Random set of the day: Tremor Track Infiltration
Posted by Huwbot,
Today's random set is 70161 Tremor Track Infiltration, released during 2014. It's one of 6 Ultra Agents sets produced that year. It contains 241 pieces and 2 minifigs, and its retail price was US$19.99/£17.99.
It's owned by 3,237 Brickset members. If you want to add it to your collection you should find it for sale at BrickLink, where new ones sell for around $42.40, or eBay.
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41 comments on this article
Excuse me, is that a military vehicle that's not a military vehicle? Loophole found!
No way LEGO actually put a tank in one of their sets - even if it is a tank with punchy arms
Ain't no way Ultra Agents is already old enough to be in RSotD... I still remember when *regular* Agents was the hot new thing I that needed to have. D-X
I didn't follow Ultra Agents when it was around, but studying the set history a bit here at Brickset, an immediate failure that becomes apparent is that the heroes and villains are not easy to differentiate at a cursory glance. I *think* that tank is supposed to belong to the bad guys? The original Agents had a clear and eye-catching delineation between good and bad - the good guys had blue/silver vehicles with stealthy styling, the big bads had bright orange flame uniforms punctuated with black. That kind of clear line just doesn't seem to exist here with UA.
Punchy tank looks pretty cool though
That is a very cool piece of headgear.
Maybe not very effective, but cool anyway.
From one of my favourite Lego original themes. I liked its realistic agents, and its unrealistic villains and vehicles.
@Miyakan said:
"That is a very cool piece of headgear.
Maybe not very effective, but cool anyway."
Pretty sure that's Ram Man from MotU.
I assume it's not the stealthy type of infiltration?
@MCLegoboy said:
"Excuse me, is that a military vehicle that's not a military vehicle? Loophole found!"
Is this the most military Lego set?
@StyleCounselor said:
" @MCLegoboy said:
"Excuse me, is that a military vehicle that's not a military vehicle? Loophole found!"
Is this the most military Lego set? "
No, just look at the Indiana Jones theme, as well as multiple Marvel sets, and those three large models of World War I bi-planes.
@PurpleDave said:
" @Miyakan said:
"That is a very cool piece of headgear.
Maybe not very effective, but cool anyway."
Pretty sure that's Ram Man from MotU."
I’m glad I’m not the only one who thought that! It’s probably the reason I got the set, and also that I like LEGO tanks.
Imagine that if Lego were to do 'military'?
Not that I would especially like that (except for new parts and recolours) but I'm pretty sure the sales would increase by a substantial amount. That would be a whole new group of people happy to have their "theme" made in a "reasonably" good quality medium. Anyway, not going to happen and that's fine but when you see set like that, I'm sure some designers would like to get there...
p.s.: maybe they could re-issue the osprey 42113 !
@MCLegoboy said:
"Excuse me, is that a military vehicle that's not a military vehicle? Loophole found!"
Even with some of the crazy tanks some nations have cooked up over the past century or so, I don't think any of them have ever gone so far as Rock 'Em Sock Em' Robots fists.
It's rather a shame this theme died; Ultra Agents seems like it had a lot of fun concepts that are now sadly gathering dust.
I can assure you that this wouldn’t do much good as a tank- the chassis pretty much just a support for the punching mechanism and… that’s it.
I thought the good guys got some excellent sets in this theme, but the bad guys were pretty meh. I’d like to have seen a more cohesive match up- the final wave of bad guys from Nexo Knights would have fitted in well here:
I imagine this playing the Robotnik boss theme
@MCLegoboy said:
"Excuse me, is that a military vehicle that's not a military vehicle? Loophole found!"
Nooooo, it's not military. Lego would never do that. It's like Notre Dame. It's not a religious building...
I'm not sure 'infiltration' is the right word for having a tank punch its way into somewhere...
I own this one! The punching function is fun as you can launch a jumper plate with circuitboard tile from the vault display by hitting it. But as these are giant hands you can do a lot more with it.
The highlight here is Tremor. UA was a great theme for the villains, as they are themed well as a group. The first wave were themed on natural diasters except the hacker Terrabyte, foreshadowing that the group as a whole is based on inverted professions. Electrolyzer was an electrician, Spyclops a pest exterminator etc. Tremor here was a boxer. Fun concept for a rogue's gallery and the designs stand out enough to be surprisingly cohesive yet diverse.
I'm not a minifig guy but I ended up collecting all the villains.
This theme used to have an app which showed the story. Never downloaded it, but the main draw for me were the comic-book style cutscenes anyway. In there the tank is actually smarter than Tremor himself as it can automatically find its way into the vault and solve a rubixcube-like safe by itself. Fun concept.
It's fun to see this as an in-house superhero theme, but that's also this theme's downfall. It came out 2 years after Super Heroes was launched, so it was already being smothered by licenses. The last wave didn't release over here because of this. And although it had style, the actual sets were almost entirely vehicles.
A blast from the past! (Has it really been 10 years already?)
Btw, aside from having threads and being dark tan (the actual amount of those parts is surprisingly small), this has nothing in common with the military. Stop.
Now that does indeed look quite militaristic to me. Fantasy theme or not.
Seeing all the devastation caused by tanks in Gaza and Ukraine on the news every day really makes it clear why LEGO shouldn't make sets like this.
I own a few UA sets, this one included. I may have built it; I don't remember tbh. My issue with UA is that (to me) it appears to be an attempt of a follow-up to the most excellent Agents theme (easily in my top 3 favorite Lego themes ever. And that's not even nostalgia as I was deep in my dark ages when they came out). As @Robot99 points out above, to me UA failed in this regard, fun as the villains may be.
Tremors armour reminds me of Ram-Man from He-Man cartoons. With short green legs and red torso you can easily make it.
@WolfpackBricksStudios said:
"No way LEGO actually put a tank in one of their sets - even if it is a tank with punchy arms"
4981
I had quite a few of the Ultra Agents sets, they were great fun.
70162 was basically a transforming Blade Runner flying car, with an awesome villain in Infearno.
70164 was a much bigger transforming model, for the villain this time
And UAGT028 AntiMatter (from 70172 and 70170) is definitely in my all-time top minifigures list, with an early dual-molded headgear (with trans-purple face), on top of a glow-in-the-dark head.
Edit: not sure why some people aren't sure which figs are the villains, seems pretty clear to me!
@AustinPowers said:
"Now that does indeed look quite militaristic to me. Fantasy theme or not. "
It's so realistic too, right? I mean, you see punching tanks on the news almost every night nowadays...
@Rob42 said:
" @AustinPowers said:
"Now that does indeed look quite militaristic to me. Fantasy theme or not. "
It's so realistic too, right? I mean, you see punching tanks on the news almost every night nowadays..."
Take off the fists and you basically have an armored vehicle like you see on the news about the Middle East conflict or Ukraine every day.
I don't mind brick built tanks per se by the way, I just think sets like this are pushing TLG's credibility in terms of their stance on military themes.
@AustinPowers said:
" @Rob42 said:
" @AustinPowers said:
"Now that does indeed look quite militaristic to me. Fantasy theme or not. "
It's so realistic too, right? I mean, you see punching tanks on the news almost every night nowadays..."
Take off the fists and you basically have an armored vehicle like you see on the news about the Middle East conflict or Ukraine every day."
…do we though? Minus the fists it’s just a set of caterpillar tracks with some guarding round them, it honestly looks more like a particularly durable flatbed than any tank
@AustinPowers said:
" @Rob42 said:
" @AustinPowers said:
"Now that does indeed look quite militaristic to me. Fantasy theme or not. "
It's so realistic too, right? I mean, you see punching tanks on the news almost every night nowadays..."
Take off the fists and you basically have an armored vehicle like you see on the news about the Middle East conflict or Ukraine every day.
I don't mind brick built tanks per se by the way, I just think sets like this are pushing TLG's credibility in terms of their stance on military themes."
Actually, if you take off the fists, there is a hole (a lot of empty space) in the middle of the vehicle, which you would need to rebuild with an armored cockpit etc. Right now, the driver is standing in the back in that small open space there, operating the fists.
Yes, it is a tracked vehicle, like a tank. Yes, arguably it does invoke 'tank' as a mental image. But I'd argue a lot of this is because of the color scheme, not because of how the vehicle is built. If this was in yellow or light blue, it would look a lot less 'tank.' As said, the policy says something about 'realistic modern military vehicles.' It is not against tanks (as a vehicle category) or weapons, as we can easily see in themes like Ninjago etc.
Is this a realistic vehicle? No, though it would be fun as pointed out above.
Is Tremor the origin of Ninjago's Karlof?
@Brickalili said:
" @AustinPowers said:
" @Rob42 said:
" @AustinPowers said:
"Now that does indeed look quite militaristic to me. Fantasy theme or not. "
It's so realistic too, right? I mean, you see punching tanks on the news almost every night nowadays..."
Take off the fists and you basically have an armored vehicle like you see on the news about the Middle East conflict or Ukraine every day."
…do we though? Minus the fists it’s just a set of caterpillar tracks with some guarding round them, it honestly looks more like a particularly durable flatbed than any tank"
Not to mention that in person the tracks of this set are tiny in proportion to the overall vehicle. Take a good look at it. It's all in the center. This thing wouldn't even be able to climb a hill like any post-WWI tank would.
It's just as much 'realistic military vehicle' as 70001 Crawley's Claw Ripper or 5934 Dino Explorer.
@AustinPowers said:
" @Rob42 said:
" @AustinPowers said:
"Now that does indeed look quite militaristic to me. Fantasy theme or not. "
It's so realistic too, right? I mean, you see punching tanks on the news almost every night nowadays..."
Take off the fists and you basically have an armored vehicle like you see on the news about the Middle East conflict or Ukraine every day.
I don't mind brick built tanks per se by the way, I just think sets like this are pushing TLG's credibility in terms of their stance on military themes."
All right, you heard the man. No more cranes, bulldozers, front-end loaders, backhoes, or any other sort of construction vehicle that uses a treaded drive system because they’re all too warlike.
@Robot99 said:
"Ain't no way Ultra Agents is already old enough to be in RSotD... I still remember when *regular* Agents was the hot new thing I that needed to have. D-X
I didn't follow Ultra Agents when it was around, but studying the set history a bit here at Brickset, an immediate failure that becomes apparent is that the heroes and villains are not easy to differentiate at a cursory glance. I *think* that tank is supposed to belong to the bad guys? The original Agents had a clear and eye-catching delineation between good and bad - the good guys had blue/silver vehicles with stealthy styling, the big bads had bright orange flame uniforms punctuated with black. That kind of clear line just doesn't seem to exist here with UA.
Punchy tank looks pretty cool though"
I'd argue against that point. Even though there wasn't much consistency with the villains, all of the UA vehicles had the black and trans light blue coloring, which was exclusively used for the heroes in the theme if I'm not mistaken
@MCLegoboy said:
"Excuse me, is that a military vehicle that's not a military vehicle? Loophole found!"
This set allows the base of a tank: just modify the top with a turret and done.
That is... certainly a vehicle. I'll say that.
Is this a tank or not? It is a weird one, that's for sure.
Regardless, one thing that should be obvious from their products: Lego absolutely LOVES war and conflict, just as long as it doesn't look too much like the real thing.
@PurpleDave said:
"All right, you heard the man. No more cranes, bulldozers, front-end loaders, backhoes, or any other sort of construction vehicle that uses a treaded drive system because they’re all too warlike."
Now honestly, that's total BS and you know it.
This thing is supposed to be a tank, and it has even got a colour scheme to match. Desert style.
Hell, the Technic Osprey looked less like a military vehicle than this one.
And yes, LEGO loves weapons and war since such sets sell tremendously, see Star Wars in particular, but certainly not limited to it.
In what way is construction equipment even remotely comparable? It's not the tracks that make a vehicle military. It's the shaping,combined with the tracks combined with the colours, combined with the fact that this is clearly meant as a fighting vehicle - fists or otherwise.
@Ridgeheart said:
" [...]
I wouldn't need to ridicule you if you weren't being so thoroughly and consistently ridiculous.
[...] "
Good line, and I couldn't put it better myself. Same obtuse and tedious chattering every time. At this point I have to assume some people don't WANT to understand.
Anyway, on a positive note about the set, I think it would be even cooler if the punching function could be geared to the tracks somehow, a bit like 8958 Granite Grinder.
@Hylian_Warrior:
Yes, the Ultra Agents all worked for TRON. I mean, they all had a non-actionable cyber-style that was consistent across the board.
@AustinPowers:
It _PUNCHES_. Take it on with a hang glider, and it’s powerless to stop you. You could probably do more damage by just driving a multi-ton SUV into crowds. Make it an EV, and you’ll add another half ton of mass. If it had four wheels instead of treads, nobody would have batted an eye. Put treads on it and paint it green, and all people can envision is a main battle tank, throwing arm-sized explosive rounds across battlefields, because nobody besides the military would ever paint a vehicle with treads green. Oh, and probably at least half a dozen manufacturers of heavy construction equipment.
The Osprey didn’t get cancelled because it _looked_ like a military vehicle. It got cancelled because it was a licensed and branded copy of a vehicle that is and was exclusively used by militaries. It could have been a Herkimer Battle Jitney (the finest nonlethal military vehicle ever made), and it still would have been cancelled if it was determined that it was only used by militaries.
@PurpleDave: I just mentioned the Osprey because TO ME it just looks like any other VTOL helicopter. It hasn't got a military colour scheme, it hasn't got weapons, it is designated as a rescue vehicle, which it could well be.
This vehicle TO ME looks like a tank. Period. I would never buy such a set (just like I don't buy Cobi tanks). I don't mind that they exist, I just don't ever want to own one. I've served, I know what the military is for. And I don't agree with it. And this set just reminded me of bad memories, that's all. I don't like it, and I don't care whether you or anyone else understands this.
in the 2012 lego dc superheroes visual dictionary, near the end of the book you can see a sketch model of a tank for Bane with a similar punching arms feature that never became an actual set. it was replaced by his drill tank in set 6860 batcave. interesting to wonder if this ultra agents set is what became of that sketch model
Everyone but me is wrong. This vehicle is inspired by the Thunderbirds Excavator module for Thunderbird 2 (the blue Limai model kit version, not the red one that appears in the original show)
@AustinPowers said:
" @PurpleDave: I just mentioned the Osprey because TO ME it just looks like any other VTOL helicopter. It hasn't got a military colour scheme, it hasn't got weapons, it is designated as a rescue vehicle, which it could well be.
This vehicle TO ME looks like a tank. Period. I would never buy such a set (just like I don't buy Cobi tanks). I don't mind that they exist, I just don't ever want to own one. I've served, I know what the military is for. And I don't agree with it. And this set just reminded me of bad memories, that's all. I don't like it, and I don't care whether you or anyone else understands this. "
Now that's an entirely different matter. That I can understand, and respect. But the way I was reading it, it sounded more like "they shouldn't" than "I won't". My dad could have ended up in a similar situation with cargo planes. He was a C-141a mechanic during Vietnam, and said when he was stationed in Alaska, he'd see them fly out with four rows of jump seats running the length of the plane, filled with troops being sent over there. And then the planes came back with caskets stacked like cordwood.