I was typing. How embarrassing…for whoever designed 6212! It comes with Luke and Wedge minifigs. There’s a printed 1x4 tile with five stripes, or you could swap it for a row of five 1x1 tiles in red/white/red/white/red pattern, which would be Red 3…and happens to be the box art for that set. I guess you could just drop one red tile from each side to correct it, but that doesn’t change the box.

As for Porkins, I don’t think I got that set (if I did, I never opened it). I looked up the set inventory and it’s all done with stickers. You get four 1x4 stickers with five hash marks, and four more 1x1 stickers with a sixth hash mark. For Wedge, the 6212 solution works, if you remove one red tile. For Red 4, it’d be crazy expensive now, but if you get four copies of the Porkins sticker sheet, you would have enough 1x1 stickers with single hash marks to make strips of four on each wing. If you have really deep pockets, make Red 2, Red 3, and Red 4 exclusively using those 1x1 stickers. I have no idea what Red Leader’s wings look like as I can’t recall ever seeing a toy of it. I don’t know if he had one small hash mark consistent with the rest of the squadron, or one giant block to stand out more.

I called it "The Thing" theme.

Always got a soft spot for these Arctic sets; their chunkiness and colour just makes them look so bold, really makes them stand out

'Cat' Driver: "Ah, yeah; so where do you want me to put the Mobile Outhouse?"
Snowmobile Driver: "....That's suppose to be a Mobile OUTPOST!"
CD: (leafing through papers) "Hmmm...not according to these requisitions..."

Funny 'Thing' (cause I like @mafon2 's 'frame of reference') is: that pic has me thinking of the City Arctic set from the last two waves we got...still have to finish building 'the jet', while still wishing I had 'the prop'...:)

I like mobile bases. This is not the best, but given it's one of the earlier ones and comes from the year 2000, it's alright.
You'd have to suspend your disbelief a bit because it hinges open whilst being on straight skis. But inside you get a screen and some nice gear!

@PurpleDave said:
"

Also, where’s the polar bear at?"

Well, you see, the thing about polar bears is they’re white. And the thing about the arctic, where polar bears live, is it’s white.

You can see what’s happened right?

@PurpleDave I dug out my BTTF part 2 DVD and watched it on October 21st 2015. That disturbs me that it was 6 and half years ago I did that.
How can the future now be the past....?
Oh I feel dizzy.....

@MeisterDad said:
"Orange was introduced for this theme, if memory serves. And I’m glad."

Orange you glad......... I'll get me coat.

Huh, didn't know Orange was a relatively new color in the 90s for some reason.

I did have this set and remember it being a lot of fun. Most of the themes back then had the home base be the expensive $100 (and Arctic had one of those too) but this was really fun as a base that could be moved around with the vehicles, and it added to the play value. Although if memory serves, the logo on the big vehicle is a sticker spread across two bricks, which was less than ideal.

Woah, memories! I received this set for my ninth birthday; I remember my friend building the small snowmobile while I handled the main vehicle and base.

Unfortunately, I have little to no Arctic left due to repeated clearouts, but I avenged it a few years back with 42038!

There was a polar bear animal brick in normal Lego?

@bookmum:
It took some convincing, but I managed to get the historic Redford Theatre to play BttF2 on October 21st, 2015, to an audience just shy of 1000 people. On a Wednesday night. With what may be the C car that was used for interior closeup shots sitting on stage behind the screen. At 7:29pm Eastern, I got selfies in the car with the flux capacitor, as Doc Brown and Marty arrived in Hill Valley (4:29pm Pacific).

I reassembled this set, along with the only other from this wave I have (6579) a year or two ago. It had been in pieces for ages, as I would've been 4 when it released...
I still think it's a great set for play, with three vehicles and a funny bear. Honestly, I think it still hold up looks-wise as well.
What I liked about the instructions for this wave, is that they came with real-life photos of (ant)arctic research locations and scientists.
The most recent Arctic line had some solid sets, I hope a new line will follow sometime.

One of my favorites <3

@PurpleDave that's awesome !!

Yeah, I have a big soft spot for these Arctic sets too. Only had the smaller 6579, but I loved the minifigure designs (those new hood pieces!) and the colour scheme especially. Definitely a fun theme :D

Really liked the City:Arctic subtheme. I didn't realise that there was a Town:Arctic that had come previously.