The Nissan GT-R Nismo without stickers
Posted by Huw,
Like most Speed Champions cars, 76896 Nissan GT-R NISMO comes with an extensive sticker sheet.
Rather than slavishly apply them as I usually do, I thought I'd see what the car would look like without them, with the intention of making it resemble a road-going Nismo rather than the racing variant.
It's actually quite straightforward and I think the end result looks more attractive.
The Nismo is a striking looking car, particularly in this white livery, with red and black stripes around the chassis.
Without any stickers applied the model looks like this. The bonnet is printed and the sides are black, presumably in order to better match the stickers in that area, so those parts will need to be replaced to make an all-white version.
Here are the stickers that I am (mostly) not going to apply.
By swapping out nine parts we can make an all-white version which retains the attractive red and black stripes along the bottom.
However, I feel it will benefit from the application of a few stickers, for the headlights in particular, and the logos on the front and back:
I also applied the two along the sides of the rear window to form the taper. I had to cut stickers 16 and 17 on the sheet above to finish off the headlight/indicator cluster.
It's not really relevant to this article, but I might as well mention that set comes with a driver in Nissan Nismo branded overalls. However, given he's now going to be driving a road-going version, I will probably swap his legs and torso for something mote casual.
He's provided with a red helmet and also a dark tan hair piece. Unlike the driver of the 76895 Ferrari F8 Tributo, he can sit in the car with the roof fitted with either.
So, which do you prefer?
(Interesting observation: in this official image the sticker on the 2x2 curved slope on the side has been applied upside down)
or...
I rather like the plain white version...
Will you apply stickers to yours, or leave them off?
Thanks to LEGO for providing the set for this article. All opinions expressed are my own
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56 comments on this article
It does look good without all the stickers. I will have to do that when I get a copy.
The white version looks really good. I don't normally have a problem with stickers, but the Speed Champions line gets a little nuts sometimes. The models that have fewer stickers are usually more aesthetically pleasing.
Dude is flexing on the other racers by driving from the passenger side
Looks amazing in all white, street-car version. I'm tempted to buy the set and modify it as such myself. However, it would still end up sitting on a shelf, rather than cruising the streets of my city. The proportions for the car look spot on, but in my 6-wide-max-for-cars-universe it's still a low profile sporty looking garbage truck.
I dig it
My dear Huw, you are perfectly right! Veeery much better! I have modified mine in the same way! When we'll finally have the 29119 and 29120 parts in any transparent color?
^ Transparent versions would indeed be an improvement...
I like the white version a lot. It would be nice if they would design the street based cars in a way where they could be built as the race version or the street version (similar to the customizable nature of the Creator Mustang). For instance, as the white version it seems like the stance is a bit too aggressive. I'd like to see the back wheels lowered by the height of 1 plate, so the axles are the same height. Minor gripe, I suppose.
The other gripe I have is the representation of the headlights although I'm not sure how to rectify it.
Overall, very nice model and it's more pleasing without stickers IMO.
The white version is amazing. Thank you for taking the time to do this, @Huw.
I appreciate your versatility and vision.
Yep, it does look better without all the stickers, but still looks no better than six-stud-wide cars, so I still don't get why they wrecked the scale in the middle of the Speed Champions line. I'm still not buying any of the 8-wide cars.
I've put all the stickers on mine but this all white version looks very nice. I like it a lot. I do think the stickers on the speed champ range can be excessive and it is super annoying trying to line up the curved sticker on the windscreen. Virtually impossible to get it 100% straight and centred!
That's a very nice modification.
A lot better than with the complete sheet of stickers applied.
However, Huw, it would have been perfect if you did cut those two stickers to only remove the black stripes, but not the front fender vents!
^ I did think about that but thought they were in the wrong position. They should not be directly behind the lights.
I like it better without the stickers. Thanks for sharing, @Huw. Stuff like this is what LEGO fan sites are for!
This is tempting, I'll yave to see if I have those parts in black. I did a similar thing with the WRC Fiesta, changing it down to something which could pass as a road car.
Thankyou, like many Stickers do annoy me, its more the responsibility of getting them right, I did this sort of thing once with a Racing Ferrari.....but ended up making it without stickers and colour replacements only to then loose the stickers so I ended up with two (one from Ebay) I think I might have to do this with the Nissan, Already planning to make two of the Quattros' Its going to be expensive this 8x8 thing.
I’d put the stickers on to keep it accurate to the set.
That's exactly what I want! I will just follow this article to build my GTR as soon as I get it! Thanks a lot, Huw!
For someone making racing cars they need the stickered version and for something more casual the one you have.
I do this to all of the speed champion cars I get. I don't put any stickers on and make them all road versions of the cars to put in my city.
I even change the stickers for the lights for parts.
Very clean!
Not bad. I tried this but had no extra white parts so it didn't look right.
After seeing the all white version, I may have to actually buy this. Speed Champions sets aren’t on my radar at all, but this looks phenomenal. Definitely need a few stickers it seems, but nothing terrible.
It now seems that I will have to buy two sets, oh well.
Fabulous to see it without the stickers. I'll follow your lead if/when I get one. It definitely looks better.
And as @serraanto said, transparent stickers would have been great for making different colour variants.
Looks great although I'm wondering why you didn't replace the two printed pieces on the top with plain white 1x6 tiles?
@omnium : Sorry, but you misunderstand here something.
No offence, but Serraanto did not mention transparent stickers, s/he just pointed out, that those two little curved wedge plate pieces would be great if they were available in transparent material. That way the headlight stickers would not be necessary at all. I agree, that would be great.
These are so good!
This is inspiring - ditch the new chassis plate, and brick-build one; throw in a bunch of jumpers, drop the rear by a plate, and you could mod the street version to a 7-wide. The proportions could be stellar.
This actually made me interested in getting one. The plain white version is great!
That sticker being upside-down in the official image really made me lol. Gosh, the incompetence. Thanks for sharing that!
Had a similar notion recently. I stripped the decals from Lloyd's Dragon Mech, took off the engines, added some more organic features and more spikes. Sometimes, less is truly more.
Tyres are definitely too small
much better in all with! great job
Just need a Carlos Ghosn minifig to use as the getaway driver now...!!!
@micano said:
"Looks great although I'm wondering why you didn't replace the two printed pieces on the top with plain white 1x6 tiles?"
Yes, you are right, I should have changed them, it will look better without them.
Dang, and I just finished completing this set, stickers and all. Looks really good here, I may have to double-dip.
Finally some JDM hero cars in the Speed Champions line. I can’t wait to build this!
Looking good.
I recently built the blue Camaro ZL1 without stickers. Works really well too.
@The_Teenage_Brickster said:
"So that’s what Chase McCain is doing in his retirement."
Amen!! My 1st thought on the minifigure was " Hey! That's Chase.. guess he's a professional driver now" ha ha.
It looks good. Lego seems to have a rule that creature eyes need to be printed. That should also apply to car lights. But, as others said, it's best if they are are actually pieces.
@Anak, er, yes, you're right. That'll teach me for skim reading then replying :)
Anyway, I'd prefer transparent stickers for this, like the Mini Cooper set, so we can recolour the vehicle more easily.
I'm terrible at stickers, and really hate applying them. Got the fuel caps things on the recent 1989 Batmobile on and sure one is slightly off.
Is there someone out there who is printing decent alternatives directly onto Lego parts and selling "upgrade kits" or the like?
Looks good without, but I'd like door handle stickers to break up the monotony of the sides in that case. It would also help differentiate the road-going version a bit more too.
In its current setup, with the stickers and printed bricks on the roof, it looks a lot like this particular version:
https://thumbor.pijper.io/dgcc1Bt5Mk2yHou91xGaV6nJNKc=/1290x726/center/middle/https://cdn.pijper.io/source/autobahn/0f4f9d5da1_exterior_03.jpg
Even viewed 'sticker-less' the wheels look too small to me. Like roller-skate wheels or training or trolley wheels even. For me the only vehicles, so far, that in any way justify the shift to eight-stud are the naturally super flat and wide Lamborghini Huracán and the 1980's Group B Audi S1 (upon which, in real life, the wheels always appeared smaller any way, due to the brutalist angular body work). Apart from those two renditions, so far, a little of the 'magic' has been lost to too many pieces and overly fussy designs created in order to justify the use of too many pieces. The design transition to eight-studs wide, for me has, so far, been a missed opportunity.
Thank you @Huw for this. And yes, transparent 29119 and 29120 would be awesome!
Also nice to see that the windshield detail is a sticker. I need to get some extra windshields to mod older speed champions ^^
I'm selective about applying stickers, too. I think Lego should think about alternate builds without the stickers and make the piece selection accordingly, so that we don't have to bend over backwards to create a street version. They did this in some sets.
I LOVE THIS. This set is in my build bin, waiting, and I am super excited to NOT put stickers on it. Around 60% of the SC cars I have built do not have the full complement of stickerage adhered, and articles like these showing how others approach the aesthetic is really cool.
Sticker free is much nicer. I, too, have a pet peeve with stickers.
I will put stickers if I get this set, because I think it makes the car more complete
I personally think this looks MUCH better without the stickers. Thanks @Huw for showing us this!
If I buy one or already bought one, I would leave the stickers off if I had the spare white pieces. Great review and comparison, as always. I actually like the look of the car in real life, and the LEGO model reflects its features well. I will miss the 6-stud wide Speed Champions cars, but I already like the 8-stud wide ones.
@Kokiri_Forester said:
"Is there someone out there who is printing decent alternatives directly onto Lego parts and selling "upgrade kits" or the like?"
I can recommend
https://www.steindrucker.com/
For custom printed pieces. He also offers replacement sets of printed pieces or upgrade kits as you called them. For example for the Haunted House, Palace Cinema, Ghostbusters HQ and several others. Also lots of other awesome printed pieces.
@The_Teenage_Brickster said:
"So that’s what Chase McCain is doing in his retirement."
Oh yeah, you just did a good thing. I didn't notice that until you pointed it out... It was so long ago. Now he's driving new Nisan Nismo Speed Champions cars...
@Huw , do you know what minifigure scale is, or have you done an article about that already?
I plan on doing something similar with the Audi Quattro set
I just picked up this set recently and was pretty impressed with it. I had some doubts with the cars being widened out to accommodate 2 figures. But once I had the set built those doubts were gone.
I like your clean version of the GT-R. I might have to order up some replacement parts so I can swap out between the decked out version and clean cut version. Only thing I might change is the rear spoiler. See if I can create something a little smaller for the clean looking car.
Nice Job!