[REVIEW] 76912 Fast & Furious 1970 Dodge Charger R/T

[Clone OPatra]

SET INFORMATION
Number: 76912
Name: Fast & Furious 1970 Dodge Charger R/T
Theme: Speed Champions
Released: 2022
Part Count: 345
Minifigures: 1
Set Price (RRP): 24.99 EUR / 19.99 GBP / 32.99 AUD / 19.99 USD / 29.99 CAD
Links: Brickset, Bricklink

INTRODUCTION
LEGO finally got me, a non-car enthusiast, truly wanting sets from their car line this year. I'm excited to see what I make of Speed Champions firsthand.

Thank you to LEGO for providing this set at Eurobricks' request.

THE BUILD
From what I gather reading other people's Speed Champions reviews, the builds encompass a core component of the line's appeal - seeing all the fiddly bits and building techniques come together to capture a car's details at this scale. This set doesn't seem to be any exception, with lots of SNOT, sub-assemblies, offsets, etc. that kept the build engaging the whole way through.

After adding some parts to the standard Speed Champions base, work quickly kicks off on the rear of the car, which ultimately gets attached upside down with a small ball joint and then locked in place with the 8-wide curved part that goes over-top the whole thing. The majority of the set's few printed parts - 2 1x3 light grey plates with black trapezoids, trans-red tiles with printed black lines and a 2x4 slope with silver dots - are also found in this section.

Next, work commences on the inside, which involves adding the faux roll cage, the trademark NOS cannister to go fast (& furious), and more SNOT sub-assemblies with stickered panels that form the side windows. I tried my best to get the stickers right up to the top and side edges of the part, but it is a place where bad sticker placement could certainly spoil the look.

Attention then turns to the front of the car, with space created for the super-charger that pops out of the top of the hood. The very front is also somewhat complex with the inset headlights and achieving as thin a front grey section as possible, though not as involved as the rear.

The very last thing to add is the roof top. I read an interview where the designer discussed it being a main goal to capture the rounded corners of the roof, unlike previous LEGO Chargers that had inaccurate square corners. This has been achieved by not connecting the actual roof with any studs at all, and instead creating a sub-assembly that wedges in. It works well, and also makes the roof easy to pop off and access the interior.

All in all, the build makes for a complex, involved and satisfying experience.

THE MINIFIGURE
Fittingly for Speed Champions, though perhaps disappointingly for FF fans because there are so many characters in the franchise, the only Minifigure is the main man, Dominic Toretto himself.

But... yeah this doesn't look very much like him or Vin Diesel. Without the context of the car I wouldn't recognise who this figure was supposed to be at all, and even with the car, I don't see much resemblance.

Nice to get bare arms in the new warm/medium tan colour though. I forgot to picture him with his included wrench, sorry.

THE FINISHED MODEL
Given how complex the build felt, the finished car strikes me as surprisingly boxy. It looks less complex than it really is. That said, the core details certainly make it unmistakable, and it captures those details more cleanly than LEGO's previous Dodge Chargers, though the previous Speed Champions version made an admirable effort at 6-wide.

The front of the car looks pretty good overall, with the inset super-charger, the grey outline to the headlights section, and the overall proportions. But without even comparing it to real-life images, something feels off about the back. It simply looks far too chunky, like a spider abdomen tacked on. Even with all the fancy techniques in the world, LEGO is limited by its geometry, and it could be that being a whole plate thinner would have been too much at this scale. I'm not sure what it is exactly, but there's something about the entire section behind the driver compartment that doesn't look quite right.

The very back looks good again though, with well-done and good looking details like the tail lights and exhaust pipes.

The interior includes the necessary details, which are done well. Positioning a minifigure is awkwardly limited by the windscreen piece, since the figure's left arm pretty much has to be down, but that isn't too noticeable once the roof is back on.

CONCLUSION
To conclude, it bears mentioning that if you look up pictures of the real car, you'll see that, like most cars, it's covered in subtle curves all over, while the LEGO model is squared, squared, a little angled, and squared. Nearly no curves to be found. The super-charger on the hood is also super-out-of-proportion. However, it being LEGO and an official set that needs to hold up, I wouldn't knock it for not being covered in curves. It's a LEGO-ification of the car and not a die cast model. That being said, it still needs to look good for what it is, and the chonky whole rear ever so slightly spoils the look in my opinion.

Oh and of course it's way out of scale with minifigures because real humans tower over the real car, but again, not a big deal.

 

SCORE
How do I rate this set?

6 MINIFIGURE

It's the right character to include but looks nothing like him, so I can't give this too high a score.

9 PIECES

Nothing amazing, but some printed parts and plenty of regularly useful goodies.

8 DESIGN

Overall I think the design is successful, but the rear just drops it down a little.

9 PLAYABILITY

Vroom vroom, roll roll, take figure in and out - what more do you want to do?

10 PRICE

Interestingly, the price of this set seems to have risen in some regions over previous standalone 8-wide Speed Champions sets, but not in other regions like the US. That said, the price still seems right for the set and I would have no problem recommending it at full retail. Given it is a wide release, discounts should be available eventually anyway.

8.4 OVERALL - It's a pretty good set, though not without design flaws. And Dom looks nothing like Dom.

 

GIFT GUIDE
With the holiday gift-giving season coming up, does 76912 make a good gift compared to other sets at its price point?

For a kid... it's a good car. I really don't think a kid would be concerned about the proportional issues I have raised, and as Speed Champions goes, this might be less complex than others. Once it's finished, it's pretty solid and shouldn't fall apart during play.

For an AFOL... I would probably lean towards some of the other Speed Champions sets, or something else entirely. The piece count is quite good for the money on this one, but no parts are too interesting.

For a casual LEGO fan... this makes a decent gift. The build is fun but not TOO challenging, the model looks recognisable and therefore good enough for display on a shelf or a desk.

For a Fast & Furious superfan... You can't NOT buy LEGO's only Minifigure-scale FF set if you're going LEGO shopping or a Fast & Furious superfan. That said, the main character doesn't look like himself, but maybe if you buy 75573 for Letty, that'll soften the blow. I'm probably going to.

 

See you next week for some grocery shopping.

 

[LordsofMedieval]

I can't stand those movies, but I think the car is very cool. So glad that Lego is transitioning to 8w cars - so much more detail.

[noahtheb]

The description of the rear end is so good. I thought the same exact thing when I saw the set, and can totally imagine the rear end being the oversized abdomen of a spider. 

[Clone OPatra]

On 11/11/2022 at 9:11 AM, noahtheb said:

The description of the rear end is so good. I thought the same exact thing when I saw the set, and can totally imagine the rear end being the oversized abdomen of a spider. 

Thanks! Yes there's something just slightly off about it, which is a shame because the front of the car looks really good.

[noahtheb]

On 11/12/2022 at 8:33 PM, Clone OPatra said:

Thanks! Yes there's something just slightly off about it, which is a shame because the front of the car looks really good.

I plan to fix that just as soon as I get my hands on that set!