Matthew Inman made this vintage Toyota Land Cruiser with a lot dedication, some superhuman sense of detail and 1,700 Lego bricks. It’s simply amazing. It’s got a tiny little transfer case! Leaf Springs! Look at that little bitty fan belt!
Inman loves Land Cruisers and off-roading, and told Toyota his first car was a 40-Series:
“I’ve had so many great trips and so many great memories. My favourite outback trip was probably travelling across the Nullarbor Plain following the Transcontinental railway line and then exploring north on some of the Len Beadell tracks such as the Connie Sue Highway. I’ve also competed in some four-wheel drive competitions which were a lot of fun.”
The truck we’re looking at here is supposed to be a BJ42. Check it out up close!
This summer the design was submitted to what’s called a Lego Ideas contest. That’s exactly what it sounds like; people build their own creations out of Legos and if they hit a certain number of “supporter” votes the idea gets pitched up the chain to become a kit we can all buy in the store.
Inman’s actually getting pretty close, too. As I’m writing this right now the Land Cruiser kit has 6,123 supporters and almost two whole years to make it to the 10,000 mark. At that point, apparently, Lego will officially endorse it and sell it to the rest of us! I wonder if they might run into licensing issues with Toyota, but Lego’s a big brand... I bet they could work something out with Toyota’s marketing department.
Anyway, if you’re into it you can vote for the kit right here, though you do have to make some kind of Lego login. But I hope you do, because I totally want to add this to the stable of toys off-roading on my desk all day!
Images via Lego
Contact the author at andrew@jalopnik.com.