Random set of the day: Radical Racer
Posted by Huwbot,
Today's random set is 6589 Radical Racer, released during 1998. It's one of 62 Town sets produced that year. It contains 82 pieces and 1 minifig, and its retail price was US$10.
It's owned by 540 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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35 comments on this article
Oh, the late 90s had a lot to answer for.
Don't get me wrong, I still would've bought this set had it been available in Australia, but, y'know, still.
Red Race Car Number 3 is evolving!
Red Race Car Number 3 has turned into... something totally radical!!
Huwbot you in the mood for some Mario Kart? NASCAR? A local drag? You've got a thing for race karts lately!
24 years later, Reckless Racer is here : 60332: Reckless Scorpion Stunt Bike
Okay I gotta say it: who put Boss Hogg”s hood ornament on this thing? With an M:Tron antenna and blue windshield? Yikes! At least there is chrome. Guess that’s why they call it Extreme Team.
Damn, this is the fifth race car this week. Huwbot must be in another phase.
@GSR_MataNui
YEAAAAAHH OVAL RACING TURN LEFT FOREVER YEAAAAAAAAAA
i like nascar
Interesting set, not real into cars driving in a circle, Nascar, but this, like F1, might be interesting.
I'm beginning to think Lego used that piece as a spoiler more tan they used it as a snowplow blade.
@MisterBones: If you look at the image, as well as the design of the car, it's obvious this is meant for off-roading.
Fastest square root in the west
@Zordboy said:
"Oh, the late 90s had a lot to answer for.
Don't get me wrong, I still would've bought this set had it been available in Australia, but, y'know, still."
It was available in Australia.
Bought this from Toys R’ Us, it came with a moulded brown plastic base.
Pretty great little set actually, nice construction in an era of ‘juniorisation’ too.
It's not shown, but this set was one of those '90s sets that came with a gimmicky present (Lego's internal name for this was 'Power Item', I don't think it was ever used outside). Other examples would include 6999 (life-sized alien mask) 6099 (plastic 'dragon cave') 6499 ('time machine'). Note that these sets usually ended in '99' or were not in the regular number range like 1728 . This set uses '89' because all '99's were already used up I guess (they probably didn't want to use a Pirates number, as 6299 was still free in 1998...)
In this case it was a dark (?) orange canyon plate (not to be confused with a 'real' 32x32 canyon raised baseplate of cause) for the racer to drive around. The official name of this was apperently 'Rocky Ridge Playscape': https://img.bricklink.com/ItemImage/ON/0/6589-1.png
The driver's name was Maddox in the Time Cruisers comics (where the X-Treme Team was actually hired by Dr. Cyber to retrieve the Time Cruiser Flybo from the Wild West). In the US Mania Magazine his name was Dex. The other three X-Treme Team members were called Max, Rex and Alexis.
^ I really love this community.
@TheOtherMike:
That was a snow plow? I always assumed it started out as a radar before being used as a janky spoiler.
TY HUW's 8 year old nephew.
No trans neon windscreen sadly.
Soooo many race sets...Huwbot's getting a 'one track mind':)
Well, no thanks, but nice parts though.
@MCLegoboy said:
"Red Race Car Number 3 is evolving!
Red Race Car Number 3 has turned into... something totally radical!!"
And that was how we found out Red Race Car Number 3 was a Digimon the whole time
@Atuin: Great summary! The only thing I can think of to add is that this set, like many "power items", never appeared in the US S-at-H catalogs.
@MCLegoboy said:
"Red Race Car Number 3 is evolving!
Red Race Car Number 3 has turned into... something totally radical!!"
It really feels it radicalized itself
This is indeed quite radical.
Doesn't seem like a good place to race though
Limited release, regular catalog. I'd really like to know what went on in responsible persons' heads back in the day.
What a tubular car dude! The gnarly chrome and neon colors are totally radical!
*Morgan Freeman voice: Even in the time of juniorization, this, Divers and ResQ remained to give us classic style sets. But not even lego was free from the 90s.
Lego citizens discovered the steer horns decades before finding the first steer just outside Lego City.
@PurpleDave: I don't know how it was used first, but I think of it as a snowplow blade because my first encounter with it was 6524.
@TheOtherMike said:
" @PurpleDave : I don't know how it was used first, but I think of it as a snowplow blade because my first encounter with it was 6524 ."
You are dead on! Set 6524 has the first appearance of the part in 1988. In the next year of 1989 it was also already used as a radar dish (6986) and a spoiler (6526) though, so they aren't far off.
@TheOtherMike said:
"I'm beginning to think Lego used that piece as a spoiler more tan they used it as a snowplow blade.
@MisterBones: If you look at the image, as well as the design of the car, it's obvious this is meant for off-roading."
No kidding, which is why I implied it was more interesting than nascar where they simply drive in a circle
@Rimefang:
Is that from a cow, or a long pig?
@jkb said:
"Limited release, regular catalog. I'd really like to know what went on in responsible persons' heads back in the day."
To be precise, this was never in any regular retailer's catalogue.
Not just that it was a limited release special item, back in 1998 appearance of sets in catalogues around the world was a bit... strange, to put it mildly.
One of the largest sets of X-Treme Team (6582) was missing from many catalogues (it might even have been a NA exclusive). Same goes for Adventurers, where most countries only had 5 sets shown in the retailer's catalogue and there was virtually nothing in the mid-size range. From 1995-1999 there were even entire lines missing from the retailer's catalogue: Unitron, Dark Forest, RoboForce, Aquaraiders, Ninja's second line, Adventurers Jungle...
Add a couple of wheel arches, and it's not far off from something you would see in stores today.
@Atuin said:
" @jkb said:
"Limited release, regular catalog. I'd really like to know what went on in responsible persons' heads back in the day."
To be precise, this was never in any regular retailer's catalogue.
Not just that it was a limited release special item, back in 1998 appearance of sets in catalogues around the world was a bit... strange, to put it mildly.
One of the largest sets of X-Treme Team (6582) was missing from many catalogues (it might even have been a NA exclusive). Same goes for Adventurers, where most countries only had 5 sets shown in the retailer's catalogue and there was virtually nothing in the mid-size range. From 1995-1999 there were even entire lines missing from the retailer's catalogue: Unitron, Dark Forest, RoboForce, Aquaraiders, Ninja's second line, Adventurers Jungle..."
Correct. I meant to write "catalog-no." Ishould not use the hashtag symbol to abbreviate the word "number" X).
I like how we’ve had four cars in a row with a random cannibal hut in between.
I had this when I was a kid! The minifig I created for myself was a member of the Extreme Team, naturally.
So this is what happens when you give a car a mega mushroom...
@Monopoly:
Cannibal set fits in with these, thanks to this set. What theme do you think this hood ornament originated with?