Lightning McQueen

Building this one feels less like assembling a race car and more like solving a small puzzle about how to make a cartoon face out of straight and curved LEGO elements. The five numbered bags move fast, and the chassis section asks you to build upside down and flip it into place, which is the kind of technique that keeps an experienced builder's attention even on a small set. The subassembly structure also makes it an easy one to hand off midway to a younger builder without losing the thread.

The real find here is a small gray bracket, 7452 Bracket 1x2-2x4 Inverted, which debuted in this set and one other release, and this is currently the only way to get it in light bluish gray, worth knowing if you build MOCs. The red side of the parts list is where the personality lives, curved slopes and wheel rims come printed in red for the first time, and the recolored red curved slopes and 4x4 tiles are useful for anyone building their own vehicles later. There are pink rounded plates buried inside too, invisible once the model is closed up, which always makes me smile, LEGO hiding a little joke in a part nobody will see.