Exterior Features, Quality:
Billed as the successor to the legendary Diablo, the Murcielago surpassed the older car in every possible way. This was a beautiful design, simple compared to the outrageous supercars of today, but aggressive and sophisticated. A powerful engine, making around 573 hp, with 12 cylinders in the back The Murcielago was acclaimed as one of the most gorgeous and fastest cars of its day. Not only has the public drooled, but the Murcielago has been replicated by many modelmakers such as Autoart, Bburago, Gate, Mattel, and Maisto, whose version I have reviewed.
The metallic pastel green paint looks superb and really makes this supercar stand out among my collection – this is the color to get. Proportions are dead on, and all details appear to be accurate. One major complaint is Maisto's use of stickers to represent the various ducts. It looks excellent from a few feet away, but cheap from close up. The front of the car is particularly well made, with detailed headlights and a realistic Lamborghini badge. The wheels and tires are accurately detailed with sidewall markings, very realistic wheel details, and brakes and calipers. Most of the badging on the model is done by stickers, but it's convincing, I have to say.
The side marker lamps are stickers, but this is also true for Autoart's version. The mirrors are loosely applied onto the bodywork, and they can shift around a bit with the push of a finger, something that should have been sorted out before release. The door handles are stickers and look terrible. Body gaps are very tight, however. The backlight is also a sticker, unfortunately. The headlights are very realistic, and look excellent. The license plate is neatly applied, yet the exhaust pipes are not completely hollow, although they accurately represent the huge scale of the Murcielago's exhaust pipes. This section is definitely lacking compared to other recent Maisto releases, but the low score is because of a lot of little things gone wrong.
17/25
Interior Features, Quality:
Open up those exotic scissor doors and you see the Murcielago's sporty interior, all done in black, as it should be. The dash is somewhat detailed and accurately represents the real thing, but again, less impressive when viewed next to the Morgan's dash. The chrome shifter looks excellent. The seats are made of nice-feeling plastic, and it doesn't feel very hard at all. The floor, however, is still hard, without any carpeting. The pedals are accurately shaped and look very nice. Overall, a very well done interior.
24/25
Features
The Murcielago features an opening trunk, doors, and engine cover. The trunk, which is in the front, mind you, comes only with hard plastic, which is disappointing. The scissor doors are excellent – they stay up at full height and they have a very unnoticeable hinge. The engine cover lifts to display that beautiful Lamborghini V-12. This version is very detailed for the price, with branding and an attempt to represent carbon fiber. Very nicely done.
24/25
Value:
As previously discussed, the Murcielago is made by a variety of modelmakers. Maisto offers the most colors: orange, black, silver, yellow, and a metallic blue, as well as my pastel green. Maisto's is also one of the cheapest on the market. The detail to price ratio is very good. Get the Autoart only if you feel you need those very cool opening side vents. Otherwise, the Maisto is a good bet.
23/25
Overall:
Maisto comes up with another compelling argument why the premium modelmakers should watch out. Its models are getting closer, in both detail and realism, to those of Autoart and Kyosho. While this Lamborghini suffered in the exterior detail category, because of many minor issues with cost cutting, its other scores were very high. My advice for following Maisto models: less stickers. This is the issue that is really bringing their cars down in the realism component. Otherwise, this is a very good model, certainly worth consideration if you're a Lamborghini fan, with excellent detail for the money.
