Random set of the day: Roadblock Runners
Posted by Huwbot,
Today's random set is 6549 Roadblock Runners, released in 1997. It's one of 47 Town sets produced that year. It contains 181 pieces and 4 minifigs, and its retail price was US$30.
It's owned by 557 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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43 comments on this article
Ah, Town Jr. This would definitely not make Party Llama want to party.
The design of this set is really simple. You could probably build this in 5 minutes I think
At the time this was released (when I was ten and only saw it in catalogues), I liked the IDEA of this set: road baseplate, some vegetation, cops, and other vehicles.
But the execution really left a lot to be desired, and even at the time I know--even if I didn't yet think to articulate--that something was different about Town in 1997.
The is a good set for exemplifying how story potential, which I think is a really important part of a set, is far, far from being enough to make a set GOOD. This could be okay--honestly, on the strength of having a roadplate--but it's far, far from great.
So the cops are the coyotes, and the criminals are the roadrunners, right?
Aw, look at the little children, playing Cops & Robbers with their lantern-battery-powered toy cars.
You have to respect the absolute unit who would voluntarily emblazon Hot Car on his vehicle.
(I, on the other hand, would unrepentantly emblazon 4WD on mine.)
The Blacktron content of this set is pathetic compared to yesterdays glorious set. I mean, this is almost anti Blacktron, I keep seeing the word POLICE everywhere there. Scum Police.......
From far away, this looked neat, but upon closer inspection . . . yuck!
Some lazy graphic designer at Lego in 1996 who wanted to go home early was like: "Bruh, Im wasted, I gotta name this car fast so I can go home. I think Ill name it... HOT CAR! OH YEAH!" Goes home...
Chrome exhaust pipes, old-style road signs, baseplate and greenery: lots of residual glory in this set despite its overall appearance.
@Harmonious_Building said:
"You have to respect the absolute unit who would voluntarily emblazon Hot Car on his vehicle.
(I, on the other hand, would unrepentantly emblazon 4WD on mine.) "
Reminds me of an old Terry Pratchett short story where a couple of thieves drive around in a van with “Crooks” painted on the side so as to not be mistaken for a police vehicle.
Lego: It is totally unacceptable that this set has 180 parts.
Designer: Ok, let's put a 2x2 green brick under one of the small fir/pine tree. Done, 181 parts.
Lego: Good, let's sell this now. (Sometimes management feels it must do its part!)
To complete @MeisterDad observation, this set has 2 old style suspension parts (for the hotcar)
Instructions are 5 pages long. The most complex item here is the helicopter - which seems to have a blade longer than the other on the picture above.
@Harmonious_Building:
Seems like a perfectly normal thing to paint on the side of a soapbox derby racer like that...
@Formendacil said:
"At the time this was released (when I was ten and only saw it in catalogues), I liked the IDEA of this set: road baseplate, some vegetation, cops, and other vehicles.
But the execution really left a lot to be desired, and even at the time I know--even if I didn't yet think to articulate--that something was different about Town in 1997.
The is a good set for exemplifying how story potential, which I think is a really important part of a set, is far, far from being enough to make a set GOOD. This could be okay--honestly, on the strength of having a roadplate--but it's far, far from great."
I completely agree. For me as a kid those days, I also felt it was different around then and was personified by the print of the headlights on each vehicle. Now we would probably say "junior set" but back then i couldn't articulate how it looked slightly off.
If i could remake this, even for back in Town-era, i'd have made this a desert road chase. Desert colors, with maybe some green, ala Western theme, and could add some new or interesting desert pieces like skeleton roadkill on the side, a remnant of a western building on the side, or even driving through the ruins of an old Western Ghost town. Story would be that the bad guy is trying to make it back to his secret hideout after having robbed a bank (Which would have been another set).
Ugh, I may MOC that...
Is that a blocked Road Runner?
It would have been more suitable if Lego has branded these with a "Jr" logo on the box. Like "4+" branding of today. Although the vehicle designs are overly simplistic, the parts are excellent. With couple of modifications this set could turn into a grand set.
@Lego_mini_fan said:
"The design of this set is really simple. You could probably build this in 5 minutes I think"
Simple and terrible...
I want a HOT CAR decal on my car.
Huwbot giveth and taketh away.
Yesterday's set was simple and cool. This set is also simple but definitely not cool.
D grade. It's just not very good, is it?
@Slithus_Venom said:
"From far away, this looked neat, but upon closer inspection . . . yuck!"
This reminds me of a line from a Raymond Chandler novel. He was talking about a woman, but it fits here:
“From 30 feet away she looked like a lot of class. From 10 feet away she looked like something made up to be seen from 30 feet away.”
Yesterday: 23 parts that felt like 181
Today: 181 pieces that felt like 23
Sometimes commenters on here wonder why AFOLs hate on bad ideas like this one. The answer is simple: they portend bankruptcy, either of the fiscal or the creative varieties. In this case, both.
Everything about this set stinks. The models are inept compared to what was available just a couple years earlier. The detailing and finesse are gone. And it wasn't just because this was the junior-oriented line. This kind of thing happened across the entire portfolio, because they actually thought the computer generation was too addled for anything more intricate. So hello, cars and buildings made out of big blocky chunks. And as it turned out, goodbye customers and profits. It was lean few years for my Lego purchases, up until Lego Direct started to help the company find its way out of the wilderness.
Man, why doesn't Lego rerelease this instead of recolouring a dinosaur? (-:
It's interesting to get to read lots of negative opinions on that set. It was my first Lego set, so I can't really give an unbiased review, but for a kid, this set was really fun. I remember spending a lot of time with those vehicles... and it sent me into the Lego spiral. Also, those road plates later became a huge help creating Lego cities.
The only real downside were the traffic signs: they're the only Lego bricks/pieces we broke; they were so brittle...
Somebody give Wile E Coyote a cameo in this, stat!
What exactly is going on here?
I like this set. It's simple, yet provides lots of play value. It has 2 road baseplates, a few signs and vegetation. It's exactly what I wanted to complement my modest Lego city when I was a kid, but Lego City (the theme) didn't provide such a set in my time (I don't know about later because I lost interest).
Looks more like a 90s MOC but fair enough.
TLG's darkest era (I was 10 at the time and I was wondering "What the f... was happened to LEGO?")... so dark that Brickset doesn't have neither a photo of the box!
The vehicles are terribly designed. Worse than cars from the mid-80s.
Guessing that sets like these were deliberately kept simple to encourage “rip out of the box, quick build and get to playing.”
Sure, it had play value, but mainly for younger children. The “Aw cute, the kids are playing cops and robbers” thing … that might exactly have been what Lego was hoping for. Seemed a large majority of their sets in the late 1990s were geared toward 6-8 year olds, rather than the increasing group consumers who were looking for more challenging, realistic sets. (At least Star Wars was on the horizon.)
There’s either a missing piece or an extra piece on the main rotor of the helicopter.
I’m glad sets like this somehow got some kids into LEGO. But that’s not the point. These sets were impoverished versions of what came before. True, there was nowhere to go but up, but in the meantime those of us who remembered the 80s and early 90s were left wondering what had happened to LEGO.
@TomKazutara said:
"ah yes, Lego City 2021, but with prints and chrome"
Too true!
An example of the beginning of the dark times. This is when I went from being sad I couldn't get nearly every set from every theme to praying any theme had something good.
Oddly enough, this set wasn't shown in many catalogues and also not available in every country.
I could never figure out why. However 1995-1999 had entire themes (Unitron, Aquaraiders, Dark Forest, Adventurers Jungle) to be limited to specific markets, so on the other hand it is not too strange I guess...
I know everyone's ragging on this and I get why but my heart just leaps for the old police logo and shield. It's a slightly italicized block font with a red line underneath, it's not even special, but it makes me think of the police station and police bikes in LEGO Island, and all the blue transparent pieces that entails.
I should really try and pick up a mid-nineties police set sometime, just to have a brick with that printing.
I like to criticize sets of this era, but it's actually quite nice. I wish more sets would follow the basic idea. Especially at $30.
You have three cars, a helicopter, four minifigs, a phone booth, all kinds of foliage, suspension, exhaust stacks, two road plates, and a large number of road signs, and barricades. Not to mention several printed pieces, including quite versatile parts such as the phone and gauges/dials.
Even with this set design, I'd be happy to see a set with this amount of stuff at $30. If a set were built like this today, I for one would buy it. Loads of play value for kids as well. As someone who didn't grow up in this era (I had the Jack Stone sets, which yep, are bad) and view these as weak, I still stand by my opinion that "4 Juniors is way worse". Its $30 sets have less and poorer designs. Not to mention the ugly, blocky chassis with welded on axles. The building designs are far poorer. This year's Mickey sets are a prime example; and about $10-15 more for less stuff.
Where is Leia?
@Cooliocdawg said:
"Where is Leia?"
I will admit that, of the many potential faults of this set (and, I will agree, some strengths), the absence of Princess Leia never even once crossed my mind. More Leias are always good, though.
@SideSalad You're not wrong about that old school logo (but, notably, that's a legacy design from earlier Town sets). And seeing it with the trans-medium blue is just RIGHT. (I actually liked all the trans-green we'd start getting with Police sets in 1998, but as a fan of the colour, not as a fan of the designs).
@SearchlightRG said:
" @Harmonious_Building said:
"You have to respect the absolute unit who would voluntarily emblazon Hot Car on his vehicle.
(I, on the other hand, would unrepentantly emblazon 4WD on mine.) "
Reminds me of an old Terry Pratchett short story where a couple of thieves drive around in a van with “Crooks” painted on the side so as to not be mistaken for a police vehicle."
Or Rincewind’s “Wizzard” hat
Lego's dark ages
I still love these sets, even if most people don’t. Oh, childhood nostalgia… and also, great play potential!
This set is ABSOLUTELY BEAUTIFUL and I wish I could go out and buy a copy today. Hell, I'd buy 20 copies! I love those baseplates so much! I mean, the rest of the set is absolute garbage, but those baseplates? *CHEF'S KISS*
This is actually quite a unique set, in that it combines the Town Jr aesthetic, like the printed grills, with Classic Town style vehicle construction, even down to suspension elements and one hinged roof. Indeed, when I first saw it in Toys "R" Us, I actually thought the printed grills were a nice new design, though I did find it a little strange.
I've had at least two this set, more likely three. For one thing, it was for a while the only police set you could find with light blue windscreens, not dark green!
I recently used the 'Hot Car' pieces in a monster truck MOC.