Having taken a a drive around Memory Lane with classic cars like the 1967 Mini Cooper S Rally and 1980s-era Ferrari F40, we turn to the thoroughly modern 75892 McLaren Senna. Rather than a sticker price of $837,000 (give or take another million dollars when finally auctioned off), this LEGO version of the European supercar retails for $14.99 (£12.99 in the UK and $19.99 in Canada), with 219 pieces and one minifig driver.
The box, packaging, and sticker sheet
The LEGO McLaren Senna comes in a standard single-car Speed Champions box, with the finished model on the front and various angles on the back, including a photo of the real-life car.
The set’s parts are in unnumbered bags, with the black chassis, instruction booklet, and sticker sheet loose in the box.
The set’s stickers are printed on clear material, making them potentially usable on colors other than the car’s base color (though the designs are all certainly rather unique to this particular car, providing stripes and other details that might be challenging to brick-build at this scale).
The build & parts
Like many other Speed Champions sets, the McLaren Senna includes a play feature accessory — a wind tunnel turbine, in this case. Unusually, you build it first, rather than at the end of the build process.
We’ve come to expect a certain simplicity to LEGO Speed Champions builds, particularly with the rather standardized supercars that were all designed in a wind tunnel and built to break records on the Nürburgring. But this LEGO McLaren defies all such expectations, with several fascinating parts uses and building techniques. The Senna’s headlights are built from trans-orange Nexo Knights axe head pieces, attached at an angle via the now-ubiquitous inkpot/nipple pieces.
The Senna’s unique door windows are achieved with an inverted car canopy — it’s an incredibly ingenious technique I don’t think I’ve even noticed on fan-built models, further proving the continuing innovation that LEGO designers incorporate into even the smallest of sets.
The rear deck extends forward to sit on top of the inverted canopy, holding it securely in place.
The rounded windshield fits perfectly over the inverted square windshield, completing the glassed-in cockpit.
The finished model
The real-life McLaren Senna — first delivered just a few months ago to their millionaire and billionaire owners — is a profusion of scoops, intakes, louvres, and diffusers. The small-scale LEGO version captures that complex look with a profusion of small curved slopes, wedge plates, tiles, and so on.
The front of the Senna features a splitter and various air intakes, with those Nexo Knight axe-head headlights peeking out.
In profile, the Senna looks marvelous — an aerodynamic body low to the ground with splitters and diffusers hugging the ground at the front and rear. The orange wheel rims are particularly striking from this angle.
The rear wing — which also acts as an air brake when you’re slowing down from the car’s top speed of 211 mph (340 kph) — sits low behind the cockpit above the diffuser assembly.
And those wheels! Speed Champions wheels have certainly had a variety of colors, but none with such a stunningly gorgeous contrast as that between the hubcaps and the orange wheels behind them.
Returning to the set’s requisite play feature, the wind tunnel turbine has a Technic gear behind the propellor. Spinning the gear spins the propellor, so you can recreate the aerodynamic conditions in which the Senna was designed.
The minifig
Let’s just admit now that the minifigs aren’t the stars of LEGO Speed Champions sets. Nevertheless, LEGO pays close attention to the details of each minifig, and the Senna driver wears a racing jumpsuit with the McLaren and Pirelli logos on the back, sandwiching the name of the car.
Conclusions & recommendation
If you can’t afford to shell out nearly two million dollars for one of the only 500 real-life McLaren Sennas that the company will be producing, you can’t go wrong with a $15 version that you build yourself. And just as we were starting to get tired of the repetitive structures and build processes of both American muscle cars and European supercars in LEGO Speed Champions form, the LEGO design team pulls out all the stops with some truly unexpected techniques.
While our favorite car from this series might be the tiny Monte Carlo Mini, certainly the most innovative is this McLaren Senna.
Be sure to check out our reviews of the other 2019 LEGO Speed Champions sets:
- LEGO Speed Champions 75893 2018 Dodge Challenger SRT Demon and 1970 Dodge Charger R/T
- LEGO Speed Champions 75894 1967 Mini Cooper S Rally and 2018 MINI John Cooper Works Buggy
- LEGO Speed Champions 75890 Ferrari F40 Competizione
LEGO Speed Champions 75892 McLaren Senna includes 219 pieces with 1 minifig. The set is available now from the LEGO Shop ($14.99 in the US | £12.99 in the UK | $19.99 in Canada), Amazon.com, BrickLink, eBay, and elsewhere.
The LEGO Group sent The Brothers Brick an early copy of this set for review. Providing TBB with products for review guarantees neither coverage nor positive reviews.
Love the review, could you review the dorado showdown set? It is the only overwatch set i am interested in and i would like to know your opinion.
I’m assuming the nexo knights axe head isn’t available in a variety of colors? Clear or blue would have worked better as headlights. Still, this looks really good to me.
@Dylan: It’s in the queue — stay tuned and check back here at The Brothers Brick in the next few days and weeks as we work through all of the new 2019 LEGO sets.
Thank you very much much. I love these reviews.
What are the trade from, wands?
WTF? Should be “What are the taillamps made from, wands?”
I swear my phone didn’t autocorrect, does your commenting system?
Please forgive my ignorance, but wouldn’t two Wall Element 1x4x1 (30413) work just as well as the inverted windshield?