Last year LEGO released a new theme called LEGO Speed Champions, with sets featuring minifig-scale LEGO versions of real life racecars. To the seven sets that we got in 2015, LEGO added another seven this year, increasing the number of total sets to fourteen. We discussed the first wave of sets previously (see: 2015 LEGO Speed Champions Reviews), and today we will look at the newly released 2016 sets. 🙂
Just like last year, we get four sets with a vehicle, a driver and minimal add-ons, and three sets that are larger with included accessories to set up your racing scene. The four single car sets are the #75870 LEGO Speed Champions Chevrolet Corvette Z06, the #75871 LEGO Speed Champions Ford Mustang GT, the #75872 LEGO Speed Champions Audi R18 E-Tron Quattro, and the #75873 LEGO Speed Champions Audi R8 LMS Ultra.
The three larger sets include some classic cars as well! The #75874 LEGO Speed Champions Chevrolet Camaro Drag Race comes with a 1969 and a 2016 version of the Chevrolet Camaro, three minifigs, and a start-line setup. The #75875 LEGO Speed Champions Ford F-150 Raptor & Ford Model A Hot Rod also comes with three minifigs, a garage/victory-podium combination and a starting lights tower. The third set is the largest; the #75876 LEGO Speed Champions Porsche 919 Hybrid and 917K Pit Lane. It comes with two vehicles, five minifigs, a garage/pit-stop, car lift, fuel pump, start/finish podium and more.
Because the vehicles are quite small, they need to fit a minifigure, and remain sturdy enough for play, they are limited in size, shape, and building techniques. So there is a certain uniformity between the LEGO versions of the racecars, even if the real life vehicles look very different. This is particularly visible on the two Audis and the two Porsches. On the other hand, the Chevrolet Corvette Z06 looks particularly good and true to the original.
Another limitation is that just like in the 2015 sets, most of the vehicles are heavily stickered. To refine the shaping, details and colors on each vehicle in such a small scale made it necessary to use decorations. This can be achieved either with direct printing on the elements, or stickers. The windshields are printed, but the other decorations are stickered to keep down cost. I strongly recommend that you pick up extra stickers-sheets on BrickLink so you can replace the originals when they start to discolor or peel off. Once the sets get retired it will be a lot harder to get those stickers.
All in all in the 2015 sets we get eight racecars, and in the 2016 sets we get nine – which makes a really nice collection. In the video-player below I have included reviews of all the new LEGO Speed Champions sets, plus an extra review with an overall look of all the vehicles together from both years. Please note that JANGBRiCKS is very knowledgeable about real life racecars, which makes his reviews particularly relevant for these sets, but he is also a bit more critical on some of the LEGO models. Still, we both agree that the Ford Model A Hot Rod is awesome! 😀
Both the 2015 and the 2016 LEGO Speed Champions sets are currently available. If you plan to get several, remember that right now is Double VIP Points period, so you will earn twice as many points on your purchase! You can find all the sets under the LEGO Speed Champions section of the Online LEGO Shop.
So what do you think? How do you like the LEGO Speed Champions collection? Do you have any of the sets already? Or plan to get some? Which one is your favorite vehicle? Feel free to share your thoughts and discuss in the comment section below! 😉
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Sure do wish there weren’t so many stickers. I understand that the numbers, stripes, and sponsors probably need to be stickers, but I think LEGO should have at least done printed headlights. I almost never apply stickers in my LEGO sets, and usually you can get by without them, but it’s just not worth doing the Speed Champions unless you’re OK with the stickers.
That’s a really going point about the headlights. If LEGO would just have printed those, people who don’t like stickers could still build decent looking cars without having to apply them. BTW, there is also a really sweet race-car in the LEGO City category with printed headlights. I was going to mention it in the article, but then I forgot. It is the #60113 LEGO City Rally Car.
Exactly. It’s totally unreasonable to expect all the logos and such to be printed, but a car without headlights looks silly.
I love the Rally Car for its printed fog lights. Would love to stockpile a bunch of those.
Oh, yeah, fog lights! That’s what those things are called. I was trying to remember. 🙄
It’s hard to see that the Audi R18 e-tron quattro could be aerodynamically shaped… The real car looks like a loco hodgepodge…
LOL! But it’s fast! 😀
I like the Speed Champions theme, although I do think most of the cars look inaccurate to the real ones. Probably because the sets should be 8 studs wide instead of 6. Also, I went to the LEGO Store on Saturday and bought the Corvette Z06 75870 as my first SC set. I like the color and shape, and the new pieces. I was also considering the Audi R8, but my dad said it wasn’t accurate compared to the real, and the Corvette was better.
On the topics of my dad and the LEGO store, he wanted to get the Ideas Wall-E 21303 there, but apparently some store discounted it illegally, and now the set is on a 6 month freeze in the US. 😕 So on the way home my dad ordered Wall-E off Amazon, and it arrived yesterday. Now let’s see if he can build it.
LEGO loving dad? That’s awesome! Hope he does well with WALL-E. He is super cute and so poseable! 😀
They’ve fixed the posing now? I remember there were some issues in the first shipments…
Yes, the current sets are completely fixed. 🙂
I hope he got one of the fixed versions, but I can’t tell until he builds it. 😕