Vellum Venom Vignette: Diecasting A Designer's 8-bit Nightmare?

I suspect there’s more than a handful of Transportation Design students finding employment in the toy business and I know my fellow design classmates at CCS collected diecast model cars. They’re inspirational, personally helping me render light/shadow reflections on the vellum.

Visits to (Pasteiner’s) Auto Zone happened regularly, sometimes with the same higher regard than local religious institutions. So spare me, oh mighty autoblogosphere, from the manufactured excitement of Lego’s F40 kit.

I reckon it’s a designer’s 8-bit nightmare.

This Vellum Venom isn’t a slam on Lego, their Creator Series or people behind them. Their Architecture series gives me a special feeling: plastic bricks make for great scale models of postwar architectural treasures from around the world.

Just not for cars. Never.

This Vellum Venom is a reminder of the diecast’s superiority in representation, dollar value and as a foundation to admire and/or seek inspiration. Get your kicks by turning an F40 diecast under a desk lamp to see how light reflects off Pininfarina’s coachwork. Clip the springs on a few Miastos and your studio gets transportation design cred for cheap.

Call it drafting table design porn. My diecast F40 joined me for my CCS misadventures. Some 10+ years later, I was honored to ride shotgun in a real one. To wit:

That 100 dollar, Nintendo-y, Minecraft-lookin’ pile of plastic dots insults The Machine’s beautiful stamped body. It’s an affront to the legacy of Mr. Pininfarina. Who knows, maybe even the aerodynamics hatin’ Mr. Ferrari would kick it out of the office.

Even worse, availability of diecasts in mind, Lego’s kit is less automotive connoisseur and more garden-variety geek…back when that was a bad thing.

A proper scale model, a tasty Bburago reproduction (while out of production) is much cheaper on eBay. I know, I know: Bburagos are the Trader Joe’s of scale model cars. My budget remains tight, I hold no delusions there.

There’s the simply stunning Pocher 1:8th scale model, even Kyosho and Hot Wheels make better interpretations. However, as the purchase price rises, the benefits of finer diecast details are a sliding economy of scale.

And much like a customizable-ish Lego model, Bburagos are easily disassembled for painting its casting details to a respectable level of accuracy — like proper black trim on the beltline, window pillars and more accurate interior colors. Repainting takes less time than it would to watch the first half of a Nashville Oilers game. my typical study break back at CCS.

Unlike the Lego, sorta like the upscale diecasts, the Bburago F40 is beautiful on its own — especially above the smexy intake runners of my SHO-coffee table, but I digress…

To my design-savvy readers: Don’t sell yourself short with Legos. You loved ’em as a kid. The Internet says this F40 kit is totally awesome. The extensive assembly time is not without its charms. But no…no, do not worship this false idol.

The vellum demands you do justice to the Ferrari F40, get a Bburago F40 for 50 percent less cash or go big with the premium diecast brands. And insist your friends do the same!