As a parent, there are some things I don’t want my kids to see. Most of them are things like violence, sex, or drugs on TV, or scary and frightening scenes. Yet there are other things, too, but for different reasons; in this latter category I count this amazing collection of custom-made fire trucks by Steven Asbury. I can already hear the clamoring and whining, “Daddy, I want ALL of those fire trucks! Build them!” But I can’t. For one, I don’t have enough red pieces to build all those trucks, and for another, I don’t posses Steven’s vehicle-building skills. The scaling between trucks and alongside minifigures looks amazing, with details surpassing the LEGO Group’s official fire trucks. This particular grouping of trucks makes up Fire Task Force 3, modeled after Los Angeles’ Task Force concept. From ladder and search & rescue trucks to ambulances, there is pretty much everything you would need to respond to just about any emergency in your city.

While I usually don’t like stickers on builds, and almost never put them on my own, I can’t help but appreciate how much they add to these trucks and their realism. From the old-school Town fire emblem and paramedic logo to all the identification numbers, they enhance each vehicle’s appearance by adding details that would be impossible to incorporate with bricks alone. Yet Steven is just as skilled with bricks. The vents on the top of the cabs of many of the vehicles are made of wheel spokes, and a wide variety of door elements are used. I also love the old 1x4x4 lift doors and 2×4 hinge gates.

Custom chrome elements make the fire trucks even better. Everyone knows that firefighters spend their time, when not fighting fires or rescuing cats from trees, polishing their trucks to a mirror-like sheen. Regular light grey (or bluish grey) would not work nearly as well. Really, the only bad thing about these fire trucks is that my son looked over my shoulder as I was typing this article, so it looks like I’ll be Bricklinking some more red parts pretty soon.

This is not the first time we have featured Steven’s incredible fire trucks. See more of them here and here.