THE LEGO CAR BLOG

Two Horse Race

Mon, 18 Jan 2021 17:00:17 GMT

There was something of a kerfuffle in TLCB Towers today. In a not uncommon event, two TLCB Elves had returned with a model each – in this case a pair of Speed Champions classic Ferraris – and immediately fought over whose was best. For newcomers to this corner of the internet, ‘fought’ in the case of the Elves usually means extreme physical violence.

Fortunately for the Elven duo both of their finds were blogworthy and thus each received a meal token, so the violence – as is so often the way – wasn’t really necessary. Jonathan Elliott‘s wonderful Ferrari GTB/4 (above) and barneius‘ magnificent Ferrari 288 GTO (below) can be found on Flickr. Click the links above to pick your favourite. Just don’t tell the Elves which one it is.

Box Clever

Mon, 18 Jan 2021 11:21:55 GMT

Japan has two car markets; one for ‘normal’ cars like Corollas, Crowns and suchlike, and the other – the kei class – for vehicles such as these two.

Designed to ensure that car ownership in Japan’s tight streets and congested cities doesn’t completely break the road network, kei cars must measure less than 3.4m in length, 1.48m in width, and have an engine no bigger than 660cc (if powered by an internal combustion engine).

Denoted by their yellow number plates, kei cars benefit from lower taxation than regular cars, but they must comply with reduced speed limits too. Although that’s probably so they don’t fall over.

Over one in three cars sold in Japan are in the kei class, and the specs can be wild, with turbocharging, all-wheel-drive, and even convertible sports cars available.

Most kei cars however, look like these two; a box measuring exactly 3.4m long and 1.48m wide, precisely maximising the interior space within the permitted exterior dimensions.

The Daihatsu Move Canbus and the Honda N-Box Slash pictured here are both the work of Flickr’s Ralph Savelsberg, who has constructed them in his trademark Miniland style.

Each packs as much detail as possible into a tiny package, which is appropriate, and there’s more of each build to see at Ralph’s photostream. Click the link above to see what’s inside the box.

Lamborghini SC18 Alston | Picture Special

Sat, 16 Jan 2021 12:17:05 GMT

Lamborghini have built more special editions than your Mom’s had KFC Bargain Buckets. This is another one that no-one in TLCB Office had heard of, the SC18 Alston.

Based on an Aventador, just one SC18 Alston was built to fulfil a single (and very bespoke) customer order, engineered under the supervision of Lamborghini’s motorsports division. Parts from the Huracan Super Trofio EVO and Centenario were used, alongside several parts unique to the car.

The result was another one-off Lamborghini, and – with such limited information available – a nightmare for anyone trying to recreate it from LEGO bricks.

That’s hasn’t stopped Noah_L though, has not only managed to recreate the SC18 Alston, he’s absolutely nailed it.

Using building techniques that look like they required a degree in quantum mechanics, Noah has successfully replicated the SC18’s wild exterior to perfection, even gradually increasing the model’s width by a single stud down the length of the car. Scissor doors, a detailed engine bay under an opening engine cover, and a realistic interior complete the build.

An extensive gallery of stunning imagery is available to view on Flickr, and you can see more of Noah’s beautifully presented Lamborghini SC18 Alston by clicking here.

Outrider

Sat, 16 Jan 2021 11:48:49 GMT

This is a YT-2400 Outrider from the Star Wars universe, which we definitely knew for ourselves and aren’t simply quoting the builder in effort to appear knowledgeable about sci-fi.

Built by aido k, the model uses around 4,000 pieces and weighs in at 5kg, which includes a neat lighting system to illuminate the engine.

There’s more superb imagery of the Outrider to see at aido’s album on Flickr – click the link above to something something dark side.

We’ve Got Gas

Sat, 16 Jan 2021 11:39:42 GMT

We’ve got gas today, courtesy of Dan the Fan, who is here making his TLCB debut.

It won’t be long before finding gas might be rather tricky, as gas stations – so integral to society for almost a century – are about to enter a period of mass extinction.

Ultimately that’s a good thing, but it’ll be shame for the many family-owned businesses that will close, and – sometimes – the gas stations themselves disappearing, as occasionally they can be quite interesting.

Dan the Fan’s in one such interesting gas station, complete with some rather excellent ‘Shell’ lettering, a gas pump, kiosk, elevated tank, billboard, and some cool-looking mini-figure bikers.

There’s more to see at Dan’s ‘Gas Station’ album on Flickr – click the link above to get gas.

Drive Angry

Sat, 16 Jan 2021 10:18:59 GMT

Despite the presence of Amber Heard, 2011’s ‘Drive Angry’ is a properly awful movie. She does take up about 4/5 of the movie poster though, so we suspect those marketing it knew that themselves.

Kirill Mazurov (aka desert752) is driving angry too, having built this ‘Angry Racer’ to compete in a BuWizz contest, only for it to be cancelled as a casualty of Coronavirus.

Nonetheless, contest or not Kirill has a produced a great creation, with Power Functions motors hooked up to a BuWizz bluetooth battery that delivers eight times the power of LEGO’s own system.

All that power in such a lightweight model makes the ‘Angry Racer’ a little… drifty, and you can see more at both Flickr and Eurobricks, where a video of Kirill’s creation driving in anger can be viewed and a link to building instructions can be found so you can drive angry for yourself.

Click the links above to take a look whilst we continue Googling Amber Heard…

Can-Am Classic

Fri, 15 Jan 2021 11:44:02 GMT

This unusually-hued creation is a 1970s Can-Am racer, from a time when huge V8s and top motorsport teams combined to create some of the coolest racing cars on earth.

Can-Am ran from the mid-’60s to the mid-’80s, with McLaren, Porsche, Lola and others fielding some wild creations, many of which pioneered turbo-charging, downforce, and even – in the case of the Chaparral 2J – using a snowmobile engine to suck the car to ground, years before Brabham did the same in Formula 1.

This generic mid-’70s Can-Am racer comes from Flickr’s michaelablinger, who has captured the aesthetic of the time brilliantly, further enhancing his model with period-correct decals from Michelin, NGK, Magneti Marelli and others.

A detailed cockpit, realistic chassis including a V8 engine and brick-built ‘suspension’, opening doors and removable rear bodywork all feature, and there are lots more images to see at Michael’s photostream.

Head to the racetrack c1974 via the link above.

Carrying Cars

Fri, 15 Jan 2021 11:20:07 GMT

We have a happy Elf today, with not one but five finds! Kinda. The bumper haul is courtesy of Thomas Selander and his neat Town-scale Mercedes-Benz car transporter, complete with four 4-wide cars on board. Whilst we decide how many meal tokens this is worth you can check out more of Thomas’ build at his photostream via the link above.

Brick-Built-Bronco

Thu, 14 Jan 2021 20:59:34 GMT

When Ford announced they were discontinuing all cars bar the Mustang in the U.S to concentrate solely on SUVs, part of us died a little. SUVs are crap. Still, we can’t blame Ford, because whilst there is still money to made in cars, there’s a lot more to be made in SUVs, despite them being subjectively worse in every possible way.

Fortunately though, Ford have smashed their latest SUV, joining a line-up of about a thousand others, out of the park. The new Bronco is brilliant.

Like the re-born Mustang the new Bronco has actually been engineered to a reasonably modern standard, yet it manages to retain a unique identity and something of ‘soul’, as much as vehicle can have one. We just won’t talk about the Bronco Sport, despite what Doug Demuro says (because he’s wrong).

This excellent fully remote controlled Technic recreation of the new Bronco comes from LoMaC of Eurobricks, who has not only captured the aesthetic rather well, there’s all-wheel suspension, opening doors hood and tailgate, and the drive and steering can be controlled via bluetooth thanks to LEGO’s Control+ app.

There’s more to see of LoMaC’s brick-built Bronco at the Eurobricks forum via the link above, where full details, further imagery, and – yes – a link to building instructions can also be found.

Floating Fuel

Thu, 14 Jan 2021 09:17:33 GMT

The future is electric. The UK has banned the sale of new cars that aren’t zero emissions from 2030, Tesla have become (amazingly) the world’s most valuable car company, and Norway’s new car registrations are over 50% EV.

That message hasn’t reached Dallen Powell though, whose marvellous hover freighter is not only transporting some kind of mystery fuel, it’s also still powered by burning fossilised dinosaurs, as denoted by the four exhaust stacks.

Dallen’s alternative future may still be a polluted one, but damn; it looks so cool! Superb parts usage adds to the whimsy, including a balustrade for steps, picket fence for a grille, and a brilliant brick-built Octan logo.

There’s more of to see of Dallen’s dirty sci-fi at his photostream – click the link above to float on over!

East Coast Style

Wed, 13 Jan 2021 13:54:37 GMT

You don’t need a million bricks and a friend at (or to work for) The Brothers Brick to be appear on a great Lego blog. OK, you do, but you don’t need those things to appear here! A few well selected pieces, excellent presentation, and talent will be just fine, as proven here by Tim Henderson and his lovely ‘East Coast Style’ ’32 Ford hot rod. Based on a real car built in the late ’50s, Tim’s build captures the look superbly and there’s more to see at his photostream, plus you can see what we look for in the models that we feature via our Submission Guidelines page here.

State of the Union

Wed, 13 Jan 2021 13:40:53 GMT

This is not a car, as was pointed out by the reader that suggested it, but it is incredible, and we quite like trains.

Built by TLCB debutant Rouven’s Legoeisenbahnen this amazing creation is a Union Pacific EMD DDA40X Centennial locomotive, and it is unfathomably lifelike.

Wonderfully realistic decals add to the accuracy, as do the twenty-four huge container trucks, each carrying two containers, and the second EMD DDA40X locomotive used to pull them.

All in Rouven’s build is easily the longest creation that this site has have ever publicised, and you can see just how enormous the complete train is via the link to Rouven’s ‘EMD DDA40X Centennial’ album above.

A Canadian in Siberia

Tue, 12 Jan 2021 18:25:07 GMT

Canadians are known for their politeness and generosity. Although that might just be in comparison to their noisy neighbour in the basement. Still, even Canadian inventions demonstrate this altruism, with the country responsible for insulin, the pacemaker, the garbage bag, the electric wheelchair, road lines, and the Wonderbra, all of which – we’re sure you’ll agree – have been massively beneficial to mankind.

Cue today’s creation, a Ural 5920 tracked off-road truck, based on a design shared by the Canadians (of course) in the early 1970s. The Soviets took another decade to ~~copy~~ re-engineer the Canadian design, fitting a Ural 375 cab and starting production the mid-’80s until the collapse of the Soviet Union.

This magnificent fully remote controlled Technic recreation of the Ural 5920 captures the ~~Canadian~~ Soviet tracked truck brilliantly, including the two huge track bogies that swivel thanks to motorised linear-actuators. An XL Motor drives each pair of tracks (plus the V8 piston engine under the hood), and each track wheel is suspended by an individual torsion beam, allowing the model to traverse a landscape as varied (albeit smaller) as that travelled by the real thing.

Previous bloggee Samolot is the builder behind this amazing creation and there’s more to see – including a video of the model in action and detailed photos of the remarkable drivetrain – at the Eurobricks discussion forum, plus the complete image gallery can be viewed via Bricksafe here. Click the links above to head into the wilds of Siberia.

Tractor Tuesday

Tue, 12 Jan 2021 16:49:04 GMT

OK, Tractor Tuesday is not a thing. Apart from today, which is a Tuesday, and does feature tractors. Cue this excellent Renault 120.14 by Damian Z, and equally good New Holland T7.270 and Zetor Crystal 160 by Keko007. Each tractor is superbly detailed, equipped with a trailer, and can be seen in greater detail via the links above.

Carabo

Mon, 11 Jan 2021 12:50:14 GMT

This is the Alfa Romeo Carabo, it’s just one letter short of being a Thai energy drink / some kind of cow, and it’s mad.

Designed by Bertone and revealed in 1968, the Carabo ushered in the change from swoopy and beautiful, to weird and wedgy. Just one concept was built, powered by a V8 of just two litres capacity mated to a six speed manual gearbox.

This excellent Speed Champions recreation of the Carabo was suggested to us by a reader, and it comes from The G Brix of Flickr. Complete with a detailed interior and engine bay there’s more to see at Brix’s photostream via the link.

Only one Carabo was made, but its design led directly to something that did make production, and a bit of an impact too…

Batlift Truck

Sun, 10 Jan 2021 16:38:17 GMT

Ever wondered how Batman moves all his stuff around the Batcave? No, us neither, but Pasq67 has.

Cue Batman’s Fenwick forklift truck, which – considering it only operates out of sight in the Batcave – has been unnecessarily restyled to make it more Batty.

It also appears to be used only to transport large quantities of brooms (Batbrooms?) for some reason, but we know very little about comic book superheroes so who are we to argue.

See more on Flickr via the link!

My Other Car’s a Jeep

Sun, 10 Jan 2021 09:39:41 GMT

LEGO’s new 42122 Technic Jeep Wrangler Rubicon set, revealed here last month, has only been released for a week or two, yet previous bloggee Eric Trax has already managed to turn it into something awesome.

Using 557 of the 665 available parts, Eric has transformed his Wrangler Rubicon into this rather excellent off-road buggy, which – like the Jeep upon which it’s derived – features working steering and rear suspension.

Building instructions are available and there’s more to see at the Eurobricks discussion forum via the link above.

Pre-SUV

Sun, 10 Jan 2021 09:26:44 GMT

With the world’s luxury auto makers seemingly in competition to produce the most hideous, obnoxious, and enormous SUV (see here, here, here, and here), we’re going back to a time when a fast family car didn’t need to be the size of Belgium.

This is the Lamborghini Espada, a four-seat grand tourer powered by a 3.9 litre V12, and produced from 1968 to ’78. It was successful too, being Lamborghini’s best selling model until they decided to keep making the Countach for three decades.

This brilliant Speed Champions version of the Espada comes from regular bloggee Jonathan Elliott, who has recreated Lamborghini’s ’70s family car beautifully in 6-wide form.

There’s more of the build to see at his photostream, along with a host of other excellent Speed Champions cars – click the link above to make the jump.

What’s in a Roundel?

Sun, 10 Jan 2021 09:08:48 GMT

This TLCB writer has learned something today; the Royal Australian Navy uses little red kangaroos in place of the red dot more usually found in the centre of the RAF roundel! Kangaroos!

Entering the rabbit hole he has now learned that South Africa’s insignia features an eagle, Trinidad and Tobago a hummingbird, Papua New Guinea the mythical phoenix, and Luxembourg an extravagant lion.

If we ever start a military campaign against The Brothers Brick perhaps we should outline an Elf for the centre of ours?

Following that somewhat tangental start to this post, the aircraft depicted here that features the kangaroo-in-a-circle markings is a Hawker Sea Fury, in this case flown by the Royal Australian Navy.

Based on the Hawker Tempest, the Sea Fury entered service at the end of the first world war and flew until the early ’60s, operating first a pure fighter and then as a fighter-bomber as its suitability for multi-role use became apparent.

This particular Sea Fury is a F.B.11 that operated with Squadron 724 from the H.M.A.S. Albatross, most notably serving in the Korean War, and it’s been recreated beautifully by John C. Lamarck, complete with folding wing-tips, retractable landing gear, an opening cockpit, and – of course – accurate Royal Australian Navy markings including kangaroo roundels.

There’s much more to see of John’s superb Hawker Sea Fury F.B.11 on Flickr – hop on over via the link above!

My Other Other Car’s a Fiat…

Sat, 09 Jan 2021 17:37:13 GMT

The Fiat 500 has been a runaway success across Europe. Over two million have been sold to date, despite the design remaining virtually unchanged in fourteen years of production.

Fiat, unused to building a car that people actually like, subsequently decided that literally everything they make should be a 500[something]. This has unfortunately led to hideous monstrosities like this, which have been about as successful as storming the U.S. Capitol building in the hope of overturning a legitimate election.

However unlike Fiat, LEGO’s ace 10271 Creator Fiat 500 set is proving not only a hit, but also one that can be used to create a range of other vehicles that don’t just look like a regular 500 has died at sea and washed up on a beach months later.

Cases in point are these two brilliant B-Models, each built only from the parts found within the 10271 Fiat 500 set, and each managing to successfully create something new and excellent from the recycled parts.

First up (above) is monstermatou‘s marvellous 1920s Citroen 5HP Trefle, which captures the real car so well you’d be hard pushed to know it’s an alternate (which explains why monstermatou very nearly won TLCB Lock-Down B-Model Competition with one of his past builds). Building instructions are available and there’s more to see on Flickr via the link above.

Today’s second 10271 alternate comes from a past official LEGO set designer no less, the incredibly talented Nathanael Kuipers, who has turned the little classic Fiat into a 1950s pick-up truck.

Cleverly using the Fiat’s interior pieces to make up for the shortfall in available bodywork bricks, Nathanael’s B-Model includes opening doors, hood and tailgate, and building instructions are available too.

Click the link above to check out more of Nathanael’s B-Model at his photostream, and if you own a 10271 Creator Fiat 500 set, perhaps see what you can create from it! You’ll easily do a better job than Fiat have managed with the real thing…