Random part of the day: Vertical Front 1X6X3

Truck windshield!

@Murdoch17: The Lego version of that truck didn't include this piece, as it didn't exist at the time.

These vertical fronts are much more transparent schemes than pyramids, unless it is a transparent pyramid.

I always wondered why they went with 1x6x3 for this windscreen, as the majority of windscreens are 2-high instead of 3-high. It’s not a bad look, but perhaps a little tall if you are modeling a late 1980s American cab over semi tractor.

Just missing the splatted bugs!

@jschwarz: They presumably didn't think they'd be doing too many of those The only one I can think of, 10302, was at a completely different scale, anyway.

@Murdoch17 said:
" @TheOtherMike said:
" @Murdoch17: The Lego version of that truck didn't include this piece, as it didn't exist at the time."

I know. It would if it were made today, though!"

I was thinking about that set the other day. That set is bonkers. The "Cruncher's Driver" minifigure with female pattern baldness, completely open sides of the truck, terribly photoshopped missile/torpedo on the box art, and a weird design that isn't nearly as polished as the theme's cars.

Also, this isn't Lego's fault, but what kind of name is "Cruncher Block?" And "Racer X"? Racy and X-rated.

@Norikins said:
" @Murdoch17 said:
" @TheOtherMike said:
" @Murdoch17: The Lego version of that truck didn't include this piece, as it didn't exist at the time."

I know. It would if it were made today, though!"

I was thinking about that set the other day. That set is bonkers. The "Cruncher's Driver" minifigure with female pattern baldness, completely open sides of the truck, terribly photoshopped missile/torpedo on the box art, and a weird design that isn't nearly as polished as the theme's cars.

Also, this isn't Lego's fault, but what kind of name is "Cruncher Block?" And "Racer X"? Racy and X-rated."

The names came from a mid-1960's anime tv show also called Speed Racer. As for the rest, I have no idea what they were smoking in Denmark at the time. It's almost like they didn't care / were lazy. Or, they realized the film was a dud before anybody else, and avoided extra work that would go to waste.

@Murdoch17:
Considering when the SR sets came out, it makes a lot more sense than it would now. Only one modern fender had been released at that point, and the new SR fender was designed to work with some of the new curved slope bricks, horribly compromising its usefulness as an actual fender. Minifig design was kind of in a weird place in general. This was two years after the Last Airbender sets, and the same year that the Clone Wars animated series subtheme of Star Wars debuted. It wouldn’t surprise me if one person played a key role in the design of all three groups of minifigs.

@Murdoch17 said:
Yeah, hence about the names I said it wasn't Lego's fault. To be fair Racer X is a cool name, I just wanted to make those puns. But Cruncher Block is a genuinely weird name, I don't know if that is due to anime being weird or localizations of anime making similarly weird changes.

@Norikins said:
" @Murdoch17 said:
Yeah, hence about the names I said it wasn't Lego's fault. To be fair Racer X is a cool name, I just wanted to make those puns. But Cruncher Block is a genuinely weird name, I don't know if that is due to anime being weird or localizations of anime making similarly weird changes."

Everyone's names got changed (or lost!) when the show was aired in America. The show's name, "Mach GoGoGo!" was changed to Speed Racer, while the character of Speed was named "Go Mifune" in Japan. (This explains the "G" monogram shirt (for Go), and "M" brand helmet and on the Mach 5's hood (for "Mifune")) Mom and Pops lost their actual first names too.

See the wiki page for more details: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Speed_Racer