As with the review below me, this was one of my first LEGO sets (first being a technic I won at an event as a 5 year old). This is the set that got me into LEGO and it's one that has held a place in my heart since.

Box/Instructions

The box itself is one of the greatest parts about this set. It comes in a blue plastic box divided into three evenly sized compartments. Each of those compartments comes with additional slide in dividers (much like a fishing kit plastic container you keep your lure and whatnot in). Each compartment also comes with three slide in green base plates to seal the tops of those containers which keeps the LEGO's from falling out. You can pick the thing up and shakes it and nothing comes out.

The instructions are also great. The set is meant for younger kids and thus the instructions are very simple and basic. They have instructions for multiple ideas - anything from a guy fishing to furniture to the small port with crane, shop, truck and boat.

Parts

The parts are simple. Thats one of the pluses of this set, however because of not having really anything special I had to at least drop it one star. There is a rope and hook piece and hinges around but other than that the pieces are all basic. This makes it a great set to keep around for ages as I still use many of the pieces for my old builds.

Minifigures

It comes with two basic city dweler minifigures, one man and one woman. For a set of this size that turns out to be a pretty good deal. Many of the basic sets back then didn't come with minifigs as they were more of a specialty thing - LEGO was still focusing on the brick and not so much on the people.

The build

All of the builds in the instructions were fairly simple to construct as it was made as a starter set to LEGO. Some of the builds may require adult supervision, if nothing else to untie the string and get it through the hole again and again (depending on the build).

The completed model

The set has multiple completed models. Some are playable with, even by todays standards like the furniture and port, while others are meant to be a "showcase" piece, something you build and put on a shelf (like the fisherman and animal builds).

Summary

All in all the set was a great buy back then and got quite a few of us hooked on LEGO. This one set got several thousand dollars from me by making me a LEGO fan and I think it would be a good idea for LEGO to revisit the idea. I'm now the father of a 4 year old and am buying him his first LEGO sets (that aren't DUPLO) and have a much harder time with playability and the sheer variety that this set offered.

This was the very first Lego product I owned, so obviously its going to mean a bit more to me than other products. You get a large blue box that houses compartments for different style Lego bricks, and these compartments can be altered through moving the walls inside. on its own, the box is handy enough and I still have it today just for keeping spare parts! It feels like a Lego-fied Briefcase.

The included instructions outline several different models, including a house, three vehicles, a helicopter and a nice size tanker ship. Aside from the fact it was my first set, the product has amazing playability since it contains no special parts - you'll never be afraid to break models apart as they are so simple to reconstruct. You also get three green base plates ('Long' style) to put your models on.

'Basic' was eventually phased out as a product line, and it could be said that it's natural successor is Creator. While the latter still offers similar principles, it's a shame the The LEGO Group no longer sell products that offer countless design ideas from such basic bricks. The business model at present encourages parents to purchase many different products within various component categories, rather than just one box of bricks and instructions for very simple models.

Product 565 is superb as it teaches a child how to distinguish different bricks, sort them, and then assign them to various functions. The method of instruction is less forgiving than now ('Back in the day', a single step in the instructions counted as one layer of the model), but this doesn't detract from the product's qualities.