Review: 71497 Cooper's Tiger Mech & Zero's Hot Rod Car from LEGO® DREAMZzz™

71497 Cooper's Tiger Mech & Zero's Hot Rod Car is the largest of the LEGO® DREAMZzz™ sets released in January 2025. Time to build a tiger mech or a red flyer or a flying tiger creature... All will become clear!

Products in this article were gifted by The LEGO Group; the author's opinions are their own.
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71497 Cooper's Tiger Mech & Zero's Hot Rod Car

• Release date: 1 January 2025
• Pieces: 1006

Price:

• US$ 99.99 on LEGO.com US
• CA$ 129.99 on LEGO.com Canada
• GB£ 89.99 on LEGO.com UK
• AU$ 149.99 on LEGO.com Australia
• NZ$ 179.99 on LEGO.com New Zealand
• DE€ 99,99 on LEGO.com Deutschland
• NL€ 99,99 on LEGO.com Nederland
• FR€ 99,99 on LEGO.com France
• PLNzł 439.99 on LEGO.com Polska
• NOK 1399,90 on LEGO.com Norge
• DKK 899.95 on LEGO.com Danmark

Other countries click here

New moulds

There are 5 new moulds included, although only the trans-red helmet is exclusive to this particular LEGO DREAMZzz set.

• 2x Exhaust smoke with bar ends in Trans-Dark Blue (6530956 | 6958) also in sets 71489, 71490, 30698
• 1x Frilled Dome with eye print in trans-bright green (6523330) appears in 3 sets: 71487, 71491
• 2x Cable, Curved Flexible with Bars on Each End in Med Azure (6510358 | 6955) also in 71489
• 1x Cyber Brain dual-moulded in trans-dark pink and white (6512375) also in sets 71489, 71491
• 2x Helmet with White Crest in Flat Silver (6528261 | 6889) also in 71490
• 1x Helmet with Trans-Red Crest in White (6509654 | 6889)

I won't go into detail about each, because I've already taken a in-depth look at all the January LEGO® DREAMZzz™ new moulds.

New prints

• Tile 1 x 2 with Groove with print in Trans-Red (6523340) also in sets 71489, 71491

• 1x Slope Curved 4 x 5 x 1 2/3 with Facial Sculpture with print in Black (6523365)
• 1x Large Figure Shoulder Cover, Armor, Round, Smooth with Bar with print in White (6523364)

Recolours

• 10x Brick Special 1 x 2 Rounded with Center Bars in Medium Azure (6525399 | 77808) also in 71489 and 71491
• 1x Windscreen 2 x 4 Half Dome in Trans-Dark Pink (6545481 | 81911)

• 3x Brick Special 1 x 2 Rounded with Center Bars in Lime (6533506 | 77808) also in 71490
• 3x Brick Special 1 x 2 Rounded with Center Bars in Yellow (6529612 | 77808) also in 71490

• 4x Flag 2 x 2 Trapezoid with Flared Area between Clips in Neon Yellow (6527224 | 80324) also in 71489, 71491
• 4x Wheel 30.4 x 20 without Pinholes, with Reinforced Rim in Neon Yellow (6533006 | 56145) also in 71491
• 4x Wheel 18 x 8 with Fake Bolts and Deep Spokes with Inner Ring in Neon Yellow (6529084 | 13971) also in 71490

• Neckwear in Trans-Red (6532230) This recoloured shoulder piece is worn by Zero.

Sticker sheet

I'm going all in on these LEGO DREAMZzz sets and so will apply the stickers. 

There's a substantial sticker sheet for this set! The sets are designed for a younger audience and it feels appropriate to have so many, as children like applying stickers, even to new elements (sob).

Rare elements

There are five elements that have only been in three or less sets.

• 1x Hair and Red Beanie in Cool Yellow/ Bright Light Yellow (6490731 | 5492) also in 71489
• 1x Spoiler 2 x 4 with Handle in Bright Red/ Red (6133550 | 98834)
• 2x Tile 2 x 3 Pentagonal in Trans-Clear (6514162 | 22385)
• 5x (plus spare) Spear Tip in Trans-Red (6513950 | 27257)
• 1x Large Figure Sword Blade with Bar in Satin Trans-Dark Blue (6489478 | 65184) also in 71489

Minifigures

Zero

• 1x Torso with print in Red (6532363)
• 1x Legs with print in Black (6523363)
• 1x Minifig Head with print in Black (6523361)

Cooper

• 1x Torso with print in White (6529259) also in 71489, 30698
• 1x Legs with print in Red (6523339) also in 71489, 30698
• 1x Minifig Head with print in Yellow (6523337) also in 71489, 30698

Dreamer

• 1x Minifig Head with print in Yellow (6523366)
• 1x Torso with print in Light Aqua (6537299)

Cyberlings

• 2x Minifig Head with print in Black (6523345) also in 71490
• 2x Cyberling body with print in Black (6523346) also in 71490

The new Helmet with Mohawk are worn by Zero and the two Cyberlings in this set:

• Helmet with White Crest in Flat Silver (6528261) also in 71490
• Helmet with Trans-Red Crest in White (6509654), exclusive here

The build

71497 Cooper's Tiger Mech & Zero's Hot Rod Car follows the same format as the other sets we have reviewed from the January 2025 LEGO DREAMZzz wave. There's an initial section of the instructions to weaponise the minifigures and build the Cyber Brain Spider.

The Cyber Brain Spider is similar to the one in 71491 Mateo with the Z-Blob Action Race Car (see my review of set 71491). I think I prefer the one in 71491 as the cables match better in magenta. 

The placement of the printed trans-red tile 1 x 2 makes it look like a credit card being held up for a contactless payment.

 

Early on, the instructions give two options for either the tiger mech and hot rod car or racing car and robot creature combination.

 

Option 1 – tiger mech and hot rod

Cooper's Red Flyer

The next stage of the build is to create Cooper's Red Flyer, with the cockpit coming first. Its modules are connected via 1x1 plates with clips and the brick 1 x 2 rounded with center bars as shown above.

  

Wings with jet engines are then attached on each side to create the Red Flyer with the same clip and bar connections. This section can be played with as a standalone build with stud shooters as a play feature. 

A child building this set may well take a play break from the instructions at this point as there a flyer to swoosh, a Cyber Brain Spider 'baddie' and some minifigures to play with.

Hot rod

The hot rod car is also modular with each section clicking into place to form the vehicle. Of course the modular nature of these two builds means that you can unclip components and rearrange them to make your own combination.

This is just a quick mash-up of the Hot Rod and Red Flyer to show the concept in action. Some graphic art work in the instructions encourage the builder to have a play and use their imagination.

Tiger mech

The tiger mech begins with moving the jet engines on the Red Flyer to the higher position at the top of the cockpit. The upper and lower limb sections all click together in a rather satisfying manner to create the mech. He carries his blade as well as having the stud shooters mounted above his shoulders.

Tiger mech is a posable figure, although his ankle and in particular his knees are quite limited in terms of movement. The rationale is usually that children get frustrated when their mech's don't stand up; so limiting the knee joint into a rigid position really helps with posing (bearing in mind this is a 7+ set). No squatting!

Option 2 – racing car and robot creature

Thankfully you do not have to completely break down the build and restart to build option 2. The modules are simply unclicked/dislocated to give the component parts once more.

 

A bit of a mix up and voilá, here's the so-called robot creature. It has a bear-like look, but those hind legs are very rigid – a bear with severely arthritic hips? 

The speedy racing car is a definitely a better model for option 2 compared to the robot creature.

 

The fun doesn't stop there of course as there are many different combinations you can use to create your own vehicles, creatures or mecha. There's some suggestions in the instructions and, of course you can also buy another set like 71491 which has compatible sections for even more mix-ups.

Conclusion

Season 3 of LEGO DREAMZzz is set to air later in 2025, so at present it is not possible to judge these sets as tie-ins; only on their own merit.

As the largest and most expensive set in the January wave, there's certainly a lot going on with this set. It includes some, but not all, of the new LEGO DREAMZzz moulds we discussed last month. There are quite a few recolours and exclusive printed elements, most notably the sculpted Skull printed element which has MOC potential.

The concept is one that I can see as being quite fun for its younger audience, as the mix-and-match aspect does not require a full rebuild. It's definitely trickier to break up a build completely for optional different models (e.g. 3-in-1 sets), whereas this modular concept allows for some fast restructuring.

Of course that is also a downfall as the robot creature is not a great model, with its rigid hind legs and odd body shape. The tiger mech is much better ,and is suitably chunky, robust and poseable. 

Using the instruction suggestions, there's no doubt the other mecha and vehicle models were much better than the robot ones. Overall, there's definitely potential for some fun with this play factor, but the large amount of stickers placed onto curvy parts and weaker robot creature models were negatives.

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