Kenworth W900 and side-dump trailer. Created by Paliason posted on Brickshelf.
A perfect replica with all the usual goodies we would expect from a Technic model of this scale plus a few extras. This badboy has got some serious power. Consider yourself DUMPED!
Striking fear to hearts of BMX-riding scallies
The Mad Physicist over on Flickr has created this fantastic model of one of the most common sights on UK roads; the humble Ford Focus in a day-glow paint-job. We also think he’s managed the ‘full house’ of brick orientation, with studs pointing in all 6 possible directions!
Porsche Removals
Following Malte Dorowski’s amazing Porsche 917 from an earlier blog (see below), DeTomaso Pantera has built this huge Mercedes-Benz Renntransporter in which to house it. And when we say huge, we mean 105 studs long huge. Malte would need to build another three 917s to fill it. Check it out on MOCpages or Flickr.
Dodgy Photo
Austin Nomoreinfo has been building some superb muscle cars of late, making The Lego Car Blog Towers collectively go ‘oooh’ when one of the Elves entered holding these pictures.
Here we feature two of his recent works, both Dodges, and both with fantastic exterior, interior and underbody detailing. Click on his name to see more.
Dodgy Photo 2
Welcome to the second in our series of Lego’s big car sets reviews. The year is 1980, and the sophistication of suspension arrives at Lego Towers. Not very brilliant suspension, but we’ll come to that..
First, the build. Still fairly straightforward, and the flaws of it’s 853 predecessor are skilfully dealt with – it’s nice and stiff, the steering works well (provided you’ve put the axle bushes on the right way round…), there was now a differential and it’s definitely sportier than before. Again, the engine is the only fiddly part, but if you set this up right it will run smoothly in all three gears (very fast in the lowest gear, which was intended purely for use with the motor and gets blanked off in the instructions. Leave it open and savour the noise!).
This is a truly satisfying model. The colours look right, there’s enough technical stuff going on and it’s playable. It seems like Lego’s designers made a concerted effort to include all the features they could manage with the pieces then available. Briefly, these include the sliding / reclining seats, the rear-mounted flat four engine with some lovely detailing, a three speed transmission, steering and swing axle rear suspension. This was Lego’s first attempt at a car’s suspension and, like the VW Beetle it resembles, it didn’t work brilliantly – forcing massive camber changes as the springs were compressed. Still, it was a start and better than nothing.
It’s an easy model to modify, too. Adding front suspension with the newer steering links and ball joints is pretty straightforward and, with a little rearrangement of the rear reinforcement there’s space for a pair of ‘+2’ rear seats. You now have something that’s exactly the right size and mechanical layout to build a Porsche 356 body on… this is the sort of thing you can mess about with for hours!
Oddly, the second model – some kind of weirdly scaled dragster – isn’t that good, but it’s easy to build something nice with this very complete selection of parts.
As with 853, the box is nice and solid and beautifully illustrated – although it would have been good to have as many ideas on it as 853’s had. It doesn’t need to be quite so big, either, but I’m nit-picking now….
Overall, this superb set deserves a 10/10 – it might not be flawless but, for the time, it’s deeply impressive and still stands up today as a good-looking, effective model. Get one and you’ll see why it was good enough to sit at the top of the Technic tree for eight years.
Electric bringer of dairy goodness
Legogil over on Flickr has created this wonderful MOC of one the UK’s unsung heroes – the humble milk float. Where would mankind be without such noble steeds? Two words: Dry. Weetabix. It doesn’t bare thinking about.
How racing used to look, before Audi diesels
The Lego Car Blog Elves continue their search, and this is their latest find. Malte Dorowski‘s Porsche 917 blends some mind-bending techniques to create truly awesome shapes. We can only assume that he’s a wizard of some kind.
Toy Story's 'RC'
The immortal words of ‘Blinky’, the wind-up binoculars from Disney’s 1995 classic Toy Story. Nathan Proudlove recreates ‘RC’, arguably the star of the greatest animated chase scene of all time. And because ‘RC’ is er, RC, Nathan can act out the aforementioned scene with addition of a small dog and a firework. Indulge in some retro animated goodness; head on over to Flickr.
Unimog: Making trains cool
The Mercedes Unimog has always been a favourite amongst the LEGO community (so much so we’ll probably be doing a feature on LEGO’s own 2011 set later in the year), and Sjoerd Nieuwenhuis’s brilliant Rail/Road combi shows us why. See the details of how it works here:
Insert Megan Fox in the picture above for twice the awesome
Optimus Prime by BricksonwheelsMOC
Following their release into the www last week our Lego Car Blog Elves have started to return with their findings. Melvin, normally a slovenly fellow, was the first back (perhaps with the misguided notion that he’d get a pay rise), clutching this in his grubby little hands.
Michael ‘2 explosions’ Bay is going to win no awards for style, but BricksonwheelsMOC just might, with his superb and heavily chromed replica of Hasbro’s finest.
Check it out on MOCpages http://www.mocpages.com/moc.php/293118
Welcome to what will be the first in a series of reviews of all of Lego’s ‘ultimate’ car-based Technic sets. We start, naturally, at the very beginning. In 1977, this was the ultimate and I was a lucky boy!
This red machine (still the longest model of any such set…) featured a reciprocating 4 cylinder engine, a forward/reverse transmission, working steering and adjustable seats and…. that’s it. At the time, this was plenty – greater sophistication would come later; the great thing about this set was that it showed, better than any other, how a car went together.
The build is fairly simple – the only complex part being the engine. It feels a little strange building a Technic car chassis by mostly snapping bricks together, but it also makes you wonder if the newer elements make things unnecessarily time-consuming. Slotting the engine/transmission unit and steering assembly into place makes you imagine workers doing the same thing on a production line. An enjoyable and educative experience.
The finished model is a delightfully vintage thing and highly playable. The best thing about it is the speed and smoothness of the engine’s running as you push it along, assuming the engine’s set up just so… This gives it a personality that’s lacking in most of the later cars, whose engines simply don’t make enough noise to be truly satisfying.
Flaws; well this is a very early effort so there are a few… the biggest of which being the chassis’ lack of stiffness. Blame the penny-pinching single layer of studded beams that form the car’s structure. Double these up and it’s fine. The front wheels drag on the chassis when on full lock – something that couldn’t happen in a newer set, mostly because newer sets seem to have hardly any steering lock… A differential would have been nice, but you can slot one in easily enough now. The lack of suspension can be forgiven, I think; especially as, if it did have springs, I suspect the chassis would flex more than they do!
Now we come to one of the best features of all these early sets – the box! A proper, sturdy box with plastic compartments for all the new and special pieces that came with this set, and beautifully illustrated with a wealth of model ideas, most of which had no instructions but served to inspire the young builder’s own creativity. Note to Lego: PLEASE BRING THESE BACK!
Overall, this set deserves a solid 9/10 – there was enough to inspire the budding petrolhead here and, if you can, I urge you to seek one of these out (expensive these days, I know..) and re-discover the simple joy of a charming model.
Welcome to The Lego Car Blog!
We’ve decided that the lack of dedicated Lego car bloggery needs to be rectified, and this is the result.
As we get up and running posts will start to appear, bringing the best Lego vehicles from around the world here for your perusal.
The Lego Car Blog Elves have been released from their cages and have started their never-ending and poorly paid search for the cream of the Lego car crop.
We also hope to throw in some set reviews written by our resident anoraks, and maybe share the odd website, group or rival blog with you too.
Thank you for stopping by, and we look forward to embedding Lego vehicles firmly in the Blogosphere.
TLCB Team