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There’s really no need to overthink things when it comes to Lego, well, that is unless you’re attempting to make the most lifelike models possible. Then there’s a ton of thinking involved. And, if you’re of a certain age, probably lots of beer, cursing, and the occasional table lift when that totally awesome, precisely scaled Mazda MX-5 Miata is shattered by your curious child or an errant girlfriend. (Wait, you ask, we play with Lego and have girlfriends? Trust us, it’s possible!) We dig Lego here at Car and Driver, partly because so many of us grew up on the snap-together toys, but mostly because our preferred pastimes mirror those of the average 7-year-old. And now we’ve come across a sweet new book, The Art of Lego Scale Modeling, that has our inner modelers itching to grab a few bricks and go nuts.
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Compiled by Lego modelers Dennis Glaasker and Dennis Bosman, the book is quite simple in concept, being fairly light on text but heavy on photos of true-to-scale homebrew Lego vehicles ranging from boats to planes to, yes, of course, cars. We were expecting more of a how-to (there are some tips and suggestions on the last few pages, including some notes on Lego’s own excellent sets—those are some of our staffers’ licensed models in the photo below), but in actuality the book is more of a nice compendium of hyper-realistic Lego projects intended to stir your inner creative soul into experimenting on your own. At that task, the book proved highly successful; we now desperately want for more Lego than we currently own—you know, like a chest full of pieces of varying sizes, colors, and the lot—so that we can set about figuring out how to build models of our favorite cars and heavy construction equipment.
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- This Custom Lego Toyota Pickup Is Way Cooler than Marty McFly’s
- Lego’s New Ferrari F40 Kit Is the Ferrari F40 of Lego Kits
- Who Toppled Ferrari As the Most Powerful Brand? Lego
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Some of the book’s highlights include an incredible Porsche 962C race car, Niki Lauda’s Ferrari 312T F1 car, and a gigantic crane truck. Seriously, the hardcover is pregnant with inspiration, and many of the builds can make Lego’s in-house kits (Mini Cooper, Volkswagen T1 Camper van, Ferrari F40, and Batman’s Tumbler) seem tame. Grab yourself a copy for $ 29.95—available here, the book will be released next month—and send all familial and spousal complaints to 1585 Eisenhower Place, Ann Arbor, Michigan.
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