Best LEGO Car Sets: Bricked

Top 8 Best LEGO Car Sets

Look, just because it says 7+ on the box doesn’t mean your author (and probably a good many of you lot) will turn away a box of LEGOs — especially when those little bricks take the form of a car when pressed together.

Knowing you’ve got a gift card or three burning a hole in your wallet from the holidays, we’ve assembled (pun intended — always intend your puns) this list of LEGO car sets, a type of present that differs greatly from Caterham kit cars. This type takes up a lot less garage space and is infinitely less likely to spark marital discordia.

You’ll also notice the Porsche 911 and Chevrolet Corvette are absent from this list. That’s because, despite the best efforts of LEGO engineers in Denmark, they end up look as if they were pre-crashed. The eight brick rigs shown here do a decent job of approximating the real thing.

Now, get building!

Leading the way on this list is an exceptionally good LEGO replica of the famed Ferrari F40. Showing up on bedroom walls and in the minds of gearheads everywhere over thirty years ago, the original mega-Fezza translates well into brick form. A total of 1158 pieces click together to create a model that is about a foot long and 5 inches wide.

Those famous pop-up headlights work seamlessly while the vented rear hatch — a unit which, in reality, had to be gingerly lifted skyward by two people lest the whole thing come crashing down, reverse guillotine-style — opens to reveal the twin-turbo V8 in all its glory. How can this scribbler of words assert all these points? Because he assembled one of these LEGO-scale wonders himself two years ago.

Vehicles that have more square edges than a cubist-inspired skyscraper are prime pickings for homages via LEGO bricks. The recently back-from-the-dead Land Rover Defender received the brick treatment almost instantly, as if there was a previous agreement between JLR and LEGO to develop it alongside the real thing.

On this model, its cabin features a detailed dashboard, working steering wheel, and gear section with two levers for engaging high or low gear ratios. This is significantly more working features than any owner of a vintage Defender can claim. There is also a selector for changing gear, plus forward-folding seats for visual access to the gearbox below.

Not all of the LEGO car sets on this list result in a model that hogs space on the living room shelf, crowing out the family pictures and dioramas of The Walking Dead. This set is from the Speed Champions line, denoting the smaller size (about 5 inches long) of these cars when built.

In this box one will find replicas of the modern Dodge Demon and vintage Charger R/T. There are also three minifigs and an NHRA-style Christmas tree that flips up each one of the lights when a sliding piece is lowered along its anterior side. How do we know this? You guessed it — your author has one of these on his self as well.

Pretend you’re Sean Connery or Daniel Craig with this LEGO Creator replica of the Aston Martin DB5. This fantastic centerpiece for the home or office features a raisable bullet shield, working ejection seat, and rotating license plate.

Hauling back on the stickshift inside the DB5 reveals front-wing machine guns, just like your own commuter car. Wheel-mounted tire scythes pop out to replicate either a scene from Goldfinger or that Top Gear episode where Clarkson affixed similar rigs to a Fiat Coupe.

This 2,300+ piece set is a surefire way to bring out the kid in you. Or at least bring back fond memories of watching the film in a dark theatre (remember those days?). Build this LEGO version of the converted 1959 Cadillac Miller-Meteor ambulance and chase those ghosts away.

Packed with spookily good details, this model is based on the Ghostbusters: Afterlife movie version. It features working steering, a trapdoor, ghost trap, an extending rear gunner seat, proton pack, and neat details from the original car such as that too-cool Ghostbusters logo.

For whatever reason, LEGO doesn’t specifically label this Mustang as a 1967 GT. Given its lines and stance, however, that’s clearly the vibe for which they were aiming. Measuring over a foot long, just like the mighty F40 model listed above, this Blue Oval beauty would look great on my office shelf. Just sayin’.

Like all good American muscle cars, this one can be customized with a host of accessories. Go mad with the included supercharger, rear ducktail spoiler, beefy exhaust pipes, front chin spoiler, and nawwwws tank. In fact, a person could change this thing up once a week with the various parts and be six months into the year before making the same car twice.

Since LEGO sets lend themselves well to squared-off machinery, it is utterly gobsmacking that the crew from Denmark were able to recreate the curved Beetle fenders with surprising accuracy. Purists will decry the lack of semaphores sprouting from the car’s B-pillars but everyone else will simply appreciate the period-correct wheels and rad surfboard.

Out back is an an authentic four-cylinder air-cooled engine and fuel tank. The accessible interior features beige-colored, forward-tilting seats, plus a too-cool dashboard and steering wheel. That roof-mounted surfboard and a cooler box can be removed for groovy days at the beach, man.

Can’t afford to pay cash for a real Bugatti? That’s okay. Neither can 99.9 percent of the citizens on this planet. Instead pop for this advanced LEGO car build, created with an astounding 3,599 pieces and featuring the Chiron’s classic duo-tone blue color scheme.

Yeah, that’s a lot of bricks — but don’t forget that the company once made a life-sized Chiron out of LEGO. In that perspective, it’s not so bad. This set is Technic-branded, meaning it’s a 1:8 scale with cool features like an active rear wing and a good bit of detail to its W16 engine. Ignore the lack of front-end harmony and park this model face into the wall.

LEGO FAQs

There's no real skill level to these things, right?

Well, some of them definitely do require an aptitude for following instructions. Get too deep into a project on which you realize at Step 10 you messed up Step 4 and there may be some creative language used while taking the thing apart. However, LEGO is known for its too-sensible approach to assembly, so it's unlikely you'll reach the last step before figuring out that something is awry.

Are all those pieces really in the box?

In four decades of being on this earth (and nearly a decade-and-a-half of fatherhood with a LEGO-crazed offspring), your author has never purchased a LEGO set in which there's been a missing piece. Seriously. And we're talking untold hundreds of kits, ranging from simple builds to over-the-top spaces stations and rocket ships. The LEGO factory is surely a site of unparalled precision to get it all right.

That Bugatti looks stupid.

Yeah, some of the kits do look a bit derpy. It all boils down to how well the real-life car's lines translate into brick construction. That's why there's no Lambo Sian or Porsche 911 on this list. There are others that look good which didn't make it here, however, including a great rendition of the VW Bus.

Why is it called LEGO?

The word is derived from the phrase 'leg godt', which is Danish for 'play well'. It can also be noted that 'Lego' has Latin roots meaning 'to gather or collect'. #TheMoreYouKnow

From time to time, TTAC will highlight automotive products we think may be of interest to our community. Plus, posts like this help to keep the lights on around here. Learn more about how this works.

(Editor’s note: This post is meant to both help you be an informed shopper for automotive products but also to pay for our ‘90s sedan shopping habits operating expenses. Some of you don’t find these posts fun, but they help pay for Junkyard Finds, Rare Rides, Piston Slaps, and whatever else. Thanks for reading.)

[Main photo credit: Toyota. Product images provided by the manufacturer.]