LEGO’s 10298 Vespa 125 set is wonderful in every way. Thus we love this miniaturised version by Flickr’s 1saac W., who has captured the iconic Italian scooter beautifully in brick-form. The set’s lovely blue colour is switched for cream, but if LEGO can do it themselves with their other Italian icon, cream is good enough for us! See more at 1saac’s photostream via the link!
We’re into the last week of BrickNerd and TLCB’s Festival of Mundanity competition. There have been over fifty entries so far, with two today bringing the hum-drum world of daily deliveries to the brick.
First up (above) is ABrickDreamer‘s Piaggio Ape, which might seem interesting to our American readers, but in rural Italy (or India) these scooter-based pick-up trucks are everywhere, hauling improbable loads with as little as 50cc.
In production since 1948, the latest Apes can be fitted with 200cc petrol or 400cc diesel engines (although 50cc versions are still on sale!), and continue to be a common sight performing the most mundane of tasks, usually with a wearing-looking moustachioed driver on board perpetually wishing he had an extra 200cc.
A common sight in much of the world too is today’s second contest entry, the Volkswagen Transporter. An no, it’s not a camper.
Still in use by the thousand in South America, most Volkswagen T2s are not cool campers, surf buses or hippy time machines, they’re just… vans. And outdated noisy ones at that.
This splendid brick-built Transporter is transporting eggs, and comes from PalBenglat, who has captured its unpretentious simplicity beautifully.
There’s more to see of Pal’s Volkswagen Transporter van and BrickDreamer’s Piaggio Ape at their respective photostreams via the links, and there’s still time to get your Festival of Mundanity entry in, and be in with a chance of winning an awesome BuWizz Pro bluetooth battery (which we’ll be reviewing here very soon) along with some other fantastic prizes!
The original Fiat 500 was so called because it was powered by a rear-mounted 500cc two-cylinder engine. Back in ’50s Europe though, you could go even smaller.
This is the Vespa 400, so called because – you’ve guessed it – it was powered by a rear-mounted 400cc two-cylinder engine, which came from a Piaggio motorcycle.
Said powerhouse afforded the 400 a top speed of just over 50mph (if you mixed the oil with the fuel correctly as it was two stroke), and like the 500 it could just about fit four people inside and featured a convertible canvas roof incase they were wearing tall hats.
This rather lovely Model Team recreation of the Vespa 400 comes from previous bloggee monstermatou, who has constructed it only from the parts found within the Creator Expert 10271 Fiat 500 set.
Monster’s got form too, with several of his ace alternates appearing here previously, one of which very nearly won the TLCB Lock-Down B-Model Competition.
There’s more to see of the Vespa 400 B-Model as well as monstermatou’s other alternates at his photostream, and you can do just that by clicking these words.
