6593 - Blaze Battler

Rating:
Pros: The cool little trailer; the ladders; good selection of pieces for alternate models
Cons: None noted
Contents: 116 pieces including 1 mini-fig
Price: Discontinued
Reviewed: 19-Jun-1998
Reviewed by: G. M.

Steve Mark jumped up hurriedly. Alarms were blaring all over the Orlego Fire Department. Around him, his fellow firefighters were all preparing to battle the biggest arson attempt in forty-two years. An insane pilot had thrown barrels of fuel into a bay where twelve boats were racing at the new Club de Lego. One of the boats had hit multiple barrels, causing the surrounding buildings to catch fire, one being an Octan garage full of gasoline.
By the time Steve had arrived at the scene in rescue unit 6593, the fire had engulfed several docked boats, a seaplane, a dive shop, a garage, and a small cafe. Thick red and black smoke filled the sky, but Steve didn't have time to notice things like that. He quickly hopped up onto the four-story ladder that his truck was equipped with.
As the ladder ascended, he saw the few remaining civilians trapped in the upper level store room of the dive shop. Crews sixty feet below him were rushing to contain the raging infernos while Steve reached out for the first of four victims, just as a flaming support column smashed through the store window and fell right towards him...

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The Blaze Battler was my very first "real" Lego set (not a basic bucket or my sister's old Duplos.) I received it for my seventh birthday the year it came out in 1991. Yes, I was seven in 1991, so this set might not seem so old to Lego veterans in their twenties and thirties, but it seems like I got it an eternity ago. Anyway, I have loved this set ever since I got it, and not just because it was my first. It has a ton of neat features that are not present in today's town sets, mostly because half of the present sets are almost entirely pre-built. (Such as Town Jr sets.)

The main model is a medium sized fire truck with a small trailer that it pulls behind. It is in the standard Lego fire rescue colors of red, white, and black.
The set itself has two main features, the trailer mentioned above, and the ladder (which can reach the fourth story of the tallest skyscraper in my Lego town.)
The main ladder is made of two seperate ladders. I have only seen the ladder in two other sets: a newer fire truck and the Forestman's Crossing. The ladder is extendable and rests on a 4x2x2/3 red hinge plate. The hinge sits atop a 4x4 red turntable. The whole ladder/turntable construction rests on the back of the truck on a white plate.
In front of the ladder is a 2x2x4 box with a hose. The hose wraps around a bar that fits into grooves on the side of the box. The box also has small flames painted on the sides. In the very front is the cockpit. The cockpit is normal of lego vehicles. It has a flip up roof and just a plain old steering wheel.
I also feel that I should mention the wheels of the truck. They are the last of their kind. The use today's hub caps from the smaller wheels, but the tires are twice as thick as the small wheels' tires. They switched from this kind of tire to the current large tires in 1992; one year after this set made its debut.
The small trailer that the truck drags behind uses small sized wheels and a weird pair of wheels that cannot roll but are hinged so they can flip down and keep the trailer steady when it is detached. The trailer includes a grey flexible hose used in space sets and a cover for the hose that flips down on a 1x2x1 hinged brick. The cover has a rarity: a 2x2 red tile with a flame painted on. I have seen this plate in only one other set: a small rescue jeep that comes in a value pack with an Ice Planet 2002 set.
When the trailer is unhooked from the back of the truck, the grey hose can go into a 1x1x1 brick with studs on two sides that is located on the side of the fire truck. I like to think that the trailer pumps liquid oxygen into the truck for EXTREMELY fast extinguishings.

The set comes with one mini-fig. He or she has on a black jacket with white buttons and a collar and a white firefighting helmet. The figure also has black pants and a classic smiley head. There is also a surplus of tools including an ax, a walkie talkie or portable radio, and a yellow fire extinguisher.
The alternate models shown on the back of the box show a smaller fire truck, a dump truck, and a dragster. I came up with some weird, possibly even derranged models when I was younger. I built some kind of weird space station using pieces from this set and a basic bucket. The derranged part was that the ladder was used to hang people with. (Yikes!) This set is a definate must-have for a townie. It would be worth it to pick it up in an auction.