Unboxing the LEGO McLaren MP/4 & Ayrton Senna

Looking in the rearview mirror, we have had 12 previous McLaren releases (not including playsets and the double pack). These have ranged from this year's release of the 58-piece LEGO 30683 Polybag McLaren F1 Car, the mid-range LEGO 42123 McLaren Senna GTR from 2021 with 830 pieces, up to the 2022 release of the LEGO McLaren Formula 1 Race Car 42141 with 1,432 pieces. Already we can see that LEGO wants to cater to F1 fans of all ages and wallet sizes and the latest set 10330 McLaren MP4/4 & Ayrton Senna is another fine example of this. It’s comprised of 693 pieces and will set you back £69.99. Let’s start our engines and get building.

READY, STEADY, GO!

THE BUILD:

The contents of the box are six bags, one sticker sheet, four loose wheels and one minifigure. Upon opening the instruction manual we are treated to an array of fun facts and Ayrton Senna photographs. Even if you know little to nothing about F1, you can still dazzle your friends and family with these facts.

Starting off with this set and inside bag 1, we get the Ayrton Senna LEGO Minifigure (double-faced) complete with a trophy, iconic yellow helmet and brown hairpiece. Also, we can build a mini podium to which a sticker can be applied with a quote from the man himself. Once that is complete we can commence building the vehicle itself.

Bags 2 and 3 see us building both sets of axles and the nose of the car, which now comprises of a new element that locks the steering column down (and which provides more strength to the finished build). We also have four stickers to add to both the left and right barge boards and build the driver’s seat, steering wheel and gear stick.

Bag 4 includes a neat printed instrument panel tile and a little printed Tag Heuer windshield. The front wing is built and McLaren stickers added, but the Shell tiles are printed as is the front nose tile. There is a lot of detail on the adjustable rear wing; the top tile is half-printed which adds depth to the logo. The number 12 on both sides is a sticker (this was Ayrton Senna’s driver number when he won the 1988 world championship).

The penultimate bag, number 5 contains the printed Honda pieces for the engine intake section and there are a few printed 1x1 plates needed in step 139 (Minecraft eyes) - just be sure to check them carefully as the print is small. It’s cool that the engine cover can be removed to show the engine block which is made up of some silver pieces as well as black.

For the home straight, bag 6, we are adding the newly designed wheels, that have been designed with ease of removing and attaching in mind. The final sticker is added here and this gives us various Honda/McLaren specs from 1988.

CONCLUSION & FINAL SCORE

This did take us longer than we expected. We eventually finished after 2.5 hours, but in our defence, we don’t usually build a lot of cars! We were expecting this to have more of a Technic kind of feel to the infrastructure but (luckily for us) it didn’t. There are some welcomed features to this set for example the working steering wheel, suspension and the new tyres are amazing. It’s fair to say that this build is surprisingly awesome, it’s great value for money, and it’s also fantastic if you don’t have a lot of space for displaying sets. We think if you are into F1 and LEGO then this is right up your street, even as an F1 novice it’s an enjoyable build and looks great on display.

OUR RATING: 8/10