Lego Carbon Racers: Blue Boombox

Bask in the bold beauty of the Blue Boombox! This van is one of my oldest models, and it has not needed much in terms of updates since then.

The van might look pretty ordinary from the front, but...

...it's built with a pretty amped-up sound system. The rear spoiler resembles a boombox handle from this angle, too.

The whole thing looks pretty good in GIF form, if I do say so myself.

The Blue Boombox was based off this van from the Lego Racers set 8495, "Crosstown Craze." Of course, now that I'm not squinting at a little image on one of my archived Lego catalogs (yes, I still have a collection of Lego catalogs dating back farther than I'd like to admit), I notice I've taken more than a few liberties with the design; not only are the spoiler and rear different on this model, but the sides aren't flared, the window is transparent, the bumper slopes down, et cetera, et cetera...

This might've been the reason my design varied so much: I once again started building from the basic Tiny Turbos template.

Here's another change I made: Flat round plates are the front bumper lights instead of round plates with studs.

Fun Fact: I actually don't have a tape-player-print plate like the one you see here. I actually used a light grey speedometer-print plate. That's right, I've got a DIGITAL boombox.

If you haven't guessed already, I don't have the Crosstown Craze set. I don't 100% know what the back of their van looks like. Odds are mine is cooler, though.

Could I have compressed these two steps into one? Maybe, but I'm not a fan of putting two stacked bricks on one step. I'll do it occasionally, and I forget if real Lego directions do it too, but I'm trying to prevent that from happening here. Believe it or not, I'd like these directions to be as clear as possible.

You know, it wouldn't be too hard to rebuild this with the original model's transparent windshield. All you would need are two 4x2 black bricks and that 4x4-base windshield piece. Oh, and a 3x2 black brick inside the windshield so those plates up top don't fall through. Or, if you don't want that 3x2 brick inside the windshield, you could replace the 2x2 flat plate, the 1x2 grill, and the 3x2 plate with a 2x4 flat plate in the front and a 2x2 plate in the back...

Behold, the spoiler 'n' wheels. I like to think the top bulge would be extra space for the sound system components if this were a real van. Here, though, it just makes the spoiler piece look less awkward.

Well, that's it for the Blue Boombox! Tune in next time for the...

*checks release list*

Oh dear lord, it's the Brown Beaver. Do I have things to say about THAT model...