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Hello, fellow Eurobrickers! (Alert! The title says 12. For now, there's only eleven - but the remaining one will be added in the coming weeks. It's built, but not yet photographed!) It's been a while since I've stopped by this part of the EB forum, mainly because it's so popular that if you stay away for more than a week it just takes too long to page through all the new content - and then when you don't feel up for it, it just keeps on piling on. Today I was finally able to have a look through all the posts I've missed and there's still some amazing content here. You're brilliant builders! Some of you may remember my Updated Classics project (link goes to the project album on Flickr). Long story short: I grew up with the Classic Town sets of the late '70s to early '90s, and when I came back to LEGO a few years ago I discovered that the game had moved on quite a bit since then - the modern vehicles and buildings were a bit bigger, more streamlined and simply more detailed and realistic. I liked the way the new sets looked, but at the same time I felt a strong connection to the sets I grew up with, and when put side by side the scale was just completely off. So I thought: Can I take the essence of those old sets that I love so much, and update them into what I think they could have looked like today - with LEGO's current parts selection? I started off with this one: Modern 6624 1 by L@go, on Flickr ...which proved quite popular, and so I continued building modern versions of the classic sets, 16 of them, to be specific, and I even updated some of the smaller buildings, like this one: Snack Bar 21 by L@go, on Flickr ...which was also very well-received when I posted it here on EB in June - it was even frontpaged, to my utter delight! I've displayed these, along with their classic counterparts - rescued from the dark confines of the closets back at my parents' place, complete with genuine Norwegian dust - at conventions in Norway, Denmark, Germany, Portugal, and the UK, and they have generally been quite popular, undoubtedly partly because the original ones are so instantly recognisable to so many people - some of those sets must have sold in the tens of thousands. Hopefully, some people are also drawn to my builds, even though there are always somebody who will just point at the old stuff and go 'those are so much better'. Never underestimate the power of nostalgia... :) Anyway: I was invited to show my Updated Classics at BRICK 2014 in London, and I felt that to justify having Warren and Kitty and their excellent organising team cover most of our travel expenses, driving 2700 km from Bergen, Norway all the way to London, I should probably expand the project a bit. So I did: Over the past few months leading up to BRICK, the number of sets I'd updated went from 16... to 32. In this thread I'll post the 12 new vehicles I've added to the project, as soon as I get the pictures shot and edited. The other four are quite substantial buildings, and I'll be posting thosse in their own separate threads. So, on to the MOCs! 1. Town Runabout, a modern interpretation of set #6501, Sport Convertible, from 1987. Source material: A very basic design, so the updated one needed to be the same. I wanted to use the modern mudguards, while still being able to have openable doors, so it would necessarily have to grow a bit in length. I ended up with this (which really isn't particularly special, it's just a compact convertible): Town Runabout 6 by L@go, on Flickr Town Runabout 4 by L@go, on Flickr These updates are all about keeping the iconic details of the original sets. So I've kept the colours, obviously, the grey stripes below the doors and the grey grille, and I've added a roll bar, albeit a bit lower because the windscreen is lower on the modern one. I chose to omit the tile on top of the windscreen - it just wouldn't look right. And I went with an updated minifigure that still somewhat resembles the original one, although the modern minifig apparently doesn't like sharing the limelight with some old hag driving a 27-year-old classic car: Town Runabout 8 by L@go, on Flickr 2. Patrol Car, a modern interpretation of set #6506, Precinct Cruiser, from 1989. Source material: As you can see, it's very similar to the slightly older Sport Convertible. Which means my updated version also shares a lot of DNA with the Town Runabout: Patrol Car 1 by L@go, on Flickr Patrol Car 6 by L@go, on Flickr The main difference between my version and the original is, obviously, that I've added a roof. Seeing as one of the features of this project is to add realism, it felt like the right thing to do - after all, when did you last see a convertible police car? Apart from that, it's a very basic design. It has flashlights mounted in the rear window, and also features concealed flashlights behind the grille. All the stickers come from original LEGO sets, and they add a splash of blue to the design, which is practical considering most of the LEGO police sets from recent years have blue accents. Patrol Car 9 by L@go, on Flickr Here's police officer Mehmet, the cousin of a slightly more famous construction worker with a similar hairdo, checking out the classic Precinct Cruiser, while his retired colleague tells him what life on the force was like back in the day. 3. Jeep, a modern interpretation of set #6514, Trail Ranger, from 1994. Source material: Another very basic design, which I decided to try to beef up quite a bit, so I turned it into a six-wide Jeep: Jeep 7 by L@go, on Flickr Jeep 4 by L@go, on Flickr Again, I've kept the colours: Yellow body, grey bumper, and a white roll bar - I even kept the same piece for further recognition. The windscreen... ah. Yes. More on that later. But the windscreen is also the same colour, and I've kept it low, like on the original. The increased width meant I had room for a Jeep-style grille between the headlight, which makes the car look less cross-eyed and more realistic. And again, all the stickers are official LEGO stickers. Here's the mandatory comparison picture, complete with the updated driver, who has sunglasses, like his older counterpart, and a very nice torso from a SpongeBob set. He does appear to have shaved, though. 20 years separate these two builds: Jeep 10 by L@go, on Flickr So... about that windscreen... Jeep 8 by L@go, on Flickr Yes. I did. A major oversight in LEGO's current parts selection is the lack of proper six-wide windscreens - and this one seems like such a logical addition. But since it doesn't exist, I cranked out my saw and made one, from two perfectly good four-wide windscreens. I know some of you don't like that kind of thing, but hey - it's my bricks and I'll treat them as I like :) I've camouflaged the cut by using residue from a white sticker sheet. Jeep 12 by L@go, on Flickr Just for the fun of it, I added an optional hardtop for the Jeep as well, complete with a pair of (covered) searchlights. The more eagle-eyed of you may have noticed that the driver seems to be wearing a cap when driving with the top off, which is actually for two very practical reasons: a) driving a convertible without a hat does mean things to your hair - trust me, I speak from experience - and b) that cap is actually too tall for the driver to fit underneath the hardtop when he's wearing it... So, there you have it: Three of the 16 new additions to my Updated Classics project. More pictures in (the bottom of) this folder on Flickr - and even more pictures and, not least, my trademark excessive amount of words, will soon follow, with more updates. Thanks for watching (and maybe even reading?) - hope you like it! L@go
