The Unsolved Mystery of 6420 Mail Carrier. Oh, and I Opened a PO Box!



Hey folks, welcome to the Summer Of Slug!

On this non-Friday, we’re taking a look at 6420 Mail Carrier from 1998. Oh, and I opened a PO Box!

*Please read the following if you want to send me something!*

I don’t really have any specific rules about what to send; obviously, LEGO is what I talk about on my channel, but fan art or other cool pieces of LEGO media could be welcome too. The size of the PO Box itself is 290 mm x 270 mm x 360 mm, but larger items will be held at the post office and I can pick them up directly from the desk.

I would consider anything sent to be a donation. If there are folks out there who want to loan something to me, we need to work that out ahead of time over email. *Please don’t send anything my way with the expectation of me sending it back unless we’ve arranged to do that ahead of time via email!*

You can always reach me at [email protected]

Here’s the address if you want to send me something:

PO Box 1120
Calgary PO South, AB, Canada
T2H 2H5

Please keep in mind that the PO Box is only open July & August 2023. I’ll still have access to it all of September as well to catch any stragglers, but I discourage anyone from sending anything to it past August, just to be safe.

If you want in on the fun and want to join the Summer Of Slug 2023 Patreon/Discord, here’s the link to get you started: https://www.patreon.com/SummerOfSlug2023

If you like these videos and want to help me create more of them, a small donation can be made here using PayPal or Stripe: https://ko-fi.com/rrslugger

Photography and other resources used in this video: https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/17wRtvwj8Hb7TmgS_V2WjPHiTvD45e85d?usp=sharing

The original music in these videos can be found for free on my Bandcamp page:
https://rrslugger.bandcamp.com/

If you haven’t already, check out Manic Miners, a heartfelt recreation of the Lego Rock Raiders PC game: https://manicminers.baraklava.com/

For quality retro Lego conversation in the best online community I have ever been a part of, you can join the discussion on the Manic Miners Discord: https://discord.gg/na3rQmv

Interested in the history and research that goes into videos just like this one? You can join the discussion in the Lego Research Realm Discord: https://discord.gg/VtD99kYvUj

I created the photography, stop motion animation, and music in this video. Original artwork by Brett Halland. Thanks for watching!

source

41 thoughts on “The Unsolved Mystery of 6420 Mail Carrier. Oh, and I Opened a PO Box!”

  1. I’m curious if there are any rules to the P.O. Box (preferred/excluded themes, size restrictions, etc.)? Also curious if these are treated as donations or on loan. Excited to see the new content deriving from this. Cheers!

    Reply
  2. I’ve got one of the original face prints, I’m not sure what set it’s from though. Most likely something from the 1999-2002 era. I can see why they kept using it rather than the attempted redesign, the print quality is honestly way better

    Reply
  3. 1:51 I saw the joke coming a mile away and still laughed. I think it's because every single one of your words is filled with so much enthusiasm that you really made me buy it for just a split second!
    Also, I know for a fact we had that exact mailman head when I was a kid because we owned that sea diver set with the shark (6555-1). I'd never seen the one with hair in front of the eyes before I went on the Internet. This is really strange. Maybe it's a regional thing, considering I'm European?

    Reply
  4. Hi Slugger, at least the way they do PO boxes at my post office if packages are bigger than the box they put them in a larger temp box and give you a key in your box. If the packages are larger than that box you pick them up at the counter. Hope this helps, see if it's the same way for your box.

    Reply
  5. I've always figured they were a printing error. I've got two still in pretty decent nick, but one has the eyes and mouth a little lower than it should be. While the one shown in here seems to be a bit higher than the other one.

    It also appears the white hair bits are the same shape, but the lines fade in and out too irregularly. I wonder if the printing machine was having some issues, but it still passed Quality Control enough to not be chucked.

    Reply
  6. I was wondering why they went with the Swedish postal service logo instead of the Danish one. Turns out it is the Danish logo but in Sweden colors which is a curious choice.

    Reply
  7. Funny i just recently got that head piece with the new print in a lot i bought. Mine is likely from set number 6567, as there also were a few other pieces from that set in there.

    Reply
  8. I had three of these sets. One was given to an ex. Since she became an ex, I decided to keep one unopened and have an open in my city. Never again will I give my partner Lego.

    Reply
  9. As a kid I never had any mix ups between the Original Beach Bangs face and the Updated One, but I always assumed the updated one was meant to be either a girl variant or perhaps a younger looking one? The original has more “heh” kind of cool tude while the redesigns softer bangs and eyes with catchlight printing make it seem more gentle. Had no idea it was so short lived though.

    Reply
  10. It’s so weird to see the sets Lego choses to add exclusive pieces to. When it’s something collector’s grade it’s easy to say they do it to artificially increase the set’s value but they don’t shy away from randomly dropping special goodies into seemingly random sets.

    Reply
  11. I remember getting the white haired with the dots in the eyes face print on the Diver Sets and also on the Mail Carrier. I'll have to check my Xtreme Team figures next time I got to my home.

    Reply
  12. Not exactly the same, but another weird Bricklink/Lego phenomenon that I can't figure out — the Nexo Knights helmet part 35554. It appeared in 2018 as part of a few different minifigures, but if you look at the "Berserker" (nex130), it CLEARLY has a different helmet, though for some reason Bricklink insists that it's 35554. I haven't been able to get my hands on one in person, but it's such a niche topic that I haven't found anyone else discussing it.

    Reply
  13. The only other remotely similar instance I can think of is when they tried to replace the rebel pilot helmets for star wars in 2018 with a new mold, but that was more the fact that the new part was almost universally hated and lego never used it again, not like this head where the two were used interchangeably. Outside of parts, Ninjago both predated and outlived Chima, which was intended to fill the same slot in the product range.

    Reply
  14. Despite its tiny size, I actually like this set's concept. It includes a character, a vehicle and a 'location'. That's better than a lot of large modern sets.

    Reply
  15. I have 6572 Wind Runners from xtreme team and it came with the more common head. I thought it was the only one they ever made. I much prefer the more common one but maybe that's just nostalgia.

    Reply

Leave a Comment