Tag Archives: life size

Life-Size Lego Kia EV6

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LEGO bricks have been used to create all manner of life-size real-world replicas, from Volkswagen Campers to Ferrari Formula 1 cars, via motorcycles, pick-up trucks, supercars, and classics. Korean electric crossovers haven’t featured though. Until now.

Of course until recently, creating a life-size Kia from LEGO bricks would’ve been like making the world’s largest rice cracker; impressive and yet also immensely dull. However with Hyundai/Kia now making some of the most interesting cars on the market, recreating one from hundreds of thousands of LEGO pieces is no longer a pointless endeavour. Cue certified LEGO Professional Riccardo Zangelmi’s company BrickVision and Kia Italia, who have turned 350,000 LEGO bricks into a 1:1 replica of Kia’s EV6 electric crossover.

Riccardo’s team took over 800 hours to create the life-size EV6, plus a further four months to develop the illumination system used to recreate the real EV6’s lighting signature.

It seems that Kia Italia used that time to write some of the most nonsensical marketing guff that we’ve ever read to accompany the build, with phrases like “strongly characterising luminous personality in every circumstance”, and “particular surfaces with accentuated inclinations, an expression of refined design” two of our highlights.

You can read more automotive marketing gibberish like that via Auto&Design by clicking here, or you can watch Kia Italia’s video on the project – which is mercifully free from the thoughts of their marketing department – by clicking play below.

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Life-Size LEGO Supra

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LEGO have a long tradition of building life-size vehicles. From build-your-own McLarens, to full size Lamborghini sets, via drivable Bugattis, a Fiat 500, and a Ducati superbike, all manner of vehicles have been recreated in 1:1 scale from little plastic bricks.

Cue LEGO’s latest full-size creation, this time constructed for Legoland Japan over 4,500 hours, it’s the stunning Toyota GR Supra.

Pictured above alongside the real car, LEGO’s replica faithfully captures the GR Supra’s wild lines from 477,303 mostly-yellow LEGO bricks in 1:1 scale.

LEGO’s life-size GR Supra recreation also features a few components from the real Japanese sports car, including the wheels, tyres, seat and steering wheel. Why the wheels, tyres, seat, and steering wheel? Because this brick-built GR Supra can drive!

OK, it doesn’t feature the real GR Supra’s 3 litre inline six, but nevertheless an electric motor hidden within does enable this full scale model to move. We assume Legoland Japan has a similarly enormous skirting board to crash it into too, for the full Speed Champions experience.

The model’s top speed of 17mph doesn’t quite match the real GR Supra’s electronically limited v-max of 155mph, despite it weighing not too much more than the real deal, but we suspect that’s probably fast enough in a vehicle held together by studs-and-tubes.

Our Japanese readers can check out the full-size LEGO Toyota GR Supra at Legoland Japan where the model is on display, whilst the rest of us will have to make do with something considerably smaller…

Life-Size LEGO Lamborghini

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The LEGO Technic 42115 Lamborghini Sián FKP 37 set brought a hypercar we’d never heard of to the Technic line-up, complete with a mid-mounted V12, 8-speed sequential gearbox, and nearly 3,700 pieces, many of which were varying shades of bright lime green.

Following their 1:1 scale McLaren Senna, Bugatti Chiron, and Fiat 500, LEGO have life-sized their flagship 42115 Technic set, creating this astonishing 400,000 piece full-size replica of Lamborghini’s wild hybrid hypercar.

Sitting on genuine Lamborghini Sián wheels, this life-size LEGO replica took a team of fifteen model makers over 8,500 hours to design and build, which – besides just twenty bespoke pieces – uses only genuine LEGO parts.

These have been spray-painted (a life-size LEGO first), by Lamborghini’s own painter, perhaps to give it a uniform colour unlike the 42115 set…

The result is a spectacular 2.2 ton homage to Lamborghini’s limited-run hypercar, joining an already impressive line-up of life-size LEGO vehicles. You can check out all of the 1:1 scale LEGO models to appear here at The Lego Car Blog via the link above, and you can jump to the official 3,700-piece 42115 Technic Lamborghini Sián set available to buy in stores (on sale at the time of writing) by clicking here.

Panigale Pieces

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LEGO have a history of making incredible life-size replicas of both real-world vehicles and their own sets. This is their latest creation, and it’s a little different…

LEGO’s new 42107 Technic Ducati Panigale V4 R set joined the range earlier his year, and to celebrate the two firms’ collaboration they have worked together to create this; a fully working Ducati Panigale V4 R with a faring built entirely from LEGO Technic beams and pins, with no glue, no supporting structure, and no CAD.

Certified LEGO Professional Riccardo Zangelmi spent 400 hours creating the Ducati’s brick-built faring, using an estimated 15,000 Technic parts. The completed motorbike weighs 180kg (that’s the LEGO bricks and the real Ducati Panigale platform underneath them), and was unveiled at the Modena circuit in Italy by Ducati MotoGP rider Andrea Dovizioso.

It’s quite a cool looking experiment, and if you’d like to read more about the official 42107 Ducati Panigale V4 R set, LEGO’s first collaboration with Ducati, you can check out our set preview via the link in the text above.

Ghost Rider

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A film about a flaming motorcycle and little else, Ghost Rider is up there as one of the worst Nicholas Cage films in recent memory. And there are so many. Drive Angry, Outcast, Rage, Season of the Witch, Left Behind… they make us want to push his flaming motorcycle over in disgust at crimes against cinema. Fortunately that’s just what the contestants in the Lego Masters Australia TV show got to do with this incredible life-size motorbike by certified LEGO Professional Ryan McNaught and his team of builders.

Built from over 75,000 LEGO bricks, and with its hollow interior filled with loads more loose parts like some sort of brick-based piñata, the bike was smashed to provide pieces for an episode in the second season of the Australian version of the Lego Masters show entitled ‘Smash & Grab’. We suspect its destruction took a lot less than the 135 hours it took to build it, but that it made for great TV!

There’s more to see of Ryan’s life-size Lego motorbike on Flickr via the link above, and if you’re a German-speaking reader the Lego Masters show is looking for contestants for the German version right now! Click here to read about how to apply and maybe even score a TLCB Recommendation. For our non-German speaking readers (which will be most of you!), don’t worry – you can learn how to become a Lego professional via our aptly named ‘How to Become a Lego Professional’ series – click here to see how some of the bloggees here at TLCB  have done it!

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Life-Size Britten V1000 Motorcycle

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New Zealand doesn’t have much of an indigenous vehicle industry, but it’s a country that does love racing, and in the 1990s a small team from Christchurch formed a company and decided to build their own racing motorcycle. And it was incredible.

The Britten V1000 became one of the greatest racing motorbike designs of all time, pioneering carbon fibre extensively (this is before the McLaren F1), double wishbone front suspension, a frameless chassis, and even engine data logging.

Ten V1000s were produced, with the bike setting multiple speed and race records during the 1990s, including the highest top speed at the Isle of Man TT in 1993 and the fastest standing start mile under 1000cc, at over 200mph.

It’s quite a machine then, and so when certified LEGO Professional Ryan McNaught and his team of model makers were commissioned to build something for an Aukland-based client they chose to build this Kiwi icon of racing.

An exact 1:1 scale replica of one of the ten real Britten V1000s motorbikes, Ryan (aka The Brickman) and his team have used LEGO pieces to recreate every aspect of the record-setting bike, including the fantastically intricate exhaust and rear shock springs that make our head hurt just looking at them.

This amazing build will go on display at Toyco 2020 in New Zealand, so if you’re reading this from Aukland go and check it out! For the rest of our readers you can head to Ryan McNaught’s ‘Britten V-1000’ Flickr album to see more of this spectacular life-size replica.

Life-Size LEGO Fiat 500

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LEGO’s new 10271 Creator Expert Fiat 500 set has got us very excited. The press seems to like to too, with many inevitable jokes about how the real Fiat 500 is basically a model car anyway. Well LEGO have risen to that challenge! Built from 189,000 pieces (around 188,000 more than the set), LEGO’s expert model makers have constructed an exact 1:1 life-size scale replica of the iconic Italian classic.

Apart from the steering wheel – which is a real item from a 1960s 500 – everything is built from LEGO bricks, including the tyres, seats, and luggage rack (with luggage). A motor show-style cut out on the passenger side facilities entry, which the public will be able to do as this life-sized LEGO Fiat is due to go on tour to launch the new 10271 set.

YouTube Video

You can see how LEGO constructed the 1:1 Fiat 500 via the video above, you can check out our preview of the new 10271 Creator Expert Fiat 500 set by clicking here, and you see a fan-built 500 that arguably got there first by clicking this link.

Ride-On LEGO

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Every Lego fan has wanted to do it. We’ve all imagined what it would be like, dreaming that one day, if we tried hard enough, it might just be possible. And some have even got close. No, we’re not referring to talking to a girl, but building a real, ride-on, controllable Lego creation.

That unrealised dream has now become a reality for the guys at third-party bluetooth brick builders BuWizz, who have built an actual ride-on go-kart (OK, ‘mobility scooter’ might be a better description…) from seven thousand LEGO pieces!

Thirty-two Large Power Functions motors power all four wheels (via individual in-wheel motors actually, meaning their creation could feature torque vectoring!), with eight BuWizz bricks providing the power and control via the BuWizz mobile app. They’ve even managed to talk to a girl and convince her drive it.

You can watch their amazing creation in action via the video below and read more about it at the BuWizz website, plus if you’d like to learn more about the little bluetooth battery control that allows a creation like this to happen you can read our review of the BuWizz brick here.

YouTube Video

Plus Size

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LEGO’s new Control+ app has finally brought bluetooth control to LEGO sets. Available on the new 42100 Technic Liebherr R 980 excavator set, the largest set LEGO have ever produced, the Control+ app allows all seven motors to be operated, and programmed, via a mobile device.

But what if the new app was used to control something a bit… larger?

Weighing 890 tons and with around 4,000 bhp the real Liebherr R 9800 excavator is the third largest excavator in the world and it has, courtesy of LEGO and TLCB Master MOCer Sariel, been turned into the world’s largest remote control toy.

With a suite of ingenious motorised Technic mechanisms installed in the cab the real Liebherr R 9800’s controls could be operated remotely through the new LEGO Control+ app, allowing it to drive, steer and excavate via a mobile phone just like the 42100 set. Only on a much much bigger scale.

Take a look a video above to see how the team did it, and get some ideas for how to control your annoying neighbour’s Honda Odessey through your phone…

Honda Civbrick Type R

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Life-Size LEGO vehicles have been popping up all over the place of late. From a Bugatti that really drives to a McLaren Senna you can sit in, Chevrolet pick-ups to Volkswagen Campers, and even the humble Toyota Camry, every manufacturer seems to want to see their car built in Lego form.

Honda Australia are the latest to give it a go, courtesy of LEGO Professional and previous bloggee Ryan McNaught and his team of nine master builders.

320,000 bricks and 1,300 hours later and Honda’s Civic Type R has been perfectly recreated in LEGO bricks, from the badge on the bonnet to the wild floating rear wing, with even the wheels constructed from standard LEGO pieces.

Ryan’s Honda Civic was commissioned to coincide with the launch of the ‘LEGO Masters’ TV series airing later this month, in which teams of builders will compete in various construction challenges in the hope of winning $100,000, and where Ryan is one of the show’s judges.

The life-size Civic will go on tour around Australia over the coming months, and if you’re a little too far from Aus  to see the model in person (basically from anywhere that isn’t Australia) click these words to watch a short video of the car courtesy of Honda Australia.

Life-Size McLaren Senna

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Lego McLaren Senna Life-Size

No TLCB hasn’t suddenly gone all low-res, that really is a life-size McLaren Senna hypercar, and it really is made from LEGO bricks. Almost a quarter of a million of them.

Over 2,700 hours were required to built it (plus a similar number in design) with the end result weighing around 1.7 tons. That’s considerably more than any real McLaren road car.

Lego McLaren Senna Life-Size

This life-size LEGO creation is not entirely bricks mind, as LEGO designer Lubor Zelinka and the team of thirty model model-makers behind it have used actual McLaren Senna wheels and have fitted a real McLaren Senna seat, steering wheel and starter button into the cockpit.

That means this life-size LEGO McLaren can be sat in, and with all 467,854 pieces glued you won’t be able to knock anything off! You can do just that too, as the model goes on tour this summer, including a trip to the Goodwood Festival of Speed where previous life-size builds have featured.

Lego McLaren Senna Life-Size

If you’re a UK-based reader of this site, or you fancy a trip to the UK, you can get your tickets for Goodwood here, and if you fancy your own LEGO McLaren Senna, but don’t have a quarter of a million bricks at your disposal, LEGO’s official Speed Champions McLaren Senna set is available to buy now for £12.99.

Lego McLaren Senna Life-Size

#Van Life(Size)

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Lego Volkswagen T2 Transporter Life-Size

Once the preserve of smelly hippies, the Volkswagen Transporter Camper has unfortunately now become the default vehicle of insufferable YouTube/Instagrammers promoting #vanlife and #adventure (but mostly themselves), all whilst never being further than fifty feet from a Starbucks’ free WiFi.

Still, that’s not the Transporter’s fault, and today we’re successfully dodging all of the T2’s millennial baggage because, despite the real Volkswagen wheels, this incredible van has been built from 400,000 LEGO bricks by Certified LEGO Professionals Rene Hoffmeister and Pascal Lenhard in just 6 weeks!

Lego Volkswagen T2 Transporter Life-Size

Weighing over 1,500lbs/700kgs and measuring 16ft long Rene Hoffmeister and Pascal Lenhard’s creation is an exact 1:1 scale replica of Volkswagen’s iconic 1960/70s T2 Transporter Camper. There’s even a superbly replicated interior inside the working sliding door, complete with a kitchenette, a functional pop-up roof, and some groovy artwork on the walls. And with no insufferable YouTubers around there’s not an all-natural-vegan-organic-peace-crisp-packet in sight!

Rene and Pascal’s amazing life-size T2 Camper is on show now at the F.re.e Travel and Leisure Fair in Munich (alongside a few real ones), and if you fancy your own LEGO Volkswagen Camper (although a bit smaller) you can check out our review of the official LEGO 10220 Creator Expert Volkswagen Camper set here.

Life-Size LEGO Volkswagen T2 Camper

334,000-Piece Life-Size Chevrolet Silverado

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Lego Chevrolet Silverado

Yup, LEGO have done it again! The latest in a series of life-size replicas (which included a fully drivable Bugatti Chiron don’t forget!), LEGO have added Chevrolet to their list of real-world vehicles built from bricks.

This is the new 2019 Chevrolet Silverado 1500 ‘Trail Boss’ pick-up truck. Well, the one on the left is. The one on the right that looks slightly lower-res is in fact a 334,000 piece full-size LEGO replica of Chevy’s new mid-size truck.

Built by a team of eighteen Master Builders the LEGO Chevy took over 2,000 hours to assemble, measures 20 feet long, 8 feet wide and 6 feet high (exactly the same as the real Silverado), and weighs over 1.5 tons.

Lego Chevrolet Silverado

Commissioned as part of Chevrolet’s tie-up with Warner Brothers Pictures (the guys behind the upcoming The LEGO Movie 2), the brick-built Silverado is currently on display at the Detroit North American Auto Show alongside its more metallic counterparts.

Readers in Detroit (or visiting the Auto Show from further afield) will be able to see the life-size LEGO pick-up at the Chevrolet stand until January 27th, where there’s also a truck-load of LEGO bricks available to play with. For the rest of us not near Detroit but wondering how a 334,000-brick pick-up truck is built, take a look at the video below…

YouTube Video

Life-Size LEGO Bugatti Chiron… That Really Drives.

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Lego Technic Bugatti Chiron Life-Size

LEGO’s enormous 3,600 piece 42083 Technic Bugatti Chiron is very probably the greatest set in the brand’s already impressive history. Designed with Bugatti themselves and featuring a replica W16 engine and an eight-speed paddle-shift gearbox, 42083 has taken Technic building to new heights.

But what if you had access to another 996,400 pieces and almost 13,500 man-hours? Cue a gravelly-voiced narrator and some overly dramatic music…

Yes LEGO have built their 42083 Bugatti Chiron set for real, and not only that they’ve made it really, actually, genuinely drive too. No glue was used anywhere in the build and the power comes from 2,304 LEGO Technic Power Functions electric motors – the very same ones that you can buy in stores.

Life Size Lego Bugatti Chiron

With a weight of around 1.5 tons and an estimated 5.3bhp and 92N/m of torque, the fully-functioning speedometer aboard the life-size Technic Chiron was unlikely to read anywhere close to the real Chiron’s 260mph+ top speed.

However just to be safe (or because it’s very cool!), LEGO put Le Mans winner and actual Bugatti development driver Andy Wallace behind the brick-built steering wheel for the car’s test run at the Ehra Lessien track.

Life Size Lego Bugatti Chiron

It’s one heck of an achievement and one that’s unlikely to be topped unless LEGO find of way of making a working space shuttle. You can find out more about this amazing feat at LEGO’s Bugatti ‘Build for Real’ website, and you see a rather more home-built attempt at creating a fully-drivable life-size car from LEGO bricks by clicking here.

LEGO Technic Bugatti Chiron Life Size

Life-Size Lego Toyota Camry

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Life-Size Lego Toyota Camry 2018

This is the new 2018 Toyota Camry. Except this one hasn’t been made on a mind-bendlingly efficient Toyota production line. Nope, this 2018 Camry has been hand-built from around half-a-million LEGO bricks.

Commissioned by Toyota Australia, certified LEGO Professional Ryan McNaught (aka The Brickman) and his team have recreated an exact life-size replica of the new Camry sedan, complete with working headlights, brake lights and turn signals. Weighing in at over two tons Ryan’s Lego replica costs more than the real car in bricks alone, is significantly heavier, and at 900 hours took fifty times longer to build than those clever Japanese robots take to make the real thing.

Life-Size Lego Toyota Camry 2018

Ryan’s incredible life-size Toyota Camry can be seen in-person at the Brickman Awesome show (currently in Melbourne, Australia) and you can see more of this amazing build courtesy of the Toyota Australia video below.

YouTube Video