Some cars are iconic as are some Lego Sets. This is a tale of building the Iconic Lego set of the the iconic car. That's right it's lego Set 10242 - the Mini Cooper
I'm sure you all know the car - icon of the 1960's, although this one is a replica of the Mark Vii which was built in real life in the 1990's (who knew they were still making them that late) The Mini basically changed the whole concept of compact cars. A then there is the Cooper S versions, the original original hot hatch - extra sporty, extra go-karty, extra awesome.
And then there is the legendary Lego sets - this was released in 2014 - just the third of the Creator Expert cars and it helped define what this range would be - which in my opinion is the best range of Lego. At 1077 pieces it was huge for the time.
This is a very hard set to get your hands on - it got retired in 2017, according to Brick economyat the time it was selling for $129 (AUD) since then the value has been rising and it's now worth $343. Now I have been looking at this set for a while, and I thought it was cool, but not $343 cool. But then I opened facebook which I don't do often, and in marketplace someone had just posted on for sale (literaaly 8 minutes before) and it was priced at $100 - absolute bargain - so I shot of a message, secured it and went to bit it up the next day.
But onto the build. As this was a older set I expected it to be a little different than the modern sets - it's amazing how much they have changed in 7 years. And there were certainly some differences but all in all it was a fun build and really simple to follow.
All of the cars seem to start with a pretty basic frame - This is a simple one, no steering, no suspensions nothing that fancy in this car, just so long technic pieces and stubby little axles for wheels.
One of the things you do notice though is how much they put in each step - as the sets get newer and newer they seem to do about 4 pieces a step, have a look at the one above - that's 29 pieces in a single step - I had some sets in the early 1980's that didn't have that many pieces in the whole thing.
It takes shape pretty quick - not surprisingly it's a puretty compact little thing. But you soon have the floor, the front and back bumpers on and a weird space were they put the spare wheel. I'm sure this is true to life but you put it in there and then completely cover it up which is odd.
Then it's off for a little detour to build a picnic basket. In the rear boot (trunk/hatch whatever you want to call it) is a a picnic rug and this basket - it's kind of cool if not a little strangely scaled - that feels like a huge loaf of bread.
Then you build the rear, complete with opening tailgate, there is some trickiness around the windows (the instructions seem to show a different back window than the piece that's in there which is odd. Then it's the ugly seats
And you slowly work your way forward, a dashboard, the world's largest steering wheel, some wheel arches which are a very strange design - they obviously developed this a lot before they got to the Beetle a few years later and an engine which is tiny but realistic and the iconic grill (just a heap of silver grid pieces) and two big fog lights.
So what does it look like finished - well that's a whole other post. The build itself is fun, realitvely quick - probably about 2 hours and the finished product looks really cool. It really is a shame that I'll take it apart again soon, but I really want to make a Renault Floride out of it.
