6 is an evil number, and 6666 is a super evil number, so why was this set, an ambulance, given such a number?
Interesting torso they chose for the woman, one of the more revealing outfits that she has. Perhaps she is a young college student who got alcohol poisoning after using her fake ID to get into the bar? Something of note are the incredibly small wheels on this vehicle, not something you see very much today. Additionally, this set marks a shift in how medical sets were designed. If you look at the 1981 ambulance...
...a red cross is used instead of the Star of Life. The Star of Life was designed in the United States 1970s, after the Red Cross organization complained that the current United States medical symbol was too similar to theirs. 6666 was only released in the United States, while 6680 was an international release. So, we can see that by the 1990s The Lego Group was changing their models or at least designing models specifically for certain countries, rather than using the ubiquitous and universal Red Cross symbol.
It's also interesting to look at the designs of these two ambulances. Both are very similar in many ways, both in terms of construction and how they can be interacted with. The main difference is how the back opens, as you can see in the photos.
6666 was released in Europe. I got it as a kid and I live in Switzerland!
ReplyDelete... and yeah it had that same blue 6 arm star.
ReplyDeleteI had a 6666 ambulance too, and I live in England...clearly not US-only unless British and Swiss toy shops in the 90s liked importing exclusively-American Lego for some reason :-)
ReplyDeleteJust bought one on eBay yesterday (hence looking it up online and finding this), as I now only have the paramedic/driver (but apparently not his hat) and possibly a few bits of the ambulance - most of my childhood Lego was unfortunately given away by relatives who obviously overlooked things like sentimental value...not aiming to replace all of it as that would be awkward and expensive, but this and 6416 (Paradisa Poolside Paradise) have felt significant enough to replace :-)
Found a small box at home with some Lego in at one point after thinking it was all gone, which was great - seemed to contain a lot of knight minifigures and steering wheels for some reason, though...not that that has much to do with ambulances!
~St*r