Restoring and rebuilding classic scooters has long been a popular pastime among scooterists, but not all have the mechanical aptitude to complete their projects. Now, thanks to Lego, a finished home-built scooter may no longer be merely a dream…
Lego bricks are known the world over as both a popular and constructive toy for children to play with. When I was a lad an old ice-cream box full of bricks kept me quiet for hours, building houses, garages and cars. The only limit was my imagination – and my building skills!
These days it seems that pre-formatted kits are the thing, allowing Lego fans of all ages to build objects as obscure as space craft from Star Wars to dinosaurs, and now it seems a Vespa scooter too.
Officially approved by Piaggio and released to coincide with the 75th anniversary of their Vespa last year, the latest offering from Lego is based on an old 125cc model. This 1,106 piece set pays tribute to the original Vespa with its pastel pale blue colour, and once built you can add a classic 1960s Italian license plate and the Vespa logo too.
Like the original this model is full of beautiful details and design touches. From a bunch of flowers in the scooter’s basket and a spare wheel, to a removable side panel, brick-built engine with moving kick start, to the working centre-stand and steering too.
“Working with the Vespa team to create this stunning automotive masterpiece was an incredible experience. Recreating the details of the original model to celebrate the classic 1960’s Vespa was one of my favourite parts of designing this set. The set offered me a chance to step back in time and let my imagination flow while designing, and we hope the experience is the same for fans.” said Florian Muller, Senior Designer at the LEGO Group.
Marco Lambri, Head of the Piaggio Group Design Center: “Working with the LEGO Group was an extraordinary experience, because it brought two dreams – the LEGO brand and Vespa – together, which have the unlimited expressive potential that they offer their fans in common. Two outstanding brands able to span different ages, always able to reinvent themselves because have the capacity to unite and to build in their DNA. As designers, the challenge was to have the soft shapes of Vespa coexist with the form of Lego bricks, a challenge I believe we met with flying colours.”
To be fair they’ve done a pretty good job of using what are traditionally square bricks to create a curvaceous scooter. Those of a less than complimentary disposition may suggest they should have created a Lego Vespa Cosa, or compare the plastic parts to those on a new Vespa GTS, but if you’re into building such things then why not an Italian icon made from iconic Danish building blocks?
We presume it comes with complete instructions too, so for all those who may struggle to build a real Vespa from start to finish, this could be your chance to complete one without issues,
The Lego Vespa 125 will be available from LEGO.com, LEGO Stores and other retailers globally from March 1st 2022 priced from 99,99 USD/EUR. In the UK the RRP is £89.99 direct from the Lego website here.
Edition 30 (March/April) of ScooterNova magazine was published on 25 February 2022. It is available from all good scooter shops of via mail order from our secure online shop here.
ScooterNova is an independent magazine, produced by scooterists, for scooterists.