LEGO unveils 42109 Technic Top Gear Rally Car
It finally happened (albeit 4 years too late), but LEGO have finally created a set in collaboration with automotive TV show Top Gear – the 42109 Technic Top Gear Rally Car.
The 463-piece set is powered by the Technic CONTROL+ app, and comes with 1 large motor, 1 XL motor and 1 Bluetooth controlled smart hub, allowing you to remotely control it via your smartphone.
The 42109 Technic Top Gear Rally Car is slated for release on 26 December 2019 and will retail for US$129.00 and £124.99. Regional pricing to be revealed soon.
To design the Rally Car, which is an un-badged GT Rally Car, LEGO Technic Designers worked with BBC’s Top Gear team to pull off the set.
I can imagine the brainstorms going – how many stickers can we slap on this thing before anyone calls us out?
The answer is too many as the entire set is pretty much slathered in stickers. Seriously, it looks like every exposed panel has a sticker on it.
I guess it’s quite realistic to rally cars with their sponsors on them, and in a way, it does give the car a bit of personality.
The remote control nature of the app is undoubtedly the biggest draw. For the price, and the Technic components packed in such as the Bluetooth hub, and motors, the price is actually pretty decent.
The Top Gear branding is a bit of a miss for me. Sure, it’s still got a massive audience, especially on the BBC in the UK, but I’ll be honest, I stopped watching the series religiously when May, Hammond and Clarkson left for The Grand Tour.
By God, the series with Chris Evans still infuriates me, but to be fair – the recent seasons had started to find their groove, and I started to like Matt LeBlanc as host, but alas, he too, has left the show.
There’s still Chris Harris, whom I love watching as there’s nothing more joyful than seeing him geek out over cars, but Top Gear just doesn’t do it for me any longer. Not when I can watch Doug DeMuro do his thing on Youtube.
Judging from the Lifestye photos, its clear who this set is aimed at – kids, and I think the Top Gear branding aside, this would make a pretty neat gift for a young tweenager, or for an adult looking to tinker with a remote-controlled Technic set using his or her smartphone.
The pricing is the set’s strongest selling point, but it’s a shame that it’s being released AFTER Christmas, as this would be the kind of toy that parents would be keen on picking up for the holiday season.
Oh, and do you know what would’ve made this a must-buy set? The inclusion of a Stig minifig (a miniStig?), which would be a great non-keychain addition that would excite both old and new Top Gear fans.
Maybe LEGO are planning to bundle a Stig minifigure polybag as a gift-with-purchase at release to lure fans in.
The 42109 Technic Top Gear Rally Car will be priced at US$129.00 and £124.99, and will be released worldwide on 26 December 2019.
Does this appeal to you? Does anyone even watch Top Gear these days? Let me know what you think in the comments!