Review: 8402 Sports Car

[Piranha]

INDEXED

Name: Sports Car

Theme: City

Year Released: 2009

Pieces : 64

Minifigs: 1

Price: $9.99 USD

Resources:

BrickLink BrickShelf BrickSet Peeron

Presenting the Sports Car!! Its a very nice little set and its good to see something civilian related as LEGO is infamous for all those fire and police stations we have had over the years. This set is also a nice compliment to the Tow Truck 7638 and the Garage 7642 as they actually have something to tow besides each other ( )

Section 1: Box/instructions

After opening the box out comes a crumpled instruction booklet.

I don't save the set boxes so here we have the instructions, looks nice already.

Random Instruction Page. On the smaller models they don't have piece call outs or numbered bags. I like how the background is a blue skies blend. In this picture they show the placement of the rear bumper. Another odd thing is that the seat and steering wheel are blue. I have not seen that color of blue often used as interior color in cars. I guess its more popular in exotics. I wonder who chooses those colors. Perhaps they had extra parts in those colors?

Section 2 : Accessories and Minifig

Here is the one fig that comes in the set, long gone is the classic grin only era and they have expanded to more detailed faces. He has a smirk, and combs his hair in the morning. Nice diversity of hair pieces. He is obviously rich and is heading to his businessman job in his suit, and chosen his flashy red sports car. (more on that later)

Emergency Help phone

A general view of it, very nice indeed, noticed its colored orange and so it belongs to the tow truck company. I guess when you are the only one in the city, you get your own phones installed on state highways.

The side view, utilizes not a walkie talkie but instead this other phone which is a nice part. Also I like how there is a little glass piece to protect the dialing button when it rains. However they did not bother to protect the phone

Spruce tree

Here is the other accessory, a standard round spruce tree. It is very cool and it's good to see LEGO adding plants into sets again.Although I find it rather pointless. It drives up the set price and has no base plate. I tossed it in with my other trees.

Section 3: The main model

Front view

Very nice front bumper, it makes nice use of the new large cheese tiles (which I think make excellent cheese graters) as the ventilation system in the front. Standard trans light blue windshield there.

Side view

This is a very nice view of the overall car. It looks nice and I like the red color scheme. Only improvement could be doors

Back view

A very nice rear bumper design again, makes it look very sleek. I think the engine is housed in the back (like real life sports cars) thus the reason for the vent. Also I wonder if this is a coupe or a roadster design, what do you think?

Section 4: all together and wrap up

Here is the complete set, not bad for $10, looks nice and has some good parts. The box art shows that he overheated his engine and has to call for help. However not today! He now obeys the speed limit and no longer has that problem

Review Wrap-up

Playability: 7/10 ( LEGO inspires the basic story via box art, no action features)

Design: 8/10 (solid build, could use doors on the car )

Price: 8/10 (reasonable price)

Parts: 9/10 (interesting parts, like cheese grater tiles and the round spruce tree)

Minifigure: 10/10 (great fig! New hairpiece used in City theme!)

Overall: 8.5/10 ( I would recommend this set to everyone who likes City or would like to try it)

LEGO has done alot of vehicles in the past. They are rather good at them too. This one is a very nice addition. The police now have someone to pull over for speeding. The tow truck company now has a car to tow. Whether he broke down or got towed for a ticket. The actual model is nice and sleek and the only real improvement could be doors. The round spruce tree well nice I find pointless. The emergency help phone is cool as I do not think we have seen something like it before. Playability is good, but not great. There is no action feature, unless you count the wheels rolling. LEGO provides pictures for the basic story. Some really good parts come in this set such as the cheese grater tiles, spruce tree and bley phone. The minifigure, well only one is great, a new hair piece and diverse head and torso.

Edited September 29, 2009 by TheBrickster

[Aethersprite]

I agree, this along with the Tow Truck are one of my favourite City sets :D

[Legoist]

If it only had doors, it's be a perfect tiny set...!

I think the inclusion of environmental elements such as the tree and the phone booth is a great idea, since you can dump them anywhere in your town. It actually even makes the set attractive for multiple purchases.

[Matt Dawson]

If it only had doors, it's be a perfect tiny set...!

I think the inclusion of environmental elements such as the tree and the phone booth is a great idea, since you can dump them anywhere in your town. It actually even makes the set attractive for multiple purchases.

I do admit it's a nice design, though to me it's lacking something. The accessories are nice, though the phone booth thing doesn't look 'right'.

[rriggs]

Nice review. Thanks for that.

I like this set in it's own right but will not buy it because it is too similar to the car that comes with the Cargo Train which i already have. Why did they make both these cars red convertibles...?

Cheers

Rog

[PUCI]

Thanks for writing the report, but I am not going to buy this set because the overall design of the car is just not worth $10

It is just too big compare other vechiles

[prateek]

Great review! BTW, this can't be a coupe because it doesn't havea roof

[lightningtiger]

Great review to read. I found the set lacking in common sport car features, so I added them. I removed 1x4 red plate from under the windscreen and put 1x1 red plate mod. (headlight clip) on each side of the car - the mirrors - quite sporty. Remove that useless 2x1 orange brick and in its place first 2x2 blue plate for steering mount and 2x1 light bluey grey grill. A 2x1 hinge top/bottom with a 2x1 gauge tile will fill in the blank space directly under the windscreen of course it is set at an angle so everything fits and looks like a real dashboard full of gauges. As soon as I have my USB or bluetooth problems ironned out I'll post some picture.

[Milan]

Car is very nice, especially in red color. Shape is excellent. That is the only thing I really like in this set. Nice review!

[Still Raindrop]

Great review of a nice little set!

I agree, it could use a couple mods. I added doors and side mirrors, and it greatly improves the look of the car. I also changed the wheels around to be the slightly smaller ones we got in the post van set.

[Big Cam]

Simple little town set which isn't really my style, but I do like your review, very nice pictures and you covered the set well.

I wish every new set came with fun faces.

[Rapseflaps]

I don't much like this set, actually.

The car isn't very pleasing to the eye (I still maintain those huge wheels look ridiculous on cars with a 4-wide body) and the phone booth is an obvious ploy to get you to buy the tow truck as well (which I fell for - the combo is nice though). The only plus is that you randomly get a tree with it (is this the only current City set that actually includes an old-fashioned tree?).

[Piranha]

I don't much like this set, actually.

The car isn't very pleasing to the eye (I still maintain those huge wheels look ridiculous on cars with a 4-wide body) and the phone booth is an obvious ploy to get you to buy the tow truck as well (which I fell for - the combo is nice though). The only plus is that you randomly get a tree with it (is this the only current City set that actually includes an old-fashioned tree?).

I didn't really like it that much either. However the problem I think is that most real life sports cars are very sleek and smooth and rounded. Something almost impossible to duplicate with LEGO bricks. As they are blocky.

I was considering buying the Tow Truck. I think I might now.

[Svelte]

The car isn't very pleasing to the eye (I still maintain those huge wheels look ridiculous on cars with a 4-wide body)

I must admit, I am very over those ubiquitous pieces. They were novel at first, but it's just ludicrous to put them on every vehicular set It's been 5 years since they were out - do we really need to see them on everything?

I do like the phone booth and tree - great touches!

Thanks for this fine review, macoco!

[xenologer]

Wierd, at the walmart near me this has been listed as 13$, and I kept saying there's no way I'd pay that much for it.

But if it really can be found at 10$ then it may be more worthwhile.

[Taseden]

I am still suprised this is a 10 dollar car. It is so simple and small. Reminds me of a go kart rather than a car. But one thing I do love about this model is that I think this is one of the few Lego vehicles with red wheel arches. Do any other Lego sets have red wheel arches?

[Rapseflaps]

I am still suprised this is a 10 dollar car. It is so simple and small. Reminds me of a go kart rather than a car. But one thing I do love about this model is that I think this is one of the few Lego vehicles with red wheel arches. Do any other Lego sets have red wheel arches?

Off the top of my head, the car in the Cargo Train deluxe set has four of them, and the tanker truck in Town Plan has two.

Of course, those sets are a little more expensive than 10 dollars...

EDIT: Apart from those, there's two in the Wind Turbine Transport as well. Full list here.

Edited November 3, 2009 by Rapseflaps

[Taseden]

Off the top of my head, the car in the Cargo Train deluxe set has four of them, and the tanker truck in Town Plan has two.

Of course, those sets are a little more expensive than 10 dollars...

EDIT: Apart from those, there's two in the Wind Turbine Transport as well. Full list here.

Nice. That is a useful site. One thing though is that there is a lime green wheel arch available on BL, but it seems the part never came in any sets. What's the deal?

[escortmad79]

I picked this up today, looked at it & put it back!

The tree could've been substituted for a pair of doors & the interior could at least have matched the rest of the car!

The wheels look too wide for the model too, again not a fan of this!

I may purchase it another time but I'm not really a fan of the new shape of vehicles Lego are producing! (Guess I'm just an old skool modeller... I was playing with Lego in the mid 80s!)