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Danish toy giant Lego has turned its multi-block skills to the original Mini, revealing a kit that will allow you to build the British classic car brick by fiddly little brick.
The 1,077-part Mini is the latest product in Lego's Creator Expert range, which sees the end product of a few hours of swearing at little bits of plastic ('is this a 4x2 black? Or a dark grey, dammit?!') result in a replica of something real - the company already does an epic Type 2 Volkswagen Camper van, for instance.
Lego's designers took the last generation of Mini Cooper, built until 2000, as the inspiration. When assembled, the car is 25cm long, 14cm wide and 11cm high, which Lego says maintains the real car's proportions. In the sort of cheerfully stereotypical way the BMW-owned MINI brand currently works, the Lego model is oh-so-frightfully British - right-hand drive, with a picnic basket and checked blanket in the boot and finished in British Racing Green with a white roof, mirror caps and bonnet stripes. It even has the correct driving lamps in the front grille.
All the relevant apertures open (the bonnet revealing the four-cylinder engine transversely mounted, naturally) and emblems on the side of the Lego Mini reveal it to be a 40th Anniversary edition, made between August 1997 and July 1998. Look closely and you'll see it's even on old-style R-plates.
Anything else?
The Creator Expert Mini set from Lego will go on sale in August. And we'll be in the queue to buy one...
Matt Robinson - 24 Jul 2014