I tested for you: LEGO Technic 42056 Porsche 911 GT3 RS

The set caused a sensation when it was officially announced and is (almost) available for sale in the LEGO Shop and in the 13 LEGO Stores located in Germany and Austria at the public price of 299.99 €: This Does the 911-piece Porsche 3 GT2700 RS keep all of its promises? After long hours of editing, here's what I think, without any pretension and on a very personal basis.

You know if you come to the blog regularly, I'm not a big fan of the LEGO Technic range and much prefer the bricks and minifigs in the range. System. But this Porsche 911 GT3 RS is more than just a set from the Technic range: It is a product that will appeal to a much larger audience than that usually targeted by this range and in particular the many fans of the Porsche brand.

This Porsche 911 GT3 RS, whose development began in winter 2013, is also the first model in a new series of sets planned by LEGO. Collector friends, you have been warned.

The packaging announces the color: This is a luxury product, the sale price confirms it, and LEGO has gone all out to provide a high-end showcase for its plastic toy. The box is luxurious, the instruction booklet of more than 570 pages is a clever mix between presentation brochure of the vehicle that served as a model, laudatory summary of the Porsche legend and staging of the construction experience promised to the purchaser of this box.

You might as well warn you right away, the editorial part of the booklet is only available in English and German. For the French version, manage to download it from the brand's website. Too bad for a box at this price ...

If I am talking to you about the box, while I regularly brocade the "reviews" which conscientiously describe the packaging of the products concerned, it is because in this specific case it contributes to the customer's packaging: We are not simply going to assemble a lambda car wrapped in gears and plastic bars with holes in them, we will see the birth before our astonished eyes an exceptional vehicle.

In short, let's forget about marketing, and let's get down to business, it's time to assemble this Porsche 911 GT3 RS that we are promised to be packed with incredible functions.

Before you can get something that looks like a Porsche, you have to build the chassis, the engine, the suspensions, etc ... It's laborious for those like me who are used to assembling their sets by doing a half - dozen other things at the same time: We quickly shifted or inverted a few pieces and it was the drama. Go back, partial dismantling, we start again.

We focus and we finally get a functional chassis. The instructions are clear and very detailed, even a builder new to the art of assembling a product from the Technic range like me is easily found.

And then we test the different functions: The wheels turn (a little) if we manipulate the steering wheel, we can "shift gears" with the "paddles" and their somewhat ugly white rubber bands, we can shift "reverse gear", and we can incidentally have fun bouncing everything on the exclusive integrated red suspensions.

I can't seem to marvel at these very anecdotal features, but like I said above, the Technic line is not really my cup of tea. I just tell myself that with 2700 parts (including more than 900 pins of all kinds) on the clock, luckily the steering wheel directs the wheels ...

The rest is more rewarding for those who finally want to see the long-awaited Porsche appear: We assemble the seats, the dashboard, and the entire upper structure that will accommodate the body. Finally, we install the orange panels that complete the look of Porsche 911 GT3 RS to the vehicle. Flexible tubes [Hdare / Soft Axle] oranges soften the lines of the body.

The assembly is deliberately split into different very distinct phases to make "like at the factory"or Porsche makes the real 911, with little transitional text and nice illustrations in the instruction booklet and separate boxes for the parts.

The rims are magnificent, they are adorned with a central pad printed "RS" which gives them a look of hell. The front fenders are also pad printed. The plate bearing the unique serial number, hidden in the glove box, is however engraved.

Even with this product wrapped in marketing borrowed from the biggest luxury brands, LEGO can't help but slip a sheet of stickers pompously called "Collection of authentic stickers"in the description of the set ... It's petty, especially concerning the Porsche logo, printed everywhere (on the box, on the instructions) except on the parts ...

In the end, it's pretty, detailed, but in my opinion a little rough in places: Some "holes" in the body, the brake calipers are yellow like on the 2006 version instead of being red like on the model released this year, the headlights would have deserved to be more oval than round, on the side of the color, it is still that of the 2006 model and not the color OrangeFusion of the current 911 GT3 RS, but the basics are there.

We then zoom in for five minutes, open the doors, try to access the engine, store the travel bag in the front trunk and the experience ends at the corner of a shelf, as is often the case. the case with LEGO models whose purpose is not to "play" with.

I readily agree, I took great pleasure in assembling this Porsche, but I did not become an absolute fan of the Technic universe in the process. I prefer brick-based vehicles, like Creator Expert sets 10242 Mini-Cooper ou 10248 Ferrari F40 even if it means sacrificing the few anecdotal features present here.

You will understand, I am more mixed on the final aspect of the vehicle. Is it worth the 300 € requested by LEGO? Everyone will judge according to their means and priorities, but the effort of LEGO to offer this plastic toy in a high-end (cardboard) box at the height of the Porsche legend is commendable.

Note: If you have bothered to read this article so far, please be aware that I am giving away the set I received from LEGO via a raffle among the comments posted below (Deadline: on June 8, 2016 at 23:59 p.m.). The box is obviously open, but the winner will save € 299.99. It's always taken.