Love For The Bug Roundup

First and foremost, I need to write a dedication to a dear friend who has passed from this world all too soon. Heather Braaten was a friend to us all and while not an avid car builder, her custom license plates were immeasurably valuable to our cause. Even if you have never met her in person, she has touched us with her kindness, her humor, and her marvelous LEGO creations. I was part of her search team when she was missing, and when her body was found I attended her funeral service. I'm still feeling a little blue from all of this so if my jokes fall short this time, you know why. Heather, if you read the LUGNuts blog up there in LEGO heaven, you are missed.





 Alrighty, now that that is over with, lets brew some Three-Peckered Billy Goat coffee and sit back for the Love For The Bug Roundup...all about the VW Beetle. Oh yeah, I have Three-Peckered Billy Goat again. Drinking the stuff now for reals, yo. We should make it the official coffee of LUGNuts. Anyway, back to the subject at hand...while we could have built the classic, the 1999 remake, or the sportier new 2012 version in any of its forms, we may as well have just called this challenge...Love For The Volksrod. Let's show ya what I mean.

Our first entry by Ralph Savelsberg is not a Volksrod, but actually a super rare Volkswagen Hebmüller Cabriolet. What does that mean, you ask? Well its a two seater convertible version built between 1949 and 1952 and less than 100 are still around today.



Less than 100 Volksrods were built for this challenge but it seemed like just as many. Jonathan Derksen builds the first of many Volksrods but with its chopped roof and striking red and white color scheme it doesn’t make it any less cool. A custom corvair engine powers this awesome bad boy.



The ladybug inspired this cute pudgy little entry built by LegoMyMamma. You boys know the drill when there’s a lady present. You might wanna comb that hair. Maybe tuck in that shirt. Hide the pinup poster. Maybe straighten up your room a little. Put some chips out or something. Maybe some cheese and crackers...and wine. Women like that. And for the love of God, put some pants on for cripes sakes!



No stranger to wine, cheese, and pant-less cavorting is Lino Martins and my VW convertible called Blue Hawaiian. Anyone who knows me well knows I like tikis, LEGO and cars. Finally I get to combine the three, and like the cocktail of the same name, this surfin’ woody entry goes down smooth! It makes me glad I didn’t go with my second choice...a Volksrod.



That’s because Raphy...and several other dudes after him...did a great job in tackling the Volksrod with it’s chopped, fender-less form. This one is called Werewagen and like Raphy, this entry is “Back In Black”. Click the pic to see that Raphy included the lyrics to that classic AC/DC tune. Ahh that takes me back to high school with its jean jackets, boring math classes, and pimple cream.



Dylan Denton puts us all on Camber Alert with a Volksrod of his own. He tells us...The best way to respect the Beetle...is to completely disrespect the Beetle. This entry is chopped, dropped, and given the import camber treatment. Inspired by the JDM Import scene, this is what Abercrombie and Fitch wearing stereotypes would drive had they not blown all their money on Axe body spray and hair gel.



TechnicFenix13 spins his particular breed of technic trickery with his own Volksrod. I guess those awkward father-son talks would have gone a lot better in this rather than in an Aries K Wagon. You know the ones...had you have learned to wipe like a real man instead of like your mother you would have become an engineer and not an artist.



I know, I know, I used that joke already. But what else can I say to yet another Volksrod? Repeating jokes is like repeating Volksrods. And speaking of which, Peteris Sprogis chimes in with a Volksrod, except he cuts out the whole back end and gives it a big honkin’ performance engine. Yay!



If you need spiritual advice from a slow moving reptile, new guy, Reverend Turtle ought to provide the answers you seek. He has also provided his first ever LUGNuts entry, a 4-stud wide cabriolet convertible. Welcome to our happy little group, Reverend! Hey, at least its not yet another Volksrod, right?



You know what is yet another Volksrod? This entry by Dohoon Kim. Except this one takes coloring cues from a bumblebee and is powered by a 2.7 Porsche flat-6 engine. I’m powered by Corn Pops, Three-Peckered Billy Goat, and the hope that we’ll never see another Volksrod again. Don’t get me wrong, they were all awesome...but yanno, there is other things to do with a VW Bug.



Like, for example this Volksrod...uh, I mean Meyers Manxster as built by Tim Inman. Wait, what? Yep, this ultimate beach-mobile is based on a shortened V-DUB chassis and therefore thankfully fits within our rules for the challenge. Back in the 60’s a guy named Bruce Meyers got tired of looking at his Bug and decided to do something radical to it. It was so popular over 300 companies sprouted to offer their own versions.



And speaking of radical, you can always count on Nathan Proudlove to come up with something out of the ordinary. A phenomenon occurs where peeps take a VW chassis and engine and make some pretty crazy trikes outta them. Some even keep the entire VW Bug back end intact. This one doesn’t but is a refreshingly welcome entry nonetheless.



If it wasn’t for Peter Blackert, this challenge would have been completely void of the sporty new 2012 redesign. But thankfully he chimes in better late than never with this LCAD trio. The first in striking Carbon Grey and Orange. It was rendered to evoke the Porsche 911 GT3 RS, big wheels and spoilers. Yep!



And by spoilers, he means the chick in The Crying Game is totally a dude! Hopefully you would have known that by now...and if you didn’t...well, I just spoiled the ending for you. Still, a startlingly attractive shemale like her would be pretty in pink driving this lovely 2012 in Friends colors. The flower on the door adds a nice feminine touch to this frilly pink ride. A girl has gotta accessorize, right?



Hail a taxi in Mexico and you’ll likely hop into a classic Beetle in green and white, just like this one. Hail a taxi in Tijuana and even if you tell them you want to go back to the ship they may likely take you to seedy some bar with a lowbrow floor show that involves...like yanno...ping-pong balls and...stuff. I should know, I was in the Navy once.



Well, now that I left you with that unsettling image in mind, we bring this challenge to a tasteless close. We’re all hot rodders at heart so it was no surprise there were no less than six Volksrods. All the entries turned out awesome but I’ll be pretty happy if I don’t see another Volksrod for awhile. Tune in next month for a little challenge we call LEGO set Overhaulin’ where we take any official vehicle related set from LEGO history and give it a remake. Anything goes, you can scale up, scale down...even change the theme or rework the design entirely. There has already been some pretty snazzy entries so I’m excited to see how the challenge unfolds. Chances are there will be no Volksrods...unless, of course, someone chooses to revamp the 10187 set into a Volksrod. Then what will we do? Roll our eyes, probably.

In light of recent events, be sure to call your parents, your grandparents, sisters, brothers and loved ones. Let ‘em know how you’re doing. They like to know you’re still alive and kicking...even if you’re a crusty old Navy salt like me. Take care. See ya next time.