6x6 Dumper
Han’s 6 wheel drive dumper looks the perfect vehicle to take all that Christmas trash to the dump. In fact, being RC, you wouldn’t even need to leave your house (as long as the dump was at the end of your road). View the superb engineering on Hans’ website and a video of much awesomeness on youtube.
This mythical mechano-man has been formed from the strange but wonderful inner workings of Nathan Proudlove’s head. Presumably though, only the Railway Children will be getting presents this year, as railways aren’t famed for their flexibility in routes or destinations.
…the elves have brought to me; two LEGO tigers.
The Lego Car Blog elves are back to work, and have found two very different German Tigers posted over Christmas. First up is Dan The Man’s beautiful Messerschmitt TG500 Tiger…
Tiger No.1
…Followed by Sariel’s working 1/33 Tiger Tank.
We tried to get a Siegfreid and Roy joke in this somewhere but failed – feel free to add one in the comments if you have one!
Like Christmas leftovers; lots of different styles but delicious
The accepted norm in the MOC-ing world is to pick a technique and stick with it. MortalSwordman has decided to buck this trend with his Fiat Bartoletti Type II race transporter, with stunning results. He uses traditional studs-up, smooth SNOT, full-stud and Technic techniques all in one model. Our favourite area is perhaps the letters – squint and ‘Cobra Ford’ will miraculously appear! There’s a group on MOCpages where several of these classic transporters have been built. Check out Mortal’s MOCpage via the link above for details.
Welcome to the third instalment in our series of Lego’s ‘ultimate’ car sets reviews. The year is 1988, and progress marches on, technically if not aesthetically…
The ‘Test Car’ – so called for no reason I can discern – represented a useful further evolution in the technical capabilities of these early cars, adding a very effective double wishbone independent suspension system at each corner to the features already present in the earlier 8860.
Not only that, there were pop-up lights and an attempt at some sort of bodywork for the first time…
First, the build. Having unpacked the (disappointingly flimsy) box you may notice lots of new (at the time) and very useful pieces – the parts for the front suspension and those stiff black pins made their appearance here. On piecing the chassis together, it becomes apparent that it lacks the elegance of earlier versions – almost as if it was designed by two people who never spoke to each other. Still, there’s lots of details here to delight the budding engineer.
Suspension: It works very well, much better than 8860’s swing axles, if a little soft at the front. Strong, too – the car can be dropped from quite a height and will just bounce. I will not be accountable for any breakages that occur from readers chucking it down the stairs, however… The problem is, this very strength makes it bulky, leaving nowhere sensible to place the engine. The other problem is, the rear axle’s movement is accommodated by 2 universal joints on each side, forcing an absurd width on the poor thing.
Engine: A neat little V4 that’s not that little (blame those old square pistons, much as I like them..). There’s nowhere for it to go except on top of the bulky rear suspension. If the car was longer, it could have been some much more exciting mid-engine sports car: as it is, these technical compromises made it too tall, much too wide and not long enough. An opportunity missed. Runs well, though.
Gearbox: Still a three-speed linear arrangement, but it manages a smoother operation than 8860’s thanks to an extra shaft, and the engine spins freely in all three gears. A success.
Seats: A disappointment. These hinged together plates show evidence of concerted cost-cutting and are not a patch on the items used in 8860, which can be made to fit this – just don’t do them in blue…
Lights: My favourite thing on this car – they work smoothly and are a delight to operate. Is this where the money saved on the seats went ?
Steering: Works quite well, but not brilliantly. There’s a UJ in there forced through a 45 degree angle and it’s slightly too much – leading to a gritty action. Also, LEGO’s strange obsession with limiting the steering lock of its models first made itself known here. Blame those wishbone parts, I guess. It’s not bad in this respect – and would in the future get a lot worse – but it could be better.
Body: Oh dear. Perhaps they shouldn’t have bothered. It’s very sketchy, not at all pretty and lends the whole thing an even more unfinished air than the (body-less) 8860. It is very strong, though – thank those black pins, which you won’t be doing when it comes to taking this apart… These are the earlier ‘interference fit’ pins that really jam themselves in the holes, making for a finger-crushing experience to remove them. Use a 10 axle with a toggle on the end and PUSH. Or a nuclear device… Better still, use later ‘push fit’ pins to spare yourself the agony.
Overall, this is a curious device. There’s plenty of good stuff going on here, but it falls down badly on its – for want of a better term – fashion sense. Its colour scheme has more clashes than a war zone and its proportions are just plain odd. 6/10.
Another tenuous Christmas link
Another day, another tenuous link between Christmas and MOC we’d like to feature. Anyway, 2LegoOrNot2Lego has built this wonderful logging truck, which like an earlier featured MOC from BricksonwheelsMOC, has been lavishly chromed. This truck is also remote control via LEGO Power Functions; check out the video on 2LegoOrNot2Lego’s MOCpage.
Before bling: 1966 Bronco
The MOCpages Elves are feeling festive (well, they are Elves) and have been desperately trying to find a sleigh or snowmobile for The Lego Car Blog to feature over Christmas. This, whilst not a sleigh or snowmobile, is at least red and white, so we can pretend it’s Santa’s summer holiday transport. Dylan Denton over on Flickr (and MOCpages too) is the creator – and it’s worth a look for the SNOT work on the front alone!
Insert Jumbo Jet behind for twice the awesome
GuiliuG on Brickshelf is responsible for this astonishingly technical JCB Fastrac. It features pneumatic lifts, working power take-offs, suspension, 12 speed gearbox, AWD (with 2wd switch)… basically more than all the models we’ve featured so far put together! Check out his video here, and the real thing being ‘tested’ by TopGear here, where it does something very cool with a Boeing 747…
Hats Off To The Porschemeister
Malte Dorowski (Mr Porsche to you…) has done it again with this ravishingly beautiful 911 RSR. See it on MOCPages
If your forest is on fire, call these guys
Due to the excellence of Lego’s official Mercedes-Benz Unimog set, there’s a steady stream of elves returning to the The Lego Car Blog office clutching modified versions and home-brewed attempts. Most are given a swift and hard kick back out of the door, but not this one, which manages to take the Unimog theme up a considerable notch. ‘VFracingteam’ is the creator, and you can check out further pictures and the awesome technical features on Brickshelf.
BMW Motorbike by Fred Ottens
When Obi-Wan Kenobi and that other bloke decided to bike round the world, they chose this, the BMW 1200, as their ride. Fred Ottens over on MOCpages recreates a wonderful bike using some yellow, black and very shiny bricks.
The most exciting release from Lego Technic for a long time. This very faithful representation of the Mercedes Unimog go-anywhere light truck could mark the beginning of a return to form. We can but hope…
First Impressions… it’s a big and vividly illustrated box, promising great marvels within. The pieces are bagged according to sub-assembly, but since the main ‘sub-assembly’ is about three quarters of the total this isn’t as helpful as it might be… still, I somewhat absurdly quite like trawling through masses of bits. Instructions are good and clear, with no colour mysteries but such tiny incremental build steps you suspect they could be followed by a reasonably gifted 7 year old. Nothing wrong with that, but it does make for a lot of pages…
The build. What can I say – a revelation! It’s a really enjoyable thing to put together, especially as this set brings elements I haven’t seen before and cleverly combines electric motive power and pneumatics (in the same way as the old 8868 Claw Rig but no less effective for that). It’s a long process, mind – give yourself most of a day to wallow in it.
There’s no shortage of features to delight and intrigue (and in one case infuriate, but we’ll come to that…), so in no particular order:
Engine. An in-line four cylinder nestling in a quiet corner of the undercarriage and driven (rather slowly) by all four wheels. There’s only a single ratio fixed transmission but there simply wouldn’t be room for anything more.
Suspension. Live axles at both ends, sprung by a single, very firm, spring for each wheel. Ground clearance is convincingly high, thanks to gear blocks at each wheel that send the drive down to them from high-mounted differentials. The suspension’s movements at first appear to be corrupted by the Panhard Rod that helps to locate the axle, but then you appreciate just how thorough the designers have been : It’s supposed to be like that . Hats off to Lego for that one, especially as the springs seem to be correctly resilient, there’s ample travel and an amusing lack of stiffness in roll. That’s probably correct, too.
What can’t be correct is the steering. As standard, this model has the turning circle of a supertanker, with an action so sloppy it makes you fear something will break! And WHY, in Lego’s flagship model, can’t we have the in-cab steering wheel connected ? End rant. It can be corrected. Omit the three quarter pins that so restrict the movement, gear it down so that there’s less strain on the control wheel and change those STUPID ‘knob wheels’ for bevels and it feels much better. Still not as nice as most of Lego’s early Technic models, but no longer terrible.
Pneumatic crane. My favourite part. I could play around with this for hours (yes, I know…), it works very well and is completely capable of doing what it looks like it should. The working of it is a little jerky and hard to modulate, but can be done with practice and a light touch. Or airtanks. The air feed and alternative mounting point to the front allow it to work equally well there, too. The built-in retractable stabilisers do their job superbly, not something you can say about every Lego model that has such things… All in all, this part is a triumph.
The winch on the front, to which can be switched the motor’s power, works well, too, although it’s rather low-geared – I suspect to protect the motor. Easy enough to fix that, of course.
The cab. So big, so bright, so orange! It looks great – better than in the pictures on the box. An easy thing to put together, it comes as a bit of light relief after the complexities of the chassis. There’s enough detail here to satisfy, as well, including the welcome use of some actual old fashioned studded bricks (remember those ?) on the front. It’ll tilt by releasing the long red pins at the back, but you’ll need small fingers for this.
Verdict
Overall, this is both a superbly playable toy (once you’ve fixed the steering…) and a delightful display object, well worth the (steepish) price of admission. If only the steering didn’t let it down so badly, it would merit an easy 10; as it stands it still earns 9/10. Recommended.
They don't just make F1 cars and Clios
Another day, another elf returns from the hunt. A good find too. Marek Markiewicz produces some brilliant workhorses, and his Renualt 155-54 applies Model Team techniques to something typically created in Technic. View it at his Flickr page or on MOCpages.
It will suck your blood then blow your mind.
He has done it again! The Vampire GT – Another technical marvel from Crowkillers. Includes a new 5 speed with reverse transmission, H.O.G. steering and 4 wheel independent suspension. There is a switch on the dash that lets you choose between rear wheel and all wheel drive. At the rear are bevelled gears that will open and close each door. Stunning.