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LEGO Bugatti Chiron mini version

by Thita (admin) on June 27, 2018

The recently released #42083 LEGO Technic: Bugatti Chiron is the ultimate 1:8 scale replica of the real vehicle, with a wealth of luxurious features, including aerodynamic bodywork with an active rear wing, logoed spoked rims with low-profile tires, detailed brake discs, W16 engine with moving pistons, and more. We have talked about the set in detail here: LEGO Technic Bugatti Chiron Available Now! What I wanted to show you today are a couple of alternatives in case you find the LEGO Technic version of the Chiron a little too big and pricey for your taste. 🙂

Don’t get me wrong, the #42083 LEGO Technic: Bugatti Chiron is an amazing LEGO set, and if you are into realistic car models, you should definitely consider getting it. LEGO Technic’s unique feature is that it focuses on recreating the mechanics of a vehicle, so you get a great experience in advanced building techniques. LEGO Technic is pretty much the pinnacle of advanced modeling with LEGO. In addition, LEGO Technic sets of recent years also look great on display with the help of specially designed LEGO Technic panels and other unique pieces. So, yes, it’s an awesome set, but it is also very big (3,599 pieces, and measures over 5” high, 22”long and 9” wide), and very expensive ($349.99). If you don’t have the display room and/or the funds to get this awesome set, but you would like to have a Bugatti Chiron in your collection, there are other choices.

First of all, last year, LEGO released the #75878 LEGO Speed Champions Bugatti Chiron in the LEGO Speed Champions collection (see below). Although this is a small, minifig-scale car, it captures the shaping and colors of the Bugatti Chiron quite well with the help of some clever building techniques and stickers. As this model is minifig-scale it can fit perfectly in your LEGO city display right out of the box.

If you feel that the LEGO Speed Champions version is a little too simple and small for your taste, there is also a slightly larger and much more complex option, created by LEGO fan Gerald Cacas. Gerald is known for his small, but realistic LEGO vehicles; often beefed up versions of LEGO Speed Champions cars. Gerald’s Bugatti Chiron is seven studs wide, so just a bit wider than the LEGO Speed Champions version. However, it includes many of the features of the large LEGO Technic Bugatti Chiron. This includes the iconic curves around the windows/doors and the front of the hood (created with LEGO flex-tubes cut to size), opening doors, opening hood with a mini version of the Bugatti overnight bag inside, adjustable rear wing, tan interior with brick-built seats and other details, and more. Gerald was even able to replicate the splitting body feature of the large LEGO Speed Champions Bugatti Chiron with removable engine. Check out the video below to see all the details and functions.

Really cool, isn’t it? I very much like the splitting feature, the removable engine, and the nicely detailed interior. It’s too bad that some of the colors are not available in dark-azure, so Gerald had to use regular blue pieces instead, but it is quite possible that in the future LEGO will release those parts in dark-azure as well. If you would like to build your own mini Bugatti Chiron, Gerald shows many of the individual components in detail both in the video above and at his flickr gallery. And, you are unable to figure out some of the sections or building techniques, he is happy to answer questions.

What do you think? How do you like the LEGO Technic Bugatti Chiron? Do you have it already? And what do you think of the custom mini version? Are you planning to build it? Feel free to share your thoughts in the comment section below! 😉

And you might also like to check out the following related posts:

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Illuminated & animated billboards for LEGO

by Thita (admin) on June 26, 2018

in Useful Resources

LEGO customizer BrickStuff is known for making very high-quality light-kits for LEGO sets and custom creations. Many of the lighted LEGO displays you find online and at LEGO conventions are powered by BrickStuff lights. The uniqueness of BrickStuff is that their lights are so tiny and their wires so thin that they can fit inside and run between the smallest LEGO elements. Besides offering starter-kits and individual modules to power your LEGO creations, BrickStuff also offers already preassembled kits to light up some of the most popular LEGO sets. We discussed BrickStuff’s products in detail previously (see: Light Up Your LEGO Models with BrickStuff), and today, I wanted to bring your attention to their newest product: illuminated and animated billboards! 🙂

I first became aware of BrickStuff’s new billboards through Twitter, and I was immediately impressed. No other LEGO customizer produces such a product, so this is totally unique. The billboards are 5″ long by 2.5″ tall (126mm x 64mm) and feature a custom, full-color image, printed on top of flexible electroluminescent (EL) material that has been divided into sections based on the graphic design. Each billboard has a total of five sections, and when connected to the included power supply, the sections animate in sequence, creating a non-stop light show you can mount just about anywhere in your LEGO city.

Each kit includes one billboard with 7-wire connecting cable, one power supply/lighting animation driver, and one strip of sticky squares. The power supply can operate on either four AAA batteries, or a connecting cable is also included that works with the standard BrickStuff power supplies. You can either use batteries to power the billboard or connect it to the rest of your BrickStuff lights to power everything centrally.

These illuminated and animated billboards are the same size as an 8×16 LEGO plate, so you can use the included sticky squares to attach the billboard to a plate to design your own billboard frame, or attach to the side of a building or any other flat surface.

There are currently eight different billboard designs, advertising Brickville Airlines, a diner, a barbershop, a coffee house, the BrickTrak metro-liner, the Octan Racing team, the Brickville power company, and Ace Brickman’s private investigator services. You can see how each of the billboards is illuminated and animated at BrickStuff’s website. Below is just one example so you can see how awesome it looks.

As mentioned above, each of the billboard kits includes everything to set up your billboard, except for batteries and LEGO pieces that you might want to use to build a custom frame. The billboard kits are $43 each, which is not cheap, however even just one of these billboards is enough to add something very unique to your LEGO city or LEGO Modular Building layout.

I also really like that the artwork on the billboards is LEGO-ized. The diner billboard even features the #10260 LEGO Creator Downtown Diner, and the barbershop and private investigator billboards are references to the #10246 LEGO Creator Detective’s Office. The other billboards also refer to iconic characters/vehicles/scenes from official LEGO sets, like the Octan racing team, and Larry the barista from The LEGO Movie.

These billboards fit perfectly on top of the #10246 LEGO Creator Detective’s Office, but of course, they can be placed at other locations as well. They are basically like billboards in a real city; some of them are placed on top or the sides of buildings, others sit on top of a pole, or in a train station, bus stop, or shop window. So, if you want to try something unique, and add a little excitement to your LEGO city, you might want to try out one (or more) of these illuminated and animated billboards by BrickStuff.

What do you think? How do you like these LEGO compatible billboards? Are you considering adding them to your LEGO city? What other illuminated and animated billboard designs would you like to see? Feel free to share your thoughts and discuss in the comment section below! 😉

And you might also like to check out the following related posts:

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LEGO Bugatti Chiron mini version

Illuminated & animated billboards for LEGO

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