Review - 75912 LEGO Porsche 911 GT Finish Line από Brick Fanatics

Ακολουθεί review για ένα πολύ ωραίο σετάκι για τους φίλους του μηχανοκίνητου αθλητισμού



When LEGO announced the Speed Champions range, this immediately hit a note with me. Foremost, I am diecast collector – I have model cars everywhere, much to the groaning of my Mrs most of the time. My cellar has a stack of boxes filled with models of all scales and my two display cabinets are struggling to cope with the raft of new additions. Interestingly enough, LEGO doesn’t even get a look in there, that is how tough the competition for space is. So what better way for LEGO to get a big smile on my face by introducing licensed cars at minifigure scale? But did I set an unexpectedly high bar?

I am used to seeing a high attention to detail as per Minichamps or AutoArt. These cars (in 1/43 scale) can hit £40 a pop – it is an expensive hobby just like LEGO. So with the Speed Champions I was (stupidly) expecting these to be, not of the same quality, but of the same attention to detail.
But this is LEGO after all and there are confines to what is possible within certain scales – same as diecast.

My initial reaction to the released McClaren P1 was an absolute shocker. I am not convinced with the 918 Hybrid either. Did LEGO fail at the first hurdle?

Whilst I was quite disappointed with these initial offerings, the set that caught my eye was 79512, Porsche 911 GT Finish Line. For me these looked pukka from the outset, so this was a priority set for me.

Apologies, it has been so hot of late I have not had time to think and thus my review is way overdue, so let’s have a look at this one in particular right away.

Set Info
Set Name & No: 75912-1: Porsche 911 GT Finish Line
Year Release: 2015
Brickset Entry: Click here
Parts List: Click here
Piece Count: 551
UK Price: £39.99
Price per piece: 7.258p
Availability: General Retail

Official set details & description



Race for a podium position in your Porsche 911 GT!

Race against your friends and claim a place on the podium with this exciting LEGO Speed Champions play set. Prep the 2 powerful, Porsche 911 GT race cars with the tools in the mini-garage. Attach the unique Porsche 911 wheel trims to make your car look super-sleek and then drive to the start-finish line. Activate the dropping start lights and it’s red, amber, green for go! Capture all the action with the camerawoman as you race to be first past the checkered flag. Then climb up to the podium for the prize-giving ceremony. Accept your trophy and stand proudly as the national flags are raised! Includes 4 minifigures with assorted accessories: 2 Porsche drivers, a camerawoman and a race marshal.

Opinion



The box is very different from what you would expect as per the City theme and rightly so. Speed Champions is a sub theme of the LEGO range, so it should have its own look and feel. They have done a good job here characterising this. The rear of the box shows a real version of the car with some facts and figures so that you know what you are building and what it is capable of in the real world. The maps (instructions to the rest of the LEGO building population) comprise of three booklets taking you through the build of the 991s and then the pit and podium.



And let us not forget the two massive sticker sheets – if you hate the job of applying stickers to your LEGO, then avoid this set like the plague – I can guarantee you that everyone’s OCD will come out trying to line the buggers up millimetre perfect.



The set is a good build – give yourself 45 mins (have the TV in the background or stick a soundtrack on via the portable wireless) and then you will be done. It is a pleasant build, more so for the fact that you are creating a version of a real car rather than a LEGO own build and release.



Firstly I will talk about the minifigures. Regular BF readers will know that I am not into this minifigure malarkey – if I was, it would drive me around the bend trying to find that elusive minifigure, so I am glad that I never got started. However, these minifigures are rather cool for the simple reason that they are sponsored with authentic liveries and not bloody Octan, so thus instant kudos. Mobil and Porsche are genuine names and these little people would just enhance any Cityscape or race MOC that is created. Super stuff.



There are not many unique parts to the builds but there are a few. It should be noted that the wheels are not standard as per City sets and because of this, there is a new 2x4x2 wheel arch for both cars. I tried to see what the standard City wheel arch did – and it was bugger all. The tyres just did not fit or move. The Cross and Stud rims don’t actually look bad without the wheel trims in them and give that race car feel about it, held in via the trusty connector peg. There are a choice of wheel trims that you can add – the ‘BBS’ Cross wires are the better looking ones.



SNOT techniques are used to full effect here creating the front bumper and the rear rump (which is superbly done, may I add). There are no opening doors, these being take up by 1×4 Sloped elements which I think is a bit of a shame, but I can see why. The stickers also aid in showing off the lines of the car and it would not have really worked with opening parts or the door element.



The car is also only 6-studs wide. Now some folk will get rather narked with this and would really have hoped for a two seater, but it would have bloated the car to at least 8 to 10 studs wide and then make the whole thing look fat. With the 6-stud configuration the model keeps its shape. There is not room for a moulded car seat so, via the use of SNOT, this is created using a 2×2 roof tile and a 2×2 flat plate – it does the job. Standard steering wheel thankfully.



I did not apply the reams of stickers to the car – they actually do add to the character of the 991 and more importantly for me they are fully licensed and that is a rare thing as a royalty is normally paid for the IP rights to be reproduced. It is your choice, they do enhance and bring out the best of the car, BUT you probably can’t use the pieces for anything else. Well, not unless you are building another Porsche that is.
I think that the light gantry is particularly smart – the use of a few Technic elements enabling the three sets of lights dropping down is a fantastic bit of play value. It is a simple build that creates much fun and is authentic – you will see such gantries in F1, BTCC, DTM, V8 Australia, the list goes on. There’s good use of the lattice girders for height.



The winning podium is a good touch. I would have liked to have seen this expanded a little with a pit garage and mechanics, but methinks that this is reserved for the Ferrari F1 set, which is a shame as I think it would have given extra play value along with possibly a road plate as well to house it all on – I would have happily paid a little extra to have this detail.



Round Up



Now, I could go on all day about how LEGO should have chosen different models or looked at older models like the 930 or 964 Turbo, but that would defeat the purpose of the object. This is not a product for the car collector – this is a product for LEGO to re-create modern day sports cars that the little person can relate to – and that is important.

And the set does this very well.

As a diecast collector, if I want detail, then I will go high end – Spark, Neo do scales justice but come at a big price.

But these are not collector display models – the target audience is the young boy who dreams of driving one of these cars one day. I was that person, and I was chuffed to bits when I got behind the wheel of a 996 on a track day. So these aspire and why not?

They are as accurate as they can be within the confines of a 6-stud wide chassis and give a very good IP representation of the actual car. Use some LEGO roads, and you could create a race track. It gives a good account for a basis of a race track and GT cars – add the Fezza 458 and you have a 1-2-3. It is all good.

For me, these work fine – I am not getting hung up on the lack of detail as this will just mean bigger – and from a LEGO perspective they are not going to shift many sets if it is all high end and price wise as well.

Whilst I am not that impressed with the hypercars (P1, 918 et al), the GTs are rather good. And if you want to get started with GT Racing and have no interest in Scalextric or cannot afford scale models, then here you go.

Round Up
Positives

Best represented IP of the Speed Champions
Authentic livery – not an Octan in sight
Nice touch with the race light gantry
Basis to create other Porsche 911 models
Negatives

Could LEGO have added a full pit hangar??
Road plate would be have given extra play value
Set Ratings

Building experience: ★★★★☆
Parts : ★★★½☆
Minifigures : ★★★★☆
AFOL Appeal: ★★★★☆
Value for Money: ★★★★☆
Overall: ★★★★☆