Why The Fascination With LEGO Super Cars?

A LEGO veteran’s analysis on why LEGO Technic super cars are so sought after…

From the early days of my LEGO catalog flipping years, drooling over the pages like an insatiable hyena hungry for bricks, there was one particular set that always, without exception, caught my gaze faster than anything. That was no other than the famous 1994 LEGO Technic super car, set #8880 and every single super car thereafter.

Back in 1994, I would have gladly traded in all my existing LEGO — which wasn’t a lot — for just that one set. In fact, I still have my eyes on it and debating whether I should just bite the 1000 euro bullet and go for it or not. My heart says yet, but my brain says no. Now, imagine if I had a wife. She’d most definitely say no! But at least it would be two against one, instead of just being in this torturous state of inability to decide. A prime example of what this article is about. An almost bizarre fascination with LEGO super cars.

I have a suspicion that the LEGO Technic super car is one of the most awe-inducing sets every time one gets released.

The Rolex of LEGO sets.

Forget huge Star Wars sets, the Titanic, or even the latest Lord of the Ring set. While those are certainly nothing to sneeze at, in the past 30 years and in all of The LEGO Group’s history, there have only been seven sets that fit the bill. The first one was the #8880. Some will be very generous and include the #8865 — which while iconic — I, for one, would not count. But this is not an article to stir controversy, so, fine, make it count. That still means that in 40 years, there have only been eight sets that qualify. The #42125 Ferrari 488 GTE nor the #42154 2022 Ford GT qualify in my opinion, unless you go simply by piece-count. The bottom line is, LEGO released very few super cars over the years, and each and every one of them became an iconic set.

The latest four, all of which I own, are the Porsche 911 GT3 RS, the Bugatti Chiron, the Lamborghini Sian and finally the Ferrari Daytona. LEGO calls these four Technic Ultimate Car, and it’s a series that started in 2016, with the Porsche. LEGO only releases one every two years, partly because it’s tough designing and getting everything else ready for a set like this, and also because it does not want one set to steal the thunder of the previous year’s model. What I also think LEGO is doing, is creating a somewhat artificial scarcity around these cars, just like car manufacturers do with the real ones. If you release them too often, they become too mundane, and I think LEGO wants to keep a special aura around these super cars.

Because the real cars…

In many ways, as I was contemplating answering this question to myself first, I think a lot of the fascination for the LEGO Technic super cars comes from the very same place it comes for the real cars. I am an odd one, as I am not really into cars at all, unless they’re made of LEGO, and when they are, then I want them all, especially the big complex ones that I will struggle to find space for on the shelves.

Both the real car and the LEGO counterparts share a few aspects, all of which I think contribute to them being popular to the point that there is a 2-year restless, speculative anticipation for what the next one will be, and as soon as we know, we have all the possible good and bad opinions about it. Regardless, we’ll all still buy the damned thing, which brings me to the first similarity…

• Price. These are not cheap sets. The Porsche started at 300 Euros, but by now the Ferrari’s official price is 450 euros. In LEGO terms, that’s premium, baby. In fact, many reviewers will say that you have to be well-off to afford it, and justify the purchase. The same stands true for the actual Ferrari Daytona as well, starting at a little over 2 million euros, and that’s just one example of many. The Lamborghini Sian started at 3.7 million, and I could go on and on.
• Design. In fact, it’s opulent design. Starting from the packaging down to the instruction manuals and the final build, it’s all about design in fine-fine detail, while keeping an eye on Technic functions too, though not in any way to the detriment of design. The very same can be said about the real super cars too. They’re all about design. They are designer cars. Practicality? What’s that? These are cars to illustrate one’s status, not to move your friend into their next rental apartment. Status symbol sets, status symbol cars.
• The overall experience. Besides what the message to the outside world might be owning a car like this, it’s also about how one feels owning it, driving it. In LEGO form, that’s a little bit different, as you won’t drive it, but you will build it, and thus learn a lot about the car in ways you didn’t expect; therefore it’s a premium building experience. In fact, even some of the parts are premium, never to be seen in other sets and all of these cars come with a unique serial number, that grants you access to hidden content, making you feel even more special.

Lots and lots of LEGO!

Every LEGO fan loves a set that has a very high piece-count. Come on. It means there’s more LEGO in the box! And these sets don’t kid about parts-count. Even the #8880 set, back in 1994, had a whopping 1343 pieces, that’s a lot for that era of LEGO, especially Technic! The newer ones, pushed that number even higher. The 2016 Porsche came with 2704 pieces, an otherwise modest number compared to the 2022 Ferrari Daytona sporting 3778 pieces, over 1000 more compared to its great-grandfather, the Porsche.

It’s nearly impossible not to want a huge LEGO Technic set with more pieces than many of us had throughout our entire childhood.

Fandom, in a different way?

I recently wrote a fairly scathing opinion piece about LEGO and how the Rivendell set is exploiting fans’ inability to say no, so one might wonder, why am I not as critical about the LEGO Technic super cars? Well, I am, but only to some extent.

There are a good few things wrong with these humongous 1:8 scale super cars. Firstly, they’re huge, so they take up a lot of space. They’re also quite expensive and thus not really accessible to many people. As some reviewers will point out incessantly, they’re also not as Technic as one would like, as some smaller sets have more functions. Finally, as premium as they are, the instruction manuals contain errors every single time.

Having said all that, those of us who buy them, we do so because it’s a great LEGO set. Not necessarily because we love the actual cars they represent. That’s certainly not the case for me. If I had the choice to spend 2 million bucks, I would much rather spend it all on LEGO, than one actual super car.

I guess we’re just fans of big LEGO Technic sets that also happen to look fantastic, and that makes it worth the cost. 🤷‍♂️

Attila Vago — Software Engineer improving the world one line of code at a time. Cool nerd since forever, writer of codes and blogs. Web accessibility advocate, LEGO fan, vinyl record collector. Loves craft beer! Read my Hello story here! Subscribe and/or become a member for more stories about LEGO, tech, coding and accessibility! For my less regular readers, I also write about random bits and writing.