Review: 75884 1968 Ford Mustang Fastback
Posted by Huw,
75884 1968 Ford Mustang Fastback is one of two Ford Speed Champions sets being released next week and the second Ford Mustang to be represented in the Speed Champions lineup, the first being 75871 Ford Mustang GT from 2016.
The '68 Mustang Fastback is famous for being Steve McQueen's ride in the classic film Bullitt, released the same year. The one featured in the film sported a dark geen livery although was not decked out with logos, numbers and stripes, as this one is. Nevertheless, I suspect that was the reason for choosing to build it that colour. It certainly makes a welcome change from the bright liveries of most of the other cars in the range.
Contents
Three bags, one chassis, one sticker sheet and one instruction manual.
The stickers are numerous but nowhere near as many as required for the Fiesta.
Parts
Compared to the Fiesta it's a little disappointing from a new parts point of view. There are just a couple of recolours: a pair of Left/Right Plate 1X2, W/ Bow, 45 Deg. Cut' in dark green and four wheel arches in that colour too, that's all.
Minifigure
The minifigure, too, is a little disappointing. The torso is the same as that used in last year's 75881 2016 Ford GT & 1966 Ford GT40. However, it's perfectly suited to the model so I guess we can't really complain.
Construction
Like many Speed Champions sets this one contains a track-side accessory, a timing display, which is constructed before moving onto the car.
Personally I find them superfluous and would rather a few more bricks went into the car itself. It's just something else to lose!
Once again, the car is built in much the same way as all Speed Champions cars.
The completed model
With fewer stickers than the Fiesta it can be built much more rapidly and when completed it looks great.
The 1x1 round tile at the back is printed with the mustang symbol, all other decorations are stickers. Light saber hilts are used for the exhausts.
Here's the car that it's modelled on. I think the designer has been successful in capturing its likeness pretty well, from the side, anyway.
Although the model looks to be dark green a lot of it is actually black, as becomes apparent when you view it from the top. I guess this was to avoid more parts recolours rather than to represent a real-life livery.
I think this might be the first Speed Champions car to sport a LEGO logo, but correct me if I'm wrong.
It looks best when viewed side-on, because...
...as usual, it looks way too narrow when viewed from the front.
Verdict
This is a competent and attractive addition to the Speed Champions lineup. It's dark green livery, far from being drab, makes it more appealing than an endless stream of red Ferraris.
Unlike most SC cars, you could leave the stickers off of this one and it would still look great. You'd probably want to put the mustang symbol on the tile at the front, but other than that they are all largely superfluous.
It'll be available on 1st March and will most likely cost £12.99 and $14.99.
Thanks to LEGO for providing this set for review, which is an expression of my own opinions.
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48 comments on this article
Great review!
I am going to pick up the Saturn V today. I'll look in the Lego Store to see if they have this Mustang available too. Two classic American pieces from the 1960's, how can I go wrong?
Thank you for the review. That picture of the real one is a beauty! I'm not a huge fan of cars or races, and have only six SC sets. But as a child Bullitt really impressed my mind and memory, this long and tense car pursuit is one of the best of the cinema IMO. And this set is for sure a first day purchase. But I think I'll build it without any stickers... But for the Mustang front logo, and as lights are brick built and do not rely on any sticker, as long as I can see thanks to your review. Maybe the top golden lines, I'll choose when it'll be in front of me. With the orange Mc Laren (don't remember its name sorry) one of my favorite SC set.
Awesome review!I especially like the 1x1 Printed Logo. And Yes, this is the first SC to feature a Lego logo.
elle est la plus proche des modèles réel, une des rare SC a ne pas utilisé des autocolant en guise de phares avant ou arrière
Not bad. Definitely going stickerless when I get it.
Might have to get 2 just for the extra green bricks.
Only thing I don't like about it is the front grill. That slanted piece looks odd when a standard flat black piece would have looked much better.
I'm looking forward to picking this one up as well as I love the SC classic cars and hope to see more of them. My only complaint w/this set is the huge LEGO logo on the hood, it just kills the "realness" of the car for me. There's no option to leave it off and keep the gold striping, which is a shame because the racing stripes are the only stickers I would have applied to this set. I'm hoping to have dark green spare parts to replace the white doors, but that's doubtful. Anyways, looking forward to some cosmetic experiments on this one and keep the classics coming LEGO - just please leave your logo off of them, we know who made them :)
This may be my first Speed Champion purchase. It looks great overall. I'll definitely try to mod what I can. I agree it looks too narrow from the front, but I'd likely always look at it from an angle anyway.
The dark green was a smart choice. I'd like more recolors of course, but otherwise, I'll likely pick it up.
Thanks for the review.
I'm buying the 68' Mustang for the new wheel arches alone. Are these brand new, or do they show up in any other released set?
Looks great, many thanks for all photos. Just wish there was one of the finished interior.
@Brick‘t It does look with just the front sticker!
@LegoSolo77 The mod to get rid of the white is quite easy. I used 4 additional parts (that are not included), two black 1x2 brackets to replace the white bracket and 2 1x6 dark green plates for the row below the 3 brackets. With the leftover 1x2 dark green plates you can replace the white 1x2‘s below the green tiles. Here‘s a pic: https://flic.kr/p/239PMpa
@addreject the wheel arches are new in that color!
@Huw, that is definitely a new wheel arch, not just a recolor. As far as I can tell it has not appeared in any other released sets. Can you add some pictures of the part by itself?
OK, thank you. I am not familiar with all the SC cars so didn't know that.
Thank you for the great review.
I definitely agree on leaving out all possible stickers minus of course the Mustang symbol, and - yes - the car looks great from the side and much less so from the front. Yay for the printed round tile and the green wheel arches (I'm a modular-building addict and those parts are exactly what I'll need for my windows).
All in all, it's a much nicer set than the Fiesta imo. At a great price! Aiming to buy a couple.
I like the MOC Hachiroku24 made of a classic Mustang way better. https://youtu.be/yGRvV6TM_OA
Those tail lights are brilliant--took me a moment to figure out how they did it. This set looks great, definitely another one I'll be getting "for my kids"...
When next week is it coming out?
1st March.
Nice review, Huw!
I really wish there were more old cars in the Speed Champions line and not just racing. This is the best SC car yet, as it is an older car that is not in a 'comparison' set.
A 1930s racing car (like Monopoly) and/or a 1950s racing car with the open nose are really needed in this line. Hopefully one day there will be non racing civilian cars, like the one in Downtown Diner and Palace Cinema (although still following the SC rules).
Old cars also offer a better building experience, they are much harder to recreate, especially 1920s-1940s cars with the 'sweeping' fenders/running boards.
@julesvincent thanks! That looks sweet and not hard to do, I'll definately try it out!
Great review as always.
Did anyone else go weak at the knees when they reached the pic of the real mustang?
What is the long bley bar part holding up the timing board thingy?
This looks better in your photos than the official Lego pics. Wasn't sure about the shaping from the angles they'd taken photos from. Tempted to ignore most of the stickers and try to make a red or light grey road version.
Very nice, some of the Details are great in this size.
I want an 1960's Mustang Fastback in this(!) colour as an Creator Expert Set!
@julesvincent: Your non-stickered Mustang looks great!
I have to ask, what would it look like if you replaced the wedge the Mustang emblem with another 1x2 bracket? Seems like it would give it that nice open grill Bullitt Mustang look.
Seems I’m alone but i really don’t think it does justice to the original car (which is so cool). The lego version is far too angular and not at all sexy. I think the GT last year was much better.
@jdm there might be kids on. plz watch the adjectives.
Yikes, that front view. Is there a reason TLG didn’t make SC windscreens 6 wide? Would that look even worse?
Does anyone make a Lego compatible slot-car chassis? My son loves Lego but also loves slot-cars. The Speed Champions look like they are close to 1:32 scale and are begging to be placed on a slot-car track.
@Teriyaqi, I think it is because a 6-stud-wide is the general "working creative brief" scale for most "non-commercial" passenger vehicles in the Minifigures/City world.
A 9.45s 1/4-mile in a car from the '60s?!?
Seriously though, this car looks way better in your pics than in the promotional images I've seen previously.
I might buy this, but will definitely go easy on the stickers. Shame there's so many black parts on it, when rumours first popped up, I hoped it would be an easy mod to a Bullitt Mustang.
@Teriyaqi: That would look even worse, yeah. The greenhouse and roof is at least a little narrower than the body on most cars, and that's especially important to the look of the sportscars and racing cars we see in Speed Champions. Put a 6-wide windscreen on these cars and they look boxy and square instead of sleek.
A 5-wide windscreen part could be neat in some cases, but obviously that's not going to happen.
Lego should never write
"Lego" and "speed champions"
on their cars ever again. It is so tacky. A successful design suspends your belief - if only for a few seconds- that this is a toy. It is a model of an actual car. No authentic 68' Mustang has "Lego Speed Champion" on it. The choice of these stickers was a poor one. Please do not write "LEGO FERRARI SPEED CHAMPION" on any future car. No actual driver races in a Lego Ferrari. I'm a huge fan of adv. stickers on cars too...but of actual racing products. Oh, I cry tears.
Really needed 4 Bracket 1 x 2 - 1 x 2 Inverted in dark green for the door indentations. The black next to the white stripe looks terrible. Hopefully that and the other black pieces that should of been dark green will come out soon.
@picopirate yes, there was something called "scalextric construblock" made by the spanish branch of scalextric slot cat company. Cars even had a similar Speed Champions lookalike
Definite buy for me, even before the review. But Huw's photos helped to convince me even more. In the official pics I was always reminded of another Ford car, namely the old Escort...
I usually apply all the stickers to these cars (most are really needed to make them look ok), but here I may actually skip most. Who wants their Mustang all cluttered with logos?
Is this the first Speed Champion car without any exposed studs? (Not counting the partially uncovered studs under the windscreen or hubcaps.)
I don't have any SC sets, however I am very tempted with some from this new wave - great review Huw, thanks!
@Game On! Here is a pic with a bracket instead of the wedge. https://flic.kr/p/24xFDRF The tan piece in black is what I used. You could apply the sticker on that piece ;) But I'm still not happy with the hood and will make more modification to it. I need more dark green parts :D
windscreen is aweful
I love it. Will be interesting to see an official set with those Mustang tail lights.
https://flic.kr/p/GPPGFi
I think it will look perfectly good without any stickers unlike the rally ford. A must buy for me.
Great Review!
@julesvincent Yeah, that looks much better. That wedge piece in the front grill just didn't look right to me. I like how you smoothed out the hood in the following picture as well.
I can't wait to get my hands on this set. I'll probably end up getting 2. 1 to build as is, stickers and all. The second to modify as I see fit.
@Game On! Thank you! Do you have any advise on how to make the roof/back look good?
I was so excited to see a Mustang and a 'Vette in the SC series until I saw those models--much too narrow compared to their length, and nothing at all like the real things. *This* model, however, while still narrower than it should be, does say "Mustang" to me--and of course I'll never say no to more car parts in British Racing Green (or a good approximation, anyway)! I'll have to get the instructions for the previous Mustang to see what changes made the difference for me, or if I'm just more inclined to like green cars on principle....
Thanks for the great review!
@julesvincent
I was thinking that this piece looks similar to how the back end slopes down. But it doesn't come in green.
https://brickset.com/parts/design-4858
Picked up mine today. My God, that's a LOT of decals to futz around with!
Though I was tempted by all the new parts in the Fiesta set, in the end I preferred this one, so that's what I got today.
At first I left the stickers off - apart from the Mustang logo at the front - but when I was building the sides, the white parts put me off. I didn't have some spare greens lying around (or to be more precise: didn't really bother to look for them), so I decided to use the stickers. Well, most of them, the ones on top of the sides remained unused. And I must say: I actually like it with stickers.
Nice though that the lights are brick built.