Vectormatic

I think partcount comparison between studfull and studless sets, or just sets 20+ (or even 10 years) ago is completely pointless. Price comparison is slightly more relevant, although taking inflation and standard of living developments over the same time in account makes it pretty hard as well. We dont buy the same things at the same intervals as our parents did, and our kids dont have the same lego experience, or just general life as we did at that age. Sets should be evaluated in their current context, against other sets and the other forms of entertainment/hobbies available imho, as that is what are your actual options when it comes to current choices. If you do want to drag in old sets, then those should be evaluated with their current prices, the extremely limited availability, the fact that a 8880 with a box or non yellowed wheels is super-rare etc.. because that is the option as it presents itself today. Still, it is easy to see lego could have put a lot more effort into this set, a 4 speed gearbox should just be in there, and given where the Chiron and Sian have gone, wouldnt even canibalize sales of the top tier stuff.

I totally dig the Drag-campervan and the hotrod, very cool builds!

To anyone who watches le-mans, the #51 AF-corse is THE ferrari. The presentation car wouldve only been seen a few times. Lego has also made the #51 in the speed champions theme (back when it was a 458GT2), and i think a 488GTE in the ferrari garage set.

for some context, this is apparently a €30 (so $25-30?) set, so for that it looks like an excellent little set, decent features and some interesting parts. Seems like a worthy replacement of the rescue helicopter to me. The only thing i can really mark against it is the skirts looking awkward, but ah well, at least we get more 3x13 curves in black, and we will get a B-model presumably

8824 was one of my favorite sets as a kid, i cant remember how many times i swapped that thing between A and B model, i liked both versions quite a lot. On this one, i kind of miss the bespoke skirt parts, i realise that TLG doesnt do bespoke parts on regular technic sets anymore, but the skirt on this hovercraft looks really awkward, bowed in 2-3 studs in the sides, and then perfectly straight down in the bow and rear corners. feature wise i suppose stearing and driven props are fine, cant really think of anything else a hovercraft this size should do.

@Gray Gear german price might be €170, but us dutch guys have been getting shafted a bit extra since a few years back, we pay €400 for the Chiron, you guys get it for €360 for instance

lol, a "hydraulic excavator" set without pneumatics... which i think also really hurts the bucket articulation Doesnt look too bad though, but i guess looking at it, it is a bit feature sparse, and LAs in place of pneumatics is just a bit meh

Do the discbrakes fit inside the smaller rims? On a sidenote, i was just thinking that the €180 price is rather steep, if you consider that the defender costs the same, but provides a good 1K parts extra, including an 8 speed gearbox, and branding.... But then again, i ragequite buillding the defender because i couldnt get the geartrain to run properly...

@amorti LOL, you'd think lego has some internal tooling for design jobs like that, but who knows? Ive never done the same comparison for the GT3, Chiron or Sian, i just know the RSR is pretty wrong in terms of proportions. Honestly, im quite positively surprised by how accurate TLG got the proportions/dimensions Looks like i finally get my suspension equiped Ferrari, like i was wishing for all those years looking at the old racers 599 and Enzo

found a pic of a 488 (couldnt find a square on side shot of the GTE, so settled for a normal one) and drew some lines Proportions looks pretty much bang on given the scale and size of the elements worked with, my main first thought when seeing the side shot was that the nose was too long, but that is just due to the lego model not having a windshield, the A-pilars are in the right place.

oh absolutely, 42077 would have fit a gearbox, 42096 would have fit a gearbox, even 42111 would have fit a 2-speed Back when 42096 came out i figured i would put a gearbox in there, but honestly, i dont have the time and perseverance to actually do a near complete re-design of the chassis

more pics: https://www.lego.com/nl-nl/aboutus/news/2020/november/ferrari-488-gte?sf132928873=1 The side profile looks a bit "long nose, short tail", part count is at 1677, no mention of any features beyond engine steering and suspension. @steph77 Cool, ive been to the 6h of spa a couple of time as well, watching the LMP1Hs walk away from these GTEs like they are standing still is nuts, although nothing beats the sound of the GTEs

yeah, reading the description, no gearbox or anything i suppose, still, im stoked! Im probably more hyped about this car then the Sian

i'm over the moon with this one, im a le-mans fan, and the #51 AF-corse car is pretty much GTE-royalty to me, absolutely stoked! I hope we will see some more features then with 42096, but im not holding my breath, and honestly, ill get it even if this is just another engine+suspension jobbie. Also, the new parts in red are good news for MOCers, and more red parts means easier to do ferrari MOCs all around, so that is excellent news.

awww yess! I see defender rims, and either Sian arches in red, or the same part scaled a bit down. Feature wise they arent showing anything, so ill assume another 42077 reshell, like the 911 RSR, that way we can only be surprised. It looks amazing though, and i assume that itll be relatively easy to make a non stickered version, although the #51 AF-corse car is pretty much a le-mans legend.. I hope we'll be seeing more info/pics today, provided this thing has no obvious problems, im hella excited for it

@AbFab1974 very nice work! @JintaiZ in the first 4-ish years, speed champions released in march, not january, so it being late isnt a big surprise. Considering Technic is getting 3 licensed cars this january, they might have decided to again stagger the release of "car-guy" sets a bit.

@I_Igor good find, although i highly doubt lego is going to bring back a part in a colour used once, 9 years ago, just for the purpose of making us lose our minds about differentials :P @R0Sch I thought the same when looking at the picture you posted, if there was a diff in there, you wouldnt be able to see the smal glimmer of light all the way through I think the set looks good, and with the part count i can sort of accept the €10 pricerise from 42093, but the lack of a diff really puts me off. Im sure ill probably cave in and buy this set in a weak moment, but rationally speaking it is definitely on the "build from spares, then modify" list.

Only on the left side, the right rear side is reddish brown, its just that nearly every photo is showing the left side, only the pic of the car on the book, and the 3d model show the right side

Hmm, looking at the pics and 3d model on lego.com, i think if there was a diff in there, we would have been able to catch a glimpse of it, so im affraid no diff... Also, being confronted with images of the actual McLaren, am i the only one who thinks the lego model looks better then the real thing? And one last observation, lego.com lists it as available on dec 26th, which IIRC is typical every year, but that makes the jan 1st embargo date a tad strange..

The more i see it, the more i like the side profile though, has a hint of Honda NSX to it somehow, and various other mid engined cars. Could make a very good base for various modifications, put a proper diff in there, perhaps squeeze in a proper V6, some small body mods and youve got a really cool sportscar

@Gumalca @I_Igor Even if it is (which i cant quite make up from the pics, not sure if there is room for the stop), the reddish brown axle with stop is only available in 3L and 5L, not 8L (that one is DBG), so i dont see how that would work in a ~15 wide chassis with the diff in the middle. And besides that, im not sure what to point would be, sure pulling a driveshaft from a diff is annoying, but from wahat i can tell the gears cant fall out of the new diff if the axles are pulled out, so in the grand scheme it is a minor inconvenience.

@AVCampos could technically be possible, perhaps, but doesnt make any sense, especially given the size of the car, and that wouldnt explain the axle on the other side being normal LBG

Ouch, rear left is LBG, so yeah, looks like a 42022 repeat, one tire fire for days. Man, that really bums me out, i was just about to post how i think it looks pretty cool, much better then the corvette, and then we get a diff-less disappointment. I wonder though, why is this thing diff-less? on 42022 it had to do with the steering axle running right through that area, but on this car, i dont see any mechanisms going through that general area other then drive.. The only thing i can think of would be making space for the humongous diffuser, which would be daftness of monstrous proportions for a technic set imho... such a shame that the review NDA was moved to january, im hungry for more details on this thing

The two mid scale cars four weeks apart.. weird Glad to see the ferrari being a normal part of the wave, cant be long before we see anythingg now

@keymaker Sariel commented that the NDA on the senna has been shifted to Jan 1st, whether this impacts lego's publishing of pics, i dont know. @Ngoc Nguyen The real car is mid-engined, the driveshaft did indeed strike me as quite long considering the place of the engine related to the rear axle, the only way i see a long driveshaft is if the rear diff is driven from behind, with the driveshaft going over the rear diff, so that the engine crank sits higher up in the car.