LEGO collaborations with vehicle manufacturers are awesome. We’ve got some Technic sets and the Speed Champions line to prove that. You think the LEGO-Bugatti team-up that led to the Technic Chiron (and its life-sized version) was sweet? Volvo, specifically its Construction Equipment division, has done great things with LEGO too.
The encapsulation of this collaboration is the Technic ZEUX Concept Wheel Loader (42081). LEGO and Volvo CE then held a contest on LEGO Ideas last year. Contestants were asked to build their vision for the future of heavy equipment vehicles, using Technic. The winner would see their creation being considered for possible testing by Volvo.
Architect Vida Andras, age 27 from Romania, presented the winning design. It’s a multi-purpose construction vehicle with short quadruped legs ending in tracked feet. The manipulator arm has a 3D-printer, allowing it to literally make the materials needed for construction. Andras calls it the Rottweiler.
LEGO and Volvo seem to like it well enough, out of a pool of 122 entries for the Ideas contest. One factor perhaps is that the Rottweiler’s design concept was similar to that of the LEGO-Volvo ZEUX: self-driving capability. If that weren’t a futuristic vehicle element as the contest rules asked for, then what is?
For his efforts, Vida Andras won a LEGO Technic ZEUX (42081) plus several more Technic sets depicting heavy equipment vehicles. His build, along with nine other Ideas submissions, were exhibited at the London Transport Museum. Display lasted until May 16.