In one of our previous discussions, we talked about adding classic vehicles to your LEGO city for a bit of interesting variety, and using vehicle designs from official LEGO sets as a template (see: Classic Style LEGO Cars in Official LEGO Sets). Classic vehicles fit particularly well with the LEGO Modular Buildings, as the two cars that come in the collection (fire engine in #10197 LEGO Creator Fire Brigade, and limousine in #10232 LEGO Creator Palace Cinema) both depict vehicles from the 1930s. Even if your LEGO city is in more modern times, you might have some minifigs tinkering on an old car in their garage. 🙂
One of my most favorite classic car designs is from the extremely rare 2015 San Diego Comic-Con exclusive LEGO Action Comics #1 Superman set. The set is only 145 pieces, but because of its rarity, it sells for hundreds of dollars on eBay. Unless you are a collector of rare sets, it’s not really worth getting it at that price. Instead, you can just copy the design of the vehicle to make your own. You can download the building steps from the BrickFan.
The original car in the LEGO Action Comics #1 Superman set is standard green with yellow detailing to match the iconic artwork from the cover of the original comic book. There is some debate going on about what kind of vehicle the picture actually depicts, but according to this very interesting article, it could be a 1937 DeSoto, a 1937 Plymouth, or perhaps a 1937 Ford sedan.
While you can easily rebuild the vehicle in green from the LEGO Action Comics #1 Superman set, as all the pieces are common, the roof-piece in green is exclusive to this set, and pretty much impossible to find. However, the same roof element is readily available in white, black, yellow, red, dark-red, and light-gray.
When I decided to rebuild the LEGO Action Comics #1 Superman car, I choose not to use green, as for me the standard LEGO green doesn’t look like a common color for classic vehicles, and I wasn’t really building it for Superman, but for my LEGO city. When you look at the parts-list for the set on BrickLink, you will notice that most of the pieces are available in many different colors, so you have plenty of color options. The only thing you need to keep in mind is the limited color choices for the roof. However as long as the rest of the body matches the roof color, you should be good to go.
I chose to build the vehicle in black, dark-red, medium-blue, and tan, but you can also make it in other colors like yellow, bright-light-orange, red, blue, dark-blue and dark-tan. You can also pick combination colors like tan and dark-tan, which would look really nice with a white roof. Another nice combo could be blue and dark-blue with a black roof. And yellow works well for a taxi, especially if you add some checkered stickers (remember though, that the vehicle can only seat one minifig).
The reason I went with black, dark-red, and tan is because those are such iconic colors for classic cars. I added the medium-blue variation later, when I found those curved slope pieces with beautiful silver prints (from #41053 LEGO Disney Princess Cinderella’s Dream Carriage). I consider this a special edition for choicy minifigs.
Another option you might consider is a convertible version of the LEGO Action Comics #1 Superman car. This can be achieved very easily by just removing the roof and the back window section, and replacing it with a 2×4 curved slope, to make it look like a folded canvas top. I decided not to do this, as I already have other open top vehicles in my city, but it does look sweet.
Anyhow, I just wanted to show you my alternate color versions of the LEGO Action Comics #1 Superman car, as I know many LEGO fans are interested in this vehicle. If you like this vehicle, and built some other variations, feel free to share in the comment section below! 😉
And you might also like to check out the following related posts:
I love the classic car builds. In fact in the monster fighter sets there were a couple of classic cars. ( mind you they were modified to capture monsters. ) but, the cars had that classic car look to it .
Yeah, Monster Fighters has some neat classic cars. Also, the Indiana Jones sets. 🙂
I might have to come back to this if I ever want a classy car for a city… they look great, especially the front!
I really like the design too. May even build some more. Perfect size for something like the Modulars.
I like your color choices a lot! My favorites are the maroon and the tan, but the others are also very classy. Nice use of those printed arches! Are there any other printed arches like that?
I think that’s the only printed arch with that specific shape. There are some other neat printed arches though that could be used with a bit of modification. 🙂