Light Kit Review - LeLightGo - Kit for #42083-1: Bugatti Chiron (Technic)

The folks at LeLightGo reached out to me and asked if they could send me a light kit so I could review it on my blog. So here goes.

I was given a choice so I selected the light kit for #42083-1: Bugatti Chiron from the Technic line. In case you’re not familiar, you can see my review of the LEGO Technic set here (part 1) and here (part 2). Also, you can get up close and personal with a real Bugatti Chiron at that link (okay, maybe not super personal, but closer than I’ve ever been).

The company’s web site lists a UK address, but the shipment I received came from California. The box was roughly 6 inches long by about 5 inches wide and a little over an inch tall. It was labeled as the 42083 Classic Version.

The box just contains a bag with parts bags inside so I went to their web site. They have some general instructions for how to handle their kits under a section labeled USER GUIDE. I scrolled down and there were two instructions for set #42083. One was labeled as the “new version” and the other was just the number. As you recall, the box I received said “classic version.” I was a bit confused as to which instructions to use. I ended up opening them both and used the process of elimination to figure out what to use.

The box contained eight parts bags. One through six were labeled and then there were two others. One contained the battery container.

The build started with taking apart a few pieces in the front of the car to get to the headlights. Then you place an LED under each 1x1 clear plate. Having a wire in the way makes the connection not as solid, but it holds. You connect four LEDs on each side and then all of the wires run into the front trunk space.

The next build installs a light above the seats. This one has a wire that you then connect back to the front trunk as well. I didn’t do a good job making the connections tight so it is more obvious that I used a light kit here.

There are a number of connections in the back. You install one on the spoiler, one along the brake light, and then one underneath the car. The one on the spoiler was tough as the wiring had to connect down through the car to the bottom to make some additional connections to lead to the power connection in the front. The one along the brake light requires you to change around the build a bit. The kit includes some knock off pieces that you install so there is one clip on the back versus two. Then you tack on the two light strips. The strips are a little too long in my opinion so getting them to fit was a bit sporty, but I eventually got the fit to work. The lights on the bottom required removing some more parts, but I eventually got all of this to work.

Once the lights in the back are attached, you have a long wire that you run to the front of the car. From there you connect all of the wires together to then connect to the power source. I didn’t have the three AAA batteries required on hand so I connected the USB plug to a USB to American power cord adapter and…

I was shocked that it all worked on the first try. It was actually fairly easy to put together despite having never done a kit like this before. The front headlights really look awesome. I think the one above the seats is a bit bright, but it does the job of lighting the cabin. You can also see the red LEDs in the rear spoiler which looks pretty good.

I think the back looks awesome. The red LEDs along the brake lights looks great and the blue that shines down on the ground is a cool contrast from the red right above it.

Thanks to LeLightGo for sending this set for me to review. Overall, it was a good first experience at LED lights and I think it helps to make the Technic Bugatti Chiron look better. I have nothing to compare this to so I can’t say whether it’s better than other companies or not, but no big complaints on this one after I figured out which instructions to follow. This set would originally cost $48.99. As of the writing of this post, it’s on sale for $38.99 plus a buy one, get one 30% off sale if you buy another kit. If you’re looking to get a light kit, definitely watch for sales and opportunities to save some funds.

Have you used light kits before? What are your opinions? Have you used LeLightGo or others? Let me know in the comments.

Happy building!

Is the New Technic Super Car Worth it?

LEGO released the next Technic super car on Thursday 28 May 2020. For those of you that missed it, the set is #42115-1: Lamborghini Sián FKP 37. The set contains 3,696 pieces and will retail in the US for $379.99. Initial release was through LEGO starting on 1 June 2020 with widespread sale across other retailers starting on 1 August 2020.

The Recognized LEGO Fan Media (RLFM) has exploded with articles, posts, videos, podcasts, etc. discussing this car. The comments range from it being an absolute stunning build to a giant waste of money.

I’m not going to give my opinion yet because I have yet to see the car in person or actually build the set. Here’s what I will say right now… $380 seems like a lot of money for this set. I wanted to do some analysis to see if it’s true, so here goes.

First some background data:

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#42056-1: Porsche 911 GT3 RS
Released 30 July 2016
2,704 Pieces
$299.99 in the US
$0.111 per piece
See my review starting here

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#42083-1: Bugatti Chiron
Released 2 June 2018
3,599 Pieces
$349.99 in the US
$0.097 per piece
See my review starting here

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Photo from LEGO.com

#42115-1: Lamborghini Sián FKP 37 Released 1 June 2020
3,696 Pieces
$379.99 in the US
$0.102 per piece
I don’t own this yet so no review yet

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So is $380 a lot for this set?

The Porsche in 2016 was $300, the Bugatti in 2018 was $350, and now the Lamborghini in 2020 is $380. So $80 more than the first set four years ago and $30 more than the set released 2 years ago.

So at a price only look, the Porsche wins.

They are very different sets though so let’s start with piece count and see if we can normalize. What if they all had the same piece count as the Lamborghini with 3,696 pieces and retained their original price per piece?
-Porsche at 3,696 pieces and $0.111 per piece would be $410.26
-Bugatti at 3,696 pieces and $0.097 per piece would be $358.51

Factoring in the original price per piece and making them all 3,696 pieces, the Bugatti wins on cost.

It’s been four years and prices change. LEGO, like any other business, has to factor in inflation and increasing costs. So what if we added a 2% inflation factor? Let’s assume all three sets have 3,696 pieces, they all retain their original price per piece, but we add in a 2% inflation factor per year to come up with what the set would cost today (in 2020) if it were sold. The math gave me:
-Porsche at $444.08
-Bugatti at $372.99

The Porsche now looks expensive while the Bugatti seems closer in price to the Lamborghini.

How realistic is the last example? Probably not so much as I just randomly picked 2% a year. So next up I found an inflation calculator on the web (because everything on the web you read is correct, right?). I used usinflationcalculator.com. Again… you can call me wrong for using it, but I didn’t want to waste a ton of time searching for a better tool in the hopes of getting close enough. The tool goes by year versus by day so we’ll again say “close enough.”
-The Porsche in its original price with original piece count purchased in 2020 dollars would be $320.47 with a 6.8% cumulative rate of inflation. Factoring in the first example where we use the 3,696 pieces with the Porsche’s $0.111 per piece works out to be $438.26 with the same 6.8% cumulative rate of inflation. So maybe my 2% per year estimate wasn’t that far off?
-The Bugatti in its original price with original piece count purchased in 2020 dollars would be $357.35. That’s with a 2.1% cumulative rate of inflation. Using the same process as the Porsche, we’ll make the Bugatti match the Lamborghini’s piece count, but use the Bugatti’s $0.097 per piece cost and the Bugatti works out to be $366.05 in 2020 dollars.

Factoring in US inflation rates over the last 4 years, the price increase looks somewhat justified.

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Back to Reality

If you followed all of that, you’re amazing. Bonus points if you are still reading…

Let’s get back to reality and consider some real facts for a few minutes.
-The Bugatti is still available at its original price 2 years after its initial release so the adjustments don’t make sense at this time.
-My guess is LEGO does not price by piece, but instead considers their actual costs to include plastic costs, design, packaging, licensing, paying their workers, shipping, foreign exchange rates, etc.
-I looked at the set from a monetary perspective, but what about from the buyer’s perspective. If you think you’ll get $380 value in buying and owning the set, then it is probably worth it. What if you think you’ll get $400 worth of value from the set? How is that even calculated?
-LEGO is a business and while we would love them to produce things for free, they have a goal of making a profit. There is definitely a profit margin baked into the price of this set. LEGO probably won’t ever tell us that amount, but keep it in mind.

What Can You Do?

Besides saving your change or hoping Santa Claus comes through this year, what are some ways to get this set at a discount?
- Use your VIP points. This assumes you have some of course, but they are easily applied to LEGO purchases.
-Wait for an opportunity to get a deal from LEGO such as a gift with purchase set or a double VIP point opportunity.
-I have a popular post here where I discuss how to find discounts and save money on LEGO purchases. One of those options is using companies like Rakuten where right now LEGO offers 2.5% back. The payments come quarterly and it isn’t a ton, but it helps slightly (~$9.50 on the Lamborghini). Add on VIP points, a gift with purchase, and maybe credit card points, and you’ve helped slightly on the price. (I’m not paid by LEGO or Rakuten)
-For those of us in Europe, LEGO has different discounting plans here. A few months back the Bugatti (#42083-1) was going for around 260€ at multiple stores around here compared to the 370€ original retail price. It makes sense to wait and see if discounts happen here. I have yet to see heavy discounting of sets like this in the US. We’ll have to wait and see if it happens again in Europe.

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What are your thoughts? Has LEGO cross the line on price finally (or again)? Does the pricing of this new set make sense? I’m curious on your thoughts.

In the meantime happy (affordable?) building!

Out of Stock in the USA

Update to this Post Here

I think people have been building with bricks to pass the time during quarantine. Specifically, AFOLs with some money to spend.. A quick scan of the Shop @ Home website for the US shows a lot of sets “out of stock” across the board. I haven’t seen any reports from the LEGO Company about supply chain disruptions or changes to factory output. I assume there are a number of factors contributing to include physical distancing in factories, challenges in shipping and crossing borders, processing at distribution centers, and shipping to consumers. Has anyone seen any details? Or maybe just sales are higher than normal with people stuck at home looking for fun things to do?

Usually there is buying towards the end of life for a set by re-sellers on Bricklink or EBay (I am guilty here), but I don’t think that is the case here. The number of sets out of stock or back ordered are a bit high in my opinion.

From an initial scan this week, the Creator Expert line lists 19 sets total with only one known to be fully retired (#10243-1: Parisian Restaurant). Of the remaining 18, there are six sets shown as out of stock to include the latest modular #10270-1: Book Shop. Additionally, another five are on back order.

Some back ordered Creator Expert sets in the US

Or maybe it is just the big sets? #75192-1: Millennium Falcon™ and #75159-1: Death Star™ are both out of stock from the Star Wars™ line. #75252-1: Imperial Star Destroyer was listed as back ordered earlier this week, but is now back in stock. And this is just a few days before the big May the 4th sale.

Scrolling around some of the larger sets, #75936-1: Jurassic Park: T. rex Rampage shows as back ordered while #71040-1: The Disney Castle shows out of stock. #71044-1: Disney Train and Station shows as fully in stock. #76139-1: 1989 Batmobile™ is also available.

More out of stock large sets:

-#71043-1: Hogwarts Castle
-#75810-1: The Upside Down
-#21318-1: Tree House
-#21322-1: Pirates of Barracuda Bay (possibly related to this being a hot new release)
-#21320-1: Dinosaur Fossils

Meanwhile the Technic world is fully in stock with no problems getting #42083-1: Bugatti Chiron, #42100-1: Liebherr R 9800 Excavator, or the #42110-1: Land Rover Defender.

I fully admit that I’m guilty here as I added to the out of stock numbers by recently buying and building the #10270-1: Bookshop. Have you been a part of the purchases by buying any of the bigger sets?

Happy building!

German LEGO Fans get Some Sweet Discounts on Amazon.de

One of my most popular posts is a conglomeration of various ways to save money buying new LEGO sets. You can see the post here. The post is focused on buying LEGO sets in the US, but what about outside of the US?

If you are new to my site, I am temporarily living in Germany for a few years as my non-LEGO job moved me here. With that, I’ve been able to see bricks across Europe. I have also been able to see some of the LEGO set deals here in Germany. I checked out Amazon.de recently (February 2020) to see what they had and here are some of the highlights

#21045-1: Trafalgar Square - Architecture
Currently 52,99€ versus the 79,99€ German retail price (34% off).
At the current exchange rate, that puts it at $57.87 versus the $79,99 retail price in the US.

#60233-1: Donut Shop Opening - CITY
Currently 54,90€ versus the 79,99€ German retail price (31% off).
At the current exchange rate, its $59.95 versus the $89.99 US retail price.

#75253-1: Droid Commander - Boost
Currently 139,00€ vs the 199,00€ German retail price (31% off).
$151.80 at the current exchange rate versus the US retail price of $199.99.

#42083-1: Bugatti Chiron - Technic
Currently 265,97€ versus the German retail price of 369,99€ (28% off).
That’s $290.46 at the current exchange rate versus the US retail price of $349.99.

And finally…
#42110-1: Land Rover Defender
Currently 139,00€ versus the German retail price of 179,00€ (23% off).
In US dollars that’s $151.80 versus $199.99 US retail price.

Why am I highlighting these? Well if you do a comparison of what’s on sale in the US, you won’t see any of these listed today. It’s interesting that these are on sale in Germany, but not elsewhere. Perhaps sales of these items are lower in Germany? Maybe Amazon.de has a lot of inventory to get rid of? It’s very interesting to see the differences and very tempting to dip in and take advantage of some of these sales I can’t get in the US.

What are your thoughts?

Happy building!

LEGO® House: LEGO® Square

As you enter into the LEGO® House, your first stop is the LEGO® Square. This area is free to enter into and there are a number of things going on. I entered by the door that is right by the LEGO® Brand Store there. In front of the store is a display where you put your hand down on a sensor and it tells you what minifigure you are like. In reality, it just randomly generates a minifigure picture as my 5-year old tried it multiple times and was always something different.

One of the first things you see is a directional sign telling you where everything is in the square. The signs look like large brick tiles. At the bottom of the sign, a brick-built dog does its business.

Right by the information desk is a brick model of the LEGO® House itself. It is pretty detailed and while I didn’t get to read everything on it as I had 2 kiddos who wanted to see everything, it does look like it is to scale.

At the far end from the LEGO® Brand Store is a mosaic on the wall. I assume this is the Christiansen line of company leaders. If you look at it from the other angle it says in Danish “DET BEDSTE ER IKKE FOR GODT” or “only the best is the best” in English. “The best is never too good” is apparently the direct translation.

This mosaic is by some tables which are set up for people to eat at. While I have been to many places in the US where bringing your own food is not acceptable (they want you to buy food there), Denmark as a whole was very accepting of bringing your own lunch. My family visited the LEGO® House 2 days in a row. On the first day, we hit the Mini Chef restaurant because… well we had to. I’ll review that experience later, but let’s just say it is a bit pricey. So for day 2 we stopped at a grocery store near by, grabbed some makings for sandwiches and had much cheaper sandwiches by the mosaic for lunch. It worked out a lot better for our wallets and you could still watch everything nearby.

How did they make the mosaic that has 2 images? If you look up close, you can see it is all made of 1x1 cheese slopes. There is no sign nearby that says how many they used, but it is definitely cool how they did it. Makes me want to try it, but probably on a smaller scale.

Near the mosaic is a koi pond made from bricks. I didn’t get a picture of it, but above the pond are real plants that hang down and on those plants are brick butterflies. The Square as a whole had a lot of real plants with various brick built plants and animals mixed in.

The full scale Bugatti Chiron will be at the LEGO® House in the Square through 10 June 2019 (so not much longer). It was pretty cool to see. While you can’t get up close to touch it, you still get a pretty good view.

You can see my set review of #42083-1 here and some pictures of an actual car and the factory I saw in France here.

The display had a touch screen attached where you could control the functions of the car to include all of the lights and then a sound system that made it sound like the car was really powering up its engine. Lots of onlookers took pictures of it and it always seemed to be a popular place to hang out.

Nearby the car were some smaller cases. I took 2 pictures. The first is of the engine parts that they built to actually power the car. The second is of the Technic parts they used to built it and a few of the assembled patterns. They also had a case with the side mirror design inside and then a case with a lot of #42083-1 wheels. The wheel case was a contest where if you guessed the right number of wheels, you could win a #42083-1 set for free. My NLS, my 5-year old, and I all guessed. We’ll see if any of us were close.

Overall, the LEGO® Square is a great welcoming space. There are still a number of things to do and its a great place to hang out. My NLS pointed out that if she worked in the area in Billund, it would be a great place to bring a lunch and hang out to get away from work.

As a Dad with little kids, the plight of bathrooms is real. Are they clean? And in Europe especially, is there one I can use? The LEGO® House bathrooms all seemed pretty clean to me. There were a number throughout the building to include in the Square area. The ones in the Square were the biggest with stations to change diapers, stalls with kid sized toilets, and a line of sinks at a little kid level. Gold star to the LEGO® House for realizing kids would be there and you need good bathrooms for those kids.

Right by the bathrooms are a bunch of lockers. The lockers are free to use if you purchased a ticket. You swipe your entrance wrist band by the locker and it locks it. When you want to open it, just swipe your wrist band again. We put our lunch cooler in there and a few coats which worked out great.

You can buy your tickets to the Experience Zones at the information desk in the Square or you can save money and buy them online ahead of time. If you buy online, you can print or use your phone to scan a code at a machine in the Square. It will disperse your entrance wrist band right there. If you have trouble, there were a number of employees in the vicinity who were very helpful. On the first day, an employee saw us fighting with the sticky part and he came over and helped to install the bands on us and our kids.

Overall, the employees there were great. They were very helpful, gave tips to my 5-year old on some of the building challenges, and were very friendly. On the first day, there was one who had one of the Technic cars that has a pull back function. It seemed like every time we walked through the square, he launched it to my kids. On the first day at the end of our visit, my kids were overtired and didn’t want to leave so it was a little rough trying to get them out the door. Then from about 50 feet away, the Technic car goes right by my 5-year old and both kids stopped being upset and wanted to play again. Just enough distraction to get us out the door (Thank you!).

Not sure if I got any pictures of them, but in the Square, they also had some of the larger rubberized bricks to play with. My almost 2-year old enjoys those and it worked out good. My 5-year old wanted to make some custom minifigures to buy in the Brand Store so while that happened, my almost 2-year old and I built with the large bricks.

In the Square there are also some brick built sculptures of the LEGO® family. I failed to get a picture of them, but I believe my NLS has one. I will add it to the post later.

Finally, the Square is your entry point into the Experience Zones and you can see the bottom of the Tree of Creativity from the Square. We’ll get into the Experience Zones next.

Happy building!

Set Review - #42083-1 - Bugatti Chiron - Technic - PART 2

If you missed Part 1, you can see it here. If you want to see what a real Bugatti Chiron looks like or what the factory looks like, you can see that here. If you want to see more about the set, keep reading…

Instruction Book 2 is 322 pages long. It starts off with the set of bags numbered 7 in build box 3. This section of the build is labeled rear body work and deck lid. With Book 1 being the internals, Book 2 focuses on the externals. The bags numbered 7 include the construction of the rear spoiler and then a lot of the body for the back to include the portion around the engine and part of the top of the passenger compartment. Number 8 completes a lot of the detail in the rear to include the cool looking brake lights. There are also a number of stickers that go here. I am not a fan of stickers, but I realize LEGO has to do a price balance between printed pieces and sticker sheets. The cost of the sticker sheet probably helped save a few dollars on an already expensive set. I’m not the best at sticker placement, but it looks okay.

Bags 9 and 10 are labeled the seats and interior on page 108 and start off box four. The seats are Technic built with some System pieces for added detail. As the build went on, I realized that there were more and more System pieces used. I’m not a good builder/designer to begin with, but I’m impressed at the ability to combine the 2 types of pieces into one set and to have it go seamlessly like they did. Bag 9 is the seats and some more of the outer paneling. Bag 10 is the dashboard, steering wheel, glove compartment, and a bunch more stickers.

Bags 11 and 12 start on page 200. This section is labeled front body, lights, and horseshoe grill. Bag 11 is mainly the doors, but there are a few details to build up the front of the car. Bag 12 is the details on the front to include the front hood (and storage area), the bumper, the grill design, and the lights. There are a lot of System pieces used in the front to include the bumper and lights. The detailing is pretty impressive between the Technic and System pieces. It still has the Technic look without windows and with the various spots for pin attachments, but it still captures the sleek look of the actual car.

Bag 13 finishes everything up with the final details, the key to raise and lower the spoiler, and much like the Porsche (#42056-1) a handbag to stick in the trunk. It completes a few details to include a lot of the long, thin tubes that help create some of the contours on the car. The instructions for bag 13 also include the wheels and rims. The rims have a 1x1 round tile with the Bugatti logo on them and thankfully that was not a sticker. You even get an extra one (not sure what I’ll do with it).

The end of the instructions give you a link to go to and put in the code on the 1x4 tile that identifies your car. Similar to #42056-1, they have some free content. I have yet to go and see what it is, but #42056-1 had some cool graphics, a certificate of ownership, and some high resolution photos of the vehicle as well. If I ever have my own brick cave someday, maybe I’ll have to print a few of these up.

Here’s a top view of the car and then a view of the front with the hood open and the bag sitting next to it. The bag is made of all System pieces versus the Technic style bag of #42056-1.

Here is a good look at the front to include the horseshoe grill and the lights. Also a view inside the car by the driver’s seat. With my smartphone and poor lighting, you can’t see all the details, but you can see the main details: steering wheel, dashboard with various dials, paddle shifters, and shifter.

Finally, here’s the back. After seeing the real car, I think the designers did a great job getting it accurate. The first picture is with the spoiler down and the second is with it up and the key still in. The key goes into a small hole behind the driver’s side rear tire. I have yet to be able to do it without peering in to try and find it. The design is impressive as it locks in the up position as well.

So the final verdict… I had a blast building it. The design is sleek and very sturdy. It’s very impressive. Unfortunately it is very expensive! I used a gift certificate, but even with that it was still high. I hit a double VIP point day so that helped some, but yikes. LEGO keeps testing the boundaries on price and it’ll be interesting to see where they finally break their fan base. While it’s a great set and I hope LEGO continues this series, I would like to see the price go back to under $300 similar to #42056-1.

What are your thoughts on this one? Too expensive? Priced right for the build?

Happy building!

The Bugatti Chiron in the Wild...

In case you didn’t see my last post, I’m in the process of building the LEGO Technic #42083-1 Bugatti Chiron. With that being said, I was walking down the street last week and a car caught my eye. It looked very familiar to a Bugatti Chiron, but I figured it couldn’t be. Most people don’t just park their $2.5M+ car right there on the street. I had to go over and take a look.

Okay, maybe I should be a little more specific. If you’ve read the blog, you know that my non-Lego job has taken me to Germany so I had to shut down sales. Living in Europe, my family has done some traveling and recently we took a couple days to go to the Alsace region of France. While there, we stopped in Strasbourg for the Christmas Market (if you’re an American and you celebrate Christmas and you have never been to a true European Christmas Market, they are pretty cool). Strasbourg happens to be near Molsheim, France (about 20 minutes away) and Molsheim is where the Bugatti factory is located.

Back to the car… no it wasn’t just sitting there. It was in a glass enclosed case and there was a security guard outside as well. None the less, it was still the real deal. I never thought I would see a Bugatti Chiron up close and personal or at least as close as the glass would let me. I talked to our host at the B&B we stayed at and he said Bugatti factory tours are only available for car buyers and friends of workers. Good luck getting to see inside the factory.

Back to the car… Next to the car was a sign.

The sign is in French on the left, German in the middle, and English on the right. In case you can’t read the picture I posted, it reads:

“We are proud of our company roots in Molsheim, about 25 km away from Strasbourg,
where our headquarters are still today.

In 1909 Ettore Bugatti founded our company here in Alsace, and to this day Bugatti
represents the pinnacle of the automotive world.

Like the Strasbourg Christmas market we combine tradition with a clear vision.

All qualities and know-how of our company accumulated in 110 years of our existence are
contained in each and every one of the only 500 BUGATTI CHIRON going to be built..”

The sign then gives some of the stats on the vehicle.

Engine:
-8 Litre 16-Cylinder-engine
-4 turbochargers with Bugatti 2-stage turbocharging

Power:
1,500 HP (6,700 U/min)

Torque:
1,600 Nm (2,000 - 6,000 U/min)

Acceleration:
0 - 100km/h 2.4 sec (that’s roughly 0 to 60 mph)
0 - 400 km/h 32.6 sec (that’s roughly 0 to ~250 mph)

Vmax:
420 hm/h (electronically limited) (or around 260 mph)

Enough blabbing, here are a few more pics of the car. The front was white and the back was a navy blue or darker blue type color. The blue color looks similar to the blue of the LEGO version.

So I wouldn’t be interested in this vehicle if it weren’t for the LEGO version. I’m not a gear head, but I’m a huge fan now that I have a LEGO version and was super excited to actually see one of these.

But that’s not all…

If you purchased the set you saw this picture in the instruction manual.

It’s a picture of the actual car and the LEGO version with an offset in front of the Château St. Jean in Molsheim, France.

On our drive home from the Strasbourg area, I was conversing with my Non-LEGO Spouse (NLS) and talking about Bugatti and how the plant was nearby somewhere. Using the power of the internet she looked it up and told me it was about 2 minutes away. So we came upon a traffic circle, I went straight instead of turning and…

Tah-dah! Okay, we had to take a few passes to get the picture just so, but thankfully it was a Sunday and there wasn’t a lot of traffic. So there’s the full building. Just no cars in front.

Here’s a sign near the Château.

We figured the factory had to be close by and sure enough it was. We hit a traffic circle and took a different exit and saw the factory. It’s not very big although if you’re only building 500 of a vehicle and you probably take your time building it, you don’t need a big facility. We didn’t take pictures of the signs in French telling us it was private property and to not trespass. We just took our pictures and turned around. My NLS questioned why the workers didn’t have better cars. My guess is the employee discount doesn’t take much off the $2.5M price tag.

Hope you enjoyed some additional info on the Bugatti Chiron. I don’t think I’ve seen a set review or LEGO blog yet that showed pictures of the actual car or the factory. I’ll claim to be the first to include pictures of both in a LEGO review.

Happy building!

Set Review - #42083-1 - Bugatti Chiron - TECHNIC - PART 1

My guess is most people who are into LEGO and reading this blog are not able to throw down $2.5 million for a Bugatti Chiron, but thankfully LEGO came to our rescue and built a much cheaper version. Following the 2016 release of the Porsche 911 GT3 RS on the LEGO Technic line, LEGO released the Bugatti Chiron on 2 June 2018. Retail price in the US is $349.99 or $0.097 per piece. Opportunities for sales were limited on the Porsche. It just retired and I saw it on Amazon.com for 20% off for less than a day. Using VIP points to get a discount is one of the best ways to pay less for this set at this point. While it’s not $2.5M, $350 is kind of hefty for the LEGO world.

This set came with a lot of fanfare from LEGO. The lead up to its release included a number of teaser videos and trailers along with a countdown clock. After it was finally released, the videos didn’t stop. Here are a few you might want to check out if you didn’t get to see them:

LEGO builds a full scale Bugatti Chiron

LEGO shows off the build and its functions

Kicking off the review, the Bugatti Chiron is shipped in its own box inside of a box when you order it from Shop @ Home. While this method is probably more costly, I like that when you spend a bit of money, they take the time to make sure your set arrives in good condition. From the label on the box, my version was manufactured in October 2018 in Mexico. I ordered it during the double VIP points weekend in October 2018 so not bad timing for LEGO’s supply chain.

The set box itself is very flashy with a front view of the car on the top of the box and a back few of the car on the bottom with a few detailed pictures on the bottom as well.

Similar to the Porsche 911 GT3 RS (#42056-1), When you open the box up, there are parts boxes. Unlike the Porsche set, this one has the boxes and instruction booklet creating a picture of the car. Props to the designers on this one. There are 6 parts boxes, 2 instruction booklets, and a sticker sheet. Each box is numbered. The instruction books show what box of parts you are on based on what page you are on. It does not list what parts bag set you are on though so if you’re like me and you build in spurts, you have to search for where you left off. Book 1 is 305 pages long. It includes some snazzy pictures of the LEGO design and of the actual car model. It also mentions that there is a podcast you can listen to while building the set. I did not do that so if anyone else did, let me know what you thought of it.

Book 1, box 1 starts off with page 21 that says you will be building the engine and gearbox first. pages 22 and 23 show where you’ll be when finished with that section and there is a picture of what I presume is an engine and gearbox in the background. I won’t go too much into the details of the build other than to say when you’re used to building the LEGO System pieces and the last Technic build you did was over 2 years ago, it is a bit of a challenge (for me). I’ve definitely had to take my time as I’m not used to looking at instructions with the various Technic pieces.

Below are pictures of where you are at the end of each build. So all of the bags numbered 1, then numbered 2, and so on.

Here are bag sets 3 and 4. Number 3 finishes off the engine in the back of the car. It’s a very impressive design job too! They fit a lot in a small space. Number 4 starts on the front of the car to include the steering column.

On page 138 is labeled “The Marriage Process.” The book mentions that this is the way that the actual Chiron is built in that the front and back are assembled and then they join the two together. This section starts with set of bags number 4, the marriage process actually happens in number 6. Bags labeled #5 finish up the front of the car and some of the frame. I included my build and the picture on pages 140 and 141 of the set designer (Aurélien Rouffiange) merging the 2 sections of the build. Hopefully I built mine correctly.

I spent 5 posts on the Porsche (#42056-1) and I thought it was a bit much. My goal for this one is to give a quick overview instead of making you go through 5 pages of how great the build was.

With book one being complete, I figured it was a good time to post where I’m at. So far, I’m very impressed by the Bugatti Chiron. LEGO raised the bar with the Porsche 911 GT3 RS and they did it again with the Chiron. The box design and layout are impressive, the details inside the instruction book about the car and the set are cool, having the option to listen to a podcast about the project is an added bonus, and in general the build is very impressive in terms of functionality and matching what the actual car is like. While I had a gift card and purchased during a double VIP point period, at this point I say that it was a good purchase. It has definitely been worth my time and the funds I spent.

Stay turned for part 2…