Not many people remember, but the one and only Louis Vuitton started his humble fashion journey making train cases in 1854. What started as a journey encasing the belongings of other people turned into a conglomerate that has an iron grip on the fashion world today. The Louis Vuitton brand has transcended mere train cases, with their broader group (LVMH) owning practically every haute company you can think of, from Christian Dior and Givenchy to Hennessy, Bvlgari, Tag Heuer, Hublot, and a bunch more. But this LEGO build pays tribute to arguably the one product that LV owes its entire legacy to – the Train Case.
Vuitton, born in 1821 in France pioneered something rather unusual. Most travel cases and trunks had dome-topped designs (made so that water would drip off of them, like umbrellas), but this made them notoriously difficult to stack. In an era where most people traveled by train, steamboat, and horse-drawn carriages, Vuitton chased efficiency, but added his fashionable spin to them. He did so by building some of the first perfectly rectangular travel cases, with reinforced corners and air-tight designs. Vuitton’s cases were so famous they became the unwavering choice of the Empress of the time, beginning a legacy that would continue for nearly a hundred years. This LEGO Train Case from Terauma is a reimagination of the company’s iconic case, designed and manufactured since 1980. Although nobody who buys authentic LV gear travels by trains anymore, these cases are still an icon of the company’s heritage… and now you can build one too!
Designer: Terauma
Terauma managed to build out the case with as much detail as physically possible. This includes the reinforced corners, the handle, the stackable inner compartments, and even the monogram that you see on the outside. Obviously LV was (and still is) a very litigious company, so this concept is for pure representation only. I’m assuming if LEGO were to make this fan-made design a reality, it would involve partnering extensively with the LV brand to get the prerequisite permissions.
The design is marvelously realistic. Terauma uses the perfect tans and browns to build the canvas and leather case. The monogramming is perfectly aligned, and the hinge on the back works impeccably. The handle of the case is made to be dynamic too, flexing ever so slightly to adjust to your grip rather than being a fixed, rigid, molded part.
The case features 1200 parts, which might sound like much, but a lot of those parts are the small studs used to build out the geometric detailing on the box itself and the monogramming on the exterior. The width of the box is approximately 28 studs, says Terauma, and the organization tray on the top (which comes out) is perfectly sized to store and display minifigures, while the inner container can be a place to stash bricks while not in use.
Terauma’s MOC (My Own Creation) is in the final stretch of voting on the LEGO Ideas platform with a staggering 9250 votes. If it does cross the 10,000 vote mark, it gets sent to the LEGO internal team for review, and if all goes well (and LV gives their blessing), this build could potentially turn into a box set. If you’d like to see that happen, go down to the LEGO Ideas website and cast your vote for this Louis Vuitton Train Case build! It’s free.
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