LEGO F1 Collectible Race Cars hit the shelves early

It comes around quicker every time – in fact, it’s come around quicker than expected this time as LEGO F1 Collectible Race Cars are already on sale.

Despite being scheduled for a May 1 release, stores in the United States and the UK have put 71049 on shelves more than a week early. In fact, in the US, there were sightings of F1 Collectible Race Cars being on sale over a week ago.

While that did allow Brick Search to grab a first batch of scannable codes – the Collectibles are once again in blind box packaging – it was a surprise, and raised the question of when they would start to appear in other parts of the world.

That’s been answered as at least one retailer in the UK has gone early as well, which means Brick Search is in the process of getting those codes too and adding them to the database. We’ve also read social media whispers of a store in France having them on sale as well.

The LEGO Group introduced scannable codes on Collectible Minifigure blind box packaging with Series 25, released in early 2024, and they have been ever-present since.

Brick Search’s minifigure box scanner reads the codes on the base and matches them to the minifigure – or race car in 71049’s case – and shows app users what’s inside the box. There’s no need to open the box to find out what’s inside, and you can then only buy the ones you want. The scanner also works with or without internet connection and is capable of scanning multiple boxes at once.

Available for both iOS and Android devices, Brick Search offers unlimited use of the minifigure scanner to Brick Search Plus members. A monthly membership is £1.99 / $2.99 while a yearly membership is £19.99 / $29.99. Yearly members also get access to the Brick Search Plus newsletter and Discord server.

You can find out more about Brick Search Plus by reading the FAQ.

There are 12 F1 Collectible Minifigures to get – one for each F1 team, one generic F1-branded car and one for the F1 Academy. An individual box is £3.49 / $4.99 / €3.99, while boxes of 36 are available at Brick Deals, where there is currently a 15% saving to be had.