[REVIEW] 42123 McLaren Senna GTR

[VBBN]

Set Name: 42123 McLaren Senna GTR
Pieces: 830
Year of Release: 1HY 2021
Price: 49,99€ / $49,99 / £44.99 / AU$89.99 / CA$69.99

Hello and welcome to my review of 42123, the McLaren Senna GTR. A huge thank you to Lego for providing us this set to review and discuss! As always, all opinions will be my own, and I was indeed quite interested to see what this set has to offer. 

 In 2019, Lego introduced us to 42093, the Corvette ZR1. It seemed that set was establishing a new scale of Technic vehicles, to which we also saw the likes of in 42098, Car Transporter.

Now, Lego has continued this lineup with the Senna GTR. The price is a little strange on this one, here in the US it's $50 same as the ZR1, but with 251 more pieces, making it a great deal overall, parts wise. Though it seems that for other countries it's a bit pricier than the ZR1 was, not sure how all of that was calculated. Regardless, has 251 more pieces and isn't Lego's first rodeo at this scale anymore, but does this mean it's better?

Box

Unlike it's larger Ferrari wave mate, this set comes packaged in more traditional Technic packaging, along with a 10+ rating. This definitely suggests the target market for this new scale is for those who are getting in to technic, but not ready for the much larger sets. (Or, alternatively, it is of course a more reasonably priced Technic car for those not wanting to shell out triple digits for the bigger sets.)

 

Box Rear

As you would expect, the rear shows us the set features and some stats from the official car.

Stickers

Unlike the ZR1 which was a more traditional street car, the Senna GTR here is loaded with racing graphics, and the sticker sheet definitely reflects that with a total of 46 stickers. The printing is good and the silver stickers have a nice metallic finish. This is the first set of stickers, though, that I have had quality issues with- some of the stickers started to come off of their adhesive backing, and so there are a few spots where the stickers do not stick entirely to the part, an annoyance to be sure.

New Pieces:

The only new mold in this set is the new 2x3 panel, which is seen in quite a few of the 1HY sets. We get two in black and two in blue here. 

Recolors:

Mostly some blue recolors - the 3x9x2 arch is printed (with mirror designs). It's a nice print and certainly better than the stickers, though it severely limits the usefulness of this piece.

The Build

The Senna GTR is a mid-engine car, we can see here how the rear axle is attached to the set's V8 engine, unfortunately on single wheel drive. The engine itself is built extremely similarly to both the ZR1 as well as the Car Transport, utilizing a smaller faux-piston design. 

Steering

We then build up the front of the car, with seats and the front steering. I will say, I think the ZR1 was a little more interesting in terms of these functions, since you had a rear wheel powering a front engine, and also had to work the steering in, which resulted in innovations to it everything in. The build here kept the engine and steering on separate halves of the car. Obviously this is due to the design of the car, but something worth pointing out.

Rear

The rear of the car takes shape. Very minimal system use here, primarily just for the rear diffuser. 

Body Panels

Here we can see the shaping of the car at the rear. One bonus to this set's color, the blue pins at times can be completely hidden, such as right near the taillights.

Roof

The roof takes shape, and we add more to the front splitter. We also add in the rather basic dash, which will look at later. Note, of course, that the steering wheel does not control the steering function, this will be controlled via HoG by a gear on top of the car.

Hood

A cutaway of the hood, the slope in the middle can be fragile at times.

Completed Model - No Stickers

I generally like to show models without stickers first so that we can analyze the true shaping and color blocking of the model. This is especially useful in sets like this where the car is hidden in racing vinyl. Overall, I think the set does a good job in capturing the look of the Senna GTR, it's more detailed and shaped better than the ZR1, which tended to take some shortcuts in that area. The front fenders of course make this effect strange to look at, but I think what stands out to me is the color blocking at the front of the car; technically, this is supposed to be a blue car with a chrome silver vinyl, but we can see here that lego used light bluish gray as actual body color panels. Personally, I think this should have been handled differently, we will see in a moment.

Completed Model - Stickers - Front

With the stickers added, we can see that they attempt to pul the front end together. Unfortunately, though, this looks very messy to me, there is a lot of disconnect between the body panels of the car and as a result, the stickers do not connect very well. I also wish that the front pieces themselves could have been silver elements instead of light gray, as the stickers look very odd here. The rest of the car looks good, though, certainly similar to the real model. 

Completed Model - Stickers - Rear

The rear of the car is really good, I think the shaping of the car and spoiler lended themselves very well to the pieces LEGO had available. The exhaust can be seen from a top down angle:

Completed Model - Stickers - Top

The shaping is decent from a top down view, though the front does look quite crude here with it's sharp angles, something that does not blend well on a McLaren design. I do not have the Car Transport set so I cannot advise if it fits; it's the same width as the ZR1 but ~3 cm longer.

Front

Here again we can see the front. White 4L bars are used to emulate the LED foglight of the car, but the effect is lost. I prefer for the connectors they are mounted to in black as it better separates them from the color of the hood. The headlights are buried in the front of the car and at most angles you cannot see them, I often look at the model and feel like the front is missing them.

Completed Model - Stickers - Profile

It is difficult to show in photos, but the set has a very minor angle to it's frame, which does give an extremely subtle tilt. There's a few inaccuracies to the real model here, the main one being the section right above the "GTR" sticker; on the real model, the 12 is very large, it seems Lego struggled to fill this area in with more body panels.

Doors

The set has opening doors. Interestingly, Lego incorrectly calls them dihedral doors, which are often found on Koenigsegg vehicles. These are more traditional butterfly doors. 

Interior

The interior is basic and offers only a non-functional steering wheel and seats

Function Video

 

Function wise, besides the opening doors, this set has HoG steering, and the V8 pistons that work as the rear drive-side wheel spins. 

Size comparison

The Senna has considerably more pieces than the Buggy, though due to so many pins and other smaller panels, it ends up being pretty comparable in size and mass. 

Here it is with some system sets, for reference.

 

Overall

8.5 DESIGN
Keeping the size of this set in mind, it's a good design overall. I do feel like certain elements of the set miss the likeness of the real vehicle, and with 251 extra pieces, I think it's a step forward in detail from the ZR1. However, the nature of the set being a livery-covered race car lends to a messy look.

6 BUILDING EXPERIENCE
Average. Less interesting functionality when compared to the ZR1. 

4.5 FEATURES
I had to hit the set pretty hard here. No differential. The engine is similar to what we've seen at this scale already and not really very interesting, and the steering is almost a standard at this point. Opening doors are really the only thing this set gains over the ZR1

7.5 PLAYABILITY
 Slightly better than the ZR1 thanks to opening doors. Other than that, it's a car with steering and an engine, sure to please kids.

8 PARTS
Good selection of parts with some nice recolors and those new 2x3 panels. 

8 VALUE FOR MONEY
This really depends on where you live. In the US, you get more parts for the same cost, but in other countries, those extra parts come with reduced functionality compared to the ZR1.

7 A step forward in some ways, a step backwards in others.

When I went to rate this set, I decided to first compare it with the ZR1 and the ratings Jim had given when it was first reviewed. Overall, I found myself rating this set lower in most categories, dropping it's score by an average of .9. I think this is a fair rating; When I look at these technic cars, I expect that each time a new one is released, that we will see improvement. In the 1:8 scale range, the Chrion and Sian massively improve upon the rough GT3 RS. When I look at this set compared to the ZR1, I see 251 more parts, but less functionality. The front is still a mess, and the overall look of the car is hindered by the limitation of Technic sculpting. I don't see that evolutionary step forward here. I just see basic functions that we have seen before. I see a car that is sculpted okay, but that would likely be done better justice in System. I am much more interested to see what LEGO can do with $50 price tag and 800+ parts on a more interesting piece of equipment, this just seems to add to the flow of uninspiring car builds. What are your thoughts on this set?

[VBBN]

This review is now live!

[mojitoca]

It's a good set because the blue black colors, simple. clean set. But we hope they did. make it to 1:8 scale. I just gone buy this for display set.

[JintaiZ]

I think the features are actually pretty good especially the size; didn't expect anything extremely complex but the details are great.

Thanks for the review!

[makoy]

Personally, I don't see the Senna in this set. Maybe it is the scale but even if you add those stickers (not a fan), it still doesn't evoke that race car feeling for me.

I do love the colour scheme and the playability along with the value it brings.  

It's a great review and a fair assessment for this fair set. 

Happy  New Year!