They clearly don't understand what cyber means.

Hey, I have the first Batmobile set that has the projectile with the rubber end. Fun fact: that part is also included in the first TIE Bomber set.

@Nuclearxpotato said:
"Purple, Teal, Yellow, and Black, hell yeah!!! Whenever a set has as bold of a colour scheme as this AFoLs get upset nowadays which is a shame.

@Maxbricks14 said:
"They clearly don't understand what cyber means."

This was part of a Competition subtheme (Cyber Competition?) where a Tron guy was pitted against a Borg guy. As far as I'm aware there's no lore (unlike the other Technic subthemes that came out after), but BrickSet has the sets tagged as "Sam Stryker" and "Sam Cyborg" so maybe there's an obscure Club magazine that explains it all."

Could be, but it's named cyber stickers, which implies that they are virtual, which they obviously aren't.

@Maxbricks14 said:
" @Nuclearxpotato said:
"Purple, Teal, Yellow, and Black, hell yeah!!! Whenever a set has as bold of a colour scheme as this AFoLs get upset nowadays which is a shame.

@Maxbricks14 said:
"They clearly don't understand what cyber means."

This was part of a Competition subtheme (Cyber Competition?) where a Tron guy was pitted against a Borg guy. As far as I'm aware there's no lore (unlike the other Technic subthemes that came out after), but BrickSet has the sets tagged as "Sam Stryker" and "Sam Cyborg" so maybe there's an obscure Club magazine that explains it all."

Could be, but it's named cyber stickers, which implies that they are virtual, which they obviously aren't."

Cybernetic? Cyborg is a portmanteau of cybernetic organism. And I also just learned that “biomechatronic” is the word that some people mean when they say “biomechanical”.

I got this as a birthday gift back in the day and my brother and I had so much fun. The mechanism works really well although the trigger was prone to falling apart with rough play. We ended up keeping the arms extended and just jousting!

@Maxbricks14 said:
"They clearly don't understand what cyber means."

“Cyber: Of or relating to cybernetics—the mathematical study of communication and control in living organisms or machines.“

Hmm, while I’m certainly seeing some communication and control in both living organisms and machines in this set, I’m not sure how much they’re studying it. Unless there’s some famous test involving punching at each other with cartoon extendable arms that I’m unaware of. So you may have a point :D

@Maxbricks14 said:
"… it's named cyber stickers, which implies that they are virtual, which they obviously aren't."
Not that it helps massively with any comprehension of this set, it’s Cyber Strikers, rather than stickers; strike as in hitting stuff.

There’s another set 8266 where it appears the object is for Cyber Sam/Locutus to hit some scorpions which already look like roadkill.

Honestly the technic “competition” tag is worth a browse, it’s all pretty wild, but also looks like genuinely fun toys that do stuff rather than sit collecting dust.

These sets were great, refreshing and added especially unseen colors to the LEGO and Technic catalog.

You had to be there ;)

@Nuclearxpotato said:"...a Tron guy was pitted against a Borg guy."

"You will be assimilated. End of Line."

@JavaBrix said:
"
90s Technic was Peak Technic."

IMO 2005-2013

The reason why 7 thin beams always seems to come in teal and purple on secondary sites. Looks pretty dangerous as one of the guys has already lost an eye for not wearing his helmet. Seems the purple vehicle can be motorized to drive around, although a motorized scissor mechanism would be very clever?

Using the missile projectile piece as a bludgeon is insane parts usage.

The first LEGO set my (now-7-year-old) son ever loved.

We were visiting my brother when he was 4, and my brother had just acquired these and pieced them together, so they were out--unlike most of his LEGO collection. The "punchers" were very popular that entire visit.

This was a fantastic set, one of the best from back then. A few of my mates got them too and we'd have knockout competitions with them. You did need an ample supply of rubber bands though, the supplied pair couldn't cut it. Not sure if mine is still complete, might have to try and dig it out!

This is a weird set. It came out shortly after I hit my dark ages, but I think I would've still loved it. I really liked the Technic figures, I still do - and these are some gorgeous colours, I'm surprised that they're this old.

I know teal made a big revival already, but dang, man. Bring back this shade of purple. You can have highlighter yellow back, please and thank you.

Incredible set. I remember wanting this bad boy as a child but it was impossible to find in stores, much less to afford. Lucky me to find it NIB for $30 a few years ago, kickstarting my collection for Cyber Slam/Competition.

As others said, it's clearly a prototype Tarakava of sorts, but in a way it's a lot more than that. The Technic figs from Cyber Slam add so much personality and reek of late 90s design. The functions in the sets have that same old punching action a lot of Technic sets relied on, but with some incredible extension to them to the point they make a nice arc when fully extended - a detail that explains the positioning of the target for the two vehicles.

Colors are sublime, beautiful teal and old purple in their prime. The builds are simple enough but still stand out from one another. I've preached it in the past, but we desperately need Lego to return to a Technic like this rather than the bland model kits of today. Functions, creativity, and oddball design do so much, it's a shame how unappreciated they remain even today. Hope to see more of this line show up in the future. I know the flagship 8482 Cybermaster made an appearance (and confused everyone with the art), but the rest of the line is really something special as well.

@Atuin said:
"the arms often fail to retract if you only use a single pair of rubber bands as implied in the instructions, and those bands tend to break"

1998? Bionicle launched in 2001, just three years later, and the black rubber bands in those sets had a serious problem. Stretch them _once_ and they’d be crumbled to dust by the end of the week. By 2002, they’d stopped producing the black rubber bands for good. Thing is, I ran across my old 1822 a couple years ago, and those bands are still in perfect shape. So sometime between 1995 and 2011, something about their production changed, and later examples were just garbage. Maybe this change happened earlier than I’d believed.

@PurpleDave said:
" @Atuin said:
"the arms often fail to retract if you only use a single pair of rubber bands as implied in the instructions, and those bands tend to break"

1998? Bionicle launched in 2001, just three years later, and the black rubber bands in those sets had a serious problem. Stretch them _once_ and they’d be crumbled to dust by the end of the week. By 2002, they’d stopped producing the black rubber bands for good. Thing is, I ran across my old 1822 a couple years ago, and those bands are still in perfect shape. So sometime between 1995 and 2011, something about their production changed, and later examples were just garbage. Maybe this change happened earlier than I’d believed."

It's not just the black ones - Life on Mars used tiny yellow ones on there grappling arms which degraded quite similarly.

Funnily, those yellow ones started as hair bands for Scala dolls in 1999.

I have to admit though that my black ones from the 1998 "Micro Technic" sets never showed any symptoms so far.

A few additional points about Competition/Cyber Slam:

It was a bit weird, that there's a second (actually more common) variant of the Teal guy out there who seems to be a cyborg himself, with mechanical left arm and leg. Some fight must have gotten a bit wrong...

I wonder why they went with the 2 completely different logos/names for EU/NA - much similar to Slizers/Throwbots. While I prefer the name "Cyber Slam" (as it sounds a bit more creative), I think the Competition logo looks much more interesting.

Speaking of Slizers, Competition also seems to be a bit of a mild precursor to it: action figures, "game" elements, sci-fi and crazy colors all are common to both. There was even a comic in some Slizers sets showing a duel between Jungle/Amazon (teal) and Energy/Electro (purple) that heavily evoked this connection.

Also noone yet mentioned the vehicle numbers (usually found on stickered 2x2 plates, all in a very similar style):
1 - Purple, 2854 Bungee Chopper
2 - Teal, 8202 Bungee Chopper
3 - Teal, 8233 Blue Thunder
4 - Teal, 8257 Cyber Strikers
5 - Teal, 8245 Robots Revenge
6 - Purple, 8257 Cyber Strikers
9 - Teal, 8266 Spider Slayer
11 - Purple, 8266 Spider Slayer

This leaves three missing numbers (7, 8, 10) and 2 unnumbered purple vehicles (8233, 8245).
Unfortunately the concept was dropped for the two 1999 releases.

Additonally, the characters had different (more generic) names in Europe:
Nick Stryker: "Champ Gladiator"
Sam Cyborg: "Cyber Gladiator"

Still have this and the box! Clearly remember that I felt I was a little too old for LEGO when I bought it (silly me) but I just had to have it!

"You are watching... William Shatner's TekWar!"

"...Are you real or not? It's a fine line. Are you ready or not? For the light of day..."

@Atuin said:
"It's not just the black ones - Life on Mars used tiny yellow ones on there grappling arms which degraded quite similarly.

Funnily, those yellow ones started as hair bands for Scala dolls in 1999.

I have to admit though that my black ones from the 1998 "Micro Technic" sets never showed any symptoms so far."

I forgot black wasn't the only color, but color wouldn't matter in this instance. There are two basic types of rubber band that they've produced. The black ones are extruded and cut from the ends of a tube, and have a rectangular cross-section. The Technic bands are molded as they come in sets, with a circular cross-section. It's the extruded bands that had all the problems, while the molded Technic bands only fail due to extreme wear or if you exceed their elastic limit (which takes some effort). Technic bands are made out of a different material, which is less elastic than the extruded bands (so they're not really interchangeable), but it's also not susceptible to whatever went wrong with the extruded bands. I have no idea if they left out a chemical or skipped a process (like maybe vulcanization), or if they added something that reacted badly with the rubber, but for sure someone botched the bands from 2001, where the 1995 bands were fine. That's something they should have just been able to fix, but instead they eliminated them from the parts palette entirely, and I'm still curious why. But it's been nearly a quarter century at this point, and I'm not holding my breath for answers.

The only Competition set I have; got it in a lot when getting parts for Lego League. Of course, like others have shared here, it brings comparisons to the Rahi sets of 2001, which was a novelty because I believe at the time I didn't have any. I wouldn't get the Tarakava until years later as a gift, which was one of my grails due to seeing it at a random clearance store a few years after the fact as a kid and not being able to get it at the time.

Teal and old purple are a *really* nice millennium-era combination.