Lego’s offering of Formula 1 toys is steadily growing and now includes kits to build every team on the F1 grid, albeit with last year’s liveries. The series of Lego Speed Champions kits are predominantly marketed to kids, but two F1 cars carry an 18+ age rating.
The kits in question are for last year’s Red Bull RB20 and the Visa Cash App RB VCARB 01. Both sets carry almost the same number of pieces as the other eight cars on the grid, are about as tricky to assemble as the other cars on the grid and are shipped in almost identical packaging, save for the 18+ badge.
The two kits are also priced the same as Lego’s other models, so it’s not the case that they are out of your kid’s birthday present budget. Instead, the age rating is all to do with the Red Bull branding that’s plastered across each car’s livery.
Energy drinks are age-restricted products in most markets around the world and often can’t be sold to anyone under the age of 12. Europe has even stricter regulations that mean drinks like Red Bull and Monster, which sponsors McLaren, can’t be sold to anyone under the age of 18 in some countries.
The ban impacts advertising rules around the world as well, which is effectively what Red Bull’s F1 team is – an enormous, high-tech marketing campaign for the Austrian energy drink.
Lego’s Red Bull kit is close to the original.
Photo by: Lego
A Lego spokesperson explained: “We have worked hard to ensure the Lego versions of the F1 cars are as authentic as possible. This includes the cars’ liveries. Where a sponsor isn’t appropriate or allowed for children, we have not included their logo on our products and sets, or it is reflected in the recommended age marking of the sets.”
Lego could have side skirted the rules by removing any trace of the Red Bull branding from the two cars, as it did with Ferrari’s Peroni logos on the SF-24 and the Estrella beer logos McLaren carries on the on the MCL38.
Without the iconic Red Bull emblem on the engine cover of the RB20 and VCARB 01, the two cars could be sold to 10-year-olds like the rest of Lego’s Speed Champions series. But without those features, they wouldn’t be Red Bull or RB cars, would they?
So the toymaker settled on giving the kits an 18+ rating, which had previously been reserved for Lego’s more complex kits, such as its recreation of the Coliseum in Rome or its Technic kits to build more detailed F1 racers.
In those instances, the 18+ badge is meant to reflect that kits like the Mercedes-AMG F1 W14 and McLaren MP4/4 is intended for serious Lego collectors, rather than people who might want to play with their toys.
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