Where’s the Fun?

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Whatever happened to New York pop/rock band Fun.? They were everywhere for a while, even won a Grammy, and then disappeared off the face of the earth.

The same could be said of Skoda’s fun, which has disappeared so completely it’s hard to remember it at all. After their purchase by Volkswagen in the early-’90s the brand rapidly ascended from cheap-joke to better-value-VW, and yet they now make the most boring line-up we’ve ever seen. But in-between then and now, Skoda managed to create some gloriously quirky cars.

The Roomster, Yeti, and best of all this; the Felicia Fun, proved the Germans hadn’t yet removed all the humour from the Czech brand, with the Fun taking the Volkswagen Caddy pick-up, adding two open pull-out jump-seats to the load bed, and applying two-tone yellow (and only two-tone yellow) paint.

This wonderful Model Team recreation of Skoda’s most amusing vehicle comes from Flickr’s Tomáš Novák, who has captured the Fun superbly. There’s more of the model to see at Tomáš’ ‘Skoda Felicia Fun’ album, which current Volkswagen executives really should take a look at to remind themselves of what fun looks like…

Mr. Tumble

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Have we used this post just to tenuously link to a mildly unsettling British children’s TV character? Yes, yes we have. But the films from ‘The Dark Knight’ trilogy are still the best Batman movies ever, and the Tumbler that appeared within them is also still – and no arguments – the best Batmobile ever, so here we are.

This awesome brick-built example joins dozens of other Tumblers featured here over the years, and captures the most iconic of Batmobiles beautifully. Flickr’s _Tyler / Calin owns the hands behind it and you can smash through Gotham City via the link above, or Google ‘Mr. Tumble’ if you’re feeling brave.

Size 12

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Ferrari are almost Sovietly-bad at naming cars. This is their new 12 Cilindri, so called because it has twelve cylinders. All the other Ferraris that came before it with twelve cylinders were called something else, obviously.

But usual Ferrari crap name aside, the 12 Cilindri is a proper Ferrari (rather than the iPad with wheels they also recently launched), and this tremendous Miniland scale example comes from previous bloggee Joey Klusnick.

An extensive gallery of superb imagery is available to view, which includes shots of the model alongside a life-size brick-built version, and you can find them all via the link above.

Rangier Rover

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The roads around TLCB Towers are surrounded by Range Rovers. Back-on-black with extra black and personalised number plates, the dirtiest they get is their owners’ fake tan rubbing off on the seat bolsters. Cue Nuno Taborda‘s antidote to the modern Ranger Rover, this splendid classic Range Rover monster truck, which is simultaneously both absurd and also instantly recognisable. And we love it. Take a look on Flickr via the link above, or click here for (maybe) the real vehicle that inspired it.

A Quick Bath

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There was a long-running British sit-com in which at some point, in seemingly every episode, an old man would roll down a hill in a bath. Because… shut up, it’s our heritage.

Flickr’s Sergio Batista has moved the hilarious scene from a sleepy English village of retirees into space, because… shut up.

There’s more to see of his ‘B-4th’ at his photostream, and you can head down the hill / into space via the link above. We can practically hear the canned laughter…

Super Cario

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Small, Japanese, strangely strong, and a trade professional, the Super Carry and Super Mario have much in common. Although perhaps Mario is really Italian. No matter, because the driver of Ralph Savelsberg‘s Suzuki Super Carry looks a bit like him, and we’re set on the title now. Anyway, we’re not sure where this going, but you can see more of Ralph’s marvellous Suzuki kei truck at his photostream. Click the link above to collect some coins in the Mushroom Kingdom.

The Racecar Formally Known as Sauber

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Sauber have been in Formula 1 since 1993, and are race winners too, when they briefly ran in partnership with BMW. 2026 marked the end of operating under their own name, with Audi arriving to stick four rings on the front and – excitingly for F1 bosses – their own engine in the back.

The resulting R26 has performed reasonably well so far, moving the team from the back of the pack to ahead of Williams, Aston Martin, and fellow newcomers Cadillac. It also wears a rather cool livery, with Audi’s trademark colour-blocking, and actually-not-terrible-sponsorship.

Previous bloggee Szunyogh Balázs (aka gnat.bricks) has recreated said livery (and not-terrible sponsors) with his excellent replica of the Audi R26 Formula 1 car, utilising LEGO’s excellent new Pirelli slick tyres and a host of clever techniques to accurately capture the 2026 racer.

Superb presentation matches the build and you can find all the images of Szunyogh’s Audi R26 at his Flickr album of the same name via the link above.

LSD not LED

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In recent years Mercedes-Benz – once the creator of the finest automobiles on earth – decided that engineering brilliance should be measured by the number of multi-colour LEDs that can be fitted to an interior.

Don’t worry though, the once-classy brand has finally progressed from designing their cabins to look like the ‘Love Island’ villa to… well, designing their exteriors to look like the ‘Love Island’ villa.

The latest C-Class and GLC feature a front ‘grille’ with 942 LEDs, because… frankly we don’t care. We’d rather walk. Particularly when the brand used to make cars like this one, the fabulous Mercedes-Benz 190E Evo II.

Built when ‘Mercedes-Benz’ really did mean ‘engineering brilliance’ the 190E was a wonderfully over-engineered sedan designed to last for a million miles – which many did as taxis in Africa. But it also went DTM racing, and that meant 500 units of a performance version were required for homologation.

Mercedes-Benz enlisted the help of AMG and Cosworth, who tuned the naturally-aspirated 2.5 litre inline-4 to 235bhp, fitted a 5-speed dog-leg manual transmission, a limited slip differential, self-levelling suspension, plus the best aero-kit ever applied to a Mercedes-Benz. And there wasn’t a single LED in the grille.

The result dominated the DTM, and created one heck of a road car. It’s the latter we have here today, courtesy of NV Carmocs of Flickr, and this beautifully presented Speed Champions version.

Clever techniques abound in its creation, particularly in the replication of the iconic aero-kit, and there’s more to see of NV’s superb Mercedes-Benz 190E Evo II on Flickr, where there’s not an LED grille in sight.

To the Shops! Sideways…

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The Toyota Yaris is an excellent small car. Excellent, but not exciting. At all. Except… this one. This is the Toyota GR Yaris, and it’s probably the best hot hatchback in the world right now.

Built as a homologation special for the World Rally Championship, the GR Yaris features a unique three-door body-shell, a lowered (carbon-fibre) roof, a wider track, a four-wheel-drive system, and the most powerful three-cylinder production engine ever built.

All of which will help Mavis get to the shops in half the time. Or Elfyn Evans win the World Rally Championship, as he did last week.

This tremendous Model Team replica of the iconic homologation special comes from previous bloggee Mihail Rakovskiy, who has nailed the diminutive Toyota in 14-wide scale, complete with an opening hood (under which sits a replica engine), opening doors (inside which is a superb interior), an opening rear hatch, and even a brick built GR-FOUR drivetrain.

It’s a stunning recreation of a stunning car, and you can take a closer look via Mihail’s ‘Toyota GR Yaris’ album via the link above.

Laying Bridges

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The war in Ukraine continues to drag on, with Russia now targeting Ukraine’s bridges (a war crime, as these are civilian infrastructure). Of course militaries have been able to create their own bridges for centuries, and this is one of the vehicles deployed to quickly create a bridge in the modern era, the remarkable Tatra 813 AM-50 bridge layer.

Based on Tatra’s 813 Kolos 8×8 off-road truck, the AM-50 can span a gap of over 12 meters (40ft) and carry loads of 50 tons, with this amazing Technic version by Samuel Nerpas (aka Tatrovak) able to replicate the real truck courtesy of a suite of Power Functions, CaDa, and BuWizz electronic components.

A plethora of motors power the eight-wheel-drive, steering, and bulldozer blade, plus the bridge cradle, winch, unfolding, and side extensions, with the deployed bridge then strong enough to support the truck as it drives over it.

It’s an incredible feat of Technic engineering and you can see more – and watch the model in action – at both Flickr, Eurobricks, and via the video below.

YouTube Video

Hot Rod Shop

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We love hot rods here at The Lego Car Blog, because we are definitely not cool enough to own any. Which is why we also love this hot rod garage by Flickr’s Ricky.Silva, because we can pretend we’re cool and that we know about Deuces, Channeling, Chopping, Tudors, 5-Windows and other hot rodding terms, when actually TLCB car park is just full of ’90s rust.

So whether you know your Frenched from your Shaved, or you’re simply joining us in pretending, Ricky’s workshop is packed full of brick-built rod-based interest, with a multitude of pick-ups, coupes, and roadsters, plus all the hoists, racks, lifts and drums needed to create and maintain them.

Over twenty images of the garage reside in Ricky’s Flickr album, with another sixty showing the vehicles within it, and you can find all superb eighty-plus photos via the link to his ‘Hot Rod Garage’ above. Join us there and try to look cool.

Pass the Jeep

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Jeep, that most recognisable of American brands, has been passed around like a bottle of Jack at an underage beach party. From their creators Willys-Overland, the company has passed through five pair of hands before landing with current owners Stellantis, with each taking a swig on the way leaving ever less for the next person. Plus a bit of spit.

Which means we want something from Jeep’s current line-up like we want a venereal disease, but at a push we would take something from fifty years ago, like this marvellous Jeep CJ5.

It comes from Flickr’s Rick Brick making his TLCB Debut, there’s working steering and suspension, and much more to see of this superbly smooth Model Team Jeep CJ at his photostream. Click the link above to take a drink from the bottle whilst there’s still something good in it.

Grazing Bizon

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We’re not just about cars here at… er, The Lego Car Blog. No, we like all sorts of machinery, even weird 1970’s Polish agricultural equipment. And that’s what we have today courtesy of previous bloggee damianPLE (aka damjan97PL).

This is a Bizon Z056 combine harvester, produced from the mid-’70s to the early-’90s, during which time it held 80% of the Polish combine harvester market.

Following the collapse of communism and its sale from state ownership, the Bizon factory was bought by New Holland for their own production, but Bizon combines are still harvesting countless fields today.

This one captures the 1970s original beautifully in brick-form, and includes a fully functioning header (rotation, elevation and disconnect, and which can be also be removed and towed behind on a trailer), an inline-6 piston engine, plus working rear-wheel-steering.

Building instructions are available and there’s more of Damian’s Bizon Z056 to see at both Eurobricks and Bricksafe. Click on the links to bring in the harvest.

Top Gun

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Di-neeoy neeoy di-ni-ni-ni-ni-neeoy… Yes we’re reminiscing about the greatest and gayest straight movie ever made today, courtesy of JuliusZ D. and his spectacular Grumman F-14D Super Tomcat.

The variable-sweep carrier-capable fighter was a mainstay of the United States Airforce from the mid-’70s until the mid-’00s, serving in multiple conflicts across (mostly) the Middle East, and also being operated by Iran, which is perhaps a bit awkward today…

But it is of course most famous for carrying Maverick to victory over whatever undefined-vaguely-Soviet-allied-enemy the U.S were fighting in ‘Top Gun’, and ensured a generation of kids wanted to be beach-volleyball playing fighter pilots when they grew up.

Juliusz’s incredible Model Team replica of the iconic multirole fighter is one of the finest aircraft that this site has ever featured, and you can see much more of his astonishing creation at his ‘Grumman F-14D Super Tomcat’ album, where over three-dozen stunning images are available to view.

Click the link above to join us playing beach-volleyball in far-too-tight shorts before shooting down a few MiGs.

Pushing Logs

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The LEGO Technic 42157 John Deere 948L-II Skidder is one of the more unusual sets of recent times. Which means it can make an unusual B-Model too. Cue this delightfully odd ‘Forestry X-treme Off-Roader’ by Flickr’s Tung Pham, which redeploys the pieces from 42157 to create a unique log-pushing machine.

With a raising and slewing bulldozer, articulated steering, oscillating suspension, and a rotating pneumatically unfurling crane, Tung’s alternate is packed with technical functionality, and there are more brilliant images to see – plus a link to building instructions – at his ‘42157 – Forestry X-treme Off-Roader’ album. Click the link to push some logs.