Discussion: Width of Vehicles?

[Peppermint_M]

As I built my Milk Float MOC the other day I began to wonder, what width do you build your town vehicles? I have added this handy Poll to find out.

I also pondered whether there is room for more than one width of vehicle depending on purpose? After all, a car is smaller than a Land Rover, a Truck is bigger than a car and a bus, lorry or ambulance is bigger than many “regular” vehicles one encounters in the real world. We all know minifigure scale is a pain to scale up to human size and many minifig cars have to be an odd size to their counterparts in real life.

Please post your opinions on this matter, tell us how you populate your layouts, what you prefer to MOC and why and anything else in relation to this all.

Myself? Regular personal vehicles and motor cars are always going to be 4 wide, but for trucks, vans and other larger vehicles they have to be 6 wide. I like 8 wide for larger HGVs and lorries, after all, they are biggest of all.

So how about you?

(edit, I can't seem to get the poll to work. So could a helpfull mod add one in. I have no idea where I am going wrong...)

[Dennimator]

Here we go again..

I prefer cars to be 5-wide, smaller trucks to be 5 or 6 wide (depends on the vehicle) and trucks/lorrys and buses 7-wide. It is the closest to 'true' minifig-scale you can get (1/45).

Ralph_S, I think I know your answer as well...

[lightningtiger]

Well if I'm building something to go classic town - 4 wide, but with my country town all the vehicles are going to be six wide (except the prime movers/semi trailiers - 7 to 8 wide) I have small 6 wide trucks for utility repairs and parcel delivery, will be designing 6 wide Commodores to be police cars and stock for the Holden dealership I'm planning - they a big cars and I like realism in my town.

I guess it's a matter of personal preference - you go with what ever you like. I think 'Ralph_S' and a few others will have something to say one this matter that's for sure. But I can't help get the feeling a discussion was only held recently in this forum - it could be my mind playing tricks again.

I'm a conformist! !

[Ricecracker]

It all depends on the vehicle in question. As a general rule, I use 5 wide for cars and small trucks, like my Chevy Lowrider. I use 6 wide for pick-up trucks, smaller vans and SUVs, like this, and 8 wide for larger trucks, like this.

As an aside, I use seven wide for the beds of some specialized pick-ups, like this, and six wide for the cabs of many wide American trucks, that use the mudguards to widen them to 8 wide.

EDIT: I found this rather old thread about it, back from when Hinckley couldn't start a poll

Edited February 24, 2010 by Ricecracker

[Tom Bricks]

I use 4 wide for cars and 6 wide for trucks/busses. This makes the interior small but I think it looks better compared to a minifig and to buildings.

[prateek]

Cars: 4-5 wide

SUVs/Vans: 5-7 wide

Trucks:6-8 wide

[Ralph_S]

I know a lot of people refer to LEGO's current trucks and SUVs such as the one pulling the horse trailer as six-wide, but including their mudguards and tyres they're actually 7 studs wide. It's only the body that is six studs wide. So, including the mudguards and wheels I use (as dennimator already mentioned) I use:

5 wide for normal cars

5-6 wide for vans and SUVs

6 wide for small trucks

6-7 wide for full-size trucks and buses

This does mean that I can't seat two figures side by side in the cars, but all the vehicles are nicely proportioned relative to each other and they don't completely dwarf the figures that stand next to them.

As an added note: I don't think 1/45 is perfect minifig scale because the perfect minifig scale doesn't exist. I do think that 1/45 works well as a guideline for city scenes in which you combine vehicles and pedestrians. I've written all of this in a thread I started a few weeks ago and that was front-paged, but ho hum, it's obviously a hot topic.

Lightningtiger's memory hasn't failed him

Peppermint_M, 4 wide for your milk float works well IMO, because they often are dinky little vehicles in real life. If I were to build a SMART car or an old mini for my minifigs, I'd probably make them four studs wide as well.

Cheers,

Ralph

Edited February 24, 2010 by Ralph_S

[wooootles]

I'm just going to stick to the current CITY scale for now; 4-wide chassis for smaller cars and SUVs, 6-wide for bigger SUVs and trucks. Though with tires sometimes bulging out, side mirrors and whatever trinkets attached to the vehicle these guys are actually closer to 6-wide and 8-wide respectively. But whatever

One thing's for sure for me; I'm probably not going to build those 8-wide body trucks that are just heueueg and LEGO releases once in a while (like 7998 and the new off-road behemoth fire truck)

[kill will]

I build in 4 wide for cars, 6 wide for trucks, 8 wide for buses and other giant vehicles. My roads have 6 wide lanes, as I currently don't have any buses or large vehicles

[dr_spock]

I like 4 wide cars and trucks. There is a nostalgic feel to them like being a kid again. If it goes permanently into my Town, it's 4 wide. I do dabble in 6 or wider vehicles. They don't get displayed in the Town.

[Joebot]

I like 4 wide cars and trucks. There is a nostalgic feel to them like being a kid again. If it goes permanently into my Town, it's 4 wide. I do dabble in 6 or wider vehicles. They don't get displayed in the Town.

Amen, brother. It's 4-wide for me, all the way.

I know most people rave about the added realism of Lego's increasingly larger vehicles these days, but for me, "realism" has never been the point of building with Lego. If I wanted realism, I'd collect model trains instead, which are at a consistent scale. I much prefer the simplicity and charm of classic-style Town sets, with 4-wide vehicles and buildings with no stairs and no backs.

The problem that TLC is running into is that their buildings and roads aren't keeping up with the increasingly ginormous vehicles. The new airport looks ridiculous next to the airplane. And you'll note that they no longer include any road plates to use as runways. That's because the planes are too damn big to fit on the runways! The recent Garage set was mostly an open-air plaza because, again, an enclosed building would have to be huge (and therefore likely push the set over the desired price target) to accomodate the vehicles.

I say stop the madness! The enbiggening of Lego vehicles has to stop!!

[ACCURATEin]

I started building an 8-wide bus last night and as far as the interior is concerned, 8 wide allows for enough room inside the cabin to add certain details that would be impossible if I built it in 6-wide.

I guess it all depends on what you're trying to achieve with each build.

[Fugazi]

I say stop the madness! The enbiggening of Lego vehicles has to stop!!

You have a valid point here. Although I feel that 4-wide is not a very realistic vehicle width, at least during the 80-90s the whole city system was internally consistent, with buildings that were pretty much in scale with the vehicles. Now we have strange settings like you just mentioned, where vehicles are taller than the buildings and wider than the streets. So while as a MOCer I enjoy the availability of parts allowing me to build in 6+wide, as a Lego City fan I'm not sure I like how going big is having an impact on the believability of the City line. It's starting to look just like another action theme (I have the Agents 2.0 uber-vehicles in mind)... But if this is what sells with the kids, I will swallow the pill and keep MOCing my own way -- which is pretty much 5 to 7-wide depending on vehicle type.

PS: And by the way, I hate how they designed this mudguard:

It's designed for 6+wide vehicles, but the way it's made you still wind up with only 2 studs in the cabin between the tires, with the minifig sitting in the center of the cabin. They should have designed it differently IMO.

[Minifig Lecturer]

I only like 4 wide, yes I know its conservative but it's always been my preference. One reason I dislike 6 wide for example is they are even more out of scale that the 4wide versions when compared with both buildings and road widths...

[Zorbas]

Amen, brother. It's 4-wide for me, all the way.

I know most people rave about the added realism of Lego's increasingly larger vehicles these days, but for me, "realism" has never been the point of building with Lego. If I wanted realism, I'd collect model trains instead, which are at a consistent scale. I much prefer the simplicity and charm of classic-style Town sets, with 4-wide vehicles and buildings with no stairs and no backs.

It's the first time in here that a member's post is EXACTLY, word by word my thoughts when it comes to LEGO.

Nothing more to add.

The problem that TLC is running into is that their buildings and roads aren't keeping up with the increasingly ginormous vehicles. The new airport looks ridiculous next to the airplane. And you'll note that they no longer include any road plates to use as runways. That's because the planes are too damn big to fit on the runways! The recent Garage set was mostly an open-air plaza because, again, an enclosed building would have to be huge (and therefore likely push the set over the desired price target) to accomodate the vehicles.

Again, same as above. The airport remark Joebot brings here is a great example. In the old days, an airport building WAS in fact a building. Now, it's just a glass panel structure because of the planes' scale. Imagine how many bricks TLG should use in order to release a brick built airport, not to mention the size of it.

I say stop the madness! The embiggening of Lego vehicles has to stop!!

My turn to say "Amen Brother!"

P.S#1

I hope I wasn't off-topic mentioning the airport example but I really think that everything stems from the embiggening of vehicles. Everything must be bigger because of the vehicles' scale.

P.S#2

Still, I will keep buying 6-wide vehicles sets since they are the only available. (Bricklink is not my friend.)

[Etzel]

I will go against the stream and hold 6-wide as much better than 4-wide. The only 4-wide car I like is the smart car that fits in size

4-wide cars looks way to small IMO and I think the classic town vehicles that many seems to adore are just too unrealistic and boring, no nostalgia for me. I want to be able to fit two minifigs side by side in my cars and the more details the better according to me. Bigger than 6-wide however doesn't fit well though, except for really big vehicles like trucks and that stuff.

I don't think 6-wide is too big, I say it's about as perfect it can get

[Selander]

Here we go again..

I find it most important to have a consitant idea in your town so all vehicules have a correct relative scale.

As for myself I prefer to make cars 4-wide, SUV are 4-wide + mudguards, and buses, trucks and trains are

all 6-wide, = meaning 6-wide bodies without mudguards, BUT I do add mirrors etc which are outside the 6-wide body.

Personally I dont mind if one or two minifigs have room enough.

I fully agree to other members saying that vehicles tend to get too big, so let's strive to keep the scale DOWN !!!

Let the never-ending-debate continue.......................

[paul_delahaye]

I would say

Cars and Vans 4 wide

Trucks 6 wide

Trains 8 wide

Planes 10 wide

However all my trains are 6 wide :-)

[Ralph_S]

I completely agree that LEGO have started to muddle the waters by messing around with the scale themselves. Four-wides weren't particularly realistic, but they fit the roads and city buildings of the 'eighties and early nineties and I used to love them. The larger vehicles in current city sets are more realistic, but they do look big compared to the buildings, particularly in a set like City Corner. It's a lovely set, but the buildings are tiny. It's less of an issue with cafe corner sets, because those are a lot bigger too.

However, none of that matters for what I myself do with my LEGO. I rarely build sets. My city layout consists of MOCs (with only one exception, and I doubt anybody has spotted it). I control the action. I set the size of the buildings (that all have stairs), the size of the cars and the train, and the widths of the roads, all whilst keeping an eye on making the relative sizes of everything reasonably consistent and on giving the vehicles realistic proportions.

For those of you who feel 7 studs is too wide for a truck or bus, I have the following comment: as we all know, minifigures are much too wide for their length. The scale I use for my minifig cars (1/45) and which brings me to a width of 5-7 studs depending on the type of vehicle is based on the assumption that the figure is roughly 1.8m tall. If I were to base the size of my vehicles on the figure's width, I'd end up with something even larger. 7 studs wide for a truck is actually towards the lower end of the scale!

Everybody is free to do as they please, of course, and while I too appreciate the nostalgia in a 4-wide vehicle and can understand that for some people realism doesn't matter much, I wouldn't want a four-wide truck in my LEGO city.

Cheers,

Ralph

Edited February 26, 2010 by Ralph_S

[Ricecracker]

...with only one exception, and I doubt anybody has spotted it

The mixer in the orange work truck, obviously .

[dr_spock]

Build what you like Peppermint_M. The important thing is to have fun.

Edited February 26, 2010 by dr_spock

[Ralph_S]

The mixer in the orange work truck, obviously .

OK, somebody has spotted it (although did you go look for it after I wrote there was one set or did you notice it before? )

Build what you like Peppermint_M. The important thing is to have fun.

Of course, but we can each have different ways of having fun.

Cheers,

Ralph

Edited February 26, 2010 by Ralph_S

[Matt Dawson]

I thing the whole scale/width etc. issue is flawed anway since an adult minifig is 1/5 head, 2/5ths leg and 2 5ths body repectively (hieght wise). Don't even mention width...

[Big Cam]

I do't see the foramentioned poll??

Although I have not done any MOC's lately if I did, I think I'd make 6 wide vehicles, I really liek the direction TLG went ad I'd probably reproduce that.

[Rick]

I completely agree that LEGO have started to muddle the waters by messing around with the scale themselves. Four-wides weren't particularly realistic, but they fit the roads and city buildings of the 'eighties and early nineties and I used to love them. The larger vehicles in current city sets are more realistic, but they do look big compared to the buildings, particularly in a set like City Corner. It's a lovely set, but the buildings are tiny. It's less of an issue with cafe corner sets, because those are a lot bigger too.

City scale vehicles and Modulars indeed look good together. But City buildings are - understandably, otherwise you'd end up with modular type prices - way too small for the vehicles.

(with only one exception, and I doubt anybody has spotted it).

The cement mixer, what do I win? I really like that orange builders' truck, btw.

Everybody is free to do as they please, of course, and while I too appreciate the nostalgia in a 4-wide vehicle and can understand that for some people realism doesn't matter much, I wouldn't want a four-wide truck in my LEGO city.

After coming out of my dark ages, I too had trouble getting over the nostalgia of 4-wide trucks, but really... while 4-wide cars are still acceptable to me, a 4-wide truck next to it, just looks odd.