What’s up guys, this is Balazs from RacingBrick. As you might now Technic is my favorite LEGO theme but today’s set comes from a different lineup. We’ve seen many iconic cars being released with the Creator Expert badge in the past few years, and the newest one in the family is no exception either. Say hello to the 10271 Fiat 500!
The box has the usual characteristics of the Creator Expert sets, fairly big but thin. On the front you see the car in a beautiful Italian sunset in front of the Colosseum, and there’s also a nice painting commemorating the exact same scene. On the back you’ll find closeups of the details and the different features.
The set has 960 pieces, the price is $89.99 or €79.99, it is available for purchase form the 1st of March. There are 9 numbered bags in the box split into 3 phases, there’s a separate bag for the fabric sunroof, and you’ll find the manual with the sticker sheet in another plastic bag.
The manual thankfully follows the tradition of the previous Creator Expert vehicles and provides some extra details and information at the beginning, I think it adds a lot to the building experience. As a nice gesture the text is in English and in Italian, we get some information about the history of Fiat, the birth of this specific model, the design process of the LEGO model and even more.
Total building time was around 1h and 45 minutes, the 3 phases are more or less distributed equally.
The building process starts with a studded Technic frame, it has some interesting connections reinforcing the structure. The axles are totally fixed, this means there’s no suspension – which is not a surprise in a Creator set – and unfortunately no steering either, which was kind of expected as the Ford Mustang had one.
Here’s the rear bumper with the rear lights, and the engine that is a pretty accurate representation of the original one. It has some interesting part usage like the black head piece or the flower.
The designer did a great job at the rear side of the car, the curved panels were replicated with some straight elements, but the whole panel sits on hinges so the shape of the car is a faithful representation of the original one.
The seat holders are attached to the floor along with the gear shifter, the handbrake and some other accessories. Bag 1 is finished with the basic structure of the front bumper.
The front seats are built after the rear one, there’s a very interesting piece used to connect them to the floor, I’ve never seen this one before. Although I have to admit I’ve never built a Unikitty or Nexo knights set (where it was available) so it’s kind of understandable.
Here comes the dashboard with the fuel tank on the other side. The steering wheel has a cool printed Fiat logo.
The doors are actually quite complex with lots of details, I really like the ice skate piece as the door handle. There are again some clever building techniques used to connect the different curved parts, and the result is very nice. The doors are working well, there’s a little gap at the top but I think it is ok.
The next item is the rear window, it is quite interesting because it is actually a regular window used in many City sets, but this time it is built in sideways. It might be confusing for the first sight as on the bottom we won’t have the same smooth surface as on the top, but when it is built in it won’t be really visible.
With bag 3 we finish the front of the car with the brick built logo and another printed tile. The front wheel arches have a similar structure like the rear ones, they connect with hinges to the rest of the body.
After the hood the curved side windows are added, they appeared first in the Manchester United set introduced recently.
The roof has a fabric sunroof, the structure is a bit flimsy before putting it in place but it’ll work well.
The spare tire is added and the license plates, There’re 3 sets of them, one for Italy, one for Denmark and one for Germany.
At the end the suitcase and the luggage rack is added, and with the shiny metallic wheel covers the car is finished.
The only remaining item is the folding easel with the painting and the color palette and the paintbrush.
So here’s the finished car! I’d say the overall shape is a faithful representation of the original one, considering the limitation of the available bricks. The color is an interesting and unusual choice, I was not a real fan for the first sight bit it definitely looks better than the standard LEGO yellow.
I read some complains online about some missing details, the most frequently mentioned one was the missing rear view mirror on the side of the car. It is quite interesting because if you have a look at the old photos in the manual, those cars actually don’t have a rear view mirror. In fact the original car from that era did not have a factory installed external rear view mirror, that might be the reason why it is missing from the LEGO set. It was an optional accessory that could be purchased additionally or added to the car later. The presence of the external rear view mirror on the driver’s side became obligatory by law only in 1977 in Italy.
So, what is my conclusion? I think the Fiat 500 was a great choice for the Creator Expert line, it is truly an iconic car and the LEGO version is instantly recognizable. The added extras are really nice, it’s a great building experience for a reasonable price. I would only complain about the lack of steering, after the Mustang I was really hoping to see a functional steering wheel in the next Creator Expert car as well.
