There are, of course, sets out there that are much larger and arguably even more ambitious than Victory Lap Raceway, even when considered against its other 1988 contemporaries, and yet, there is just something about this set that makes it seem magnificently huge. Chances are high that it's the nostalgia talking, becuase I couldn't have been much older than 4 or 5 years old at the time. Still, there is something to be said for the sheer amount of stuff packed into Victory Lap Raceway, which, I feel, features a level of playability that is quite unmatched, even when compared against modern sets. To be sure, no other set has ever really attempted to replicate this one, except perhaps for very loose allusions in sets like Ferrari Finish Line (8672). It is this uniqueness that makes Victory Lap Raceway stand out even more.

A tremendous amount of stuff is packed into this meaty package, and the first point of interest is the whopping 13 Minifigs that come with this set. Save for sets that are essentially giant Minifig "battle packs", Victory Lap Raceway is a set that possibly has the largest number of Minifigs assembled in a retail set; certainly, it has the most Minifigs ever assembled in a Town/City set. With Minifigs ranging the gamut from the racers themselves to mechanics, spectators, a commentator, a cameraman, and a paramedic, you are in no danger of lacking Minifigs.

With a set of this size, there is always a danger of the numerous elements feeling disconnected and aesthetically aloof. There is absolutely no danger of that here: central to Victory Lap Raceway are the four little Mario Kart-esque carts, which have identical builds but are in different colours to distinguish them from each other. Each of these karts has a designated pit stop that is manned by a team of mechanics, each of which has numerous accessories to keep things fresh. Augmenting this is a towing vehicle and a paramedic + stretcher combo for when things go awry, which is the real reason why people watch these races at all in real life and therefore are almost inevitable in LEGO world.

And speaking of spectacular crashes, what could be better than being able to catch all the carnage on camera? I'm surprised that this set-up has never been re-created in any future sets, because it works so well and looks pretty realistic in spite of its simplicity. As for folks who choose to watch the race live, the audience balcony and its adjacent commentator's booth are simple but function nicely, as does the elaborate scoreboard mechanism over the bridge connecting the camera side to the audience block.

Ultimately, all of these elements tie together in a very coherent fashion, which really is the basic appeal of this very lively set. Your own imagination will have to suffice in terms of mapping out the rest of the course, but beyond that, there really is little that this set can be faulted for. An army of Minifigs populate a grand display that I imagine will still look good today if you can find all the pieces. Victory Lap Raceway is unique now as it was then, and that's an achievement, and, for that reason, is worthy enough to pick up the hyperbolic five bricks across the board.

Set #6395 Victory Lap Raceway: I have hit two milestones on this site without even realizing it, I reviewed 50 sets and then 100 without even bothering to make note of it because I was so focused on getting all my sets reviewed. Well no more.

For my 125th Review on Brickset I shall review a set from my childhood, a set I unfortunately no longer have. The Victory Lap Raceway, from what I can recall I recieved this set one year at Christmas Time, one of my first ever LEGO sets I believe and if anything one of my first ever larger more expensive sets. (Expensive being relative since it was released in 1988.)

The Victory Lap Raceway was a breathtaking surprise for a kid used to getting Bonus Value Packs and cheap little models to build, I of course had tons of other toys growing up, He-Man, Ninja Turtles, Transformers, G.I.Joe, but nothing can truly compare with LEGO. (Not even the few Duplo items I also used to have, that I have no hope of reviewing or even remembering since it has been considerable time since then.)

I remember the Victory Lap Raceway quite fondly because I still have a few left over pieces from it. (Not many, just a couple of the car bodies and tires, most of my spare pieces were given away to my cousin, which in retrospect wasn't the smartest thing to do since that's how I lost a couple of crucial pieces for some of my Castle Sets.)

Anyway: On to the Review. Victory Lap Raceway is a fairly impressive looking set, it includes two road plates for races and a lot of other fun elements, including the bricks marked with the Shell brand name. (Something you don't see anymore considering Shell is I believe out of business.) This set featured twelve Mini-Figures, some spectators, four race car drivers, a few pit crew members, an old fashioned film based cameraman, the announcer and a medic in case of accidents.

The archway pieces used in the construction of the spectators stand were some of the coolest pieces I ever had and I regret letting them go, they'd come in handy with some new builds these days in my opinion. I also wish I hadn't lost that fun little film canister piece, in a way the Victory Lap Raceway is something to lament misplacing, even if half the pieces cracked and broke due to constant shuffling and moving from house to house and the instructions vanished long before that.

Most of this model is simple and fun to play with and I suspect that I may eventually add it to my wants list or possibly pick it up again from a fellow AFOL collector simply because it is a worthy addition to my Town display and something I'd love to share someday with the kids I hope to have before I get too old for that sort of thing.

Perhaps it's the rose tinted glasses of youth, but I strongly like this set, and recommend it to everybody... So to speak. Part of me is kind of missing those Legends releases LEGO made back in the day, I think a set like Victory Lap Raceway would make a fine addition to the LEGO Legends theme if LEGO were to bring them back. I think this set has a lot of good merits, some majorly fun and unique pieces for builds and it can easily be expanded into a full-blown raceway circuit with a few extra road plates and some pieces for additional fences or something to protect the spectators.

Well that's my 125th Review, since I have only two more sets to review that I own currently I plan on adding reviews to as many sets as I can recall that I had growing up. Hopefully they'll help people out and I'll try to be a bit more informative of the set itself as opposed to waxing nostalgic. TTFN.

I am very glad to have the possibility to write a modest (cause my english is not so good)review about this "Victory lape raceway" because from my point of view it was really one of the most playable town sets of that period especially thanks to a lot of new dedicated accessories.

It reflects the genuin racing spirit in every single aspect: the one-seat cars, the starting grid, the crick for the change tyres, the chronometers and racing lights for the start, also a doctor in case of injured drivers and finally a cabin for the excited speaker.

The architectural style of the circuit and in general of this set is simple, clean and efficacious as it is the covered grand-stand that can hold a lot of minifigs.

Maybe one of the main reasons of the little underrating of this set is the fact that not everyone likes driving races so that this town's subtheme doesn't interest so much. It's realistic even if it's a pity.

Surely it's more simple not to consider this set as a "F1 circuit" but simply a minor F3000 or GP2 series (take off the front and rear wings of the cars and you'll have just 4 perfect go-karts) so that the overall proportions have a more real feeling. At the same time, we can't compare it with the modern standard of vehicles and in particular with the amazing Kimi's and Massa's F1 Ferrari recently released, because it is a ridicolous comparation.

In general, I think it's better to consider and value every Lego set in relation with the period it was released and in particular for its contribution on new constructing styles over the following years. Considerating this, I really think it is a well designed set with a lot of details (excellent level of details for middle '80 years legoland town sets), good sporting combination of colours (red and white) and, of course, a lot of different minifigs.

I hope this review can be helpful, thanks (and forgive my mistakes).

This is the ultimate in Race Sets that Lego has put out. There were so many little race car variants and a smaller Speedway set that was a variant of this one.

I had to wait til I was older and found one for sale on E-bay... two actually as the first wasn't complete and ended up in the spare parts bin.

The sheer number of minifigs, cars and accessories made this a very enjoyable experience to build, even though it is an older set.

A more ultimate version of this set that I can see would be to include enough road plates to complete an oval track around. There's enough here to keep any collector, hobbiest or child busy for hours.

I don't think I'd really change a thing about this.

WOW, I can't believe I found this. This was my first set as a kid ever. I'm 18 now so this set was a little before my time but my dad had it before me. I don't remember getting this set specifically but I remember building it with my dad on the kitchen table when I was 6. So many good memories came about from this set. My twin brother and I would spend hours just playing with it. Unfortunately when 6-8 year olds play with such a set, pieces get lost. But now I found it one more time and intend to buy it for my dad as a birthday.
This should definitely be a classic.