Random set of the day: Exo Force Bike
Posted by Huwbot,
Today's random set is 8354 Exo Force Bike, released in 2003. It's one of 20 Racers sets produced that year. It contains 101 pieces, and its retail price was US$10/£7.99.
It's owned by 887 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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17 comments on this article
Exo Force!? I thought that wasn't untill '05 or '06! Or is the name just a coincidence?
What an interesting take on headlights.
I bought this one about three months ago. LOVE IT!
I remember when I first heard about the Exo-Force theme when it was first announced, I looked to see if there were any leaked pictures of it yet. I also remember being disappointing that this was the only result...
^Even sillier, this product had retired likely before the theme was announced.
Yeah, I think this set is mostly noticeable for the interesting choice of name.
I'm not a huge fan of Technic sets in general, but the more I look at the bike, the more I like it. I'm a fan.
Ah, the Exo-Force Team (no relation to the more famous Exo-Force, probably) who had six or seven sets representing their Drome Racers vehicles, including the Supersonic RC of the lego.com game of the same name.
How fast d’ya reckon it goes?
I didn't manage to get my hands on this or its rival 8355-1 H.O.T. Blaster Bike, sadly. The ones I had instead were their slammer-based follow-ups 8645-1 Muscle Slammer Bike and 8646-1 Speed Slammer Bike. The combiner model for the pull-back bikes didn't seem all that unique compared to existing sets though, which was a shame.
Racing in the sewers of Legotropolis (TM).
you know it probably wouldn't take too much modification for this to actually fit in with the exo-force theme!
I still have this one built! While I usually only collect the large flagship Technic sets, this one has great charm. An excellent build that still holds up today.
@Robot99 - Probably not coincidence exactly; Lego used the name before the Exo-Force theme, for one of racing teams from the Drome Racers storyline (the other teams being Nitro (the protagonists in most story material), Maverick, Zero, H.O.T. and R.E.D.).
I couldn't say for certain, but I would guess that, when naming the '06 theme, they deliberately repurposed the name from this theme... either for the callback, or because they thought it was too good a name to let it go to waste.
@BionicleJedi Interesting take, thanks for sharing!
@BionicleJedi: I can think of quite a few times like that in which LEGO has repurposed an older name in a totally different context…
• The elite "Alpha Team" from LEGO Hero Factory (referred to as the Alpha 1 Team in some media but just the Alpha Team in others)
• The character name "Slizer" from the 2009 LEGO Space Police sets, which shares a name with a 1998–1999 Technic action figure theme.
• The 2007 Aquaraiders theme, which shared a name with a 1997 Aquazone bandit faction.
• The LEGO Friends theme, which shares a name with a 1999 LEGO computer game
• The 1998-2001 Scala sets, which shared a name with a jewelry/lifestyle theme from 1979-1980
• The Bricksters from the 2017 Nexo Knights sets, which share a name with the villain of the LEGO Island games and LEGO Island Xtreme Stunts theme
• The LEGO Fusion set 21206-1 Create and Race, which has a similar name to a Technic tagline/subtheme from the early 2000s (as showcased in the names of 3057-1 and 7384-1 as well as these videos: https://youtu.be/eyBu8SHig9E https://youtu.be/JkpIQOYCQwM
There are probably also many more examples I'm forgetting!
^Another example of reusing names: Emma and Andrea were names in the Scala theme before making the switch to Friends.
Keeping in the Friends area, there was a set (3315) with a character named Anna before the one from Frozen came as well!
^ Ogel underwater Slizer