Toyota Land Cruiser ROX Concept Gets Morphed Into Production Off-Roader, Would You Buy It?

2 weeks, 5 days ago - 5 November 2024, autoevolution
Toyota Land Cruiser ROX Concept Gets Morphed Into Production Off-Roader, Would You Buy It?
The Japanese automaker Toyota is having a busy November – and it's all thanks to their participation at the 2024 SEMA Show party with two of their most beloved SUVs: 4Runner and Land Cruiser.

The Toyota 4Runner TRD Surf concept has the holy grail for enthusiasts of the original N60 generation from 1983 – just two doors, a removable top, and loads of South Cali-inspired toys. But it seems the 2024 Toyota Land Cruiser prototype that shot for the stars with its open-air build concept was the real star of the red carpet's spotlight at the 2024 SEMA Show in Las Vegas, Nevada.

It arrived there with a new name – ROX, or 'Recreation Open eXperience,' as labeled by its creators, the good folks over at Toyota's North American design studio, Calty Design Research in Ann Arbor, Michigan. They wanted to bring back the essence of the iconic open-top Land Cruisers of the past in the new era of outdoor adventures – and also give a slap in the face of the Jeep Wrangler and Ford Bronco's removable doors and tops.

More than 50% of the 2024 Land Cruiser was reinvented and fabricated – and the open-air cabin is accessible via custom-fabricated "skeleton" doors with open upper and lower sections. There are also aggressive high-clearance rocker panels and rock rails, a bespoke front-to-rear sliding soft top, plus a functional mid-gate allowing access from the cabin to the truck bed, where there are integrated tailgate seats and extra storage space.

Inside, there are custom SLS Nylon 3D printed bits and pieces, Heritage Orange leather that contrasts the exterior's Spring Green body color, and Toyota topped everything with goodies from TRD - a 4-inch lift, an eight-inch increase of the track width, wide fender flares, plus Calty-designed, 18-inch one-piece machined billet wheels. Well, that's pretty comprehensive but also not exactly completely out of the ordinary, right?

As such, across the parallel universes of vehicular CGI, a member of the imaginative guild of digital car content creators quickly thought that he could render the Toyota Land Cruiser ROX concept "back into a production off-roader" that could easily become a part of the 2025 model year roster which currently only has two trims – the base 1958 with round headlights and the ritzier Land Cruiser with rectangular units.

This virtual artist, better known as Theottle on social media, has resorted to CGI slicing and dicing the Land Cruiser ROX concept modified for the 2024 SEMA Show in his latest behind-the-scene making of video (embedded below), and the result is pretty simple and logical. So, what do you think? Would you buy the 2025 Toyota Land Cruiser ROX if it entered series production as a more direct OEM alternative to the many builds created by the aftermarket realm, or do they still know better?