[REVIEW] 42050 - Drag Racer

[captainmib]

I recently received 42050 Drag Racer as a gift.

This set apparently is from 2016, which is already 4 years ago. Feel old yet? Or nostalgic?

I had some spare time, so decided to build it, and write up a short review.

For some nice pictures, I'd like to point you at the review of Ted, I mean Jim, also available in this forum.

 

The Build

This is a quick, and mostly boring build around a very small chassis consisting of mostly beams.

It's roughly devided into two stages: the chassis and the shell.

The chassis is so small that there isn't even a differential between the rear wheels.

 

Looks

I'm not familiar with this type of racing vehicles, but I think it looks terrible.

The shell is mostly panels, and someone with a chainsaw made the holes for the wheels. It looks very rough.

The color combination of Medium Azure and Black is great, and the stickers enhance some of the looks.

 

I have two problems here:

Apparently, the color used here is Medium Azure.

I made a reference picture for all the Shades of Blue I own. I had to look up the name that's used in this one.

So, from the front it looks very cool and aggresive. And that's where the coolness ends.

There are a total of 18 Medium Azure parts used in this set. 18.

The color Medium Azure is only used in one other Technic set, 42059 from 2017 (12 medium azure parts).

It almost feels like a scam.

 

Short Quiz: name all the shades of blue

 

 

The second problem is with the Stickers.

They look cool, and increase the presence of Medium Azure with another 50%.

It's a real pitty that the looks depend way to much on them, and it's even more forthcoming when you don't apply them (which I never do).

 

50% more Medium Azure with this simple trick

 

Functions

There are no surprises here:

• Steering with HoG
• V8 engine
• Lifting shell
• Lifting the car into a wheelie stand (42111 anyone?)

 

Parts

So, let's start with the Good:

• The Rear Wheels are awesome. To bad it's only two of them.

That's it.

 

The Bad:

• The amount of Medium Azure

For the rest, it's a bunch of liftarms and panels. Nothing interesting.

 

All the left-overs

 

The Verdict

My two daughters wanted to race this car immediatly, so after the last part was added to the build, they went to play.

The first thing I noticed was a scraping noise on the floor. Turns out that either the exhausts, or the wheelie stand is scraping over the floor.

It kills the fun instantly.

 

Floorscraper Installed

 

The exhausts contain 8 corrugated pipes, which are terrible to secure.

 

The lack of Medium Azure is such a big miss. This could have been a mean looking Drag Racer. Even the chassis would have looked great with it as well.

There are some other rough areas, like the mount of the windshield, the front wheels touching the shell when steering, and apparently, this set is prepared for power functions, which lead to some weird unused parts sticking out.

 

Is this even legal?

 

If the chassis was any wider, it would have allowed to have a working steeringwheel

 

 

I rate this set a solid 'Missed-opportunity-to-introduce-a-cool-new-shade-of-blue'.

I know I sound very negative, but I just don't like the set...

It feels like this set would have grown if some more details went into the engine, had proper colours and didn't cut so many corners.

Thanks for reading, and now back to TC18 and waiting on more Lambo news...

[Tomik]

Thank you for your review. I don't own this set and I don't like its main model either. I think official B model is much better - at least from overall design viewpoint. If we speak about medium azure color you forgot to mention this year set 42106 - it contains total 24 medium azure parts!  I think this set should be good donor of parts for alternative models. I can imagine building tractor or buggy from it.

[ibessonov]

42106 also has a few Medium Azure pieces. And I think Tumbler tires are the best :)

Anyway - I agree with you, the model is kinda ugly, but still looks better in real life then on pictures. I personally ordered two copies back then because price was good and those tires are really rare!

Edited May 7, 2020 by ibessonov

[captainmib]

8 hours ago, Tomik said:

Thank you for your review. I don't own this set and I don't like its main model either. I think official B model is much better - at least from overall design viewpoint. If we speak about medium azure color you forgot to mention this year set 42106 - it contains total 24 medium azure parts!  I think this set should be good donor of parts for alternative models. I can imagine building tractor or buggy from it.

You're welcome.

Thanks for mentioning 42106, didn't know it had a whopping 24 medium azure parts... Wow!

 

8 hours ago, ibessonov said:

42106 also has a few Medium Azure pieces. And I think Tumbler tires are the best :)

Anyway - I agree with you, the model is kinda ugly, but still looks better in real life then on pictures. I personally ordered two copies back then because price was good and those tires are really rare!

Yes, the pictures make it hard to spot the bulkiness. It's quite a large model.

You are right about the tires. If you have a good use for them, and you could get the set for cheap, it could be a parts donor.

[Pauls Technic]

This is one set which I am giving a miss, your review has just confirmed this.

[Coder Shah]

I combined this set with my LEGO Mindstorms EV3 set and this is the result.

 

[captainmib]

Well, that's something different I didn't expect from this set.

[mic8per]

On 5/24/2020 at 4:30 PM, Coder Shah said:

I combined this set with my LEGO Mindstorms EV3 set and this is the result.

 

WOW, I like it!

[Coder Shah]

13 hours ago, mic8per said:

WOW, I like it!

Haha thanks. Here's the blog post on TheNXTstep website. Link to the building instructions is included.

http://www.thenxtstep.com/2016/08/trott3r-robotremix3.html