#1554 Silja Line Ferry

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.

Step 1, the bottom of the ship built with black plates

The bottom of the ship is just a layer of black plates.

Step 3, with some bricks that are covered by a single sticker making them inseparable

Already at the 3rd step we need to deviate a little from the instructions to place the parts that are covered by a single large sticker, one on each side. Young me had apparently not attached these stickers exactly as indicated in the instructions, but at least they’re not covering more pieces than necessary.

For step 7 I found the slope pieces with stickers adjoining the forward deck, but the parts of the stickers that should cover the ends of that 1x6 brick behind them have been lost.

Amazingly, all the other parts with stickers and all the printed parts were still in my collection, and in rather good condition too!

There we have it, one of the most straightforward builds. Basically a block built from the bottom up around an empty space and then some details on top, but it’s nonetheless recognisable as the very ship my family sailed on that day. The hull at the bow of the ship is of course not very smooth, but remember that thirty years ago all those curved and angled LEGO pieces we have available today didn’t yet exist.