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-5112

Advertised Part Count(s): 216 pieces

Set Box

First Year Confirmed Available: 1970(USA)

1970 JCPenney Christmas Catalog

1971(Canada)

1971 Eaton's Christmas Catalog

Most Likely Retirement Date: 1971(USA/Canada)

Makes its final appearance in catalogs in 1971, and would not have continued production after the loss of the LEGO license.

It's possible Canadian production continued into 1972, but I have no indication to proclaim such.

Last Year Seen Available: 1972

The Patriot News, September 24th, 1972

Aliases: Fire Station With Mini-Wheel Vehicles, Fire Hall With Three Trucks, Fire Station

Retail Price(s): $6.44-$6.99(USA)/$7.99(Canada)

Discounted Example(s): $5.00(1972)

Rarity Score(Index): 4/7

Known Box/Packing Variants

The 347 should have a Canadian version that is essentially the international version with bilingual text.

Box/Overview

The 347 Fire Station With Mini-Wheel Vehicles is one of two Model Maker buildings released in 1970(the other being the 345 House) 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.

Unlike the 345 House, however, the 347's box is much more in line design wise with its international counterpart though of course carries the usual Samsonite format. It is one of the first of sets in the US to include a printed "Some parts...produced in Denmark" directly on the set instead of just a sticker:

box top image

Then the side:

And of course the box's tab:

Contents

The set includes a single piece gray tray instead of the older drawer/sleeve format. When opening the set, the baseplate will be sitting on top of the tray. After removal, this is what you'll see(disregard the idea book, that is the incorrect one for this set):

The set includes enough pieces to construct the intended model. though different than the rest of the world, the US version did not paint on the studs of the baseplate, printed its own(low quality) grilles for the vehicles, and used Samsonite trees:

The silver grilles are usually printed with white. The yellow elements in this set are mostly cellulose acetate.

Intended Model

While I find the 345 House very charming, the 347 is a close second for the mini wheel line. Sure, there are only two buildings, it's akin to ranking a Star Wars UCS set against a regular playset. Still though, the designers(LEGO's own, this set was not designed by Samsonite) did a lot with very little.

There isn't much more to say about the completed model as I think it speaks for itself:

Though again, exclusive to Samsonite's sets are the white grilles instead of silver. Silver grilles do show up(manly in Kraft sets), but it seems the substituted examples are more common:

I also wanted to give a view of the back:

And the wonderfully printed flag:

I did take the opportunity, while it was assembled, to replace Samsonite's tree with the one pictured one on the box. Obviously the US version never used this, but it was fun for me: