Toy plastic bricks just got a little bit faster. A new Lego Technic set featuring an app-controlled Top Gear–themed rally car was revealed today at the Los Angeles auto show. The $129 set includes 463 pieces, including three pieces that enable remote-control action: a large motor, an XL motor, and a Bluetooth-controlled smart hub.
The Lego Technic Top Gear Rally Car set isn’t based on an actual vehicle, but Lego designers worked with the BBC Top Gear team to co-design the body and the busy sticker set. The vision they had was to create “an ultra-realistic and fast-looking racer that fans are sure to enjoy building at home,” according to Lego.
Fans can do more than build it up, though, thanks to the app connectivity. Recent Lego models have used smartphones to animate some features, like a $99 Batmobile released in 2018 that used the Powered Up app to scoot around the kitchen floor. As a Technic model, the Top Gear Rally Car uses the Lego Technic Control+ app instead. This app allows you to drive the car forward or backward, steer, and put the car through different challenges to gain achievements. The phone will also provide speed information and make sounds as you’re driving. The Control+ app is available through the Apple App Store or Google Play and is also compatible with the Technic Liebherr R 9800 Excavator and 4×4 X-treme Off-Roader sets.
Lego and the U.K.’s BBC announced in September that they were working together on the kit, which is the first Lego Technic set inspired by Top Gear.
Lego does earn a few minus points for not including some sort of minifigure of The Stig with the car. It’s a Technic set, so this makes sense; it’s obvious that the scale would be off, but Lego should have figured it out. After all, you get Batman, the Joker, and Vicki Vale in the new 1989 Batmobile set. At least adding your own version of The Stig will be relatively easy, since you can always put one together from common Lego pieces. Lego released a promotional version of The Stig back in 2012, although it’s too small to sit behind the wheel in this car.
Lego’s Top Gear Rally Car will not be available just in time for Christmas. The official release date is December 26—Boxing Day in the U.K., a popular gift-giving occasion—but Lego sets have been known to enter retail channels a few days early, if you’re desperate to snag one for U.S. holidays.
From: Car and Driver
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