Sometimes bigger projects get furloughed by a lack of parts and waiting on orders. In the meantime, Isaac W. has whipped up this LEGO Volkswagen T1 Shorty with the parts he had on hand. It reminds me a bit of the zinger custom car phenomenon of the 70’s. What’s neat is the 15-stud long kayak is just slightly longer than this Shorty T1. Cool, right?
As much as I like building LEGO cars, I never quite got into building contemporary car models. On a small scale it will never be possible to capture all the details. So, to make a LEGO car model recognisable, it helps for the real car to look distinctive. You can mess up a lot when building a Hummer or a Volkswagen Beetle and they will still be identifiable. Unfortunately, a lot of modern cars kind of look the same. Perhaps none more so than Japanese cars.
Last year I went to Japan BrickFest. If the COVID-19 pandemic won’t prevent it, I hope to go again next year. With that in mind, I’ve been building more and more Japanese cars. So far I’ve managed to build a fair few recognisable ones, including an ambulance and a rather wacky-looking courier van. I’m still looking for more distinctive examples, though. My most recent Japanese cars are the Toyota Crown and a Subaru Impreza WRX.
This LEGO concept car by Vince Toulouse has super-strong TRON:Legacy vibes. I mean…c’mon. Hubless Car could have been lifted right off the game grid. Okay, it’s not all black and neon like the rest of that world. But if Master Control ever lightened up on the color choices, red and sand blue would be awesome additions. Certainly, no one will complain about the general shape; it’s futuristic, sleek, and streamlined. And it’s just “real world possible” enough to feel like something you could drop a ton of money to own in the real world.
On the LEGO front, there are some fun part choices to call out. The canopy is a 5x9x5 half-sphere from the Jurassic World sets. The fins on the side are Bionicle skates, with the printed 2×2 logo tile sourced from a 2004’s Alpha Team: Mission Deep Freeze sets.
In this alternate angle, you can really see the intricate shaping that makes this model pop. I love the curves coming off of the rear wheels, and bracketing the spoiler. And those front forks… If you’re not a fan of TRON, maybe you’d be comfortable dropping this vehicle into the Blade Runner universe as a variation on the Spinner.
Hello, I’m Lino Martins, Brothers Brick Contributor, LEGO car builder, humorist, and occasional responsible adult. Recently I’ve taken on the decidedly irresponsible task of building the famous Hot Wheels Splittin’ Image concept car from 1969. I’ve wanted to do this for a while but fretted at the notion of building yet another car in a common LEGO color. Then LEGO had the fortitude to come out with the new Creator Fiat 500 set in light yellow. From there, I just knew this was going to be my Splittin’ Image! With two copies of this set, I had just enough sunshiny yellow goodness to construct the odd double hull. I also had just enough exhaust pipe pieces to run from the powerful engine all the way back to the rear of the car.
The canopies open to reveal a white 60’s era retro-futuristic interior. Instead of a traditional steering wheel, you get a rather spacey pilot’s yoke because…why not, right? Sometimes we just have to be irresponsible adults and build something as silly and outlandish as this Splittin’ Image. Here’s to building more irresponsible things from all of us in the near future. Cheers!
LEGO builder Chris Vesque tells us that in a very specific time of his life, before skateboarding, before hip hop, before punk rock, before geeks and fandom…just a bit past Star Wars and Classic Space, there was Krass & Bernie. He goes on to say how CARtoons Magazine and the art of George Trosley captured his imagination and his funny bone. Krass and Bernie is a comic penned by Trosley about two car customizing enthusiasts who are short on good sense but long in creativity and ingenuity. Their misadventures often culminate in something as ridiculous and over-the-top as this dragster-beetle. The beefy tires, the blown V-8 and the Beetle that seems to defy gravity are the stuff that can only exist in CARtoon dreams. I’m smitten! Whether it be the screaming hand Santa Cruz skateboarding logo or the Beastie Boys License to Ill album cover we’ve been smitten with Chris’ counterculture LEGO stuff before.
LEGO custom car superstar Ian Ying is on something of a roll. In hot pursuit of his recent LEGO dragster, here comes a beast of a concept racer. This thing is all smooth sports car lines up-front, and then mad-as-a-box-of-frogs supercharged drag racer at the back. The angles and curves, built with a smart selection of tiles and slopes, are spot-on, and together with the restrained use of stickers and a nicely-blocked colour scheme manage to make this look like a much bigger model than it really is. But there’s no getting away from it; the stupid/amazing turbocharged engine and enormous wheels to the rear grab all the attention. And quite rightly too; the whole thing is gloriously over the top!
The good things about standards are that there are so many of them. Take for example the seemingly simple measurement of how wide a LEGO car should be. The City theme usually sticks to four and six stud widths, and most fan creations have followed that guideline. That standard certainly made things easier for collaborative town displays. But recently we’ve got a game-changer in a new 8 stud wide standard for Speed Champions vehicles. Builders have already started to explore this larger scale’s additional detail and upgraded real-world shaping. But not every stud count has to be even. Jonathan Elliott has created a De Tomaso Pantera supercar in a seven stud width.
Jonathan’s 6-stud version was already great, but there’s a lot to love about this new take. Built around the new Speed Champions windscreen, it also incorporates new mudguards and more extensive use of 1×2 cheese slope tiles. The shaping is just superb, and I’m looking forward to seeing what Jonathan tackles next at this scale.
When getting from point A to point B in a regular car just doesn’t cut it, then you need a supercar. But when a supercar doesn’t make your discerning heart go pitter-patter anymore then a LEGO builder who goes by the name of 3D supercarBricks has the solution for you. It’s a pretty super Bugatti Chiron GT in striking yellow and black. Categorized as a Hypercar, this Chiron is what happens when a supercar rises to the top 1%. With 1500 horsepower, and topping out at 261mph, the real-life Bugatti Chiron GT is a technological marvel. While much slower, this LEGO version also isn’t without its charms. A brief perusal through this builder’s Flick photostream proves 3D supercarBricks lives up to their name, which is a good thing because photos of LEGO cats or houses would have been totally weird.
LEGO car master Firas Abu-Jaber offers us two-for-one with his latest creation: first-up, delivering a 1968 Dodge Charger using only the pieces from the 10265 LEGO Ford Mustang set, and then putting together a sleek black and chrome version of the same design. Both cars are excellent, with the sleek lines given more than a hint of brutish power with the prominent engine blocks poking from the bonnet. Personally I prefer the mean and moody look of the black and chrome, although I’d happily have either sitting in my driveway. But seriously Firas, restricting yourself to a parts selection designed to create a particular make and model, but building a different make and model?!? If the results weren’t so good, I’d suggest that’s borderline masochism!
My stars, have you seen the lowbrow tomfoolery these Brothers Brick writers get away with? Some days I just want to clutch my pearls and retreat to the fainting couch. That is why I was delighted to see this classic Duesenberg by LEGO builder Łukasz Libuszewski. The tires are painted, but that is probably the only good way to replicate whitewalls in this scale. Speaking of scale, being only six studs wide, this classic car proves you don’t need to be a Rockefeller with mountains of LEGO in order to grace our pages. It doesn’t hurt that the photography of this creation is top-notch. Keep it classy, Brothers Brick!
Last year, British Formula 1 driver Lewis Hamilton won his 6th world champion title. Although he has to win one more championship to equal Michael Schumacher’s achievement, his career statistics are remarkable, to say the least. Half of his success is, of course, his outstanding driving talent, but the other half is always the car. Noah_L pays tribute to incredible Mercedes-AMG F1 W10, which Lewis piloted during 2019 season. The scale of the model, which appears to be around 1:15, sets a whole bunch of designing challenges.
Formula 1 cars are known for their supersophisticated aerodynamic elements, which are always hard to build. But according to the builder’s comment, matching the livery was the most challenging part. Certain parts of the car’s body are colored in turquoise, which is the signature color of Mercedes’ sponsor, Petronas. Although more and more types of LEGO pieces appear in dark turquoise since 2018, the assortment is still pretty limited. However, Noah did a fantastic job recreating the livery as precisely as possible.
Sometimes you just want to shirk all responsibilities, grow a mullet and get a ’69 Dodge Charger R/T. I mean, come on, look at it! It’s beautiful! Clearly, Tony Bovkoon knows what I’m talking about. The Statue of Liberty only further illustrates that this car is classic American muscle. That’s freedom right there! In this car, shirts don’t need sleeves, jeans are acid-washed and the radio dial never veers away from anything that doesn’t play Freebird or Born to be Wild on a continuous loop. When you’ve got a ’69 Charger, a mullet and a GED the world opens up to a myriad of possibilities. Some of them involve getting burgers, drag racing, raisin’ hell, and maybe smoking a doobie or two.
Click here to go for a ride into the sunset.
