Random set of the day: Hot Scorcher
Posted by Huwbot,
Today's random set is 4584 Hot Scorcher, released during 2002. It's one of 27 Racers sets produced that year. It contains 57 pieces and 1 minifig, and its retail price was US$10/£7.99.
It's owned by 1,474 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 $8.00, or eBay.
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30 comments on this article
That name feels a bit needlessly redundant.
So I guess Huwbot is leaning towards fire themed sets now.
What even is a drome?
@JavaBrix said:
"
What even is a drome?"
Latin for "stadium," I think. For example a hippodrome was a stadium for chariot racing
If it was racing in Singapore I'd agree with its name.
@WolfpackBricks63 said:
" @JavaBrix said:
"
What even is a drome?"
Latin for "stadium," I think. For example a hippodrome was a stadium for chariot racing "
Which pretty much matches the "Lore" depiction of said thing.
A giant racing stadium ("146 km in diameter") built by a mysterious rich megalomaniac called Dromulus. I think the entire "Drome Racers" storyline was cancelled before much was revealed about him at all.
Drome Racers was supposedly very story-driven, however that never translated well in the sets, with basically all named characters more or less missing (or being just vaguely interpretable as certain minifigs). It was set in like 2100 AD (I think), there were a few comics, a promo CD and the 2002 video game to tell a bit about that. Main character was Max Axel from Team Nitro and his (somewhat evil appearing) rival Sever from Team Exo Force.
Guess the main idea was to create a backup plan, should Bionicle flop. It didn't and they ran out of money, so most got scrapped and TLG went for a more simple concept for the rest of the Racers line, after the big 2004 change.
EDIT:
One major aspect that made it in the sets though were the the themed (and numbered) racing areas, most sets had 3 models to built, each adapted to one of the zones:
1 - Ice
2 - Jungle
3 - Beach
4 - Mountain
5 - Desert
6 - Stunt/Test Track
7 - City
2K sets definitely had a style, which can be improved with a little work.
This is one of the better ones from the theme. I like the colors and shape. It also has a few alt builds and if you came across it, there's an opponent in 4596 Storming Cobra. It's not quite the same style car, but in Drome Racers we don't care about the normal rules of competitive racing! The theme cared more about creativity, which is something I couod get behind.
Btw those are prints. And that fig has the head of the grey ninja from the Ninja theme.
@MCLegoboy said:
"That name feels a bit needlessly redundant."
It’s certainly a repetitive tautology isn’t it?
@Binnekamp said:
"This is one of the better ones from the theme. I like the colors and shape. It also has a few alt builds and if you came across it, there's an opponent in 4596 Storming Cobra. It's not quite the same style car, but in Drome Racers we don't care about the normal rules of competitive racing! The theme cared more about creativity, which is something I couod get behind.
Btw those are prints. And that fig has the head of the grey ninja from the Ninja theme."
Yes most of the system Drome Racers were all out prints - quite excessive how many there were! Most also start numbers, Hot Scorcher here had one of the lowest with 4, Flash Turbo might be the highest with 89.
It's odd though this didn't continue on to the Technic sets, which were stickered (though that might be due to the panels being to costly to print?).
It was interesting to see how many head prints were recycled for that theme.
Not only did we see Ninja Ito return here or Rock Raider Sparks for the Storming Cobra, but also guys like Achu, Barney, Wrench, Bandit and Senor Palomar/Gomez.
Still they found place for some new ones, oddly enough mostly single-uses in small impulse sets like Red Monster, Star Strike and Flash Turbo.
Seems like the kind of vehicle that yesterday's RSOTD figure would drive.
;-)
Including the pull-back makes it a very awkward looking formula racing car, whereas 4585 Nitro Pulverizer looked more complete.
@Atuin said:
"Which pretty much matches the "Lore" depiction of said thing.
A giant racing stadium ("146 km in diameter") built by a mysterious rich megalomaniac called Dromulus. I think the entire "Drome Racers" storyline was cancelled before much was revealed about him at all.
Drome Racers was supposedly very story-driven, however that never translated well in the sets, with basically all named characters more or less missing (or being just vaguely interpretable as certain minifigs). It was set in like 2100 AD (I think), there were a few comics, a promo CD and the 2002 video game to tell a bit about that. Main character was Max Axel from Team Nitro and his (somewhat evil appearing) rival Sever from Team Exo Force.
Guess the main idea was to create a backup plan, should Bionicle flop. It didn't and they ran out of money, so most got scrapped and TLG went for a more simple concept for the rest of the Racers line, after the big 2004 change."
It was set in 2015, according to the PS2 game manual, although 2100 would have made much more sense.
I liked Drome Racers personally, and I still have most of the sets in my shed. The problem with the theme was that the story ended in 2002, but the sets kept going for two more years with no narrative thrust.
Anyway, this set is the only one to actually include the fourth-gear pull-back motor; despite what 4587 says on the box art, that set actually uses the fifth-gear motor.
@ambr said:
"Including the pull-back makes it a very awkward looking formula racing car, whereas 4585 Nitro Pulverizer looked more complete."
I don't think kids cared about the look then, this was all about the speed those motors could provide. This was the era of fun toys rather than detailed scale models.
@Lego_lord said:
"2K sets definitely had a style, which can be improved with a little work."
Lift the minifig up and roll a new car underneath?
@MCLegoboy said:
"That name feels a bit needlessly redundant."
It's incorrectly formatted on the box art; in-universe it should be H.O.T. Scorcher; as in the car named "Scorcher" belonging to the racing team H.O.T. (High Octane Team), making it more of a pun on their acronym than anything else. Each of the Drome Racers cars belonged to one of six teams (H.O.T., R.E.D., Nitro, Maverick, Zero, or Exo-Force... the latter no relation to the mech theme featured as Random Set two days ago) and the sets were invariably named [team name] [car name]. Somewhere along the line, though, it seems like it was failed to be conveyed that H.O.T. and R.E.D. were meant to be acronyms, leading to the names formatted as seen here.
I presume this means the minifigure is also meant to represent Exceta (or Exocet, as the website apparently called him) as team H.O.T.'s lead driver; but Drome was one of those themes (like later Knights Kingdom II and Exo-Force) where the story material represented the characters as humans rather than minifigures, and this guy really doesn't resemble the artwork of the character, who had vivdly red hair and a torn outfit - https://static.wikia.nocookie.net/lego/images/d/d1/DR_Exocet.png/revision/latest?cb=20241130151325 - so I don't really know...?
Out of all the Drome cars from the first wave, I definitely liked this one best as a kid; a combination, I think, of its sleek look in the picture, its printed slopes, having an actual full minifigure, and my personal preference for orange-ish colour schemes, but I never did get it... or really any of the other Drome sets except the two tiny ones from the Walls ice cream promotion. These days, I kind of suspect that this may be another set, like its rival Nitro Pulveriser, that really only looks good from the specific angle on the box art...
Man, it's wild that Racers has been gone for over a decade
@Atuin said:
" @WolfpackBricks63 said:
" @JavaBrix said:
"
What even is a drome?"
Latin for "stadium," I think. For example a hippodrome was a stadium for chariot racing "
Which pretty much matches the "Lore" depiction of said thing.
A giant racing stadium ("146 km in diameter") built by a mysterious rich megalomaniac called Dromulus. I think the entire "Drome Racers" storyline was cancelled before much was revealed about him at all.
Drome Racers was supposedly very story-driven, however that never translated well in the sets, with basically all named characters more or less missing (or being just vaguely interpretable as certain minifigs). It was set in like 2100 AD (I think), there were a few comics, a promo CD and the 2002 video game to tell a bit about that. Main character was Max Axel from Team Nitro and his (somewhat evil appearing) rival Sever from Team Exo Force."
There was also a Legoland 4D movie featuring the theme. I remember finding it fun, but it did bring up a few lore points that weren't alluded to in other media. Most prominent example is that Dromulus, instead of just announcing the race locations out of seven existing zones in the Drome stadium, had a wheel with a holographic map, and whichever region he touched would cause the entire arena to reshape itself to that environment... sometimes even mid-race, such as Max and Sever rounding a corner in the desert canyons to find themselves face-to-face with snowy mountains instead. To my knowledge no other Drome Racers media used that approach, but it definitely added to the intriguing nature of that world.
It's on YouTube, so link is here... although forewarning that the human designs are kinda weird, having mostly flat faces with 2D expressions drawn on...! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dvYyy8VIWmE
Funny how this existed in 2002, when Lando Norris was born in 1999, and entered F1 20 years later with an orange McLaren with 4.
I always liked the simplicity of Racers sets. My favorites are the ones from 2008-2010.
@ThatBionicleGuy said:
" @Atuin said:
" @WolfpackBricks63 said:
" @JavaBrix said:
"
What even is a drome?"
Latin for "stadium," I think. For example a hippodrome was a stadium for chariot racing "
Which pretty much matches the "Lore" depiction of said thing.
A giant racing stadium ("146 km in diameter") built by a mysterious rich megalomaniac called Dromulus. I think the entire "Drome Racers" storyline was cancelled before much was revealed about him at all.
Drome Racers was supposedly very story-driven, however that never translated well in the sets, with basically all named characters more or less missing (or being just vaguely interpretable as certain minifigs). It was set in like 2100 AD (I think), there were a few comics, a promo CD and the 2002 video game to tell a bit about that. Main character was Max Axel from Team Nitro and his (somewhat evil appearing) rival Sever from Team Exo Force."
There was also a Legoland 4D movie featuring the theme. I remember finding it fun, but it did bring up a few lore points that weren't alluded to in other media. Most prominent example is that Dromulus, instead of just announcing the race locations out of seven existing zones in the Drome stadium, had a wheel with a holographic map, and whichever region he touched would cause the entire arena to reshape itself to that environment... sometimes even mid-race, such as Max and Sever rounding a corner in the desert canyons to find themselves face-to-face with snowy mountains instead. To my knowledge no other Drome Racers media used that approach, but it definitely added to the intriguing nature of that world.
It's on YouTube, so link is here... although forewarning that the human designs are kinda weird, having mostly flat faces with 2D expressions drawn on...! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dvYyy8VIWmE"
Wow! Thanks for sharing this. I never knew there was a Racers 4D movie. I saw LEGO City: A Clutch Powers 4D Adventure in LEGOLAND and I've seen The Lego Movie: 4D – A New Adventure on YouTube.
@WolfpackBricks63 said:
" @JavaBrix said:
"
What even is a drome?"
Latin for "stadium," I think. For example a hippodrome was a stadium for chariot racing "
Not quite, but pretty close: "stadium" is in itself a Latin word, which in turn comes from the Ancient Greek "stadión", a unit of length and a race of that length, whereas "-drome" comes from the Ancient Greek "drómos" for different kinds of racetracks.
@ambr said:
"Including the pull-back makes it a very awkward looking formula racing car, whereas 4585 Nitro Pulverizer looked more complete."
Pull back cars were fun, cars without motors are not fun.
A hot scorcher, as opposed to the cold ones.
@oldtodd33 said:
" @ambr said:
"Including the pull-back makes it a very awkward looking formula racing car, whereas 4585 Nitro Pulverizer looked more complete."
Pull back cars were fun, cars without motors are not fun. "
Motors without cars can be fun, though, if you're inventive enough.
@oldtodd33 said:
" @ambr said:
"Including the pull-back makes it a very awkward looking formula racing car, whereas 4585 Nitro Pulverizer looked more complete."
Pull back cars were fun, cars without motors are not fun. "
Not into soapbox derby, huh?
@PurpleDave said:
" @oldtodd33 said:
" @ambr said:
"Including the pull-back makes it a very awkward looking formula racing car, whereas 4585 Nitro Pulverizer looked more complete."
Pull back cars were fun, cars without motors are not fun. "
Not into soapbox derby, huh?"
No, no soapbox derby. If the kids wanted to do that they were much more into Hot Wheels, we had cases of cars and feet upon feet of track for them. My perspective of Lego time is coming from my kids point of view. Nerf guns were fun until mom got ambushed. I can't even touch a Nerf gun today without my wife warning me to put it away.
Pretty alright set, and I plan to get it as it's not too pricy, luckily.
@Brickalili said:
" @MCLegoboy said:
"That name feels a bit needlessly redundant."
It’s certainly a repetitive tautology isn’t it?"
"Hot" in this case should actually be written as "H.O.T.", as Hot Scorcher is part of the racing group H.O.T. (where the acronym stands for "High Octane Team", duh...).
H.O.T. Blazer (4587 Duel Racers), H.O.T. Arrow and H.O.T. Rock were all part of that too.
Their chief driver (which might be this minifigure) is called Exocet/Exceta (depending on source) and their test driver (from 4587?) is called Spinnit. They had 2 named mechanics called Alternator and Foil.
@oldtodd33 said:
" @PurpleDave said:
" @oldtodd33 said:
" @ambr said:
"Including the pull-back makes it a very awkward looking formula racing car, whereas 4585 Nitro Pulverizer looked more complete."
Pull back cars were fun, cars without motors are not fun. "
Not into soapbox derby, huh?"
No, no soapbox derby. If the kids wanted to do that they were much more into Hot Wheels, we had cases of cars and feet upon feet of track for them. My perspective of Lego time is coming from my kids point of view. Nerf guns were fun until mom got ambushed. I can't even touch a Nerf gun today without my wife warning me to put it away. "
So...a Nerf battery-driven chain gun would be right out of the question, I'm guessing.