Greeble Farm

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‘Greebling’, one of many nerdisms from the Online Lego Community, involves outfitting a creation – usually a spacecraft – with a myriad of tiny grey pieces to add texture, complexity, and to make them look more science-fiction-y.

But those little grey parts, so often individually lost in sea of their neighbours, can look brilliant in insolation, as proven here by previous bloggee Andre Pinto, and this wonderful vintage tractor.

Comprising only a handful of pieces, they form the engine, drive-line, light brackets, exhaust, rear hitch and PTO, and have been perfectly selected for each task.

There’s more to see at Andre’s ‘My First Tractor’ album, and you can head to the greeble farm via the link above.

Gander at This Goose

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As the long-suffering sci-fi fans who frequent this site will know, The Lego Car Blog Team are uniformly crap at understanding, explaining, or writing about spaceships.

Fortunately today though, The One and Only Mr.R – builder of this splendid example – has written rather a lot about it. Which we’re going to pinch.

A ‘G-005 “Goose” Light Courier Ship’, it comes from the early days of space trading, “when there was high demand for light couriers to deliver messages, products, and passengers between star systems… Those early days of trading may be over, but some mercenary crews continue to fly these ships… While courier missions may be harder to find, the crew of the Goose is ready to tackle them in order to continue living a free spirited life in the cosmos”.

Which means it sounds like that guy in the battered minivan you see most days delivering parcels in your neighbourhood. But in space.

No matter, because The One and Only My.R’s design is fantastic, with complicated angles meeting beautifully, yet still appearing utilitarian and nondescript, excellent brick-built lettering, and a truly wonderful interior, complete with cockpit, sleeping quarters, kitchen, life-support equipment, bathroom, and airlock.

There’s loads more of the ‘Goose’ to see at The One and Only Mr.R’s photostream, and you can place your interstellar delivery via the link in the text above.

My Other Piece of Machinery’s a Combine Harvester

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The LEGO Technic 42186 John Deere 9700 Forage Harvester has only been on sale a few weeks, yet previous bloggee M_longer of Eurobricks has already built it, un-built it, built something else, and created building instructions.

His ‘something else’ is this, a rather excellent forklift truck, constructed from around 500 pieces (90%) of the 42186 set.

Featuring rear-wheel-steering, a fork tilt mechanism, and – with no linear actuators available – fork elevation via a clever scissor-lift, M_longer’s forklift packs in as many working functions as the set upon which its based.

There’s much more to see, including a link to building instructions, at the Eurobricks forum, and you can fork off over there via the link above.

The Lynx Effect

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This excellent 1:32 scale SH-14D Lynx helicopter was found by one of our Elves today. Built by Master MOCer Ralph Savelsberg aka Mad Physicist, the Lynx is constructed in Royal Netherlands Navy livery and includes powered rotor blades, courtesy of a vintage 12V LEGO motor hidden within it. There’s more of the model to see at Ralph’s ‘LEGO SH-14D Lynx helicopter album’ plus you can check out his interview here at TLCB via the first link in the text above.

Prime Mover

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When space travel finally becomes commonplace, we’re pretty sure it won’t be star-fighters or giant space robots occupying the void. No, it’ll be humble utility vehicles, ferrying stuff from somewhere to somewhere else, so that Jonathan from Dallas can get a new cat scratching post by tomorrow lunchtime.

Cue spaceruner’s excellent ‘FT23W3’, a ‘Futuron Worker Class Utility Spacecraft’ complete with a crew of three, an on-board last-mile delivery vehicle, and a big yellow crate full of pointless Amazon Prime orders.

Apart from needing a crew (the space delivery ships of the future will surely be drones), we reckon spaceruner’s creation could well be an accurate window into the not too distant future of seriously boring space travel*. There’s more of it to see on Flickr, and you can click the link above to choose your shipping option.

*Why else would Jeff Bezos be going up there?

Green Goddess

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Citroen, makers of a dreary line-up of unimaginatively titled crossovers, were once something rather more. In fact it could be said that Citroen were once the most innovative car company in the world.

This is Citroen’s innovation zenith; the astounding DS, with front-wheel-drive, self-levelling hydraulic suspension, cornering headlights, in-board disc brakes, and even a clutch-less gearbox, all in 1955.

Produced for two decades the DS was still ahead of the industry when it was replaced in 1975, and this lovely Speed Champions recreation of an early ’70s example comes from previous bloggee SFH_Bricks. There’s more to see on Flickr where a link to building instructions can also be found, and you can take a look at Citroen’s finest moment via the link above.

What is it Good For?

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Humanity still enjoys a good war every now and then. And, because it’s been five minutes since the last conflict in the Middle East, a new one is pulling more and more nations, factions and regions towards it.

Of course for those caught within its gravity the conflict is a necessity, a fight for justice, freedom, and the will of God. Whichever side they are on.

The Second World War was perhaps a clearer fight between, perhaps not Good, but certainly against Evil. The Nazis’ ideology, with all of its death, pain and dehumanisation, was eventually defeated, and – whilst countless nations made enormous sacrifices – had the U.S remained neutral an Allied victory would have been all-but-impossible.

Hitler never sought to invade the Unites States, yet over 16 million Americans served during the conflict, of which 300,000 never returned home, and financing the war cost almost 40% of America’s GDP by 1945.

Capturing one tiny moment amongst the thousands in which the U.S contributed, previous bloggee Nicholas Goodman is here depicting the U.S push across Europe in the summer of 1944. A Willys Jeep, Sherman tank, and custom mini-figures pause to regroup, all carefully and accurately recreated in brick-form.

There’s more of Nicholas’ beautiful wartime builds to see on Flickr; take a look via the link above, and you can click here to see one way you can help today, as war spirals out of control once again.

Fun Bags

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Large, eye-catching, but somewhat impractical when riding, big bags definitely forfeit a degree of agility for look-at-me attention. Cue Dennis Glaasker (aka BricksonWheels) and this visual feast of a Harley Davidson ‘bagger’ motorcycle.

(Very) loosely based on the official LEGO 10269 Creator Expert Harley Davidson Fat-Boy set, Dennis’ bagger looks frankly impossible to ride, but with a fully chromed engine, LED lighting, spectacular presentation, and – of course – two enormous curvy bags, we can ignore the practicalities for a bit and just enjoy looking.

Grab a handful at Dennis’ ‘Harley Davidson Layframe Bagger’ album, plus you can read his Master MOCers interview here at TLCB by clicking this bonus link.

Trailing Fast

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The Lego Car Blog Elves are very excited today, because – after a few were inevitably run over – they are now riding around the office in this stupendous JCB Fastrac 3185 and Oehler ZDK 180 combo.

Built by TLCB Master MOCer Eric Trax, this incredible Technic replica of the world’s fastest production tractor (and a trailer about which we know nothing) is powered by four Technic motors controlled via bluetooth thanks to a third-party SBrick. These power the steering, all-wheel-drive, rear three-point hitch and power-take-off, whilst a fifth is fitted within the Oehler trailer.

It’s this we’re about to surprise the Elves with, as Eric’s trailer can remotely tip by up to thirty degrees in two directions, dumping the contents very effectively indeed.

Whilst we have some fun with the trailer’s Elven cargo you can check out more of Eric’s astonishingly detailed JCB Fastrac tractor and Oehler trailer in tow at his Flickr album by clicking here, you can read his Master MOCers interview via the link above, and you can watch the model in action via the video below.

YouTube Video

Safety Fast

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Recent bloggee Nathan Hake is continuing to find ways to put his newly acquired vintage Technic figures in peril. Today’s is behind the wheel of a racing go-kart, with all the speed of a racing car, and all the safety of a paper bag. Still, if he needs a few replacement body parts his last Technic figure won’t be needing them anymore before long. Join the race on Flickr via the link above!

My Other Car’s a Truck

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LEGO’s 10290 Creator Expert Pickup Truck set has spawned several excellent alternates thus far, and today we have another.

Built by FanisLego, 825 of the original set’s 1,677 pieces have been repurposed to create this lovely early Ford Bronco, complete with steering (ish), opening hood, doors and tailgate, a detailed engine, and superbly accessible interior.

Building instructions are available and you can convert your own 10290 Pickup set into the first iteration of Ford’s recently re-born icon at Bricksafe via the link above.

Respect Your Elders

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The creations we publicise here at The Lego Car Blog are the most current, freshest, and up-to-the-minute available. And sometimes they’re even newer than that. Mostly because we want to show you the latest builds from around the world, and partly because we like beating The Brothers Brick.

Except all the above is technically, um… not true. Apart from the beating The Brothers Brick bit of course. That’s because it’s usually but not necessarily the creation that is new, rather the imagery, and today we have possibly the best example of this; Dennis Bosman’s incredible Scania LS111 truck, Nooteboom low loader trailer, and Menck M154 crawler crane, each of which was built twenty years ago.

Utilising LEGO’s old 9V motor system (pre-Power Functions or Controlled-Up), classic System and Technic pieces, and – at the time – photographed outside, Dennis’ astonishing three-in-one creation set the benchmark for large scale Lego modelling.

An inspiration for countless Lego creators today, Dennis’ early work still represents astonishing brick-built realism, and he has recently re-photographed the Scania, Nooteboom and Menck in-studio two decades after they were first constructed.

Wearing their original decals, and with faded parts swapped for fresher replacements, Dennis’ models remain spectacular, and there are more newly-released images to see, alongside those taken twenty years ago, at his ‘Scania LS111’ album on Flickr.

Click the link above to take a closer look, and you can see more of Dennis’ amazing works via his Master MOcers interview page here at The Lego Car Blog, itself now ten years old.

Forest Fire

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Following Master MOCer Thirdwigg’s recent appearance here with his superb Mercedes-Benz Unimog U4000, he recently uploaded a few other variants, which is fitting as the Unimog is available in a bewildering choice of applications, each of which can be equipped with an even wider array of attachments, tools and machinery.

This one is a U5000 off-road fire truck, constructed via an excellent combination of Model Team and Technic techniques, and features a tilting cab, piston engine, working steering and suspension, and a fully equipped four door cabin with fire-fighting equipment behind.

Building instructions are available and there’s much more to see at Thirdwigg’s photostream, plus you can find out how he builds his amazing models such as this one at his Master MOCers page via the link above.

Oiled Pig

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There are many famous racing liveries that have arisen from decades of motorsport sponsorship, most of which were for things so bad for you that their advertisement is now banned (like this, and this, and this, and this, and this).

But fast cars seem to attract dodgy businesses, and thus these days the cigarette sponsorship has been replaced by energy drinks (which we’re pretty sure will, one day, been seen like cigarettes) and the biggest scam of modern times; crypto currency. Thankfully however, one sponsorship mainstay from motorsport’s past clings on; oil companies.

For how much longer though we’re not sure, as there is a movement on the fringes to ban the advertising of things related to the fossil fuel industry, and what starts on the fringes has a tendency to gather momentum and become mainstream, where lots of people shout and post things on ‘X’ and get upset.

Which would be a shame, because oil company liveries have been some of the best, particularly this one, the iconic orange-and-blue of Gulf Racing.

Adorning Fuku Saku‘s wonderful (and incredibly intricate) Porsche 911 GT3 RS, the Gulf orange-and-blue livery looks fabulous, and there’s more of the build to see of Fuku’s Flickr album. Click the link above to take a look, or here to peruse the other Gulf Racing vehicles from our Archives.

Organ Donor

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Flickr’s Nathan Hake decided to get himself some of LEGO’s wonderfully posable vintage Technic figures. With flexibility comparable to a human (or more so if the human is chubby), they’re a rather under-utilised component of LEGO’s back-catalogue.

Fortunately Nathan is rectifying this by building vehicles for his newly-acquired figures, with this superbly-proportioned motorcycle able to be ridden by the aforementioned plastic humanoid.

And, being a motorcycle, Nathan will inevitably be able to take advantage of the other key feature of LEGO’s Technic figures; their body parts can be separated to be swapped or donated to another figure. Expect to see those black arms and blue legs appearing on another Technic figure or two in Nathan’s collection sometime in the future, probably after it rains and a truck drops some diesel on a blind bend.

Get on the transplant list at Nathan’s photostream via the link above, and perhaps consider registering as a donor yourself if you’re yet to think about it. We can be dismantled just like LEGO’s Technic figures, and with 100,000 people on the waiting list for a transplant in America alone, there simply aren’t enough bikers.