Lego Speed Champions vs Modulars (scale)

[LegoSjaak]

What do you think.. are the Speed Champions just a tiny bit too big for a Modular Building Layout, or do they fit in?

[Kjellevirus]

Looking good. I find they fit in very well. It seems the people are very rich in your city!

[LegoSjaak]

1 minute ago, Kjellevirus said:

Looking good. I find they fit in very well. It seems the people are very rich in your city!

...my idea was something like a parade with exotic cars...like you see with Easter here.....

[ReplicaOfLife]

To be honest, I find these to be very disproportionate in relation to a minifig (at times comically so), especially with regards to height and length.
But then, pretty much all current Lego vehicles look way to big. But I guess this is a compromise that has to be made in one way or another.

But to answer your question: The modulars - a least the older ones - are pretty grand in their exterior design, so while these cars are still a bit on the large side, they work alright with them - especially with your XXL versions.

[LegoSjaak]

14 minutes ago, RogerSmith said:

To be honest, I find these to be very disproportionate in relation to a minifig (at times comically so), especially with regards to height and length.
But then, pretty much all current Lego vehicles look way to big. But I guess this is a compromise that has to be made in one way or another.

But to answer your question: The modulars - a least the older ones - are pretty grand in their exterior design, so while these cars are still a bit on the large side, they work alright with them - especially with your XXL versions.

I follow your answer pretty much... But like cars, there are other things that are a bit off scale, mostly lanternposts, trees and so on.. but all together, and watching with Brick-eyes... it does the job!

[Jasper Joppe Geers]

I think you're just fine here. One can always question how to calculate size ratio.

When i did my stuff i usually calculated height first. So, consider a minifig being a person of 1.80 m.

Of course, if you then consider footprint, you're completely lost. :) I always wanted to put two minifigs side by side in a car, and design it 6 studs wide. Almost impossible.

And the one occasion that i managed it the design was really, really, really weird... ;)

 

Cheers!

JJ.

Edited April 13, 2017 by Jasper Joppe Geers

[LegoSjaak]

14 hours ago, Jasper Joppe Geers said:

I think you're just fine here. One can always question how to calculate size ratio.

When i did my stuff i usually calculated height first. So, consider a minifig being a person of 1.80 m.

Of course, if you then consider footprint, you're completely lost. :) I always wanted to put two minifigs side by side in a car, and design it 6 studs wide. Almost impossible.

And the one occasion that i managed it the design was really, really, really weird... ;)

 

Cheers!

JJ.

Jasper, yes you are right... what is the right scal for a minifig, if the minifig itself is totally out of scale... I could have made the parkinglots just a few studs longer though... but i tiled the baseplates first, and after that, i was considering the speed champions would be a nice addition with the right amount of detail in comparison with the modulars!

Here you can see better that the parkinglots are actually just as long as an average speed champion...

Edited April 14, 2017 by LegoSjaak

[Jasper Joppe Geers]

Well, It certainly looks great LegoSjaak. no question about that!

Looks like a start of the Canonball Race. :) 

[Venunder]

I agree they are slightly oversized for modulars but they still look good in the layout.

I also think City sized cars are just too small..

 

[LegoSjaak]

8 hours ago, Venunder said:

I agree they are slightly oversized for modulars but they still look good in the layout.

I also think City sized cars are just too small..

 

That is good remark too....the City cars are a but too small....that is also why i placed them in the back of the layout.. haha...Maybe the larger SUV-cars from last years City theme could fit in better... they are bigger and have larger tyres and so on!

 

[SollX]

i don't think speedchampions belong near a modular building

[LegoSjaak]

46 minutes ago, SollX said:

i don't think speedchampions belong near a modular building

Because of scale or other reasons?

[Littleworlds]

I think its pretty hopeless trying to "squeeze" Minifigs into a scale, as they are effectively their own scale, being so disproportional to the human shape. So in that regard you could say if a Minifig fits in and is neither too big or two small, then the car/house/airplane/boat/whatever is right. However to get all the details and shaping on the speed champions right, they had to blow them up quite significantly sizewise, which makes them look to me quite disproportional to me (and they are not even 2 seater!).

I think as a conclusion you can say that there will be never a perfect solution. Try to keep things looking at least coherent with each other and don't mind if its not all perfect to scale.

[SollX]

5 hours ago, LegoSjaak said:

Because of scale or other reasons?

scale.

It is cool that they are making models that look (a bit) like real life cars. But i think that they do not fit in with "normal" lego sets.

[bamsham363]

profile wise speed champions look spot on, they as you say are just not fit for purpose as only 1 seaters, i believe they can all be modded to become 2 seaters with a little work and imagination, am setting this as one of my goals.

[Ron Dayes]

To perhaps answer all questions since i've spent years trying to figure it out:

No, they dont fit in and a Speed Champion shouldnt really be near a modular, i can only agree to that fact with SollX.
Yes, a minifig is unproportionate and squeezing them into a 6 wide is certainly possible, hell i even get them inside a 5 wide, but the result is far from "amazing" and its better to either try to just fit one figure or none at all if you want a working layout.

None at all? Yes, cause if you scale everything after a minifig height of 1,65 to 1,80 m, you can rest assured that ANYTHING in your layout will work together BUT you may only fit in one fig (if you are less strikt) or like i said, none at all.

Fun fact: If you look at old lego sets from the 70ies to 90ies - note how the cars are SMALL? even so small they dont fit figs in the 70ies? Back in a day the Creators of those sets knew that if you build a car for a minifigure, it would be about impossible to fit the minifigure in. But they went with that anyway for the sake of scale! Today they sacrifice scale for the play factor, which is understandable from a Toy manufacturer.

if you look at this picture  https://brickset.com/sets/602-1/Fire-Chief-s-Car you may think "funny, its waaaay too small" - and now imagine you are the guy standing next to it, would it really be too small? No, its lower in height than the minifig and the overall sizing is reasonable for a vintage car. The car wheels are not higher than the figs hip - just go outside, stand next to a car and check the wheel size next to yourself. I promise, you will be amazed!  this odd little set is way better scaled and more true to minifig than anything that was offered to us from TLG in the last decades! Sounds ridiculous, but its the truth.

Now, if you want a good layout - and that statement goes beyong lego/bricks etc into model making in general - make sure you have everything in the same scale "key" or at least not too far off that "scale key"!

Result: Speed champions are even themselves ill proported, but if you want to use them, you'd literally have to increase the size of everything else surrounding them (buildings) to make it look "right". But thats perhaps a not so great decision and very costwise

Proposition to anyone with that scale issue: Build your own cars! You guys are grownups with bricks at hand. Be creative! Dont even bother using the sets and things TLG throws at you. Those are toys and safe for playing, but if you are just a tiny bit a serious builder and want it to look "real", make smaller cars and use smaller wheels. Thats actually the answer to all scaling problems one might have with modulars and trains and so on. As soon as you neglect the "urge" to fit in figs into your cars, the buidling of literally anyhting will begin to be easier and allow A LOT MORE DETAIL!
In my opinion the detail is more important than fitting in figs! And it should be if you consider how detailed modular buildings are. If you mixmatch a detailed building with a less detail ill proported chunky big car you create an unharmonic system. If you have no problem with that, ok sure why not. But if you really want to top your layouts up a notch, start building!

You can also say: its just LEGO, aint perfect, why even bother? Well, that kinda attitude wont solve any of the issues. You cant get right 100% with everything, but at least trying to get to 90% plus should be any AFOLs goal if you want some great looking MOCs and layouts.

here a few examples of how small and detailed you can actually build:
VW Sharan/ Ford Galaxy /Seat Alhambra by Ron Dayes, auf Flickr

Nissan 300 ZX by Ron Dayes, auf Flickr

Modular context, sundown by Ron Dayes, auf Flickr

Town layout by Ron Dayes, auf Flickr

For those who desperately need the figs in the cars, i can only advise you to check out "DeMarcos" builds - More Detail, better size and proportion and true craftsmanship whilst being easily buildiable with not too many bricks! https://www.flickr.com/photos/47875208@N07/

[AllanSmith]

I love the Speed Champions theme and I agree that Speed Champion vehicles are too big in scale for the modular buildings. That is why I build my own buildings on 48 x 48 stud base plates. Also the roads are not wide enough so I have just finished making a new 4 lane road on fourteen of the 48 x 48 stud base plates to go in front.  My next building is going to be the Downtown Diner XL version across 48 studs without the upper floors. Picture below of my layout before the new roads.

 

[Ron Dayes]

On 30.3.2018 at 9:08 PM, AllanSmith said:

I love the Speed Champions theme and I agree that Speed Champion vehicles are too big in scale for the modular buildings. That is why I build my own buildings on 48 x 48 stud base plates. Also the roads are not wide enough so I have just finished making a new 4 lane road on fourteen of the 48 x 48 stud base plates to go in front.  My next building is going to be the Downtown Diner XL version across 48 studs without the upper floors. Picture below of my layout before the new roads.

 

 

yeah, good thinking - with larger buildings the scale factor gets smaller and it looks way more suited together!

[AFOLguy1970]

I tend to overlook the scale issues and have no problem with Speed Champion cars in a modular layout.  It would be kind of fun to set up a street race scene.  Funny how the car is too big for the buildng, but the minifig is too big for the car.  The minifigs also are not in scale with the modulars either.  Take the BB for example.  The bank is supposedly a reasonable sized corner building.  Yet, the whole lobby would be the size of my living room if I was the "minifigure" for reference.  So it is easy for me to overlook the size issues.  I can be accepting of the Speed Champions, the vehicles included in the modulars, City Vehicles, the Mystery Machine, and other vehicles of similar size in a city layout.  

[Tobbit_is_here]

Personally, I think that minifigures are underscaled with everything; take minifigure accessories, for example: a walkie talkie is nearly the same height as a minifigure. Small accessories like wands are as long as minifigure legs... my point is, minifigures are small people in a big world, and Speed Champions fits right in. 

Hypothetically, if a world of LEGO existed, minifigures would surely decide that, for practicality, width is the most important factor, instead of some idea of needing to be taller than their vehicles. Addtionally, LEGO buildings, both City and Modulars, are a bit... small. Two, three stories, with relatively low ceilings... more "scaled" cars (I understand that minifigure scale is contentious, but I base it on a level of realism for minifigures) are bound to look big next to them, especially the eight wide cars. But, for example, if you were to place an eight wide car next to a large LEGO skyscraper, i think that they fit in really well. You can see that the ceilings are taller, and the numerous floors really create a scale that LEGO couldn't sell in a set.

(

Skyscraper build by @wooootles on Instagram

Some more examples:

"Situated in the layout.'

"The last shot before I dismantled my layout."

Edited January 17, 2022 by Tobbit_is_here