Has Lego leaked the new Defender or is this just a toy?

Land Rover has desperately attempted to manage expectations around its new Defender. It has teased camouflaged prototypes touring around the world but been careful not to reveal too much.

Now the world’s favourite Danish toy brand has apparently done the unthinkable and leaked the new Defender – ahead of its global reveal.

Lego has a unique relationship with most automotive manufacturers. Its designers are given privileged access to pre-production and prototype vehicles, in order to harvest details which allow them to scale their own Lego brick versions. This co-branding relationship has never been an issue before,until now.

Read: New Defender testing in Kenya

A new Land Rover Defender build-set was shown on a Lego news site over the weekend and the similarities are too obvious to ignore. This Lego Technic Defender rolls the same wheel design as all those camouflaged Defender prototypes and the off-set badging is similar too.

The Lego Defender features massive over-fenders and a bold bonnet power dome, which might be accentuated styling elements. Round headlights are also more akin to the old Defender than Land Rover’s new utilitarian off-roader. But these design elements are typical of Lego’s signature finishes, which are close, but never an exact resemblance of any production vehicle.

Technically, the Land Rover Defender Lego set consists of 2 573 pieces. It features a functional steering mechanism, four-speed sequential transmission, three differentials and independent suspension at both axles.

Measures from the winch to tailgate, it is 42 cm long, stands 22 cm tall and spaces 20 cm across. Market distribution for the new Lego Defender is scheduled for October, which is a month after Land Rover is due to launch its life-size version.

It will be telling to see how closely the two resemble each other. But if this Lego Technic set is anything to go by, Land Rover traditionalists might not be disappointed – at all.