LEGO’s New Chevrolet Camaro Z28 Is Nearly Flawless

Nearly. So close. And I really wish LEGO didn’t mess this up…

I have already been collecting semi-religiously the LEGO Technic 1:8 scale supercars, but with the LEGO Group’s new store in Dublin, I couldn’t stop myself from flirting with yet another line of their vehicles — the Creator Expert cars. Not all of them, but those more in the sports-car, muscle-car category. Weirdly enough, I’m starting this new collection with the latest release, only to continue with a couple of older sets later — stay tuned for those. But regardless of order, the one I’ll be introducing today is no other than the iconic 1969 Chevrolet Camaro Z28 set #10304.

Even those who spent little to no time around cars will recognise the unmistakable lines of the classic Camaro.

It’s an absolute beaut! I immediately called it Black Beauty, just like the horse from the movies. I think it’s a very fitting name. LEGO decided to release a black version of it, and honestly, it’s probably the safest choice. Perhaps the other option would have been red, but that’s often a colour I associate with Ferrari, so it’s probably best, the designers went with black.

As most Creator Expert car sets, it’s a medium-sized set with 1456 pieces for a not so low price of 170 bucks. Not the greatest value for money, I can tell you that upfront. The licensing cost is noticeable, but definitely not more than other sets in the past. As usual, it’s an 18+ set, but that has absolutely nothing to do with build complexity or anything really other than the target-audience and the depth of their pockets.

Building the Camaro is pretty straightforward. Don’t get me wrong, there are plenty of SNOT techniques, great use of interesting pieces like the two axe pieces for the rear bumper, but nothing overly unexpected or exotic. There are a decent number of LEGO Technic studded pieces, pins, and whatnot for the main structure, which makes sense given the size of the build. A sturdy core to build around is imperative for a set like this.

Building LEGO’s 1969 Camaro feels like building a Speed Champions set on a bigger scale, with more pieces.

A nice little Easter egg is the magazine on the back seat featuring the old 1995 LEGO Hot Rod, which I fecking hate LEGO for teasing us with and never re-releasing it since 2004. That was from the old Model Team era, and I was salivating for that set as a child. If the Danish toymaker would release a new version of it, I’d buy it on launch day, no matter the price.

In terms of functions, while definitely a display set, it does actually have working steering, the boot, and bonnet open, and so do the doors. It’s everything you’d expect from a model car, really, except you have to build it. It does come with a few stickers, but nothing too bad, though for the price I’d argue, printed pieces would have been nicer.

LEGO’s 1969 Camaro is undoubtedly one of the most customisable sets out there.

I have to give it to everyone involved. They went all out with this set. Genuine effort to make the Camaro’s racing stripes customisable with three interchangeable colours like grey, white and dark red, and giving you the option to build the hard-top coupe or the convertible. I actually chose to build the former with the dark red stripes.

Unfortunately, though, this customisation is also where mistakes were made. Firstly, none of them are easy changes. It all requires taking stuff apart and building it up again, and there are no extra pieces to easily swap between the coupe and the convertible.

The other issue is how they go about these customisations in the instruction manual. If you don’t pay enough attention, you’ll end up building the grey striped version without realising. There are places where the colour options are highlighted, but they’re done in a completely incoherent way. Instead of starting you off with the instruction of picking the colour you want to go with, they let you go halfway through the bonnet and boot builds before alerting you to the fact that you’re supposed to choose the stripe colour. It pissed me off a little bit. There are certain things I expect LEGO to deliver at a certain quality, and instructions is definitely one of them.

Problematic instructions aside, the LEGO Chevrolet Camaro Z28 is a fantastic set to own and build.

You’ll never have the heart to take it apart though, that I can almost guarantee… 😉

Hi there! 👋

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Attila Vago — Software Engineer improving the world one line of code at a time. Cool nerd since forever, writer of codes and blogs. Web accessibility advocate, LEGO fan, vinyl record collector. Loves craft beer! Read my Hello story here! Subscribe and/or become a member for more stories about LEGO, tech, coding and accessibility!