Well for my first Lego set it will always hold a special place for me and being a fire appliance just makes it that bit more special. The minifig can't get in but that never really mattered at the time, with a ladder, an axe and a hose this fire fighter can handle what ever emergency my imagination could come up with. As all sets of it's time it has a simple build but maintains a level of charm with a couple of interesting parts, locker doors, a tap and a ladder.

A wonderful set for the time.

Again a set that is not minifigure compatible. This is the European version of the 556 set, but it was earlier.

Minifig

The firefighter has an ax, and that's all the equipment. It doesn’t look good in the picture, but it’s not a printed torso yet, it has a sticker on it.

The vehicle

The vehicle itself is pretty for its age. I don't understand the ladder at the top. Unusable without turntable. This way you can take a maximum of one cat off a tree. Removing the siren is like a maintenance van. Plus, if you want to get this gray ladder, you’ll have a hard time, it’s very rare, it was only added to 2 sets. It would have been better for the designer to put a water monitor on top of the vehicle. The play value would have been higher. But it also has a new feature: there is a hose to it. An old style headlight brick was passed through a with a string, a bunch tied at the end and done. Oh and a yellow tap to open the water. Very deluxe. And let’s not forget about the trailer, which I think is a water pump or generator, but unfortunately I wasn’t a firefighter in the ’70s, so I don’t know for sure.

Overall opinion

The gaming experience is affected by the fact that it is not possible to put the minifigure in the vehicle. The ladder is just an ornament, a very expensive ornament. And we don’t have enough tools to put out the fires. I miss at least one air tank.

My Mod

The goal was to fit minifigure in the truck. Preferably from parts available in 1978. In the late 1970s, the Volvo F Series, Iveco Magirus and Dennis fire trucks were prevalent in Europe. So I tried to build a Volvo / Iveco-like fire truck out of the few available parts that were available at the time. This is the result:

Back then, there was no specific lego fire hose, so I used 2 early technic pints to knit the string in the set, or the rubber tube in the 373 set. I took the idea for the water monitor from the 316 set, I just put 2 yellow cylinder pieces and 1x1 gray plate in the old technic connector. And then I put an extra steering wheel back, which represents the valve.

I put the gray doors to the side so there is a lockable storage space for the fire ax.

I used two 1x1 transparent plates as a rear light. I pressed these into two technic bricks. At the time, the transparent 1x1 plate wasn’t blue yet, though it would look better, but I wanted it to be age-appropriate. So the vehicle has 5 extras: it fits in the minifigure, can be used to extinguish a fire with a hose or monitor, storage space for the equipment, and a rotating valve.