OK, we can fit one more in! This top-notch old-school crawler crane comes from previous bloggee de-marco, and like his previous builds he’s made video instructions available too. Take a look via the link above and you can watch the ‘How To’ video to help you build your own crawler crane below.
YouTube Video
We round out a small-scale day here at The Lego Car Blog (don’t worry, we’ll be back soon with something much bigger) with this neat Fendt 500 Vario. Built by Flickr’s Stefan it’s an excellent recreation of the German manufacturer’s infinitely variable transmission tractor, but as with real tractors it’s what attached to it that’s cool.
Stefan has built a variety of tools for his Fendt, including a Polterschild & Forstseilwinde forest blade and winch (shown above) allowing the tractor to handle some hefty wood,* and what is apparently a Mulchfräse forestry mulcher** (below) for… er, mulching it?
There’s more to see of Stefan’s Fendt 500 Vario and the various implements it can deploy at his photostream – click the link above and get mulching!
*Just like your Mom.
**Again, just like…
This wonderfully simple image comes from Luca Di Lazzaro of Flickr and it shows that a few bricks and well placed camera can create something rather lovely. See more at the link.
This is the 1927 Csikós Bismuth Sport Coupe, and it’s one of the strangest automotive stories of the 1920s.
Founded by a Hungarian monk in 1919, Csikós started by producing gear assemblies. A chance meeting with Giovanni Agnelli – the founder of FIAT – on a skiing trip in Italy saw the two bond over a mutual hatred of Communism and love of starfish, and an agreement was made to exchange FIAT engine technology for Csikós gears.
The result was Csikós’s first car, based loosely on a FIAT 501. Moderate success at home and in Italy gave the company the confidence to design their own car from scratch and the Bismuth was launched a few years later. Powered by a supercharged inline-4 of 3.7 litres, the Bismuth had a top speed in excess of 70mph and found fame with the Federation il Automobile Racing de Turin (FART).
Such success was short-lived though, as the company’s founder was killed in a freak land-yacht accident just four years later. Without leadership vehicle production slowed until the factory was requisitioned by the Nazis during the Second World War.
Today the factory is gone, replaced by Hungary’s national aquarium where – in memory of Csikós – the starfish tank still bares their company name.
Except we made all of that up.
Flickr’s Chris Elliott is the inventor of the 1927 Csikós Bismuth Sport Coupe, and now that we’ve completely butchered whatever backstory there may have been you can see more at Chris’s photostream by clicking the link above! We’ve had a lot of sugar today.
The single most received message we get here at The Lego Car Blog (besides texts from your Mom of course) is ‘Can I have instructions for [insert model here]?’.
Normally the answer is no, but today we can answer with a yes. And then some. Because not only has Flickr’s de-marco made instructions available for his lovely 5-wide classic taxi and pick-up truck, he’s even written a parts list and made a video for each model showing the building steps!
Head over to de-marco’s photostream via the links above and fill your boots!
If you’re a member of the NRA then everything can be improved with the addition of a gun. High school security? Add a gun. Patriotism? You’ll definitely need a gun. Motorbikes? Much cooler with a gun.
OK, we’ve made that last one up.* Still, Redfern1950s‘ previously featured Dispatch Bike has received a Second Amendment upgrade and even we** admit that it does look cool! Re-purposed in Africa Korps spec it also includes a serious looking cartoon rider, so it can now dispatch people instead of packages.
Click the link above to head over to Redfern’s photostream for all the pictures.
It is baking hot here at TLCB Towers. Whilst on the positive that means mini-skirts and hot pants (on the pedestrians outside you understand, thankfully not on TLCB staff), it also means the office has become a miserable sweat-box. Fortunately Sven Franic has the answer with this gorgeous 1950s ice cream van. Complete with a giant popsicle on the roof, a fully kitted interior, and a pair of deckchairs plus a sunshade at a jaunty angle, it looks the perfect place to cool down. You can do just that at Sven’s photostream – click the link above to get licking.
All was quite in The Lego Car Blog Towers this morning. The Elves were asleep in their cage room and we were quietly watching the Monaco Grand Prix qualifying, er… we mean working studiously in the office.
And then came the sound of several soft thuds, kind of like a series of bean-bags falling off a table, followed by great Elven rage. Sigh.
A wander down to the cage room revealed the cause, where an enterprising Elf had returned early in the morning whilst its colleagues were still asleep, and promptly driven a remote control bulldozer through the Elves’ cages – much to its own amusement – pushing them out and onto the floor below. Cue the Elven rage.
Unable to escape by riding atop the ‘dozer due to its limited speed, the unhappily awoken Elves had caught their attacker and were trying to feed him into the VHS machine. Mr. Airhorn was deployed to restore calm (which definitely awoke any Elves fortunate enough to avoid the original incident) and we’ve now taken control of the offending vehicle.
And what a vehicle! Based on the Caterpillar D11t bulldozer, Piotr K‘s creation is a superb example of how to utilise both Power Functions and pneumatics.
Two Power Functions L Motors drive the tracks, which are suspended by a pendular equaliser bar, whilst three M Motors power the pneumatic systems, with one driving an on-board compressor (with an auto shut-off) and the other two activating the pneumatic valves. This gives Piotr’s model a continual supply of compressed air to power the huge front blade and the rear-mounted ripper which can be operated remotely via LEGO’s IR system.
It’s very neatly engineered set-up and one that works – as the Elves found out – really effectively. You can see more images and read about the build on MOCpages via the link above, plus you watch the model in action via the YouTube video below.
YouTube Video
And tanks apparently. There was a point in time where tanks and horses fought side-by-side (and against one another) on the battlefield. At first it was definitely better to be on the horse, but so quick was the pace of development that just a few short years later the tank – and the various other machinery designed for us to kill one another more efficiently – had all but eradicated the horse from use in war. Which is good news for horses.
However that didn’t stop Indiana Jones who, in ‘The Last Crusade’ (which sadly proved not to be thanks to the dreadful 2008 return), used his hoofed companion to shove a rock down the barrel of a tank cannon.
In reality this would probably just mean you got killed by both a rock and a tank shell, but hey – this is the movies! This glorious recreation of the famous scene from 1989’s ‘Indiana Jones and The Last Crusade’ comes from Flickr’s Joshua Brooks aka JBIronworks who has recreated both the Nazi tank and the scene’s dynamism brilliantly in Lego form.
There’s more to see of mini-figure Indiana Jones’s rock-based sabotage on Flickr via the link above, and in case you want to see the real one doing just the same click here to watch the original scene on YouTube.
The Elves are grumpy today. Grumpy because this find is one of yours, suggested via the Feedback page, and thus none of them are getting fed. Still, don’t let that put you off, if you have a suggestion check out our Submission Guidelines and if you think it passes drop us a note.
These two excellent brick-built bikes come from Lennart C of Flickr, who has used all manner of ingenious connections to build what is probably the hardest vehicle-type to create in small scale. On the left is superb and fiendishly complicated looking Harley Davidson Seventy-Two whilst on the right is beautifully sleek Honda CBR 1000 RR. See more of each via the links in the text.
It’s that time of year again! With LEGO’s H2 Technic sets on the horizon the survivors from our crack team of Elves – sent to infiltrate The LEGO Company’s HQ – have returned to TLCB Towers with this summer’s bounty. So without further ado, here are the brand new Technic sets due to reach stores on August 1st!
OK, let’s get the weird one out of the way first. This is a Volvo autonomous loader concept and it is, frankly, one of the oddest Technic sets to appear in recent times. Continuing LEGO’s successful line of officially-licensed vehicles the new concept loader joins the previous (and excellent) Volvo Technic sets, but differs in that it isn’t a replica of a real-life Volvo at all. This makes it – in our eyes at least – utterly pointless.
Like many of LEGO’s recent Technic sets 42081 straddles the Model Team and Technic themes, bringing increased visual realism to functional models (only 42081 can’t be visually realistic because there is no real-world equivalent). All-wheel-steering, a mechanically raising and tipping bucket, and – for reasons we simply don’t understand – a model of a quadcopter drone are all included.
Expected to cost around $140 there are probably better ways to obtain 1,167 yellow and black pieces for your collection…
This is more like it. Aimed at ages 10+ LEGO’s new 1,000-peice 42080 Forest Harvester set is the first to include Power Functions 2.0 (which may also mean the possibility of App control). We’ll have to wait until we get our hands on the new components to test out the upgrades, but the fact that the set also includes new pneumatics is cause for celebration!
We expect 42080 to use the new system to drive a pneumatic compressor that powers both the raising/lowering of the arm and the grabby/rolly/cutty thingumy on the end of it (which also looks to feature some new spiky round bricks). Mechanical functions are likely to include centre articulation and working steering, plus a little workbench and brick-built chainsaw are thrown in (somewhat unnecessarily) for good measure too.
We expect the brightly-coloured 42080 Forest Harvester set to cost around $150 when it reaches shelves later this year, which makes it $150 better value than that Volvo…
A staple feature throughout Technic’s long history, we’ve lost count of the number of forklift trucks in LEGO’s back-catalogue. The new set does appear to be one of the best though, and it could very well be the sweet-spot in the H2 Technic range. With Hand-of-God rear-wheel steering, a tilting fork, and an interesting-looking rope-activated lift mechanism, 42079 includes just enough mechanically-operated functionality to be interesting.
We think it looks rather nice too, with well-judged Model Team detailing, a few stickers teamed with a nice colour choice, and a bonus mystery barrel containing something dangerous. Aimed at ages 9+ 42079 is constructed from just under 600 pieces and is expected to cost around $70 when it reaches stores in August 2018.
Now for the big one. This is 42082, LEGO’s 4,000+ piece, $300 flagship, and it’s massive. With the highest piece-count of any Technic set to date, plus Power Functions, 42082 is set to lift (hah!) the top tier of LEGO Technic even further towards engineering for adults.
An enormous extending boom (and it really is huge – the picture above shows it in its most compact setting), superstructure slew, boom raising/lowering and winch control are all driven electronically by LEGO’s Power Functions system, plus there are working outriggers, steering, and a V8 piston engine.
As with all of the new Technic sets 42082 will include instructions for a B-model, and it also features a wealth of stickers (each new set seems to include decals denoting the set no.) as part of a trend towards increasing the visual realism of Technic.
…
So there you have it, LEGO’s new-for-H2 2018 Technic sets. It’s quite a construction-heavy line-up, and one that we think is largely a decent effort. Apart from that pointless Volvo. Of course, the Volvo isn’t LEGO’s only officially-licensed new Technic set due for release later this year…
Horcik Designs has clearly been taking photo advice from your Mom, because there is a lot on show in his latest images. That’s because his Technic ‘Leadsled’ is a ‘cutaway’, a tactic used by car companies at motor shows to display the inner working of their vehicles. Horcik’s creation uses the technique to great effect too, with one side of the model devoid of panelling, allowing us to see the highly-detailed V8 engine hooked up to a 4-speed gearbox, working steering, and door locking mechanisms. There’s also a slightly terrifying doll impersonating a motor show girl, but we’re doing our best not to look her in the eyes. There’s much more to see (and there really is in this case) at Horcik’s Flickr photostream, plus you can read more about the build and join the discussion at the Eurobricks forum.
Delivery by motorcycle was far classier in the olden days…
This gorgeous dispatch bike comes from TLCB regular Redfern1950s and it looks infinitely more distinguished than today’s equivalent (a wobbly student on an ‘L’-plated moped). Redfern’s also built a slightly jazzier version – although we prefer this more simple iteration – and there’s more to see of each at his photostream. Place your delivery order via the link above.
Nope, not that Spanish exchange girl from your youth that you always wish you’d kept in touch with, but this rather neat steam corvette sailing under Chilean colours.
Built for the Chilean Navy by a British shipyard in the 1850s this Esmeralda is one of several Chilean warships to carry the name, and was sunk in the Battle of Iquique in Chile’s defeat to Peru and Bolivia in 1879. We know so little about about South American conflicts that our narrative ends there, but the model of the lost ship itself is nevertheless beautiful. Flickr’s Luis Peña is the builder behind it and there’s more to see of his gorgeous recreation of the Esmeralda via the link above.
Warner Brothers’ brilliant The LEGO Movie wowed the animation film world upon it’s release four years ago. Smart, funny, and with an endearing message, critics and filmgoers loved it (as did we). A pretty good The Lego Batman Movie soon followed, which was quickly succeeded by a mediocre The Lego Ninjago Movie… you can see where this could have been heading.
Thankfully Warner Brothers have returned the franchise to its roots, with a sequel to The Lego Movie picking up where the original left off (and hopefully allowing us to forget about that Ninjago one…). Cunningly entitled ‘The Lego Movie 2’, original writers Phil Lord and Christopher Miller return to produce and co-write the next instalment, as do actors Chris Pratt and Elizabeth Banks alongside a plethora of famous talent.
The new movie is expected to explore issues around gender; “[It looks at] what’s different and similar about gender, when a boy plays vs. how a girl plays… Every one of our movies, so far, have been told from the point of view of one kid’s imagination. The LEGO Movie 2 will be the first one told through two kids’ imaginations – Finn and his sister. It’s going to be really interesting juxtaposing those two different visions”. It’s sure going to be fun to see what the city of Bricksburg looks like after Finn’s sister’s Duplo invasion at the end of the original movie.
The Lego Movie 2 is due to reach cinemas in February 2019, exactly 5 years after the original. We will of course bring you a full review upon its release, and we may even be able to take the Elves if our local cinema’s ban is lifted by then.
