Here it comes, the most hotly anticipated clone set of the year: a replica of the new major-brick brand 42083 Bugatti Chiron. This is my first proper Technic(ian) build in quite a while. I had lots of technical sets as a young lad, but since getting back into brick building as a father and allegedly-grown-up man, most of my building has been trains or modular buildings, with a smattering of other things that interested me such as Enlighten’s clones of the major brand’s popular pirate series of the 1990s. I dabbled a bit in Lego Mindstorms when one of my sons got into it a few years ago, and found it lots of fun. So I knew I would enjoy building the Bugatti, because I’ve always been fond of machines and engineering. I had no idea just how much I’d love it, though.

To start, let’s review some of the features we can expect to encounter in our build of this super-car: It’s got a replica W16 engine, with moving pistons, of course. The 8-speed manual transmission is fully functional thanks to a paddle-shifter in the driver’s seat. The rear spoiler can be raised or lowered as desired, thanks to an included “key”. The two-tone signature colour scheme looks very sharp indeed. And, this thing is HUGE! It ends up being over 57 cm long (nearly 2 feet), and weighs over 3 kg finished (over 6 1/2 pounds). I found the design to include lots of little “aha!” moments as I built it. For someone who likes machines and things that move, this car offers a fun building challenge, with the payoff being well worth the effort and care expended as one goes from step to step.

Let’s look at the packaging to begin. This is a classy unboxing experience, to be sure. The outer box holds a series of inner numbered boxes. I at first thought these box numbers might be keyed to building stages. Alas, you need to unbox all of the parts to find the various bags to get started on stage 1. The inner boxes have two detail photos on them, of the front and rear ends of the real Bugatti (the $3 million version), and the instruction book is nestled inside such that it forms part of the mosaic along with the boxes.

The brand-new custom-molded wheels are featured in one box of their own (inside are the tires), complete with a print of the Bugatti custom-designed disk-brakes visible underneath each wheel. This is premium packaging, designed to elicit “oohs” and “ahs” as the prospective builder unwraps each layer. You could buy this from many sellers online who will save you some shipping by throwing away the box and just repacking all the loose bags tightly into a non-descript brown box, but you’d be missing out on a premium experience much akin to how Apple’s first iPods were boxed so intriguingly and attractively. I recommend getting the box, personally. BuildingToyStore.com is a great source for cloned sets in the retail box.

Once I opened all six of the numbered boxes, I had to sort the bags into the building stages. There are 13 numbered stages in all, each with three to six (or so) bags of their own. All the bags were numbered, save for the sole zipper-style bag, which had the various elastics, fenders, hoses, and other random bits.

The clone version has one manual, whereas the major brand version has two. The cloner has not seen fit to rip off their IP by just simply photocopying the manuals, which in the major brand’s version include historical and design information throughout, with photographs at each stage as well. The clone manual is, however, full colour and printed nicely, with a glossy cover. All of the necessary drawings are to a perfect 1:1 scale and the colours are faithful to the actual parts, which as we’ll discover is important as we go on through the more technical parts of the build (the shifter, engine, and transmission, especially). Some sets’ instruction manuals make it difficult to discern colours: not the case here. Luckily, the gears are many different colours, which also helps to differentiate between them in the instructions as well as on the building table.

Stage 1: Rear suspension

As we begin the build, stage 1 is the rear suspension. This is a good way to dip your toes in the water, so to speak. Just a handful of bags, but a good technical build. You’ll need to make sure you compress the shock absorbers a bit in order to get everything connected correctly. Also, take care as you build the small gear assembly that drives the two wheels, as this will need to connect to our transmission and you want to make sure everything connected to the transmission is as perfect as can be.

My first feeling as I built the rear suspension was that everything here is nice and solid. The parts all felt good in my hand, and all went together easily, without any pushing or prodding. My only (very minor) complaint is to do with the red pins: they seem to be of a slightly softer plastic than their blue or black counterparts. Even so, they insert into other parts just fine. I had heard that cloned Technic sets (Technician sets) were largely worth a pass, due to part tolerances not being as tight as major-brand parts. But having just built a 4,031-piece Bugatti, I can say that this set has sold me on Technician sets for the future. Whatever problems they may have had molding Technic parts in the past, they’ve apparently solved.

Of particular interest here are the steering axles, as they are known, with three pin recepticles each, where the wheels attach. All of the parts of the wheel are brand new. Speculating how these guys cloned them–and all the other brand new parts in this set–so quickly and so perfectly has led some to speculate there might be some connection between a major Danish brick toy maker and this Chinese cloner after all.

(The argument essentially goes: 1. the replica target market is emerging economies [mostly China and SE Asia, plus Russia and Middle East]; 2. the Danish toymaker’s products are and will likely only be a luxury good in many of those countries for some time to come; 3. It is a known fact that many name brand manufacturers produce goods either for or in conjunction with discount brands or retailers, to serve the budget-conscious consumer; 4. the major brand company might rather build awareness of its brand whilst also making some profit by such cooperation, versus remaining a niche player in emerging markets; 5. X% of a discount good’s profits will surely be greater than 100% of the profits of the luxury good if so very few of the luxury good are sold in such markets. Is this the case? Who knows? Conspiracy theorists will have fun discussing the possibilities, but we’ll never know one way or the other, right? One thing we can say for certain is that this is a very decent quality clone, with lots of new special parts that the cloner has nailed on their first go at them.)

Next up, the serious work begins: the gear box and engine.

I’m immediately struck by the lovely assortment of colours represented in this pile of gears, and likewise slightly saddened that once the entire car is assembled, this work of art will be largely obscured, seldom to be seen again. I therefore resolved to enjoy building the gearbox, and pay close attention to how everything is fitted together.

Very, very important to remember, as we build the gearbox, is that the instructions have scale cross-sections and overhead views of how certain parts must be aligned if your gears are to shift correctly and drive the car correctly when it’s all assembled.

Don’t skip over these drawings! Following them is crucial to your success. I’ve read several reviews of this set in which builders have said their gears don’t shift at all, or that they lock up when the car drives forwards or backwards. The key to a working transmission is getting everything aligned. The boxes outlined in red within the instruction manual show visually exactly how this needs to occur. Pay very close attention and make sure that gear teeth are in the right place, cross axles are rotated to the proper angle, and so forth.

After building the transmission, we will connect it to the rear suspension, which also involves making sure all those carefully aligned bits remain carefully aligned as they connect to the receiving parts. The completed transmission is a sight to behold. I love its mix of colours. Take a few minutes at this point and notice how everything works: how the orange changeover rotary catches (a brand new part, even for the major brand) move the dark bluish grey Technic driving rings from one red or blue gear to the other, engaging one whilst releasing the other. Getting a good idea how it all fits together and how it works is one of my favourite parts of building a Technic set.

Next up, we’ll build the engine and the shifter. Each of these likewise requires great attention to detail. If you want your pistons to move, you’ll need to use the 1:1 pattern in the instruction booklet and lay out your pistons and crankshaft exactly so.

The purist will no doubt note that this is not a true W16 engine, as it has three crankshafts. Never mind that, it is cool still, and the parts are well made such that there is very little friction. Make sure at this point that your pistons move freely, before continuing.

I wanted to see how well the engine worked, and whether the technic pieces were molded well enough, so I hooked my W16 up to a small motor to drive the crankshaft. I was pleasantly surprised to see I could crank up the motor to its fastest speed and the W16’s pistons complied easily, moving at top speed with so little friction that it looked a bit unreal. Here’s a brief video I made demonstrating this:

Next you’ll finish up the back half of the car, which you’ll find to be quite substantial, and rather heavy. Having completed the rear half of the car, we now move forward. We’ll build the front half of the frame and mechanical workings on its own, and eventually marry the two halves before beginning the body and interior.

Drive train complete!

The paddle shifter for the 8-speed transmission

This is the complete rear half, cross sectioned, upside down

The front half is just as fun to build, of course. We’ll start with the cockpit, add the shifter, and very rapidly advance to various external body features.

The front half, completed

The marriage of front and back halves, completed

I can’t confirm, but I have heard, that the building process of the model is somewhat similar to that used in the factory when real Bugattis are hand-assembled, as to the order and the “marriage” of front and back halves. If that’s true, it’s pretty cool that this set replicates such a process.

Work progresses now on the body of the back half. This is where we really begin to use some beautiful dark blue beams and body panels, whose colour is more striking in person than my photos can capture here. The rear spoiler is really cool in that its position is completely adjustable with the key, which we will build at the very end. The rear lights are simulated by a long piece of red hose, cleverly inserted into the end of some blaster guns and flanked by some red wing panels. The Bugatti logo is first applied here, via a black decal on a black piece. It is nicely printed and hardly noticeable as a decal.

The interior is a nice shade of tan, meant to simulate leather. Construction of the seats gave rise to my other very minor complaint about this set: the colour of the stickers does not perfectly match that of the bricks they are to adhere to, as is mostly apparent on the seat headrests, the dashboard, and as we’ll later see, on the exterior door handles.

The dark azure pieces now come into play as we add the front fenders and door frames. I love this colour. I can see why Bugatti chose this colour scheme for this car. It’s dang attractive!

The instrument panel and inside door panel details are stickers as well. They, too, look great when applied. Under the bonnet we have the supposed “serial number”. In the major brand’s original, this is a unique number for each set. In the replica version, the serial number is the same in every set, and indeed, in the printed manual as well. For a third of the cost, there are some sacrifices that have to be made.

It’s also under the bonnet that we’ll put our little custom Bugatti Chiron-logo overnight bag at the very end of the build. I wonder if the $3 million original version comes with a fancy bag, too? It seems like it ought to, no?

The bendable axles are put to great use around the outside of the bonnet and around the front grille and Bugatti logo. Man, I love this dark azure. Every last part of this car that comes in this colour makes it that much classier, I think. I like that it’s a colour worthy of a super car, not a colour any old car comes in.

The headlamp construction is simple and clever. And by using a white background piece to build upon, the headlamps look bright to begin with. A few more stickers are applied around this time: one directly under each bank of headlamps and the central Bugatti logo above the centre grille.

After about a week of evenings spent building (I find this to be a great project for unwinding at the end of the day), my Bugatti Chiron is complete! I now had come to the moment of truth: would my car drive? Would the transmission shift correctly? Or would it lock up and I’d end up cursing and disassembling the whole blasted thing to figure out what went wrong?

I cautiously placed the hulking body onto the tile floor of my kitchen. And, miracle of miracles, I thought, it worked! I shifted into gear, pushed the car forward, and the pistons moved! I shifted up and down, and they moved slower or faster. I shifted into reverse, and everything went well. Sweet! (Though, interestingly, it took about a meter or so of movement before the engine caught up with the wheels, when in reverse. Brick fan forum boards have similar reports, so this is a result of design, not part quality.) I continued to play around with it for a while, marvelling at the paddle shifting mechanism. Because of the weight of the car, I found that steering was a bit tricky: though it does work, there’s a lot of weight on the wheels making it tougher to do.

I made a very brief video clip of me shifting it into gear and its movement (I also might consider a new career in hand modelling, based upon my debut work here):

Having now been fully satisfied that it worked as intended, it was time to take my Chiron out in public, for a little spin in the great outdoors!

All in all, I’m very pleased with this set. For building, I give this a solid 10/10. For design and beauty, another solid 10. For enjoyment, you guessed it: 10. It really was so much fun to build. I can happily recommend the cloned Bugatti Chiron. I love the two-tone blue, but if black and red or black and orange is more your thing, the clone-maker has you covered. I think the orange looks very cool, and am almost tempted to get one. Even as a clone set, this is not a cheap set. But the $120 price tag is quite fair for over 4,000 pieces including some very customised chromed wheels, rubber tires (not plastic), and those large body pieces.

As my first technics clone, I wasn’t sure what to expect. So, I was thrilled beyond measure with the quality of this set. It’s not cheap, so I can understand anyone being somewhat apprehensive about dropping their hard-earned cash on it. If you do, please consider using our affiliate links to pick up your copy. I’m happy to share my experience, and hopefully help all the brick fans out there make informed buying decisions and be comfortable about their choices. Thanks for reading, and for allowing me your time for this lengthy review!

If you’ve decided to add the Bugatti Chiron in its original two-tone blue colour scheme, or it’s clone-only variants in a beautiful red and black or orange and black to your collection, now’s a great time! Right now our friends at Building Toy Store are offering a $10 off coupon for readers of Alt-Blocks. Click the link and then when checking out, enter coupon code K7CXYREL. Use that coupon, and the discounts on their website, and pick up this amazing set for only $140 including shipping to the USA in about a week, complete in the beautiful retail box. This is quite a bargain.

EPILOGUE: Through sad experience, I must report a design flaw that one must be careful about. Sad to say, I found out too late that the shifter mechanism was designed in such a way that it allows one to attempt to shift between 8th gear back round to 1st gear directly. Oh no! And sad to say, whilst I was giddily shifting up and down and driving all over the place, I lost track of what gear I was in, and did exactly that, thus seizing up my gears.

A few minutes of searching on various forums confirmed this is a known issue, and the hobby community has been hard at work in modding the Chiron to correct this design oversight as well as a few others. A free mod (with complete 300+ page instruction manual) has been published in PDF form, called “Pimp up my Bugatti”, which builds in a stop so that 1st<->8th and 8th<->1st gear shifting is not allowed to be attempted. It also adds a gear indicator and HOG steering, for those who want that, and adjusts the suspension to make steering easier. I’m looking forward to attempting the modified version, and will amend this epilogue to report back my results once I have completed it.

None of this changes my feelings toward this model, however. I still highly recommend it for advanced builders and those with a love for cool machines.

EPILOGUE, PART TWO (updated 6 Sept. 2018): I have finished modifying my Chiron, using the mod from Rebrickable. When I ordered my parts, only version 1.0 was available, so that is the version I did. My thoughts are as follows: 1) I love the improved suspension; 2) the HOG steering is great for adding more playability to the car. It is linked to the main steering system, thus also controls the steering wheel, so you can use either; 3) the gear shifting system is much-improved thanks to the stopper preventing an 8th to 1st or 1st to 8th shift, which breaks the transmission; in addition, the improved shifting mechanism has a gear indicator (which can also function as a gear shifting switch) visible on the dashboard.

Conclusion: If you are going to play with the car, all of these features are excellent! If you are going to display it, however, and don’t plan on shifting the car on a regular basis, you could probably skip the mods and just admire your Chiron as it is. I’m happy to have made the mods, honestly, because I do like to occasionally use my Bugatti and demonstrate its capabilities. Some will be placing their cars straight into a glass display case, or the like, and for those builders, the additional expense and trouble of seeking the parts for the mod are probably not worth the effort.

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