The Lego Car Blog Review My Set Competition is underway! Today we’re joined by MOCpages’ Rage Hobbit, who has donned TLCB Reviewing Anorak in order to pen a review of one of his favourite sets. Over to Rage…

The 8070 Supercar from 2011. This car had a lot to live up to.

As part of the Technic Supercar flagship series that started all the way back with the 8880, this set had to try and live up to high expectations and even higher hopes. Was it truly the successor to the acclaimed 8448 Super Street Sensation?

Mostly yes. Sort of.

Differences between this car and its predecessors become evident upon opening the box. This is no old-fashioned Technic set; there’s hardly a single studded beam to be found. I’m sure some people liked this change, others probably hated it, but no amount of pointless arguing will change the fact that this is the way Technic is going to stay.

This retinue of studless pieces is found in several unnumbered bags sprawled inside a rather empty box. Don’t ask me how many bags; they didn’t seem all that special and as such I threw them out moments after opening the set. The three instruction booklets – ranging from 50 to 80 pages – are packed neatly into a plastic bag, along with a cardboard plate so that the booklets don’t get beat up during transit. It’s a nice touch, and something that LEGO should revisit. As per the usual, no B-model instructions are to be found inside the box; they’re found exclusively online *sigh*. LEGO should get the point eventually.

The wheels and hubs are free-floating inside the box, with the electronic components – a Power Functions battery box and M-motor – packaged individually. Tear everything open, dump it all in a big pile, and you’re ready to build.

The build process is fairly engaging yet still pretty simple as compared to more recent Technic sets. Starting with the distribution transmission for the M-motor, you add the rear axle and chassis frame rails before moving on to booklet number 2 and all the other stuff. Some of the aesthetic portions can be a bit of a drag, but overall it’s a good build.

Let’s start with the functions and features. The car rolls very nicely, with the rear wheels driving a V8 piston engine found under the front hood. At this point, supercar snobs will complain along the lines of “It needs a V10!” and “REAL supercars have V12s”, but the V8 suits the scale of the car well. Dual-wishbone independent suspension (a little bit too hard on the rear wheels, with decent travel all-around) is found on all wheels, with the front ones steered through a hand-of-god knob behind the cabin. Steering lock is only okay, but I won’t complain too much.

The 4 main functions of this car are controlled by a distribution transmission found in between the seats where it should be. The solitary M-motor in the set drives the transmission by way of a clutch gear so that you don’t break anything.

The first of the functions is the deployable rear wing. The function works fine, but the mechanism leaves an ugly gap in the rear aesthetics, and the wing looks a bit half-baked. Tip the switch to the other side, and the hood starts to open through a neat and effective linkage mechanism that emulates the kind of thing found in real supercars. The other two functions on the transmission are reserved for the doors, which is also my very favorite function. The doors open individually on a butterfly-ish hinge; a function which works flawlessly and doesn’t compromise the aesthetics. Overall, kudos to LEGO for the functions on this car. Continue reading →