LEGO Speed Champions Ferrari 488 GT3 “Scuderia Corsa” 75886 Review

So this is my first time writing a LEGO review so you’ll have to bare with me. For this review I’ve focused on the LEGO Ferrari 488 GT3 “Scuderia Corsa” 75886. Like I said in my previous post, this is the first time I’ve gotten into the LEGO Speed Champions range. And I can safely say this won’t be my last (well, I already acquired 4 of the early 2018 range).

The packaging that the set came in is finished to the usual LEGO high standard. It feature that iconic Ferrari Logo and the beautiful red sports car. Standing next to it is a blonde female driver that the Brother’s Brick have identified as being Christina Nielsen.

As a former print designer, I’m enjoying the branding that Lego is using across the boxes. Feels very exciting and on par with something like the F1 or WRC graphics.  The back of the box shows the car from a few angles including on the race track – both in LEGO form and real life racing Ferrari form. And again, featuring the iconic Stallion that is the Ferrari badge.

Inside the box, it is impressively full. And this was one thing I really like whenever I buy a set is for it to feel like it has a good density. These sets do no disappoint, cramming 179 pieces into the box. One thing that I wasn’t so keen on was the manual having to be folded. I feel like that could have been smaller to sit flat and be thicker. But this seems to be consistent across the smaller car builds.

And the sticker sheet was pretty large, but as with most racing cars, they have a log of sponsors and graphics in real life, so that’s to be expected.

Now, for the first time I can remember. I have to complain about a new LEGO pack. When I opened it, the corner of the sticker sheet had folded over and one of the stickers had come away. Luckily, the missing sticker had “softly” stuck to the manual so I was able to rescue it. And despite the fold in the sheet, nothing else was damaged.

That experience did make me a little sad given how well presented the whole thing is. But then I started building it and completely forgot about that minor issue. Love how LEGO had that affect.

Putting the Bricks together

I have put a time-lapse of the build up on the GJ Bricks YouTube channel (I have a light-box coming so future videos and photo quality will improve A LOT!):

The build itself was pretty straightforward, but there were a couple of really stand out techniques for me, this being my first time building one of these sets.

First was the way the sides are put together using brackets from the chassis in a few different size. Then various pieces are layered on to start to give the sides their distinctive shapes. I especially like the way they’ve managed to get the air intakes in just behind the doors. And the use of the 1×1 triangle wedges to help the door defusers meet the the rear wheel.

Next up was the rear wing, connected using a pair of bent black skeleton arms. The wing itself was finished with 1×1 curved green tiles. Whilst not particularly amazing to build, the result, in my opinion was spot on!

The final and best bit, and I’m willing to say every single review will pick up on the same thing, is the splitter at the front. First up, there’s two what I’ll call 1×2 ‘half lollipops’ that represent the connection arms. And they in turn sit perfectly again a 6×2 curved plate which is attached upside down. This upside down trick occurs in a few models that I’ve seen, but remember this in my first build, so it impressed me, especially with the lollipops.

The Finished Ferrari 488 GT3 Model

Putting it all together, the finished car is rather gorgeous. Comparing it to the actual car on the rear of the box, LEGO has done a fantastic job of capturing so many of the little details. Even the little green 1×1 curved tiles representing the wing mirrors.

The red colour scheme is broken up by the white streak down to the front of the car, again with the iconic prancing horse. And the flicks of green, as previously mentioned really bring it to life. The silver “Gold Bar” on the roof is a slightly odd detail and I can’t find it on any of the reference photos. Not that I mind as I could imagine it’s meant to represent the air vents you often find on roofs. But I think a 1×2 wedge would have been better suited for that if it were the case.

Stickers adorn the car with the relevant sponsors of team Scuderia Corsa. Looking at images of the actual car they have captured a lot of the major sponsors including Ferrari Silicon Valley and Hublot watches on the doors.

The stickers were all fairly easy to apply with the smallest being on the 1×1&1/2 blocks just behind the doors. I love the way they make that white stripe flow from the front wheel, through the door and up behind the engine block – which is a large sticker also, but glad they included the detail. I don’t think this model would look anywhere near as good without the stickers giving it a level of detail. The wheels are a fairly standard fair for these sets and you get a choice of two hub cap styles. And A LOT of spares!

Throughout the model, the designers have done a cracking job of using the bricks to shape the car. Sometimes using some great layering techniques to build up details, such as the air vents on the sides. The rear of the car might be one of the best views with that imposing wing.

Inside the cockpit you find the only printed piece of the whole set in the form of the speedometer and rev counter. That sits just behind the classic LEGO steering wheel, and as you can see, the driver fits comfortably in there with the arms in the correct position.

And for completeness, here’s the front profile looking back. You can see that it’s quite long, and I really like the caricature-car style that the LEGO Bricks create. One part that I would like to have seen printed was the sticker on the windscreen. It came out OK but the quality of a printed one would be far better in that instance. And confession… You can see the sticker on the left panel just behind the top of the windscreen has a slightly upturned corner where I had a sticker fail.

The underside is fairly, well, underwhelming. But you can see that upside down piece of the splitter, and the dashes of colour from the parts making up the model.

At the end of the build there were a few spare parts but nothing of any real note other than the spare hub caps.

In Conclusion

The LEGO Speed Champions Ferrari 488 GT3 75886 is a great set and was a lot of fun to build and play with. It’s already looking great among my other models and I’m looking forward to having a racing section to my LEGO City. Incidentally, they fit perfectly on the road boards.

At $19 AUD in Kmart for 179 pieces and a fine LEGO Italian motorcar this is a must-buy set for any LEGO or even Car enthusiast!

Bonus Videos

When I was researching the car this is based on, I found a cool video of the LEGO car on the Scuderia Corsa team website that I couldn’t see on the LEGO website:

There’s also a small Video review on the GJ Bricks YouTube Channel:

LEGO Speed Champions Ferrari 488 GT3 75886 Photos