McLaren Senna (75892) - Overview [With 8 Wide Conversion]

[Henchmen4Hire]

Recently got the chance to splurge on a few things I've been wanting, among them were the first two official LEGO sets I've bought in years. I look forward to fiddling with all the new pieces I've never held in my hands before.

I'm a sucker for gray and orange, cool planes, sharp angles, things that go vroom; these features determine all my buying decisions. If a computer chair doesn't scream VROOM! in my head when I see it, I won't buy it. Send it back to the factory, it's faulty.

Yeah, I also got a MegaConstrux fig because I remembered my Cortana minifig was lonely. It's like a blind-bagged blind date for her, maybe she dates an alien, maybe a strapping space marine, or maybe even a microscale battleship, how exciting!

(By the way, I got a racecar, a jetplane, and a marine...so I covered land, air, and USM-C[sea], wahahaha)

Switching gears back to LEGO, the boxes are still easy to open by sliding a ruler along the edge of the glued panel. You don't have to tear it open at the designated tab, to keep the box looking good.

It's weird that the instruction booklet is folded because it fits just fine without needing to be. Maybe the extra thickness protects the stickers better?

There's a scanable QR Code on the booklet and one of the bags that will take you to "extra content" associated with the set. To me that sounds like photocomics or something, made with the set, so I bit on that hook.

The code takes you to a site to download the "LEGO Social Life App", so you can then download low-res digital instructions. So, you have to download the LEGO social media app, a QR scanner and a PDF reader just to read blurry instructions. I might be missing something here, but I'd rather avoid this hassle next time and just use the paper booklet.

Whatever, lets get to building!

(I might be channeling the times I've worked sorting parts for Bricklink stores haha)

We start by building a...stargate? Oh, a giant fan. It's probably a windtunnel, I like the idea. I'm already working with bits I've never handled before, awesome.

I wasn't sure why this section called for a "fancy" piece since it just gets covered up, but later on you see it's a bit exposed and adds a touch of gap detail.

The reason I haven't bought a LEGO set in years is because they're hecka expensive and I'm not into most of the themes currently out there. I don't have kids that can learn critical thinking from building things, I don't have any interest in superheroes, etc.

However, I figured it was time to invest in me, in my own building skills. With all these new pieces, I was bound to learn something new. I love me some me. I love me even more when I build stuff that doesn't fall apart!

Soon the car starts taking shape. I get to learn new techniques and Cortana gets to practice her welding skills.

When I design my 8-wide cars, the guts definitely don't look like this. I work digitally and tend to outline the model's shell first to get the proportions right, then fill it in as needed to make it structurally sound. I like simple guts that don't require exotic (expensive) parts. I like to keep my cars as hollow as possible to add an engine bay, trunk, etc.

This build is the total opposite. We start with the core and the guts are wild, there are tiles and slopes and panels flying around already and we haven't even touched the outside yet. MADNESS!

There are clever techniques used from nose to tail, it's inspiring. I hope the other Speed Champions series cars provide a similar experience.

Well...that went downhill faster than I expected.

This is one of the best LEGO sets of all time, no question, I wouldn't change a thing. (Well, I'm going to convert it to 8-wide before applying stickers, but let's stick with the spirit of the sentiment.)

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If you take nothing else away from this, realize that the smarter your AI assistant gets, the less it will want to do anything you tell it.

(And she'll probably steal your racecar and zoom away with her crooked alien boyfriend.)

Edited June 5, 2019 by Henchmen4Hire

[Henchmen4Hire]

Here's how it looks after some modding:

•Converted to 8-wide so it has better proportions.

•Modded the sides by varying a design thought up by "prototyp" on Rebrickable

•Improved the accuracy of the nose. Added the lights, replaced the wedge plates with tiles, etc.

•Improved the shape and accuracy of the rear

I guess "improve" depends on which version of this car you're using as reference. In the end I went with whatever looked cool and still showed some orange flashes.