Fight the winter blues with Lego’s 830-piece Technic McLaren Senna GTR

Leave comment
McLaren/Lego

Hankering to buy a McLaren, but hamstrung by the global pandemic and—let’s be real—a less-than-McLaren-worthy bank balance? Lego’s got a solution for you: the $50 Technic McLaren Senna GTR, available as of January 1.

First, a bit of slicing and dicing. McLaren has already made a 467,854-part Lego version of the Senna, but that was a full-size plastic replica that required 42 master builders and 2700 hours of work. Lego, for its part, has already made a Senna—a 219-unit mass-market affair that’s only five inches long. The model before you today is a more complex (and rewarding, according to our experience with Lego’s Technic sets) rendition of the wildest iteration of McLaren’s supercar: the track-only Senna GTR.

Though Lego has previously offered kits for the P1, the 720S, and the aforementioned Senna, the Senna GTR is the first McLaren model to appear as a Technic kit.

McLaren/Lego

Lego aficionados will be familiar with the brand’s Technic line, differentiated from Lego’s plastic-brick-centric Creator offerings by its use of gears, electric motors, and even pneumatic pieces. These Technic kits incorporate a different building style and that produce results that are more mobile and realistic than you might expect: its “Super Car” set boasted a working steering rack, motorized butterfly doors, an extendable rear spoiler that tucked under the rear bodywork, and a V-8 engine connected via a plastic crankshaft to the rear wheels whose pistons bobbed when the car was moving.

The 12-inch Senna GTR is far more handsome than its anonymous 2011 predecessor, though it shares the plastic, moving-piston V-8. It also includes fancy dihedral doors to match its real-life counterpart, plus a blue racing livery—check out those patterned front fender panels!

At 830 pieces, the Senna GTR won’t intimidate Technic builders who’ve whetted their skills on the 1281-piece Super Car or the 1580-piece Porsche 911 RSR. Still, the Senna GTR is pretty awesome, and it has the attractive quality of being cheaper than either of the previously mentioned sets.

Click below for more about
Read next Up next: This rare South African Flamingo is looking for a new place to nest

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *