Fire Fighter Boats Part 1

Since the early 1980s The Lego Group has released several fire fighting boats of various sizes.  Prior to 1982 Lego released a few sets that were not minifigure scale, however I will only be focusing on the sets that are to scale.

4025:  Fire Boat is easily the smallest of the bunch, which makes sense considering it was the first one.  It has a fairly basic design but also includes an elevator device that moves up and down which can be seen in around half the sets.  One interesting tidbit about the first three sets is that they are all under the Boats subtheme, rather than the Fire subtheme.

Next is the 1987 release 4020:  Fire Fighter.  Like all the other sets a plastic hull that actually floats is included and is one of the main appeals.  Compared to later sets it is definitely less sophisticated and has fewer parts and features, but is still an interesting set.  The forward leaning glass is consistent for the majority of these sets, as is the inclusion of a water gun station.  Although the set is of a better scale than 4025, it's not nearly as interesting looking and has fewer play features.

This last set that I'll be looking at today was one of the first sets I owned, and is definitely my favorite fire fighter boat.  The 1991 set 4031:  Firefighter features a well-made cabin, four minifigures, elevated fire hose, and a helicopter.  The hull itself is longer than previous boats and overall feels like a more complete set.  The cabin itself is of the same style as the previous two boats, but this trend will change in the 2000s when the next boat is released.  The fire fighter sets have never been as popular as police sets which is probably why there was over a decade gap between this fire fighter boat and the next.

In the next post I will discuss the final three fire fighter boats.