Vintage set of the week: Train
Posted by Huwbot,This week's vintage set is 24 Train, released during 1971. It's one of 5 Minitalia sets produced that year. It contains 88 pieces.
It's owned by 26 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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If I remember right, having none myself, these had an M on the studs to denote Minitalia?
At the same time, Italy isn’t THAT small. Not the Maxitalia of the empire 2000 years ago, but still.
"Train"??? No, "Tram"; fixed, you're welcome...:)
Minitrainia
Train
At the rate we’re regressing, how long before we end up with a chunk of wood and a whittling knife?
This train, two weeks ago another train, two weeks before -that- we get a specialised train car…is every other VSotW going to be a train?
@MeisterDad said:
"If I remember right, having none myself, these had an M on the studs to denote Minitalia?"
No, the studs are hollow and there’s nothing written on (in) them.
The only LEGO bricks with an M on the studs are Modulex bricks.
The kid model behind the kit looks exactly like '70s self and most of the best-looking members of my vastly expansive family. :)
He's a bit older than me. And, I've always had wicked curly hair.
Did they run out of grave accents in the print shop? They wrote E' instead of È and í instead of ì (twice). The second E would have looked better and make more sense as È.
The È problem is still common because Italian keyboards have no capital letters with accents, for some reason, and people don't know how to type it so they need some form of auto-correct.
@B_Space_Man said:
"Train "
Train
Owww this set! And then Albert Hammond wrote a song about it: "i'm a train i'm a train i'm a chooca train, yeah!" (1974)
@biffuz said:
"Did they run out of grave accents in the print shop? They wrote E' instead of È and í instead of ì (twice). The second E would have looked better and make more sense as È.
The È problem is still common because Italian keyboards have no capital letters with accents, for some reason, and people don't know how to type it so they need some form of auto-correct."
Yes, the inconsistency is jarring... They got the ò right, but somehow didn't have the other accented letters.
@Laz said:
" @MeisterDad said:
"If I remember right, having none myself, these had an M on the studs to denote Minitalia?"
No, the studs are hollow and there’s nothing written on (in) them.
The only LEGO bricks with an M on the studs are Modulex bricks.
"
Right! I knew there was an M stud somewhere. I’ll write comments when I am more awake and have both eyes open next time. Thank you.
I had some fun tracking down instruction scans for this one (they don't seem to be archived at the normal sites) and then using them to build this with normal bricks, modified to run on normal Lego tracks and allow a motor to be fitted.
@Ridgeheart said:
" @PurpleDave said:
"At the rate we’re regressing, how long before we end up with a chunk of wood and a whittling knife?"
https://brickset.com/sets/71038-2/Pinocchio
"I want to be a real toy!"
"But for now, you're just a placeholder.""
853967
It's interesting how Italy in the 70s got Lego's attention and wound up getting a theme/line of its own.
Has this happened with other countries in Lego history that you know of?
@dingbat591 said:
"It's interesting how Italy in the 70s got Lego's attention and wound up getting a theme/line of its own.
Has this happened with other countries in Lego history that you know of?"
They licensed the brand to Samsonite to enter the North American market. The Chinese Traditional Festival theme debuted as a Southeast Asian exclusive, and is the reason they ended up promising to not make regional exclusives anymore. But an entire theme for a single country? Um...does the Kabaya promo line count? It technically crosses many themes, including Star Wars, Creator, Studios, and Bionicle that I know of, but a lot of the sets are exclusive to that one co-branding.
@PurpleDave said:
" @dingbat591 said:
"It's interesting how Italy in the 70s got Lego's attention and wound up getting a theme/line of its own.
Has this happened with other countries in Lego history that you know of?"
They licensed the brand to Samsonite to enter the North American market. The Chinese Traditional Festival theme debuted as a Southeast Asian exclusive, and is the reason they ended up promising to not make regional exclusives anymore. But an entire theme for a single country? Um...does the Kabaya promo line count? It technically crosses many themes, including Star Wars, Creator, Studios, and Bionicle that I know of, but a lot of the sets are exclusive to that one co-branding."
CUUSOO (what would later become LEGO Ideas) was piloted in Japan. The first sets from that line - Hayabusa space probe and submarine - were specific to the Japanese market.
@jschwarz:
That's true, but that was also just a pilot phase to determine if they were going to roll it out to a wider market, wasn't it? I know the Fiat and dinosaur recolors were released exclusively in the UK as a pilot program, which seems to have resulted in the blue Bugatti Bolide.
@biffuz said:
"Did they run out of grave accents in the print shop? They wrote E' instead of È and í instead of ì (twice). The second E would have looked better and make more sense as È.
The È problem is still common because Italian keyboards have no capital letters with accents, for some reason, and people don't know how to type it so they need some form of auto-correct."
They generally had quite a lot of erroneous spelling at the time. Not just in Italian, also in Dutch.