Well, the Lambo won the Budget Review poll, so here's my review. I hope you all enjoy!
Lamborghini Murcielago
First I'd like to say that I know this is a Hot Wheels. But this is the best Hot Wheels car I've got or have seen. It has 6 opening parts, yes, 6. Those side vents go up and down like an AutoArt. It's very well done. I see lots of good detail here. If all Hot Wheels models were like this, no one would have a problem with buying a Ferrari model by Hot Wheels. This model is more detailed than any Hot Wheel Ferrari that I have seen, period. It's more detailed than Maisto, especially in the Interior, where Maisto is typically really good. That's just my humble opinion. Read on, maybe you'll agree.
Paint: 7 out of 8
The paint on this model is perfectly smooth and glossy. It's a metallic black and looks really menacing. No orange peel, no over spray, really well done. The paint job is actually sort of like a color shifting paint. The actual hue of the car doesn't change, but at various angles, you are able to see different colored metallic flakes, not just a silver color. Pretty neat. It's not noticeable just by looking at it, you have to angle it to see the various colored flakes. In my opinion, the metallic flakes are a bit big, but still really small. When you compare this metallic paint job with an Exoto (which happens to be the only other model I have with a metallic paint job), you can really see a difference in the flake size. But that's comparing apples with oranges isn't it?
So why 7 out of 8? Simply because of the flake size. Saying that doesn't mean their huge, their not at all, maybe I'm just being anal, who knows. The paint job's great.
Exterior: 6 out of 8
First, I'd like to say this car has the tightest mold lines of any budget model I have. The shut lines are about as good as you see on some Kyosho's (but I have Kyosho's that are better of course). But great shut lines on this car.
The front section:
First thing you notice about the front of the car are it's head lights. Here, we have 2 triangular jewels covered in clear plastic without mounting posts. Inside, we have a gray-black headlight housing that holds 3 lights. 2 headlights and 1 turn signal each side. The round headlights with 1 being above and angled over the other are chrome. Should they be chrome? I don't' know. I know a lot of people lam blast headlights for being chrome. But you know, when I look at my headlights on my real car, I see a housing that's covered by clear plastic, the housing being chrome, and the bulbs are hidden behind chrome shrouds. So, the only clear plastic I see is the actual cover, and not the lights themselves, which do appear chrome. To me, whether they should be clear round pieces of plastic or clear round pieces of chrome, I don't know. But, these pieces of chrome are separately molded pieces, and come across quite well. Above the lower headlight, we see a vertically inclined turn signal. This turn signal is painted orange, and is molded to represent individual LED's (light emitting diodes). I can look at these signals and see 10 well molded bumps of plastic that represent these 10 LED's and they look really good. On that note, I do prefer clear colored plastic, but in this case, the paint looks great, I think a clear amber piece of plastic would have trouble being as noticeable in this dark area since they are so small. There is no over spray on these turn signals. Speaking of turn signals, on each side of the car, lining up with the front of the front wheel wells, we have a triangular turn signal as well. This is molded into the car body, and is painted orange. The turn signals are textured. From what I understand, even AutoArt paints these. Regardless, there is no over spray, and the paint is well applied to these signals.
Between each headlight, in the bumper, we have 2 openings, 1 on each side. These are covered with black plastic that is nicely textured to resemble mesh. They are not see through.
On the hood, in the center, we see a rounded triangular Lamborghini emblem. I believe this is a sticker, but it is hard to tell, as it resides in a recessed area of the hood. It is black, gold, and white in colors. The background is black, is trimmed in gold, and there is a white bull outlined in gold in the center. The bull's muscles, features, etc, are outlined in gold. On top of the bull, we see "Lamborghini" in gold. Very nicely done, very well rendered.
The front hood opens up to reveal a dark cavernous compartment. That's about all I can say about it, as that's about all it is. It's completely lined in textured plastic, and on the front right, we see a cap for a bottle, and on the back wall, a couple of vents, as well as their being a vent on each side. For Hot Wheels to make the effort to have the hood even open is commendable in my eyes. The hood stays open without a problem, and the underside is completely painted. The underside is also textured in the various depressions that are molded into the underside of the hood. There is no lack of paint anywhere on the car.
The front fenders are tiny. Right behind the wheel well, we see where the side doors meet and follow the curve of the wheel well. Below each door, we see an airflow area that ends in a large scoop right behind the doors. This scoop has mesh covering it that is represented by that new clear plastic with mesh painted on it. I'm not a fan of it, but at least these budget manufacturers are making more of an effort. (It's the same as what Beanstalks GT Concept uses).
Behind this scoop, we see a silver rectangular label that has "V12 6.2L" written in black. As with the hood emblem, this label resides in an indention of the mold, and comes across great, so that the end result is completely smooth with the body.
The scissor type doors are metal, and have no problem whatsoever staying up by themselves. They will actually stay up where ever you stop them. On the top sides of the doors, where the rolled up window meets the body, we see a molded in black handle and a molded in, raised key hole. The doors each have a mirror, and I believe that they should be attached to the body via 2 horizontal arms. These mirrors are held on with 1 arm each, with the arm being molded to appear as 2 arms.
Behind the doors, we have another small window, and behind that, we have the engine vents.
The rear section:
These engine vents on the real car open and close automatically when you reach a certain speed. Well, these do too, although, not automatically. You can raise and lower these vents. The vents are plastic, however, the paint is the same, and the shut lines are tight. When raised, they are see through, when lowered, they are not. On the passenger side, right in front of these vents, we see a molded in gas cap. It's molded nicely, but it would have been nice to see a separate piece.
These movable vents are on each side of the rear engine cover, which is louvered and see through. One thing neat about the engine cover, is that the sides that frame the louvers are painted metallic, but the louvers themselves are painted a black that is not gloss yet is not flat. I believe it is authentic. Why do it otherwise? Behind the louvers, where they hinge from the c*ckpit roof, we see the 3rd brake light. This brake light is painted on, and again, as the front turn signals, is molded to represent individual LED's. It's really well done, no over spray or anything like that. And again, I think that a clear red piece of plastic would have a harder time showing up here, but that's just my opinion. The engine cover does not have a problem staying up by itself. Lifting it up, you can see the rear window from the passenger c*ckpit.
Behind this, we see the tail lights, which are clear plastic, and are red, clear, and orange in color, being separated from each other by vertical black lines. They are nicely textured, with the texture lines being vertical. Between these tail lights, we see a silver "Lamborghini" script that has been tampo'd on. Beneath this, we see a license plate area. To each side of that, we have 1 opening per side on the bumper. These openings are covered with black plastic textured to appear as mesh. They are not see through.
[elow these, we see an indention in the body work where the 2 chrome, hollow exhausts come out.
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Why 6 out of 8? The black plastic textured pieces to resemble see through mesh in the bumpers, the molded in fuel cap.
Interior: 7 out of 8
The interior is the hallmark of this model. No it doesn't have carpet, but it's got everything else, including soft seats, a completely finished roof, incredible dash detail, separate seat belts, etc.
The dashboard is really well done. It's in a flat black that looks just like a smooth leather covered dashboard. It's ever most slightly textured, so that it looks non textured, but when you slide your fingers across it, you feel resistance. It's like it's been painted with the "soft paint" that some new real car interiors have for their accent pieces.
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The silver trimmed round AC vents look awesome coming out from "nubs" on the dashboard, protrusions, whatever you want to call them. The vent fins themselves are black. Between the two center round vents, right below it, we see a raised, chromed "Lamborghini" script that looks perfectly to scale. Not too thick, not too thin, perfectly done.
The center console has a passenger grab handle that comes down from the dashboard and ends on the passenger side of the center console. This grab handle is actually the same piece as the dashboard, so it does not look clumsily applied as some Murc' models do. Speaking of the center console:
The gear shifter is chrome, and it is not huge like some I've seen. It's nicely sized, resides in a silver raised circle on the center console, and the gear "gates" are painted flat black, so that you can make out where the shifter would go if you were shifting. Towards the back of that (towards the back of the c*ckpit), we see lots of raised and indented switches. Each and every switch has a white tampo label on it specifying it's purpose. These tampo's, depending on the switch, are either pictograms or words. They are crisp, not fuzzy, and you can make out the pictograms. You can see the pictograms of the window switches, pictures of half rolled up windows. And they are perfectly to scale, not too big, not too small. I'm impressed, and considering that I've somewhat "abandoned" the budget market for mid line and premium models, that says a lot coming from me.
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The gauges reside in a binnacle behind the steering wheel. It is one sticker, but the gauges are trimmed in simulated silver with white letters and red needles.
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To the drivers left, we see 5 switches molded into the dashboard, each one has it's own respective white tampo'd on pictogram. Really nice. The steering wheel is thickly padded, is 3 spoke, and has a large center circle which has a silver painted ring trimming it.
The clutch and brake pedals are chromed with 45 degree slashes that are painted black. The pedals are not molded too large. The gas pedal is black. I can not attest to whether these pedals are accurate or not, but they are nicely done.
The seats are soft and flexible, with a nice texture. They are two tone, with the inside sections of the seat bottom and back being red, and the sides being black. In between the two seats, attached to the rear firewall below the rear window are two rubber seat belts, molded separately, with silver painted buckles. To the left of the drivers seat, we see a black, separately molded emergency brake attached to the floor.
The interiors of the doors are 1 piece, but they are molded in 2 textures, one rough, one smooth. I guess the rough is to mimic alcantara. The speakers and door knobs are molded in, but the speakers have separate holes to mimic a grill. The arm rests on the doors (1 per door) has two molded in indentions or depressions; that is how you would close the door. The windows on the doors are in their up position, which is nice.
The roof as stated, is finished. Here we see 2 molded in sun visors framing a mirror. In the middle of this roof, we see a lowered console with a few switches. One bad thing is that you can see 2 rivets going through the sun visors (1 per visor), but at least the rivet is finished in black and isn't unfinished looking. But, I don't believe the real car has 'em. The rear firewall is un textured and black.
Why 7 out of 8? No carpet and those 2 rivets. Everything else I'm happy with.
Wheels/Brakes: 5 out of 6
The wheels are well detailed, silver in color. We see the Lamborghini emblem in black and yellow on the center caps, are surrounded by 5 molded in lug nuts. These wheels represent 2 piece wheels (maybe 3 piece), and along the rim, we see additional molded in bolts. The brake calipers and disks are well detailed. The calipers are black, and have the "Lamborghini" script tampo'd on the calipers in white. The silver painted disks represent drilled disks. The holes are represented by indentions, which are not see through, but they still are lots better than some disks I've seen. The disks do not spin with the wheels. The tires are nice also, the rears being wider than the fronts, with a nice tread pattern. They are unmarked.
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Why 5 out of 6? The tires are unmarked, and the disks, although nicely done, do not rotate with the wheels.
Engine & Undercarriage Detail: 4 out of 8
I personally think the engine is nice. We have a silver block with chrome exhausts. The block is covered by a rectangle black box textured to represent carbon fiber. On each side of this rectangle block, we see two additional rectangle blocks, black in color. These blocks have chrome stripes running their length (4 per block), and "Lamborghini" scripted in chrome. Each of these blocks have 3 corrugated hard plastic tubes going out of them where they connect to the sides of the engine compartment. The engine is not wired. It does have a silver and black label on the top of the engine that has the Lamborghini emblem, "V12 6.2L", and "Lamborghini" on it.
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Towards the back of the engine, we see a silver colored brace running from side to side of the engine compartment, and there are two additional corrugated hard plastic tubes seen here. One item to note is that this brace and the silver engine block are molded in a texture to resemble either "crinkle paint" or to represent that the block is cast and not smoothed down to be ultra smooth, and it comes across nicely.
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Flipping the car over shows lots of chrome, far too much. The bottom of the block, the transmission, 4x4 axle, and rear axle are of chrome. Don't think that's accurate. They were doing so good, why do we have to flip the car over? Well, at least the exhausts are hollow!
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I'm sorry, but there's really not much more to tell about the engine, you just can't see a lot of these engines, no matter which model you have.
The front and rear suspension components are represented and somewhat detailed, but they are molded into the single piece chassis. I am not able to see any shock absorbers.
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Why 4 out of 8? No shocks…pretty rough ride if you ask me. No wiring in the engine, how do the spark plugs get their spark? Single piece chassis, all that chrome on the underside.
Competition: 3 out of 6
Seems almost everyone makes this model. The only 1 better is the AutoArt. This is better than the Maisto, Bburago and Welly versions.
Desirability: 3 out of 6
I'm sure I'll hear about this, but I think this is a really, really nice model. It's overall very well done, more worthy of a "mid-range" model manufacturer vs. a "budget" manufacturer. But still, it isn't graced by the presence of my Premium models…but is on display with my Enzo and Carrera GT. I really like it, but I also think, it's still a Hot Wheels…
Overall: 35 out of 50
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Sorry I couldn't get better interior shots!
