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woofmcmoose

Review: 6510 Mud Runner / Dune Raider

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Mud Runner / Dune Raider

Set #: 6510

Year Released: 1991

Piece Count: 34

Minifigs: 1

RRP: unknown (I think I bought this as a kid for 1.49 or perhaps 1.99GBP).

Having recovered my childhood Lego from my parents loft I figured I could fill in some of the blanks on the town pictorial reviews pages.

So here we have a neat little pocket money set from 1991; the Mud Runner, to those in the USA, or Dune Raider, to us Brits!

No box I'm afraid so I'll have to distract you with......

The Minifig

Oh.... Erm.... As figs go, he's not very distracting, unless you are distracted by the colour blue! But look, he has white arms. All in all a basic fig, but not too surprising from a low end early 90's set:

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The parts

There are so few, I'll show them all. Nothing especially rare at first glance, but Peeron tells me the printed '4' tile only ever appeared in this set, and that the yellow horse hitch only in two horsey sets released in 1989 and 1992:

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The Instructions

The instructions are a single double sided sheet with 9 steps in total. The front 'fold' of the instructions provides the same art as the box of the completed set on a plain sand dune and sky type background. You can see from the folds just how small the original box would have been. As with most classic sets there are no part call-outs, but here we only add a couple of pieces at a time and there's not exactly a large pile of pieces to be rummaging through to start with so the build progresses quickly and easily.

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The Build

Here we are at the end of page 1:

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Almost done, the robot arms (bar with clip) are a neat way of mounting a SNOT light/roll-bar:

DSCF1798_zps1c7db84b.jpg

And done:

DSCF1799_zps3c5bd3eb.jpg

From this perspective we have a good looking little dune buggy, but a look around raises a couple of issues.

The side:

DSCF1802_zpscc8b7f32.jpg

Here you can see the light/roll-bar protrudes a good way forward and looks a little unbalanced. It is also sufficiently large that it pretty much blocks out the rear spoiler. Finally the step in the chassis between the front wheels and cockpit looks like its just begging to get caught on some rocks. Good thing he has a roll-bar right?

The back:

DSCF1800_zps4569e7bd.jpg

Back here we have two 1x1 cylinders as suspension detail which are a nice touch, and on the whole things look fairly right again- though the big roll bar ahead of the spoiler is still obvious.

The Verdict

Build: The build is simple, but with some nice touches- the roll-bar and horse frame mean it's not just vertical brick stacking: 6

Parts: Always nice to have printed bits. And for such a small selection, some interesting bits: 8

Figures: Meh, contemporaries of this set already had the basic racing S with stripes or zip pattern: 5

Playability: It has a good 'vroom' factor, so playability depends entirely on the setting you put it in: 7

Overall: For a pocket money set you can never expect too much and unsurprisingly the good bits are compromised by the limitations on size and part count. For me the proportions are not quite right for it to have the '4-wide charm' of other classic vehicles and the characterless fig is a letdown. It was never my favourite model as a kid- though got by as a loser of races, caller of emergency services and general whipping boy to my more prized sets. So overall an average score for an average set: 6

Sorry if this was your favourite childhood set- it just doesn't grab me.

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