Homage to classic Model Team set will be GWP in June

Very cute

Must have!

Guys it is chance that lego will give again this year May 4 promo for August? I have a feeling that they have a lot left

Slightly annoyed I already got me my HH... Would go perfectly with my original 5541 (which I would have to unearth from a pile of brick, and wouldn't look nearly as good as Huw's, but ey, patina no?)

Contemplating how to get this...

Having just ordered 40370 off Bricklink for $25, I may just wait and see with this set. $80 is quite a bit of money, but there are a few sets this year I quite like that would meet the threshold.

The set looks great! Fits right in with Speed Champions, and I really like the minifigs included.

Thanks but knowing the piss poor luck I have been habing trying to acquire orders with GWP (one in February and another one in May). I already have $100 but I'll try to see if I can get the underwater polybag as well.
Edit: shame that the GWP doesn't have the antenna.

Looks great, let's just hope the Crocodile Locomotive releases in June so that we can pick it up with this

@gabrisermig said:
"Looks great, let's just hope the Crocodile Locomotive releases in June so that we can pick it up with this"

It was said (corrected) somewhere else that it will be released in July.

I did really love the model team series but only managed to get 1, 5571. Glad to see one as a GWP, might have to organise myself to make a purchase to get it.

Hey @Huw, can we get a comparison with some Speed Champions cars? Old or new scale is fine, thank you :)

Really like this. Will be a smart addition to the city

This is a perfect gift with purchase. Can’t wait to get mine June 1st

Certainly a much more appealing GWP compared to a Polybag.

Also, if the promo is said to last 3 weeks, I wonder how much they actually have in stock this time.

@Veyniac said:
"Lego sure is going for the nostalgia this year..."

I agree, only wish they could add some castle with their new pirates sets. They are pretty cool, maybe after selling a few LEGO could see the benefit of making a new line...
Or perhaps it’s just a pipe dream I have, oh well. Always like the Blue Fury but I sold it last year... bummer.

-Mechahaulic

I blame the grainy pictures a lot of old LEGO set have on here for not showing me how good Model Team sets actually were! It seems so much more shaped and detailed in this article than I remember, especially for the 90's

How many pieces?

Love it!

Even for kids who were born way after Model Team (which I love) this is a cool set.

Yeah it's chunky for minifig scale, don't care c:

I’m happy with this. Been waiting for a decent GWP and should time perfectly to also get the new White House set :-)

I'm puzzled as to why they're paying tribute to this particular Model Team set.

25 years...yeah sure, but there's other 1995 sets that were far more popular.

Very cool. Not a Model Team set I was ever interested in, but I'll pick this on up. I like how it's minifigure scaled, mostly.

One the reasons Lego stopped doing chromed part is durability. The shiny chrome exterior flakes off with moderate play wear. Once it starts to flake there's no stopping it. It also used a different type of plastic and I don't know if Lego still uses that type or not.

Will double VIP points be available during the period of this promotion? LEGO usually does this promotions in late June/early July

Very cool! I guess it's time to buy the Fiat finally.
I own 5541 (and most other Model Team sets), but I doubt mine is in such a nice condition. It's been a while I've seen it; it is hiding disassembled in storage somewhere :)

This is pretty cool, it sounds like I may need to make a purchase to get it, to go along with my speed champions collection.

This is different from the cadillac that won Ideas a few months back though, correct? Wasn't that going to be a GWP as well?

I'm interested in getting this GWP. Too bad any of the pricier sets on my wishlist are currently Out of Stock so therefore not able to even be ordered. Don't know what of the newer upcoming releases might actually be available to purchase here in the U.S. on June 1st as they seem to be delaying most of them.

The new small car is nice, but as others have said, the original Model Team car is is great shape! I remember it from the catalogues. I wish my my old Lego looked that good still! Unfortunately for my sets storage in brown cardboard boxes has discoloured many pieces.

Would it kill LEGO to do more chrome? Oh well, keeps the value high on the stuff we have I guess...

@Galaxy12_Import said:
"Would it kill LEGO to do more chrome? Oh well, keeps the value high on the stuff we have I guess..."
It’s because it chipped easily. I don’t know about you but I’d prefer no chrome rather than chipped, weird looking pieces in my sets.

Does it bother anyone else that the 1x1 rounds on the engine have been applied at random angles in the photo of 5541?

@CLMF:
Regarding the Ghostbuster's Firehouse, it's funny how when two people design a model based on the exact same building, the results can look very similar...but remember that people complained that the got the color of the bricks "wrong" (in truth, the building appears to change color dramatically depending on the time of day and angle of sunlight). Also remember that the piece count is about 50% higher than what they eventually announced as a hard limit on piece count for Ideas.

Regarding Jurassic Park, remember that the complaint was that they _DIDN'T_ allow themselves to look at the Ideas submission because people had thrown such hissy fits over "stolen" Ideas projects that they wanted to make sure this one stayed "pure" of outside input. And then people essentially complained that they refused to steal Ideas projects.

@LusiferSam:
Nope, same ABS. I've got a set of chrome parts and their matching pre-chromed blanks. They do, on the other hand, have to make new molds for every chromed element, because the dimensions change during the chroming process, and they need to make sure that the final result has consistent clutch. So they mold it with some of the dimensions reduced, and then chrome builds it back up to the intended size. When chroming parts, there's a special paint you have to use that stays tacky when cured, and which will cause the chrome to bond to the surface, but the only restriction on the base material is that it has to be stiff, or flexing it will cause it to start flaking off.

@bdc101:
Yup, very different from the contest car. Yes, I believe that was supposed to end up as a GWP of some sort. No, I don't remember seeing any sort of timetable on that.

@Bricktastic_builder:
There have been a few toes stepped on in previous years, but most of them involved stuff that was under active license and guaranteed to be rejected on those grounds alone. And then the primary themes ended up producing those same subjects as sets soon afterwards. These include the Ghostbusters Firehouse, the SHIELD Helicarrier, and the Jawa Sandcrawler. But there are zero restrictions on non-Ideas themes WRT Ideas submissions, and there are ironclad restrictions on Ideas submissions in general. The important thing to keep in the forefront of your mind (and which many people rarely do) is that it's just asking for heartache if you submit projects based on active licenses.

And again the timing of a nice GWP is nothing but a huge slap in the face to loyal fans, I'm getting seriously tired of how they always announce/introduce these a few days *after* an expensive set. Before ordering the Haunted House (which I haven't even received yet) I *tried* to check if there was any good GWPs coming up, but couldn't find anything. While they at least introduces it on the 1st rather than the 5th as they uses to, it was also the first time in ages they've offered an attractive set as VIP early access. And even if I'd held up I'd probably be screwed, as the house is on far backorder so the hotrod would probably be sold out by the time it becomes available again. The roumored Crocodile Locomotive seems interesting (first nice train set since the TGV and Lone Ranger ones in 2013) but probably won't be available until the hotrod promo has ended.

To me it feels like Lego is taking their most loyal customers for granted and won't waste any freebies on them ("They'll buy everything anyway"), but instead targets the more casual and "on the fence" group. It's not that this set is that important for me, it's more that I had the exact same thing happening two years ago, when I dared ordering the Statue of Liberty on day one and got cheated out of the HC Andersen set.

PurpleDave - Regarding Jurassic Park, the problem was simply that the Ideas concept was a WAY better model, and probably would have been cheaper too - by trying to make a different one it became too large (particularly the T-rex), too expensive, missing the car and just not as good looking. I think they'd been better off making a deal with the original contributor rather than going for the hodgepodge they ended up with.

I kinda want this for the minifigs more than the car. I don't have any purchases in mind except possibly for the entire second wave of DOTS for the $100 I need to get it (and those aren't available here yet).

I have to say, the lighting and white balance are pretty on point because you can very easily distinguish the old and new greys in these photos.

@Bricktastic_builder said:
"Wait...
Just realized the big car is the old one...
Darn.

Edit: reading the comments there’s talk of a “crocodile locomotive?” Where’d you get your intel?

- There are a few German sites that mention it, which have been proven to be reliable.

Edit: I found it, but it looks remarkably similar to the fan submission on ideas. There’s no way LEGO would make a model that close (Jurassic Park was a coincidence since that was in the works before the ideas set), so I’m inclined to think it’s a fake, but you never know..."

- When choosing to build a model based on the real thing I wouldn't be surprised if models look alike. Lego probably saw that this is a popular model amongst AFOLs. But Lego had some locomotives based on this model of their own in the past. There are even pictures of a brown prototype in the 12V era, which unfortunately never made it for some reason.
So at least in this case to me, Lego would seem to rightfully claim the credit.

@PDelahanty said:
"I'm puzzled as to why they're paying tribute to this particular Model Team set.

25 years...yeah sure, but there's other 1995 sets that were far more popular."

- There was also a reissue of set 5541 in 2004, set number 10151.

I guess it fits with Speed Champions but I wish it were city scale.

Set looks great, too bad all the D2Cs I want to buy are "temporarily out of stock"

@CopperTablet I totally agree. Awesome GWP and there are 3 large sets I really want (Tree House, Pirates of Barracuda Bay, and the new Haunted House), but all three are temporarily out of stock.

I wouldn't even mind waiting however long until they're back in stock, if they'd just let us back order them now.

More substantial than some of the previous freebees, and I like that is has a historical big brother. Maybe they will do homage to some of the other more popular cars, e.g. 4896, 4993, 5767, 10252?

The larger creator series were interesting as they had lots of different curved bricks in a single colour that were useful for the outer shells of your own mocs. These were also more affordable per brick than the current series as no licensing was involved.

That yellowing is, I believe, mostly activated by UV exposure, so since you packed it away it didn't happen. Keep it out of even ambient sunlight or certain types of light bulbs and you should be fine.

Great review.

Sigh...I do love chrome and miss it OH so much...

@axeleng:
I've seen speculation that they couldn't do the vehicles because of licensing issues, but the most iconic JP vehicle is the colorful Ford Exploder. They clearly have a good relationship with Ford, as that and Ferrari are the two most common brands in the Speed Champions theme. Next would be the Jeeps, which _might_ be a trickier issue, as they've only done one Mopar Speed Champions set, and it was Dodge. We don't know if they have any rights to produce Jeep sets.

Personally, I would much rather they produce the vehicles as standalone sets, especially if they include a way to change the ID numbers (we did see at least two of each model, and the Jeeps each have giant ID numbers printed on them so they can be identified from the air), so I really have no issue with their absence in the T-Rex set.

@PurpleDave said:
" @axeleng:
... the most iconic JP vehicle is the colorful Ford Exploder...

That must be a spectacular vehicle ;-)

How easy to people think it would be to convert this to a regular 1910s/1920s car?

I personally hate hotrods, I changed the one in the City tuning garage into a 1930s roadster.

@Wrecknbuild:
Ah, yes. About 15 years ago, Ford Explorers were having problems with their Firestone tires where the treads would separate from the tires, resulting in a lot of rollover crashes. I've been calling them Ford Exploders ever since. Before that it was Ford Exploiters, because that vehicle was built to weigh in at 5,995 pounds curb weight (no people or cargo), allowing it to be registered as a passenger vehicle. However, the same people would claim the gross vehicle weight (loaded to maximum capacity) when purchasing them, giving them federal tax breaks meant for commercial vehicles (classified as anything 6,000 pounds or greater). You're not supposed to be able to get both tax breaks. Either it's a commercial vehicle that gets tax breaks at purchase but registration is through the roof, or it's a personal vehicle that gets fully taxed coming off the lot but has cheaper registration.

@Brickchap:
Depends on the builder, both in terms of skill in modifying the set, and what they'll find acceptable. I've made several really cool cars, but without even trying I know I couldn't de-hotrod this set at the moment, but I can see ways in which other people could. By that I mean that a stock version of this car would have pontoon fenders over the front wheels, which are usually one of the first things to go (along with the hood) when converting a car from this era into a hotrod. The only way I've seen that style of fender made in that scale is with click hinge plates, bar-and-clip plates, or something else that produces a similar faceted look. If I was making a VW Thing, that's something I'd find acceptable, but not on something requiring rounded fenders. I've wanted for a few years now to make Abby Sciuto's 1931 5-window Ford, but the sticking point is that her car still _has_ the front fenders. I finally figured out a way to make nice rear pontoon fenders for vintage trucks, which I could probably adapt to the rear fenders on her car, but it won't work for the front ones.

Anyways, if you can forgive the missing front fenders (or you're okay with fenders that are faceted instead of curved), it should be really easy to strip the engine out and build it back up like it still has the hood on. For a more traditional look, you could give it a hardtop, though you'll have to use something different for the windshield. Oh, and leave the stickers of the doors. It's hard to claim that it's not a hotrod if it says "HotRod" on the doors.

PurpleDave - I'm rather skeptical about these speculations about not being able to get a Ford license - as I've said earlier, I'm pretty sure they could replicate the iconic paintwork while making the car itself just generic enough to not require that. Also look at the car from the Stranger Things set, it's clearly recognizable while it doesn't appear to be licensed.

@axeleng:
Well, as I said, Ford is one of the most common brands in the Speed Champions line (the numbers seem to have shifted since last I checked, with Ford behind Ferrari and Porsche). There's the large Mustang set, too, so we know the license isn't exclusive to SC. If there is a legitimate problem, it has to involve the combination of Jurassic Park and Ford licensing. Otherwise it means they're just sitting on what could be the most popular JP/JW set they ever make.

Originally didn't intend to get this GWP, but as I knew I wanted the new Creator 3 in 1 Pirate Ship I decided to pull the trigger anyway. Gave me an excuse to use another VIP points voucher too.
I am happy with that.
;-)