Random set of the day: Flare
Posted by Huwbot,
Today's random set is 8521 Flare, released in 2000. It's one of 34 Technic sets produced that year. It contains 44 pieces, and its retail price was US$6.
It's owned by 937 Brickset members. If you want to add it to your collection you might find it for sale at BrickLink or eBay.
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15 comments on this article
I've always felt like I was in a significant minority on this one, but I utterly adored the first generation of Slizer bots. They were really exciting to me, I still remember seeing them in the Lego catalogue that year and thinking, wow, those are so cool. I think it's because they were just so different and unusual, and I liked the world-building (each of the characters had their own terrain). And I even remember sitting down with a friend, mixing and matching the coloured pieces to make unique terrains and new characters. Blue and green for a swamp-themed robot, brown and green for a forest, yellow and brown for the desert, etc.
I didn't like Flare or Spark as much (although I liked the orange/black and purple/black colour schemes. Might have to add them to my 'wanted' list), but I definitely picked up the big yellow and black Blaster bot. Ironically enough, Bionicle always left me cold, but no, I was really a fan of the Throw Bots (and the Robo Riders that came next).
I also am in the minority on these, I believe. Throwbots (never knew they were called Slizers until years later) were some of my favorite themes due to the world building possibilities like Zordboy mentioned. At the time I absolutely adored Beast Wars Transformers and I kind of projected that theme/story onto these guys. The fact that these were very affordable was wonderful as well, considering that I didn't have a lot of money at the time.
For years I had an incomplete collection because I was missing Spark, but thanks to my cousin (thanks Jumbo Bricks Blue!) recently, I now have him as well. This is a great theme and I loved that they had their own pod/spaceship to store them. Wish they would have kept the theme going. I resented Bionicle because I blamed that theme for ending the Throwbots.
My own dark age started ~1997 and I missed many great sets for almost 20 years. This set, however, was not one of those.
(Also, does anyone else look at sets like this one and think "how the heck would I even begin to sort all of those pieces"? Just me?)
My sorting system would reduce this to joints and hinges, technic connectors, and small odds and ends. I've realised it's impossible to explain my sorting system, developed over 30 years, to my children:-/
Ah Slizers, the most convoluted set of lore that Lego has ever ended up with
^In that case, can you explain Nexo Knights to me?
I'm really hoping there's someone with as much knowledge of Nexo Knights as Bionicle lore about to jump in now, but I'm not holding my breath.
This was probably my favourite slizer after Energy (no idea what he was called in the states, the purple one from wave 1). They all had such unique body plans, it made bionicle look even more like cookie cutter sets.
^^ Yeah, in terms of overly-convoluted story-telling, Bionicle doesn't just take the cake but take the entire bakery.
Was there a long-winded back-story for the Throwbots? Even in the annual catalogues Australian stores used to get, I don't remember any established lore or mythos for these guys (which is why it was so fun to make your own). In the posters (that came with the sets), I can vaguely recall hints of in-fighting amongst them, but that's about it.
Ah Slizers/Throwbots. One of the themes I have 99.99% complete (I only miss one of the collectible disks). Let me warn you that the information below is pretty much all we know about it. So... not much. But it's interesting nonetheless!
In 1999 there were 8 slizers/throwbots, each with their own element and environment. http://www.brickshelf.com/cgi-bin/gallery.cgi?i=4264186
There are actually two short backstories for them: one for Europe, one for the US. And most of the details are only hinted at on the images of the disks. Seen here: http://www.brickshelf.com/cgi-bin/gallery.cgi?f=414262
These disks have 2-8 pips (lights) on the side, supposedly indicating a power level. 2 pips shows their elemental power. 3 pips is them throwing a disk, 4 pips is them traveling in their pod (the case the sets came in), 5 pips shows a special ability, 6 pips shows them fighting a monster from their region, and 7 pips shows a resource from their region (presumably a power-up or health item). Jet/Judge doesn't have 7 pips, instead it has 8 pips with the planet from the EU story.
The Throwbots (US version) were disk-throwing robots that each lived on one of 8 single-biome planets: Jungle, electricity, city, ice, fire, water, and stone/desert. The eight planet was a planet for competitions, ruled over by the Judge/Jet slizer. They supposedly all fought for themselves.
The Slizers (EU version) were disk-throwing robots that all lived on a single planet. They fought at the Slizer dome at the top of the planet, ruled over by the Judge/Jet slizer. The rest of the planet has 7 biomes layed out like a beach ball. Like this: http://www.brickshelf.com/cgi-bin/gallery.cgi?i=4264486
There were 4 'good' and 4 'evil' slizers. They could combine into titanic giants to do battle. In the sets each also came with a 3 pip disk of another slizer from the same alignment.
And now it gets complicated. Because in the year 2000, a meteor struck. I'm not sure how this works for the US storyline, but in the EU storyline the meteor obliterated the regions from the evil slizers and presumably them with it. Four mutants emerged from the crater: Blaster, Spark, Flare and Millennia/Millennium. http://www.brickshelf.com/cgi-bin/gallery.cgi?i=4264090
If you put their disks from the least to the most pips it shows the meteor arriving, striking the planet, them emerging, and them moving about. Interestingly, the faceplate from the large Blaster slizer seems to be a fusion of the jet/judge and jungle/amazon Slizers. So maybe the evil slizers are the mutants? It can also fuse with the two smaller mutants to form Dynamo: a multi-headed and multi-armed monstrous being.
Millennia/Millennium is also a special case because it has two forms: a regular-sized slizer/throwbot on a motorcycle and a large form. Both can be made with the same set. It also has a unique metallic golden head and disk, indicating that it is an important figure.
If you couldn't put up with me, don't worry. Save for some small details this is pretty much all we know of the backstory. Unlike the later extensiveness of the Bionicle lore, Slizers/Throwbots has surprisingly little information. Most of this is inferred from the catalogs, disks and some posters for the theme. The theme is mostly shrouded in mystery. Are the mutants the previous 'evil' slizers or not? What are the pips on their disks for? Do their disks have powers, or are the images just decorative? What is their goal? What ARE they? Nobody knows. And nobody will ever know, supposedly.
I love these things.
I like the design of this set.
Oh good 'ol Slizers, the grand-daddy of BIONICLE. I never owned any of these guys, but most of them look pretty adorable and fun. A shame the story was such a mess (party due to the American and European versions taking place on completely different planets) but the disk throwing function and storage canisters were fun. Plus they had some of the first combiner models!
On the catalog image Binnekamp linked (2nd link) it mixes up the images of Spark and Flare. So is Brickset's database wrong or the catalog?
When the Throwbots came out in 1999, I was enthralled. The ball joints seemed like fascinating pieces, totally unlike anything in my LEGO collection up to that point. For whatever reason, the first one my parents allowed me to get was 8502 Turbo, in which the only ball joint present was on the disk throwing arm. I was let down immensely, but I could see the potential. By mid-2000, I had the "original four"-Turbo, Scuba, Torch, and Ski, and those three that stood on two legs pleased me greatly. The second 1999 wave included more "aberrations" like Turbo, so already, I had developed a taste for "good, well-designed Throwbots" and "ugly Throwbots". This one, Flare, is definitely one of the ugly ones (disk arm for a tail?), but to be fair, in 2000, I was more focused on the Roboriders (brief as that flirtation lasted). I never got Flare or much of his 2000 ilk (I remember being awed by Millennia, however. I settled for Blast), but in retrospect, those same design choices, diverse and interesting as they were, still repulse me. And of course, as amazing as Throwbots and Roboriders were, they will forever pale in comparison to the magnificence of BIONICLE that followed.
BIONICLE had a story, and while yes, it was fun to extrapolate all manner of adventures for the Throwbots based on box art and the images on their disks, the intricacy of the set designs begged for deeper, official explanation. I remember seeing BIONICLE in catalogs at the end of 2000 and rolling my eyes a little, thinking, "Here we go again," because I was seeing enigmatic, yet vapid Throwbots all over again. Boy, how wrong was I?!
Ah, Slizer - the line that begat Robo Riders, which begat Bionicle.