[Review] 75894 1967 Mini Cooper S Rally and 2018 MINI John Cooper Works Buggy

[Holodoc]

Name: 75894 - 1967 Mini Cooper S Rally and 2018 MINI John Cooper Works Buggy
Theme: Speed Champions
Year: 2019
Parts: 481
Minifigs: 4
RRP: 44.99 GBP, 49.99 USD or 49.99€

Brickset / Bricklink / Shop@Home

Speed Champions have reached the fourth year of existence with the new collection of 5 new sets in 2019. This one being the biggest and most expensive of them all.

TLC’s official notes to this set:

“Stage a classic vs. modern rally race with these cool LEGO® Speed Champions 75894 1967 Mini Cooper S Rally and 2018 MINI John Cooper Works Buggy car toys! The 1967 Mini Cooper S Rally features a roof rack with 2 spare tires, just like the original car, while the 2018 MINI John Cooper Works Buggy has suspension to drive over rough terrain. Play out exciting rally racing scenarios with 4 LEGO minifigures and a fully equipped pit stop station, including a buildable car jack stand, a mechanic's creeper, tool racks, assorted tools and computer screen elements.

• Includes 4 minifigures: Mini Cooper S Rally driver, MINI John Cooper Works Buggy rally driver, race marshal and a mechanic.

• The race-ready, buildable 1967 Mini Cooper S Rally features a minifigure cockpit, removable windshield, wheels with rubber tires, roof rack with 2 spare tires, racing colors, race-graphics stickers, translucent light-style elements and authentic design details.

• The speedy, buildable 2018 MINI John Cooper Works Buggy features a minifigure cockpit, removable windshield, wheels with rubber tires, suspension, racing colors, race-graphics stickers, translucent light-style elements and authentic design details.

• Remove the windshields to place a minifigure in each car.

• Pit stop station features tool racks, a buildable car jack stand, 2 mobile opening tool cabinets, a mechanic's creeper with wheels and assorted elements including 2 TV screens, a ‘MINI' sign, trophy, gas can, camera, flag and various tools.

• Place a car on the jack stand and use the mechanic's creeper to check underneath.

• Accessory elements include a helmet for each driver and the race marshal’s cap and checkered flag.

• 1967 Mini Cooper S Rally toy car for kids measures over 2” (6cm) high, 3” (9cm) long and 1” (4cm) wide.

• 2018 MINI John Cooper Works Buggy measures over 2” (7cm) high, 5” (13cm) long and 2” (7cm) wide.

• Pit stop station measures over 5” (13cm) high, 11” (30cm) wide and 4” (12cm) deep.”

I always wonder when reading the official information about sets, if less (words) wouldn’t be more (fun to read). It's a nice set, no doubt, but almost everything is highlighted, from a mechanic’s creeper (consisting of three parts exactly) to a checkered flag (which is stickered…).

Now, is that set worth all the words? Read on…

The first thought which came to my mind when seeing this set, was “Yay, a cute Mini!”
The second thought was: “What in all the world is this big ugly green thing?” And why are both of them in one set?
The answer to the first question was easy: A car I have never heard of before: “Mini John Cooper Works buggy”. A type of car that wasn’t part of the speed champions family until last year, when 75885 Ford Fiesta M.Sport WRC marked the first release of a rally car. Now the answer to the second question was easy, too: This set is about rally cars! You may not have noticed, but the red Mini isn’t an every-day streets car, but also a rally rendition!
The green … thing… somehow still is different to all the other cars within the speed champions range: It combines the rally car exception of the Ford Fiesta with the width exception and rubberband suspension of the Ford F-150 Raptor.

Nevertheless while building this beast it grew on me and finally I’m happy to call it my own.

The package:

38,2 x 26,2 x 7,1 cm are the measures of the box which comes in the stylish Speed Champions outfit in Black. The front shows the complete set in a rally surrounding, the back has got two detail images of each of the cars along with two photos of each real model. The Mini S seems prefers a snowy surrounding while the Cooper Works buggy is desert oriented.

The contents:

The set comes with 3 numbered plastic bags, a hefty sticker sheet and the instructions. Bag 1 contains the parts for the Mini S, bag 2 the dark green buggy and bag 3 the parts for the pit stop station.

The sticker sheet consists of 35 (thirty-five!) stickers! Yikes!
11 will be used for the red car, 19 for the green one and 5 for the pit stop/flag.

I mostly abstain from using the stickers – especially in the Speed Champions range.
The cars really work well without! Of course they look a bit better with the stickers and are more detailed, but if have you ever had (like me) problems with older stickers crumbling from the bricks like here:

or with the removal of older stickers on LEGO parts, you know the reason why I keep my models naked.
And for me it’s somehow more ‘original’ LEGO, the way it should be: Made from bricks only.
If you prefer to see images from the set with stickers on, follow the above links to Brickset or S@H.

The parts:

Bag 1

The most interesting parts in the whole set are included in bag no. 1.

Here we see 3 unique black parts: A brand new mudgear, a small bracket and an ax.
In red we have the new 1x2 plate with rounded corners (okay, not really rare, now in 13 sets) and the even newer 1x2 rounded brick (can only be found in Queen Watevra’s Build Whatever Box 70825). The 1x3 panel (new in 2017) in dark orange is quite rare (3 other sets), so is the white bar (only found in Daredevils stunt plane 31076). The so called double jumper, 1x3 plate with 2 knobs from 2018 is still rare (5 other sets), too. The unique windscreen is printed with a small red/silver stripe to indicate the a- and c-pillar.

Bag 2

More interesting bricks:

Here we find the new red rounded car roof, one of them is printed and unique. The 1x1 brick with side bar can be found in 8 other sets, we see a unique 1x1 half circled tile in black and a lot of rare dark green elements shown in the photo and one unique one: The inverted double baby bow (slope, curved 2x2 inverted). To my big surprise the light blueish gray plate 1x4 with two knobs is also unique! I would have expected this part to be far more widespread, but it’s the first time we see this part in lbg!

Bag 3

Finally bag 3 contains some rare elements like the new rollercoaster rail piece, the vertical support 2x2x10, the bar from 1980(!) which - to my surprise - still occurs in less than 10 sets in this color  and the dark tan curved slope 2x2.

 

The minifigs:

This set comes with four minifigs, three of them being unique (the torso at least), just the photographer is more widespread.
I appreciate it's female drivers along with the dirty face on the mechanic.

The female figures also sportan alternative faceprint on the back. (But I don't think this is telling us a complete different story in times of 'me-too')

 

The build:

Quite enjoyable! We are used to SNOT-building nowadays and these models are no different. With the new 1x1 brackets we can build even narrower! Perfect for a model as small as the Mini!

The new mudguards are attached with an offset of a jumper plate. Curved slopes on the sides – Perfect!
Note that the Mini is the first Speed Champion with a width of 5 studs! Including the mudguards it’s a bit wider though, it's fits snuggly between a gap of 6 studs.

Isn’t it a beauty!

Especially when compared with TLC’s first attempt to render a Mini in LEGO, the 40109 Creator car from 2014.

Pimp guide: If you want to use the Mini without the wheels on top, just remove some parts and add some and voilá!

And here's a quick try to MOD the Mini to a complete street version:

I'm sure you can do better.

 

On with the John Cooper Works Buggy.

Again a lot SNOT building is used.

It shares the same suspension technique with the Ford Raptor using the red rubber band and T-shape technic beams.

The steering is located on an absurd height though. The steering wheel is right before the driver’s face. I doubt the original shares the same construction.

Very clever is the solution for the front: Here upside down building creates the nose of the car. Note that the studs of the to-be-plugged submodel face downwards already, it's a 2x4 tile underneath.

Here they go.

The final car is full of power: Every detail breathes muscles and energy. 

This beast is more than 9 studs wide. 

It’s a nice build, but I have to say I'm a bit unsure what to say about the comparison to the original – which has 340 hp and 800 nm of torque by the way:

The car to the left is the real Cooper Works buggy. Obviously TLC chose not to use the dark red color to have a better contrast to the 1967 Mini. But they could have also used dark green for the old rally car and dark red for the new one. That would have been a lot closer.

The sides are well done, but the front is looking a bit weird, especially with those green bow parts facing to each other with the whole. I know those shapes are really a pain to build in LEGO, yet that may be no excuse.

Both cars next to each other:

Not taking into account the lack to original colors they look gorgeous and in LEGO the color selection works. Red and dark green/black look fantastic next to each other!

 

The pit stop

There is really not much to say about bag #3. No one will buy the set for this particular bricks, we all know it’s just an add-on to the cars.
Yet with the hinge parts you can place it in different positions: Straight, angled or boxed.

You can work on the underside of the cars, if you manage to somehow lift your car on the two poles - here with the hand of God of course, as there is no lifting mechanism. The obvious tools and some possibilities to store them complete the pit stop.

Comparison to other Speed Champions

I have written that the cars don’t fit to the usual size of Speed Champions: The red Mini is smaller and the John Cooper Works Buggy is wider that the ‘usual’ Speed Champions car.
Is that a bad thing?

NO!

It transports the real thing into LEGO size. Compared to each other there is nothing wrong in either the Ford (which is indeed looking extremely weird without the front stickers), the buggy, the MCLaren nor the Mini. They all look wonderful next to each other, each one a close to perfect rendition of the original.

Final verdict

Design:      - with a 10 for the red Mini, an 8 for the green one. The cars are simply wonderful. You may have to get used to the buggy, but the Mini more than makes up for it. The pit stop (6 points) adds nothing.

Build:         Enjoyable, non-repetitive, clever detail solutions.

Playability: you get 2 cars, 4 minifigures and a pit stop = perfect playability!

Price:         You may reconsider to buy this at rrp - which is simply too much for my taste. Everything below 40€ is an instant buy recommendation. And you should easily be able to find someone selling it for this price. Btw. I strongly believe if they sold just the red Mini for the usual 14,99€ it would fly off the shelves!
 

Overall:   

That’s always the question: Is it worth the money?

It’s a ‘yes, but’.

You have to be into cars to love this set. I bet almost no one knew the original Cooper Works buggy before it was made a LEGO set. So it’s hard to convince yourself to buy a 50€ set if you actually wanted just the red Mini. But rest assured: Both cars are great and a very nice addition to your car collection. The red Mini easily fits in every City layout, for the buggy it’s a bit more complicated.

This set was kindly provided by the LEGO CEE team. I myself don’t have any dependencies on TLC, so I was able to build my mind on this set without any influence.  

[Johnny1360]

Thanks for a great review, even though I have already bought this set, thankfully I found it for 20% discount. I mostly agree with everything you said, I really do like the little Mini, very fun build and I liked the big one too, even if it doesn't really fit in with the rest of my collection. One thing though I was extremely happy to get the pit stop parts, unlike most people, mostly for the upright girder things and more roller coaster track, yay.

It seems to me like Speed Champions just keeps getting better with each new wave and this set is no exception. I can see other people's point though on just wanting the little red Mini and hating the rest as useless fluff, I however enjoyed the whole set thoroughly and found it to be a great build. I do agree it is a bit pricey as well but as with almost all LEGO sets, if you are a bit patient, you should have no problem getting it at a discount. Thanks again for taking the time to review the set, I always like to see what others think of the sets I have already bought. 

[Jim]

Wow, nice review Doc! Good busy as we say in The Netherlands 

[Pchan1983]

Great review.  I'm not buying this set because I only interested in the small red mini.  Getting parts from B&P and planning to build one =)

[Seasider]

Thanks for a great review. You said about making the Original Mini in a different colour to provide a contrast, but it's a model of a very specific Mini. No 177 which won the Monte Carlo Rally in 1967 which also explains the snow in the pictures.

I do really want the original mini but just don't like the Dakar buggy

[adwind]

Thank you for review. I enjoyed reading it. Looks like I'm starting to love speed champions with all this mustang madness and cuteness of mini :) 

[ShaydDeGrai]

Thanks for this.  I was pretty much ready to write this set off but based on the parts and the details you highlight in your review, I think I'll give this one a second chance and keep an eye out for sales - with the right discount it might make a nice set to do with my daughter.

Thanks again, this has been quite helpful.

[Holodoc]

20 hours ago, Johnny1360 said:

...I always like to see what others think of the sets I have already bought. 

Thanks for your reply. This part I enjoyed most!

@all: Interesting to hear I was right with my bet on the red Mini!

7 hours ago, Seasider said:

You said about making the Original Mini in a different colour to provide a contrast, but it's a model of a very specific Mini. No 177 which won the Monte Carlo Rally in 1967 which also explains the snow in the pictures.

Oh, thank you very much for letting us know!
So if both cars would have been made in their original colors it would have been a red and dark red combination.
Then I prefer this colour choice!

[prototyp]

Nice review, thank you.

For what it's worth, the dark-green #314 car included in the set is a real thing as well... There were three Mini 'buggies' at Dakar in 2018; the red one shown above ran #305, a Red Bull-sponsored #310, and the #314 green car. Via BMW:

https://www.bmwblog.com/2018/01/11/fascinating-photo-gallery-dakar-2018-mini-x-raid-team/#jp-carousel-270457

What gets a little confusing is that the 2019 #314 Dakar car is the more-normal-MINI-looking non-buggy MINI also in dark green. Different years, different racecars, same color and number. Google searches turn up a mix of both but tend to show more recent photos... Given Lego's MINI set was released before the 2019 Dakar was run, it makes sense that it's the 2018 car which is depicted.

Edited March 14, 2019 by prototyp

[Holodoc]

Wow - nice find! Thank you for the update on cars and colours!

[KLF]

So many nonsense in one review...

1. What is TLC?

2. Current stickers are OK. I have my Speed Champions from the 1st wave still on sunlight andthey have NO yellowing and NO cracked stickers.

3. The dark green color is the color of REAL Dakar car!

 

[Jim]

47 minutes ago, KLF said:

So many nonsense in one review...

Is it really that hard to not be such a keyboard warrior and discuss things in a mature and constructive fashion? I really don’t get why people act like this online (and offline for that matter).

TLC is still widely used among AFOLs btw.

http://www.brickwiki.info/wiki/TLC_vs_TLG

[KLF]

3 minutes ago, Jim said:

Is it really that hard to not be such a keyboard warrior and discuss things in a mature and constructive fashion? I really don’t get why people act like this online (and offline for that matter).

I guess negative feedback is also a relevant feedback. Or are you awaiting just positive feedbacks?

6 minutes ago, Jim said:

Is it really that hard to not be such a keyboard warrior and discuss things in a mature and constructive fashion? I really don’t get why people act like this online (and offline for that matter).

TLC is still widely used among AFOLs btw.

http://www.brickwiki.info/wiki/TLC_vs_TLG

The LEGO Company NEVER (!) existed! So TLC could be just this pop band from 90's. A real AFOL knows just TLG - The LEGO Group.

[Jim]

It’s not about negative or positive. It’s the tone of voice that’s completely unnecessary.

[Holodoc]

1 hour ago, KLF said:

I guess negative feedback is also a relevant feedback. Or are you awaiting just positive feedbacks?

The LEGO Company NEVER (!) existed! So TLC could be just this pop band from 90's. A real AFOL knows just TLG - The LEGO Group.

What counts is constructive feedback - and I'm open for that.

You say 'many nonsense' and your points are:

• I wrote TLC. You could have referred to our own abbreviation manual, but Jim already gave you an external link which also points out the meaning of this abbreviation. Did you follow that link? I doubt it, because your answer was that Lego Company never existed. Is that so? Brickwiki says "In the late 1990's, the group changed it's official name to "The LEGO Company". So who is right? Whatever - that's not the point! It is a company and this abbreviation is therefore valid. Where is the nonsense?
• you disagree with my comments on stickers. That's okay. Nevertheless I made bad experiences and stick to what I wrote and I do not apply them. What's nonsense about this?
• You say dark green is the color of the real Dakar car. Okay, you may have noticed that other members before found this colour as well. There seem to be two variants of Mini Cooper Works buggies. What I found in the web was this page (sorry, in my native language), this one and this Youtube video titled "MINI John Cooper Works Buggy. Dakar Rally 2018", which lead me to the conclusion the original would be red. How could it not think this way? Now I even found there seems to be another third car in silver/blue. So what now? What's the 'real' colour? Green? Fine. Read my comments to that above. I have to problems to stand corrected. 
  But again: Where do you see nonsense here?

And you wonder why we don't appreciate your non-constructive feedback? Yeeezzz...

[Johnny1360]

To me it was a good review a couple of minor things wrong, doesn't make the whole review full of nonsense. Reviews are opinions of one person and because I don't agree with everything doesn't make it a bad review either. I didn't agree with everything and made my point as to what I thought. It would be nice if others could do the same. 

Don't be bothered by it @Holodoc it was a great review and I look forward to seeing more from you, thanks again for taking the time. I think if you are going to slam someone's review, you should back it up with one of your own.

[jfbat]

Great review, insightful about the builds. That small Mini is a great feat, with al those inventive building techniques going on there. I don't really care that in reality (going by your more real life pics of it) it seems to look a bit less like the real thing than in the official pics of it.

But it also makes me want to buy the set even less than before. I still don't give a toss about the big green car (by the way, it took me quite some time too to find a pic of the real life thing, as google throws up almost all of the cooper works/mini dakar cars when you look for mini/cooper buggy dakar and similar wordings) and the amount of "filler" (my opinion) is over the top as in most bigger Speed Champions sets. For me, some 70% of the RRP is for stuff I'd rather not have, and that's just too much.

[Duxx]

I like review and decided to get set after reading it

I personally use stickers, didn't have any bad experience with them in last 25 years

and I 100% agree with conclusion - making red mini as 15 usd set would sell like crazy, I'm still confused why TLC or TLG or LEGO ( :))))))) ) didn't do so

[LEGO Train 12 Volts]

It's really a pity that they don't sell the mini cooper alone ... with the only mini cooper Lego would sell a lot! 

[AE bricks]

I like your MOD to turn the 5 wide mini into a normal street version, i would have done practicly the same way, although i havent bought this set yet. 

Just waiting until the price drops a bit or a nice promotion turns up... 

[Holodoc]

21 hours ago, Duxx said:

and I 100% agree with conclusion - making red mini as 15 usd set would sell like crazy, I'm still confused why TLC or TLG or LEGO ( :))))))) ) didn't do so

 

11 hours ago, LEGO Train 12 Volts said:

It's really a pity that they don't sell the mini cooper alone ... with the only mini cooper Lego would sell a lot! 

Obviously there is someone at TLC () who decided they could earn more money with this set.

In my opinion the red Mini alone would easily sell more than three times to make up for the smaller price.

But you can find a similar decision on this set, too:

Count the AFOLs who buy this set for the white Porsche RSR. But here the contrast of the two cars is smaller, even the RSR has appeal.

Then again you can easily download the building instructions for the red Mini and build it yourself (if there weren't so many exclusive parts... ).
Let's be glad LEGO actually released a wonderful Mini.

[LEGO Train 12 Volts]

6 hours ago, Holodoc said:

 

Count the AFOLs who buy this set for the white Porsche RSR. But here the contrast of the two cars is smaller, even the RSR has appeal.

In fact, I've bought this set and then I've sold the green Porsche for 20 euro

[Holodoc]

5 hours ago, LEGO Train 12 Volts said:

In fact, I've bought this set and then I've sold the green Porsche for 20 euro

???

Aaarghh! Why didn't you tell me?

[BimmerBoy]

Thank you for your review.  I'm now leaning towards purchasing this set.  I was going to grudgingly pass, as I think the red Mini is fantastic, but I have no interest in the dark green vehicle.  The purchase price is difficult to justify if one truly dislikes a major component of the set...  However, seeing the minifigs up close (I like the driver outfits and dirty face prints), and noticing some other useful pieces, I think I might pick this set up.  Never hurts to have more dark green parts in the inventory!

As for your "critic", just ignore.  Those were some weak criticisms, and they were poorly presented.  

[Johnny1360]

10 hours ago, LEGO Train 12 Volts said:

In fact, I've bought this set and then I've sold the green Porsche for 20 euro

Ha, I thought everyone else did just the opposite. I did like that set as well, I enjoy getting those little track side builds, I plan on putting them all together for a race track display in the future. 

@Holodoc  Did you have problems with those stupid rubber bands that hold the spare tires on top, they look great on your set. With mine it was all I could do to even get them to stay on, in fact I had to angle them slightly but still if I even look at the car the tires just pop right off. Can't for the life of me see anything I did wrong.