Will the Police Interceptor catch the Getaway Racer?
Posted by FlagsNZ,I have wanted to review some of the smaller Technic sets and so I recently purchased the Getaway Racer and the Police Interceptor specifically for this purpose. It helped that the local toy store had an Easter buy one, get a second set half price deal.
Reviews of the larger, adult-oriented, Technic flagship sets appear soon after their release, but the smaller Technic sets don't tend to be well represented among the smaller set reviews.
Ever since their inception, Technic sets have often had an added feature of being capable of being combined with a closely related set to build a larger feature set.
See how these two sets continue this feature of being complimentary racers which will combine to build an extreme racer.
Boxes and contents
These two sets come in similar boxes; the Getaway Racer is speeding away in an overcast Badlands scene with the Police Interceptor in hot pursuit.
The image on the rear of both boxes is the same: the fusion of the two sets, Extreme Police Racer.
The Getaway Racer instruction book shows the same box image although the shadow encloses the racer more than the image on the box. The instructions are bound in one book of 46 pages.
There are three un-numbered bags of parts. Two dark stone grey 15M Technic beams and the Pull Back Motor are loose in the box.
There is a loose sticker sheet.
The Police Interceptor has a similar 46 page instruction book.
Just like the Getaway Racer, the Police Interceptor has three un-numbered bags of parts. Two white 15M Technic beams and the Pull Back Motor are loose in the box.
There is a sticker sheet loose in the box.
Both Pull Back racers are powered by the Pull Back motor: pulling back the completed vehicle winds up the internal spring which is released when the vehicle is let go. This part has been seen in eight sets since 2013.
Interestingly, since these two sets are supposed to be involved in cat-and-mouse police chase, 42057 Police Interceptor has an unfair advantage by having larger diameter wheels.
The Getaway Racer's low profile tyres look better though.
42047 Police Interceptor has one yellow 7M axle which has been seen in six sets this year. LEGO have introduced yellow 7M axles and red 6M axles this year; however, both the Getaway Racer and the Police Interceptor have used the traditional black 6M axle.
I believe that the reason the new-coloured axles have been introduced this year is to make identifying individual axle parts easier. LEGO designer Mark Stafford has commented on colour locking parts to ease identification. This colour locking of parts particularly applies to Technic gears and axles.
Both instruction books have a page showing a confused builder trying to identify a particular axle with the suggestion that using the 1:1 scale diagram would be helpful. I find these 1:1 scale diagrams to be extremely helpful, particularly when selecting the long Technic beams.
My issue is that the image shows a grey 7M axle which is not included in either set: the Getaway Racer does not have any 7M axles, while the Police Interceptor has one yellow 7M axle.
Perhaps the graphic image needs updating to reflect the new parts colour code or modified to include parts that are found in the particular set.
There is a contextually appropriate 1:1 scale diagram relating to the parts for individual building steps on each applicable page of the instructions.
The Getaway Racer build
By the middle of the Getaway Racer's instruction book, build step 31, the chassis has been built.
The left and right 3x7 black panels have flame stickers applied and the carburetor air scoop is in place.
The flame hot-rod detailing continues on the side with some more stickers. There is a skull with a gold tooth wearing dark shades.
The Police Interceptor build
The Police Interceptor's chassis, bonnet, windshield and police lights have been completed midway through the instructions, build step 33.
The Police Interceptor has lime green and blue detailing applied as stickers.
The completed models
The Getaway Racer looks great as a low profile hot-rod. It has two silver metallic double tubes as exhausts and a dark stone grey Technic steering wheel.
It has four warm gold mag wheels which have been seen in 13 sets.
It uses four discs as hub caps which have had flame stickers applied. The flames are rotating in different directions on the two sides of the racer.
The Police Interceptor looks really good as a 4x4 off-road vehicle. It has lime green bull bars and a black roof rack.
The lime green detailing is continued through to the four mag wheels. This is the first set to use this part in lime green.
There are four discs as hub caps which have had stickers applied. I would have preferred that four wedge belt wheels had been used instead of the discs.
When comparing the two models, the Police Interceptor sits higher; you would expect this from a 4x4 vehicle. The Getaway Racer has a much lower profile.
The Police Interceptor can pull wheelies when released due to its shorter wheel base and higher centre of gravity.
The combined model
The instructions for the combined Extreme Police Racer are available for download from LEGO.
The two sets combine to make an extreme racer that utilises both pull back motors.
The Extreme Police Racer drives more smoothly than either of its two offspring. This is due to its heavier weight, longer wheelbase and that the driving force is shared and doubled with the two motors.
The stickered parts for the primary models match the stickered parts as described in the PDF instructions with the exception that the PDF instructions ask for the lime green/blue detail to be placed on the two 5M Technic beams on the front wing. These stickers will have already been applied to the two white 3x5 Technic angle beams.
The skull stickers are upside down on the engine intake.
I have a couple of suggestions on the build of the primary models.
- I would have preferred that the Police Interceptor's rear lights were made out of connector pegs and transparent red round plates instead of the two stickers, using a similar building technique as found on the rear lights of the Getaway Racer.
The Getaway Racer has 169 parts while the Police Interceptor has 184 parts; perhaps there was a parts limitation, given that the two sets cost the same.
The LEGO parts inventories are notoriously incomplete: I have used Rebrickable's inventories for this analysis.
- I would prefer there to be a better selection of parts available as hub caps. Quite a few Technic sets use either discs or wedge belt wheels for this function. Newly designed hub cap parts could become universal in this role.
Overall opinion
Surprisingly, I liked building these two models more than I was expecting.
I believe that these racers will appeal to young Technic fans. If you have a couple of youngsters, these two sets will produce endless hours of competitive play. They can easily race across a room 10m (30ft) wide. Couple these models with some simple ramps for jumps and tricks.
My reason for liking these two sets is linked to my journey into Mindstorms. I will be building two Sumo Mindstorms wrestlers for a LEGO show next month.
I am not a great fan of placing stickers on my LEGO, but as I intend to build two Sumo wrestlers, I plan to use the Getaway Racer and Police Interceptor themed parts for decorating the two competing robots.
These two sets are available from shop.LEGO.com:
42046 Getaway Racer USA | UK | Canada | Germany | France
42047 Police Interceptor USA | UK | Canada | Germany | France
23 likes
18 comments on this article
Nice review! Might look into that set...
The combo model looks suspiciously like a Tyrrell P34...
I like the look of the getaway racer, as it would go nicely with the 42022 Hot-Rod from a few years back, which I have. Not so keen on the Police Interceptor.
As for the combined model, well that just looks like a right hot mess!
I would love to see what these look like (separate and combined) without the stickers.
I've done a little bit of sumo with the RCX myself in competitions... I'm not good :'(
Off topic, I heard some rumors about the vw beetle. There will be a new release this year? Does anybody have more information about this??
^ "The combo model looks suspiciously like a Tyrrell P34..."
Or perhaps the March 2-4-0
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/March_2-4-0
These are perfect for two of my cousins! They will love them.
@Brother Brain: That's true!
I have been collecting this series of pull-back racers ever since they were first introduced. Just like the review said, they are a surprisingly satisfying builds; not too short, not too long, complex, but not too difficult. And racing them is really fun. The pull-back motors are actually quite powerful. I would also add that because they are Technic, they are very sturdy. No pieces will fall off of these racers. LEGO only releases two of these per year, so they are easy to collect and inexpensive. :)
UPDATE: I made a BrickList of all the LEGO TECHNIC Pull-Back Racers, because they are a bit hard to find on their own: http://brickset.com/sets/list-15258
^ Thank you.
Both are nice but I prefer police interceptor because of it's front part design.Great article!
This seems like a lot of stickers. Putting on stickers isn't my strong suit.
Then don't put them on :p
The new axle colors do not appear to be strictly color-locked. Rather, like the black and red 2M cross axles, they continue to exist as alternate colors for the part, and I expect this will remain so in the future. http://brickset.com/sets/70605-1/Misfortune-s-Keep even uses both a red 4M cross axle AND a black one (in the same bag, even!) and http://brickset.com/sets/41119-1/Heartlake-Cupcake-Cafe has both red and black 6M cross axles. You would not expect to see this if one color were entirely replacing the other, since each set would typically use either the pre-change or post-change color, not both.
The choice of which axle color to use in some cases seems like it might have as much to do with aesthetics as with visibility. In Bionicle, only one of the new sets, http://brickset.com/sets/71305-1/Lewa-Uniter-of-Jungle, uses the Bright Yellow 3M and 7M cross axles. And incidentally, this set uses Bright Yellow specifically as an accent color (it is among the colors printed on its chest plate). Likewise, http://brickset.com/sets/71300-1/Uxar-Creature-of-Jungle, which uses several Bright Yellow spike/horn pieces, uses a Bright Yellow 5M cross axle, new for this year. All other 2016 Bionicle sets with 3M, 5M, or 7M cross axles use them in Medium Stone Grey.
Anyway, good review. Personally, I do not have much of an interest in these pull-back Technic sets. In terms of functionality, they don't make very much use of what Technic has to offer. Pull-back racers can be achieved at a fraction of the size and price using System elements, as we've seen with the 2012 and 2014 Shell promos. I suppose these sets are larger and more rugged, so can handle rougher terrain, but overall I feel like size and strength is the only thing they gain from being Technic sets.
Still, these sets are great as introductory Technic sets for kids, as well as supplementary parts packs for a Technic collection. After sets move into the higher price points, the recommended starting age begins to increase, and even http://brickset.com/sets/42045-1/Hydroplane-Racer (at around the same price point and piece count as these sets) is a step up from the 7–14 age range of these two pullback racers. So for a younger beginning Technic builder, especially one who is attracted to Technic sets more for motor functions than for more elaborate manual gear mechanisms, these are pretty ideal!
@theBrickBlogger: That Bricklist is nice, although it would be easy to find Technic pullback racers in the database if these two sets had the "pullback motor" tag. Then, all the Technic sets with pullback motors can be viewed just using the existing theme and tag filters: http://brickset.com/sets/theme-Technic/tag-Pullback-Motor
42046 is $16.93 (15% off) at Amazon, while 42047 is $18.39 (8% off).
I think the Getaway Racer would've looked better in all black rather than black and grey, but overall they seem like nice models that would be fun to race. Also, I didn't know there was a Technic pullback motor; seems like an excellent idea...
I think that 2014 selection was the best so far. Anyway, Technic reviews are always welcome!