This is one of the examples that causes me to wonder why LEGO decided to do stand-alone magnets like in M:Tron and other themes of that 90s era (not that they weren't cool or anything). Both before and after that, all the magnets LEGO produced have been in some sort of housing or fixed in place to something else so that they could be safer for play without them being (easily) swallowed. It's only in the last few years I've seen some City sets other than trains use them again.

Great wagons. Had 3 of these plus 124-1 and 123-1. I always preferred the proper couplings on the 112-2 to this new fangled magnetic trickery though!

Not bad, but I prefer the single peg 'blue bucket' (part 818); although this white one is waaaay larger, and as it's brick-built that also gives some advantages.

I find it interesting that there's nothing to hold the bucket in place; you can just lift the whole thing off, as far as I can tell, without having to remove any pieces to get it loose.

@NotProfessorWhymzi said:
" @sjr60 said:
"Great wagons. Had 3 of these plus 124-1 and 123-1. I always preferred the proper couplings on the 112-2 to this new fangled magnetic trickery though!"

would i be off if i suspected that you immediately distrusted toasters when you first heard of them? ;)"
Far too much danger of electrocution when using your toasting fork!

I always thought it odd that there were so many tipper truck elements i Lego...

@MeisterDad:
I’m thinking efficiency. Before, magnets were always created for dedicated purposes, and there really wasn’t any way to repurpose them. With M-Tron, a standalone magnet was designed, and thereafter all they needed to do was create a new element that it would snap into, or figure out how to incorporate one of the existing fairly generic mating elements. Now, with the sealed magnets, they’ve largely fallen out of favor. They mostly just get used for train couplings now. The minifig magnet brick got pretty well killed off by the decision to start gluing minifig legs to them. That giant 4x4 yellow magnet only showed up in one or two City sets before being abandoned. The versatility they got with the M-Tron magnet is gone, and they haven’t figured out how to get it back in a way that’s affordable, functionally effective, and child-safe.

@TheOtherMike:
That’s pretty much it. I remember the end plate being used for a dump truck my brother got as a kid, and the pins seemed largely useless. It was an article here on dump truck tipper elements that finally clued me in to their purpose. They’re slightly narrower than standard bars, and spaced so they’ll nest between the studs. Like some doors that are designed to open in either direction, this has two hinge points. It will tip left or right, and whichever side you tip towards, the whole thing pivots up on the pins on that side of the assembly.

Not the best looking cars Lego has ever made, but still better than any train car set they offer now.

And tipper cars are obviously great for play value, so not that weird that you see them a lot more often in toy trains than on rail trains. And the way Lego did it with those two pins was pretty smart. I know Fleischmann used a similar trick for their HO scaled model trains, and also had a little station with an angled guide rail that made the bucket tip automatically. I wonder if Lego ever did something like that?

@WizardOfOss said:
"Not the best looking cars Lego has ever made, but still better than any train car set they offer now.

And tipper cars are obviously great for play value, so not that weird that you see them a lot more often in toy trains than on rail trains. And the way Lego did it with those two pins was pretty smart. I know Fleischmann used a similar trick for their HO scaled model trains, and also had a little station with an angled guide rail that made the bucket tip automatically. I wonder if Lego ever did something like that?"

Check out pages 8-9 of Idea Book 7777. I believe that's what you are talking about.

@paulvdb said:
"Check out pages 8-9 of Idea Book 7777. I believe that's what you are talking about."

Same idea, but a much more advanced version, using gears and stuff. Very cool though! I have tried to build something like that long ago, but didn't work so well...

The system from Fleischmann I mentioned is much simpler though, just a piece of plastic in the right spot to tip the thing over, and another piece to get it back up again. Considering how long they have been making this I'm surprised I can't find a single video of it, and only a single picture of the thing in action: https://i.imgur.com/Q6BVAh3.png

I have to admit, in my Marklin stuff, this is my favorite car. On their version, there is a small latch that once gently pushed, dumps the load.

Stupid me, I never realized what those pins were for before.

@PurpleDave said:
"The versatility they got with the M-Tron magnet is gone, and they haven’t figured out how to get it back in a way that’s affordable, functionally effective, and child-safe."

The magnets should be brought back in 18+ sets.

@Ottox said:
"For the few who cares. ;-) : Like many other photos of trains from that time, whether on boxes, in instructions, catalogues or idea boxes, this box picture shows a prototype wheel. The wheel that went into production only had 10 spokes instead of the 12 shown here, and no spoked wheels had traction teeth."

Great bit of trivia, thank you :)

While the old tipper truck piece with pins isn't made since 1982, Monkie Kid certainly has been making use of the more modern version since 2020.

https://brickset.com/parts/6293858/end-piece-for-truck-body

Especially 80035 : Monkie Kid's Galactic Explorer has 5 in yellow and 8 in turquoise and it 's not a train (but would be cool to see a Monkie Kid train based on it)