Review: 6609 Race Car (1983)

[Rumble Strike]

Hi all,

I've recently emerged from my Lego dark age and despite buying some lovely shiny new sets over the last month or so I had a hankering to go up in my loft and get out the 2 big boxes of Lego I had as a child of the 1980s.

Sadly only a couple of instructions remain (luckily I still have my Galaxy Explorer instructions) and as I was building that set I found a fragment of an instruction sheet of a set I loved as a kid. A bit of online investigation later, and I can bring you a brief review of 6609 Race Car.

Name: Race Car

Theme: LEGO System / Town

Year: Some sources say 1980 (which would make more sense to me as this is something I'd've loved more at 5 years old than at 8 years old) but others (including this website) say 1983.

Pieces: 12 or 17, depending on whether you include Mini-figure parts.

Minifigs: 1

Price: No idea, but I imagine it was an impulse set of that era.

Resources: Brickset Peeron

You can see how tattered and incomplete my instruction sheet is:

However with so few pieces I was confident of remaking it.

The figure is really cool, I was particularly taken with this little guy when I was younger cos what boy didn't love the idea of being a race car driver. For its day, the torso print was unique and eyecatching, and went very well with the car itself. Even in the early 80s there seemed to be a lot of Police and Fire sets so a racer really stood out as a special figure. Obviously mine is slightly faded now, but he is at least 28 years old so please give him a break!

Here he is stood next to the car itself. The car was very simple even for the time, being more of a "kart racer" than an actual car with doors or even wheelguards, but the basics are all there (4 studs wide, like all of its contemporaries) and it's done in lovely bright colours to really add to the Town sets of the time. The printed front brick is very distinctive even now.

The figure and the car go together beautifully and this was just a classic set for its time. Very easy to build, very easy to customise, and very easy to replicate with other available bricks. I see it being quite similar to the Smart car impulse set of the recent Lego City line, so here are a couple of comparison shots:

Summary:

Playability: 9/10 - Brrrrrrrrrrrrm! Boy Racer! Very small and easy to push around for kids, rolls very well on a flat surface, less so on carpet.

Design: 10/10 - Very simple design yet still incorporates nice colours and unique pieces to make the mini-figure and car stand out.

Price: Not sure what the cost was, but as an impulse set, I'm sure it made its way into many collections

Overall, a simple set but one that had a very visual appeal to it and it was a winner in my book! 9 out of 10!

Thank you for reading, I hope you enjoyed my first review.

[prateek]

Thanks for the review. I cannot say much about this set, since it is very small. Even then, it's very charming, and I'm sure the price for this was very low compared to today's standard, so that's a in my books.

I like those wheels though.

Edited January 2, 2011 by prateek

[The Yellow Brick]

Thank you for this review. This car is just so cute because of it's size

Make sure you don't sell it. it's gonna be worth alot of money in the future (or now)

[lightningtiger]

Thanks for the review 'Rumble Strike', more like a go-cart than race car, but still a cute & cool little set.

Keep on reviewing !

[XimenaPaulina]

I love the last shot, classic race kart meets modern smart car! Not much to say about the set though, aside from it's a classic cute little set worth keeping.