Right, so Im a Lego fan first, and a car fan second. Mostly due to the fact that Lego is infinitely cheaper than the cheapest of my dream cars, and also that I can satisfy my mechanical side without going outside in the rain. Lego is something I can do easily and safely and not catch myself on fire or throw wrenches in fits of screaming rage as yet another rusted bolt rounds off.

I admit, if I claim to be such a huge car fan, why don't I have more SC sets? Well, I didn't like the six wide cars, they felt like cheap representations of a real car with the main similarity being the colour. They relied massively on stickers, and I found the minifig proportions to be a bit odd. Then someone at Lego had the brilliant idea to switch to eight wide! These new cars, and this wave in particular show so well the possibilities of Lego!

Valkyrie AMR Pro:

Firstly, the colour is perfect, a quick turn round the interweb revealed that most of these are a dark green, however, I'm glad that Lego went with the decision to use this lime green and red colour scheme. It looks fabulous! Maybe Ive been living under a rock, but the building techniques were new and very unusual. The new five stud long plate was used well and fascinated me to no end with its seamless integration with the more usual pieces. The pieces used to narrow the front end achieve the look well, but are slightly flimsy. The printed headlights were most welcome, and were lined up perfectly. One area I find a bit incorrect is the front fenders. They either don't have enough height above the wheels, or the nose doesn't slope down enough. It doesn't bother me too much, but once you see the real car, you'll notice it more. Another slight problem is incorrectly coloured fender pieces. A recolour in lime green would have been nice, but might not have been possible, along with the front end height. The printed wheel covers are great, and were aligned alright. The car doesn't rely too much on stickers, and the ones it has aren't too hard to apply. Overall a very well-designed car, apart from the two slight errors.

Vantage GT3:

My favourite of the two, it's a bit more recognizable as an Aston, as its certainly the more familiar body shape. I'm afraid this one relies a bit more on stickers, and some are difficult to place. Yes, I know exactly what you're going to think, but some STAMPS would have been useful. The stripe along the hood is two stickers and I unfortunately installed them crookedly. One sticker would have guaranteed a nice stripe, as well as the three on the back, which also developed a mind of their own. Not a huge deal to me, but stickers cause stress for people, and this is one such case. I like the colour, having a more civilised look, but with some daring lime green accents to spice things up a bit. The back lights (or light, I suppose) are a great little bit of design, and the fronts are printed well, like the Valkyries. The deep air vents in the hood are another fascinating design, along with the grille, which uses small horn pieces to achieve the look. I don't like the upside down plates to create the front, they don't catch while rolling, but they don't look very nice, and tiled would have been much better. Overall, it has some problems with stickers, but what set doesn't, and the completed car looks great and is instantly recognizable as an Aston Martin.

Overall, its not my favourite SC set, but it is, in my opinion, the best two pack yet. The price is decent, and Id say it was worth it, especially if you like Aston Martin. The two go well together, as do the colours. The building techniques are next level, and the designers have once again displayed the infinite possibilities of the brick. A very fine addition to your collection!

When diciding on spending my money on a set, somewhere in the back of my head I start weighing pros and cons. Generally, I'm not a big fan of the 2-pack concept. I can see the advantages that it opens for the development team in terms of marketing, licensing, parts budget, and so on. But from a customers point of view, at least for me, all paired Speed Champions sets so far have felt like you pay extra for an entire car that you are not really interested in - just to get one that you want. If sold separately, I would certainly have bought a few more of them. But this double pack managed to win me over - because despite all the cons, and the name, there's more than just one Pro here to make up for it.

As a car fan in general, but not an Aston Martin fan in particular, I'm intrigued by the Valkyrie project and its variants. So that is the one that interested me here. However, the LEGO-rendition of it didn't look spectacularly good up front if I'm honest, but many reviewers had hailed its build experience as something extra. The Vantage GT3 model appeared really nice and clean, albeit relatively simple and straight-forward, and the car itself doesn't particularly interest me. My curiosity of the construction process and what the Valkyrie model looked like in person became the final dicider. Now after assembling them myself, here's what I think.

Valkyrie AMR Pro

The promised extraordinary build experience is, well yes, extraordinary. To sum it up, it's a masterclass in half-stud offsets. Some of it could probably have been done with simpler techniques, but then this experience would have been lost. It uses some technic pins and axles to hold things together, but mainly a myriad of different ways of attaching plates and tiles with that half-stud offset. Really eye-opening stuff in some cases! It also features several instances of small sub-assemblies fitting in so perfectly with the rest of the model, in surprising ways, that I on occasion said out loud "wow, no way!". Worth it!

The finished model is to me, unfortunately, disappointing in just the ways I feared though. It looks excellent from a few angles, all of them from up high looking down. But as soon as you get down more level with it, its proportions start to fall apart and rough details appear. I'm not going to list them all, but most striking to me the nose is way too high, and the windscreen is too far back. On the real car the forward most point of the windscreen is at, or even in front of, the front wheel centerline, and lower than the top of the front fenders. That, together with the enormous Venturi tunnels underneath, are the most distinctive features of the real car for me. Difficult to capture in Lego, yes of course, but still disappointing that it wasn't done better than this. I was kind of hoping that it didn't, but it looks the same in person as it does in the pictures.

I'm being picky I know, but the shape of the windscreen canopy piece also bothers me. They made a new one for this set, but still failed to capture the shape properly. It just looks very rough with that crease at the top of the side windows continuing forward and down, right in front of the driver. My solution would have been to sweep that crease around along the top of the windscreen to the other side. I think that would have made more sense. The printing though, is top quality, finally! The colour-matching of the black and dark green is perfect compared to the plastic pieces in the same colours, and the silvery text is super crisp and shiny.

As I have seen others notice too, the wheelbase looks too long, but I have two points regarding that. First, I have kind of got more used to it as the model has been sitting on my desk for a few days. It still looks long, but not as bad as initially. Secondly, comparing it to the limited available data of the real car, it does seem to actually be fairly accurate in terms of scale and proportion of the overall width, length, wheelbase, and wheel size. I guess what makes it look wrong must be the flawed proportions and height of other aspects as mentioned earlier. Also, small toy cars usually have, proportionally, wheels that are too big so that might sway one's perception a bit.

The Valkyrie uses surprisingly few stickers. If that is your choice, you can easily leave most of them off without loosing too much of the look. Much due to the use of the striking bright yellowish green main colour, contrasting black sections, and some brick-built accents in both red and dark green. The red of the stickers is very well colour matched to the plastic, but both the bright yellowish green and the dark green is a little off, unfortunately. Not catastrophically off, but enough to sway me into leaving more of the stickers on the sheet they came on. The wheel covers are printed, as are the new headlight slope pieces, and both are excellent quality.

Vantage GT3

If the build of the Valkyrie AMR Pro was a masterclass in half-stud offsets, the Vantage GT3 is one in half-plate offsets. It's almost as spectacular to experience, which was a pleasant surprise. The way the front grille and splitter comes together is fascinating, and the bright yellowish green horn-pieces used to capture the iconic Aston Martin look is very clever. It uses studs in all directions, and everything just fits so well together with minimal clearances. The rear is also great. Have you noticed how the centre section of the full width rear lights sticks out by half a plate? I didn't either until I put it together. Absolutely brilliant! Other Speed Champions sets have had similar techniques used, but not to this extent in any of the ones I have built. It's way more complex than it appears at a first glance.

As with the Valkyrie, some proportions are not perfect. However, on the Vantage it's more in the finer detail as the overall larger shapes looks great to me, comparing it to pictures of the real car. There are also no gaps anywhere, like you find around the fender arches on the Valkyrie for example. And even at 8-wide these cars are still tiny in scale, so I'm impressed by the level of detail achieved. This looks good and recognisable. In fact, the Vantage GT3 is probably one of my favourites in the line so far now.

The print for the windscreen is again excellent. The colour-matching of the dark grey and bright yellowish green is as good as I could ask for. The green print is even better matched to the plastic than the green of the stickers, which is ever so slightly low in yellow I think. Speaking of stickers, they do a great job of completing the look of this car. They tie together the few spots of bright yellowish green on a model that is otherwise quite boringly grey. I usually only put on the stickers I find most necessary, but for the GT3 I did happily apply all of them. And there are 27. The lower ones on the sides caused some frustration, as they are applied to the inside of 1x2 and 1x4 panel pieces. If you haven't done that before, it's harder than it may seem so take your time.

Minifigures

The two figures reflect the colour schemes of the cars, but inverted if you choose to use them as the instructions suggest. For the Valkyrie, the figure is dark grey while the Vantage one is bright yellowish green. Both seem to use the same printing patterns, only with different colours. They include Aston Martin branding, stripes that extend through the torso, hips, and legs, and some very fine stitching. All very crisp and well saturated. None of them have alternate faces, but both include helmets and hairpieces which is great.

It's a bit tricky to get a figure in and out of the Valkyrie. The car is designed so that the tapered shape of the sides can be slightly swung out temporarily, but even then there is some fiddling to get the outside arm in just the right position to slot in underneath the hinge plate. As per 8-wide standard both cars can accommodate two figures each, side by side.

Summary

Both cars in this set make great toys. They both have a few flimsy bits that can fall off or be misaligned in the hands of smaller kids, but then this is targeted 9+ so should be fine.

As display models they fit nicely in the Speed Champions line. Although the Valkyrie misses the mark of capturing the source material for me. There is just too much wrong with it, even though it's hard to mistake for something else. For that reason, personally, I like the GT3 way better. Funny, since it was actually the Valkyrie that interested me to begin with.

The move to printed headlights for this wave, rather than stickers, is appreciated. Especially as the quality is very high. But I think it can quickly become overused, particularly in combination with these new slope pieces. For me, they risk making all cars look a bit too similar I think. Time will tell.

As a set, importantly, both these cars provide absolutely great build experiences! The Valkyrie I was prepared for, but the Vantage GT3 took me by surprise in a very positive way. I would say take your time and enjoy it, rather than just rush for the final result.

Small modification note

After studying pictures of the real Valkyrie AMR Pro, trying to figure out what differs from the model, I spotted a small potential improvement I figured I might as well share here. Simply reverse the 1x3 and the 1x4 curved slopes above the rear arches, so that the longer one is in front. If you first remove the rear wing, it's then very easy to remove both curved slope pieces together with the 1x1 and 1x3 plate underneath and simply flip that assembly around. The resulting shape above the rear wheels looks closer to that of the real car. Still need to figure out what to do about that front end though...

Being a fan of cars and Lego, Speed Champions has been a favorite of mine since the revamp of the theme in 2020. So, also being a fan of Aston Martins (thanks to the James Bond films), I was excited when I heard that they would finally be represented, and in a 2-pack no less! And then somehow this wave of sets caught me by surprise because I had no idea they were already out until stumbling on them in a store! I saved the Astons for last because, well, I just had to get the Countach because it's a Countach, and the Merc 2-pack was cheaper. And if you paid attention to the title of the review, you already know it was worth saving!

Of course, this set being two entirely separate cars, I'll separate them for review. First up, the first car you build is. . .

Aston Martin Valkyrie AMR Pro

The Valkyrie is quite the stunning car. Desgined by Aston Martin and the Red Bull racing team to be, essentially, the closest you can get to a road legal Formula One car. And then for the AMR Pro they said "to hell with road legal" and made a track only car. So the engine is turned to pull out even more horsepower, big rear wing, racing slicks, etc. This is basically a racing car that 25 people (That's all they'll ever make of the AMR Pro) get to buy. As an aside, did you know that each Valkyrie has seats specially formed for the buyer using 3D scanning? Seriously, this car is wild.

So getting it in Lego form is exciting. The end result though... Well, it's a wonderful Lego set, but not the best representation of the Valkyrie. The overall proportions feel too long, thin, and tall. Kinda stretched, similar to the pre-2020 Speed Champions sets. Some of that is forgivable, given that a minifigure has to sit inside it, but I can think of a few ways to shorten it out, particularly the nose. The most obvious issue is the front wheel arches should be considerably higher than the rest of the nose. Overall, the car should just be wider, or at least shorter to make it feel wider. The length makes it seem too large compared to the driver minifigure.

That said though, I still really like it? They've attempted to replicate how the front end is sort of... disconnected from the rest of the car, with the fins behind the front tires being hinged to flare outward, away from the body, and using clear pieces. The effect isn't 100% successful, but I appreciate the attempt, and it's understandable given the reality of Lego as a medium. There's some other really novel building techniques present. Using some hinge pieces and flat beams to give the cockpit the inward angle towards the front makes for a nice effect. The rear wing, too tall though it may be, still looks nice. The windshield piece is one I haven't seen in the theme before and definitely replicates the shape of the real car's cockpit well. There's a lot of small details where you can tell the designer tried to replicate the real thing, even if the necessities of making a minifigure scale Lego car meant the overall look isn't perfect. Most of all, the color scheme is replicated well, and really pleasing.

Overall, the Valkyrie is a great, and really striking looking Lego set, even if it's not terribly accurate.

Which brings me to the second car. . .

Aston Martin Vantage GT3

For me, this was the real draw of the set. As cool as the Valkyrie may be, it's closer to hypercars like the Mclaren Senna, the Pagani Huayra, the Koenigsegg Jesko, etc. It's not much like a typical Aston Martin because it's supposed to stand out. But the cars that made me like Astons are the grand tourers, not the hypercars. The various DBs that 007 has driven. And this, the Vantage. The "GT3" in the name indicates this car is for racing in the Group 3 GT class, which has become the main FIA class for GT racing. GT racing features mostly modified Grand Tourer road cars- cars made for high speed, but also long distance and comfort. So, exactly up Aston Martin's alley!

So the Vantage is more what you expect from Aston, and is represented really well here. The overall shape is nailed, with the long bonnet, elegant curves, flared wheel arches, etc. Details like the large air intake vents on either side of the hood are replicated. They even use pieces, rather than stickers, to make the long, thin strip of tail lights going across the rear. Most important though is the signature grille of Astons. It's replicated here using two horn pieces, which is clever and effective. The Vantage is certainly a more easily replicated car to design, but still, hats off for this one!

There are a few issues though. Mainly, the stickers. The Vantage is a lot more sticker heavy than the Valkyrie, particularly stickers with green stripes going over multiple pieces that are easy to misalign. So be very careful with that. The color matching on the gray isn't perfect either. Not horrible, but definitely different.

The gray body color doesn't stand out as much as the Valkyrie's lime green, but it is accurate, and the bright green accents really pop, making for an eye pleasing colour scheme. The overall build is also much more standard for Speed Champions, but hey, it works well!

Overall verdict

Despite a number of accuracy issues with the Valkyrie, the Vantage really knocks it out of the park. And both are still solid cars that will stand up to play for kids and display well for adults. The build was certainly enjoyable, with some particularly clever ideas in the Valkyrie. For $40 US, this set is a great value whether you buy it for play or as a collectible. A fan of both the Speed Champions theme and Aston Martins will find a lot to like here!

Now, if we could get some more Astons in the theme, how about the Vulcan next. . .?

Aston Martin Vantage GT3

The instructions and bag numbers suggest you start with the Valkyrie but I'm doing the review in the order I built them, keeping the best for last.

Building

This is a typical Speed Champions GT car. That means the core follows a familiar template while around that core there are some interesting parts and techniques.

So we start with the Speed Champions base and add various plates and bracket for the rear of the chassis. Two red 1x5 plates are used side-by-side, so you can easily replace them with a 2x2 and a 2x3 and put the 1x5's in your collection. The diffuser is made with 1x1 and 1x2 panels like we've seen on a number of SC cars and the stud-bar/ cappuccino piece for support struts isn't new either. Above that things get interesting. A rounded 2x2 corner plate is used instead of a normal corner plate because it has no stud on the corner. That allows a plate with clip to sit on top. That clip in turn holds a 1x1 round with pin. That in turn holds a transparent plate upside down to finally hold a cheese slope upside down. And all that is done for the shape of the rear light cluster.

At the front two claws/horns are cleverly used to create the distinctive Aston Martin grille. You'll also find the new 2x3 curved wedge piece with printed headlights, something the designers are very proud of. After complaints about too many sticker to make up headlights on previous SC cars the designers are now promising headlights will either be brick-built or printed.

The windscreen piece is the same as in a number of SC sets last year and luckily is printed - stickers on curved windscreens are among the most difficult to apply. The dark grey print on the windscreen is a good match for the dark grey parts around it - not always the case with printed parts as the Countach unfortunately shows.

The model

Once you're done you have a nice-looking race car in dark grey with some lime green accents. Just like in real life a lot of these cars look very similar, the overall shape here is similar to previous Speed Champions cars. It's all about the details. And those details are very nice on this car. The shape of the tail lights and the grille are both distinctive for this car and have been cleverly represented. The overall shape is very close, based on images I've found online.

The two upside down trans-black plates that are necessary for the tail lights are visible, but thanks to the chosen colours don't distract. I'm not sure about the wheel arches. They seem a bit short to me.

Stickers

A blessing and a curse; stickers help with details on these cars but can be a pain to apply. In interviews about the 2022 range the designers have pointed out that headlights will be printed going forward. This set also has an Aston Martin logo printed on the side of a plate, which would have been hard to do with a sticker. There are still 28 stickers on this car. Most of them are for go-faster stripes and branding though; I think this car would still look good without stickers.

Aston Martin Valkyrie AMR Pro

This is apparently the first concept car in the Speed Champions line and it sure is an odd-looking thing. Let's take a closer look.

Building

This car does not use the standard SC base so instead of starting in the middle we start with the rear diffuser. The number of strange parts and connections used to go from the 6-wide core at the back to the 5-wide core for the middle section would take too long to describe here. Let me just say it's an interesting build with more Technic than on a typical SC car.

Construction slowly moves forward, adding the centre fin using Technic parts and a 1x3 arch, then the cabin that uses the Speed Champions wheel holders lengthways.

Some way into bag 2 you put the model aside and start with the air splitter at the front, building up to headlights and bonnet and a barge-board type construction behind the front wheels that's held by trans-clear clips. These bits are very fragile and their angle is not very well defined.

This section then joins the rest of the car before finishing with the distinctive pointed shape of this car, cleverly built with hinge plates and a brand new windscreen piece. The construction of this car certainly is like no other SC car I've built so far.

The model

Despite this being a very limited edition car there are a few different version of the Valkyrie. The set depicts the AMR Pro version, which is longer and wider than the 'regular' car. This version is not just not road-legal, it couldn't compete in any race series. It's purely a billionaire's toy to be used on private track days. Think of that what you will...

It's an interesting looking model with shapes not found on any other Speed Championns model. But does it look like the prototype?

The overall shape is so radical that it's hard to mistake it for anything other than a Valkyrie. The designers have done a great job to capture that shape within the constraints of available parts.

However, that does not mean it's an accurate model. The wheels are too small, the cockpit is too tall, the nose too high and not open enough. See for yourself on https://www.astonmartin.com/en/models/aston-martin-valkyrie?body=Valkyrie+AMR+Pro

Stickers

16 stickers is not a lot for a Speed Champions car and 5 of them go on the rear wing alone. The car would still look interesting without the stickers some of them are essential for the overall look, like the one at the front that continues the partly brick-built dark green stripe in the middle of the car.

Verdict

Two attractive cars, both fun to build and containing lots of interesting parts. Around 600 parts is typical for a Speed Champions double-pack and this year there are no strangely over-priced sets like last year's Dodge or 2020's Lamborghini so no worries about value for money. The accuracy of the Valkyrie is a bit disappointing but other than that this is a great set all-round.