Please don't tell me those number targets have STAMPs! ;(

This is... interesting.

Huwbot has been subtly hinting toward Racers . . .

Nice, I still have this in the box waiting to go to my son when he's old enough. He's just about there!

Just look how far LEGO has come from their 1st RC (I think) to the newest RC Buggy set 42124 just released today :D

@legomaniac said:
"Just look how far LEGO has come from their 1st RC (I think) to the newest RC Buggy set 42124 just released today :D"

I do wish we had modern system RC cars as I’m not really a Technic fan.

I have this! What a throwback... this was so fun as a kid. I loved the different designs for the car!

Heh, I would've thought more people would've had this, 182 seems like a low number. A fun set, recently pulled out my copy again and drove it around. :)

How about that paint scheme?

@SuperSlacker:
I don't know if I was ever aware this mold existed. Bricklink doesn't show it in the "Bricks" category at all, and it doesn't show up until p49 of 50 in the "Bricks Decorated" category, where I usually don't get much past 1x2 bricks. There are 15 different prints that appear on 2x6x3 bricks. This set has three of them, with the 10/30/50 scores. Two others are identical except one has a red saw handle on a blue brick, and the other has a blue saw handle on a red brick.

Interesting. Boy, RCs have come a long way since 2001!

I'm one of 182? Wow. 8 years later I got 8183. I really wanted 8184 but that never made to the US as near as I can tell.

@LegoDavid said:
"This set was actually originally released in 1998, so the fact that it got this re-release of sorts in 2001 means the original one was quite popular.
The orginal one is owned by 794 Brickset members, so a lot more than this one."

Set 5600 for people looking for it ;-)

Dear anyone who's tried both:

How does this retro RC system compare to today's PoweredUp RC cars?

@Slithus_Venom said:
"Happy 20th birthday year, 5599."

Actually it's release of 5600 from 1998.

On the subject of the 2 x 6 x 3 mould: I knew it existed, but only because I had the green-with-flowers printed version of the brick from - I guess - one of the Freestyle packs when I was very little! I didn't realise that piece was so obscure, if I'm honest, though I guess it makes sense; not many uses for oversized bricks, even without the specialised prints...

On a different note, do I see a few chrome pieces in this set? :o

These 'off-road buggies' so often used for RC models; are there actually any real-world vehicles which look anything like this?

I remember getting this one Christmas, it was lots of fun. Only problem was that the car couldn’t run over the bricks if you knocked them over, so you had to keep lifting it off them.

Also very unusual to see such a large, ‘solid’ chassis in Lego that was already pre-constructed.

@dkressin:
I have no idea what the availability of 8184 was. I was aware that it existed, but figured that with all the extra parts it might cost twice as much as 8183, which I bought two copies of. One had a faulty carriage, which I never got replaced. The other one I used for something that I know at least a few other people did as well. Around the same time, the Toy Story 3 sets came out, so I bought two extra copies of RC from the first movie and built a larger version of RC on an actual RC base. At some shows, I've had it sitting on a group of six banquet tables full of mostly static builds, and occasionally when I see a kid who gets excited about the Toy Story stuff, I'll pick up the controller and make the front wheels twitch, or drive it back and forth a couple inches. Just enough to grab their attention.

@bananaworld:
I haven't, but I've read about some of the problems that PU has. It uses Bluetooth, and at large public displays the entire crowd will have open signals originating in their pockets (or their hands, if they're taking photos). In large crowds, there are so many signals bouncing around that your connection is going to be glitchy at best. It might not even connect. PF doesn't have these problems because it uses IR communication, like TV remotes. Maybe if there's a TV behind you, end everyone in the crowd pulls out a remote and tries to change the channel at the same time, you'd experience the same problem.

In a secluded area, PU probably wins, hands down. PF requires line-of-sight control, so cars like my RC RC with a high spoiler on back will block the signal once they get far enough away (at which point they'll stop dead in their tracks until you run over and reestablish a signal). PU just requires you to stay within range. If it stops moving suddenly, you'd just need to move a little closer to get back in range, and then turn it around.

Regardless of which way you go, the two biggest problems are going to be lost parts and replacement tires. If you drive a System RC car outside, pieces could get knocked loose and you might never recover them (I would never drive RC RC outside for this reason, since the eyes are small and only have a clip holding them in place). If you drive outside, you'll also tear up the tires and need a steady supply of replacements (the same holds true for indoor driving, but it should be much less of an issue if you're driving on smooth floors with street treads). For the car base used in 8183/8184, this isn't a huge issue indoors, as the tires used are fairly common and can be obtained cheaply. For some of the larger RC cars they've done, particularly the new one that just went on sale, those tires might be exclusive to the RC car itself, in which case your only good option is to stock up on them by buying them directly from The LEGO Company, probably through B&P.

@Bornin1980something:
Yes, absolutely. They're usually not street-legal, but they're called "dune buggies". Many of them are barebones cars, with a narrow frame and incorporated roll cage that's welded of 2-3" diameter round steel tube, no body panels to speak of (or just flat panels made of sheet metal or some other rigid material), massively oversized tires (the rear tires may have knobby treads or sand paddles, depending on what terrain they're most commonly used on). The engine will usually be rear-mounted, like an old VW Beetle, the seats will usually be unpadded and may have 5-point harnesses instead of traditional 3-point or 2-point seatbelts. And if they're intended for use on dunes or hills, they will usually have a massive whip antenna with a flag on the tip, so other drivers can see that you're approaching long before the actual car comes into view (this helps prevent tons of injuries and deaths as there's no traffic grid on an open dune hill, so right-of-way works more like how boats navigate, based on cardinal directions and who is approaching whom from which side of the vehicle).

There is a second class of dune buggy that looks more like traditional cars. Many of them may be mass-produced, like the Myers Manx. These have a shorter, wider body, a full body (often fiberglass, because it's cheaper to work with than having mold made to stamp sheet metal, plus it won't rust), but with an open roll cage and no doors.

And I would say that there's a third class, which I'd call a "non-traditional" dune buggy. I've actually ridden in one of these. About halfway up the east cost of Lake Michigan, there's a place called Silver Lake. There's a company that has been offering dune rides for over half a century. They started out by modifying regular cars, then busses, and their current fleet looks to be custom made. They still sorta look like busses, but with bench seats that run the full width of the vehicle (_ALL_ with seatbelts), and open sides so that you can just climb in directly to each seat. They get limited access to one of the state parks, so they don't have to deal with recreational dune buggies getting in the way, and you can see areas that are otherwise often very difficult to get to, all while being driven around at speeds that make you feel like you're going to roll for sure (this has never happened in the history of the company, and the only injury I know of that has ever occurred on one of their rides is when someone _thought_ the vehicle was about to roll and jumped out).

Yellow and black, good, but way too much yellow. And what's with that trans Blue cockpit?

that trans blue cockpit with the silverish print always fascinated me as a kid. It looked so cool, and I wanted it. I eventually did get one, and I love it. works great for Unitron and Spyrius MOCs.

I don't think I ever cared that the car was a RC. I only wanted the cockpit.