"Death Proof" Nova by Lino M.

Most of us played with Legos as kids. Half the fun of getting a big new set was mining it for parts we'd then use to perfect our own creations. Time passes, we grow up, and the vast majority of us stop building. The bricks get handed off to a younger generation of relatives or just get put into storage. But for some, the hobby never goes away, and creativity benefits from the patience and skill that comes with age. Case in point, the Lego creations of Lino M. Lino is obviously a car guy, and his custom creations are good enough to grace the box art of Lego kits on retail shelves.

Take the "Death Proof" Nova shown above. It's incredibly detailed, right down to the hood skull, custom ornament, roll cage, and passenger-side crash box. Compare it to this press pic of the real car. It doesn't end there, either. In the attached gallery, we've included sample shots of a '65 Econoline drag racer, a '64 Impala lowrider, a '68 Chevy C10, and an incredible '68 GTO drag racer that he created. Note the flame detail on the GTO -- that's good stuff. We'd happily pay money for these if we saw them in Toys 'R Us. Short of that, we'll simply enjoy watching Lino do his work. You can see detail shots of the aforementioned builds (and others) at his Flickr set of Lego cars. He's also got a massive gallery of builds at Brickshelf.com, all of which are worth checking out. Time to pull that bag of Legos out of our parents' attic.

[Source: Flickr, Brickshelf via Super Punch]