Set Review: 8194-1 Nitro MuscleName: Nitro Muscle
Set Number: 8194-1
Theme: Racers
Year: 2010
Pieces: 47
Minifigures: 0
Price: USD 5.99
With a new year comes new LEGO sets – today, we’ll be taking a look at one of the latest Tiny Turbos to come out in the LEGO Racers line.
The Box
Saying that this is a “box” is misleading – it really is a canister. It isn’t anything new of course, seeing as the Tiny Turbos were released in canisters since their debut back in 2005. What is new however, is the cap of the canister. For the past four years, the Tiny Turbos were released in canisters that had a semi-circle cap depicting a portion of a tire. While the design of the tire has changed over the years, there has never been a change as radical as this. As you can see, LEGO decided to use a yellow cap shaped in the mold of a particular Tiny Turbo. It is not a design that I am familiar with; I don’t recall it being in any set over the past four years – perhaps it’s a little foreshadowing of a future Tiny Turbo?
I also love the background of the canister. It’s great seeing the Tiny Turbo superimposed on a realistic city setting, instead of a night time scene with all sorts of flashing lights and whatnot.
The back of the canister, showing the Nitro Muscle alongside set #8198-1: Ramp Crash. There’s also the usual legal/distribution content written in English, French, and Spanish.
The side of the canister, showing the combiner model for set #8192: Lime Racer and set #8194: Nitro Muscle.
A more detailed view of the Tiny Turbo mold I was talking about earlier. It will be interesting to see if someone will try to make an MOC of this Tiny Turbo.
The Pieces
Once you break open the seal and pop off the lid, you’ll find yourself looking down into a pile of pieces, the instructions, a sticker sheet, and an advertisement for the LEGO Club.
I was a bit surprised to find a separate advertisement pamphlet. However, since the instructions are a single sheet of paper folded up into sixteenths, LEGO probably tossed in the advertisement separate from the instructions in order to save paper.
As you can see, the Nitro Muscle contains an abundance of navy blue pieces. This was my main incentive to get this set, actually. Some pieces I would like to note are the navy blue “cheese slopes” – three of them are found in this set (one of them is an extra). There are also some useful navy blue 2x1 and 2x2 tiles. It certainly is nice seeing LEGO manufacturing pieces in colors that we really don’t see too often.
Two transparent-red 2x1 plates are present too, as well as two 2x4x2/3 slopes, which serve as the car’s windshields. Finally, there’s also a chrome silver grill, albeit it doesn’t really seem to have too much of a luster to it, making it seem like a dull light grey color instead. For a car with a dark blue and black color scheme, I think it would have been better to use a metallic silver grill instead.
The set also comes with a high amount of stickers. I would not recommend putting them on if you are planning to use the pieces in MOCs a lot. It is for this reason that I did not apply the stickers to the set, so for the remainder of this review, any pictures of the car you see will not have the stickers on them. I apologize if this is an inconvenience to anyone.
The Instructions
The instructions like I said before are a single sheet of paper folded into sixteenths. The design pictured on the front of the canister is on the instructions as well.
Steps 5 and 6 of the instructions. The background is simply a shade of dark grey that transitions into light grey, nothing too special.
The Build and Design
The build will probably take about 2 to 3 minutes, and probably around 5 minutes if you plan to apply the stickers. Pictured here is the car about halfway through construction. Underneath all that navy blue and black is a lone yellow 4x2 plate – at least it isn’t visible!
The finished model.
There’s only one extra piece, a navy blue cheese slope. It’s an amazing little piece – who can complain?
From the front, the car looks incomplete. I feel that it would have been better if all of the studs on the front were covered up with something, like maybe some transparent-red cheese slopes and a navy blue 2x1 tile. Making the studs visible does not make the car seem aerodynamic.
I also feel that the Tiny Turbos have been getting more and more repetitive over the years – the cars nowadays are roughly similar to each other, with maybe a few deviations. However, it’s only fair if we take a closer look at this set.
The back view is somewhat better, but again, those studs would be better off covered.
The side view.
Even with the studs showing, the car definitely looks intimidating with its low profile.
The back corners are a bit blocky. Using a bracket like the one used in the front of the vehicle would help remedy this solution and also incorporate some basic SNOTting. Using the modified black plate with the handles for the exhaust was good, although it’s nothing that exciting.
The top of the car has a nice, streamlined look to it. The spoiler is a nice addition, and using the navy blue tiles as a division between the two windshields is appealing.
Final Grade
How does the Nitro Muscle weigh up to in the end?
Design: 6/10 – The car seemed incomplete, especially in the front, with all of those studs showing. The car also seemed kind of blocky, specifically in the back. The overall design does also seem repetitive and recycled from past Tiny Turbos. At least it used some basic SNOT in the front.
Parts: 10/10 – Pieces in navy blue are always great to see. It also contains a lot of cheese slopes and tiles, which will be incredibly useful in MOCs. The black slope pieces are also useful.
Minifigs – There are none, so we won’t count this towards the set’s final grade!
Build: 7/10 – Nothing spectacular, and it’s incredibly quick.
Playability: 6/10 – Unless you have some other Tiny Turbos or one of those foldout race track sets, all you can really do is push the car around…I wouldn’t recommend crashing it into anything; we wouldn’t want to get those navy blue pieces all scratched up!
Price: 7/10 – Six dollars isn’t that great of a price for only 47 pieces, but at least it isn’t too expensive.
Final Grade:
36/50 or 7.2/10This set is alright, but nothing too exciting. I would only get this set for the pieces, or if you are a Racers fan who wishes to collect all of the Racers sets.
