345 House With Mini-Wheel Car
General Information
The following information has been collected from original newspapers, catalogs, and magazines, some of which are freely available for reference below. The rest can be found in the site’s gallery. No aggregate catalogs (BrickLink, Brickset, etc.) were used.
Instructions: H-5110
Advertised Part Count(s): 136 pieces
First Year Confirmed Available: 1970(USA)
1970 JCPenney Christmas Catalog
I have no sources corroborating a Canadian release of the 345, but this is likely a result of a lack of sources rather than something indicative of Canada's production.
Most Likely Retirement Date: 1971(USA)
Makes its final appearance in catalogs in 1971, and would not have continued production after the loss of the LEGO license.
Last Year Seen Available: 1971
1971 FAO Schwarz Christmas Catalog
Aliases: House With Mini-Wheel Car, Modern House With Mini Car
Retail Price(s): $3.99-$5.50(USA)
Rarity Score(Index): 5/7
Known Box/Packing Variants
The Canadian box, if it exists, would likely be more similar to the international version than the US version.
Box/Overview
The 345 House With Mini-Wheel Car is one of two Model Maker buildings released in 1970(the other being the 347 Fire Station) but one of many sets for the new Mini-Wheel Model Maker line. Before 1970, there was a heavy emphasis on larger vehicles using their larger wheels, but the vehicles were not exactly within the same scale as other pre-existing LEGO system elements like windows and trees. Thus, the mini-wheel.
The USA produced a unique, very thin box for this set mainly to accommodate the baseplate. It is one of the first of sets to include a printed "Some parts...produced in Denmark" directly on the set instead of just a sticker:
The back of the box includes an image of bricks as Samsonite had no images of the set left to fill that space(as their box was a completely different format):
Contents
The US 345 isn't too much different than the international version besides the baseplate(as it does not have the white printing to show where to build) and the trees will be the Samsonite version with the feet:
Intended Model
This should help give an idea as to how the house looks during construction and how everything is placed:
The house model is one of my favorite designs from LEGO in this era despite it being so simple. Pictures don't really do a justice, as even I didn't expect to enjoy this set as much as I have.
I took some images of other sides of the house as well, as it is often difficult to gauge the size/design of the house from the set's box. My only real complaint is that Samsonite's trees with the feet don't have good grip strength on their baseplates(because their baseplates always had more rounded studs than usual). As a result, the trees are always teetering and wanting to fall over:
