Review: 60256 Racing Cars
Posted by CapnRex101,
Two colourful vehicles are available with 60256 Racing Cars and these were evidently produced to compete together. Nevertheless, each model appears remarkably distinctive because of their divergent colour schemes and some significant variation in design.
On that basis, the set should offer considerable play value and I think these models appear reasonably detailed in official images, although they are somewhat reliant upon stickers. However, comparable racing models have proven successful in previous City sets and I anticipate similar quality on this occasion.
Minifigures
Drivers are provided for both vehicles and their racing overalls correspond with their respective cars. The female minifigure features an interesting torso which previously appeared in 60202 People Pack - Outdoor Adventures and includes the 'Sport' branding on both sides. Unfortunately, the emblem does not decorate the helmet but this plain red component looks good in my opinion.
The second minifigure seems even more appealing though, sporting Octan E racing overalls with the number 29 on the reverse. This torso is brand new and I am always delighted to see the Octan brand again, further expanding their broad range of racing teams! Printing on the legs or helmet would have been welcome but consistent colours are more important and that has certainly been achieved.
The Completed Model
Despite their outwardly distinct appearances, both cars are constructed around a new chassis piece. This component is relatively substantial which could affect its versatility, especially because the axles are moulded with the chassis. However, they have been used to splendid effect here and have proven similarly useful in several other new City sets.
Hatchback racing cars are comparatively scarce within the City theme but this example looks superb. The colour scheme of red, white and black is marvellous and I like the long bonnet which conveys an appropriate sense of speed. The vehicle measures 13cm in length so looks unrealistically large beside minifigures but the sleek design negates this potential issue to some extent.
Viewing the model from either side reveals its pronounced wheel arches and the surrounding curved bodywork. I think this shaping looks fantastic and the pearl gold wheel rims really stand out. They are only available with two other sets in this shade, both of which are fairly expensive, so I appreciate their presence here.
However, my favourite aspect of this racing car is definitely its radiator grille which is perfectly placed behind a red mudguard component. The resultant curved design looks lovely and I like the prominent trans-yellow headlights on each flank. The pearl silver air scoop above the bonnet would undoubtedly obstruct the driver's vision but looks wonderful between two black stripes.
Stickers are applied on the bonnet and each side of the vehicle. The familiar 'Sport' branding returns here alongside various other sponsors. Removing the roof reveals enough space for a minifigure and the requisite steering wheel inside. Unfortunately, some awkward colourful pieces are positioned here but I appreciate the trans-black 1x2 bricks that seem quite realistic behind the driver.
An enormous diffuser is situated towards the rear. These regularly appear on Speed Champions cars and I appreciate such authentic detail. The pearl silver exhausts seem unrealistic by comparison but I like the angled spoiler. Ideally, the black 2x4 slope would have been trans-black but this element is an adequate alternative in my view, thereby completing an excellent racing car.
While the hatchback most closely resembles a touring car, the second model appears reminiscent of endurance racers which might participate in the 24 Hours of Le Mans. The yellow, medium azure and dark blue colour combination looks fantastic and some of these elements are relatively scarce in their respective colours. For example, the 4x3 curved wedge slope near the front has not been available in yellow before.
Unfortunately, the proportions of this vehicle look strange because its wheel base is unusually short when compared with real endurance racing cars. The rear axle should be located further towards the back, directly adjoining the wing, but the central chassis component restricted that design. However, I do like the rounded wheel arches and the dark azure shark fin behind the cockpit.
Dark blue, dark azure and yellow parts are perfectly layered across the front, separating the textured front splitter from the aerodynamic bodywork above. The integration between the headlights and both wheel arches is beautiful but that sharply concludes behind the front wheels and I think continuing the shape would have improved its appearance. The angular windscreen looks out of place too.
There is ample space for the driver though and the Octan E branding looks great, corresponding with the driver's overalls. Further stickers are applied on the rear wing and I love the mechanical detail that fits between the endplates. The trans-red warning light and black parts below the wing seem authentic as well. Two orange and white cones are also included for assessing manoeuvrability.
Overall
Some superb racing vehicles have appeared in previous City sets and 60256 Racing Cars continues that tradition. The red and white hatchback looks reasonably realistic and I am particularly impressed with its radiator grille. The second vehicle seems less appealing because of its short wheel base but I think packaging these cars together was sensible for play.
Furthermore, its price of £17.99 in the UK represents fair value in my opinion. Unfortunately, the US price of $29.99 feels absolutely absurd, particularly when compared with 60253 Ice Cream Truck and 60267 Safari Off-Roader. For that reason, I think this is a worthy purchase in certain regions but would suggest those in the US focus their attention elsewhere.
I hope you have found this review informative. Let us know by liking this article and share your opinion of the set in the comments below.
This set was provided for review by The LEGO Group but the review is an expression of my own opinions.
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46 comments on this article
I thought the $30 price tag was a typo... wow. Especially when it's closer to $33 in many states because of sales tax... pretty crazy. I'm sure it will be discounted soon in stores, but that doesn't mean much since it's starting so high. Should not be more than $20 in my opinion.
I like the cars well enough.
Fun set and good to see a gender balance with the drivers. I feel the red car would probably look better with the engine intake replaced with something smaller or removed entirely.
These are pretty good. Kind of like an olive branch for people fussed about the speedchamps resizing.
It's essentially a Porsche 919 and a modified Mustang GT350.
@Andhe said:
"I feel the red car would probably look better with the engine intake replaced with something smaller or removed entirely."
Yeah that piece is completely out of place on a rally type car. Otherwise a nice set despite the price.
There are more pieces in the ice cream truck and it is only $19.99. No way I pay $29.99 for this set. It should be $19.99 tops. This set will sit. Shame.
Great set, and that new chassis piece is a surprise.
But also likely means City is the new 6-wide source of Cars while Speed Champions moved over to 8-wide.
Of course I still hope they'll make cars with plate-built chassis, as this year's sets are mostly 5+ which is a bit lower then normal.
@TomKazutara said:
"And remember kids;
don't be creative and build your own cars,
only build the one we tell you to do.
My critique of the base plates."
It's not like pre-made chassis are a new thing for City—there are smaller ones that date all the way back to the town theme that themselves have built-in axles. And the fact that a wide range of the new sets use this chassis element without it restricting the types of vehicles that can be made that much should be evidence enough of its versatility. Yes, it is less versatile than a custom chassis can be, but that has been the case for pretty much every prefab chassis element in Lego—what it gets in exchange for that is a sturdy base that can be especially helpful as a starting point for younger builders.
The cars look good, but they are each $10 cars so the set should be $20 total. The new chassis is really disappointing. There's no need for it whatsoever, and the fixed wheelbase severely limits how the part can be used. The single most important factor in the last decade's abundance of detailed, varied cars is the fact that the chassis parts used were separate from the axles, allowing the length and elevation of the wheelbase to be changed and the size of the wheels to be varied as well. The new chassis doesn't allow any of that.
@SirBrick1 said:
"It's essentially a Porsche 919 and a modified Mustang GT350."
Bingo!
Price is not a typo. In Spain price is 24,99€. It's completely overpriced because there are less than double parts compared to the set 60053, which is the complementary car of those two.
Is one of the designers colorblind? I thought Octan's colors were red and green, but yet this car has the sort of blue and yellow color scheme I would expect a person with red-green colorblindness to make.
Anyway, this will be a fun set for KFOLs.
This and 60242 belong in the 60132 Wall of Shame due to silly PPP.
Call me when it's $20, then I will talk.
Has the Octan E logo been used elsewhere before? The extra letter, the plug symbol, and the different color scheme look new to me.
Fantastic set! But I don’t think the big supercharger suits the red car. To me it appears to be a rally car and those almost never have superchargers, let alone big blowers like this one. I would replace it with a 2x2 red tile or one of those 2x2 curved tiles used in the front of the vehicle to create a small airscoop. Would look much better that way
I had initially placed this set on my Wanted List, but now that I have been blessed with this in-depth review (thank you as always), see that it is not my cup of coffee. I had thought it would be possible to modify them into normal street cars, yet now see that the red car would require too many part swap outs (w/o stickers the color variations would look even worse) and the blue/yellow car would require an entire re-working (which would miss the point of an easy mod.). Oh well, lot's of other great sets, and at that laughable price it won't be missed.
While this is overpriced in the US for sure, meanwhile the Jaguar SC 2-pack is €40 here and $30 in US.
And The Lambo set is even €60 here, and $50 in US.
Yes those sets have more parts as well, but in the end it's still 2 cars.
I hate that intake piece. It might be suitable for a dragster but lately it seems like they’re just sticking it on everything to point out “hey this is a high performance vehicle!” Cars, boats, planes - no matter how ridiculous. It just seems lazy.
The TLG regional pricing mystery machine strikes again.
@CopperTablet said:
"I thought Octan's colors were red and green, but yet this car has the sort of blue and yellow color scheme"
@Mosquitosquisher7 said:
"Has the Octan E logo been used elsewhere before? The extra letter, the plug symbol, and the different color scheme look new to me."
The Octan E logo (and blue/yellow color scheme) is used in this year's 60257 Service Station, on the electric charging station.
Of course, there have to be women and man Minifigures. This gender crap in every set starts to annoy me. :/
@RUL said:
"Of course, there have to be women and man Minifigures. This gender crap in every set starts to annoy me. :/"
You're 100% right...why not two women?
I have really got into Lego cars lately and recently bought some from the last few years. I am getting quite a nice little collection. I like these two. It's quite ironic because in real life I can't drive and don't really know anything about different cars. I would be a terrible witness for a traffic accident unless the cars were a Mini or a Beetle!
Luckily for those in Australia the pricing on this set is reasonable at AU$30 (and its not hard to get at least 20% off RRP on City sets here in Oz :)
"$29.99"
Okay, LEGO is officially giving the finger for everyone this year.
@jonwil said:
"Luckily for those in Australia the pricing on this set is reasonable at AU$30 (and its not hard to get at least 20% off RRP on City sets here in Oz :)"
Indeed. And if you give K-mart a month or so, they usually take those $30 sets down to $19 or so. It's just a matter of playing the waiting game.
^And the real reason why USA should be $20.
AUS is normlly 50-60% more than USA, NOT the same price!
Will be a buyer when it gets discounted at Amazon down to 20 USD
JaguarPanasonic 565 pieces $45CAD
Lambos 663 pieces $80CAD
Mini 67&Dakar 481 pieces $80CAD
City Race Cars 190 pieces $45CAD
That is SOME attempt by LEGO at recouping design, engineering & tooling costs for those new unified chassis pieces. Though the Mini set has fewer pieces than the 2 new Speed Champs sets, it feels WAY more substantial & a way better buy than this new City set.
@TomKazutara said:
"And remember kids;
don't be creative and build your own cars,
only build the one we tell you to do.
My critique of the base plates."
Those bases are great to show kids OUTLINE of the car.
@CDM said:
You're 100% right...why not two women?
I think he was saying that a vast majority of the kids who receive this will be boys so it would make sense to include two men.
Not for me but I can see kids getting enjoyment out of this. Will focus on collecting those beautiful Speed Champions vehicles instead.
at least these look good at would be a worthy addition to any imaginary race team - nice colours.
I'd love to have the ability to completely remove comments about:
1. price - as all of you will go for a discount and refuse to understand TLGs business model
2. moaning about how things were better 30 years ago - unless you offer a time machine
US price WORSE than UK? wow that doesn't happen often, especially as Lego seems to simply change the symbol and keep the numbers the same rather than actually convert the price accurately.
It's probably happened before but this is the first time I've noticed in a while.
@SirBrick1 said:
I think he was saying that a vast majority of the kids who receive this will be boys so it would make sense to include two men."
What makes sense is to include a male and a female driver to make ALL kids empowered, not to help some middle-aged dude perpetuate gender stereotypes.
And, no, that's not what he was saying. He was annoyed to see a woman race driver figure. His comment says as much.
Speed Champion sets are a way better deal, especially in the U.S.
@SirBrick1 said:
" @CDM said:
You're 100% right...why not two women?
I think he was saying that a vast majority of the kids who receive this will be boys so it would make sense to include two men."
That’s an interesting point of view. Can boys not comprehend that women can drive cars too?
I think the point is that it shouldn’t matter what gender the drivers are!
@MonsterFighter
"I think the point is that it shouldn’t matter what gender the drivers are!"
It shouldn't in theory, but that hasn't stopped Lego for pushing this roughly 50-50 male-female ratio throughout its various themes, so I guess it does matter, doesn't it?
@CDM
"gender stereotypes." To be fair, stereotypes exist for a reason. I mean, we all know how it is in the real world. While I kinda like more female minifigs for the variety or aesthetic, I'm kinda rolling my eyes at "social justice" creeping into everything. Guess we just gotta get used to it, or buy something else.
Politics aside, yeah, this set is definitely too expensive. I usually don't complain about it like other people do, but I don't understand why the price-per-part is so high, especially since it doesn't feature some other commercial brand. (I mean, compare this set to the Speed Champions line)
@CDM and @MonsterFighter
I wasn't saying girls can't drive race cars (although most won't aspire to).
A vast majority who gets the set will be boys. Most kids playing with the set and racing with it will be boys. It wouldn't be unfair to assume they would want a male minifigure each to represent them. The product would suit more people to include two men than one of each gender. This set is recommended for 5+ kids. Are young girls going to be worrying about "underpowerment"?
I am also not a "middle aged dude" if you were referring to me.
@SirBrick1 The "middle aged dude" comment was not referring to you. Admittedly that comment was an assumption on my part...I'll concede 40+ male AFOLs don't have a monopoly on such stereotypes.
With that said, you're cheapening the effect a female character can have on a young girl playing with such a set. I don't have a daughter but I have a niece. She is young but she likes car, train, space toys just as much as dolls, etc. If I were to give her a Lego set as a gift I would want something that says to her "you can be a race car driver if you want" or "girls are astronauts, too." That is empowering long before she is old enough to understand what empowerment is.
Conversely, I want my son to understand the same thing: these aren't male-only industries / interests / hobbies. I want to do my part as a father to disprove those stereotypes.
Now if someone wants to wave this off as "political" or "social justice" I'd argue that's because it doesn't affect you or someone you love. Or maybe it does and you just don't care.
Really disappointed with those big chassis pieces in these cars and in the new SC sets.
Totally unnecessary juniorisation.
@CDM
I didn't intend to cheapen it and I know there are some girls out there who would like this set. I have no problem whatsoever with that. My main point was that a majority of kids into race cars are not girls and having two male figures would be more suitable for boys who would probably prefer them. There are likely to be more boys wanting a second male than there are girls wanting a female. While these may not be "boys only" hobbies and industries, the demand for Lego race cars from girls is not particularly high.
However, at the end of the day, its just a small toy that doesn't really matter.
@SirBrick1: In general, I think something that kids of ANY gender tend to appreciate is variety. Considering that the drivers don't have hair to set them apart, including male and female face prints is as good a way to introduce variety as any, especially when both characters otherwise represent the same "race car driver" archetype.
Plus, on a more pragmatic level, this provides LEGO with an opportunity to reuse the existing racing jacket pattern from the mountain biker from 60202-1 without it feeling like the same minifig archetype all over again.
I'm not convinced that boys are going to care too much that one of the figures in this set is a girl. There are plenty of other racing sets like 60251-1 60254-1 and 60255-1 with male racing drivers if they want to swap one out. And two out of those three sets DO include solely male drivers, so it's not as though LEGO has some weird policy that any set with a male minifig must include a female minifig.
I'm sure most kids these days have heard of girls or women being race drivers, whether it's real-life professional drivers like Danica Patrick and Christina Nielsen or fictional characters like Princess Peach from Mario Kart and Vanellope von Schweetz from Wreck-it Ralph. That awareness of the concept is really all it takes to enable fun, enticing play scenarios for the figures included here.
And anyway, regardless of any hypotheses about what kids do or don't like (which I suspect are probably shaped more by our own individual and localized experiences than any deep insight into global trends among demographics a whole generation younger than us), it's a LEGO City set with a pair of cool looking, colorful race cars. It's not gonna be a really tough sell no matter who's in the driver's seat.
@Aanchir
If boys don't really mind what kind of minifigures they get, then I agree with you and I get how Lego is putting variety into this theme. However, as boys are the biggest consumer of the set, (just look where the boys are and where the girls are at your local toyshop), it would make sense for Lego to fit their requirements, two male figures or not.
Aaaaaand... $40 in Canada.
What? $40 CAD?!?! Seriously?!?
Yes, that’s right. $40.
Hard.
Pass.
@csiramokus said:
"at least these look good at would be a worthy addition to any imaginary race team - nice colours.
I'd love to have the ability to completely remove comments about:
1. price - as all of you will go for a discount and refuse to understand TLGs business model
2. moaning about how things were better 30 years ago - unless you offer a time machine"
Agreed, those are on every review for everything
Anyway, UK price is good