LEGO Speed Champions 2020 - Rumors, Speculation, and Discussion

[Jaromir]

Personally, I am very happy to finally see 8 studs wide sets. Can't imagine how much better would Chiron or McLaren would look like if they were 8 studs wide instead of 6. However, I do not have any dioramas or garages or city sets as other guys here, so I am not bothered by the fact of not being able to squeeze them in the garage doors.

[ShaydDeGrai]

I was reviewing my collection of SC models last night and the more I think about it, the more I think I dislike the move to 8 wide.  I get that it makes for a higher fidelity model at that scale given available parts and tire sizes, but 8-wide is just an odd duck; it's too big to play well with City and Modular Building displays and too small be a "real" display model.  

If they are really worried about being able to render a higher fidelity model, then they should ditch any pretense of minifigure compatibility and just do one as a Creator Expert and jump to 12 or 14 wide so the finished product looks "reasonable" next to other large brick-built cars like the DB-5 or the Mustang.  I'd be fine with a slightly disproportionate 6-wide SC Lamborghini as well as a high fidelity 14-wide CE version of the same car - I'd buy both.  I pretty much did that already with Ferraris and Mini Coopers so why not?

TLG needs to figure out if SC are "swooshables" for mini-figs to zip around town in or if they are display models that don't need to "fit" with the rest of the mini-fig world.  If latter, then scale them up and pack them with so many details that they look good even without stickers; if the former, then stick to 6-wide and be creative about the proportions and give us a "close enough" model that actually fits down a road or in a garage designed for City vehicles.

 

[Retro]

11 minutes ago, ShaydDeGrai said:

I was reviewing my collection of SC models last night and the more I think about it, the more I think I dislike the move to 8 wide.  I get that it makes for a higher fidelity model at that scale given available parts and tire sizes, but 8-wide is just an odd duck; it's too big to play well with City and Modular Building displays and too small be a "real" display model.  

If they are really worried about being able to render a higher fidelity model, then they should ditch any pretense of minifigure compatibility and just do one as a Creator Expert and jump to 12 or 14 wide so the finished product looks "reasonable" next to other large brick-built cars like the DB-5 or the Mustang.  I'd be fine with a slightly disproportionate 6-wide SC Lamborghini as well as a high fidelity 14-wide CE version of the same car - I'd buy both.  I pretty much did that already with Ferraris and Mini Coopers so why not?

TLG needs to figure out if SC are "swooshables" for mini-figs to zip around town in or if they are display models that don't need to "fit" with the rest of the mini-fig world.  If latter, then scale them up and pack them with so many details that they look good even without stickers; if the former, then stick to 6-wide and be creative about the proportions and give us a "close enough" model that actually fits down a road or in a garage designed for City vehicles.

 

My interests flit between different themes, but when in a City mindset I had already decided that even six wide SC were much too large to look right in a town layout. I still think moving to eight is a good choice aesthetically. I would rather see some eight wide SC displayed on their own in a cabinet rather than in a town. It does make me stop to think though, is there a lack of good scale city cars full stop? Really, I think they should be as small as Emmet's black and white car. I suppose folks can just invent their own.

[Shiva]

Or, they could go back to the 4 wide cars?

6 vs 8 wide, why not have separate displays for these?

[madejp86]

ShaydDeGrai u hit the nail on the head. Lego has no idea what they are doing with this theme. It started out as city scale vehicles and they had their other creator vehicles which was all fine. Now they still have creator but these are no longer city scale. Personally I think this was an awful decision and their sales will drop but hey they have to learn one way or another. 

If this theme was supposed to be in between creator and city, that would have been fine but start that from the beginning, and not 3 years into it. 

[AlexSanders]

I believe that the moc builder that first share instructions of how to change older 6 wide sets to 8 will get to many views!

[meliander]

I agree with Shiva here. City's scale has always been 4-wide for cars... 6-wide SC cars like Porsche 911, which is not supposed to be big at all is huge next to minifigs strolling on the sidewalks and compared to the buildings and other City vehicles, like trucks, trains, airplanes.

This is why SC is not a subtheme of City, but it's own theme, which is not supposed to play well with City (I know, I know they did a 6-wide police car to play with SC), they needed to up the standard 4-wide scale for better detail.

Most kids which are the target audience for these sets, don't have their own city layouts. And even if some of them do, they don't care about the scale in a way adults do. They can even play with non-lego cars within Lego City layouts. But what they do care is how the cars look. And can you sit minifigs in the cars and how many? Do the doors open? Things like that.

@ShaydDeGrai While I would like to agree with you that we need more expert vehicles in the line, and I would be much happier to see Porsche and Lamborghini within it, and not as part of SC - I don't think that 8-wide are bad display models (even though I believe their primary function is play). Because they offer multiple minifig placement, a decent amount of detail (SC, in general, is way too reliant on stickers right now) and, unlike the Creator Expert - could be reasonably priced for parents.

[Luckyy]

11 hours ago, AllanSmith said:

LEGO is a company not an individual. I have been collecting LEGO since 1985 and there has  been a lot of changes since then. Buildings and cars have all increased in size. The number of colours and parts has also increased. LEGO raises the bar each year so that it gets sales and stays around as a company. As a huge Speed Champions collector and MOC builder I welcome the change.

I used to work for the biggest company in the world at the time and from my experiences  stupid decisions which make damage to the company  usually comes from new high ranked employees,  who need to justify their huge salaries. Usually they are making damage 3-4 years before they are kicked out of the company and meanwhile get for making damage more money then middle ranked employees who struggling fixing the damage in 20 years. 

[Akbalder]

I've never bought any Speed Champions set yet because the cars often look strange. With the switch to 8 studs, it might change.

[TeriXeri]

To be honest, the more I look at it, the more I dislike the fact of 2-packs, instead of 8 wide being a factor for me to purchase sets.

And with the current 2020 looking to have a parts/price increase that will play an even bigger role.

And of course I can say "don't build the other car" but sets like this year's Mini , the Mini was literally a Mini part of the overall set/price, but if it were a seperate set I'd likely have bought one.

I also didn't buy the first version of the 911 pack (lime green) , due to the other car in there.

Lambo remains one of my top favorite car brands, and I hope they might maybe do a Lambo in a bright color as single-set (Orange, Yellow, Bright Green), like they did re-release the 911 single set. Maybe add an option to "Spyder" , like the did have some customization with the F40 set.

Edited October 31, 2019 by TeriXeri

[Anonknee Muss]

I think 8 stud wide cars are a very welcome upgrade! Might actually buy my very first Speed Champions 2 pack...

[Whovastron]

The 8-wide thing is a good change in terms of design. But having almost the entire current backlog of this theme on display, the new ones are gonna just make no sense

[h311m4n]

So it seems we're getting the Huracan along with an Urus. 

https://www.motor1.com/news/379399/lego-lamborghini-urus-huracan-set/amp/

Edited November 1, 2019 by h311m4n

[Brick_MOCery]

I am excited for this new lineup and the change. Real cars range greatly in sizes. This is why I have four wide, six wide and eight wide cars in my city. I even have one ten wide if you count the previous Ferrari truck they put out. Eight wide cars work in a modular city just fine. Granted some of my modular MOC's are larger than the standard modulars, but still just one baseplate in size, I have standard modulars mixed in as well. They don't look out of place in my opinion. The wheel wells of an eight wide car just touch the striping of each side on a normal Lego street plate. There is still room for cars on the other side as well as bikes. A ten wide truck fits on one lane on the street albeit with little room to spare. Low wide cars should be the same width as a tractor trailer truck because they are around 70+ inches wide in real life. This also puts a car like the Mini in a better scale overall. You can even mix it up more now with 5 and 7 wide cars which allow for more variation as I'm sure a new chassis is being used for the Lambo, perhaps a wider one like the four wide one they use which is much more useful for MOC's than the City style versions. With SUV's the extra width definitely makes sense. The same is true if you do MOC's of classic American cars which are huge even by today's standards.

I am also digging the new parts I believe I see. I've been using train roofs to make that same shape as the Huracan windscreen, I've so wanted them to do a clear version of it with less attachment points instead of just the black or dark grey opaque versions that the train roofs come in. Got to buy a lot of those from Lego for the parts bin when those are available. That long smooth arch piece on the back of both looks new as well existing ones. Looks to be 8 studs long. Excited to have more options that aren't as restrictive. You have the six long brick, the four long slope that is notched at each plate level to be a stud high, or the 10 stud long slope that ends in a two stud long plate, but this actually throws designs off some. This looks to be a good in between version that is not a solid brick but notched out like the 4 stud long version allowing for more flexibility. I usually wait for discounts because LEGO isn't cheap, but I think I'm going to have to pick these ones up right away. Super cool.

To me eight studs side by side with mirrors and wheel wells really doesn't look that dramatically different, but you CAN do so much more with the extra space. I encourage those who are heartbroken and giving up on the lineup to reconsider. If you have them displayed then do an eight wide shelf and a six wide shelf and it won't look so "funny." If you have a city layout like I do then the variation should be welcomed so it imbues that realism you are probably trying to recapture. If not, then realize that Lego itself never matches scale  (a.k.a. Minifigure?) so why should a variation like this really destroy your dreams? Just my thoughts.

[BrickFit26]

From the pictures they don't look bad at all. I need to see more HD pics and a review. I also wonder if they'll uograde past SC models to 8 stud wide models.

[Anonknee Muss]

5 hours ago, BrickFit26 said:

From the pictures they don't look bad at all. I need to see more HD pics and a review. I also wonder if they'll uograde past SC models to 8 stud wide models.

I think that’s for us fans to do 

[Jaromir]

I don't think that conversion to 8 stud width of an old models would be possible, due to the huge amount of stickers used to recreate headlamps and grills. The car might look funny and out of scale without custom printed stickers.

[The Brick Boss]

I wanna see a Mercedes Atega. That thing is a beast. 

[AllanSmith]

2 hours ago, pooda said:

I wanna see a Mercedes Atega. That thing is a beast. 

I would rather have a Scania R999 Roadster like the one i designed ;) This is a 1000 hp beast :)

 

[The Brick Boss]

1 hour ago, AllanSmith said:

I would rather have a Scania R999 Roadster like the one i designed ;) This is a 1000 hp beast :)

Hmm....Lego has plenty of bricks to spare. Why not do both the Mercedes and the Scania? 

Edited November 2, 2019 by pooda

[AlexSanders]

13 hours ago, J4ck said:

I think that’s for us fans to do 

Yes. Somebody do it right now. Using parts current available

[rriggs]

On 11/1/2019 at 3:07 PM, Whovastron said:

The 8-wide thing is a good change in terms of design. But having almost the entire current backlog of this theme on display, the new ones are gonna just make no sense

Agreed.  I have all of the Speed Champions cars and they look great together on display and also work really nicely in my City layout which predominantly uses std LEGO roadplates. Eight wide will look odd in either situation so I am not looking forward to this. In the last year or two the details and quality of some of the cars has got really good which at six wide is challenging and I like to see the result of clever thinking.  Just making them bigger has some benefits but I think loses out in backwards compatibility and as a showcase for what can be achieved at six wide.

Cheers

Rog

[BrickFit26]

18 hours ago, J4ck said:

I think that’s for us fans to do 

Yes, but it wouldnt hurt if LEGO did remake some 8 stud wide. 

[MTBingNinja]

Am I the only one who doesn’t like the new Jaguar set?  Especially the i-Pace car?

[The Brick Boss]

21 minutes ago, MTBingNinja said:

Am I the only one who doesn’t like the new Jaguar set?  Especially the i-Pace car?

I don't care much for it myself.