More than 100 years ago when cars were an uncommon sight on roads, decades before Ole Kirk Kristiansen started making wooden toys, and long before the name LEGO was chosen, Henry Ford caused ripples in history with this car; the 11376 Model T Ford. This set comes with 1060 pieces for AU$ 199.99 / € 129.99 / US$ 129.99 / £ 119.99 and will be available from the 1st of March 2026 (113 years after the car that inspired it was first produced).

To say this is a ‘classic’ doesn’t quite do it justice. Many more (newer) cars would be considered classics, but this is a little different. Henry Ford decided he wanted to build a motor car for anyone, so that every family could own a car and “enjoy with his family the blessing of hours of pleasure in God’s great open spaces.” Up until that point cars were an expensive excess only for the wealthy. To achieve this dream, Ford used assembly line manufacturing, effectively kicking off the era of mass-production.

It may feel like LEGO has been around forever (or certainly for as long most of us have been alive), but when LEGO was founded this particular car was already part of history. Notice in the photo above, showing he first production line with a car (on the right ladder) surprisingly similar to this car. Was that a model T?

Join me as I explore some history of classic cars with LEGO, and dive into this particular model, generously gifted by LEGO. All opinions are our own.

The new Model T Ford comes in any colour, as long as it’s black

This model called ‘Model T Ford’ or ‘Ford Model T’, depending how you read the logo, is a tribute inspired by the 1913 runabout. There have been very many different variants of Model T‘s over time and this model intends to bring together some key characteristics of the car.

The runabout is the equivalent of a two-seater car which captures a sense of fun over practicality. Tesla used this same idea to show electric cars could be fun with their original roadster. I like this particular choice of model, which to me is the ‘sporty’ variant of the car.

A classic feature is the hand crank at the front of the car, a bit more noticeable in the LEGO version, where it drives the fan in front of the motor. This is meant to resemble cranking the motor, but space did not allow for that level of detail. Underneath the car (we will notice later) the motor is also not connected to the wheels, but this isn’t a Technic model so no real surprise there.

Notice the golden front edge of around the grille with the golden (gas powered) high-beam headlights.

Additional low beam/daytime driving lights can be found right in front if the cabin, with a red variant at the rear of the car. All the lights were powered by gas created in the carbide generator on the left foot-board (which is misspelt in the LEGO manual).

The angled bonnet at the front is recreated nicely, and it can open showing the 20bhp engine and cooling fan.

Under the car we have iconic white tyres (pre-dating the use of carbon that makes tyres black). The tyres are mounted on 12-spoked wheels, beautifully represented here in LEGO (more on this later). Interestingly the LEGO model show something akin to drums brakes on all four wheels, which is not something the real model T had. Rather, the model T cars used a drum brake on the transmission and a parking break on the real wheels only. Front wheel braking wasn’t common until the late 1920’s.

The model comes with a dual part foldable windscreen and a canvas roof can can be folded back..

The wheel arches provide the iconic shape so common for cars during he early 20th century, connected along the foot-boards.

The shape and characteristics of the car are captured really nicely in LEGO and I am very excited to see this iconic vehicle in LEGO form represented so well. Having worked in the automotive industry, this car holds a particular significance for me. When I saw this exploded version of a T Ford in the Henry Ford Museum in Michigan in 2009 it didn’t even occur to me that LEGO could turn it into a set.

Unfortunately, the scale of this car doesn’t quite align with other ‘large scale LEGO vehicles). Admittedly they all do not follow the same scale consistently, but this one is quite a bit larger than it should be. The wheels on the Model T are 75mm, which is 1.5 times larger than 49.5mm for cars like the Camaro or Lamborghini. In reality the wheels of the Model T, at 30″, were only about 10% larger than typical wheels of modern vehicles. The rest of the Model T is between 10-15% larger than the other icons cars, so the difference is not drastic, but next to each other the cars don’t quite match (and yes the wheels are a bit too large). I suggest you give the Model T a spot by itself, until more vehicle start turning up using these new wheels.

Exploration of ‘Antique cars’

Doing a cursory exploration of cars in the Brickset database brings up several models that have some resemblance to this model. Let’s start with the anonymous ‘Antique-car’ (set 329) from 1967, that clearly shares some design DNA with a model T Ford.

After that it took 7 years before another Antique Car was released; in 1974 we got 196 Antique Car (set 196) which appears like a more blocky and colourful version of the same car. The year after, in 1975 we saw a 1926 Renault (set 391) and a 1913 Cadillac (set 390) (photos courtesy of Brickset)

In 1976 we were offered a Rolls Royce from 1909 (set 395), almost the same year as the model T

Two things stand out with these sets; only 3 digits in their set numbers (and I thought 4 digits were a sign of an old set!) and all these cars have very characteristic spoked wheels. That particular wheel (part35) was produced from 1965 to 1977 and used in 10 sets. This doesn’t mean that after 1977 this style of vehicle disappeared from LEGO altogether, but clearly the focus moved away from this style of wheels.

Fabuland reintroduced the really-early 20th centrury design with a range of vehicles all using the same base (Fabuland Car Chassis) with spoked wheels. The straight front windows and open cabin make me think of the T Ford, but you could also argue that these cars were inspired by generic first-half of century designs. Interestingly this same design returned in 2000 in Mickey’s Fire Engine (set 4164).

Widening our view a bit towards ‘iconic’ cars we can see the Model T Ford is in good company. The Model T was the most sold vehicle worldwide until it was finally overtaken by the Volkswagen Beetle in 1977 (a model associated with an entirely less pleasant person) which has had two large scale iterations in 2008 and 2016. It seems only right that these two models are strengthening the ranks of LEGO ‘Icons Cars’.

Spoked Wheel! and other parts

We’ve mentioned the wheels of the Model T ford a few times now, and the box clearly highlights this as a unique feature. We haven’t had this kind of spoked wheel with tyre for quite some time; we have seen them in carriages or carts but not in cars of this size since 1977.

I can imagine these wheels will kick of a flurry of other old-timer vehicles, akin to the LEGO sets discussed above. I’m quite confident LEGO has more use of these new moulds in mind, so I am keen see more where this came from. Equally, I expect the fan community to take this car as a starting shot for a generation of antique cars to show up at various LEGO exhibitions around the world. Please share you pictures when you’ve made one!

Each of the spokes of the wheel has the thickness to connect a clip, so I think we can start a timer until this wheel will be used in a botanical set; the pattern just seems too convenient to ignore. What flower do you think would be best suited?

The windscreen is the next obvious new and unique part. This, again, seems very targeted for this kind of vehicle, but I can see there being other uses for such window panes. The black edge around 3 sides of the window in moulded into the window which limits the reusability a bit, although the thickness allows clips (or minifig hands) to connect to it.

The canvas retractable roof is certainly too specific for this vehicle to find much reuse elsewhere, but it adds greatly to the character of this car; a hardtop would not have given the same feeling, and made it much harder to create the retractable roof

There are a few curved slopes in this set of the new ‘lower’ kind. And these are then combined with extra plates to gain the extra ‘old’ height, as shown in the 2×4 curved slope:

This may just be a matter of convenience for the instructions or perhaps for manufacturing cost but I hope it’s something more. Perhaps this is a trend where parts are disassembled into their component parts to make the construction a bit more interesting. The opposite of POOP (Parts Out Of Parts), where integrated parts are included that could easily have been made from other standard parts. What are your thoughts?

Finally there is gold! The brass/gold colour around the front of the car is presented with pearl gold elements, but with an odd twist. The Ford logo is printed on the brick with a solid reflective gold background. All the 1×1 golden plates are also painted with the same gold on one side only, and this gold doesn’t quite look the same as the pearl gold (it looks better). When these pieces are next to each other (such as on the side of the grille) the difference is noticeable, because the painted gold reflects more than the non-painted gold.

All other parts represent what you would expect from a black model; a lot of black and grey with the occasional dash of tan thrown in. Nobody expected bright colours. After all; colour cameras weren’t invented back then!

Manufacturing line of the Model T Ford

Henry Ford imagined making a car that every family could afford, and he achieved this by inventing a moving assembly line, the fundamental basis for mass production. As we go through the steps of building this car, imagine it is slowly moving along on a conveyor belt and the parts are added as it moves past different assembly stations.

The box has some lovely photos of the car, which I have come to appreciate even more after learning how difficult it is to photograph a black car with white wheels! The rear showcases all features of the car and the side highlights the most striking part; the wheel in the 1:1 box.

The box contains a modest 7 paper bags plus one plastic bag for the wheels and two envelopes for special parts.

Notes are found throughout the instruction manual that explain the background of what is being built, or some other snippet of information about the car. Make sure you don’t miss them! I did not know that this car only had 1 door or used gas lights, for example.

First we start with the base frame for the car, using some Technic parts in a way that is quite familiar if you’ve made this size car before. The footboards are added at the first step, creating a boundary for how wide the car will become.

The next steps contains something a little unusual for a LEGO set; there are some supports added to the bottom of the car that don’t seem to belong to the car. Imagine these are the mounts for the car to move along the assembly line. You can see the flimsy construction representing the differential, which feels appropriate for a 20hp car. The axle is not connected to the engine, it is rather implied with the axle touching the inverted slop towards the engine bag. There is also no suspension for any of the wheels.

with the base of the cabin added, I imagine the brown represents wood, the steering frame is created. It’s about as simple and compact as you can imagine such a thing, which fit well with the style and theme of this car.

Next up we create the rear axle and the fenders to cover the rear wheels. Some ‘greebling’ to represent the mounts for the fenders are added, which is a nice touch expressing the minimalist design of the car.

At this point I thought I was looking at the front of the car, despite it being quite obvious that the steering mechanism was connected to the other side of the car. Something about the shape of the fenders just worked as ‘front’ for me. Nice the nice double curved shape of the wheel arches.

Next we add the bench to the car; separate seats in a car is something from the late 20th century. The fuel tank for the car is underneath this bench. it was probably safe for everyone to leave the vehicle when refuelling.

The driver rear and side of the cabin are added and I feel delighted with the various curves and slopes coming together to create something a decidedly not blocky shape.

We then encounter some more brown parts to build up the front of the cabin, including a clever way to create the steering wheel angle, that is sandwiched nicely between the bricks, and going through the floor of the car, to connect to the front wheels. Yes, the steering wheel will actually move the front wheels.

Also notice the rubber band hanging from the crank at the bottom; this connects to the fan so that it turns when you crank the car. In reality this would move the cylinders of the engine, but this is a nice visual representation of engine activity. Alas, this effect will be largely hidden behind the radiator grille, but you can still see it when peering in from the side.

The characteristic angular bonnet sides are created next and each side can be lifted up to show the engine and the radiator fan. For whatever reason I could not assemble this in a way that the top of the bonnet closed completely, the top always showed a little opening, the LEGO pieces just did not have enough space to close fully without holding it (or gluing it). Please let me know if you can find out what I did wrong and mange to close the gap.

The golden edge is up next, thoroughly establishing this is a Ford.

The front fenders are added completing the characteristic shape of the wheel arches from front to rear and adding the rear trunk/boot.

This brings us to the final section where the boot-lid, the wheels, windscreen and roof are added.

At this point the assembly-line-support points come off the car. The wheels can now carry the car so they are not needed any more, and they can go on to support you spare parts collection. It’s not the first time I’ve seen ‘disposable’ parts used, but I cannot recall if I ever saw it with LEGO. In this case I like how these parts can signify the moving assembly line that has made this car so iconic, but there is nothing alluding to this in the instructions.

This brings us to your newly assembled antique car, the LEGO Model T Ford.

Conclusions

Get this car. The price for the set is a little steep for the complexity, but it is worth it. This car offers something different from the previous cars LEGO has offered. It’s a display piece and conversation piece, and you can even play with it! While I am certainly biased (I was giddy when I heard this model was coming) this is objectively a cool model. Even people not invested in cars will see this as something different and have another look, it is the shape that a young child draws when drawing a car. The model is fun to put together and provides some nice experience of curving and shaping using the LEGO system (despite the model looking a bit blocky, it isn’t).

I give this set 4 out of 5 arbitrary praise units, withholding one point for the lack of rebuild options and playability. This is a display model first and foremost and it is great at that. Get one for old times sake.

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We really value your feedback: please let us know what you think about the sets we review, and the articles we post. And if you wish to support the Rambling Brick, consider clicking on our affiliate links before going shopping at LEGO.com. The Rambling Brick receives a small commission, and it costs you nothing extra.

Until Next Time,

Play Well!

If you have enjoyed this post, please feel free to share it with your friends, families and communities. You can also keep up to date with us by following The Rambling Brick on our socials: Facebook, Threads, Bluesky, Tumblr (or just sign up for our mailing list) and find some extra content on Instagram and TikTok.

We really value your feedback: please let us know what you think about the sets we review, and the articles we post. And if you wish to support the Rambling Brick, consider clicking on our affiliate links before going shopping at LEGO.com. The Rambling Brick receives a small commission, and it costs you nothing extra.

Until Next Time,

Play Well!