Dave's Lego Rant: Mini-Robo Riders

     Volcano Climber 8003 (Lava)
     Dirt Bike 8004 (Power)
     Ice Explorer 8005 (Frost)
     Swamp Craft 8006 (Swamp)

     These miniature versions of four of the Robo Riders are not available in
the U.S. and may never be, which is a pity.  They'd make nice $3 ($5 at Toys
R Us) entry level Technic, although I suppose they might take sales away from
the Racers line.  I got these on Brickbay.com from an Australian dealer for
$5 each plus $4 air shipping.
     Each uses as its central piece the head of one of the Robo Riders that
has the new style of head (Dust and Onyx have Throwbot heads, which is why
they aren't represented in this group).  The heads still have the names of
their original "owners" on them.
     In the absence of official names for these little guys, I dub them Probe
Riders.  

     Volcano Climber: A red and black all-terrain vehicle 2.5" (6cm) long and
wide, it has independent rubberband suspension on its rear wheels.  It's
small enough and about the right shape to be launched using a Lego Racer's
launcher.  A good design.

     Dirt Bike: This yellow and black motorcycle really is a miniature Robo
Rider.  While the wheels are small rubber ones rather than the Wheel
Warriors, it has a small worm gear that you turn to adjust the height of the
suspension.  There's no rubber band, but there's enough give in the gears to
allow for some bounce.  Dirt Bike is 3.75" (9.5cm) long.

     Ice Explorer: The only non-wheeled vehicle of the lot, IE is a 5" (12cm)
long black and white (with blue laser barrels) helicopter with a rotor
diameter of 4.5" (11.5cm).  The tail rotor spins freely, and a pair of gears
let you spin the rotors by turning a knob on the side.  This Probe Rider
gives the group very useful air support, otherwise only available via Boss's
lame alternate mode.  (Note: the lasers are the short clear pieces used for
lightsaber blades.)

     Swamp Craft: This green and black lowrider is a weird vehicle.  4.5"
(11cm) long and 3.5" (9cm) wide, it's only about an inch (2.5cm) tall.  The
rear wheels are out on struts and are little rubber tires.  The front ones,
however, are the Technic pieces on which the Wheel Warriors are based.
They're mounted on swivels and normally are tilted inward around 45 degrees
for a major lowrider look.  You can also flip them around to be almost flat
so they look like hoverfans for a true swamp craft...and they even roll when
almost flat.  Just not well.  }->  SC is the most heavily armed Probe Rider,
with four forward-facing yellow-green lasers.
     The one downside of Swamp Craft is that it looks a bit dopey.  I played
around with the pieces a bit and decided the simplest way to improve the
looks is to put the rear wheels on the inside of the struts, rather than the
outsides.  

     Pictures of the four Probe Riders (albeit a bit fuzzy) can be found at
http://www.eyrie.org/~dvandom/BW/Lego/proberiders.GIF (my new Kodak digital
camera isn't very good at taking pictures of small objects close up).

     Dave Van Domelen, still waiting for the Mavica to be fixed, but will
keep the Kodak because it's more portable and looks less like something
begging to be stolen....