Back in February I wrote about the episode of Jeff
Stormer’s podcast Party of One where I played the RPG Atomic Highway. My character in that game was a descendant of
Frankenstein rebuilt to resemble the famous monster. That episode was actually the second that
Jeff and I recorded but the first one is lost to the ether. I think it was something on my end but Jeff
is way too polite to say so.
With two games under my belt I think about the character
a lot. Randomly one day I was thinking
about how Lego had made a greaser style hair piece and how I had a few
Frankenstein’s monster head pieces. The
idea clicked into place like two Lego.
The moment I could dive into my parts bins I quickly threw together
Vic. I was super happy with the results
but I immediately knew I wanted more.
Vic was nothing without his car Elsa (named after Bride of Frankenstein
actress Elsa Lanchester). I knew I had to
build the car too.
Luckily for me I didn’t have to work completely from
scratch. Lego’s Speed Champion line
currently has a Camaro two pack. Once of
those cars is based on the current model while the other is an older version
that looked ready to drag race. It was a
perfect base. There were things that
needed to be on Elsa through; specifically a ram prow and two linked machine
guns. The ram prow was easy enough, Lego
has made enough old style trains that getting a cow catcher just meat spending
a few minutes on Bricklink.
The machine guns were a little different; Lego doesn’t care for realistic looking weapons. After looking around for a little bit I decided to go the third party route. I placed an order for the Brick Arms machine guns and clips that allow them plug into jumper plates. The ram prow and guns required me to rework the front and hood of the car. I lost a lot of the sleekness that’s in the original set but it looks far more dangerous.
Because of all extra hardware on the hood I raised the
passenger area and roof up by one stud.
I also replaced headrest with a stickered tile that has a 13 on it. Vic always had a rockabilly vibe to him, so
when I found the 13 stickers I knew I had to use them. I originally wanted the back end to be fully
of survival type gear. I really, really
wanted propane tanks and things like that.
The scale eventually got the better of me. Had I made the car 8 studs wide instead of 6
I think my original vision would have worked but by this point I was already
fully committed to the smaller vehicle.
I also wanted to only use half the back end. That way I could still have part of the white
stripe that goes down Elsa’s hood. This
literally was the longest part of the build.
I took apart and rebuilt the back end numerous times until I got to a
version I was happy with. The tool sled
slides into place and is held in the back with the ladder and a chain. It rests on smooth tiles so it’s easy to pull
out for use. Under the sled I used
another of the 13 stickers. With the
scale I was only able to get a hammer, wrench, and socket into the tool area
but I feel it gets the point across.
In the end I’m really happy with the results. Both Vic and Else turned out extremely close
to how I imagined them. If you want to
hear more about the character check out the Party of One Podcast. Make sure you give a listen to more than just
the Apocalypse Highway episode though, there are far funnier people playing
there that me.