Review: 75880 McLaren 720S
Posted by Huw,
With summer sets showing up in UK stores already we'll be reviewing as many as we can in the coming weeks.
I'll start with 75880 McLaren 720S, which, with its stunning orange livery, looks to be up there with the best Speed Champions sets.
As might be expected there are plenty of stickers. However, 18 is a small number of them compared to some other Speed Champion sets.
Thankfully they are all easy to apply, on either tiles or curved slopes.
Parts wise, with the possible exception of the bag of wheel trims, there are no new parts although several appear here in orange for the first time, such as the 1x1 1/4 circle tile (25269), 1x2 wedge plate (24299 and 24307) and the 1x2 curved slope with cut corner (29119 and 29120)
Construction
Construction will hold no surprises to Speed Champions veterans but here are a few pictures anyway:
The completed model
The designer's desk, complete with drawing board, lamp, model of the vehicle and tea cup, is a great accompaniment to the car that makes a change from the usual racing track accessories.
The designer wears a McLaren-branded V-neck jumper and a helmet is provided for test-driving the vehicle.
Before taking a look at the model, here's a photo of the real car for comparison purposes:
(from Car and Driver)
The overall likeness have been captured fairly well given the scale of the model.
As is often the case stickers are used to suggest subtle curves in the bodywork that just can't be rendered in LEGO at this size.
I'm not entirely convinced by the headlights but I guess a brick-built solution is better than stickers.
As usual, you can remove the canopy to fit the driver inside. It's not immediately obvious in the picture but the black 2x2 curved slope at the back is mounted on a hinge to subtly change the angle of the curve.
Verdict
Overall it's a competent addition to the Speed Champions range but it's nothing special: apart from the colour and the designer's desk, it's pretty much just more of the same.
75880 McLaren 720S concludes the third year of Speed Champions sets. I wonder if we'll see a fourth?
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31 comments on this article
I hope there'll be a fourth year, I want some Lamborghini and Dodge sets...
1. There's so much material for more runs in this line. I expect a few newcomers from Japan as well as Aston Martin, and Pagani would be a welcome addition, too.
2. This rep of the real 720S works, and works much better than the others in the line, even if the constraints of the medium are made more obvious in this model. If you can merge side profiles of the LEGO model and the real thing, I'd wager it'd be quite remarkable how the designer nailed the product.
I'm in the mood for an Aston. A db11 can't be too hard to render in Lego!
This looks great and I hope we get a Jeep Wrangler in climbing some rocks.
I was really psyched about this set when I first saw images of it. Somehow after getting a much more in-depth look I'm not as excited as I was before. The designer's desk will find a nice home in my Pet Shop townhouse, and the car does look nice. I'm probably on my own on this but I'm not really crazy about the brick built headlights. In this case I'd prefer a more accurate sticker design. In the end I'll end up buying this great looking car, but there are many other sets higher in priority on my wish list (and unfortunately much higher in price as well, such as Apollo V and Carousel).
Well, well. Another Speed Champions set that makes me go, "Well, I'm not really a car person, but that's nice...!"
And I love the designer's desk; that's a nice way to ring the changes in this theme.
Thanks for the review! I love the idea of the Speed Champions line and have picked up the Audi sets. And while I wish the sets were less reluctant on stickers (understanding the cost benefits of stickers vs printed parts) I am hopeful that they keep this sub-theme going. Maybe branch out a bit with stuff like rally cars and other all-terrain vehicles.
I'd like to get this set! Thanks for the review! Oh, and that Kendo Lloyd poly looks amazing!!
Did Lego just use a roller skate to represent a high end sports car?
Thanks for the review. Just want it, it's the first set on my list for this summer.
I like it!
+shaase Oh, yes they did... But, a new mold would be hard to pull off, so it's excusable in my book.
Pretty good looking set, although I wish these were just a little more detailed. Also, they need more BMWs. I would love to have a Lego M3 to match mine, i'd probably glue it to the dash.
I'd like to see some vintage cars, maybe a BMW 2002, a 1967 Riviera, Aston Martin DB5, Lotus Esprit?
^Lego has used a roller skate for trophies in this linr before, and it works remarkably well. Definitely grabbing this - I've become a Speed Champions completist!
Ha, I didn't actually know that was a roller skate. I've seen it used in a minifig-scale train (Assembly Square) and in micro-scale forklifts (Helicarrier) and in racing trophies as mentioned. Time to grab some of the spares and put them to use for their intended purpose!
I've resigned to the fact that buying Speed Champions sets is the closest I will ever get to actually owning a luxury sports car of any kind :P
It's a good thing the drawing board shows the real car and not the Lego version. I don't think the shaping of the Lego car is as accurate as it could have been, so it's nice to see the real design appear on that cool sticker.
It'd odd that it doesn't include a real driver though. This is ultimately a kid's toy, and they're going to drive around with it, and they're gonna want a driver who isn't wearing a sweater. Couldn't they have at least included a torso for the guy to wear?
I would really like a Speed Champions Classics line with just old cars.
If they still had to go for racing they could do a 1929 Bentley ,
a 1930s racing car (like the one in Monopoly)
and a 1950s racing car (the ones that look like a cigar and have a hole in the nose)
Otherwise some 'civilian' old cars would be awesome; anything pre 1970s would please me, although 1930s and 1950s cars are my favorites.
Its about time we had a minfig scale VW Beetle, VW Combi van and a Mini Cooper.
I'm not really a car person, but I have definitely been enjoying these sets. Orange is my favourite colour, so this one is a must-buy from me.
This may attract the ire of petrol-heads, but the only Speed Champion set I would ever buy would be a Tesla Model S (with a supercharger as it's additional build). It's the fastest accelerating car currently in production, and it's a four door sedan unlike the two door Supercars it outpaces. I would buy a dozen sets and make charging stations throughout my city, with my Vestas Wind Turbine powering them, and it would be a little slice of heaven on earth in my book.
If they do decide to add Aston Martins to the Speed Champions series, they should definitely make it a two pack; a DB5 and a DB10. Both in silver. ;)
I can't see Lego doing F40-style hubcaps if they're not going to do an F40. To be honest, that would be the car I'd most want to see. I mean, it just completely revolutionised the supercar, moving the goalposts for top speed, and allowed Enzo to leave an ultimate legacy. It showed that brute force and low weight still have a place in the supercar game next to the ultra-high-tech Porsche 959. Very few cars are as iconic, and to think that 29 years on, it can still mix it with the best new cars is truly astonishing. Plus, it would be the perfect way to mark the 70th anniversary of Ferrari and the 30th anniversary of the F40. I'd like to see a set with an F40, an F50, and an Enzo. Perhaps a 288 and a 250 GTO too. If so, TAKE MY MONEY!
@shaase
I think it's just cute how they saw the similarities between a rollerskate and a sports car. :)
My biggest problem with the Speed Champions sets is the lack of any indication of side view mirrors... I think the cars look too boxy without them. Does that bother anyone else?
I think this will be my first Speed Champions set.
While using stickers for headlights would be a little more accurate, I personally appreciate the effort in creating brick-built headlights. Definitely a challenge to recreate anything in this scale!
So many of these Speed Champions sets are ruinded by their insistence on using the same size chassis, the same blocky high wheel arches and that cockpit piece is too narrow; it needs to slope out at the sides like all these supercars do.
It's quite mad how every car has a different method of construction but all end up looking pretty much the same narrow, high, boxy body that looks nothing like a supercar. The Porsches in the original line-up were the only ones that worked.
As a fan of the Speed Champions range, it great to have another street car compared to another race track car. As a Kiwi in NZ it's fantastic to see a a Kiwi on the designers shirt.
if only lego partnered with microsoft and made cars for forza