Celebrating KISKA Design's X-Bow in Lego
In June 2017, KISKA Design celebrated the KTM X-Bow in Lego: a 6,000-piece diorama built inside the studio's Salzburg headquarters to mark the creative journey behind one of the most radical open-wheel supercars ever put into production. It took 100 hours to assemble, includes 110 minifigures, and captures the full design process from sketch to road car in brick form.
Who Is KISKA Design?
KISKA is a brand and design agency based in Anif, Salzburg, at the foot of Mount Untersberg. Founded by Gerald Kiska, the studio shaped the look of KTM for decades, from motorcycles and racing apparel to the X-Bow sports car. As KISKA's own portfolio shows, the studio operates across industrial design, branding, and strategic consulting, with clients including KTM, Husqvarna Motorcycles, CFMOTO, and Schuberth.
The KTM X-Bow is arguably KISKA's most celebrated four-wheeled project: a bare-bones, two-seat track weapon with no roof, no doors, and no windscreen, built on a carbon-fibre monocoque and powered by a turbocharged Audi engine. It is as stripped down as a road-legal car can legally be.
The Lego Diorama: Details
The diorama was built to celebrate the studio's internal energy and the collaborative process that produced the X-Bow. At 6,000 pieces and 110 minifigures, it depicts the KISKA design studio in miniature: designers at their desks, the car in various stages of development, and the Salzburg mountain backdrop that defines the studio's identity.
Design as Culture: Why This Matters
What makes the KISKA Lego project more than a novelty is what it says about design culture. The best car design studios do not just produce objects: they build languages, rituals, and ways of seeing. Choosing Lego as the medium to document the X-Bow's creation is playful and precise at the same time. As Gerald Kiska explained in a KTM interview, the relationship between design intent and emotional impact is at the core of everything the studio produces.
That same sensibility connects automotive design to art: both are about distilling an idea into a form that carries meaning beyond its function. TheArsenale's art collection reflects exactly this crossover. The Luminous Supercar 1984 by FZDP and the RIOCAM Bad Boy Miura treat iconic cars the way KISKA treated the X-Bow: as objects worthy of obsession and careful visual celebration. The BROAAP artwork by Ed Turner Label extends this further into raw automotive emotion.
The KTM X-Bow: A Brief Primer
The X-Bow (pronounced "crossbow") entered production in 2008 and has since spawned multiple variants including the GT, GT-XR, and GTX. It weighs under 800 kg in base form, making even a modestly powered version genuinely fast. The design brief was clear: maximum driving sensation, minimum everything else. KISKA delivered a car that looks like a racing concept accidentally made road-legal. The Lego tribute is a fitting monument to that ambition.
Explore TheArsenale's full range of curated cars and hypercars for more objects that carry the same spirit of obsessive craft.
