[MOC] Ghostbusters Ecto-1 - 1959 Cadillac Miller-Meteor (8-wide)

[firefabric]

My latest MOC is finally complete, the Ecto-1 from the original 1984 Ghostbusters movie. This is a theme I haven't done anything before from and I was actually a bit surprised myself also that I got an inspiration to do this one. I always liked the Ectomobile and probably played around with the idea on some level but I never had any concrete plans. I think the build was mostly triggered by a random idea to try out a front end design using the fairly new 1x1 slope pieces for the hood corners. Once I had a decent version of the front end laid out, I decided to continue with the rest and see what happens. As usual there were many versions on the way and everything was changed many times over to arrive at the final design.

The build takes some inspiration from the Lego Ideas 21108 set, obviously there are some similarities in part usage and the size in particular, but other than that I have made it fully from ground up. I had to use quite a few different techniques here and there to achieve the shapes I was looking for, and the car is actually made out of a few differently built sections. The base is a brick-built with the side skirts facing out, the front section has bricks facing more or less every possible way; up, down, front and sides, and the side and back panels are plate-built, sitting on top of the base. But with some useful new pieces (like the 3386 1x1x2/3 modified brick with a stud on top and side) it was possible to "bolt" everything together quite sturdily. Some more pictures:

As usual in my cars, no opening doors or windows but the roof is fairly easy to take out to reveal the interior. I added the main interior details and there is room for 4 minifigures, sitting in the same arrangement as the original (2 in front and 2 in the back but on right side facing each other).

The Ecto-1 is fairly large vehicle to begin with, and with all the associated details the part count is also almost double to a "standard" Speed Champions style car at around 600, but that's how it is for the official sets as well. It was a fairly big project overall, but I'm quite happy about how it came out so I made the instructions for this one as well. More information can be found on Rebrickable:

https://rebrickable.com/mocs/MOC-168757/firefabric/1959-cadillac-ecto-1/

 

 

[cehnot]

This is inspiring. I did a complete rebuild of the car after the set was released and and i may need to open a second set to build your model. This has so many different part usage techniques. I love the hood and curves on the side. I like how you used the new 1x3 inverted arch for the wheel well. 

 

[RichardGoring]

Really nicely done!

[firefabric]

On 1/4/2024 at 1:43 AM, cehnot said:

This is inspiring. I did a complete rebuild of the car after the set was released and and i may need to open a second set to build your model. This has so many different part usage techniques. I love the hood and curves on the side. I like how you used the new 1x3 inverted arch for the wheel well. 

 

Thank you, I appreciate that! I didn't do a parts compare yet, but I'd say the Ideas set has less than 10% matching parts... It does look similar in many ways but the build and parts used are different more or less everywhere (except the windows and the roof).

On 1/4/2024 at 2:50 AM, RichardGoring said:

Really nicely done!

Thank you for the compliment!

[KennoMonkey]

This is so cool! Nice work. I especially think you nailed the body shape.

[firefabric]

On 1/10/2024 at 9:51 PM, KennoMonkey said:

This is so cool! Nice work. I especially think you nailed the body shape.

Thanks! I did work on the shape a lot over quite a few versions, as I wanted to try out every idea if it would be possible to realize. So now I can confidently say that's the best I can do, I'm happy to hear you like it!

[firefabric]

Finished also the convertible version of the '59 Cadillac recently, this was a much simpler build as most of the work was already done with the Ecto-1. Naturally I had to change a few things here and there and I made it a bit shorter to match the real car. It's still really big in comparison to 'normal' sized Speed Champions cars but that's how it's in reality as well. Due to using a few fairly new parts and color variations, there was not too much choice for color so ended up making it black, which I think actually looks pretty good with the maroon (dark red) interior.

There's also a detachable 'convertible' roof:

 

More information can be found on Rebrickable:

https://rebrickable.com/mocs/MOC-175134/firefabric/1959-cadillac-convertible/

[poisonbricks]

This build is absolutely genius. Bought the instructions and did it in studio first so I could get a feeling for it before the pieces arrive, and some of the techniques in this thing blow my mind! Been trying and failing for years now to get my own up to the standard I want and this blows all my attempts out of the water!

I've been really wanting LEGO to take another crack at the Ecto-1 in minifigure scale but I don't really need that anymore, I don't think they could do better than this :) 

[legoturtle]

PLEASE!

That car is amazing! Is it somehow possible you would make Batman related sets and/or more Ghostbusters sets!?

[Arapocalypse]

Love the interior detail in Ecto-1, looks almost like it's ready for the door to pop open and the chair to swing out!