Hyggebygge

I got the #6361 Mobile Crane in February of ’89, but it had been released by LEGO already in 1986. Back in those days the sets were available for so much longer compared to now.

Instructions start with the minifig and a six step sub-build for the container…

…quickly followed by the main build of the truck itself. The wheels are not meant to be added until step 10, but I couldn't be bothered to remove them all.

It turns out to be really hard getting the white-balance and contrast of black LEGO bricks right when...

On Sunday, 22 May 1988 my family went on a day cruise to the Åland Islands in the Baltic Sea on the ferry MS Svea. Among the merchandise in the onboard tax-free shop I stumbled upon the LEGO box #1554 Silja Line Ferry and I was lucky my parents let me have it.

The set had been released a couple of years earlier in ’86 and I guess this kind of promotional sets that LEGO produced between ’77 and ’99 could usually only be purchased onboard the ferries themselves.

The bottom of the ship is just...

LEGO released the #6693 Refuse Collection Truck in 1987 and I got it two years later in June of ’89. Unfortunately I have no memories of who I got it from, or at what occasion.

However, the set contains two grey bins with matching lids (radar dishes) that I remember using in all my city builds, and a yellow 1x4 bracket that was very handy for SNOT techniques, although I wasn’t well versed in those at the time.

Now, more than 30 years have passed since I last built this set. I had lost one of the red 1x1 round bricks and was missing a black 1x4 tile for the undercarriage, so I had to get some replacements from BrickLink...

In October 1987 I bought the #4010 Police Rescue Boat at the Domus department store in Uppsala using money gifted to me by my grandparents.

LEGO had released a first wave of minifig scale floating boats in ’82 that I never saw. The second wave in ’87 introduced this police boat, and as I don’t really recognise the Swedish LEGO catalog of ’87, I must have first seen it at the shelf in the toys department.

This was my first and only LEGO boat with a floating hull and I was very happy about it! The price tag must have been somewhere...

#6522 Highway Patrol was released in 1987 and I got it that same year in September, but unfortunately I can’t remember from whom or on what occasion.

This is indeed a very simple set with minimal instructions so I...