[REVIEW] 75890 – Speed Champions Ferrari F40 Competizione

[imvanya]

Let me start with a disclaimer: this is my first ever review of a LEGO set. On the one hand, this means the review may be missing a few things you would expect from a review, most notably pictures, as I only decided to do a review after I had already built it. On the other hand, it should tell you right away that the set impressed me enough to warrant a review in the first place. Anyway, let's get right to it!

PRICE

According to Brickset, the RRP (recommended retail price) for a 75890 would be £12.99 / $14.99 / 14.99€. I live in Moscow, Russia, and I was able to pick it up for 1499₽ / ~$24 at an official LEGO certified store. Surprisingly, for about the same money I could get a 60256 Racing Cars or a 60242 Police Highway Arrest, though both have a noticible higher RRP on Birckset – £17.99 / $29.99 / 19.99€. You could also find a better deal, but in my case 2/3 of the price (1000₽ / ~$16) were covered by a gift card, which was a present from a friend for my birthday.

PARTS

The set contains 198 parts. They come in 5 bags – 3 larger unnumbered bags for the majority of the parts and 2 smaller bags each containing 2 sets of 4 wheel covers – 18978 and 29117, both in Flat Silver. As a matter of fact, I bought the F40 as a parts pack for my MOCs, and the wheel covers were what made it a must-buy – this is by far the cheapest way to get this many of them, let alone in one set. Just look at this:

Other parts worth mentioning:

• a nice variety of brackets – 10 (6 black + 4 red) 99780 Inverted 1x2, 3 white 99781 1x2 and 2 black 99207 Inverted 2x2;
• 6 relatively uncommon red 33909 Modified 2 x 2 with Studs on Edge;
• 5 (4 + 1 spare) black 20482 Round 1 x 1 with Bar and Pin Holder;
• 3 (2 + 1 spare) red 1x1 plates with a Ferrari emblem printed on the side, which only appears in 2 sets – this one and the recent 76895 Ferrari F8 Tributo;
• 3 (2 + 1 spare) black 1x1 plates with a red edge, which is unique to this set.

BUILD

As I mentioned, the set was bought as a parts pack for my MOCs. My MOCs are mostly 6-wide sports cars, so I expected there to be some similarities. Nevertheless, I was really surprised with just how densely built this set was. With City sets you often have cavities left in them, but 75890 was very reminiscent of my own MOCs in terms of density. 

The highlights of the build are a couple of SNOT sections. The bracket pieces I mentioned earlier are used to a great effect on the front, sides and rear. Their main purpose is to create a thin black brick-built stripe going around the car, as seen on the real-life prototype:

The stripe could easily be done with stickers, so it being brick-built instead is a nice touch. The part of this assembly that made me think "Oh, that's cool, I should remember that" was this:

An upside-down 4070 allows to get an odd-length half-plate black strip, and the 1x1 red tile lines up perfectly with the 33909 Modified 2 x 2 with Studs on Edge pieces attached to the bottom.

The unique black 1x1 plates with a red edge are used under the rear turn signals to have that black backdrop for the transparent pieces, but at the same time keep the red on the rear quarter panels consistent. Another thing I appreciated was the NPU exhaust pipe assembly. The real F40 has triple exhausts, which is recreated in the set using 2 20482 Round 1 x 1 with Bar and Pin Holder pieces with a 35480 1 x 2 Rounded Plate attached to them:

From the picture above it is also quite obvious that the proportions of the LEGO rendition of the car are off – the car looks too narrow. The move to 8-wide in 2020, then, starts to seem natural.

There was one part of the build, though, where I felt that the order of the steps could be switched. Personally, I would put step 38 after step 48, but its probably just me, so I wouldn't go into much detail.

Anyway, the finished set looks very Ferrari-like with its bright red exterior, and the shape is quite accurate, in part due the relatively simple shape of the source material. The set includes a little play feature that allows you to switch between the F40 Competizione and a regular F40 looks. This is achieved by taking off some of the parts and replacing them with the alternatives also included in the set. The parts that are changed are:

• the headlights;
• the front cover, which is not actually attached to any studs, but is kept securely in place by the windshield;
• the front splitter;
• the rear diffuser;
• the rear wing
• the wheel covers.

OVERALL THOUGHTS

This was the first SC set that I actually built, and I was really impressed by it. The techniques used in the set are on par with what you can see in MOCs, so I would say that SC sets are to City vehicles what Modular Buildings are to City and Creator buildings – larger and better versions of the same thing with some advanced building techniques used throughout.

Now that SC car are 8-wide, I am not sure the set would be worth buying if you have only just started collecting them and plan to get more in the future. Being 6-wide, it feels more like a toy and may end up looking a little out of place. However, if you are a) OK with the scale difference, b) willing/ready to modify the set yourself, or c) a Ferrari fan, don't hesitate and pick it up.

I hope you liked the review, comments and critique are welcome as always. If you have any questions for a persons who just built this set, ask away.

Edited April 1, 2020 by imvanya

[TeriXeri]

Nice Review, this was my first Speed Champion set (for use in City/3-in-1 scale), along with the white 911, main thing that attracted me was them being sold as single cars and using actual headlight pieces instead of stickers.

I mainly wanted 2 sports car that could be seen at the road as well.

As for 8-wides, I think they are a bit too large next to City / 3-in-1 scale, but they do look better shaped, but that comes also at an increased cost.

 

 

Edited January 26, 2020 by TeriXeri

[imvanya]

15 hours ago, TeriXeri said:

Nice Review, this was my first Speed Champion set (for use in City/3-in-1 scale), along with the white 911, main thing that attracted me was them being sold as single cars and using actual headlight pieces instead of stickers.

I mainly wanted 2 sports car that could be seen at the road as well.

As for 8-wides, I think they are a bit too large next to City / 3-in-1 scale, but they do look better shaped, but that comes also at an increased cost.

Yeah, that's the thing – LEGO appear to have started with a safer approach by having the first few waves of SC cars 6-wide, so at least somewhat in scale with City, which has featured a few 6-wide sports cars over the last few years. Now, apparently, the SC theme is becoming more of its own thing, more focused on creating scale LEGO models rather than "real-life cars for City". The shift to 8-wide means that, on the one hand, 6-wide SC collections are "legacy" now, and on the other hand, "scale-conscious" City fans will no longer be able to put Chevrolet, Porsche, Ferrari, etc. cars alongside their City counterparts.

Edited January 27, 2020 by imvanya