REVIEW: 76909 Mercedes-AMG F1 W12 E Performance & Mercedes-AMG Project One

[Oky]

Today we’re taking a look at the first dual-car set of the wave titled "Mercedes-AMG F1 W12 E Performance & Mercedes-AMG Project One" which is easily a contender for longest set name ever. With the 2022 season of the Formula 1 World Championship only a few weeks away, it's the perfect time for LEGO to release a set featuring an F1 car, although it's ironic that they chose Lewis Hamilton's car from last year to base it on since the 2021 season was the first time since 2014 that Mercedes didn't win the championship. Not only do we get an F1 car, but also a yet unreleased concept car called the Project One, or ONE as the production version will be called, that is based on the technology of the Formula One car, hence the name. Do these champions of Mercedes-AMG's past and future cross the finish line or they crash and burn? Let's find out. Ready, Set, GO!

Set Number: 76909
Name: Mercedes-AMG F1 W12 E Performance & Mercedes-AMG Project One
Theme: Speed Champions
Year of Release: 2022
Ages: 8+
Pieces: 564
Price: £34.99 / $29.99 / 39.99€
Online Shop description:

Quote

Kids and race fans can now collect and explore 2 vehicles at the forefront of race car design with this LEGO® Speed Champions Mercedes-AMG F1 W12 E Performance & Mercedes-AMG Project One (76909) building set. A collector’s dream, these collectible toy cars are fun to build, great for display and perfect for exciting racing action.

The Box

The front of the box depicts an exciting scene of the two cars racing each other on a race track in front of the Mercedes-AMG building. Which one do you think is going to win?

On the back of the box, you can see side/rear views of the two cars along with close-ups of their cockpits and reference images of the real cars. I use the word "real" lightly here because the picture of the Project One is just concept art since it hasn't been made yet (although it has been said to begin production this year).

The top of the box lists that mouthful of a set name multiple times with the "and" sign translated into different languages which seems very redundant since the ampersand is pretty universally recognized.

While the bottom has the usual choking hazard warnings and the side has copyright info and the Lego Life ad, the other side has a sticker of authenticity from Mercedes.

Contents

Inside the box there are four numbered bags and one small bag with hubcaps as well as two instruction booklets and two sticker sheets (one for each car). The sticker sheets are unfortunately quite large for a set of this size, even for Speed Champions.

Instructions

The instructions have the usual gray progress bar and star explosions. There are a lot of black, gray, and dark gray parts which are a bit hard to distinguish at times. Also, the instructions tend to do this thing that I like to call a "sticker bomb". They will have you keep building for a while and then all of a sudden BAM! they make you apply a whole bunch of stickers at once, bringing the flow of the build to a screeching halt. This is not the only one of these new Speed Champions sets that does this, but the Project One is probably the worst offender of this as it tells you to apply ten tiny stickers in one step! What kind of monster came up with this?

Notable Parts

This set comes with lots of interesting parts! There are more of the new wedges with printed headlights, this time in light gray. There are other printed parts such as the Project One's windscreen, a 2x4x2/3 curved slope with the AMG logo on a grill printed on the side, "D-tiles" with a Mercedes star or or a plain black surface, and wheel covers which come printed with Pireli branding for the first time. There is also an unprinted gamepad, some of the updated flags with the flared edge between the clips in light gray, and several other parts in new or rare colors. The set also includes several copies of a fairly new mold which I am not a fan of, a black 1x1 brick that is 2 plates high and has a hollow stud. It just feels <insert that tiresome argument> to me, especially since some of them are used next to each other where a 1x2 plate would have made the build more structurally sound.

Minifigs

This set comes with 2 minifigs to drive these two cars, one male and one female, neither of whom resembles Lewis Hamilton or even his teammate Valtteri Bottas. It's really unfortunate that the Speed Champions sets only use generic minifig parts and that we don't get the appropriate driver for the F1 car. I know I said the same about the Ferrari 512 M, but I have to bring it up again here because there has been some controversy surrounding the minifigs in this set. A lot of people were upset that it doesn't come with Hamilton, not only because he is a popular driver, but also a person of color. In this informative article, Jalopnik reached out to LEGO about why they didn't include a black minifig in this set and their response was the following:

Quote

In the case of LEGO Speed Champions, the intent of the product is to celebrate the cars. The characters included add play value and role playing possibilities, and are not intended to represent any real world personalities, which is why we use yellow minifigures in Speed Champions sets.

Whether this answer is satisfactory or not is up to you. I'm not going to talk about my thoughts on the matter here as I have no interest in getting into a political debate (that's what comment sections are for ), so let's just focus on the minifigs that we did get. Both have new torso prints and come with plain black helmets. The female also comes with a spanner wrench to change hubcaps and the same teal ball cap and black ponytail combo that the Birdwatcher from the CMF Series 22 has which is the first rare hairpiece I've seen in a Speed Champions set. I guess birdwatching isn't her only passion. The F1 driver's racing suit is incredibly detailed with all kinds of tiny logos covering the torso on top of a dashed grid pattern and teal lines going down to his legs.

 

Both torsos have back printing with an AMG logo too. I especially like the little puma that looks like it is jumping out of the guy's pants.

The Build

Interestingly, the W12 is built around one of the 2x6 parts that is usually used as wheel bearings in Speed Champions sets that is rotated 90 degrees. I like how they use the unprinted gamepad to represent the steering wheel.

I really like how the fin on the Project One is constructed by first building a slot and then flipping an airplane tail into it like a Swiss army knife. Or should I say Danish army knife?

Spare Parts

Aside from the usual spare bits, the leftovers include the trans-red and printed D-tiles, the rare black and teal 1x1 round plates with handles, a short flex tube, and black 5-spoke hubcaps, as well as a yellow jumper plate, a gray flag, and a black 2x2 tile. The latter three will be important later.

The Complete Set

Here are the two finished Mercedes racing machines! The both look very good at first glance.

When comparing them to reference images, I think they captured the complex shape of both cars about as well as they could.

I like how they recreated the air inlets on the hood of the Project One using fenders. The part used for the hood between the headlights is one plate shorter than the 1 brick-high headlight wedges, so it is angled down slightly using Mixel joints to make up for the height difference which works surprisingly well. I am not so impressed with the front of the W12 however. The endplates on the front wing are thick as a brick, literally! I think they were trying to make them line up with the outer wall of the wheels, but it just looks silly and I think they could have done it better.

The Project One has more nice parts usage on the back where it uses two angled, upside down Tiny Turbos bumpers from the Racers theme as its own bumper. The W12 has a sticker under its spoiler which would have been a nice detail... except the sticker is too wide for the place where it's supposed to go, causing it to warp. It took forever to try to get it to stick there and it will likely not stay there during play time, let alone withstand the winds of an F1 car going 270 mph.

The stickers on the side of the W12 are not impressive either. While the gray flag has the number 44, the number of Hamilton's car, it doesn't have the AMG pattern that is supposed to cover the gray area. Also, the dark red part could have been rounder at the top and the "INEOS" decal should have been on the side, not on top. Otherwise, the F1 racer looks great from the side though. The printed wheel covers look especially nice.

The side of the Project One looks excellent as well, especially with that dynamic fin. The only thing that could be improved in my opinion are the hubcaps which should be silver or at least pearl dark gray like on the Evija.

Again, I love how there are no gaps around the Project One's fin. The gray printing on the windscreen doesn't completely match the gray on the rest of the car, but it's a hundred times closer than the white on the Lamborghini. I also like how the W12 uses black T-pieces to represent the bars holding the wheels, although they are a bit too short at the front and it still looks a bit empty around those front wheel axles.

The play features on the F1 car raise the bar, literally. To seat the driver into the W12, you can lift up the bar over the cockpit which is not something you can do on the real car, but it makes a neat feature here. To seat the driver of the Project One, you need to remove the windshield like on most Speed Champions. The interior feels a bit crammed, the steering wheel is off-center, and I'm not sure what the click-hinges are meant to represent, but they don't look very comfortable for the driver to lean against. The stickers add some nice detail though.

You can change the hubcaps on the Project One like on many other Speed Champions, but that's not the only customization option in this set. Remember those three unusual spare parts? They are included so that you can switch out some parts on Hamilton's F1 car to turn it into the #77, the car of his 2021 teammate Valtteri Bottas. It's a nice thought, although I don't think it looks that good. The wheel covers should have been swapped for yellow printed ones as well, and the yellow jumper plate would have looked more accurate in the new neon yellow color. Still, I appreciate the added display option.

This is not the first time that we have gotten an F1 racecar from the Mercedes AMG Petronas Formula One Team. Set 75883 included two models of the W07, although looking back at those designs now, they look terrible in comparison. It really goes to show how far this theme has come in just four years! Although I think they did a better job with the endplates on the front wing back then.

Ratings

Design: 9/10
Despite some small flaws, especially on the W12, a very good representation of the two cars and a huge improvement over previous designs.

Build: 6/10
A horrendous amount of small stickers (one of which is too big for its intended spot) and <insert that tiresome argument> bricks bog down an otherwise interesting build.

Playability: 7/10
You can seat the minifigs, customize both cars, and race them against each other. Pretty fun!

Figures: 7/10
Controversy aside, you get two figs with detailed new prints, one with a rare hair/hat piece.

Parts: 9/10
Lots of new/rare parts and several exclusive prints!

Price: 9/10
While the parts-to-price ratio is still not as good as on the Ferrari, this set is a great deal, at least in the US, as you get two cars for the price of one and a half!

Overall: 9/10
This is another very strong entry in the theme. If you don't mind the generic minifig faces and applying tons of stickers, I can highly recommend picking this one up as you get two customizable and great looking cars with interesting parts for one low price.

Thanks for reading and thanks to TLG for sending me this set for review. What do you think of the set? Let me know in the comments and in the poll above. The set will release on March 1, 2022: https://www.lego.com/en-us/product/mercedes-amg-f1-w12-e-performance-mercedes-amg-project-one-76909

In my next Speed Champions review, we are going to see another first for the theme!

[JaBaCaDaBra]

The F1 car of a pathetic looser.
No thanks, there are better sets.

[BrickMonkeyMOCs]

I found the W12 to be a bit of a messy build, but my main complaint is that the driver sits far too high with his head above the Halo and blocking the engine air scoop.

The Project One is very nice but I think it benefits from being shortened by one stud in the front bonnet area and wheelbase.

[noahtheb]

4 hours ago, BrickMonkeyMOCs said:

I found the W12 to be a bit of a messy build, but my main complaint is that the driver sits far too high with his head above the Halo and blocking the engine air scoop.

The Project One is very nice but I think it benefits from being shortened by one stud in the front bonnet area and wheelbase.

Check out the review for this set on https://www.hispabrickmagazine.com/blog-en/blog-en.php?id=33512, the reviewer modded his sets exactly how you wanted, lol.

 

[Big Adam]

Hamilton’s team-mate is Russell, not Bottas.

[BrickMonkeyMOCs]

4 hours ago, noahtheb said:

Check out the review for this set on https://www.hispabrickmagazine.com/blog-en/blog-en.php?id=33512, the reviewer modded his sets exactly how you wanted, lol.

 

Yes, I know that reviewer quite well.

1 hour ago, Big Adam said:

Hamilton’s team-mate is Russell, not Bottas.

Yes, but the W12 is last year's Mercedes F1 car.

[Jim]

8 hours ago, BrickMonkeyMOCs said:

Yes, I know that reviewer quite well.

Thanks for the review Oky. Of course I would have prefered a Reb Bull hehe, but these cars look fine!

[noahtheb]

17 hours ago, BrickMonkeyMOCs said:

Yes, I know that reviewer quite well.

 

I actually thought it was just a big coincidence . Great review!

[Pato Sentado]

I love the F1 car, but the other one is a "generic LEGO supercar" and very difficult to tell apart from last year's modern Corvette or the Lambo without stickwrs

[Rick]

On 2/26/2022 at 1:29 PM, Oky said:

You can change the hubcaps on the Project One like on many other Speed Champions, but that's not the only customization option in this set. Remember those three unusual spare parts? They are included so that you can switch out some parts on Hamilton's F1 car to turn it into the #77, the car of his 2021 teammate Valtteri Bottas. It's a nice thought, although I don't think it looks that good. The wheel covers should have been swapped for yellow printed ones as well, and the yellow jumper plate would have looked more accurate in the new neon yellow color.

The blue printing on the Pirelli tires indicates they are full wet tires. They were probably chosen because there are currently no slick tires in this size.

The rear shot of the F1 car on the back of the box looks pretty good. I just don't like the blocky look on the rest of the car. The front suspension looks very sparse.

[_TLG_]

I prefer the F1 car, the other one is average as I don't like the studs above the front wheel and the printed headlights, but the hood intakes are clever.

[Pchan1983]

Nice review, I really like this set.  I find the stickers ok, it's hard to apply but I've been worse.  Love the pirelli tyres and the AMG mesh print.  

 

[BrickMonkeyMOCs]

On 2/27/2022 at 3:14 AM, BrickMonkeyMOCs said:

I found the W12 to be a bit of a messy build, but my main complaint is that the driver sits far too high with his head above the Halo and blocking the engine air scoop.

The Project One is very nice but I think it benefits from being shortened by one stud in the front bonnet area and wheelbase.

Thought I'd share the reworked version of the F1 W12 car I came up with after reviewing the set. Improvements include correcting the driver position, adding exhaust and some engine detail, improving the front axle & suspension, smoothing out the front and sides, adding a detachable front wing & nose, and working in more teal accents as an alternative to stickers.

PDF Instructions

LDraw File

Edited April 2, 2023 by BrickMonkeyMOCs

[Void_S]

Sorry for bumping the old topic - does anyone face a problem with LBG stickers?
Mine for Project ONE are too light and look like Very-Light Bluish Gray actually rather than Light Bluish Gray-based.

Meanwhile, for Aston Martin DB5 they are more correct (even a bit darker than should be).

In the Technic topic (where I mostly live) we had a similar situation with the Lime-Green stickers that were too dark, and we had a positive experience with addressing it to TLG - they sent the corrected stickers sheet with the required shade of Lime-Green color: 

 

So, may I ask you to spend a minute, please?

1. Does your set contain the correct or too light/dark shade of Light Bluish Gray-colored stickers?
2. Have you addressed it to TLG Customer Support, and if yes, what was the result?

Edited June 17, 2023 by Void_S
Added the link to the topic

[Void_S]

A little update: a few days ago I got a packet with stickers sheet replacement.
The LBG shade is much better now: it is insignificantly darker than needed (like in the 76911 Aston Martin DB5), but much, much better than the original sheet with a "Very-light" Bluish Gray shade.

For reference, the codes on the sheets are:

• Part 76909stk01 Sticker Sheet for Set 76909, Sheet 1 - (84202/6374485)
  • Original-light sheet: 149059
  • Darker replacement sheet: 22637
• Part 76909stk02 Sticker Sheet for Set 76909, Sheet 2 - (87511/6376646)
  • Original-light sheet: 149059
  • Darker replacement sheet: 22637

Here are the sticker sheets: Original-light on the left side, new-replacements are on the right.