Vectormatic

Im positively surprised by there actually being a zero-G spacestation rather then a surface base in the lineup. The small satelite repair and mars exploration shuttles also look different enough from the classic space shuttle to be interesting. The big launch base looks cool, but im quite disappointed by the big rocket. I get that just putting a huuuge cylinder in there isnt exciting, but now the first stage is thinner then the capsule/upper stage (if it even has a seperate upper stage), and the boosters arent in proportion. Compare that to the SLS (which is even in the corner of the image), and it just looks nothing alike.

Does anyone have any progress on this? I just got given this set, and any cool mods worth doing while building would be very welcome.

Cool! A few years back i was working on some Octan racing team stuff as well, mainly centered around that second Octan F1 car (the one which came with the big truck), also modded a 60053 and two technic sets. Never thought of remoddeling a speed champion to Octan colours though!

If you can, do try to find some of last years sets while they are still on shelves! particularly the 488GT3 and the porsche sets (the 919H and the 911 combo) were good imho, better then this year's sets

I dont remember there being a 3-pack of those sets, but i do have the three seperate sets, the small mobile base was one of my favorite sets of the theme. The barcode on the ebay auction starts with 57, while AFAIK all dutch barcodes start with 87, the bilingual "free poster" stickers also suggest it might be belgian to me. Googling the code doesnt turn up anything though. According to wikipedia belgium uses the start digits 54 though... 57 appears to be mean it was registered in denmark originally, which doesnt really give us a lot of clues as to where it was sold, as the stickers etc.. would clash with being sold in denmark. Imho, unless you are somehow dead set on having EVERYTHING related to exploriens, id say for this price this is an easy pass, the three separate sets can probably be found for less, and imho arent that iconic or special

I stand corrected. I hadnt seen that they ditched the white paint yet. Given how slow progress on the NASA first party stuff is (SLS, LOPG) compared to SpaceX and others, i havent been keeping up with it.

That is Ares-V allright, in some weird human-rated variant (doesnt look like Ares IV) that isnt in the wiki article I find it oddly fitting that when lego would finally move beyond endless shuttle rehashes (even though this wave will still have some), it is with a shuttle derivative... That said, NASAs current SLS efforts are still shuttle derived, pretty similar to Ares V, the real innovation is happening over at SpaceX and BlueOrigin

brown tank on the big rocket... sounds very shuttle derived, so either a straight up shuttle, or something Ares V like (From nasa's constellation program, which was killed in 2010 and obviously never flew) The other two sets also being called "shuttle" really disappoints me, yet another theme with shuttle rehashes... while real world space exploration and near-future scifi (stuff like the Martian) is moving in very different directions

Guys, can we please keep the unfounded wishlisting to its own topic?

Cant believe i missed this thread first time around, amazing model @jamesJT Gulf colours are any obvious one for anything le-mans related, but im getting more of a sauber/merc C11 vibe from the shape, too bad Lego dont do silver parts a lot, even if you could get all the parts in LBG, it would look flat. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mercedes-Benz_C11

Those sluban sets are probably original designs, given the long march rocket in there. Lego hasnt made any real world rocket (outside of several shuttle renditions, some more faithfull then others, and the one-off Saturn V, which is another story), i dont see why they would start by bringing a chinese rocket into things. Sure there is overlap in the theme, but given that playmobil is also on the same theme, and space exploration is actually heating up again (china pulled of the first even dark side of the moon landing recently), i dont see this as blindly following lego. Also, IIRC, the set types and part counts dont line up with the leaked lego line up And finally, id be very happy if the lego sets turn out looking like this, the rocket base and long march would be right up my alley, but somehow im sure lego will find a way to make yet another space theme sort of disappointing, with waaaay too much reliance on re-hashed shuttles

Build a small stand to lift the wheels off the ground, that way you can show off the awd as well

Im absolutely loving the ARB, especially with the red elbow pieces, very "car tuning"

That is an amazing effort, but at 3 times the two sets, that is awefully close to a new in box spaceship, spaceship, SPACESHIP!!

I fully appreciate that, and it isnt the caricature-ness of it that rubs me the wrong way, it is that some design choices were made which i think are entirely inferior to what could have been (the windshield mostly), and the long/flat nose make it look like a caricature of a different car imho. Given how stunning other speed champions look (the 919H and 911RSR last year for instance), i just feel like this F40 is sub-par for the theme, which is a shame considering the iconic status of the real machine

Sounds like forma follow ups on the moving fish statue

I picked up the F40 yesterday, and figured i would share my thoughts on it. While i very much anticipated the F40 (and its bigger creater expert brother had me amazed), im a bit disappointed in the set. The build feels a bit monotone, with all the red (predicatable, i know, somehow i tend to prefer the more garish looking speed champion sets). I also got caught out by the fact that it comes with a bazilion red 1x1 plates, two of which have this very small ferrari logo printed on one side, by the time i needed the two printed ones, i had already used one of them in another place by accident, so i had to take all of them off again until i found the prancing horse. The end result also just doent look right, too many visible studs on top, and the windscreen/bonnet look all kinds of wrong. Comparing the side profile of the car to some pictures (and using the diameter of the wheels as reference), my conclusion is that the windscreen is about half as short as it should be. The front edge seems to be roughly in the right place, but the top should be drawn back by one stud. Now my first thought was to use the windscreen piece from (among others) the classic GT40 here, but i think it wont fit, as the entire assembly is 5 studs long, and the F40 only has 4 studs from windscreen edge to the rear compartment. The slope on the front also looks wrong, and in roadgoing configuration, the bumper hangs off the deck too high. maybe both issues could be solved, but the tops of the wheel arches might block a more sloped bonnet. As it is, the F40 looks very much like it has the engine in the front too me, with that massive flat bonnet and almost vertical windscreen, im getting a nissan 240z type vibe from it. Originally i was considering picking up two F40s, one as roadgoing, one as competizione, but given that im not really impressed by the model, i think ill hold off on that, looking over the shelves yesterday at the store, there are plenty of other small sets which i feel would be a better way to spend €15 then a second awkward looking attempt at an F40

The $/pc ratio on speed champions has gone down a LOT through the waves though, wave 1 sets were ~150 pieces for $15, now we are at ~200, and the designs have gotten a LOT better, comparing the 2015 458GT2 with the 2018 488GT3 for instance, or the 911s from those same years. What we do need to account for though, while piece count has gone up 33% per single car set, those set are still the same size, so those parts are getting a lot smaller on average, to facilitate all the added detail. And while generally speaking we as AFOLs tend to use $/pc as a measure, we dont really adjust for average weight a lot. There is general feeling that technic for instance has more pieces per dollar because of all the cheap/small pins and virtually no printed pieces, but generally expensive parts such as big tyres are factored in when comparing value. in reality, piece/$ only looks at the cost of using a machine to produce a part, not the material needed for the part, which would be weight/$, the second factor is what is driving $/pc down on speed champions i think.

Im sure Lego could make some new wheel covers for this car rather then using the old ferrari mold. Surely a bunch of these covers will be cheap enough to include in a set like this? certainly cheaper then custom wheels like the GT3RS and Chiron

Those hubcaps look great! Lego definitely missed a trick by not putting something like that in there

Agreed, but i dont think there would be room for both steering and drive on the rear wheels. Looking at the bottom, i dont see much of a way to make the front wheel steer without basically rebuilding the entire structure of the set, as the bottom is pretty much the backbone. One might be able to rebuild the bottom to have two front wheels and a drive gear though, but you would still need to pass the driveshaft to the back, which would interfere with any steering mechanism on a back wheel. The most achievable way of adding any type of steering might be to make a caster wheel in the nose, although it would need to be a smaller wheel then the current front to have room to spin

I very much doubt that, at least when it comes to the suspension. Both porsches so far have incredibly inaccurate suspension (the 911 has mcpherson struts in the front for instance), and at the chiron launch, the bugatti reps were actually surprised the pistons moved in the model. There are also a TON of other inaccuracies (i think the chiron actually has height adjustable suspension in real life), and all lego really knows how to do is double wishbone suspension anyway, when it comes to cars. Im sure the only way Bugatti was involved in terms of approval was the general look of the thing, and they probably had some discussions beforehand concerning pricing/size to make sure it matches the "premium" feel of the brand, technical details are way too much in depth for these kinds of deals.

So i fully appreciate 42089 is only a small $15 set, aimed at kids to introduce them to the theme, and most AFOLs wont give it even a second glance, but i figured i would post this here anyway, as i feel my small improvements really make it a cooler powerboat. So without further ado: mods: - single cylinder engine replaced with a V2, now this is a real POWER boat - seats recline if so desired - navigation lights a moved up a stud, for better visibility on the water - rear "spoiler" bar widened so it now flows nicely with the flanks of the boat, and moved slightly aft Otherwise the boat is pretty much the same, position of the seat is the same as before, the mechanism still works just fine Parts-wise it was a relatively simple job, from memory i added an engine V frame, cylinder, piston/conrod and some connectors/pins (and a 9 long axle) Feedback/criticism, other mods/improvements are more then welcome!

ill throw in my 2 cents, i got my copy of this set last week. I overall like the look of it (it greatly reminds me of set 6679, a childhood favorite), and while it sits a bit high on its wheels, it makes for a nice small(ish) sized display piece/desk toy i think. What could have been improved in that respect IMHO, is the engine. I feel like a single cylinder just doesnt cut it for a powerboat, especially when we had the 4 cyl in 42045 for the same price point. What this set should have imho is a V2 engine at the least, and space wise that should easily fit in there, im just not sure about the mounting. If i get some spare time ill see if i can MOD something up. Function wise i think this set is a tad weak-ish, i own both 42057 and 42032 (and 42021), which i feel are its predecessors, and those all feel like they have a bit more playability, 42057 in particular adds the rudder control to otherwise similar (spin the prop/blades/engine) function. I imagine a kid would be able to fly 42057 around the room, or dig some bricks and move them around with 42032, but 42089 can only just move forwards and backwards spinning its prop (it doesnt even really do corners well) Parts-wise, it is a great panel pack, 4 pieces of black 3x7 curved and 2 each of the mid-sized panels, a pair of long-narrow panels, a decent amount of lift arms, and some gears. The two antenna pieces were new to me, and for MOC/MOD enthusiasts would look great on larger cars or airplanes as decoration TL;DR: i like the looks of it, but on functions/playability i think it is one of the poorer sets we've seen at the pricepoint

Looks like a modded white gt3rs, lepin and decool make those, so i think its fake