The Formula 1 season may be over, but here are five reasons not to sleep on LEGO Technic’s eye-catching 42141 McLaren Formula 1 Race Car, particularly during Black Friday.
When the LEGO Group released 42141 McLaren Formula 1 Race Car at the start of March 2022, it achieved something it had never achieved before with a LEGO Formula 1 car – and that’s in spite of having released any number of team-based F1 cars in its history up to that point.
What set 42141 McLaren Formula 1 Race Car aside from everything that had come before it was the sheer fact that it released not only in the season the real thing it was based on was due to race, but almost an entire month before the campaign had even begun (and we reviewed it back then).
Achieved through clear and good collaboration between the Technic team and McLaren F1 team, it helped to stand 42141 McLaren Formula 1 Race Car as not only a quite enticing and eye-catching large-scale LEGO set, but one wholly relevant to on-track action happening through the 2022 racing calendar.
With the season having come to a close in November now, though, it’s important to consider how good 42141 McLaren Formula 1 Race Car remains, even as it edges away from this period of total relevance.
So, thanks to Zavvi for sending us a copy of this set to build as it sits on sale in their LEGO Black Friday deals at a massive 35% off for UK customers (down to £109.99) and 20% off for US customers (down to $159.99), let’s take a look at five things not to overlook about 42141 McLaren Formula 1 Race Car.
1 – papaya
It’s a colour, but it’s so much more than that. The McLaren racing team’s history with this shade of papaya orange dates back to the late 1960s and can be traced from that point forward in the design of its Formula 1 cars, most notably returning as the dominant color in 2017. In LEGO form the orange may be a little brighter here, but there’s no mistaking whose car this is. It’s just a color but it’s not just a colour, and the Technic team have been very careful in distributing it accurately across the model.
2 – Beautiful bodywork
That orange, with hints of blue, is spread across a complex and detailed chassis design that wonderfully captures the unique twists and turns in bodywork that are exclusive to an F1 car. Furthermore, through a combination of the variety of pieces you use, a number of high-quality stickers and the somewhat unexpected order of how you build it all, seeing this bodywork all come together in Technic form is just as beautiful as the end result.
3 – Working steering
Technic models aren’t the most consistent with what features they will have or not, but 42141 McLaren Formula 1 Race Car comes with working steering that is a pleasure to realize and experience here. That’s thanks to the open cockpit nature of the vehicle, which means you can more easily than usual maneuver the steering wheel and watch the front wheels react. Very satisfying.
4-Size and style
This is a hefty build from the LEGO Technic team, coming in at an impressive 65cm in length, and 27cm in width. It’s pretty heavy too. Even at that size, though, the proportions to the build remain satisfyingly accurate and, through that precise and engaging build, reflective of the stylistic shaping of the F1 car. Building big doesn’t always work for a Technic set, but here, thanks to some clever parts usage, it’s an advantage that further adds to the all-round visual look of 42142 McLaren Formula 1 Race Car.
5 – Sticker practice
If you want to learn how to apply stickers correctly, there’s no better set to test you, simply for how much trying to center the stickers on the four wheels will ask of you. Once you’ve got it, though, you’re pretty much set for life. Thank you, 42141 McLaren Formula 1 Race Car, we think.
42141 McLaren Formula 1 Race Car is currently included in Zavvi’s LEGO Black Friday deals, at a very tempting 35% discount for UK customers, and a 20% saving for US customers, while stocks last. It is also part of a unique selection of LEGO sets Zavvi and Brick Fanatics have pulled together for this special page of LEGO Black Friday deals.
