This week marks the release of 2K Games LEGO® racer, LEGO 2K Drive and to celebrate the release of the latest LEGO Games title, it’s Race Week here at BricksFanz. LEGO 2K Drive will feature plenty of weird and wacky vehicles, but it also has content inspired by currently available LEGO sets. The set I’m taking a look at today provides the only licensed vehicles for LEGO 2K Drive and comes from a Speed Champions set, which itself is inspired by another iconic video game series. So start those engines and take a close look at the LEGO Speed Champions McLaren Solis GT & McLaren F1 LM set.
Product Details
Set Name:
McLaren Solus GT & McLaren F1 LM | Set Number: 76918 | Pieces: 581 | Theme: Speed Champions
RRP: £39.99/$34.99/44.99€ | Number of Bags: Bags x 4 | Instructions: Paper booklets + Builder App | Stickers: Sheet x 2
Availability: LEGO Stores, LEGO Online & General Retail
Both vehicles from this set are featured in LEGO 2K Drive, but this isn’t the first game they have appeared in. The McLaren Solus GT is based on a concept design which was created for and featured in the hit PlayStation Studio’s racing SIM, Gran Turismo. A number of these concept cars were created for various car makers as part of the game’s Vision Gran Turismo content. Many of these ‘What If’ cars were recreated as real vehicles, but McLaren took the concept further and crafted a working, track-only hypercar. It’s that vehicle which forms part of this Speed Champions set, along with the McLaren F1 LM.
Speed Champions theme was first introduced in 2015 and provides minifigure-scale recreations of iconic car manufacturers’ vehicles. In 2020, the scale was tweaked, moving the brick-built cars from 6-studs wide to 8-studs wide. This slight change has allowed the small-scale cars a surprisingly greater level of detail and that’s clearly on show with this particular set. It features two cars, split over four bags of elements, with an instruction booklet and a small sticker sheet for each car.
If you are used to building other LEGO vehicles at a similar scale, then you may expect this set to offer a similar build experience but you would be gravely mistaken. The level of detail and build techniques offered by both the cars in this set is more akin to the larger LEGO Icons vehicles than a LEGO City one. The use of elements and how they are incorporated into the cars is pretty special. In order to really capture the unique flow of both car’s shells, a few new elements have been created including a small triangular wing plate, a 1/4 sphere brick and an all-new ‘headlight’ brick which is slightly shorter than the original element and sports a curved back.
There are sections on both cars which can be very fiddly to build. This is more evident with the F1 LM car than with the Solus GT. I found it tricky to add the elements to create the interior of the F1 LM, due to the small area they are placed in. There’s also a part which you can easily attach incorrectly. The gear stick is mounted just next to the driver’s seat be is mounted to the chassis via a 1×2 curved plate and a lone stud, which is connected right in the middle of the underside of the plate. If you place this wrong the gear stick encroaches into the area where the minifigure is placed. Some of the stickers are rather small as well. Oddly, the set features a mix of printed pieces and stickers. Some elements feature just a flash of print detail, whereas some of the stickered pieces could have been stickers.
The set includes two minifigures, these play second fiddle to the actual cars but do offer unique torsos. The female driver is wearing a McLaren-branded race suit, offering both a unique torso and legs, with the male racer, sporting a McLaren-branded sweater. Both fit perfectly inside both cars, although you need to keep an eye on how you construct the interior of the F1 LM as it’s very easy to misplace the gear stick, which then obstructs placing the minifigure. Both characters have a crash helmet, which can be swapped out for hair.
Overall
Despite the fiddly sections and tiny stickers, I really enjoyed building this set. Those tricky bits result in a great-looking car, especially considering the fairly small scale of the vehicles. The use of elements and the way they are incorporated into the cars is really well done, especially on the Solus concept car. Much like the Speed Champions expansion for Forza Horizon, it’s also nice to be able to build vehicles you can also play with in a digital realm. This McLaren Speed Champions set is available now and you’ll also be able to play with it in LEGO 2K Drive, which is released on May 19th for all major platforms.
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