We didn't want to write about this, we really didn't. I mean, it's a battery-powered Barbie car for kids, those have been around forever. But one look at the product video and a flip through the photos and we were hooked.
The detail that's gone into McLaren's miniature 720S is pretty impressive, following the lines of its daddy car nicely. From certain angles, you've really gotta look twice - mind you, this does not include angles that let you see up under the plastic bodywork. The signature side aeros are there, so is that sexy honeycomb design across the back and those wicked McLaren headlights.
Even the doors make a decent attempt at being dihedral, lifting upwards on little pneumatic struts... And there's carbon-look splitters and diffusers underneath to take maximal advantage of that walking-pace airflow and help suck those plastic tires down onto the tarmac.
McLaren has also seen fit to provide children with an infotainment system that can play music or even movies on the dash, and when your kids break your heart by sitting there watching Peppa Pig in the McLaren you just bought them instead of actually driving the thing, all is not lost. That's because there's also a remote control, which lets you drive the thing whether they're in there or not.
There's an argument to be had here about whether this kind of toy is really for the kids anyway. Let's be honest, it probably comes in a decent sized cardboard box that a kid's imagination could transform into a dark cave, a palace, a tank, a time machine, a dinosaur egg, a control room, a clubhouse, and 50 other things I'm too old and jaded to even think of as possibilities.
A beautifully executed miniature McLaren 720S, on the other hand, can really only be a miniature McLaren 720S. And however cool dad thinks a McLaren 720S is, don't be surprised if junior gets more fun out of the cardboard box. You can see a little kid and a big kid having some fun in the video below.
You can grab one for £315 (about US$400).
Source: McLaren