BlueBrixx Stuttgart G4 W31 Black Set 101335

BlueBrixx's Stuttgart G4 W31 in black is a BlueBrixx-Specials model built from 248 blocks, at roughly 1:32 to 1:35. Age 14+. No stickers or prints. Instructions are supplied as a free download after registering.

Six wheels, and only about fifty-seven of them

The G4 is a three-axle car, which is an unusual thing for a road vehicle to be, and the reason is the ground it was meant to cross.

Mercedes-Benz built it from 1934 as a heavy off-road staff car: six wheels, drive on the rear four, and a long wheelbase designed for unmade tracks, mountain roads and terrain where an ordinary saloon would ground itself. The extra axle spreads the weight and keeps the car moving where two would sink.

It was also absurdly expensive. Somewhere around 57 were built in nine years — a production run small enough that most were allocated individually. The German state used them as parade and staff vehicles, and two were given away as diplomatic gifts, one of them to Franco.

As engineering it is a reasonable answer to a real problem, and it was never going to be anything but a vehicle for a handful of people. Off-road capability at that price is a statement rather than a solution, and the army got by with the Kübelwagen.

Stuttgart means Mercedes

There is no manufacturer of that name. Mercedes-Benz is based in Stuttgart, and BlueBrixx uses the city because it has no licence for the marque — the same device as the lorry called Augsburg, which is a MAN.

In the BlueBrixx range

Set 101336 is the Stuttgart 770, the state limousine from the same period and manufacturer.

Specifications

Pieces: 248 · Scale: approx. 1:32–1:35 · Series: BlueBrixx-Specials · Age: 14+ · No stickers · Instructions as free download