Sven Primenkopf's ROBOTROID World!


BLOCCAR 002 F1 RACING CAR - RACING ROBO

This is the first in my series of TAKARA CULTURAL BLOCKS SYSTEM BLOCCAR mini sets reviews, so I'd like to cover details about the packages that they all share. The boxes for the BLOCCAR minis a pack a lot of visual information onto a box about three inches tall by four inches wide by one inch deep. The front of the boxes has a picture of the robot and vehicle modes, with the vehicle form taking up the most amount of space. The picture of the robot is pushed off to the corner, slightly deemphasized by its placement and size but still an important part of the presentation. The box is altered a bit so that the illusion of movement is suggested by a blur effect at the rear of the vehicle. This blur and a small illustration of the TKR-02 at the bottom draw attention to the motorized feature of the sets.



To the left is the stock vehicle mode of BLOCCAR 002 F1 Racing Car as built from the instructions. I think F1 Racing Car is one of the best looking minis and an ideal form for a pull-back-and-go motorized car. As you can see, it's just a little longer than Spychanger Mirage. The ROBOTROID version of F1 Racing Car named Space Racer has a slightly different parts arrangement than seen here. There is a ROBOTROID catalog picture that shows the black brick by the rear spoiler switched with a red brick from the front bumper. Other than that, BLOCCAR's F1 Racing Car is identical to ROBOTROID's Space Racer. There are a couple of pieces left over that can be added to make a homicidal road warrior battle racecar as I have done on the left. The DIAKRON Dianaut is from my collection and does not come in the set. TAKARA did not include drivers for the BLOCCAR line.



The stock robot mode is shown at the left, built straight from the instructions. As with all BLOCCAR sets, only the modes shown on the front of the package are detailed in the instructions. The name for F1 Racing Car's default robot mode is Racing Robo. Racing Robo isn't one of my favorite BLOCCAR robots. He lacks height. You can see he's shorter than a Minicon. There are two alternate robot modes shown on the rear of the box, and I built one of them for the picture to the right. That one looks even worse than the first and it leaves a lot of parts left over. The extra pieces can be added on to make a motorized stand for the robot, but I wanted to show this robo as it appears on the back of the box. The other robot mode from the rear of the instructions requires parts from another set to build it, but it looks GREAT. As soon as I get all my other sets opened I'll build it and show it here.

Overall I really like this set and I'd recommend it on the strength of the vehicle mode. That thing looks really cool as it rolls along the flo Sven Primenkopf's BLOCCAR World-BLOCCAR 003!
Sven Primenkopf's BLOCCAR World!


BLOCCAR 003 OFF ROAD CAR - OFF ROAD ROBO

Doesn't Bloccar 003 Off Road Car look a lot like the yellow Diaclone Hi Lux off road car? Takara used many of the same vehicle model types for Bloccar as they did for Diaclone. There's a lot of parallels. Both lines had police cars, F1 racers, off roaders, city turbos, ambulances, tractor trailers, and sports cars. The two lines mirror each other in many cases, and oftentimes the Bloccar minis had the same color schemes as their Diaclone counterparts. Even the pinstriping on the side of Bloccar 003 Off Road Car is exactly the same style as the pinstriping on the side of the Diaclone Hi Lux. I'm pretty impressed with how they were able to convey the forms of the different model types using the same blocks in different combinations.



In vehicle mode, 003 Off Road car is 1.5 inches/3.5 cm tall and 2.5 inches/6 cm long. Like a few other Bloccar sets, 003's vehicle mode has a license plate decal. It has the Takara logo in very small type just above the numbers '4273'. I have no idea what '4273' stands for. This license plate has a unique format from the other single packed Bloccar sets with license plates. The other three sets with license decals don't have 'Takara' on them, and their plates are 6 digits long and a mix of numbers and letters. For those keeping track, the sets and their license plates are: 005 Open Car/Y60872, 006 Ambulance/Q12601, and 102 Trailer Truck/889TKD. I have no idea if those numbers mean anything or if they were picked at random. There are two vehicles in the 201 Deluxe set that have license plates, but their numbers don't follow 003's format either. The robot mode pictured on the right is the one depicted in the instructions.



These two robot modes are shown on the back of the box but are not laid out in the instructions, which is just like all the other mini sets. I like the alternate robot mode on the right more. When you put those little single square translucent pieces on top like that they take on the appearance of robot eyes. This set is pretty cool in both modes, but the better robot mode is only shown on the back of the box so you'll have to figure out yourself.


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