Random set of the day: Urban Avenger vs. Raptor
Posted by Huwbot,
Today's random set is 7474 Urban Avenger vs. Raptor, released during 2005. It's one of 5 Dino Attack sets produced that year. It contains 87 pieces and 1 minifig, and its retail price was US$10.
It's owned by 1,803 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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36 comments on this article
I don't really see how a crossbreed between a Go-Kart, Dune Buggy, and a Dragster is urban, but the big gun sure is!
LEGO knew their US market back in 2005. We'll kill anything.
@MCLegoboy said:
"I don't really see how a crossbreed between a Go-Kart, Dune Buggy, and a Dragster is urban, but the big gun sure is!
LEGO knew their US market back in 2005. We'll kill anything."
Sadly, you are correct about the US market.
I think I had this, as a kid, but I sold it a few years later. I always felt a little cheated by the Dino Attack line. We'd waited for years for proper Lego dinosaurs ... and this was it? These weird mutant things? I wasn't impressed.
It's a shame these sets were cancelled. There were some great models and creative ideas. Kids would have also loved the idea of mutant dinosaurs.
Not sure why the European market couldn't handle the idea of completely make-believe, no-way-these-would-exist creatures getting shot by Lego people (and not necessarily killed, nor did the blasters 'have' to have bullets, if kids want to imagine them as tranquilizers or laser guns that's fine too.
I miss the days when Lego would try new original themes. Some didn't do well, but others were great like Adventurers, Atlantis and Power Miners to name a few.
@MCLegoboy said:
"I don't really see how a crossbreed between a Go-Kart, Dune Buggy, and a Dragster is urban, but the big gun sure is!
LEGO knew their US market back in 2005. We'll kill anything."
Yeah compared to the rest of the world still being stuck in prehistoric times using ropes and grappling hook : 7295 : Dino Buggy Chaser
It's fun to go back and read comments on the European version , set of the day 4 years ago 28 Mar 2018 : https://brickset.com/article/35157
Avengers?! Don't even bother.
I finish listening to a podcast on the production of Jurassic Park, and this is the next thing I see? Odd coincidence.
Personally, I rather like the dinosaur designs in these sets. But then, I tend to like the versatility provided by more fantastical designs. These could work in fantasy, 20 minutes into the future sci-fi (as seen here), AND science-fantasy, if not more.
I remember getting this at a Grocery Outlet for $2.50!
This was one of, if not my first, LEGO sets - it's definitely the first I remember having. My dad got me this and 7476 when I was like 5-6 years old because I was super interested in dinosaurs at the time, but I think I played less with the weird dinos and more with the other pieces, which led to more and more sets entering into my possession and LEGO becoming a full-fledged hobby.... I have to think my dad feels a small tinge of regret for ever getting me this. ;D
Anyways, Dino Attack will always be special to me, despite the super-inaccurate dinosaurs. Speaking of which, I feel like I read somewhere that the dinos look so... un-dino-like... because they were all mutated by some lab experiment gone wrong. Then they broke out and started wreaking havoc on the city, and the 4 Dino Attack guys had to save the day. It's a strange premise, but that's LEGO in 2005 for you. Though it almost sounds like it could be a better action movie than Jurassic World....
I dunno, those front tires don’t look grippy enough to steer this.
@Brickchap:
I mean, what were you supposed to do when one of these things tried to eat you? I don't think it'd be very effective to yell, "Stop, or I'll say 'stop' again!" Dinosaurs probably don't even understand English, particularly with a British accent...
That steering wheel stick still bothers me. I didn't like it then either. Guns or no guns, I don't care but the Dino designs were nice.
@RaiderOfTheLostBrick: You mentioning Jurassic Park/World in conjunction with this set makes me think that the dinos weren't mutated, they were just some of Dr. Wu's hybrid experiments that got out of hand.
Beeecause: Nothing say 'Urban' like a 'Dune Buggy'...
On the 'plus-side': It does remind me of the 'Joes' AWE Striker...just not this one:
https://www.bigbadtoystore.com/Product/VariationDetails/206974
Sorry, couldn't find a non-commercial site...
I mean, maybe it's not that the Avenger itself is urban, but it's avenging the urban society that has presumably collapsed in the wake of the new age of dinosaurs?
@Lego_lord:
This entire theme existed for no other purpose than to provide me the ability to equip one lucky soldier in my Green Army Man Army with a 100% authentic LEGO, camouflaged parachute.
It’s honestly kind of hilarious how over the top this is with the giant gun and super edgy name. Like the last dregs of the 90s trying to escape into the 2000s
After the cute little Adventurers dinosaurs and before the mature dinosaur designs used from 2012 onwards, these were the weird teenage emo phase of molded Lego dinosaurs.
@Spritetoggle said:
"Personally, I rather like the dinosaur designs in these sets. But then, I tend to like the versatility provided by more fantastical designs. These could work in fantasy..."
The dinosaurs from this range - and this set in particular - don’t get much love from the AFOL community, but I completely agree with you. They’re not realistic, but they don’t have to be. I have the dinosaur from this set in my display collection as the mount of one of my evil knights :~)
@PurpleDave said:
" @Brickchap:
I mean, what were you supposed to do when one of these things tried to eat you? I don't think it'd be very effective to yell, "Stop, or I'll say 'stop' again!" Dinosaurs probably don't even understand English, particularly with a British accent..."
As a Brit I can assure you we would say something far more vulgar than "Stop" :D
Parallel worlds using the same vehicles to either kill the dino https://brickset.com/sets/theme-Dino-Attack/year-2005 or capture them https://brickset.com/sets/theme-Dino-2010/year-2005 , where the 12-wide car made more sense to transport the unluck dino.
This theme was interesting because as far as I know it is the only one that had different variants of the sets for different markets.
It the US it was all about conflict and killing the dinos, but elsewhere it was chasing and capturing them.
This vehicle is equipped with a gun, but the rest-of-world equivalent, https://brickset.com/sets/7295-1/Dino-Buggy-Chaser, has a grapling hook.
I wonder why LEGO felt the need to do this, at obvious additional expense? :-)
@lost_scotsman:
"Oi, stop?"
@Huw said:
"This theme was interesting because as far as I know it is the only one that had different variants of the sets for different markets.
It the US it was all about conflict and killing the dinos, but elsewhere it was chasing and capturing them.
This vehicle is equipped with a gun, but the rest-of-world equivalent, https://brickset.com/sets/7295-1/Dino-Buggy-Chaser, has a grapling hook.
I wonder why LEGO felt the need to do this, at obvious additional expense? :-)"
I also kind of wonder…which came first? Did they make it all about trapping the dinos but it wasn’t gung-ho enough for the US market or was it originally all guns and missiles and that was deemed too aggressive for the Eurozone?
@Brickalili said:
" @Huw said:
"This theme was interesting because as far as I know it is the only one that had different variants of the sets for different markets.
It the US it was all about conflict and killing the dinos, but elsewhere it was chasing and capturing them.
This vehicle is equipped with a gun, but the rest-of-world equivalent, https://brickset.com/sets/7295-1/Dino-Buggy-Chaser, has a grapling hook.
I wonder why LEGO felt the need to do this, at obvious additional expense? :-)"
I also kind of wonder…which came first? Did they make it all about trapping the dinos but it wasn’t gung-ho enough for the US market or was it originally all guns and missiles and that was deemed too aggressive for the Eurozone?"
I believe they came out at the same time. Presumably market resarch suggested that American kids resonated better with guns and conflict than nets and cages.
I'll make no further comment :-)
Fun fact: the vehicle color scheme for these twin themes is suspiciously similar to the cars from Jurassic Park (the working ones, not the tour vehicles). It took me years to notice this.
Some of these vehicles work better as the Dino 2010 version, such as the quad-track hauling a cage vs a weird cannon and the 4WD with a cage vs a flick emplacement (with one driver). Others, like the smaller sets, feel very vulnerable trying to capture their dinosaurs and (marginally) make more sense as the Dino Attack ones. This one kind of falls in that category, but it's also overly edgy and kind of ridiculus too.
That said, I miss original themes like this.
And we got the Dino Attack RPG out of it. That's... a thing. Anyone remember that?
The tan and dark red color scheme in this theme works really well for me; I have the helicopter set and it looks fantastic.
@Brickalili said:
" @Huw said:
"This theme was interesting because as far as I know it is the only one that had different variants of the sets for different markets.
It the US it was all about conflict and killing the dinos, but elsewhere it was chasing and capturing them.
This vehicle is equipped with a gun, but the rest-of-world equivalent, https://brickset.com/sets/7295-1/Dino-Buggy-Chaser, has a grapling hook.
I wonder why LEGO felt the need to do this, at obvious additional expense? :-)"
I also kind of wonder…which came first? Did they make it all about trapping the dinos but it wasn’t gung-ho enough for the US market or was it originally all guns and missiles and that was deemed too aggressive for the Eurozone?"
Apparently, it seems to have been a combination of both. Greg Farshtey, primarily known as the story writer for Bionicle, commented on it once* that the original plans for dinosaur sets were all about capturing and studying them and were very impressive sets, then they market tested them... and kids hated them for not being action-driven enough. The design team had to go right back to the drawing board and start over by making vehicles with giant weapons instead.
...which seem to have been *then* tamed into the cage-and-capture versions of those new designs for the European market (which wasn't originally planned to get the Dino Attack line at all; it and Vikings were initially intended to be exclusive to opposite sides of the Atlantic until fandom outrage forced a change of plan). So the Dino 2010 ones are closer to the original spirit the theme was conceived with, but the Dino Attack ones are the earliest version of the designs that we actually got.
*the quote originally came from BZPower, where he regularly engaged with the fans; but since that site's archives were lost ages ago I can't provide a source. TVTropes remembers the quote as well, though, so it definitely existed.
@Huw:
You know us, gunfights are okay, but if you want to invite those dinos over to your BDSM dungeon, we don’t want to hear about it…
@ThatBionicleGuy
So it’s basically a weird ouroboros of design then, beginning where it ends. Honestly the most interesting resolution we could have had :D
@Binnekamp said:
"And we got the Dino Attack RPG out of it. That's... a thing. Anyone remember that?"
Oh, yes. I remember that. But then again, I may be cheating... since I was the one who created Dino Attack RPG and ran it for over seven years!
If you thought the original LEGO Dino Attack line was ridiculously over-the-top and edgy, getting together a bunch of preteens and teens for a play-by-post TBRPG based on Dino Attack was a recipe for ramping up that edginess to even more ridiculous degrees! It was overly dramatic and could be outright nonsensical at times. But I'd be lying if I said I didn't love every moment of it, and it's left me with very fond nostalgic memories.
The bigger vehicles (7476 Iron Predator and 7477 T-1 Typhoon) were restricted to players who showed commitment and stuck with the RPG for a while while providing strong contributions to the story. In the meantime, you were limited to using the Steel Sprinter (AKA 7473 Street Sprinter, stuck using its name from early publications), Urban Avenger, and 7475 Fire Hammer. The Urban Avenger was the most popular choice of the three, being used by 30 players (compared with the Fire Hammer's 28 and Steel Sprinter's 13). Some characters (such as Kotua, Slash, Magma, and Fullmetal) even further customized their Urban Avengers, whether it was using custom colors or refitting it with new equipment.
The Mutant Raptors (designated specifically as "Mutants" in the RPG, since we had friendly non-mutant dinosaurs from Adventurers and Studios making appearances as well) carried over the traits of their official LEGO profiles, such as their cunning intelligence and their force fields that could only be penetrated by the Cosmotronic Ray (the weapon in 7473). Depending on the scenario, a bunch of Mutant Raptors could be easy cannon fodder, or a single Mutant Raptor could be a deadly foe. Characters such as Greybeard, Holly Vinyaya, and Shock were among those who picked a fight with a Mutant Raptor and wound up permanently scarred because of it. Despite that, there were a couple successful attempts at taming these mutant dinos, with Fang and Shade being Mutant Raptors who were tamed by Rex and Spino, respectively.
Not quite the BIONICLE lore dump I'm sure many of you were expecting for this set, and I'm sure that I'm only one of a very small handful of people who still remember and care about Dino Attack RPG after all these years. But the RPG is my pride and joy, and seeing someone bring it up in this comments section brought a smile to my face.
@ThatBionicleGuy said:
"Apparently, it seems to have been a combination of both. Greg Farshtey, primarily known as the story writer for Bionicle, commented on it once* that the original plans for dinosaur sets were all about capturing and studying them and were very impressive sets, then they market tested them... and kids hated them for not being action-driven enough. The design team had to go right back to the drawing board and start over by making vehicles with giant weapons instead.
*the quote originally came from BZPower, where he regularly engaged with the fans; but since that site's archives were lost ages ago I can't provide a source. TVTropes remembers the quote as well, though, so it definitely existed."
Good news! There's an archive of Greg Farshtey's many Q&As with fans on BZPower, and it includes his original quote about Dino Attack!
https://greg.thegreatarchives.com/2008-2010/page84post3354-line20
I remember I have that "raptor" as part of a Dark Army creatures and the buggy with the Rebel Alliance.
I have this set, was a fun build with a good minifigure and great toy to play with.
I adored the T-1 helicopter from this series. Easily one of my favorite sets from this time period, it was so cool and well designed. The rest of the theme was pretty cool and was a good stand in for the lack of a real Jurassic Park theme (until we actually got the Jurassic Park theme).