Lego City Fire Engine 1

"The call comes in: a fire has been reported in the city! Time for firefighters Gene and Cindy to jump into action! Cindy jumps in the cab while Gene hops onto the rear deck and holds onto the safety bar. With lights flashing and sirens blaring, the engine races down the city streets to the fire! Upon arriving, Cindy gets out and grabs the airpack and mask from the rear compartments.  Gene grabs a hose, runs to the other side, and attaches one end to the engine and the other to a fire hydrant.  Then he climbs up on the rear bed, opens the storage compartmentand pulls out a wrench, which he uses to turn on the hydrant and supply the truck with the water it needs to fight this fire! He then grabs the ladder and brings it to where Cindy will be needing it.  Cindy, meanwhile, runs to the other side, and grabs an axe from the storage compartment under the ladder housing.  She then runs back, unravels the hose, and begins to attack the fire! Gene, meanwhile, mans the deck gun, shooting water directly onto the fire from the truck.  It's quite a scene as the crew fights the fire and saves the day!"

I used to build fire trucks out of Lego way back when I was a kid. My father has always been a volunteer fireman, so I was around fire trucks a lot. Now, my son is into building with Lego, and he recently got the 60004 Fire Station and a few smaller fire truck sets for his birthday. He asked me why the Lego fire trucks don't look like the ones his Grandpa drives, so I started wondering if I could design one that looks more like those.

I had some criteria in mind when I designed this engine: 1) it had to be minifigure-scaled, so that it could be played with the minifigs, 2) it had to be the same size as the 60004 fire truck, so it could fit in the typical Lego fire station, 3) it had to integrate well with the Lego City system, 4) it had to have playability and 5) it had to look as close to a real fire truck as possible, yet still satisfy the other 4 criteria. I started with the fire truck from the 60004 set, then stripped it down and built it back up to resemble a typical pumper. It has the pump controls and hose reel in the mid-section of the truck, storage compartments above the rear wheels and on the rear bed, fire extinguishers on either side, hoses on the driver side of the truck, and a ladder on the passenger-side.

I designed it in Lego Digital Designer, then ordered the parts from Bricklink and my son and I built it. My son LOVES it! He brings it wherever we go and plays with it constantly. A few of his friends even had me order the parts again so they could have their own (by request, one of those trucks was yellow)! I decided to see if maybe it could get any support on Lego Ideas.

I hope you enjoy taking a look!

Thank you!
Jon