One LEGO Engineer And Two Custom VW Buses
Andrea Lattanzio is our favorite mason when it comes to cars made of bricks, and his knack for rendering vehicles accurately in their scaled-down LEGO forms is remarkable. Whether it be semi trucks or sports cars, all of his work looks like it could come from officially licensed sets, and this extends past his vehicles to the detailed garage backdrops that are surely accomplishments in their own right. You can tell by looking at anything Andrea’s made that he’s put the time into learning the balance needed to create recognizable LEGOs. He knows when to chase details and he knows when it’s a futile exercise. His sets have that patented level of perfection to them, but this time he didn’t start from scratch.
LEGO’s own Volkswagen Camper kit would serve as the base for two variations on the classic bus. The first involved turning it into a Volkswagen Road Service pickup, as Andrea states an affinity for commercial vehicles rather than their civilian counterparts in a lot of cases. The Camper lost its pop-up sleeping shelf and received a canvas cover (or at least a good flat plastic replica of one) for its newly sliced bed instead. Going the extra distance, he’s also printed a vintage Volkswagen service livery on the side of the blue tent as well as on the bus’s doors. Further modifications to add utility include bumper-mounted Hella fog lights, a roof rack above the cab to hold spare jerrycans and luggage, and a pair of shovels mounted on the flanks, which have been modified to feature hinged storage compartments.
From the same starting point as the Road Service bus, Andrea’s also made the second generation (T2) version of the famous VW Type 2, of course in pickup form. This blue T2 ditches the bed cover and the logos for a simple blue, and it suits the minimalist design of the Bus, let alone when it’s in its low-res LEGO guise. The front end of the Camper was rebuilt to account for the bay-style window of the second-gen body, and he’s done a great job of integrating new features like the horizontal vent underneath the window, instead of just taking away pieces from the official LEGO kit until the nose lost its distinguishing features altogether.
Then there is the garage. It’s not VW-specific, but the life of a VW Bus was probably lived outside of the dealer network on the whole, so it sort of fits better in a way. It’s the everymechanic’s garage and it’s the everyman’s form of transportation. The door to the shop does have some more Volkswagen Service stickers, but that’s probably just another case of an independent garage owner trying to drum up business by appearing to have some association with the manufacturer!
You can follow Andrea Lattanzio’s brick-building by following him on Facebook, or flipping through his Flickr account. If you’ve got any tips on other automotive-themed LEGO builders you’d like to share with us, we’d love to hear from you.
