Volkswagen Takes A Different Turn With LEGO® Brick Display

Volkswagen uses LEGO(R) bricks to show the fun vehicles of the past and their interaction with their owners. Then, using the bricks again, the automakers shows where customers can go to find something stronger.

When you go to an auto show, you probably think you will see new cars, concept cars, expensive cars or, perhaps, the unique antique car. You don’t believe that a car show will be the spot where an automaker will take a very different tack to celebrate the automobile.

Attendees at the Chicago Auto Show, now up and running in the Windy City, are going to find something quite a bit different from Volkswagen, an automaker that has been known to do things a bit differently. Do you remember the TV ads a few years ago that celebrated VW’s fahrvernugen? It seems like a real German word, right? It’s not. However, VW certainly gained a lot of attention, just as the current Das Auto campaign is bringing the automaker more positive views.

At the auto show, though, visitors will likely remember an exhibit that, while it does support cars, takes an unusual approach – LEGO® building blocks. The custom-built display highlights the evolution of Volkswagen design as well as the journey VW vehicles has made with American consumers through the decades.

Using 20,000 LEGO® bricks, the people who made the two by three-and-a-half-foot display have set the journey against many of the transitions that we make in life. The exhibit designers hope that their work demonstrates the go-anywhere spirit of Volkswagen vehicles. For example, as you watch the package you will see an iconic VW Microbus taking the driver and passengers on family camping trips. The Microbus shows the past while the Atlas-based Weekender is ready to take the modern family to new vistas.

Taking a cue from the designs of the past, the LEGO® Microbus has a two-tone exterior, built with blue and white LEGO ® bricks. The replica keeps faith with the Microbus of the 1960s by using a distinctive V-shaped front fascia, round headlights, silver round sideview mirrors, silver baby moon hubcaps, a gently curving bumper in white and a VW badge, placed front-and-center.

Moving from the historical to the current, the display, made up of highlights the brand-new American-built Atlas, a three-row crossover. Atlas highlights seven-passenger capacity and utility of the real vehicle. The model features a standard grille, accessorized black rims, roof rails, a rugged trailer hitch for towing and the automaker’s unmistakable front and rear VW badges. Atlas goes on sale later this year.

Source: Volkswagen