Set Review - #76934-1: Ferrari F40 - Speed Champion

If you’ve followed this blog for a while, you’ll know that Speed Champions set reviews don’t typically show up here… well… ever. There is always a chance for a first, right? I ordered set #76934-1: Ferrari F40 to add to the Bricks for Bricks Bricklink store in the future. When the set arrived, the box was beat up pretty bad from shipping (as in, it was opened). I sent a damaged item request in expecting to send it back and was told to keep the damaged set and I would get another one. So why not build it?

This set was released on 1 August 2024 and it contains 318 pieces. It retails for $26.99 which is insane that Speed Champions sets have gone up so much in recent years. Still, the set is $0.085 per piece, which isn’t too bad, but don’t forget that the pieces are pretty small.

The front of the box shows the set with the Speed Champions logo. The back gives a few more views along with a picture of the actual car.

The contents are four numbered parts bags, a bag with two sets of hubcaps, a base piece for the car, a sticker sheet with a bunch of tiny stickers, and the instructions.

Having never built a Speed Champions set before, I did not realize how much detail is packed into these sets. Just in this bag, you add some of the initial internal structure in, you get seats, a parking break, a shifter, and a few printed pieces. This bag includes a female minifigure with a shirt with the Ferrari name on it. She has a wrench to help tune up her vehicle.

The second bag installs the engine, the back, and the doors. Compared to the real car, the designers did an amazing job using some small pieces to capture all of the details. The engine isn’t exactly super detailed, but it works for the size. There are a few small stickers that you add in. I wasn’t a fan of trying to get them on, but I made it work. I was also impressed how they got the angle of the door to work in a small space.

The third bag starts to go to the details on the front of the car. It’s really starting to come together.

The fourth bag wraps up the car. I was thankful a few pieces had printing versus stickers. Definitely the windshield and the main logo on the hood of the car as printed pieces were perfect as I’d mess those up. Spoons as the mirrors are not the greatest look, but it captures the main idea. At the risk of repeating myself over and over, I’m just shocked at how much detail is packed into such a small space. The designers really got the look of the car with a lot of small details. It’s impressive the pieces LEGO has now and what you can do with them. I like how this car turned out. I’m not a fan of the stickers. I’m glad there was some printing, but overall, they were tiny and a pain to get on some of the pieces. Although I can’t imagine the cost of this set with no stickers and all printing. At $27, this single Speed Champions car is expensive. I got it for $21 (before it was wrecked during shipping and given to me for free) and even that’s too much. I get that LEGO and their retailers need to make money, but this is more of a $15 car and then $12 on sale in my opinion.

What do you think? I say if you are a Ferrari or Speed Champions fan, grab this one, otherwise find another set to buy.

Speaking of other sets, back when we had a Creator Expert line, LEGO build set #10248-1. It’s slightly bigger and I have to say they look great together! I need to find a fun way to display it, but there’s an opportunity for LEGO to make Speed Champions and then a corresponding LEGO Icons car to go with it at a higher price point. That way suckers like me will grab both.

Happy building!

Set Review: #42143-1: Ferrari Daytona SP3 - Technic

The LEGO Group has me hooked on a few of their product lines and one of them is the Technic Supercar series or now referred to as the LEGO Technic Ultimate Car Concept series. You can see my reviews of the previous cars here. This one is #42143-1: Ferrari Daytona SP3. It was released in the US on 2 June 2022 and contains 3,778 pieces. The initial retail price was $399.99 which worked out to $0.106 per piece. Then the LEGO Group raised prices on a bunch of sets to adjust for their input costs and it now retails for $449.99 which works out to $0.119 per piece. Yikes! I thankfully picked it up prior to the price increase and I cashed in a bunch of VIP points to make the purchase not as bad. However, it hurt and these suckers keep getting more expensive. I can’t wait to see what the 2024 car is going to retail for… or not.

The shipping box for this one is much different from the previous three. It is a smaller box and it showed up with the set in a box only in one box versus the set box being inside a box which is inside another box. My set came with a May 2022 production date on it so not bad considering the June release.

Here’s the set box with the build on multiple sides, the Ferrari logo on top, and the bottom has tire tracks that you can’t see in my photo.

Opening the box reveals three boxes that contain the parts and look like the rear of the vehicle which is some pretty cool packaging.

The first box contains the two instruction books on the top and some parts bags on the bottom. I’m not going to dive into the instruction books, but they have some information about Ferrari, the model, the design process, and then some pictures of cars and designs.

Box two is all parts and box three is parts, the wheels, and the hub caps.

The first build is labeled as the gearbox and engine in the instruction manual. This is one of the more challenging sections of the build. There’s a lot to pay attention to in order to make sure all of the gears, pins, and axles are in the right spot. It’s a lot of work for a transmission that is buried within the car. You can see the transmission from the bottom though so it’s not for nothing. Also, you will be able to lift the rear up so you can see the engine.

I don’t remember the previous cars well enough to know how similar this build is to the others, but I didn’t feel like I was building the previous cars all over again.

The second set of bags builds the suspension. You add in the front of the car frame, the front axle, and the steering system. To me, it’s amazing how all of this comes together to see how it looks now and how it looks at the end.

The third set of bags is the car frame/chassis. Here you install the start of the seats, the steering wheel, the pieces that will allow the doors to open and close later on, and a few other parts. The choice of blue and black for the seats is interesting as it’s a red car, but it works.

The fourth set of bags builds the front of the car. Thankfully, there are no stickers to install so the Ferrari logo on the hood, steering wheel, seats, and elsewhere are all printed. Yay! There is a trunk space in this car, but it does not come with a luggage bag like some of the earlier cars which is fine by me.

I like the use of System pieces to add detail to the car. The use of offset stacked plates on the bumper is a cool technique to replicate the shape on the actual car. It’s a nice touch here.

The fifth set of bags builds the rear hood. It also adds the front “windscreen” and some of the roof. Like the previous vehicles, there isn’t an actual windscreen and that’s okay.

The rear hood was a challenge for me to build as I had a hard time following what the instructions wanted me to do on some of it. I figured it out in the end. Note that there are a few errors in the instruction books. I went online and found some good articles highlighting them. Some I caught without looking them up, but a few required me to see why I had extra pieces left over at the end of a section.

The rear hood can be raised which is a nice addition. You can get a good look at the engine instead of burying it like in the last two cars. It doesn’t stay up well as it’s heavy, but I got it to stay long enough to take a few photos.

One part of the build that intrigued me was the use of rubber tubing to hold on some of the structure and give it a curved shape over the rear wheels. I wasn’t sure what the instructions were getting at initially, but when I saw the pieces installed, it’s cool to see how the shape was created with Technic pieces.

The sixth set of bags builds the doors and seats. I failed to get separate pictures of them. The doors swing up in the actual car and the Technic version does the same. The doors were a challenge for me to assemble as the instructions show you connecting pieces, but don’t always show where. One picture will show you assembling a section and the next will tell you to install it. Either I missed something or you have to be smart enough to figure out how to install it.

The seventh set of bags is the final part of the build. It completes the rear of the vehicle, adds the wheels, and the display plate. The rear of the vehicle uses a lot of System pieces to achieve the detail similar to the front. I like the look and the offset plates. There is another error in this section where the instructions don’t have a few parts listed, but I found them online and got it squared away. The wheels are a similar size as previous vehicles, but the rims are a silver color. The 1x1 round tile with the Ferrari logo on the rim is a nice touch.

The Lamborghini had a display plate, although much smaller, and the Ferrari has one as well only this one is larger. The plate is printed so I’m thankful to not have a sticker, but I’m not sure it really adds to the model. I could have done without the plate if it saved a few dollars in production costs and on the final set price.

Overall, it’s a very sleek vehicle. The build was great and it challenged me throughout. I enjoyed putting it together. I’m not a Technic fan or MOC builder so I’m not sure if I’d use the pieces elsewhere, but there are a lot to pick from. The price is high and I can only imagine the price going up for future vehicles so get ready. VIP points are the only way I purchased this one. I highly recommend this one if you’re into the Technic vehicle line or if you’re a System builder and you’re looking for a challenge outside of your building comfort zone. Look for ways to save on this one whether it is double VIP points, cool GWPs, or some other method.

Here are the 4 vehicles. My NLS has let me display them in the house as they are up high and out of the way. I’m sure she can’t wait for me to have a LEGO room of my own some day to contain the spread of ABS. This is a pretty cool line up in my opinion. I wonder what car will be next?

Happy building!

Just so you don't think I'm slacking off...

I try to put out a blog post once a week. Someday I’ll work to put out more, but for now with all of the other life commitments, we’ll stick to one. This one will be short as I’m busy with some new arrivals.

The first one is #21333-1: Vincent Van Gogh - The Starry Night. I was excited to see this one come out and I really liked the final design they came up with. I’m mid-build right now so no spoilers before the final review, but so far so good. I managed to pick it up with some VIP points and when #40567-1: Castle Hideout was the promotional set so I can’t complain.

And then in my building backlog…. I also picked up a copy of #42143-1: Ferrari Daytona SP3. I want to say it’s a Technic Supercar, but the official branding is now “LEGO Technic Ultimate Car Concept Series” so let’s get it right. My version is way easier to say. Thanks to a whole bunch of VIP points and then the recent double VIP point period, this one wasn’t so painful to get. I’m looking forward to digging into this one and I promise to get a review out.

Have you grabbed any of the newer sets that have come out over the past month or two?

Happy building!

Another Technic Supercar is Announced!!!!!

I by no means am the first one to announce this, but I am super excited that on 1 June 2022, the next LEGO Technic supercar will get released. Okay actually we are now referring to them as being a part of the “LEGO Technic Ultimate Car Concept Series.” Either way, a sleek red Ferrari will be a great addition to the existing sets. This one is #42143-1: Ferrari Daytona SP3. I will contain 3,778 pieces and retail in the US for $399.99. That works out to $0.106 per piece. Here are some of LEGO’s promotional shots of the model.

The packaging looks impressive from LEGO’s promo shots and some of the video reviews I have seen online. For $400, the packaging had better look awesome, right?

As per usual, we have a promo shot from LEGO by the real car. Some good photography here although they should have edited out the TV dish in my opinion. I couldn’t tell you much about the real car other than I’m sure it goes fast and I’m sure I can’t afford the real one.. Along with this set, LEGO is releasing a limited run book (5,000 copies) that highlights the set and LEGO’s relationship with Ferrari. I believe the book will be priced at $70. In my opinion, the set is expensive as it is, I don’t need to dump more money into a book.

This set is pricy and I’m not sure when I’ll pick it up, but I will at some point using VIP points to help lessen the blow. I’m looking forward to lining it up next to my other vehicles. You can see my previous reviews here:

#42056-1: Porsche 911 GT3 RS

#42083-1: Bugatti Chiron

#42115-1: Lamborghini Sian FKP 37

Happy building!

2 June 2022 update: LEGO released the designer video yesterday. Here it is in case you missed it.