App-Controlled Top Gear Rally Car

"Despite a surface-level Amazon rating of 4.73, the App-Controlled Top Gear Rally Car earns its Skip It BrickScore of 43.3: at $0.281 per piece with slow RC performance, a simple build, and LEGO.com owners rating value at just 2.72 out of 5, the premium price is very hard to justify."

The App-Controlled Top Gear Rally Car (42109) lands in Skip It territory with a BrickScore of 43.3, and the data behind that verdict is unusually clear-cut. Expert consensus placed value, display, design aesthetics, and playability all between 25 and 30 out of 100, reflecting a broad view that $129.99 for 463 pieces ($0.281 per piece) is very difficult to justify when the build is simple, the car is slow, and the model looks better in promotional photos than in person. Yet 984 owner ratings average 4.73 out of 5, driven largely by Amazon reviews, creating a stark divergence. LEGO.com owners tell a starkly different story: only 64% say they would recommend it, and value-for-money averages just 2.72 out of 5.

Where they split: The expert-versus-owner split here is significant. The 4.73 Amazon-weighted average is heavily inflated by buyers who received it as a gift or approached it as a novelty. When filtered to LEGO.com buyers (3.71 average) and would-recommend rate (64%), the picture aligns far more closely with the Skip It verdict. The BrickScore of 44.4 reflects the expert consensus, which is the more reliable signal for this type of set.