The mental image of two individuals hoisting a Land Cruiser with nothing but their bare hands is enough to make your brain do backflips – that is, until you discover that this particular 4×4 is actually crafted from foam. This life-sized, intricately detailed prototype was the star of a recent video on the official Land Cruiser YouTube channel, which charmingly walked us through the entire foam-filled creation process.
The full-scale model is the brainchild of Masumi Yamaguchi, a styrofoam sculptor from Japan whose medium of choice is lighter than air but heavier in talent. This model is a meticulously crafted doppelgänger of the facelifted 2024 Toyota Land Cruiser 70, marking its triumphant return to the Japanese market after what seemed like a vacation longer than your average sabbatical.
More: Modelista Gives Us More Reasons To Love The Immortal Toyota Land Cruiser 70 Classic
The project kicked off with colossal blocks of foam, destined to morph into the shape of the Land Cruiser. While the SUV’s silhouette might remind you of a box you’d pack your old college textbooks in, its bodywork boasts sculpted details that pose a real challenge to replicate.
Take the hood, for instance – it demands an artisan’s touch and a whole lot of elbow grease to mirror reality. The same applies to more intricate details as well, like the LED headlights, the honeycomb grille, the Toyota emblems, and the wheels. The tire tread is replicated using some sort of a thermal gun, exhibiting the high level of attention to detail.
When all of the sculpting was completed, the bodywork was painted in a classic beige shade, with all of the plastic components finished in black. The resulting prototype speaks for itself, as it is easy to mistake it for a real Land Cruiser from a distance. The only thing that gives away its foam-y nature are the blocked windows and the lack of reflections on the exterior surfaces. Nonetheless, it’s a wildly impressive rendition of the recently updated classic off-roader, and it would undoubtedly be a showstopper in any museum.
As a reminder, while some regions will get a three-door, short wheelbase variant, the 2024 Toyota Land Cruiser 70 in Japan is exclusively available as a five-door SUV. This rugged ladder-frame off-roader is equipped with a new 2.8-liter turbodiesel four-cylinder engine, capable of producing 201 hp (150 kW / 204 PS) and 500 Nm (368.9 lb-ft) of torque. Of course, this engine is absent in the foam model, but who really needs an engine when you can effortlessly carry or drag your 4×4 through the woods?
