Quick Review: 8121 Track Marshal

[The Cobra]

Splintered piece of glass falls, in the seat (Thursday - Understanding in a car crash)

Set data:

8121: Track Marshal (not marshall!)

Year: 2009

Theme: Racers

Subtheme: Tiny Turbos

Pieces: 48 + 3 extras

Price: 5 USD / 5 Euros / 4 UKP. Discontinued in 2010.

Building time: less than 10 minutes (you know, stickers take a while...)

MISB on review: Yes

More info: Brickset - Peeron - Bricklink

Official description: Keep the rules of the road! Keeping the racetrack safe is no obstacle for this V8-powered pace car! Includes reusable container for storage and travel. * Race on #8125 Thunder Raceway, or combine with #8120 Rally Sprinter to make a cool racing truck! * Measures over 3" (8cm) long! * Build to race or build to display! Collect all four: #8119 Thunder Racer, #8120 Rally Sprinter, #8121 Track Marshal, #8122 Desert Viper!

Box pics: 2009 edition with red top and set name on front; pic on back to show that these set could work with 8123 Ferrari F1 Racers. Pic on the side to show combo model with 8120 Rally sprinter.

Box content: bagged pieces, instructions and stickers.

Loose pieces: This is neat: black and white. Plus, a few trans pieces.

Instructions: Classic TT one and a half pages instructions sheet, plus one half of the combo model (a "cool racing truck", they say). No pieces codes or inventory.

Stickers: There have to be stickers in these small Racers sets.

Building: We're already half-way into building. We have the car base (that looks like ten other TT's), part of the body (with tho different mudguards, we've already seen this too), one bracket to the front with odd orange cheese/lights and two brackets on the back, the lower with round plates as... I don't really know and the upper one with red brake lights and a spoiler.

Building: After we add a tile, a grill and a plate in the two central studs, we are ready to complete the model with 1x4 plate+brick on the sides, cool black windscreens (curved slopes) and even cooler 2x1 trans plates as light bars.

The bare model: The Marshal is almost ready to hit the track, but it needs stickers. Still, let's see how it looks so far.

The complete model: With stickers and extra pieces.

Review:

I sometimes ask myself: could Lego sell TT's for 4 Euros (or less) instead of 5 if they came in a cardboard box instead of that plastic thing. I fear the answer is yes. Yet I was lucky enough to grab this one for 3,70.

The main difference from this and other TT sets is white as the main color. If you look closely, stickers look whiter than bricks, but I wonder how many people would care. A sport car turned into safety car, the Track marshal looks like a good add-on the the fold-out micro Ferrari set, but a bit under par as a stand alone if you mind about writings.

So if you're looking for unusula building/tehcniques/pieces, this is neither the set nor the theme to find theme. Yet, with the same bunch of pieces and some stickers to costumize, Tiny Turbos are in their 6th year and counting. How many themes did last so long?

Rating:

Color scheme: 5/5. Black, white and trans colors. Way to go!

Minifigs and accessories: N/A. We're talking Tiny Turbos.

Pieces: 3/5. The most interesting parts could be trans dark orange 2x1 tiles, since they're not so popular.

Playability: 3/5. It's a car made of Lego. Can it be enough?

Design: 3,5/5. Nice one, solid black windscreens look really good, so do trans tiles and cheese plates. But one could say it's just another TT in different colors.

Overall rating: 3,5/5. Slightly better than average.

The final words: It almost looks nice with no stickers!

Edited February 20, 2010 by WhiteFang
Indexed

[Dunjohn]

Nice review. I think it's extraordinarily cool that they actually made a track marshal's car when they could have just made another racer. I think it shows a depth to the theme that isn't obvious on the surface. I really hope they continue to make more support vehicles in this line.

[prateek]

Great review, as always. I like the design of this set, although it could use some 1x1 cheese slopes on the back bracket where the black 1x1 round plates are.

[ILikePi]

Thanks for the review! It really sold me on the set, mostly because of the pics of those stickers.

Nice review. I think it's extraordinarily cool that they actually made a track marshal's car when they could have just made another racer. I think it shows a depth to the theme that isn't obvious on the surface. I really hope they continue to make more support vehicles in this line.

I agree! I don't care at all about the normal Tiny Turbo racers (except for that gold mine of dark blue that is Nitro Muscle ). This pace car is so much more appealing that the other 2009 canister cars. Hopefully more non-racing Tiny Turbo vehicles will be made in the future!