All My Circuits

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LEGO’s Power Functions and Control+ components are excellent for bringing vehicles to life. Third-party BuWizz and SBrick go even further, with more power and programmable control, and hundreds of creations have appeared here over the years powered by their components. But the drawback with all of the above is, as with your Mom, size.

Too big for many models, it means remote control is reserved for only larger creations. But not today, because this dinky 7-wide Mercedes-Benz Actros 6×4 truck is fully remote controlled!

Powered by a Circuit Cube Hub hidden in the cab, there’s a tiny drive motor – just three studs long – and a servo to steer. What’s more, it’s maker Ts_ has included drive to all four wheels, as per the real truck.

Able to pull a sizeable three-axle trailer, there’s more of Ts_’s remote control Actros to see at the Eurobricks forum, including an image of how the third-party electronics fit within it. Click the link above to peek inside.

Special Weapons And Tactics

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When America’s government need highly trained police officers to go into the most dangerous situations, they call for S.W.A.T, or ‘Special Weapons And Tactics’.

And when they need ill-trained thugs to shoot an unarmed nurse outnumbered 8:1 ten times, they call for ICE.

We’ll stick with the former today, firstly because we have this awesome Chevy P30 S.W.A.T van straight outta Gotham City, and secondly because if S.W.A.T are here we’re less likely to get shot by Immigration & Customs Enforcement.

This splendid brick-built version of the police units trained to do things properly comes from previous bloggee Sam Andreas, and you can join them on the streets of Gotham via the link above. Which has got to be safer than being on the actual streets of America when ICE are around…

How to Get Your Model Featured at TLCB…

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…and other Lego sites too.

It’s been a quiet few days here at The Lego car Blog, during which time the mythical Elves we use to scour the web for the best Lego vehicles have returned zilch, nada, nothing. Boo.

But have you ever wondered ‘How do I get my model featured on The Lego Car Blog?’. Well this post is for you!

Lego Barn Find Bugatti Type 35 Grand Prix

1. Help the Elves to find you. Our Elves search far and wide for the best Lego vehicles on the web, and their favourite haunts are Flickr, Eurobricks (specifically the Technic & Model Team forum), and Bricksafe. They don’t visit social media sites though, because a) social media is poison, and b) underscoring the whole ‘poison’ thing, social media platforms usually require activating an account to view images, which means we can’t link our readers to them. We’d therefore really encourage you to upload your creations to a free-to-view platform like those listed above, even if you’re on social media sites too.

2. Follow, but not too closely… If you want to increase your chances of getting noticed, then check out the groups we follow and maybe join them yourself, and/or follow us (we’re on Flickr and Eurobricks under our site name). However please don’t message us saying ‘Please blog my creation’, nor add images to our Flickr group that haven’t been featured here. If your work is good enough, and meets our criteria, that’s enough : )

Lego Photography Studio

3. Meet the Criteria. All the main Lego sites will likely look for similar things in the models they feature; a great model, well presented, with high quality imagery. Here at The Lego Car Blog we also add the aforementioned free-to-view accessibility, and the need for the model to be (or feature) a vehicle. You can find our full criteria by clicking these words.

4. Help us tell a story. A model that’s a little unusual may stand a greater chance of appearing, as it allows us to say something new. We like weird, probably because we are ourselves. A few one-off vehicles (like the one pictured above) and have even drawn attention here from their real-world owners.

And that’s it! Be visible in a free-to-view place, join some Lego vehicle groups and discussions, take care with presentation, and try to build something unique. Follow these steps and one of TLCB Elves may return to our office clutching your creation in their claws. We hope they do!

Swingin’

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Neither boxing, 1940s jazz music, nor keys-in-a-bowl, today’s creation is this excellent – and rather unusual – swingloader.

Constructed by TLCB Master MOCer thirdwigg, this mini front-loader can pivot its bucket arm to allow it to more easily off-load the contents, with its manoeuvrability further aided by all-wheel steering.

The bucket swing, elevation, tilt, and that all-wheel-steering are all mechanically operated, and you can get into the swing of things at thirdwigg’s ‘Swing Loader and Dumper’ album on Flickr. Click the link above to go swingin’.

Anonymous Adventure

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Communism seemed to ban, amongst others things, inventive vehicle names, which all seemed to be a collection of numbers and letters. Which makes titling a post about one of them rather tricky, but no matter because the model is rather lovely.

It’s a UAZ 469B as built by PigletCiamek, and it’s also got a spicy back-story too, involving explorers and a rocket-launcher. Join the anonymously-named off-roader on an adventure in the desert via the link above.

Insert Hippy

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We maintain that the scariest vehicle – other than a government-registered SUV in Minneapolis of course – is the Volkswagen Transporter camper, what with them being almost exclusively driven by top-knot wearing, ethnic peace crisp eating, alternative lifestyle evangelists. And now that we’ve successfully antagonised both the hard-right and hard-left in one sentence (there’s no bias here!), on to the model!

This neat Volkswagen ‘T3’ camper comes from Flickr’s HCKP13, who’s captured the ’80s bus brilliantly in brick form. There’s more of the model to see at HCKP13’s photostream, and you can head to a parking lot outside Starbucks to steal the free WiFi whilst bemoaning capitalism via the link above!

Matt’s Off Road Recovery

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There’s a certain segment of the off-roading community who like to intentionally get stuck, just so they can winch themselves out again. Which to us feels like deliberately getting fat so that you can join Weight Watchers. But it nevertheless explains why ‘Matt’s Off Road Recovery‘ has over two million YouTube subscribers. Because when someone is really stuck, intentionally or otherwise, they’ll need this…

‘This’ is Matt’s all-wheel-drive, all-wheel-steered hot rod wrecker, as faithfully recreated here by Technic engineering genius Anto. Staying true to the unique real-world off-road tow-truck, Anto’s model features all-wheel-drive and all-wheel-steering (with three selectable steering modes, as per one of our favourite ever LEGO Technic sets), a working V8 piston engine, immense multi-link live-axle suspension, opening doors, toolboxes and hood, plus no less than five working winches.

It’s a hugely impressive replica of a fantastic one-off real-world vehicle, with loads more to see – including engineering diagrams and over forty superbly presented images – at both the Eurobricks forum and Anto’s ‘Matt’s Off Road Recovery Heavy Wrecker’ album on Flickr. Get stuck in via the links above, plus you can watch this amazing model in action via the video below.

YouTube Video

The Lego Multicar Blog

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This strange looking device is an IFA Multicar M25, a small cab-over truck built in East Germany designed to perform numerous jobs. This one comes from previous bloggee DamianPLE (aka damjan97PL) who has fitted it with motorised drive, steering, and tipper, all controlled remotely via a third-party SBrick.

There’s also a tilting cab, under which sits a working four-cylinder piston engine, opening doors, and a detailed interior too, with more to see – including a video of the Multicar in action – at the Eurobricks forum. A gallery of over two-dozen images is also available to view on Bricksafe, and you can find both via the links above.

Slingshot

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It’s not just Dennis the Menace and old-timey scallies in the park who were armed with catapults. Because this is an Arado Ar 196, a Second World War German reconnaissance floatplane, powered by a 1,000bhp BMW radial engine, and stationed on every German capital ship during the war – from which it was launched by catapult.

This splendid recreation of the Ar 196 – and the ship-mounted catapult from which they were propelled – is the work of Flickr’s Veynom, who has captured the floatplane brilliantly in brick form. Catapult yourself over to Veynom’s photostream to take a closer look via the link in the text above.

Red Lorry, Yel… er, Red Lorry

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Despite the protestations of the Elf that found today’s creation, it is in fact only one lorry (and thus earns one meal token). But its creator (and TLCB Master MOCer) Nico71 has ingeniously engineered his design in no less than three different ways; manual, Power Functions, and Control+, with the option of BuWizz bluetooth control too.

All variants feature opening doors and hood, working steering, second-axle suspension, and a clever lockable steering mechanism for the three-axle trailer, whilst the Power Functions and Control+ variants add a motor to the steering (either via a rack and pinion or Servo, depending on the format) and remote control drive. It’s a brilliantly executed trio of options and you can find full details, plus a link to building instructions, at the Eurobricks discussion forum. Click the link above for red lorry, red lorry, red lorry, or on the video below to watch Nico’s truck in action.

YouTube Video

A Fabulous Hudson Hornet

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The ‘Fabulous’ Hudson Hornet wasn’t just an all-conquering stock car racer. You could buy one for the road too. Available with two doors or four, as coupe, sedan, hardtop or convertible, and powered by a five-litre inline-6 with twin-carburettors, the Hornet could produce over 200bhp with minimal modifications.

It also featured a clever ‘step-down’ design, where – even though it was built on a separate chassis – the floor-pan sat between the chassis rails, lowering the centre of gravity and enabling beautiful streamlined bodywork. Flickr’s SFH_Bricks has recreated the Hornet’s fabulous shape beautifully, and there’s more of his superb small-scale homage to the classic Hudson to see via the link above.

A Snail’s Space

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If Terry Pratchett can have a giant space turtle then we guess Tim Goddard can have a snail. This is – according to its aforementioned maker – a ‘Lunt Snail’ from the Cerulean Nebula, grown from the size of a fist and trained to haul loads across the galaxy via copious food-based encouragement. And who are we to argue with that? Oh yeah, a car blog. Ok, we’ll get back to cars shortly, but until then you can take a look in Tim’s shell via the link above.

Whisking Through Space

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The Lego Car Blog Elves are still in deep space for some reason, and thus we’re following the last spacey build with another. An explosion of grey bricks bursting forth from a blue shell, Flickr’s Scott Wilhelm has deployed binoculars, ice-picks, Technic conrods, and even a whisk in the creation of his Neo-Classic Spaceship. Attempt to find them all – plus a lot more besides – at his photostream via the link above.

See You in Space Tonight*

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The Lego Car Blog Elves are running around making Beep-Boop noises today, as we’ve gone all spacey. Classic Spacey in fact.

The cause is this tremendous Neo-Classic Space satellite communications base by Flickr’s Kalais, complete with a motorised spinning satellite antenna, external walkways, a landing pad with a fantastic drop-ship, a power generator, and… a team of Blacktron agents about to commence a sneak attack.

It’s a wonderful homage to perhaps LEGO’s peak sci-fi era, and you can find further details of this expansive build at Kalais’ photostream via the link above, plus you can see how the base was constructed via the excellent video below. We’ll see you in space tonight.

YouTube Video

*Today’s title song.

Small Saab

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Today Saab is solely an aerospace and defence company. And before 1949 it was too. But in the middle it also made cars. Some of them wonderful. And this is their first.

Launched in 1949, the Saab 92 featured a 25hp 764cc two-cylinder two-stroke engine based on a German DKW design (Sweden was closer to Germany’s Nazi regime than they’d probably like to admit), a three-speed gearbox, front-wheel-drive, an aerodynamic body pressed from a single piece of sheet metal, and paint left over from the company’s aeroplane division.

Over 20,000 92s were produced, with the car becoming something of a rally legend during its production run, and later evolving to feature a trunk (with an opening lid!) and paint options other than military-surplus.

This lovely (and rather cleverly constructed) Saab 92 comes from SvenJ., who has packed front and rear fenders, door handles and mirrors, and even a split windshield into the pretty 7-wide bodywork.

You can take a closer look at Sven’s Saab 92 at his photostream, click the link above to make the jump.