Lego Wild West

Lego Wild West (or Western and stylized as LEGO Wild West) was a Lego theme based on the Old West period of the United States. It was in production for only two years, from 1996 to 1997.

Background
Inspired by the Spaghetti Westerns of the 1960s and 1970s, the Wild West theme was one of the first themes to appear in Lego sets. Toy sets such as Wild West Scene (365), released in 1975, and Western Train (726), released in 1976 were early examples of this experimentation. However, it was not until 1996 that a complete Lego product range emerged based on a Western theme.

Release
The Wild West sets were introduced in the late summer of 1996. In Europe, the theme was released in August 1996 and in North America it was released in September 1996. The Indians sets came out in 1997. After that, the Wild West sets were discontinued. In 2002, three Wild West sets (Sheriff's Lock-up, Fort Legoredo, and Rapid River Village) were re-released.

Construction sets
A total of 16 toy sets were released from 1996 to 1997 as part of the Wild West theme. Various minifigures were introduced, including wranglers, sheriffs, US Cavalry, bandits and Indians.

1996 sets
The first wave of sets centred on a battle between cowboys, bandits and the US Cavalry at Legoredo Town. Several toy sets focused on the town sheriff, including Sheriff's Lock-up and Sheriff's Showdown. The larger sets of the series were Bandits' Secret Hideout and Fort Legoredo.

1997 sets
In 1997, the theme released toy sets that centred on the First Nations people living in Rapid River Village, which featured a river, two tipi, a totem pole, a canoe and horses.

Attractions
In 1973, LEGOREDO Town was introduced to Legoland Billund Resort. The themed area of the park was expanded from an Indian camp that had existed since the opening of the park in 1968. LEGOREDO Town featured a variety of Wild West themed Lego constructions, including a figure of Sitting Bull and the heads of four US presidents at Mount Rushmore. The attractions of the themed land include LEGOLDMINE, where visitors pan for gold, Lego Canoe and a rollercoaster named the Flying Eagle.

Legacy
The Wild West sets were the first to include toy revolvers and rifles, which were later used in the Adventurers sets. Although the Castle, Space and Pirate themes had included a variety of weaponry, such as crossbows, lasers and swords, handguns in contemporary themes had never been featured. The Wild West theme was also the first theme to include plastic snakes. The sets also marked the first instance where the perpetual smile on the minifigure heads was replaced with various other facial expressions.

Reception
In 2018, Bandit's Wheelgun (set number: 6791), Gold City Junction (set number: 6765), Covered Wagon (set number: 6716) and Fort Legoredo (set number: 6769) were listed in the "Top 10 Western LEGO Sets" by Lego fansite BricksFanz.