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Old 09-16-2004, 08:21 PM   #11
MIB.6361
 
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Join Date: Aug 2004
Location: Phoenix, Arizona, USA, Earth, Sol, Milky Way, Infinity.
Default Re: Lego Car Wars?

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Originally Posted by Old Man
I suspect that if I tried to play a game of Car Wars using Legos, the game would grind to a halt and it would turn into just a big Lego building session.
And what's wrong with that?

Oh yeah, the game gets lost. But still... Legos rock!!

Heh, I tried doing a mini-RPG thing with my middle kids with my Legos and it didn't last long before we were just building stuff. So I have tested your theory and it is sound.
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Old 08-24-2020, 05:35 PM   #12
Lindmark71
 
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Default Re: Lego Car Wars?

There are two "generations" of Lego Speed Champions kits.
The first one measures slightly under 5 inches long and 2.5 inches wide.

It fits to a roughly 40 mm by 20 mm base, which loosely translates to 5 by 2.5, or a 5X scale car model.

The second generation is wide enough to not fit no a 5 X 2.5 rectangle base.

The only downside to using the Speed Champions line for car models is the scale. 3X Hot Wheels is about as large as you can go without having very skinny arenas, or being suspended over the board by a crane ala Tom Cruise from Mission Impossible.

Any smaller than 12X (which is epic in scale), and the cars look too small to be played on the floor.

It will still *work*, but the sizes will seem tiny.
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Old 08-24-2020, 07:03 PM   #13
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Default Re: Lego Car Wars?

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Originally Posted by Lindmark71 View Post

Any smaller than 12X (which is epic in scale), and the cars look too small to be played on the floor.
I've never played at that scale but I have played using 1/24 scale models on the floor and I thought it was pretty impressive.
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Old 08-27-2020, 07:00 PM   #14
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Default Re: Lego Car Wars?

Most LEGO Speed Champions scaled cars would fit on a 6 inch x 3 inch base with little issue, so we'd be talking about 6x.

It could be played on the floor of an average-sized room, assuming 12 feet x 12 feet of open space.

Or on an 8 foot x 4 foot table if you have a "rolling highway" scenario (which I have done - it was a blast).
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Old 09-02-2020, 01:21 PM   #15
Lindmark71
 
Join Date: Mar 2015
Default Re: Lego Car Wars?

The 12X scale translates to 1:16.
The car models I’ve used are 1:18, to give a little room in the edge to handle the “counter”.
You do need a small apartment to play, or a convention ballroom, or outside.

I bet 1:24 looks pretty sharp too.
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Old 09-03-2020, 01:41 PM   #16
swordtart
 
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Default Re: Lego Car Wars?

Lego minifigs are nominally 1:50 scale*.

On that basis, the usual 1" = 15 ft scale means you need a standard car base of 3.6" long (~4x scale). That equates to just under 12 studs x 6 studs.

Most classis minifig vehicles are 4 studs wide (as are the standard wheels mounted on 2x2 blocks). These are very small, but so are compacts in CW (being able generally to fit a single crewman, a plant and a weapon).

Lego Racers range (e,g. 4297) are too small (the driver is only a half figure). Whilst these are 4 studs wide, they have outboard wheels. Bring those wheels within the chassis like

Later vehicles (e.g 7492) were 6 studs wide, and would fill a 12 x 6 base, but these are quite large vehicles.

*The issue is LEGO minifigs are either too wide or too short (they should be about 50% taller to be in proportion. If you base your scale on height they are 1:50 (ish). If you base it on their width you are looking at 1:30 (ish) and closer to the 6" standard base suggested by schoon.

The early road baseboards are built for a 4 stud wheelbase. If you got the Lego Racer board game (set 31314) the cars were 4 stud wheel bases but seated a complete minifig (with his head in the breeze). These would be ideal Killer Karts - though to be fair the LEGO version looks sturdier than a Kart. The cardboard Jigsaw track was only wide enough for two cars side by side on the straights (and on the bends it was very tight), but it was workable. You could easily fit a complete circuit on a fairly small table.

If you ignore the minifigs you can make microscale cars that would just fit on a 4 x 2 base (almost 1x CW scale). I have seen a microscale rig that was on a 2.5 stud wheelbase (using wheels from a minifig skateboard) that was credible.

Given CW vehicles can be somewhat blocks and still look "realistic" even small LEGO models can look entirely adequate. With some of the newer specialist pieces, greebling and SNOT building they can be better than say the Grenadier lead models were.

If you allow yourself to abuse a few bricks to produce the odd custom element, the majority of the model can use standard bricks.

Some people have really embraced the idea
https://www.flickr.com/photos/8107354@N03/23537706446
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