Random set of the day: Brick Street Customs
Posted by Huwbot,Today's random set is 8154 Brick Street Customs, released in 2008. It's one of 25 Racers sets produced that year. It contains 1021 pieces, and its retail price was US$69.99/£34.25.
It's owned by 611 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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37 comments on this article
I loved Tiny Turbos, but never got that many of 'em. Amazing how much detail can be packed into such a small model
On the down-side, that is a truly terrifying amount of stickers.
On the up-side, what a gorgeous little set, packed with so much play-value and detail.
We don't do paintjobs here, we just apply decals.
The set name sounds like someone who paints Clone Troopers and posts them on Instagram.
Who would win?
Tiny Turbos - Golden, cheap theme with non - branded cars, but a lot of stickers. Enough inspiration to create decades of sets.
Speed Champions - More expensive, licensed vehicles with even more stickers, but not enough appealing source material.
Yo dawg I heard you like LEGO...
Yum, soft drinks!
Ah, back when LEGO was into chasing the Hot Wheels demographic. I was in college at the time, but recall seeing these things on Target shelves and just shaking my head. Thankfully, 2008 was also the beginning of gradual ascent for what would eventually become Creator Expert and a new burst of innovation in Star Wars thanks to the release of The Clone Wars movie and TV show. And of course, BIONICLE was reaching the climax of its legend with the new Phantoka and Mistika versions of the Toa Nuva and their enemies, the Makuta.
Of course, because all those cars are obviously custom!
@HandPositions:
I'll...just keep making my own custom designs. They're more fun to display at public events anyways.
@Be_hapi:
Probably not the Fire Chief, or the semi, but for the rest of the cars I could believe it. Obviously the Deuce has a massively oversized engine that would never fit without ditching the original hood (a weird thing I've noticed is that cars from that era with the skinny engine compartment look good with the hood stripped off to make room for bigger engines, while modern cars just look like someone stole your hood). They grey car may also have a bigger engine installed. The blue car has shark gills and the exhaust is piped through the dashboard and out the doors (great for winter driving, but you need the mother of all AC systems to keep cool in the summer). The lime car has to have had something done, or they wouldn't be using it as a display model, and the black car is on a lift getting some sort of work done. That just leaves the van, which has apparently had graphics applied to advertise a soft drink that is guaranteed to give you a splitting headache. And then there's the parts that are being sold. You've got an oversized engine with pre-installed fenders. There's an air dam with a spoiler on the back (not sure which end of the car that goes on). And you can get a matched pair of mag wheels, or a mismatched pair of white rims.
The cars are cute.
Look like hotwheels or matchbox from a distance. Honestly pretty nice looking. Then I see the stickers and throw up a lil in my mouth.
Ah yes, one of my favorite sets as a young kid that I never got. I might have to see how much these go for on Bricklink...
I am quite impressed by how much it doesn't look like Lego!
I like this one.
And not even a hint of Octan! Did it ever cross over into this theme?
I remember seeing this in the LEGO.com catalog as a kid, can't believe that was 13 years ago. Boy do I feel old now.
Oh, customs as in custom cars! I thought it was going to be some variant for the airport sets where baggage was checked
Aaaaaargh! The stickers!! The horror!!
Always thought this was such a cool set, even though the stickers in all the Tiny Turbos sets were really annoying
At first I thought this was a mistake and accidentally a HotWheels set image had managed to make its way into Brickset RSOTD. But apparently LEGO produced lookalikes to cash in on the success of the former. Perhaps Mattel should have sued TLG, just as TLG is doing at the moment to certain completely legal alternative brands.
Nuff said.
Oh, this is a very nice set. So many possibilities with all those specialty parts.
This set was crazy good value right out of the gate (in some countries).
Sure you got more stickers, than a clapped out Honda Civic, owned by someone who just graduated high school, but this gets you parts for waaay under 10c p/pcs.
Tiny Turbos excel at things, that Speed Champions just aren't allowed to do. Because there is no brand behind the Tiny Turbos (except ferrari behind some), they are allowed to go for action oriented street races, crashes and excessive car modification. They are basically, what Burnout is to the racing game genre. It's a thing that a lot of kids are still into, so it's a shame, that there is no theme like that. Furthermore many TT sets were really cheap. That's why they were perfect birthday presents and the canisters were great for transportation, when you went over to a friend.
These were also way cooler than hot wheels, because you can't do anything to a hot wheel to make it yours, without going at it with a Dremel tool, nasty chemicals and serious scale modeling skills. These were imo a perfect gateway into car culture as you could basically build and modify your small dream car with very little parts (In my case I was into cars before that, but this just put the thought in my head, that I once want to have a modified car). This is why Lego is lacking a theme like that and should definitely bring this back in some shape or form.
(Remember, each sticker adds 5 hp)
@brickengineeringdude said:
"Ah yes, one of my favorite sets as a young kid that I never got. I might have to see how much these go for on Bricklink..."
You can get these super cheap on Ebay. You have to be a little careful though, as some are played to death and have scratch marks all over. I got mine for 20 Euros and it's in a pretty good condition.
@Brickalili said:
"Oh, customs as in custom cars! I thought it was going to be some variant for the airport sets where baggage was checked"
Hah, brilliant :)
Hey, maybe your first instinct was right, all these crazy looking vehicles would probably be first to get pulled out of the queue at border control, even if it was just so the customs officers could get a better look at them and get some selfies!
Something was going on with the USD/GBP exchange rates that year...
Must hold the record for the most tyres in a set 50! Amazed that there are over a 1000 pieces as there is no substantial build. Generally avoid as just remind me of the clone sets in the pound or dollar stores where they avoid having any mini-figs to reduce cost and possible legal action.
@Kynareth:
I just skimmed through all the Racers sticker listings on Bricklink, and the Octan symbol didn’t jump out at me (though admittedly, I was not pulling up high-res images of any sticker sheets). I did spot at least one sheet with Shell branding, which may explain the lack of Octan.
@AustinPowers:
Mattel owns both Hot Wheels and Matchbox, the two most prominent scale die-cast car brands, but if they actually tried to go after The LEGO Company over this, first they’d have to explain why they haven’t made a move on brands like Johnny Thunder or Greenlight.
Wow this may just be the best of the Tiny Turbos sets.... I have one, surprised only 610 people also do... It was great. Bring 'em back Lego.
@PurpleDave : my comment was more sarcastic than serious, prompted by the current situation with TLG in Germany. They are losing many former fans at the moment over here due to what their legal arm and associated law firms are trying to pull.
Ah yes, the fun of putting stickers on 1x1 cheese slopes... So glad Lego prints small pieces like that these days...
It occurs to me that the semi truck is about the same size as my first Lego semi, 107-2. And that was minifig-scale!
70$ for 1000+ pieces is a pretty nice deal. On top of that, the play value here is absolutely fantastic, I would have played to death with a set like this when I was a kid.
As a fan of LEGO Racers, I will probably end up getting this set eventually, looks like a lot of fun.
@AustinPowers said:
" @PurpleDave : my comment was more sarcastic than serious, prompted by the current situation with TLG in Germany. They are losing many former fans at the moment over here due to what their legal arm and associated law firms are trying to pull. "
Yeah, and you complain about it here every chance you get and the rest of us we're way past pretending to care about your crusade to defend imitation brands. Lego has every right to defend their still active patents and their IP's and set designs, case closed.
Despite the size of the set, Rebrickable inventory shows no unique or rare parts. The large percentage of plates jumped out and the tire count from someone's comment is also interesting.
@AustinPowers said:
" @PurpleDave : my comment was more sarcastic than serious, prompted by the current situation with TLG in Germany. They are losing many former fans at the moment over here due to what their legal arm and associated law firms are trying to pull. "
Given how easily y'all praise copycat bricks, it seems like the 'former fans' might not have ever been fans to begin with
@AustinPowers:
To add to what @xboxtravis7992 said, you make this same complaint but never back it up with hard facts. The 2x4 brick is public domain in the EU. There’s zero point in trying to put that milk back in the cow. If they’re _still_ suing other companies, it’s because they’re ripping off shapes that are still under patent or copyright, the minifig which is safely protected by trademark, or their set designs which are still under copyright. And if it’s the minifigs, they _HAVE_ to challenge any company that gets too close or someone can challenge their trademark for failure to defend. That’s a permanent action. If you get your trademark revoked, you can’t ever get it back. Bayer found that out with aspirin, and Xerox found that out with their own company name. I know you’ve pointed out a couple clone brand minifigs, claiming they looked totally different, but I looked them up and found that not only did one of those minifigs look like it was almost identical to the LEGO minifig, but the sets I saw were chock full of shapes that had been introduced in the last five years, and absolutely protected by patent and/or copyright.
@BrickToBasics:
No, it’s a weird twist on a story that’s about 75 years old. After WWII, Germany’s industrial capacity was in tatters, and The LEGO Company was the only European toy manufacturer who was willing to do business with them. The result of that was that an entire generation of German kids grew up with no other options for toys, and they became fiercely loyal to the brand. As they grew older, they had kids and bought LEGO sets for them as well. Germany was buying more LEGO product than any other nation, until 1999. Star Wars changes everything. Suddenly, US sales picked up, and we were buying more than Germany as a nation (per capita, probably not). As the market shifted, set designs followed. Where before 1999, Town/City sets favored German tastes, they started shifting to US tastes more and more. Downtown Diner probably never would have happened pre-1999. But, as set designs shift, German buyers have apparently stopped buying as much LEGO product, and now favor other systems like Playmobil, or clone brands that cater more to their tastes. And that only speeds up the process of Americanizing the product lineup. If Germans aren’t going to buy as much, there’s less point in catering to their tastes.
Even after all these years, still the 6th biggest set I own. And 3rd of 5 that qualify for RSOTD have been one (31026 can't be one until 2024, that is the 5th biggest with 1023 pieces.)