MR Swordfish

I tried it, but I wasn't fond of how poorly reinforced the clips for the "halo" end up being, because you're forced to use 1x1 plates with clip instead of 1x2 plates with clip + the curved slope reinforcing. Could certainly build one that way if you prefer, though! The flex hose is just being bent pretty extreme here, and needs to be connected to something pretty solid to make it behave imo

Thank you! The Hot Wheels compliment is very kind. I actually do take some inspiration from the mindset of a Hot Wheels designer I once read an interview from, who said that if they have to stylize a car a bit, they try to go in a direction that makes it look "cooler", especially because cars can look odd when scaled down anyway (compared to how they look full size in person). There was no way to do these models with 100% accurate proportions and features, so I generally picked whichever options I found that looked the most aesthetically pleasing overall

Thank you! Indeed, I feel the cars could be easily modified to suit other preferences, but I love seeing what's possible with shaping as top priority. That's essentially why I was willing to try some unofficial wheels, too. Definitely a glimpse into what might be possible if LEGO would offer similar parts, not just the one-size slicks of this year. I bought wider rear tyres for my official McLaren Mp4/4 for the same reason (from the same company). Open wheel cars derive a lot of their visible proportions from the wheels, naturally. Those sidepods are my favorite part of the 2024 F1 models, though

With all the F1 activity in the Speed Champions scale, I decided it might be a fun time to design some 2022+ era cars myself. I wanted to see what really streamlined designs with very accurate wheels might look like. A comparison with one of the real cars is at the bottom of the post. ^ The Mercedes W15, the Ferrari SF-24, and the Aston Martin AMR24 ^ The Ferrari SF-24 is probably my favorite here. Most of the stickers are from HobbyBricks, but I had to print the newer "HP" sponsors myself ^ Some of you may have noticed that the wheels are not official LEGO. These are F1-style wheels produced by HobbyBricks, because I'm tired of how official wheels limit these builds. F1 cars have big slick tyres with wider rears (a huge part of the visuals) but LEGO still doesn't make anything like that for minifig scale... or hardly at all. I'm having fun pretending I'm an official LEGO designer, who just convinced the company to produce these prototype wheels for new sets. I hope you are having fun with me. ^ This shot is a bit grainy due to being cropped in ^ Here's the Aston Martin AMR24 model next to the same real F1 photo from the back of the new Speed Champions box ^ These models are all the exact same length as the new Speed Champions McLaren F1 car, putting them in the same scale ^ By building in green, I was able to use stickers from this year's Aston Martin Speed Champions set, along with my own custom "14" stickers ^ The Mercedes W15 uses mostly official stickers from the Speed Champions W12 ^ All of the wheel covers are actual LEGO parts ^ I was able to imitate the complex nose livery by making my own silver stickers. With the silver placed atop dark turquoise parts, you get colored "pinstripes" on either side. You could also brick-build the nose livery, as the parts do come in silver metallic, but this would lose the turquoise accents. Ultimately, I went with silver stickers, because I needed to add sponsor logos anyway ^ All of these models have detailed F1-style steering wheels ^ The front suspension details are very rigid, and the axle is well anchored to the body, because I dislike when this is a filmsy area on F1 builds. The wheels do spin freely, though ^ Rear suspension details, again with free spinning wheels ^ Rear diffuser and brake light. The floor of the car has studs facing down, and the "LEGO" embossing sometimes brushes the ground as the car rolls. I'm choosing to say that this is the ground effect aero scraping the track ^ My #1 priority with the entire rear wing assembly was to get the accurate angular 3D shape. It ended up being a solid chunk of bricks, but I just love how "correct" the shape is, as it helps convey the current F1 regulations ^ The front wing is the real fragile part of the build. It could be reinforced with plates underneath, connected to the main body, but this simply wouldn't look as nice/accurate. I'm displaying these models, not playing with them ^ The 3D shaping of the sidepods was a huge area of effort in this design, as this is a complex shape on modern F1 cars. Despite being mounted at a sloping angle, the sidepods are connected to the body via multiple SNOT bricks, without any odd stress on the parts. They don't pop off easily or change position; It is a rigid connection. I'm very proud of this ^ Not only do the sidepods have streamlined shaping in profile view, they also have a perfectly smooth curve when viewed overhead. The accuracy of the shape on multiple axis' makes the car look right from every angle ^ Now comes the bad news, which is that these cars do not hold minifigures. Instead, they require "Driver Body" pieces from the old "Drome Racers" LEGO theme. You could modify the cars to hold figures instead, but it would be at the expense of "ideal" styling, which was my priority ^ Regardless, here's "Charles Leclerc" outside his Ferrari SF-24 ^ "Fernando Alonso" with the AMR24 ^ "George Russell" with the W15 ^ As a last addition, for display, I built a simple podium, and added "Martin Brundle" plus some other guy who is probably important. We may never know ^ Compared to the real SF-24. I'm very happy that the model looks similarly accurate in side view as it does overhead. This seems to be one of the hardest things to do with the modern F1 cars in this scale Thanks so much for viewing! Building instructions + Stud.io files/parts lists for each car are available for $1 USD each on my store [Link]. Alternate models of the Mercedes (brick-built silver nose livery) and the Aston Martin (dark turquoise instead of green) are included with their respective cars. Instructions for the simple podium are also included in a three car "Grand Prix" bundle. Keep in mind the special F1 style wheels are only available through HobbyBricks, also linked on my store.

Oh wow, that middle blend is fantastic. I'm actually surprised Lego didn't do the spoiler how you've done it there... it makes a great model even nicer, without doing anything crazy. And they've certainly released more fragile spoilers than that in official sets. Your headlight mod is great, too. I think they've done an exceptional job with the F40 set though, I'm very impressed. The body subtly pinches inwards behind the front fenders, an important styling detail that every nice MOC I've seen still didn't capture. They also aren't using stickers to do much outside of adding fine details/logos that couldn't be brick-built well anyway, which is nice. I'm not as anti-sticker as some, but I don't like when a model starts to feel like stickers are compensating for a lackluster build

Thank you! Fitting a minifigure is currently "pending", I will basically start building to include one, but scrap it if a noteworthy visual compromise arises... which is usually what happens haha. Though I suspect these new designs will have enough vertical brick height that they could be tweaked to hold a figure instead, if desired. I just like prioritizing visuals to see whats possible, as this is less often done One issue might be that my goal is to further slim the area where the nose connects to the cockpit, to get it looking fairly proportionate to real life. That's probably going to mess up either the minifig area or the model stability, so something may have to be let go. I also want wider rear wheels than front (which could be tackled a few ways, but they all have a downside) and better sidepod shaping from all angles. It seems difficult to build sidepods that slope downward towards the rear while also narrowing/curving from a top-down view, and now the situation is even more complex with how the front of the sidepods have an upward slant towards the cockpit. It's tough! You did a wonderful job here though, like I said. Very inspiring. If you don't spot the post for my finished models I'll send them your way. And you're right, I should look at updating the wheels on the older MOCs, and see if it looks better

Yeah, to me those new McLaren & Aston models are the best "minifig scale" F1 cars Lego has released. They have all that nice shaping & detail whilst being so rigidly built & holding a driver, which can typically be pretty constraining on the styling. I think the Speed Champions wheels look a bit small for the 2022+ regs, but they're impressive models overall. The spoon mirrors are hilariously good, though I did like your ice skates solution, too. I think your model just looks a bit more streamlined visually, which I really prefer. As you know, official sets are usually rigid enough to survive "play"... I'm usually fine sacrificing some of that for visuals, so long as the model can survive "normal handling". I think F1 cars just skew fragile & skeletal by nature I did actually post my 2017 cars in early 2018 (link below), but I'm wanting to improve on them still, whilst depicting the 2022+ regulations instead. It's probably going to take an entirely new design from the ground up... lots of new pieces to work with as well, I haven't made any MOCs since 2018

That looks considerably better, very nice job! I love that Lego has been putting out more F1 in Speed Champions, but I'd honestly say you've outshone both the 2022 & 2024 official sets in the styling department. After buying those new sets, I'm thinking about trying to tackle some 2024 F1 models in this scale myself, as the cars have evolved so much since I last did it for the 2017 spec... along with the selection of Lego elements. Your work here is very inspiring

I have no idea why you are so averse to people posting their opinions on the model. I'm aware it wasn't "designed specifically for me", and I can't believe you seriously told me that while trying to defend yourself against being condescending. And me stating my opinions on what looks good (or not) does not mean I did so "without considering the fact that others actually like the design". In fact, I explicitly posted here to learn if other people agree with me or not, and to hear defined alternate perspectives on the model. What I am not looking for is advice to not buy things I don't like, along with being told the mere concept that other people might enjoy a Lego set, and that it wasn't designed "specifically for me". Despite my profile picture, I'd like you to know I am not actually 5 years old anymore. Please, stop teaching me basic concepts of consumerism. I understand you believe my negative critique of one design element demonstrates ignorance to your wisdom, but it doesn't.

This is a bad contribution imo, and I think it comes across condescending. I'm not in need of universal consumer advice. I'm here to talk about the design techniques/philosophy of this set & similar Lego models, and hear what other people have to say on the subject. The topic is Lamborghini Countach Discussion, an exact spot on the internet where people are meant critically discuss likes/dislikes for this set. Based on how you're replying to everyone, I'm starting to think you mostly want to take issue with various other people, not talk about Lego The idea & purpose of a critical discussion of a product seems very foreign to you. It's not about "feeling better", it's just about sharing opinions, ideas, observations. This will skew positive or negative depending on the product in question. If you don't enjoy or understand those things, or simply feel people's negative critique is pointless, I honestly think you are in the wrong place right now. It would take me a whole essay to truly expand on what a critical discussion "accomplishes"

I'm getting a bit burnt out on official Lego cars where the wheels look proportionately too small. My general rule of thumb is that if nothing else, slightly oversized wheels are the far lesser evil, as it generally looks more intentionally "stylized"... like an artist's aggressive rendition of a car. It can even make other incorrect body proportions look less prominent. Small wheels have the opposite effect, making the body itself look bloated and strange, and exaggerating issues with the shape. The new Speed Champions AMR23 F1 car is driving my crazy with this too, the model isn't terrible, but the wheels are just too small. There's even a picture on the back of the box directly comparing the model to the real car, and you can just see how odd it looks. Anyway... I say either make the car look right, or stylize it to look "cool". But try to avoid it just looking "off" in an unflattering way, that has got to be the worst option

On the issue of licensed Lego vs. original themes, I really do think it's more about adults than anything. You can sell a kid (or just their their parents) anything from a licensed Star Wars set to a generic Knights & Castles, so it hardly matters. That box is checked. But the average adult is only likely to buy a Lego version of something they already have investment in, which is more likely to be an Imperial Star Destroyer than Castle #58. An everyday adult is only really going to buy an original set if it's a really cool build, which I think a lot of nicer sets aim for today. It's only really the most dedicated Afol collectors who would actually buy lots of original kid-targeted playsets... but that is still a picky group of people that Lego can afford to neglect. I terribly miss the original Lego themes of my childhood. I wish I could get the Lego shop catalog and enthusiastically browse further re-hashes of an underwater theme, a miners theme, an adventuring theme, an aliens in space theme, yadda yadda... I wouldn't buy much of it though, even if it looked amazing. And there lies the problem, I think. I plead guilty of only buying Lego cars these days because they make real cars with Speed Champions. If they were still making generic wacky builds like the old Racers line, they'd almost never have my dollar. I am part of the problem. Edit: My partial defense of original themes being better for kids would be: In theory, getting a kid invested in your theme brings them back to your toys, rather than just any new Star Wars toy. But I suspect it's just really hard & expensive to get a kid genuinely invested in an original theme these days. There is an insane amount of media competition these days, its nothing like the '80s, '90s, or even '00s. It's probably a waste of time and money to design an original theme that you cant afford to market intensely enough to reap benefits. Lego's most successful original themes like Bionicle or Ninjago have extensive additional media to help them get kids invested. It's probably more necessary today than ever, and they just can't do it with everything. So why fight Star Wars for attention when you can just profit off it? And ultimately, selling a kid any Lego set is a promotion for any other Lego set, so maybe kids won't necessarily be buying another Star Wars toy. Maybe they'll just want more Lego, if you can get at least one kit into their hands. Ultimately, when you look at any succeeding company, there's a decent chance that they do what they do because it has proven to work, and what works isn't necessarily what was fun about something decades ago

Oh man, you're right! I wasn't looking hard enough. Looks like I'll be purchasing two of these sets If a few more parts are released in earth green, I can redesign my Lotus 49 MOC to have more accurate colors. The standard green doesn't look bad, but earth green would still be better.

Looking good!

Wow, thanks for the pic! Based on the fuzzy leaked image from a while back, I was really hoping this one was going to include 1x6 earth green tiles (a piece I don't think exists). Looks like you only get 1x1, 1x4 and 1x8, rats This is why my Lotus 49 MOC isn't earth green. Oh well, still going to buy this set!