Thursday, May 14, 2009

Daily Fail: Solar Energy Car




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Have the bootleggers gone green? It appears so, for today I bring you the strangeness that is the Solar Energy Car - next in the line of Zephyr Knight LEGO knock-offs.







Okay, obvious stuff first. Stock number is 1016, following yesterday's 1015: Push Soil. The mini-figure shown is wearing a non-LEGO print shirt, but it's a design we've seen on other Zephyr Knight clones. The face is from the LEGO Racer's line, and also a repeat from other sets. The toy itself appears to be a reworking of LEGO set 1180 - Space Port Moon Buggy. Maybe.

The background art deserves a second look- despite the eco-friendly propulsion source, apparently the Solar Energy Car drives around in a vast wasteland. With this set's Space-y roots, maybe the background is meant to be the surface of Mars? But then our driver guy would die from decompression in seconds. That'd be bad.

Well, actually, that might be a good thing. But you see my point.



The "alternate models" again show a stunning lack of imagination - check out the two photos on the right. The only difference? The radar dish thingie is titled differently. Wow. That's some creative use of brick, right there.



At least the included mini-figure has something new to offer us - namely a torso design lifted from the LEGO classic Town figure "Infomaniac". This is the Infomaniac's evil albino twin. With a yellow hat and no pants, he just oozes malice. And pus.



The Solar Energy Car itself is another of those Bootleg Designs that leave me scratching my head. If I didn't know the name of this toy I could never guess what it was supposed to represent. Another minimalist build that relies heavily on the buyer's imagination to help hide the suck.



Here's our Anti-Informaniac sitting at the controls. It really looks like he's going to come to your house and tear up all your library books, doesn't it?

It's the backwards-facing ball cap. Nothing says "Evil" like a backwards facing ball cap.

Trust me on that one.


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As always, many thanks to Joe from The Undiscovered Playthings for sending me this set to review.

7 comments:

Joel Hook said...

Wooo some variety! The solar panel is just fail though, it reminds me more of a funnel than a solar panel.

*Lol!, I just have to post the wv, its bolloc, two letter's short of the word bollocks which is a British slang word for testicles.

C-Shorey said...

Informaniac is a very hard person to get! I KNOW you havit chris, isnt it what was on donut previously? NOW YOU HAVE IT IN BOOT! *sigh*
WV=nopstede?

Christopher Doyle said...

@C-shorey:

Donut used to have the Infomaniac's face, not the torso. ;)

Bobert! said...

They should rename the series "unimagination" or "agrevation." Much more fitting.

Anonymous said...

Dude, that is so lame. I think the character is just angry he has no pants.

Anonymous said...

The only green thing about this bootleg is the colour I turned after seeing it... it's simply awful!

Anonymous said...

Wow. They used the Infomaniac body. He's one of my favorite LEGO characters!
Wow. I'm sure kids will love the transformations. Tilt dish, return dish to original postion, and in the front