REVIEW: Racers 2010 UK Daily Mirror promotional sets

[Fugazi]

Now that the Daily Mirror Racers promotion is over*, I thought I would write a brief general review about the 6 sets.

*While the promotion keeps going for a few days with a Racers collectors box, play mat and sticker sheet, I decided it wasn’t worth spending any money on a rubbish paper for extras that would end up in the recycling bin anyway!

So here are a few technical details about the sets. Two of the sets were previously released last year, while the other 4 are brand new.

7802 Le Mans Racer – 2009 – 28 (+1 extra) pieces - Peeron - Brickset

30030 Tiny Turbo – 2010 – 29 (+2) pieces - Peeron - Brickset

7801 Rally Racer – 2009 – 41 (+1) pieces - Peeron - Brickset

30033 Truck – 2010 – 40 (+1) pieces - Peeron - Brickset

30034 Tow Truck – 2010 – 34 (+1) pieces - Peeron - Brickset

30035 Off Road Racer – 2010 – 30 pieces - Peeron - Brickset

Total number of pieces: 202 (+6 extra)

Total price (pick-up in stores): £3.55 (6 newspapers)

Total price (mail order): £6.50 + £1.60 or more (4 newspapers) + stamp etc.

Also have a look at more reviews of the promotional sets here on EB:

7802: http://www.eurobricks.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=39995

The Bags

The polybags are standard fare, with action impressions of the models within. The background scene is slightly different for each model. The official names of the vehicles are from the Daily Mirror website, and as for all European sets the names can’t be found on the bags themselves. Strangely the bag of 30033 is bigger than the others, although it has roughly the same piece count as 7801. Looking more closely, we find out that in the 2009 sets parts come from Denmark, Hungary, China and the Czech Republic, while the 2010 sets only have Danish, Hungarian and Czech components.

The Contents

The instructions are made up of a single folded sheet for each model. Once again 30033 stands apart from the rest, as its instructions are printed on a much larger sheet. There are occasional cutouts in the instructions where required, but no part callouts nor any part inventories. With such small models, colour separation is not really an issue, although it seems just fine to me. All instructions are available for download from the LEGO website (where colour separation IS an issue!):

7802 Le Mans Racer

30030 Tiny Turbo

7801 Rally Racer

30033 Truck

30034 Tow Truck

30035 Off Road Racer

Sets 7801 and 7802, previously released, both have sticker sheets, smartly protected in their little cardboard envelope. The 2010 sets are all devoid of stickers. It thus seems likely that the stickers are the components made in China (see ‘The Bags’ above). I won’t be using them anyway.

Not all promotionals are made equal. Witness the numbers of pieces: 28 in 7802 Le Mans Racer, 41 in 7801 Rally Racer. The colours are primary, except for a bunch of orange plates in 30035, and some dark grey parts. Overall as expected there are quite a few Racer-specific parts (like air intakes, engine parts, fenders), but many useful basic MOCing parts are included as well. However there is nothing new or really exciting. 7801 and 30034 provide the greatest selection of classic bricks and bits, including that favourite of mine, the classic 2 x 4 mudguard in yellow and red.

The Builds

Nothing fancy here, the idea is basically to create something looking vaguely like a 4-wheeled vehicle whilst using the least possible amount of pieces. No revolutionary techniques are involved, and the number of steps vary from 7 to 13. All can be built in a minute or so, unless you decide to take the bag building challenge to another level and have a go at opaque bags!

None of vehicles are minifig-compatible, and they would require a considerable amount of work to fit your favourite pilot in.

Some of the designs are successful in creating sporty, good-looking – albeit simple – vehicles, some not. You can judge by yourselves, but here are a few quick thoughts of mine:

7802: Nice low-slung design, hard to photograph but trust me it looks good – even without the stickers.

30030: Really not my type. Doesn’t look like an official LEGO product, very ungraceful.

7801: Nice design, high part count, many standard parts. I don’t think it really needs any stickers. Surprisingly I found no extra trans-smoke cheese slope in my bag, either it was missing or none is provided.

30033: Simplistic truck but still good looking, 5-wide (!) rear section, high part count.

30034: Has a somewhat unfinished look, could use a few more bits. Functional towing hook.

30035: Good source of orange plates, different wheels from the other Racers in this collection.

In Conclusion

Playability is limited with any one set, but definitely improves with all 6. In particular, the Truck and Tow Truck can be used to carry the other vehicles. Swooshability is excellent for all models.

The design is nothing to write home about, but an effort is made to use different parts between the 6 sets. The colour palette could have been more daring though.

The set numbering makes me think that 6 brand new sets were initially designed for this promotional run but two (‘30031’ and ‘30032’) were eventually replaced with existing designs (7801 and 7802), but this is just a theory of mine. If true, I’m glad of the change as the two older models are also among the nicer ones IMHO, regardless of the stickers, while some of the new ones are less than stellar. But that’s just my opinion, feel free to disagree!

Overall the sets do not use that many specialized Racer parts, and provide quite a few useful basic bits. As mentioned in other reviews, the absence of minifigures or rare parts or colours will not appeal much to AFOLs, but as a vehicle building part pack it definitely comes cheap. The price/part ratio is among the best, especially for sets picked in stores.

I could only wish that next time the LEGO toys are offered with a decent newspaper, one that I would actually want to read. It would be an even better value!

Edited March 28, 2010 by WhiteFang
Indexed

[Darth Legolas]

Lucky Brits! Hey Lego, pack it in with the times!

I like a few of these, some are just plain ugly to me. 30030 is ugly, but a nice source of parts, same with 30033, the two from last year are great, the off-roader could use a function and some detail, but modding can fix that, and finally, the tow truck, is a piece of garbage.

Just a quick question, what is the white cardboard String/Cape/Cloth holder doing in 7801 and 7802?

Edited March 25, 2010 by Darth Legolas

[Fugazi]

Just a quick question, what is the white cardboard String/Cape/Cloth holder doing in 7801 and 7802?

Sticker protection! Didn't open mine, but see Dunjohn's review.

[prateek]

Nice reviews. These are average for free promos, but my fave is the black racer car

[Dunjohn]

Excellent review! I ended up getting most of these - I have a token for the tow truck around here somewhere. Probably my favourite of the lot is the large blue truck, because it has a nice, solid design and looks quite realistic compared to some of the others. That said, it has been a rather mediocre promo run that didn't ignite my interest the way previous ones did.

And they dropped the Pooch Cafe comic strip since last time, which was the only thing worth reading in the paper. So basically points were lost all round.

[escortmad79]

I ended up with a heap of each, brazenly asking for more & getting them from my local Tesco (PLUS I still have a full set of vouchers to get more!!)

My "favourite" (Not really as I'm not a massive fan of racers) is the truck but only managed to get 2 of them (typical, was after at least one more to get the bracket(s) to use on modifying a blue city car!), going to try & get a few more tonight too

Edited March 26, 2010 by escortmad79

[Mr Hobbles]

Being the big kid I am, I picked up the playmat today. :p Surprisingly good, could fit any of the tiny turbos really well!

Does anyone know what the stickers tomorrow are? Are they just general ones, or are they designed to be added to the free cars?

[Dunjohn]

Nope, if memory serves they're just images of the toys, the same ones used on the polybags, in sticker form, plus a couple of logos.

[lightningtiger]

Thanks 'Fugazi' for this overview of multiple reviews !

7802 - reminds me of the late 80's Batmobile and early 80's Kit - very COOL !

30030 - looks odd, still some of those parts would be handy to have.

7801 - now this one is very nice street machine - very COOL again !

30033 - a very good truck design and 5 wide to take any of those cars on it's flatbed. - COOL !

30034 - yep, unfinshed - maybe the parts count pushed the cost to somebody to high eh ? - still very nice though !

30035 - great orange trim 4x4 - COOL !

My only wish is for these to head downunder to the land of Oz !

I'm a conformist! everyone !

[Mr Hobbles]

Nope, if memory serves they're just images of the toys, the same ones used on the polybags, in sticker form, plus a couple of logos.

Thanks. Decided to give it a miss.

All in all I enjoyed this, my first newspaper promo. I picked up 6 LEGO sets (With a bunch of useful parts, and some quite cool models imo), a box, and a playmat for less than £4. A good deal in my opinion, especially since it gave me an excuse to leave the office and pick up the paper at lunch time.

Btw, one of the days I got a spare of the red rally car. I gave it to a couple of colleagues at work, one aged 50+ and one aged 30+. It took them an hour and a half to built a toy car designed for 6-12 year olds. It's now the office mascot.