76917 Lego Speed Champions 2 Fast 2 Furious Nissan Skyline GT-R (R34)
The Fast & The Furious is a divisive franchise. To some it's just chewing gum for the brain and candy for the eyes with virtually no redeeming features at all. Corny dialogue, ridiculous cars and plots that have jumped an entire shiver (1) of sharks (2), it's Hollywood hokum writ large.
For others it's adrenaline-fuelled escapism at its finest; a film franchise that started out with a semi-serious thriller which then screamed - at about 150mph, and with a more-than-feasible number of gear changes - into a series of tongue-in-cheek, global scale heist movies via at least one questionable diversion (Tokyo Drift, I'm looking at you) (3), all shot through with a rich seam of automotive porn.
But with ten films in the series, plus one spin-off, and global takings of over six-and-a-half billion dollars though, you have to conclude that someone out there likes these films.
Me? I love 'em!
So when, in 2022, the Lego Group - specifically, theme lead, Chris Stamp - decided to expand the Speed Champions range and delve into the cinematic world for some inspiration, they picked two of the biggest sagas to begin with - James Bond and Fast & Furious. Thus it was that we got 76911 007 Aston Martin DB5 and 76912 Fast & Furious 1970 Dodge Charger R/T. Interestingly (to me, anyway), both of these cars had already been released at a larger scale, and in both cases, the prevailing opinion was that the Speed Champions versions were a signifiant improvement on their predecessors.
Back in 2018, 10262 James Bond Aston Martin DB5 appeared as part of the Creator Expert line, and for £130 you got a fairly blocky, slab-sided car that looked somewhat boss-eyed. Dom's Dodge Charger, meanwhile, showed up two years later in the Technic range as set no 42111. I can't speak for anyone else, but I've been serious about Lego collecting and building for eleven years now and this is, by a country mile, the worst set - of any theme - that I've ever owned. The build is grim, with parts having to be added to the interior after the roof has gone on, requiring fingers that are both small and double-jointed. It makes little use of Technic as a medium - there are few traditional Technic functions and the 'wheelie stand' is faintly ridiculous. Worst of all, the finished model looks awful. Compare this to 10265 Ford Mustang and 10304 Chevrolet Camaro Z/28 1969 from the Creator Expert / Icons theme, which are utterly gorgeous, and you can only wonder what might have been.
The blocky, bug-eyed DB5
Dom's Dodge Charger - dodge it indeed!
The Charger at Speed Champions scale - much improved
A DB5 as it should be - curvy!
The Ford Mustang - possibly the prettiest Lego car ever.
If you've got the Mustang, you have to buy the Camaro!
But ever since Dom's considerably better looking Charger appeared in its Speed Champions guise, fans of the series have been clamouring for a minifigure of Mr Toretto's partner-in-crime, Brian O'Connor, and a set of wheels for him to drive. And for most, there was only ever one choice of car.
Brian, as portrayed by the late and much lamented Paul Walker, has driven many, many vehicles in the series. The first film has the lurid green Mitsubishi Eclipse that he rolls up to his first race in, and the bright orange Toyota Supra which he hands over to Dom, as he owes him ' a ten second car'. In later films, he drives classics such as a Mk I Ford Escort RS2000, a number of Nissan GT-R35's and the Toyota Supra Turbo that marks his farewell from the franchise (it's ok to cry), but the star of the show was always going to be the car connoisseur's car - the Nissan Skyline GT-R 34 from the bordering-on-slapstick 2 Fast 2 Furious. You can see how he found the car, turned it into a street racer and ended up in Miami, here.
And that grey Skyline is the one that Lego, thankfully, chose. Have they got it right? Is it a street racing hero or a Saturday-night-in-Tesco's-car-park dud? Let's take a look...
Opening the box we get two bags of parts, numbered (unsurprisingly) 1 and 2, a chassis element and a sheet with - count 'em - 23 stickers. To be fair, anyone who has built a Speed Champions set will know that a high sticker count is par for the course and is usually worth the effort and frayed nerves that it takes to get them on straight. Some people choose to ignore the stickers on sets but that would look a little odd with the Skyline. While many of the stickers are replicating things like indicators, badges, dials and gauges, there are some sizeable ones that create the blue stripes down the side of the car. Because not even the Lego Group is harsh enough to ask builders to try and line up a couple of stickers on the curved rear wheel arches, these element are printed, so you really do need to apply at least the stripes. And if you're going to put them on, you may as well go the whole hog, right? Trust me, it's worth it.
But before you reach for the sticker sheet though, or indeed the car itself, first you have the minifigure of Brian O'Connor, as played by Paul Walker. It's a simple minifig, with regular grey legs and a torso that represents a crinkled white t-shirt. The printing covers both the back and front, and additionally, the arms are dual printed to represent the sleeves of the shirt. The head only has one face print, which is somewhere between 'smug' and 'concentrating'. It also has some 'designer stubble' (4) which fits with O'Connor's on-screen look. The hair looks a little too 'bouffant' though, although the colour is a pretty good match. On the whole, though, not bad at all.
Brian 'Big hair' O'Connor
On to the car itself, and it's something of a Curate's egg, that is to say, good in parts. Although 'excellent in parts with just a few let downs' is probably closer to the mark.
The colour scheme of blue and grey is absolutely on the money when compared to the original which is pictured on the back of the box. The designer has done a fantastic job with the extremities of the car - both the nose and the tail are remarkable in the way they mimic the big Nissan. The front grille, with the iconic GT-R badge, the front splitter, the brick built stripes and in particular the use of smoky clear 1x1 wedges to replicate the headlights are a joy to behold. Similarly, at the rear of the car, the use of minifigure neck brackets to cover a trans-red piece, just leaving the stud visible is an ingenious way to create the two smaller rear lights. The big rear wing, made from just a handful of parts is maybe a little chunky compared to the source material, but we're just quibbling now. A fat silvered exhaust pipe and a couple of stickers representing the numberplate and the Toyo Tires (5) logo round out a neat back end.
The Skyline from the front...
...and from the rear. Love those lights!
Talking of equipment and manufacturer's logos, Brian's GT-R has a line of them down the left hand side of the bonnet, from HKS to Sparco via JBL and a whole bunch of others that I don't recognise. These are conspicuous by their absence, as the top surface of the front wings are left as exposed studs rather than a smooth surface that could have had a sticker applied. Whether this was a conscious design choice, or whether it was just going to be too much time and money to agree all the various licensing deals I don't know. It's a minor omission at the end of the day that most people won't worry about.
Meanwhile the interior is packed with detail. A printed seat element, stickers galore representing dials and gauges, a roll cage and three canisters of nitrous oxide for that all important Millennium Falcon-style hyperspace boost. The cabin is completed with a smoked glass windscreen and rear glass, although faking the rear quarter lights with black stickers spoils the look a little. Again - minor niggles. Some trans-blue tiles under the chassis that hint at the under car lighting are a neat finishing touch.
So far, so good. In fact there's not much to complain about at all, other than the bonnet. The R34 has a very distinct sloping bonnet. It has a high boot lid, and from there the car's lines taper down slightly along the tops of the doors before diving down to the headlights at a pronounced angle. The designer has jacked the rear axle up by a plate to give a subtle lift to the back of the car, but there's nothing that can be done about the ruler-flat bonnet. To an interested bystander it's not a problem at all, but to the many people buying this set because they're fans of the original car, it's going to stick out like a sore thumb. To be fair, at this scale there's very little that can be done to remedy it. Having a look online, there are a good number of MOCs and modifications which achieve varying degrees of success, but none (that I've seen) successfully replicate the bonnet.
Let's just hope for a LEGO Icons version at the Mustang / Chevrolet scale at some point in the future. Now that would be a day one purchase!
Nice underskirt neon! Shame about the flat bonnet!
The original in all it's over-the-top glory!
Overall, then, a great set, which will sit happily alongside Dom's Dodge Charger (6) and, at less than £20, represents something of a bargain. Which isn't something you get to say about Lego sets very often these days. It's a fun build - around 90 minutes if you're taking your time to line those stickers up properly. Some interesting build techniques as we've come to expect from the Speed Champions range and a finished model that looks plain cool.
Highly recommended.
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1. I assumed it would be a 'school' of sharks, and according to some sources it it, but apparently a 'shiver' is also a valid collective name.
2. In case you're unfamiliar with the term, 'jumping the shark' is generally regarded as the point at which a popular TV series or film tries something utterly ridiculous in an effort to retain viewing figures. It originates from the US TV Series 'Happy Days' when the Fonz jumps over a shark on waterskis. To clarify - the Fonz is on waterskis, not the shark. You can read about it here.
3. Though it did introduce fan favourite, Han, so it's not all bad.
4. Is designer stubble still a thing?
5. I know it ought to be spelled with a 'Y'. It's an American thing.
6. No, they never appeared on screen together, but it matters not.
