The LEGO Group has had many mascots and icons for its various in-house themes, video games, and other media that are still fondly remembered by fans of LEGO and referenced by the company today. The late 80s and 90s gave us Captain Redbeard from Pirates, Johnny Thunder from Adventurers, and Pepper Roni from LEGO Island. The 2000s gave us Tahu and the Toa Mata from Bionicle, and Jack Stone. (Clearly Jack Stone is the best.)

Then came the late 2000s and 2010s when LEGO created a new wave of minifigure mascots for its myriad of in-house themes like Agents, and Ninjago—many characters that the LEGO Community is still in love with.

And at that same time, my favorite LEGO original mascot came onto the scene: Chase McCain.

Who is Chase McCain?

Chase McCain was the main character of LEGO City Undercover, released for the Wii U and LEGO City Undercover: The Chase Begins for the Nintendo 3DS in 2013. LEGO City Undercover follows Chase McCain as he returns to LEGO City to stop Rex Fury who has escaped from prison. With the help of Frank Honey and Ellie Williams, Chase works to hunt down Rex Fury and put him back behind bars.

There was something about Chase that I gravitated to when Undercover first came out. I’m not quite sure what it was anymore now that I’m older, but when I was 12, I was definitely the target demographic for City’s police subtheme. His initial design was, and still is, extremely appealing. There had been no unique police officer character in any iteration of the City theme, be that Classic Town or World City beforehand, so for a named character with his own video game to be released was very exciting. I had also begun to develop a budding interest in police procedurals and crime fiction at the time which would later evolve and greatly influence my taste in fiction and stories I seek out today. LEGO City Undercover was, in a sense, an element of that process.

The premise of the game also played a major factor in the appeal of Chase McCain. I had played many of the LEGO video games by TT Games on my PS2 with my family, all of which were based on licensed properties—Star Wars, Batman, and Indiana Jones. For an original in-house LEGO theme like City to receive a full video game akin to LEGO Star Wars or LEGO Batman was a big deal to me. This was practically unheard of in the 2000s and 2010s. Save for the few Bionicle games and some handheld titles on systems like the Gameboy Advanced, LEGO Games that weren’t based on licensed properties were a rare thing. The last major original game was the short-lived LEGO Universe, which my brother and I had loved, and were devastated when it was shut down. LEGO City Undercover was another chance at something really special.

Too bad I didn’t own a Wii U…

Undercover in LEGO City

LEGO City Undercover was released as an exclusive flagship title for Nintendo’s then-newest console and successor to the Wii. The original version of the game was designed to highlight the dual screen functionality of the Wii U found through its gamepad. Numerous gameplay features were structured around this gamepad, including looking for clues, listening in on crooks’ conversations, and tracking suspects. Access to the world map and Chase’s disguises were also found through the gamepad. This was the only title by TT Games that was not released across all current-generation consoles which disappointed me immensely. I did not play this game upon release.

In fact, I did not play LEGO City Undercover until 2019 through the remaster on PS4.

LEGO City Undercover is by far my favorite LEGO game produced by TT Games. This is one of the few LEGO games that plays well as a single-player experience (the Wii U version, due to the gamepad being crucial to the gameplay, had no options for co-op play).

What makes Undercover such a strong and unique experience is its subversion of the gameplay expected from every LEGO title produced by TT Games. Games like LEGO Star Wars or LEGO Indiana Jones rely on different characters with special abilities to traverse each map and complete specific objectives. Undercover, as it was initially designed as a single-player game, needed to find a way to maintain the gameplay feature of using different characters to complete each level. The solution? Disguises.

The Many Looks of Chase McCain

Chase McCain, being an undercover cop in LEGO City, has several disguises each with their own special tools and abilities. For example, when Chase is in his astronaut disguise, he’s able to fly across short distances (much like R2-D2 in LEGO Star Wars) and build teleporters to access areas of the map usually unreachable. The criminal disguise allows Chase to crack safes to access key items and character tokens. The disguise feature is a really fun alternative to the usual formula for LEGO Games that helps to make Undercover distinct.

Chase McCain in his undercover cop disguise, *LEGO City Undercover* [2017]

Another major appeal of the game is its open world. Many have made the claim that Undercover is the LEGO, family-friendly version of Grand Theft Auto. And this statement isn’t inaccurate. LEGO City has a massive map, inspired by several metropolitan areas in the United States—namely New York and San Francisco, and there are plenty of opportunities throughout the game to pull off car heists and arrest criminals. It’s very easy to simply jump into the game, drive around the city, complete mini-games and seek out hidden character tokens.

My favorite aspect of the game is the writing. Much of the charm of Undercover comes from its original storyline and script. The dialogue is very witty, and there are lots of references to popular fiction, including Sherlock Holmes, The Shawshank Redemption, Goodfellas and The Matrix. And LEGO City Undercover was generally well received upon release, and sold reasonably well at 1.9 million units globally.

Like The LEGO Group’s other ventures into video games and other media, cross-promotions with physical LEGO products were created for LEGO City Undercover. Between 2013 and 2017, four physical minifigures of Chase McCain were released to tie in with his appearance in the original Wii U release, the 2017 remaster, and his appearance in LEGO Dimensions. We’ll be investigating all four versions of Chase today and figure out what became of one of LEGO’s most underrated mascots.

Chase McCain Polybag - Best in the Academy

Chase’s first minifigure release came as a promotional item if you preordered LEGO City Undercover. It was also sold at Target for $1 and came with a card to reserve a copy of the game. I received this figure a few years after its release from a friend in high school as an unexpected Christmas gift. On top of this being one of my favorite figures, it holds a lot of sentimental value to me as well.

Looking at the polybag, the graphic design is very strange. The background is your standard LEGO City fare, a distant cityscape, a field of grass and some pavement. But Chase doesn’t look good. The most obvious issue with the design is that his hair is presented as reddish brown, not dark tan. It also doesn’t look like they took a picture of the figure and overlaid it on the background. Chase looks like a strange cobbled-together render.

The face and the torso print both look like they were digitally added rather than already being printed on the figure, and the image quality of the hair, torso and leg pieces look sort of fuzzy. There’s also a cheap-looking badge with “Chase McCain'' on it. It’s lazy, and at first glance, it could easily be mistaken as a rudimentary Photoshop job.

But enough of that, here we have the actual Chase McCain from the polybag.

The overall look of this figure is solid. I dig the exclusive torso print, namely the button-up shirt beneath the vest, and the badge outline printed on the right arm, while not much, is a nice touch. Any arm printing is good with me. I also like the figure’s leg printing. It’s simple and can be used for a wide array of custom minifigures. The face print is also nice; and, for a short time it was reserved solely for Chase. I do wish the face was dual-sided, showcasing some other expression like concern or a big smile. This may not be one of the most elaborate or crazily designed video game exclusives, but it’s my favorite.

As a kid, I had no idea I could get this figure at Target if I bought a reservation card, so I wasn’t able to get my hands on it in 2013. However, I could get Chase McCain another way.

60007 and the Generalization of Chase McCain

LEGO City Undercover was released in tandem with the annual wave of police LEGO sets. 2013’s subtheme was the Elite Police, and one of them in the wave was 60007 High Speed Chase.

This was a direct tie-in to LEGO City Undercover. It was pretty good. It came with a very nice Police SUV, one of the more unique police vehicles of the time, a decent sports car, and a motorcycle. The SUV’s license plate was also an exclusive code to get the SUV and the Sports Car in the game.

The Chase McCain in this set is arguably a downgrade from the polybag figure. Chase uses the standard elite police torso and legs from the wave, and his head and hairpiece are the same as the exclusive figure.

Even if you don’t own any version of Chase McCain, you may have a few heads with his likeness. Chase’s faceprint ended up being used as a generic piece for minifigures after his release in set 60007. This print appeared in 14 sets on 13 different minifigures between 2013 and 2020, including two other versions of Chase we’ll be looking at. In 2019 a new print was released that looks extremely similar to the first. However, the new print has black eyebrows instead of dark tan.

The generalization of Chase’s face print is an unfortunate sign of his relevance as a unique character fading away, as any sign of McCain in any form wasn’t seen again until 2017.

The Return of Chase McCain

Chase appeared as a physical figure twice in 2017 as LEGO City Undercover was being remastered and released on PC and all current-gen gaming consoles of the time. With this came a City set featuring McCain and a fun pack for LEGO Dimensions.

The first of these two is 60138 High-Speed Chase. (Really? We’re reusing the same name again and simply hyphenating “high speed?”)

The Chase McCain minifigure here really isn’t anything to write home about. He uses the standard police uniform for 2017. In the Remaster of LEGO City Undercover, this iteration of Chase becomes the default police disguise in the game.

The last set we’re looking at is 71266 Chase McCain Fun Pack for the LEGO Dimensions game. Looking at the figure, the design is the same one Chase uses in “high hyphenated speed chase,” except it’s printed on a light blue torso. I guess props to LEGO for not doing a complete rehash?

It looks nice, better than the dark blue variant, and until I saw these two figures side-by-side I hadn’t realized it was a reuse. There’s really nothing too great about either of these versions of Chase, and neither comes close to the polybag figure.

Beyond his minifigure releases, Chase McCain appeared in two picture books from Scholastic. He had an episode dedicated to him on The Adventures of Max from LEGO Club TV, and apparently, an LED key light was created using his original police design.

There’s an entry for it on BrickLink, but there are zero sales or listings for it. This may or may not exist as I’ve found no trace of it on eBay or other resale sites, let alone in-hand images of the product. If anyone knows how I can get my hands on this gear, please let me know—it’d be the coolest thing to add to my collection. Consider this an open investigation.

Where is Chase McCain Now?

Chase McCain only received four physical minifigure releases between 2013 and 2017. I wish Chase had been in more sets, or some of his other appearances were made as physical minifigures. His civilian look in the game would have been great to have as a physical release, and I’d also have been down to see his undercover police design.

Chase didn’t leave much of a mark after his departure in 2017, save for his faceprint still being used for a myriad of figures in Speed Champions and City to this day. The remaster of LEGO City Undercover was his swan song, and the landscape and direction of City as a theme has changed a lot since Chase was relevant. One of the things that made Chase stand out initially, was his being a named character in LEGO City. Distinct characters with names and defined stories didn’t really exist prior to 2013 (unless you count Max Timebuster from some 90s System town sets).

During LEGO City Adventures’ run from 2019 to 2022, the City theme included minifigures of the cast in its waves of sets, including Duke Detain who for a time arguably took the place of Chase in the landscape of The LEGO Group. But even Duke’s time as a mascot of LEGO City has seemingly come to pass. No trace of him can be found in the early 2024 police wave (Chase’s faceprint can be seen on an officer in 60415 though!).

Currently, there is no mascot of the City theme akin to Chase or Duke, but I’m sure in a few years, another attempt to create something like LEGO City Adventures will come about and be just as cool to the current generation of young LEGO fans as Chase McCain is to me.

Chase McCain and LEGO City Undercover represent in some part a very particular era of LEGO that I look back on very fondly. LEGO City Undercover encapsulates that time through the sub-themes of City represented (Mining, Farm, Police, Fire), the unlockable vehicles directly based on physical sets of the time, and the Collectible Minifigures found as unlockable characters throughout the game. While I think that Chase is a super cool minifigure and character on his own, he also represents an access point to nostalgia for a time in The LEGO Group’s history I often wish still existed.

So there we have it. That’s every version of Chase McCain for you. Unfortunately, I think 2017 was the last year we’ll see Chase. Of the several LEGO mascots in the 2010s, Chase was certainly my favorite, and I don’t think that’s going to change anytime soon.

There is something comforting in the fact that his face print lives on in other sets… perhaps it is really Chase, deep undercover in disguise investigating another mystery!

Did you play LEGO City Undercover? What do you think of Chase McCain? Do YOU own that LED key light? What other aspects of early 2010s LEGO City are you fond of?

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