Review: 76917 2 Fast 2 Furious Nissan Skyline GT-R (R34)
Posted by CapnRex101,
The long-running Fast & Furious series features some stunning cars, providing abundant source material for Speed Champions. The celebrated 1999 Nissan Skyline GT-R undoubtedly warrants recreation, especially given the unique graphics on Brian O'Conner's car.
However, those graphics require the application of numerous stickers and 76917 2 Fast 2 Furious Nissan Skyline GT-R (R34) therefore includes quite a few. This model appears impressive though, hopefully reaching the standard of those produced in 2022, which have proven tremendously popular!
Summary
76917 2 Fast 2 Furious Nissan Skyline GT-R (R34), 319 pieces.
£19.99 / $24.99 / €24.99 | 6.3p/7.8c/7.8c per piece.
Buy at LEGO.com »
While far from my favourite Speed Champions model, the Nissan Skyline is impressive
- Broadly accurate shaping
- Appealing graphics
- Superb minifigure
- Liberal use of stickers
- Awkward bonnet design
The set was provided for review by LEGO. All opinions expressed are those of the author.
Minifigure
Brian O'Conner appeared in six of the first seven Fast & Furious films, played by Paul Walker until the actor's untimely death in 2013. Like the Nissan Skyline, this minifigure originates from the second instalment in the series and appears surprisingly detailed, considering the simplicity of Brian's attire.
The wrinkled shirt is certainly basic, but nonetheless accurate, and I like the dual-moulded arms representing short sleeves. Brian's hairstyle is faithfully recreated too, in combination with facial hair. The mouth looks slightly strange though. I think this expression is supposed to convey the character's confidence when driving the Skyline, but maybe a more conventional smirk would be preferable.
The Completed Model
Certain vehicles are immediately identifiable by wholly unique features, often providing the basis for the best Speed Champions sets. The 1999 Nissan Skyline GT-R arguably lacks such notable features, although remains recognisable in LEGO form, taking full advantage of the memorable blue graphics from the onscreen car at the beginning of 2 Fast 2 Furious.
While they never appear together onscreen, 76917 2 Fast 2 Furious Nissan Skyline GT-R (R34) is an ideal companion for 76912 Fast & Furious 1970 Dodge Charger R/T. The models' different colour schemes suit combined display and they are correctly scaled, as the Skyline reaches just over 16cm in length and the Dodge Charger measures almost 18cm long.
The whole vehicle is angled forward very slightly, which corresponds with the onscreen car and gives an impression of speed. However, viewing the model from this angle also reveals its most significant inaccuracy, as the Skyline's gradually sloping bonnet seems too flat. I think replicating the desired shape would be rather difficult though, while also accommodating wheel arches and brick-built headlights.
Trans-black 1x1 slopes form perfect headlights, reflecting their segmented design. The shape of the radiator grille and its surrounding bodywork looks brilliant as well. I love how 2x3 pentagonal tiles are nestled into the body, framing the printed GTR logo and stickered radiator. I suspect the sheer number of stickers will cause some frustration, although many of those 23 stickers were unavoidable.
Moreover, the exposed studs on the bonnet are unfortunate, but again difficult to avoid because the 2x4x2 2/3 wheel arches include studs on top. The new elements arriving in March should be more versatile. The wheels themselves require no improvement though, with new metallic silver inserts duplicating the rims of the original car. 76911 007 Aston Martin DB5 also made effective use of unique wheel rims.
The interior looks marvellous too, featuring an accurate right-hand driving position with a printed seat. The seat lacks a headrest though, which is awkward. Otherwise, I like the light bluish grey railing forming a roll cage and the continued use of blue parts is important, roughly reflecting the blue neon lights shown onscreen.
In addition, three metallic silver nitrous oxide canisters occupy the passenger seat and magenta flowers represent their valves. Maybe surprisingly, the 1x1 round tile with vertical bar has never been available in metallic silver before. Stickers form the three accompanying dials and console displays, including one applied on the smallest side of a 1x2 slope.
Five further stickers decorate each flank, several of which create the Nissan Skyline's distinctive striped pattern. The colour matching between these grey stickers and the light bluish grey parts is much better than on 76911 007 Aston Martin DB5, although this seems inconsistent between production batches. Additionally, the designs on each sticker line up beautifully, while the curved wheel arches are printed.
Despite the substantial quantity of stickers, the designer has sought to build as many details as possible. These include the Skyline's characteristic rear lights, as neck brackets leave trans-red studs visible, while covering the rest of each piece. The inner lights are accordingly smaller than those on the outside, which perfectly matches the source material. I like the huge metallic silver exhaust as well.
Overall
Considering the subtle shaping of the real Nissan Skyline, I think 76917 2 Fast 2 Furious Nissan Skyline GT-R (R34) achieves a good standard of accuracy and detail. The bonnet does appear inescapably flat, but the radiator assembly is exceptional and I love the vibrant graphics, despite their considerable reliance on stickers.
The presence of 23 stickers is bound to disappoint some, but many are quite small and could be omitted, if you wish. Also, the model does incorporate four exclusive printed parts, alongside the superb minifigure. The US price of $24.99 has risen over past Speed Champions cars, which is unfortunate, but the European costs of £19.99 or €24.99 are unaltered from 2022 and I think the value remains fair, overall.
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45 comments on this article
I think if I got this, I would just replace the sticker parts with coloured pieces.
Unpopular opinion: Stickers are wonderful and better than prints.
very cool sets
Immediate reaction: why does it have exposed studs
What's going on with the new like button colors? I'm not that fond of the yellow, and now only those you like are highlighted to yellow.
I was already on the fence when they went up to $20 after switching from 6 wide to 8 wide, but I'm not going to pay $25 for it. I do like it though, so I'll hold out for the eventual discount.
I'm surprised to see the 1x1 round tile with bar made in a drum-laquered colour... I'd have thought it would be too prone to scratching the coating on the bar when you attach things to it.
@person_that_uses_brickset said:
"Unpopular opinion: Stickers are wonderful and better than prints."
I think there's a happy middle ground. I understand why many builders don't like stickers, and in things like modular buildings they might be less charming, but I love integrating stickers into my MOCs the way I do any other element.
I've bought dozens of sticker sheets on BrickLink over the years and 90% of the time it's to use a design for something other than its intended purpose (and often other than its intended brick). It's especially fun when adding minifigure-eye-level detail for my stop-motion animations, or populating a lived-in location like a bar, an alleyway or an underground dwelling.
I've even seen one canny builder use the black bordering from a sticker sheet to add detail to a brick-built giant figure!
None of this is to put down AFOLs who dislike stickers, because I feel that frustration too on certain sets. For something like this though, I think it actually adds playability and future moccing value.
Bit of a mixed bag. There are quite a few details I like, like what they did with the front of the car, but not everything works that well. Those studs on the hood don't help either. And to be fair, this is not really my favorite Skyline to begin with. I'd much prefer a blue Calsonic R32, or even better, the classic Hakosuka KGPC-10, although neither would probably translate well into Lego at this scale.
As for the stickers, nice that those are better than on the DB5, but there's still a noticeable difference. Why not just clear backed stickers? Yes, I know not everyone likes those, but those would once and for all solve that issue. On a set where large parts of the stickers should match the color of the plastic, clear backed stickers should be a no-brainer.
And while I get that expecting all prints would be unreasonable.....is it still after a 25% increased price?
But the most baffling part is why of all pieces is that seat a print?
Looks really good from some angles, really bad from others. The goodness comes from the general shape. The badness comes from the stickers, especially behind the rear wheel arch where it ends up looking more like a bunch of random shapes than part of the design!
I guess some improvement could be made by re-aligning certain stickers, and some could be cut down to remove the large areas of poorly colour matched grey background.
Hard to see magenta flower pieces the same way after the Majestic Tiger set. *shudder*
I haven’t picked this up yet, but I will even though the added $5 makes it a less immediate purchase. I know it’s only $5, but the amazing value was kind of a big incentive to buy last year’s sets. The single cars now feel like a “fair” value, which makes me more inclined to wait for a sale or coupon.
Some people gonna be like
2 many stickers 2 furious
Nice of them to include some bricks in the sticker pack
Overall a solid addition. I think they captured the shape really well. They should have made the Supra from the first one since this wasn't in the movie long (unless you watch the first bit where he keeps racing around the country).
Either way, I'll pick it up eventually, but will hope for a sale.
Biased sorta fan opinion: This should of been a Mk IV Supra
I can't get over these stupid border areas that are left blank on stickered parts. Especially with how the blue stripes are angled on this thing so some are just hinted at with two blue dots on opposing stickers. It just doesn't look good, nor okay.
@ItisNoe said:
"Immediate reaction: why does it have exposed studs"
Because it’s LEGO?
Seems kind of plain at first blush, but SC does have a way of making even the relatively unexciting entries very satisfying to build in reality. I like the rear lights here a lot, though it's a shame that the biggest misses are concentrated towards the front on this one.
Is this the annual de-facto exclusive from the Speed Champions line in the UK? It's not a pleasant trend to get to release day and for none of the usual retailers to be stocking it. In the last two years it has been one of the double packs (the GT pack in 2021, the Mercedes pack in 2022), but maybe this year it is this single release? I hope that the full wave in March doesn't bring it's own disappointment in this respect.
Was this ever announced as an exclusive in advance? 3 years running, and I'd have thought that I would have caught on by now if I was just missing something.
I live my life a quarter round tile at a time.
This line had better get to Roman and Tej in the space car.
@CapnRex101, great review. thanks. But I think there is a black 1x1 plate representing the front right air intake is in the wrong place.
@ItisNoe said:
"Immediate reaction: why does it have exposed studs"
Because to cover them you would just have to slap a tile on top, which would look bad. The studs you see are the top of the wheel arch piece and the brackets. Those parts are required to give the car it's look. You could remove two of the studs when the new arch comes out, but it's really just inevitable.
I respectfully disagree with the "superb minifigure" statement. I don't see anything particularly interesting / outstanding about it.
I recently put together the Fire GT with the legacy colors. I didn’t apply the stickers because I’m trying to build up that color for some space MOCs.
But without the stickers, the car kind of looks like a duck from certain angles. So stickers can really help out a lot.
I like this car, so I’ll pick this up. I still think the R32 V Spec looks better, but we can’t have everything.
This is one of those that I will pick up if I run into it on a sale somewhere. I both like it and don't like it. I think overall it looks too flat. I can understand that they strive for that with some supercars and racing machinery, but this is more of a regular car, although a sporty and modified one. I think it could afford to be a plate taller in most areas, which should also make it possible to include that slope of the bonnet that is missing so much that it looks like a different car to me. I generally don't mind seeing studs, but I think it's the inconsistency of the texture that makes it a little bit off here. There is a lot of studs on the bonnet, but none on the roof, sides, or the back. Makes it feel unbalanced and unrefined.
It's also interesting to me that this was released separately and not as part of a wave. To me it indicates perhaps they didn't think it was good enough to fit in the '23-wave, but still good enough to put on the market instead of just going to waste sitting on someone's desk in the development office. Personally I would have liked this to be iterated a few more times and released later in the year, together with some other movie cars.
I feel like complaining about stickers on a Speed Champions set is like complaining about tiles on a mosaic set. It looks fantastic, and I'll bet getting it whenever I can (note: I'm not saying you're wrong to dislike stickers, only that the complaining gets old. They're just a fact of life when it comes to SC).
A bit disappointed at the price hike, but SC has always been a bargain, this just brings them more in-line with what I'd expect them to cost. Still a good deal. As always, the construction techniques are outstanding--I love those tail lights especially, and the interior is nice, too. The amount of detail they manage to cram into these little 8-wide cars is just amazing.
Excited for this to show up. Looks like a fun build. I get the disappointment of the price raise, but SC always felt like a huge bargain for what you got. Now it is less of a bargain, but still completely reasonable.
My guess is that the seat is printed because this set doesn't have a unique printed windshield like most of this line does, so there's extra space for decorated elements in the budget. The McLaren Elva two years ago, which doesn't even have a windscreen, had printed seats too
I dunno. Looks a bit knock-offy to me. I think it’s the wheels mainly
I was going to complain about the price hike, but it's still well below the "magic ratio." I haven't seen any of the F&F movies (I only got 76912 because I wanted an eight-wide classic charger), so I'll probably not get this one, although I do think it's well-designed, and particularly like the grill and the taillights.
@person_that_uses_brickset: It can't be that unpopular of an opinion if you've got sixteen upvotes.
I’m holding out for Brian’s Escort from number 6.
@GBP_Chris said:
"Some people gonna be like
2 many stickers 2 furious"
Ha, ha, ha!
"The colour matching between these grey stickers and the light bluish grey parts is much better than on 76911 007 Aston Martin DB5"...
Yay! Go Lego™! Way to finally get your f***ing act together!
..."although this seems inconsistent between production batches."
Face palm. 'Only the not-even-competent is good enough.'
Still could do with a Delorean...
Ugly car IMO (even the real one). We need the Eclipse.
I’m fine with stickers but the color match issues are disappointing. On this, the Bond car, etc.
@PicnicBasketSam said:
"My guess is that the seat is printed because this set doesn't have a unique printed windshield like most of this line does, so there's extra space for decorated elements in the budget. The McLaren Elva two years ago, which doesn't even have a windscreen, had printed seats too"
I think the seat has a print on it because a kid will have to put the Minifig in & out of it numorous times & that could be a durability issue for a sticker being rubbed on constantly.
Thats my guess anyway!!
Loved most of the 2022 SC sets. This one doesn't do it for me. So far 2023 SC are not at the 2022 level.
This set has proven really popular - it sold out at my local LEGO store within 20 minutes!
@WesterBricks said:
"I was already on the fence when they went up to $20 after switching from 6 wide to 8 wide, but I'm not going to pay $25 for it. I do like it though, so I'll hold out for the eventual discount."
Yeah as much as I like the Skyline design (in general that is, not so much this LEGO version) Ill get it, but not at 25.. hopefully it gets down to at least to 20, though 17 would be better IMO.
@socal_bricks said:
"This set has proven really popular - it sold out at my local LEGO store within 20 minutes!"
In Europe it will get heavy discounts, for sure.
@chesney107 said:
" @PicnicBasketSam said:
"My guess is that the seat is printed because this set doesn't have a unique printed windshield like most of this line does, so there's extra space for decorated elements in the budget. The McLaren Elva two years ago, which doesn't even have a windscreen, had printed seats too"
I think the seat has a print on it because a kid will have to put the Minifig in & out of it numorous times & that could be a durability issue for a sticker being rubbed on constantly.
Thats my guess anyway!!"
That is my assumption too. Elements which need to interact with minifigures are generally printed because they are being handled more often than other pieces.
Sold out very quickly in the 2 Lego Stores I visited on 2nd/3rd January... we do like our cars :-)
I was on the phone to the Lego Store in Manchester today & they got a delivery of 250 sets of the Skyline, so hopefully theres gonna be one left when I go down tomorrow (13th Jan)
Hope this helps anyone!!
@maffyd said:
"Sold out very quickly in the 2 Lego Stores I visited on 2nd/3rd January... we do like our cars :-)"
The store in Denver reportedly had a huge line of people waiting for the store to open so they could get it.
I am not against stickers.
I have said it before and I will say it again ... I wish they included two lots of sticker sheets with each set.
Who here still can’t find one?