Jeeps are known to be tough vehicles, but only when they’re made of metal. Ones made of Lego? Not so much. The builder of an impressive Lego Jeep, comprising 120,000 tiny plastic bricks, found out the hard way when he tried to sit inside his life-size creation.
Before the Jeep’s collapse, it was quite the structure. The backbone was an actual ladder frame chassis made of Lego bricks, complete with shocks and leaf springs. From there, builders attached separately constructed body panels, such as fenders, grille, firewall and floorboards, to the chassis while it sat on jack stands.
By contrast, most of the life-size Lego vehicles we’ve seen only resemble the car on the outer-most layers. Underneath, they’re typically supported by either Lego reinforcing structures that have little in common with actual automotive architecture, or boxed support frames made of non-Lego materials such as wood.
The Jeep, built by a UK Lego fan group calling themselves SLUG, or Sheffield Lego Users Group, also featured a realistic replica of the Go-Devil inline-four engine, complete with air cleaner, radiator and manifold. Other areas, like the Jeep’s four large wheels and tires, as well as the three-spoke steering wheel, are also rendered with realism. There’s even a Lego jerry can and wrench — sorry, spanner — lurking about.
The disaster comes when the builders decide to take a seat in the finished Jeep. The smaller of the two men climbs in first and gingerly sits down with seemingly no issue. When the larger gent attempts the same, all seems to go well until the moment he tries to disembark. The Jeep disintegrates in spectacular fashion, the collapse collapsing rippling from the epicenter beneath the man’s foot.
Fortunately, the Jeep had already served its purpose. According to SLUG, the team had built it for display at a Lego show in Manchester, which concluded last weekend. The builders only attempted to sit in the Jeep after the show.