I remember wanting this set so badly!

I wanted this set so badly as a kid. I was a huge fan of the Res-Q subtheme at the time.

Another one of those sets I wanted when I was a kid, loved the Res-Q theme.

RESQ! It's about time. One of the gems that Lego put out in the late 90s, at about the time when things were starting to go downhill quickly in Lego City.

I fell in love with the entire RESQ line as soon as I saw them (I still remember walking into Myer's toy section, in January '98, and seeing these guys on the shelves. That's one of those childhood memories that's still so clear to me). The big helicopter was a birthday present that year (I still own it, still absolutely love it), and in the last few months, I've managed to find both the Riverboat (6451) and the Hovercraft (6473) on Bricklink. In fact, the base here is about the only RESQ set I don't have.

Leaving aside the action-oriented nature of the theme, I love the colour scheme. The yellow and black is so distinctive and interesting, and I thought the dark-blue visors and windows added a really unique touch as well.

RES-Q and its complement theme, Xtreme Team, were my last forays into anything remotely connected to the "Town" theme that was in a death spiral at the time. Somehow, sets like this one showed you didn't have to make a juniorized mess of buildings and cars to appeal to kids. Indeed, this set grabbed my attention, but I never got it. I had to compromise my collecting at the time between it and Xtreme Team. I ended up desiring the big Extreme Team Challenge more than the Emergency Response Center, and it became my "big" purchase. I never got another Xtreme Team set, but I gobbled up some of the smaller RES-Q ones, including the big helicopter and several of the small vehicles. The tools included were the coolest thing to me at the time, and yes, it is hard to beat that black and yellow color scheme (am I right, original Blacktron fans?)!

Piggybacking on what others said about Town being in a downward spiral: The juniorized Town sets were released from 1997 to 2000. During that period, several distinctly branded non-junior themes that are listed as "Town" on Brickset were released: Divers and Outback in 1997, Res-Q and Extreme Team in 1998, Space Port in 1999, Arctic and Race in 2000.

ResQ sets were one of the themes that are from Juniorised era but look great and builds actyaly arent bad. I LOVE the catalogue picture with huraccine damage. WIsh Lego had balls to to theme like this again as I believe it would be VERY popular.

I came here to comment "nope" since this was from *that* era, but this is actually one of the sets that slipped through the cracks & wasn't affected by whatever cruel alien virus was afflicting much of the design team for a handful of years. This actually looks pretty good for play.

I loved ResQ and Xtreme Team! Didn't have this set, but the big rescue helicopter was a highlight of my collecting at the time; I must've rebuilt that a few times. A friend had the ResQ Cruiser hovercraft which was also a great set.

@phi13 makes an excellent point about the themes that rose above the rot affecting a lot of Town stuff in the late 90s - I was also a huge fan of SpacePort, a theme you don't hear much about but which was enormously fun to collect (particularly since it came out in the 30th anniversary year of the Moon landing)...

January '98? I would've been about 19 and well into my dark ages at the time. I often wonder what I would have made of sets from this era had I still been a fan of LEGO. It's still familiar enough to '80s town sets but parts like the one-piece bay window would've disappointed me. And isn't that angular arch on the roof one-piece too? It appears to have escaped the worst of the Juniorisation trend but you can just see little bits of it starting to creep in. With the exception of sets like this I'm glad I missed that entire debacle!

I don't own any of the ResQ sets, but coming from my dark ages for random reasons the first theme I collected was Space Port. I own all but the big Mission Control set. Some of them are quite nice, but there are also quite a few really rather poor sets among them. If 'Space Port' is seen as a highlight of that area, I don't really want to know what the rest is like :)

Coincidentally I've just found a pile of Res-Q set bricks and pieces. It's doesn't appeal to me, especially the black colour scheme - It'll be going on eBay to fund new Star Wars sets. Always need more grey Lego :-D

Ah, Res-Q. The one bright spot during a dark time for the Town theme, and the like that coaxed me out of my dark age.

I own a few of the Res-Q sets, including 6479 highlighted today, and despite the rose-tinted glasses of nostalgia, the theme was not that good. Like mr_skinny, I really dislike its colour scheme, from the dark buildings and vehicles to the white and orange suits worn by the minifigs.

Of course, it compares favourably to the worst juniorized sets of the time, but as Strymon and kfr commented, many of the sets in themes like Res-Q or Spaceport still took shortcuts that are evident, even in the image above. Exceptions from the period were the Outback and Divers themes, who remained true to what we could expect of a classic Town set back then.

Still have some of the Res-Q sets. Like the helicopter, which i still find a very nice set.

From those few years I did not buy LEGO. And with this representing the better part of LEGO, I know why. While the models are reasonable, I am not too crazy about the colour scheme. To me it looks like a town version of Blacktron, the space faction from the late 80s. It fits Blacktron very well, but not a rescue service. I like the name though, Res-Q.

This fell during my dark ages, although in 1998 I was 21 and in the best physical shape of my life and stationed in Germany, so maybe I should call it my bright ages? Anyways, there are elements of this set that appeal to me, the big bay window (despite it being a giant BUPR piece), the 3 wheel motorcycle, and the baseplate (is that whole thing sitting on bricks to raise it up, and if so is it a baseplate w/negative studs underneath!?). On the other hand it definately appears Junior-ized, and 61 town sets that year?! Wow! So LEGO was cranking out Town sets then like they crank out SW sets now lol.

I have never heard of this Res-Q theme. Some of the sets are quite..hm..ugly, but this one is not that bad.
This "random set" thing can dig up real treasures.

This set sums up everything great about the Res-Q theme.

What a coincidence. I just found a windshield with a Res-Q sticker on it in a used collection I'm sorting through. I had no idea this theme existed as it was a year or so after my dark ages started.