From new records to price increases: a decade of LEGO Speed Champions milestones

LEGO Speed Champions celebrates a decade of major milestones in the theme, including bigger cars, less customisation and price increases.

It's the 10th anniversary of LEGO Speed Champions, and as part of Brick Fanatics' celebration of all things Speed Champions, we're focusing on the many milestones the theme has achieved and surpassed. Over the past decade, the theme has come a long way, reflected through the many changes across the range's sets.

From price increases, the loss of additional rims and the rare arrival of the first flesh-coloured minifigures in the theme, here's a rundown of LEGO Speed Champions' greatest milestones as the theme continues to race forward.

The biggest and most minifigures in LEGO Speed Champions

LEGO Speed Champions' biggest also happens to have its most minifigures. 2017's 75883 Mercedes AMG Petronas Formula One Team still holds the title for the biggest build in the theme (by volume and the most pieces) as well as the most minifigures in a single set. This complete LEGO Formula 1 model also highlights something that has been missing from LEGO Speed Champions for the past five years – models other than cars.

Splitting sets

2017 also saw the introduction of a wave split in LEGO Speed Champions, with six of the seven widely available builds made available on March 1. One was held back until later, though, which would pave the way for a regular split release schedule each year in LEGO Speed Champions.

75880 McLaren 720S was released on June 1, 2017, with a special announcement just days after the launch of the first 2017 models. Though this major change started small, LEGO Speed Champions would quickly embrace the idea of two or more waves of models per year, and this has become a mainstay in the theme.

From six studs to eight

While we delve much deeper into the topic in our comprehensive feature, LEGO Speed Champions saw a huge shift in design in 2020 when the designers took the theme's vehicles from the traditional six studs wide to eight studs wide, offering much more potential for details and accuracy at the cost of no longer fitting as well alongside other LEGO vehicles.

The end of the road for side builds

2020 also saw LEGO Speed Champions say goodbye to side builds. Since 2021, the focus has been wholly on LEGO cars in the theme instead of a larger focus on cars as well as accompanying models. The last two side builds in LEGO Speed Champions were featured in 76898 Formula E Panasonic Jaguar Racing GEN2 car & Jaguar I-PACE eTROPHY and 76899 Lamborghini Urus ST-X & Lamborghini Huracan Super Trofeo EVO.

Price increases again and again

One of the more inevitable but unfortunate milestones that has been celebrated several times in LEGO Speed Champions' history is price increases. 2015's single-car sets started at £12.99 / $14.99 / €14.99, but with the introduction of eight-wide cars, this rose five years later to £17.99 / $19.99 / €19.99. This then increased quickly to £19.99 / $19.99 / €24.99 in 2022, £19.99 / $24.99 / €24.99 in 2023, £20.99 / $26.99 / €26.99 in 2023 and now the new LEGO Formula 1 models cost £22.99 / $26.99 / €26.99. We're not quite at double their original prices yet, but such a milestone is likely only a few years away.

From big screen to brick-built

In 2022, LEGO Speed Champions embraced the movies with the first two vehicles based on cars from the big screen. This collection has only been expanded since with 76917 2 Fast 2 Furious Nissan Skyline GT-R (R34) so far.

Flesh-coloured minifigures finally join Speed Champions.

The movie car collection also saw LEGO Speed Champions welcome flesh-coloured minifigures into the theme for the first time. Otherwise, the theme's vehicles are driven by standard yellow minifigures, even though they're based on real manufacturers.

Car customisation races away

A few of the March 2022 LEGO Speed Champions sets were the last to include the extra tyre rims that allowed fans to customise their new cars. What was once a mainstay in every set is no longer featured in the theme.

LEGO Speed Champions' most valuable model

Not counting polybags, 2024 features LEGO Speed Champions' most valuable model. 76924 Mercedes-AMG G 63 & Mercedes-AMG SL 63 has 808 elements for £44.99 / $44.99 / €49.99. That's 5.6p / 5.6c / 6.2c for every element in the set, which is available now.

A revised Formula 1 focus with more sets than ever

Just as the theme started with LEGO Formula 1 models and has revisited the sport several times since, 2025 includes the latest and biggest wave of LEGO Speed Champions sets to date. The 10 individual vehicles were released for every current team earlier this month and make up the largest LEGO Speed Champions wave in any given year.

This also means that 2025 already has the most Speed Champions models in any single year, and we're only three months into 2025. Formula 1 has always been important to Speed Champions, but it's never been quite this crucial to the theme.

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