Random set of the day: Riptide Racer
Posted by Huwbot,Today's random set is 4002 Riptide Racer, released during 1996. It's one of 3 Boats sets produced that year. It contains 54 pieces and 1 minifig, and its retail price was US$13.
It's owned by 2,157 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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26 comments on this article
See, you can use it in the bathtub, the little faucet symbol says it is ok. But don’t expect the stickers to last. And, CHROME!
Arguably the perfect Lego set - 54 pieces, simple construction, a floating boat, a cool driver, and a sleek timeless look.
The boat may float, but first, put some stickers on the hull! That's a smart idea and couldn't possibly go wrong in any way.
EDIT: Noooo! @MeisterDad talked about this while I was typing. And he mentioned the Chrome, too. Save some comments for the rest of us man! :P
Does it work during a rising tide?
@MeisterDad:
ABS is hygroscopic, so I’d be concerned that it could cause the chrome to separate and flake off of the parts. For the stickers, precisely how well/long they last is going to depend on the sticker material, and how well they were applied. If they’re clear stickers, and they were applied really well, they might actually shrug off a few trips to a tub, as long as soap isn’t involved.
So shiny, so chrome!
Boats was a small theme, but there were some beautiful mid-90s gems in there.
But, yes. Never ever put stickers on the boat hulls.
This is a genuinely excellent model. One of the best conventional uses of the single-piece hull I’ve seen- it maintains a sleek simplicity but has enough detail that it’s not inordinately juniorized and presumably provides a satisfying build experience.
Boat DOES float, baby.
Wait, this isnt a clikits set
So THAT's where the chrome exhausts and that helmet came from! My brothers evidently had this set, and I'd never have assumed that those parts and the boat hull were all from the same set.
Browsing through the boats theme, some of those sets have really nice box artwork, what a neat theme.
I own about a dozen of the hulls. I'm using them to make my graddad's old tugboat for the family. I have all the parts and the design done, but most of the parts are still packed from before I moved earlier this year. I can't wait to get all the parts in the same place and assemble them. I've thought about making one of the originals too, just to show just how different they are.
What a great set. It floats. It doesn't cost an arm and a leg. And the best part... CHROME!!!
Another A-grade set.
I had this! Was awesome. Can confirm.
I have one of those hulls. It's just asking to be used for a Blacktron boat that floats.
Yet another great Space set, way to go Huwbot!
This certainly floats my boat.
It may not be Classic Space, or Trains, or Castle, but try floating any of those in the bathtub ;-)
As for stickers, those on my 4015 and 4025 still hold perfectly to this day after decades of use, first by me, then by my kids.
CHROME!!!
To the people who complain about the stickers.. do you have this set? I have 2 80s floating boats and their stickers are still perfectly on them even though they joined me in bath tubs and swimming pools, even a few years ago still...
The theme status of Boats is enigmatic... most of the sets could have fit neatly into town, and by 1999 all the floating boats were incorporated into Town (Jr).
Boat -can- actually float on water but don’t as it’ll ruin the stickers and chrome
@sid3windr said:
"To the people who complain about the stickers.. do you have this set? I have 2 80s floating boats and their stickers are still perfectly on them even though they joined me in bath tubs and swimming pools, even a few years ago still..."
Yeah people need to know that stickers from back in the day, if properly applied, can last a really, really long time. They’re not like the current crop, and certainly nothing like the garbage from the early 2000s.
Great to have a choice away from the usual police boat 4012 for something a bit more cooler, where the 6 wide single hull is still available for around a $1. Worth checking out the flagship coastguard boat 4022 which had a hull which was 10 studs wide, and there was plenty of space for mini-figs below deck as went 4 to 5 bricks deep whereas the modern hulls in 60014 only go 2 bricks deep which is a bit useless.
I like early boats more than the modern ones. Not this one though. I don't know, it doesn't seem to have substance...
@phi13 said:
"The theme status of Boats is enigmatic... most of the sets could have fit neatly into town, and by 1999 all the floating boats were incorporated into Town (Jr)."
Technically the same could be said about Trains - Given how most fan databases refuse to accept themes like Divers, Paradisa or X-Treme Team as full on Themes (some even have more sets total than Boats), both Boats and the Train sets from 1978-1999 should be considered sub-themes of Town.
Also the modern day City line (post 2005) as well as World City should be part of the larger Town theme, if we follow the rules applied to Castle and Space, which were all lumped together simply by a very general concept of what Space/Castle means (remember when people considered Nexo Knights a Space sub-theme?). The name Space wasn't even used officially for anything that came after Insectoids.
Interestingly the older Town theme was called 'City' in certain markets like Switzerland for as long as the early '90ies.
@Atuin said:
" @phi13 said:
"The theme status of Boats is enigmatic... most of the sets could have fit neatly into town, and by 1999 all the floating boats were incorporated into Town (Jr)."
Technically the same could be said about Trains - Given how most fan databases refuse to accept themes like Divers, Paradisa or X-Treme Team as full on Themes (some even have more sets total than Boats), both Boats and the Train sets from 1978-1999 should be considered sub-themes of Town.
Also the modern day City line (post 2005) as well as World City should be part of the larger Town theme, if we follow the rules applied to Castle and Space, which were all lumped together simply by a very general concept of what Space/Castle means (remember when people considered Nexo Knights a Space sub-theme?). The name Space wasn't even used officially for anything that came after Insectoids.
Interestingly the older Town theme was called 'City' in certain markets like Switzerland for as long as the early '90ies."
Every word of this. I've made attempts at an alternative theme classification, but never finished.
One of the last sets I got as a child. Before the dark times, before the Empire.