Tag Archives: Hot Rod

A gangster’s roadster: please admire from a distance

A roadster too sleek for the 1930s. Open top and exposed engine. Is it some vintage Batmobile or a hot-rod noir? Jonathan Elliott presents his latest custom minifig-scale car to add to his portfolio, a roadster that could give the current Vintage Taxi GWP a run for its money. Lacking any other colour, there is just enough and barely enough chrome to break up a predominantly black visage. The owner of this vehicle must be classy and dangerous, and it definitely takes my mind to old gangster movies…

Black Roadster

If you see this parked in front of a speakeasy of your choice, RUN!
See more of Jonathan’s wonderful creations here.

I’d respect Batman more if he drove a car like this

We’re still waiting for the release of the next Batman movie, but we’ve already seen LEGO release some tie-in sets like the 42127 The Batman Batmobile. That’s a pretty decent set, but Nico71 has taken things even further into a totally awesome and new direction. Nicolas has rebuilt the core kit into a T-Bucket hot rod!

Also be sure to watch their great video that goes into more detail, including showing off the working V8 engine, light effects, and other customization options!

Click here to watch the video!

Krossing the Kookie T-Bucket off the T-Bucket list

In 1952 the gregarious larger-than-life Norm Grabowski took a ’31 Ford Model A V8 roadster and, with some unconventional customizations, made hot rodding history with his equally gregarious and larger-than-life Kookie T-Bucket. With its flashy red and blue color scheme and cartoonish proportions it was a pivotal car for sure. Norm’s T-bucket helped push hot rodding to the forefront of American pop culture. In fact, anyone building T-Buckets today borrows some DNA from this Kooky-T. Fast forward nearly 70 years later and LEGO car builder 1saac W. has paid homage to Norm and his Kookie-T and scratched this one off his T-bucket to-do list. Be sure to check out the other times we went totally kookie for 1saac’s stuff.

Norm Grabowski's Kookie T-bucket

They see me rolling, and they be laughing

The Clown Prince of Crime has his own distinctive colour scheme, and it’s used to great effect by Tony Bovkoon in this striking LEGO hot rod. This would be a cracking car model in its own right, but the colours and the fun additions like the bugle-hooters make it the perfect drive for everyone’s favourite villain. I can just imagine Joker and Harley rolling down the boulevards of Gotham in this bad boy, on their way to create some mayhem.
Joker’s hot rod
And you’ve got to love that Joker ponied-up for the zebra-skin seats and the custom gear stick…

Joker’s hot rod

The little roadster that could

Anyone even remotely familiar with hot rodding knows that the quintessential dream project is the ’32 Ford roadster. They’re always a favorite at car shows and Ian Ying pretty much reached hot rodding nirvana with this LEGO version. I can assure you, they didn’t look like this off the assembly line but with a bit of imagination and elbow grease, customizers back in the day would turn their Grandpa’s jalopies into these hot little roadsters. The classic black with red trim, whitewalls and flames is the pinnacle of perfection. Copious chrome and gold doesn’t hurt matters, either. Ian is proving to be an automotive LEGO-building legend with a penchant for shiny bling. Click in the blue link there to see what I mean.

32FordRoadster4

Yvan drops a powerful Deuce

It is moments like this that make me love this whole Brothers Brick gig. We find something cool while surfing the interwebs such as this custom LEGO Deuce Roadster by Yvan Bourdeau. We share this cool discovery with you. You, in turn, shower us with likes and comments and then maybe you are inspired to build something yourself. Shampoo, rinse, repeat. This custom roadster looks to be dropped, channeled and lowered, giving it a low and aggressive stance. Burnt orange and a light blue makes for a neat flashy color scheme and the exposed exhaust pipes are not without their charms. Throw in a cleanly built base and retro gas pump and you have yourself the makings of a day made just a little sweeter. If you’re like me, vehicles in general would make your heart go pitter-patter so enjoy clicking through the archives.

BURNT ORANGE #34 DEUCE ROADSTER

A lady and her hot rod

As a car nut, nothing makes my heart go pitter-patter more than a sweet custom hot rod. That’s why when I saw Sara Nelson’s LEGO classic custom Ford I paid extra-special attention, with the heart pittering and whatnot. With its removed fenders, lowered stance, ’34 Ford grille, and bold black and red color scheme, this is your quintessential car show favorite. Sara cites the work of Brothers Brick regular Letranger Absurde as her inspiration for the character and, now that she mentions it, I can see the influence there. There isn’t an archive to refer you to so this means Sara is new to our radar but someone we will certainly be on the lookout for in the future. In the meantime, buckle in and check out the archive of vehicles from other amazing builders.

Ready to Race!

Burnouts in the parking lot

Living near a school that hasn’t housed actual kids in several months, I am sometimes subject to seeing or hearing vehicles doing burnouts in the school parking lot. It’s a bummer because usually, the vehicle in question is a big honkin’ pickup truck with flags supporting a certain recently ousted public figure. I’d be slightly more thrilled if the neighborhood nuisance had a vehicle that looked a bit more like this LEGO chopped drag rod by Faber Mandragore. I love the use of Modulex bricks in the building in the background. The plate-built smoke plume is so convincing, I can just about hear the squeal of burning rubber on asphalt. No, wait, that’s actual burning rubber outside. It seems our neighborhood nuisance is back! While I deal with that, go ahead and take a gander at this builder’s archives.

Drag Rod

Cab-Over, Down Under

In other news today this LEGO render by Tauriel1 is totally something I’d be into. So much for unbiased reporting, then! With copious chrome, bitchin’ exhaust pipes, a flashy color, retro curves and mean honking’ tires, this cab-over truck checks all the boxes that makes my heart go pitter-patter. The builder, who apparently hails from Australia, tells us they were just having fun with this and keeping their mind occupied. If this is how they spend their time, then I will totally tune in to their frequency again sometime to see what they’re up to. Now that you all know what tickles my fancy, Christmas shopping for me has been made that much easier. You’re welcome, readers. You’re welcome.

Cab-Over

Getting ready for some historic driving

Like most hobbies, once you start to learn about LEGO you find that there can be a shocking amount of complexity behind just about every aspect. Sure, you can just sit back and enjoy the great photography and clever building that Faber Mandragore accomplished with Roadster Hot Rod. But let’s dig a little and peer into those murky depths. We can start out easy; the air filter in the car is a neck ruffle. An unusual choice, in that the element originated in the Collectible minifigure theme. Those sure look like steering wheels repurposed as the front wheel rims, inside tires introduced in 1959 and not produced since 1977. And is that a bucket handle forming the steering wheel? Each of these parts has a history in other sets and contexts that’s there if you want to go looking for it.

Roadster Hot Rod

But the deepest cut of LEGO history? Those exposed orange-ish bricks in the background are Modulex. Those are tiny architectural planning bricks that LEGO spun off as a side line back in the 1960s. Incorporating them into a standard LEGO creation is never easy, but it’s done here in a seamless fashion. Well, neglecting that the seams between the bricks are what helps unify the whole wall, anyway. *sigh* You know what I mean.

LEGO 40409 Hot Rod Gift With Purchase [Review]

The LEGO Store Gift With Purchase (GwP) offer for the month of June revives an old classic from the archives, reissued in a smaller form factor. The Hot Rod was originally released back in 1995 as the 5541 Blue Fury under the Model Team theme and reissued again in 2004 as the 10151 Hot Rod. This unique set of wheels comes free with purchases over US $85 | CAN $85 | GBP £85 and the offer is valid from 1st to 21st June 2020 (or while stocks last). We’re taking a quick look at this miniaturised version of the classic for you to decide if this is one to add to your collection.

Click to read the full review of the Hot Rod

Rudolf the hot rod brings toys and oatmeal to all the children of the world

With a bit more than a week left until Christmas, Santa will need to up his game if he wants to deliver toys to all the good children of the world (except, of course, those who don’t have Santa in their holiday traditions). Thankfully Ian Ying has a solution with this extra blingy Rudolf Hot Rod. It has all the horsepower (or deer-power) needed to get the job done and there is enough custom and official LEGO pieces in shiny chrome to make any hot rod enthusiast’s heart go pitter-patter. The red-nosed deer skull hood ornament offers a clue as to what became of Rudolf. Good riddance, I say! I just wish it had more trunk space. I don’t know about you but the list of toys I want is quite long and I’ve been such a good boy this year…at least on the books anyway. Also it seems this Santa bears a striking resemblance to this Wilford guy.

RudolphHotRod1