LEGO built a Bugatti Type 35 in bricks, then made it almost impossible to own
The rarest Bugatti of the summer is made of plastic
Bugatti has built some genuinely rare things this year, but the hardest one to get your hands on might be this. LEGO set 4000048 is a brick-built Bugatti Type 35, and only 250 were ever made. None went on sale. Every single one was given away.
What it is
The set is a LEGO recreation of the Bugatti Type 35. The proportions of that long, slim body and the classic horseshoe grille carry over surprisingly well into brick form, which is not a given with pre-war shapes. It is a proper display piece rather than a token.
How you cannot get one
All 250 were handed to attendees of the 26th International Bugatti Meeting, described as an extraordinary gift from LEGO, Denmark and the Danish Bugatti Club. There is no retail version, no online store, no waiting list. If you were not at the event, with a Bugatti presumably parked outside, you were never getting one, which makes this an instant collectible the moment it existed.
Why the Type 35 is the right car to immortalise
This was never going to be a modern hypercar. The Type 35 is the most successful racing car in history, credited with well over a thousand victories in the 1920s, and it is the car that built Bugatti's competition reputation in the first place. For a gathering of Bugatti owners and enthusiasts, it is the only sensible choice, and it is the kind of car this crowd actually reveres.
Part of LEGO's deepening car obsession
It also lands in the middle of a remarkable run of LEGO cars. Between the life-size Ferrari and Koenigsegg builds, the Jaguar E-Type, the F1 tie-ins and a growing Speed Champions range, cars have become central to what LEGO does. A 250-unit event exclusive is the boutique end of that same strategy, aimed at exactly the people most likely to care.
AutoNext Take
There is a lovely irony in a free LEGO set becoming one of the most collectible Bugatti items of the year, and you can already guess what happens next: a few will quietly appear online at prices that would embarrass an actual toy. That is a shame in one sense, because these were meant as a warm gesture to a community rather than an investment. But it is also proof that LEGO understands scarcity as well as any carmaker does, and that a beautifully chosen subject in brick form can carry the same desire as the real thing. The Type 35 deserves the tribute, even if almost nobody will get to build it.
