Tag Archives: News

Technic 42228 McLaren MCL39 F1 Car | Set Preview

TLCB have just reviewed a championship-winning Formula 1 car, and now we have another! This is the brand new LEGO Technic 42228 McLaren MCL39 F1 Car.

Like the Williams-Renault FW14B a quarter-century before it, the McLaren MCL39 won both the Constructors and Drivers World Championships (making Lando Norris a world champion), and with LEGO’s longstanding relationship with the British car maker and its race team, the arrival of 42228 was almost to be expected.

At 1:8 scale and with 1,675 pieces, 42228 is a hefty Technic set, with a price-tag to match, costing £189.99 / $229.99 / €209.99 when it arrives on March 1st ’26. For that sizeable outlay buyers will get working steering and pushrod suspension, a V6 engine and two-speed (boo) gearbox under a removable engine cover, and a functional drag-reduction-system (DRS) on the rear wing linked to the transmission’s top (aka ‘only other’) gear.

You also get a seriously large amount of stickers to recreate McLaren’s 2025 sponsors (even the dodgy crypto-currency ones), but not – and unlike the aforementioned Icons 10353 Williams FW14B set – staggered width tyres. Again. Come on LEGO, this is a $220 set.

Still, we suspect 42228 will be a hugely successful Technic set when it lands later this year, and further cements LEGO’s relationship with the pinnacle of motorsport and – for 2025 at least – the team at the top of it. Even with a two-speed gearbox and chronically lazy tyre sizing.

 

LEGO Icons 11376 Ford Model T | Set Preview

LEGO haven’t always nailed vintage cars. But now, some fifty years after their last effort, they’re going back to winga-dinga turn-of-the-century poop-poop motoring with this, the brand new Icons 11376 Ford Model T!

Constructed from just over 1,000 pieces and aimed squarely at ages 18+, 11376 brings one of the most important cars ever made to the Icons range. And – perhaps ironically considering the age of its subject matter – a slew of excellent never before seen parts making their debut.

The most obvious of these are the fabulous new wheels a tyres, the flippy split windscreen, and the folding canvas roof, all of which accurately portray the period. A few new printed gold parts also feature, and the model includes a working starting handle connected to the engine’s fan, opening hood and doors, and appropriately crap steering.

However 11376 also features a few more unwelcome surprises, such as a driveshaft that connects to the rear axle, spinning as the rear wheels turn, yet – as far as we can tell – connected to absolutey nothing at the the other end, and – more egregiously – an ‘illegal’ (and unnecessary) building technique that stresses parts beyond their tolerances. We’ve no idea how that one got signed off.

Still, what’s vintage motoring without a few quirks, and you can head back over a hundred years when the new Icons 11376 Ford Model T set reaches shelves in March of ’26 for $130 / £120.

2025 | Year in Review

It’s 2026! The Winter Olympics, Football World Cup, and Artemis Lunar Programme will all arrive in the next twelve months, but before then let’s look back at our 2025…

Posts

We published nearly a post a day over the last year, with the most viewed of 2025 being our preview of LEGO’s new officially-licensed Formula 1 sets. The top page (outside of the Homepage of course) continued to be the Review Library, with our new A-Z of Lego Cars not far behind.

Visitors 

2025 wasn’t just the Year of China for vehicle sales (with Chinese car brands that didn’t even exist a few years ago now everywhere), but also for visitors to this site. China shot up the country rankings to end the year in third place, with many days having more Chinese visitors than even Americans. A new world order is imminent. Either that or dozens of models that have appeared here over the years are about to become Chinese copy-cat sets…

Germany, the UK, Netherlands and France completed the top six, with just over half of all visitors joining us from a desktop and just under half from mobile devices. Which definitely means at least one of you has visited us from your office toilet.

2026

What does 2026 hold? We’re not sure there’s as much need for The Lego Car Blog as there has been in the past. The online Lego Community now feels rather fragmented over dozens of platforms and social media sites, and doom-scrolling through Instagram will inevitably serve up far more Lego creations than we ever could. But for now at least we still like doing this, and it seems hundreds-of-thousands of you do too. Well, you keep coming back, which must count for something.

Thus we’ll endeavour to continue publicising the very best vehicular builds from across the internet, with reviews and set previews too. If you like what we do you can support us here, and if you don’t you can always let us know in the comments.

Wishing you a very happy and brick-filled 2026

TLCB Team

LEGO Technic H1 2026 | Set Previews

It’s just a few weeks ’til Christmas
And all through LEGO’s HQ
Our Elves have been stealing
Next year’s sets to preview!

Yes it’s time to preview the 2026 LEGO Technic sets, and we have nine brand new vehicles to bring to you! Plus one already previewed that really annoyed us. So is the rest of the H1 2026 Technic range any better? Let’s find out…

42218 John Deere 1470H Wheeled Harvester

The 2026 Technic range kicks off with this, the 42218 John Deere 1470H Wheeled Harvester. With just over a hundred pieces 42218 is about as small as Technic sets get, and yet it looks to be rather a good one. Pivoted ‘steering’, mechanical worm-gear boom elevation, and a simple grab mechanism feature, as does John Deere licensing that probably wasn’t really necessary at this scale but is nice nonetheless. Aimed at ages 7+ 42218 will cost pocket-money when it arrives next year and we rather like it.


42225 Yellow Motorbike

A refreshingly simple title from LEGO for a refreshingly simple set, this is the new 42225 Yellow Motorbike. Constructed from 151 pieces, 42225 features steering, a working chain-driven inline-triple piston engine, and zero licensing or stickers. It’s like mid-’00s Technic never went away. A decent pocket-money starter set.


42219 Monster Jam Grave Digger Fire and Ice & 42220 Monster Jam Sparkle Smash

It’s time for the obligatory Pull-Backs, and LEGO have certainly found a sweet-spot with the Monster Jam series. We’d have thought they would have run out of Monster Jam trucks by now but no, two more join the line-up for ’26. And one’s pink!

Aimed at ages 7+ 42219 Monster Jam Grave Digger Fire and Ice & 42220 Monster Jam Sparkle Smash bring around 150 pieces each, an array of colourful stickerage, and – in the case of the sparkly pink unicorn – may well be bought by a few adults for the pink and purple parts alone.


42221 NASA Artemis SLS Heavy Lift Rocket

LEGO Technic Space is back! After the surprise Space range of 2024, LEGO have decided to bring a real-world rocket to the Technic line-up. This is the brand new 42221 NASA Artemis SLS Heavy Lift Rocket.

Constructed from 632 pieces the new 9+ model offers a very unusual feature set (which makes sense as rockets don’t really have any moving parts to replicate). Hidden within its base, 42221 includes a tightly packed set of gears and a crank handle that allows the NASA Artemis to blast-off via the mother of all corkscrews, with the booster rockets separating as it does so.

Original and rather ingenious, expect 42221 to cost around $60/£50 when it’s cleared for launch in 2026.


42222 Bugatti Chiron Pur Sport

There have been a myriad of officially licensed Bugatti LEGO sets over the years, echoing the myriad of special edition real-world Bugattis. This is the latest, the 771-piece 42222 Bugatti Chiron Pur Sport Hypercar with functioning steering, a working W16 piston engine, opening doors and hood, a few choice stickers, and a continuation of the tie-in with the ‘Asphalt Legends’ video game that we still don’t understand.

Aimed at ages 9+ and arriving in stores next year for around $65/£60, 42222 makes the previously revealed 793-piece 42223 1966 Ford GT40 MkII Race Car‘s ’18+’ marketing look even more cynical…


42224 Porsche 911 GT3 R REXY AO Racing

Now we’re moving up a gear. This is the brand new 42224 Porsche 911 GT3 R REXY AO Racing Race Car. Dual-licensed by both Porsche and REXY AO Racing, 42224 recreates one of GT3’s most strikingly liveried racers in Technic form, and brings a whole lotta green to the 2026 line-up. And stickers. A lot of stickers.

42224 is a racing car though, so they’re rather appropriate here, and the model includes a suite of working functions to ensure it’s not simply a display piece. All-wheel suspension, working steering, a flat-6 engine (with the correct firing order), opening doors and front truck, plus functioning mechanically-operated ‘air’ jacks feature, as do a few new parts including transparent oval headlights.

With 1,313 pieces and an age of 11+, expect a price-tag around $140/£130 when 42224 races into stores in 2026.


42226 BMW M4 GT3 EVO

Next to join the 2026 Technic range is another GT3 racer, although whilst this one keeps the 11+ age of the 42224 Porsche 911 GT3 above, it drops the parts-count and scale back to that of the 42222 Bugatti. There must be some trickier building techniques at play…

The new 42226 BMW M4 GT3 EVO doesn’t seem to offer any more complexity than the other mid-size sets joining the 2026 Technic range though, with just shy of 750 pieces, working steering, opening doors, and a piston engine. It also looks every bit as hideous as its real-world counterpart, despite the stickers doing their best.

A few parts appear in new colours, the model ties-in with the ‘Asphalt Legends’ video game as per the Bugatti, and you’ll be able to get your hands on 42226 for around $65/£60 when it arrives in stores next year.


42227 Jeep Wrangler Rubicon

Wait, wasn’t this yellow? There was indeed a yellow Technic Jeep Wrangler Rubicon, but the new 42227 Jeep Wrangler Rubicon adds 10% more parts to its 2022 predecessor and 100% more turquoise. It also adds a working engine, whilst retaining its predecessor’s working steering, pendular suspension, and – perhaps our favourite detail of a Technic model ever – a rubber duck (Google it).

With many parts making their debut in turquoise we suspect 42227 will be rather sought after when it lands in 2026, and it’s probably our pick of the line-up too. Expect to pay £55/$60 and to see this on the dashboard of many a real Wrangler Rubicon – alongside a rubber duck – by this time next year.

LEGO 77258 Speed Champions F1 Academy Car | Set Preview

Alternatively titled “LEGO go racing!”. Alternatively alternatively titled “Women in the workplace“. Yes, this is the brand new LEGO 77258 Speed Champions F1 Academy Car, and it replicates LEGO’s entry of a real car in the F1 Academy 2026 Season! Which is just like F1. Only worse. And just as gender uniform.

However, the F1 Academy’s lack of gender diversity is because it’s nearly 2026 and there are no women drivers in Formula 1, and nor have there been for forty years.

Cue Formula 1’s investment in the F1 Academy, a spec-series championship for female drivers only, on par with Formula 4, into which LEGO will enter under the banner ‘LEGO Racing’ with Dutch driver Esmee Kosterman.

Wearing a LEGO Friends-esque livery, the new LEGO Racing F1 Academy car aims to inspire a new generation of girls to get into motorsport, and brings a new Speed Champions set into the range to boot.

With new wheels and tyres, a funky new mini-figure crash helmet and steering yolk, plus stickers replicating Esme’s real 2026 LEGO Racing F1 Academy car, we think 77258 is a fantastic addition to the Speed Champions line-up, with a thoroughly decent message behind it too.

You’ll be able to get your hands on the new 201-piece F1 Academy Car for $28 / £22 when the 2026 F1 Academy season begins in March, around the same time the sexist pigs in Formula 1 begin their own 2026 campaign.

LEGO Technic 42223 1966 Ford GT40 MKII Race Car | Set Preview

It’s that time of year again, when a crack team of Elven ‘Volunteers’ are fired over The LEGO Company’s perimeter wall by way of the office catapult, tasked with uncovering the newest LEGO sets due to hit shelves next year.

We’ll report their finds for 2026 in the coming weeks, but we have one 2026 Technic set to share ahead of the main event today. This is the brand new LEGO Technic 42223 1966 Ford GT40 MKII Race Car!

Bringing one of America’s* greatest ever race cars into the Technic line-up, 42223 recreates the car that finished 1, 2, 3 at the 1966 Daytona 24 Hours, Sebring 12 Hours, and Le Mans 24 Hours sixty years ago, becoming an all-time legend in the process.

The new LEGO Technic 42223 Ford GT40 captures the exterior of the all-conquering ’66 MkII variant with a range of pieces appearing in new colours – including those gold wheels – plus an array of decently-authentic looking decals adding the side and centre stripes, roundels and seat details.

793 parts make up the new 42223 GT40 in all, with the set featuring the default working engine (a miniaturised V8), working steering, and the opening doors and engine cover expected as a minimum at this scale, and no more.

Except 42223 does have one unexpected variance from the mid-size Technic vehicles that have preceded it… An 18+ age and £65 / $75 price tag.

No, that isn’t a typo. Despite being constructed from under 800 pieces, and with no more working features than any other mid-size Technic vehicle, LEGO have somehow determined that 42223 requires a brain eighteen years or older to complete it, and thus it carries a price to match.

Which is – and there’s no other way to put this – a marketing scam.

We’re admittedly idiots here at The Lego Car Blog, but we don’t like LEGO treating its customers as such. The brand new 42223 Ford GT40 MkII Race Car might bring one of greatest cars of the 1960s to the Technic range, but the cynical, unscrupulous, and exploitative marketing that accompanies it is definitely from 2026.

At £55 / $65 and an age of 12+, 42223 could have been a strong set. As it is, this GT40 should have stayed in ‘66.

*Except it was British. Ford are no strangers to marketing scams either…

LEGO Icons 10356 Star Trek: U.S.S. Enterprise NCC-1701-D | Set Preview

[Read the following in an adenoidal internal monologue]. Nerds assemble! This is the brand new LEGO Icons 10356 Star Trek: U.S.S. Enterprise NCC-1701-D!

Engaging warp drive / beaming up / insert other space metaphor on November 28th 2025, LEGO’s homage to TV’s dorkiest spaceship finally brings the U.S.S Enterprise to the shelves of Star Trek fans everywhere.

And we do mean shelves, as this $400 / £350 set features no play features whatsoever. It does however feature “a secondary hull”, “warp nacelles with distinctive red and blue detailing”, nine members of the Enterprise crew in mini-figure form (none of whom we can name), a display stand, and – if you purchase before December 1st – a Star Trek ‘Type-15 Shuttlepod’ ‘Gift with Purchase’ set.

LEGO Star Trek fans can boldly go to purchase the new 10356 set later this month, whilst we boldly go to drink a beer and talk to some girls to rebalance ourselves after writing this.

We’re 14 Today!

Lego 14

Yes it’s The Lego Car Blog’s birthday! And unlike almost every previous year we’ve actually remembered on the day itself. At fourteen years old this dodgy alley in the corner of the internet is older than the Tesla Model S, Grand Theft Auto V, Pharrell Williams’ ‘Happy’, and Tik Tok. And not even a fraction as successful as any of them.

Still, millions of you have joined us over the years, whether that be for the thousands of Lego cars, trucks and motorbikes we’ve publicised, the over a hundred LEGO set and product reviews, reveals of new LEGO sets, interviews of some of the world’s best Lego builders, or the Your Mom jokes. Whatever your reasoning, we’re glad you’re here.

We’re not on social media but if you like what we do feel free to spread the word, you can click here to write to us to complain that we haven’t featured your creation, and if you really want to support us you can buy the Elves a birthday present here.

We’ll keep trying to publicise the best Lego vehicles the web has to offer, and thank you for joining us on the ride.

TLCB Team

Bricks on Track | LEGO Documentary Trailer

LEGO’s extensive new partnership with Formula has brought every single Formula 1 team to bedroom floors in brick form. Which of course meant some extensive marketing was needed too.

Cue the 2025 Miami Formula 1 Grand Prix drivers parade, in which nineteen of the world’s best racing drivers (and Lance Stroll) took to the circuit in life-size, drivable, 400,000 piece replicas of their real Formula 1 cars, giving the Alpine drivers their best chance of an overtake all season.

The hugely ambitious project was filmed throughout its year-long gestation, with an hour-long behind-the-scenes documentary soon due for release, showing how LEGO and Formula 1 pulled off one the greatest racing marketing stunts of recent times. The official trailer has just dropped, and you can get ready for the slowest, but perhaps best, Formula 1 race of 2025 via LEGO’s YouTube channel above.

LEGO Star Wars 75419 Death Star | Set Preview

That’s no moon. But the price is lunacy. This is the brand new LEGO Star Wars 75419 Death Star.

Arriving outside the atmosphere of a planet near you on October 1st, 75419 brings Star Wars’ most iconic energy project into LEGO’s Ultimate Collector Series, with over 9,000 parts, thirty-eight mini-figures and an array of movie scenes held within a thin slice of space-station.

These include the crushing trash compactor, Princess Leia’s cell, the hangar control room infiltrated by Luke Skywalker and Han Solo, the tractor beam control deactivated by Obi-Wan Kenobi, Emperor Palpatine’s throne room, the Imperial Shuttle hangar bay, and the planet-destroying Superlaser. And all for $999.

Yes, it’s finally (if inevitably) happened, 75419 is the first one-thousand dollar LEGO set. With a recommended retail price of $999 / £899, it actually translates to over $1,200 in our home nation at today’s exchange rate. Which sounds, and is, a galactic amount of money. But perhaps black boxes and purple Imperial Dignitaries don’t come cheap.

If you’re head of a Galactic Empire you can get your black gloved hands on the new LEGO Star Wars 75419 Death Star set from October 1st. For the rest of us in the Republic, we haven’t forgotten that LEGO is supposed to be a toy, so we’ll be playing with what we’ve got.

Carbon Fiber Lego Wheels

Carbon Fiber. (Or ‘Fibre’ if you spell it correctly. Ed.) The wonder material from which Formula 1 cars, the Ferrari F40‘s bodywork, the Lexus LFA‘s tub, and fancy road bikes are all made.

Which also means that, inevitably, carbon fiber fakery is everywhere too. Car interior trim, vinyl wraps, even wallets, laptops and suitcases can all be found in finest farbon ciber, mostly looking terrible.

But today we have the real deal, because this is the world’s first genuine carbon fiber Lego wheel. It may not look much, but it’s bona-fide carbon fiber, and its maker PlasticGear has detailed how he constructed it.

Take a look at PlasticGear’s pioneering project in the video above, you can join the discussion at the Eurobricks forum, and don’t even think about wrapping your wing-mirrors/spoiler/centre console in fake carbon, because we’ll laugh at you.

Bleugh! Ads!

Running a world-famous Lego website has its perks. Fame… Girls… Riches… Probably. Still, running this shed in the corner of the internet also has its perks, and we do earn a little from all your eyeballs and the ads they linger on.

Except for the last few days the ads have gone berserk. Now it might be because our equipment and operating systems are older than some of our readers, but nevertheless ads started to appear over images, over post text, and – in delicious irony – even over other ads.

If you’ve been affected by this ad explosion, rest assured we changed nothing to prompt it. But we have summoned all our technical prowess to correct things. Which basically means we’ve turned off advertisers’ ability to place ads anywhere they like.

This might mean that TLCB treasure chest is a little emptier than usual, but seeing as we give its contents to those who need it more than we do, and there won’t be any contents if you all get annoyed and leave, it’s the right thing to do.

Anyway, we hope it’s all fixed now. Let us know if not. And do please linger on the ads that do appear – it makes it all worth it.

TLCB Team

LEGO Icons 10357 Shelby Cobra 427 S/C | Set Preview

LEGO have released a wonderful array of Icons vehicles to date. And the Transformers Bumblebee. But this is the coolest. Because it’s a Cobra.

Constructed from 1,241 pieces, the brand new Lego Icons 10357 Shelby Cobra 427 S/C brings one of the most famous Anglo-American collaborations to the Icons range, at it looks excellent.

Opening doors, hood and trunk, working steering, a fully kitted toolbox, and the Shelby’s iconic twin stripes (courtesy of some stickerage) all feature, as does a detailed replica of the huge Ford V8 that Shelby squeezed under the hood of the little AC Ace in the 1960s to create the Cobra.

Priced around £140 / $160, 10357 is surely going to be one of – perhaps the – most popular Icons sets yet, and you’ll be able to get your hands on it from July 1st. Alternatively, if you fancy turning one of your existing sets into Shelby’s monstrous ’60s sports car, take a look here.

LEGO 43277 Cruella de Vil’s Car | Set Preview

Well here’s a new vehicle set that we didn’t spot coming… this is the LEGO 43277 Cruella de Vil’s Car.

Aimed at aged 9+ and constructed from 378 pieces, which include the rather sought-after balloon/fenders and train window, 43277 captures the cartoonesque appearance of Cruella’s vintage car in mini-figure scale. Except the wheels are taller than she is, so… Icons scale? Creator? Um, we’re not sure, but the set does include a Cruella de Vil mini-figure (plus a dalmatian puppy), opening doors, and working steering via the spare wheel on the back.

If we’re honest, 43277 looks more like a set to be acquired for its parts. Kinda like Cruella’s reason for acquiring those puppies… Sheesh that was dark. Anyway, expect 43277 to cost around $50/£45 when it arrives on September 1st, and for builders to make a fine coat out of its pieces.

LEGO 76304 Batman Forever Batmobile | Set Preview

Batman has had more reinventions than this website has had angry letters. And that’s a lot. Which means that LEGO have a seemingly endless back-catalogue of Batmobiles to plunder for officially-licensed sets. This is the latest, the brand new LEGO 76304 Batman Forever Batmobile.

Exactly thirty years since the late Val Kilmer’s rubber-suited vigilante squeaked onto screens in the outlandish ‘Batman Forever’, and he’s arrived in mini-figure form, alongside one of the wildest Batmobiles of them all.

Constructed from 909 pieces, LEGO’s interpretation includes “a moulded windscreen, rotatable wheels, authentic decorations, and an opening cockpit”. Which sounds like a lot of style over substance to us, but does make it the perfect brick-built metaphor for the cinematic mess that spawned it.

Aimed at ages 12+ 76304 will cost £90 / $100 when it reaches stores later this year. Where for us, like the 1995 movie, it’ll stay,