Review: LEGO 76907 Lotus Evija (guest review)

April 10, 2022 | 4

The Speed Champions theme has consistently produced high quality sets, with a good mix of intricate LEGO techniques and exciting new pieces at affordable prices. Today, let’s examine one of the newest entries in the Speed Champions lineup – 76907 Lotus Evija.

This set drew my attention when it was revealed, thanks to its striking dark green and yellow color scheme. Let’s see if it stands up to a closer look.

The LEGO Lotus Evija is currently on sale on Amazon Australia. Please enjoy this guest review by @vaderfan_2187, and check out his awesome content over on Instagram.

76907 Lotus Evija Set Details

Set number: 76907
Pieces: 247
Minifigures: 1
Retail Price: £17.99 (UK), $19.99 (US), $32.99 (Aus)
Theme: Speed Champions
Release Date: 1 Mar 2022

The box is the standard size for Speed Champions sets at this size, featuring a graphic of the Lotus Evija driving along a dusty road on the front, accompanied by the LEGO Speed Champions logo and the Lotus badge.

The top of the box has a 1:1 size comparison to the wheel hub piece.

The back of the box shows the rear view of the model, another closeup shot of the front, and a photo of the real car.

Inside the box are two numbered bags, an unnumbered bag with the hubcaps, the chassis piece by itself, plus the instruction manual and the sticker sheet. All pretty standard for a set of this size. Let’s get building.

Bag one builds the back section of the car, and also comes with the minifigure. Surprisingly there aren’t many overly complex techniques used so far, apart from the construction of the rear lights which is ingenious, but not as complicated as it looks.

Bag 2 finishes the car. There were definitely more complex build techniques used in this half, including the construction of the side vents and the front ‘face’ of the car.

There is only one minifigure included, which is standard for Speed Champions sets at this price. He comes with new torso and leg prints, featuring a dark green tracksuit with the Lotus badge on it, matching the color scheme of the car. The head print is single-sided, and is reused from the 2017 Chase McCain minifigure. He comes with a dark brown hairpiece, a plain black helmet, and a black spanner.

The LEGO Lotus Evija is, overall, a stylish build. The dark green and yellow color scheme works well to make it stand out, and it benefits from two new printed curved slopes for the headlights – these pieces are new for the 2022 Speed Champions theme. Lots of small wedge pieces have been used across the model to give it impressive shaping, especially around the side door areas. There are no wing mirrors, but that is accurate as the Evija uses tiny rear-facing cameras for aerodynamic efficiency.

Here’s a comparison to the real car. Although the shaping isn’t perfect, the key details have been well replicated in LEGO form, and the new pieces go a long way to help the accuracy. I am pleased with how the massive rear vents near the rear wheel has been mimicked on the LEGO version, which actually has hollow spaces on the side.

The rear of the car looks good too. The defining feature is those unique rear brake lights, but there are other interesting details like the printed Nexo Knights cockpit piece for the back of the windshield, and an upside-down surfboard piece to represent the spoiler. The rear diffuser unfortunately relies on three stickers but it looks alright, and I like the generous usage of the corner wedge curved slope pieces to create interesting shaping on the edges of the rear.

The rear lights are definitely the highlight of this area, and are one of the most striking features of the entire model. It is not as complicated as it looks, but ingenious part usage ensures it looks good – the 1×2 trans red plates on top are attached using a hinge piece, so as to reduce the thickness of the entire section. Unfortunately, it’s not very accurate – the lights should be four-sided instead of three, and the section in the middle of the lights should be a hollow vent, while it’s simply black on the LEGO model – but nonetheless this is a commendable effort and makes this LEGO hypercar look even more unique.

Here you can see the rear of the real car for comparison.

The underside of the car reveals another surprise – while the car is built around the standard 6-wide Speed Champions chassis piece, the bottom of the front section is actually built upside-down! This portion is attached using mini ball joints, and is tiled off on the bottom to smoothen the look.

This is done so the front section can more accurately replicate the unique design of the Lotus Evija, and it is certainly successful. The nose of the car has a long sticker for the yellow stripe and the Lotus badge; next to it are two more stickers to represent the triangular vents on the bonnet. The mixture of a physical gap and black stickers might be a questionable technique but I think it looks good, and from certain distances it actually looks rather convincing.

Another detail I appreciate is the vents on the side, just behind the rear wheel. This is accurate to the real car, and I am impressed that LEGO managed to build a physical vent rather than relying on stickers/prints. It does not go all the way to the rear, but it is dark enough inside that you don’t see where the vent ends, and thus looks excellent.

A mixture of prints and stickers are used on the top to create that yellow outline for the windscreen, fortunately the important parts (the main and secondary windscreen pieces) are printed. These stickers are slightly challenging to align but they do look pretty good – I like the shaping created here.

Unfortunately, the windscreen piece has a glaring flaw – the yellow line is printed really high up and ends up looking pretty awkward from the side. I understand the designers did this to create a more accurate, flowing shape for the windscreen, but it just isn’t successful. In order for this to work, the entire area below the yellow line should have been printed with dark green, but LEGO likely is unable to print such a narrow surface. Disappointing, as this car ends up looking rather strange from the side view.

Here’s a side view comparison to the real car – you can see what LEGO was going for, but without a dark green print below the yellow line I don’t think it truly works. It is a shame, especially considering how detailed the rest of the set is.

I don’t have an issue with the other windscreen piece though – this is a new print on a Nexo Knights canopy piece, and it really does look good. On the real car, the batteries and suspension are mounted underneath this glass section. There isn’t much detail on this section in the LEGO model, but you can flip up the canopy piece and pretend to do some repairs.

Moving on to the driver’s cockpit, it’s pretty standard for a Speed Champions car, featuring two seats side by side. The driver gets a steering wheel and there’s a stickered 1×4 curved slope in the middle which actually is pretty accurate to the real car’s interior. Do note: although I’ve built it in a right-hand drive configuration, it’s really easy to swap sides. Simply exchange the position of the steering wheel and that 1×2 black cheese slope, and the car is reconfigured. One advantage of this car is that the driver can sit inside with his hairpiece – most Speed Champions cars need the driver to wear the racing helmet – although that could be partially thanks to the fact that the included hairpiece is rather small.

Final Thoughts

What I liked:
+ Green and yellow livery looks good, stands out in a Speed Champions collection
+ Detailed part usage and clever build techniques
+ Affordable price

What I didn’t like:
– Windscreen print issue
– Quite a lot of stickers

Rating

Build: 4.5/5 – The Speed Champions line continues to stand out with impressive designs in small packages.
Minifigures: 3/5 – No one will buy this set solely for the figure, but it does its job fine.
Innovation: 4/5 – Clever building techniques are present in this set.
Coolness: 3.5/5 – Pretty good set that looks great in any Speed Champions lineup.
Keepability: 4/5 – Nothing super iconic, but a solid set well worth the money.

Overall rating: 4/5

On the whole, the 76907 Lotus Evija is a strong addition to the Speed Champions lineup. Its dark green and yellow livery make it stand out visually, and it has lots of little tricks that make an enjoyable building process. Unfortunately, it’s not without its flaws – the windscreen print is a major letdown for the overall design of the car, and there are quite a few stickers in the set that can be slightly tricky to align (although it’s not the worst offender in the Speed Champions theme). Nonetheless, the clever building techniques and enjoyable build experience go some way to make up for its flaws. At £17.99 (UK)/$19.99 (US), it’s also fairly priced: you get a well-designed and intricate car that is also fun to play with and looks good on display.

I highly recommend building at least one Speed Champions set at some point – the building techniques used to replicate complicated details in such a small area is a real learning experience for LEGO fans. This set is a strong contender in the Speed Champions lineup, and is a worthy addition to any LEGO fan’s collection.

Special thanks to @vaderfan_2187 for this guest review!

Have you managed to build the Lotus Evija yet? How does it fit with the other Speed Champions vehicles?

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