Review: 42212 Ferrari FXX K

Oh look, another car.

With a bunch of other cars.

Technic for bulldozers, cranes, tractors and maybe 4x4s. Supercars.... not so much.

@sjr60 said:
"Technic for bulldozers, cranes, tractors and maybe 4x4s. Supercars.... not so much."
I feel exactly the same.

Technic historically has been about functionality over looks, with the shaping of the suggested prototype usually being more of an approximation than a scale model.
Hence why Technic has never leant itself to that kind of purpose.
Yet these days the label "Technic" seems like a mockery, as the theme has strayed so far from its original idea that it has become almost unrecognizable.

Seems like no matter what they do with these, I won't be a fan. Technic never was about the looks, but that was offset by functionality. But here, there's just nothing interesting. All they got going for it is size for the price. But both the much smaller and cheaper Speed Champions or the big and pricey Icons cars just look so much better. Technic just doesn't lend itself particularly well for stuff like this.

In that regard I appreciate the Ford Bronco so much more than these: It just looks better and has better functionality. That is a good match for Technic.

Oh, and that sticker sheet is just madness. Luckily you can just as well leave them off.

That all said: I somehow do still think this is much better than the horrendous Flex-Ferrari. That truly was one of the worst Technic sets in history....

I think this is the best of the Car Transporter Gang cars. The shaping is pretty well done, the V12 is cool, and the gears connecting the axles to the diff add a little extra interest.

That said I think the Bronco trumps this. It has more functions and lends itself better to the Technic medium.

The gear connecting the axles to the differential is not a feature: it is a hack by the designer to 'push' the rear axle by two studs because he/she needed the place to put the differential. No real production car ever is built like that. The noise the gears would make would be unbearable - let alone for the fact that system would be extremely prone to breakage. Might be a reasonable solution on a toy but not something you see IRL.

I second @sjr60 and @AustinPowers: Technic mostly for machinery and every few years a cool new car (but not the other way around). I am also for static model 8094 was (and still is ) cool. I would buy static robots, assembly lines, GBC modules - Technic should definitely do GBC modules - you could buy one or two every year, get hooked and after a few years have a cool setup. GBC spurs creativity and innovation but also require the technical knowledge to make it happen.

I think these fit the "racers" series more so than Technic. If anyone remembers early on when Lego got the Ferrari license, set 8386 was a Racers car not a Technic, also cars like this are more about the brand than the function IMHO. This is less of a complaint and more of an "I wish" though, I'm 100% guilty of supporting the Lego and Ferrari partnership.

@HOBBES said:
"The gear connecting the axles to the differential is not a feature: it is a hack by the designer to 'push' the rear axle by two studs because he/she needed the place to put the differential. No real production car ever is built like that. The noise the gears would make would be unbearable - let alone for the fact that system would be extremely prone to breakage. Might be a reasonable solution on a toy but not something you see IRL."

Fair enough. I'd rather the designer implement a hack like that to fit in the differential rather than leave it out like they did with the Valkyrie.

The worst thing about these cars still are the wheels. Lego really needs to make a new mould that has more of a "supercar feel" to use on these sets, with thinner tires too. That wheel they always use is very ugly for this kind of vehicle.

Anytime Ferrari comes up in association with Lego all I can think about is how AFOLs buying highly overpriced block toys lets Danish billionaires buy more supercars. Which they then make models and even books to try and take more of your money. And buy more real cars. And so on...

So Huw's review mention of the repetition is actually true both to the car toys and in real life as well.

This isn't bad, for a 15-wide car. I might buy it, with a suitable discount - and I do appreciate that the designer found a solution to enable a diff to be incorporated rather than using the 1-wheel drive approach. The Bronco is clearly a superior Technic set though.

This year really has been a bust for Technic - the L120 is decent enough but is pretty overpriced, and the big Volvo's price is absolutely ridiculous. I'm principally a Technic guy, and for the first time since I left my dark age, I've not bought a Technic set from this year which is telling. I hope that next year will be better, but based on the rumours we have so far, it'll just be another bunch of featureless identikit cars. Meh.

I've developed genuine hatred for super cars in technic in any size - they look ugly as the building system can't match the original, they are technically boring as always the same, they are technically inaccurate as the originals rely on special solutions to make things "super", they grab the attention of some large car fan target group that buy those, and therefore they seem to be a success for Lego ...

so they keep churning out model after model, year after year, clogging up the technic resources that could be put to good use with ANYthing else more interesting (and even if they don't consider this true technic, it's the technic team that has to do those, as the system designers never could do that).

I actually liked the orange porsche icon car when it came out alongside big wheel excavator and claas as an interesting anomaly. now these cars are the regulars, and any real technic set is an anomaly. Killers of technic they are to me.

I was a big fan of these cars when they first started appearing. They're great for converting to remote control and driving around the living room. But the supercars all look too similar and they were much more appealing at the original $50 USD MSRP.