76917 2 Fast 2 Furious Nissan Skyline GT-R (R34) joins the lineup of LEGO movie-based Speed Champions sets, based on Brian O’Conner’s iconic Nissan Skyline from the Fast and Furious movie franchise.
This follows 2022’s 76911 007 Aston Martin DB5 and 76912 Fast & Furious 1970 Dodge Charger R/T, making this Speed Champions’ third foray into the world of movie cars.
It’s also the first Speed Champions set of 2023 (with four more coming in March), but unfortunately does come with a small price increase for those in the US.
Still, the Speed Champions theme continues to go from strength to strength with each year; can this set ensure Speed Champions continues to fire on all cylinders in 2023?
This is a guest review from vaderfan_2187, our resident Speed Champions and Star Wars correspondent!
76917 2 Fast 2 Furious Nissan Skyline GT-R (R34) Set Details
Set Name: 2 Fast 2 Furious Nissan Skyline GT-R (R34)
Set number: 76917
Pieces: 319
Minifigures: 1
Retail Price: US$19.99 / AU$32.99 / £19.99
Theme: Speed Champions
Designer: Chris Stamp
Release Date: 1 January 2023
76917 2 Fast 2 Furious Nissan Skyline GT-R (R34) Unboxing
The front of the box shows the Skyline driving along a dark city street. The Speed Champions and Nissan logos adorn the front, along with the Fast and Furious logo (despite the set being based on the 2 Fast 2 Furious movie).
The back of the box shows off alternate views of the set, with the Nissan Skyline in the middle of a sick drift and a comparison with the real vehicle depicted in 2 Fast 2 Furious.
Interestingly, the box is slightly thicker than previous years’ Speed Champions boxes, despite not really having more pieces. Perhaps it’s due to the slight price increase and to make fans perceive the set as being more substantial?
Inside the box are two numbered bags, a sticker sheet, instruction manual, and the chassis piece packaged separately.
Unfortunately there’s quite a lot of stickers, despite LEGO designers’ recent efforts to reduce the number of stickers in Speed Champions sets.
That’s partially due to the in-universe design of the car with all the racing stripes, and bits of details like the Florida license plate, and Toyo Tires branding.
76917 2 Fast 2 Furious Nissan Skyline GT-R (R34) Minifigures
The sole minifigure in the set is Brian O’Conner, played by the late Paul Walker. He has a new face and torso print, and dual-molded arms to represent a short-sleeved shirt.
There’s some more fabric printing for the back of his shirt, but no alternate head print.
His accessory is a black wrench. It’s a simple minifigure overall, but it looks good.
The Build
The Skyline is a fantastic LEGO-ification of the movie vehicle, with a light grey and blue color scheme that features racing stripes along the side, although it does lack some of the sponsors on the right side of the hood.
The shaping of the final model is a little blocky due to the simpler design of the real car, but actually hides a lot of complex build techniques used on the inside.
Many of the decorations on the side are achieved with stickers, which isn’t ideal, although the colour matching of the light grey stickers has improved slightly. The new drum-lacquered silver wheel spoke pieces really enhance the model, though.
The bottom of the Skyline has some trans-light blue pieces to represent the in-universe Skyline’s flashy lights. Unfortunately at this scale there’s no way to add an actual light brick on the bottom, so this solution is fair.
The front grille of the car is definitely the most impressive section, and while it does look quite neat, it hides even more complex build techniques underneath.
The front nose is built on clips and gun pieces mounted at an angle, along with studs-on-the-side techniques used in several directions. The printed 1×3 plate with the GT-R logo on the side is nice too.
As good as the front grille looks, it does require you to put stickers on the inside of panel pieces, which I found really tricky, especially given how narrow the stickers are.
The top of the hood also has a lot of exposed studs – I get the designers were trying to make the front as flat as possible, but I can’t say I’m a fan of the final look.
Here’s a look at the Skyline from the side. The blue design is quite nice, using four stickers and one printed wheel arch piece to achieve this effect. The printed wheel arches are a brand new innovation from Speed Champions, and really help allow the full continuation of the pattern across the entire side.
The car also has a slight rake, as the rear wheels are one plate lower than the front wheels.
The back of the Skyline may not look too complex, but also uses a lot of interesting techniques, including upside-down building! This section is actually 7 studs wide, and attaches to the main body via clips. The rear spoiler is mounted on a hinge, but feels a bit oversized.
A pair of stickers are used for the license plate and other details, but I like the brick-built features such as the drum-lacquered silver exhaust pipe and the iconic Skyline tail lights. The lights’ size difference is replicated with minifigure neck brackets mounted sideways!
Here’s how the model looks from the top – there aren’t many details from above, but I like the clean look achieved with 2×6 tiles above the driver compartment, and the striping on the front is nice too.
You can see some of the rollcage detailing in the rear windscreen – a nice touch.
To access the interior, you can detach the front windscreen which is attached via just two studs.
Inside there’s space for one minifigure to sit in the accurate right-hand drive position as Brian O’Conner’s Skyline was a Japanese import car.
There’s some really neat details here, including the printed driver’s seat, three drum-lacquered silver cans of nitrous oxide (NOS), a gear shifter, and a rollcage in the middle.
There’s even space to represent the rear seat – although you can’t fit a figure there, you can use it as storage.
Three stickers are also used here for additional detail, which look fantastic.
What I liked:
- Clever building techniques throughout
- Interior detail is excellent
- Good-looking, accurate model
What I didn’t like:
- Final model looks quite simple despite all the advanced techniques used
- Many stickers, some of which are tricky to apply
Final Thoughts: On the whole, 76917 2 Fast 2 Furious Nissan Skyline GT-R (R34) is a good, but not great, addition to the Speed Champions theme.
The model features all the Speed Champions staples like unique building techniques and a good-looking final model, but the final model doesn’t look as complex as some other Speed Champions sets.
That is partly due to the source material, but the final model isn’t as interesting to look despite the engaging build process.
The exposed studs on the hood and the liberal use of stickers may also be a turnoff for some, but make no mistake – if you get this set, you’re still getting a fantastic build experience and a pretty accurate model from the Fast and Furious franchise.
Build [4] – Speed Champions always have amazing builds with a high level of detail, although this set falls a little short in comparison to some of its brethren.
Minifigures [3] – The Brian O’Conner figure is good, but 1 minifigure in a $25 set objectively isn’t the best deal.
Real Value [3] – Piece count is good (although lots of small parts used) and the build process is engaging, but US$25 is getting a little expensive for the size of the final model.
Innovation [4] – Speed Champions always include innovative build techniques, and this set is no exception. The front grille and rear design hide a lot of ingenious design work underneath their simpler exterior.
Keepability [4] – The in-universe vehicle is pretty iconic and this set makes a great companion to the other Fast & Furious set, so I see it being a set that LEGO fans would like to keep around.
Final Rating: 4/5 ★★★★✰
And yes, if you were wondering, the Skyline does look good next to its other Fast and Furious companion, 76912 Fast & Furious 1970 Dodge Charger R/T! The review of that set is coming soon, so keep an eye out for it!
What do you think of the Speed Champions Nissan Skyline? What other fictional cars would you like to see in Speed Champions?
To get the latest LEGO news and LEGO Reviews straight in your inbox, subscribe via email, or you can also follow on Google News, or socials on Facebook, Instagram (@jayong28), Twitter or subscribe to the Jay’s Brick Blog Youtube channel.
Gray, Blue and Yellow! Only needs Trans-Yellow windscreens!