Random set of the day: Hot Flame RC Car
Posted by Huwbot,
Today's random set is 8376 Hot Flame RC Car, released in 2003. It's one of 20 Racers sets produced that year. It contains 257 pieces, and its retail price was US$80.
It's owned by 221 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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11 comments on this article
Hey, cool, a big set! I don't own this set, but it reminds me of the Racer Supersonic RC game. You can waste hours just running around that LEGO Store that only sells Racers sets and is covered in random ramps that could lead you up into the rafters. Sometimes if you crashed correctly, the game would glitch and keep you flipping for a few minutes just racking up the points. There were also the times where if you crashed correctly, you'd fall through a structure and be trapped inside. That'd be an amazing LEGO set if it could hold together after all the abuse the digital version takes.
$80 for a 257 piece rc set in 2003, or $100 for 300+ piece licensed rc set in 2018. Which is the better value?
I'd have to say I'm on the side of Batman.
Well, at least we are back to a somewhat bigger set, though stuck in Racers-land still though. 3 of the last 6 are from this theme lol....
I never bought many of the Racers sets. I always found the theme kind of an odd one, it just didn't appeal to me at all. But it lasted a while, IIRC, so it must've done reasonably well.
This RC car has extremely powerful motors (used in only three RC cars - and in a crane) which are in a league light years above today's offerings.
Can anyone tell me how much of a build process these Racers RC cars had? They look to me kinda like they're just a big motor with a few pieces added on to keep the Lego aesthetic... I'm sure that isn't the case, not if it has 200+ pieces, but that's kind of the way it looks in the image.
I hope LEGO makes more sets of remote-controlled vehicles like this.
It's sets like these that make me want to assemble my own Lego RC car, but allow for some custom electronics to break past the kid-safe features of Power Functions and really let it fly.
@Kynareth I'd take the $80 set over today's offerings given it's a proper Radio Controlled device (i.e. works thru walls, in direct sunlight, longer range), and like @iriz points out much more powerful motors than what solutions we have offered to us today.
@darkstonegrey: The new Bluetooth-based transmitters and receivers used for LEGO Boost, WeDo, the App Controlled Batmobile, and this year's LEGO City trains also work via a radio frequency so shouldn't have the same problems with interference from sunlight as the Power Functions infrared transmitters/receivers they are replacing.
I'll be honest, as a Bionicle fan I was mostly interested in this set on account of its Technic and Bionicle recolors. It was a bummer that the set was so big, fast, and wild that it was difficult to play with in a lot of indoor settings and some of the parts (particularly the solid plastic "spin-out stunt wheels") would suffer loads of wear and tear in outdoor settings. I suspect that may have be part of why LEGO switched to Racers RC cars with fewer, chunkier pieces from 2004 to 2006 — to make them more suitable for outdoor play.
This set was a Radio Shack exclusive.