LEGO Speed Champions January 2026 sets are the perfect pair

Despite appearances, the pairing of Lightning McQueen and the Back to the Future DeLorean is perfect for LEGO Speed Champions early next year.

LEGO Speed Champions' January 2026 wave is confirmed to include the unusual pairing of 77255 Lightning McQueen and 77256 Time Machine from Back to the Future. While these are both cars inspired by movies, they don't have much in common beyond their four wheels.

77255 Lightning McQueen is based on a living car character with eyes and a mouth, and 77256 Time Machine from Back to the Future is a standard DeLorean fitted for travelling through time. This difference is part of what makes 77255 Lightning McQueen complement 77256 Time Machine from Back to the Future perfectly, at least when on shelves.

As a world occupied by living vehicle characters, the Cars franchise features no humans and as such, it wouldn't make any sense for 77255 Lightning McQueen to include a minifigure. By contrast, 77256 Time Machine from Back to the Future is one of the few minifigure-scale LEGO Back to the Future sets and the concept presents an excellent opportunity to include both Doc Brown and Marty.

The problem is that single-car Speed Champions sets have only ever included one minifigure. Whether this is due to budget or other design constraints is unclear, but the lack of a minifigure in 77255 Lightning McQueen appears to have given the Speed Champions team the chance to break this rule for the first time.

Whatever your thoughts on 77255 Lightning McQueen, you can now appreciate the set's launch alongside 77256 Time Machine from Back to the Future for seemingly granting the Back to the Future set the opportunity to include the iconic duo in a single car creation.

Both of these LEGO Speed Champions sets are available to pre-order now, with double points on all purchases for a few more hours, launching on January 1, 2026.

LEGO Speed Champions sets confirmed and rumoured for 2026

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