Monthly Archives: February 2020

Sci-Fi Spectrum

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Febrovery continues apace and today we have two builds from the annual nerdfest to share with you, one which looks like it could be an actual lunar rover in the not too distant future and one which… doesn’t.

First up (above) is Ivan Martynov‘s ‘SOL 317’. We assume that by the use of those little 1×1 figures that Ivan’s design is for a rather massive machine, but increase the scale about ten times and it could easily be one of the small robotised vehicles that mankind is so fond of for current planetary exploration. Whichever it is it’s a great build and you can see more at Ivan’s photostream via the link above.

Today’s second rover throws realism out of the emergency airlock and arms the space villains Blacktron with an enormous rocket, which has got both your Mom and TLCB Elves excited for different reasons.

Shannon Sproule‘s Blacktron ‘BRUTE’ missile launching rover involves ‘towing a nuke onto the battlefield, launching it and then hiding in the observation tower to record the destruction’ according to the builder’s mildly unhinged description. Apparently he’s working on one twice as big too…

Stand well back and shield your eyes at Shannon’s photostream via the link above.

My Other Car’s a Mustang

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LEGO’s brilliant 10265 Ford Mustang set has already spawned several alternate builds, including an F-150 pick-up, a DeTomaso Pantera, and an, er.. Ford Mustang, but this is the first 10265 B-Model to drop the Ford connection entirely. And the engine too.

The Tesla Cybertruck, revealed last year by having its windows smashed on stage (oops), might look like something from the future from a movie forty years ago, but that hasn’t stopped it generating the usual billion orders that Tesla somehow manages to take before anyone has driven it.

You can beat the queue however, and get your hands on one today if you own the 10265 Ford Mustang set, because Flickr’s Gerald Cacas has repurposed the pieces found within it to recreate Tesla’s decidedly odd EV pick-up.

With opening doors, rear hatch thingy, and tailgate, Gerald’s model is at least as functional as the set from which it came and there’s more to see of his 10265 B-Model at his Tesla Cybertruck album by clicking here.

A Real Foodie

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All the best food comes out of the back of a food truck. Also all the worst food, but the jeopardy is half the fun! This beautifully constructed food truck comes from November Juliett who has used a range of clever building techniques throughout the build, particularly the SNOT (Studs Not On Top) bodywork, has found brilliant new use for some lovely early Technic wheels, and has built a detailed (and operable) serving hatch.

Place your order on Flickr via the link above, and hope November’s food truck is one of the good ones, otherwise…

If Only the World were a bit more Classic Space

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The world could learn something from LEGO’s perennially smiling Classic Spacemen, peacefully conducting whatever research and exploration missions their giant fleshy masters directed them towards.

First featured here over five years ago, TLCB favourite Billyburg has recently updated his 6950 Rocket Launcher redux, and we like it more than ever. Of course this being a Classic Space vehicle the rockets on board Billyburg’s 8×8 transport are not firing Russian implements of death at airliners, rather satellites for, well… we’re not sure, but we bet it’s something wholesome.

There’s more to see of Billyburg’s brilliant 6950 redux at his photostream – click here to head into Classic Space.

Lunar Rescue

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The annual nerd-filled bandwagon that is Febrovery is upon us once more, with rovers of all shapes and sizes expected top appear over the next four weeks. For those new to this blog and/or the online Lego Community, we’re not referring to the defunct British car manufacturer (although maybe one day we’ll run our own – considerably less cool – Febrovery…), rather the wheeled contraptions that inhabit all sorts of far away planetary objects in the minds of Lego builders.

This is one such vehicle, TFDesigns / Frost‘s ‘Roveside Assistance Wrecker’, built to fix your magnetonium fusion reactor, busted thread sprocket, solar panel failure, or any other cosmic malady. With a brick-seperator tow hitch, the coolest wheels we think we’ve ever seen, and that canopy again, it’s a fine way to kick off the Febrovery month. Call Intergalactic Roveside Assistance via the link above for more.

Laying Pipes

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We’re not quite over poo-based titles just yet. Discovered by one of our Elves on Brickshelf, this is gkurkowski‘s Volvo PL4809E pipe layer, a fully remote controlled Model Team replica of Volvo’s real tracked crane.

Phenomenal attention to detail and some seriously intricate pneumatics make gkurkowski’s creation spectacularly accurate, both aesthetically and in its operation.

An array of hidden Power Functions motors drive the tracks, superstructure rotation, boom reach, and the cable winch, enabling the Volvo to lay pipe as efficiently as this TLCB Writer does when he’s rushing to leave for work in the morning.

An extensive gallery of top quality photos is available to view on Brickshelf, where comparison imagery showing gkurkowski’s model alongside the real vehicle and WIP shots can be found, plus plenty more images displaying the completed crane as you see here. Click the link above to head to Brickshelf and lay some pipe.

Blue Bull

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First featured here a year ago, Jeroen Ottens’ beautiful Technic interpretation of Marco Van Overbeeke’s spectacular design concept had us all wishing the car was real. It still isn’t, but Jeroen has refined his creation adding these stunning new images to his ‘Il Toro Azzurro’ album. The name may have changed but the car is if anything even more gorgeous to look at, with Jeroen’s model including four-wheel steering, a V10 engine, working gearbox, and independent suspension. There’s more to see of both the original and new images at Jeroen’s ‘Il Torro Azzurro’ album on Flickr – click the link to take a look.

Huge Steamer

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We’re much too mature to link this post with today’s other one, however tempting it is. If your mind has connected the two though, that’s on you…

Now we’ve got that out of the way, on to the vehicle. This is an 1870 Batho 25-ton road roller, a prototype that would become the world’s first mass-produced road roller (‘mass’ being a relative term we suspect).

It’s also both the oldest (we think) and most unusual vehicle that this site has ever featured, and it comes from previous bloggee and weird-vehicle extraordinaire Nikolaus Löwe, who has based this exquisite recreation of the 1870 Batho on a scale model of the original vehicle.

Working steering and a considerable quantity of old-timey cogs and gears are present and correct (they’re for-real cogs and gears too, not any of that steampunk nonsense), and there’s lots more to see of Nikolaus’s remarkable model of a remarkable machine at his Batho 25-ton Road Roller album on Flickr – click the link above to see more of his impressive steamer.

Laying Logs

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We like a good poo-based title here at The Lego Car Blog (see here, here and here). Today’s comes courtesy of bill2build and his neat Ural logging truck compete with grabby thingy and, er… logs. Lay one for yourself on Flickr at the link above.

Massive Minecraft

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Built in 1973, massive to world record proportions, and able to service an entire mine at once, your Mom and the Terex 33-19 Titan have a lot in common.

Just one Terex Titan was constructed and – until 1998 – it was the largest mining truck in the world, at a staggering 350 tons. This incredible recreation of the mighty mining machine comes from Beat Felber of Flickr, who has rebuilt the Terex superbly in a huge 1:28.5 scale.

Beat’s model is so large in fact that LEGO don’t make tyres big enough, hence the non-LEGO 120mm tyres fitted – the only non-LEGO pieces used. There’s something authentic about this too, as the real Terex required six axles rather than the usual four as there were no tyres large enough available for a four-axle truck to take the Titan’s immense weight.

Beat’s astonishing replica of the 33-19 Titan not only looks spectacular, it functions too, with two very brave XL Motors driving the tandem rear axle and pair of Servo Motors powering the all-wheel steering. A further L Motor drives the two XL linear actuators that allow the enormous bucket to tip and two sets of LEDs illuminate the Terex’s head and tail lights, with all of that controlled by a third party SBrick programmable bluetooth battery.

Top quality custom decals and excellent presentation make Beat’s build a must-see, and you can do just that at his Terex 33-19 Mining Truck album on Flickr. Click the link and join us there, where it’s making our own Lego creations feel very small indeed.

Range Rozzer

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Range Rovers aren’t just for rich London types. Well they are now, but back when the original was around even the police used them. This neat Speed Champions style recreation of a classic police Ranger Rover (in Manchester police livery) comes from TLCB favourite Jonathan Elliott and there’s more to see at his photostream via the link above.

DC-3C

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Nope, not an annoying Star Wars droid (we’re not Bricknerd), but this gorgeous classic Douglas DC-3C airliner, recreated beautifully by previous bloggee Luis Pena. Built for display at Chile’s Air and Space International Fair alongside his previously featured models, Luis’ creation captures LAN-Chile’s iconic 1940s airliners – that were converted from military transports after the Second Wold War – in wonderful detail. If you’re one of our Chilean readers you can see Luis’ Douglas DC-3C along with his other historic Lego aircraft at FIDEA Santiago, and if not you can see all the imagery at his Flickr album by clicking here.

Taking a Dump

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This magnificent MAN F90 8×8 dump truck comes from previous bloggee Krzysztof Cytacki (aka dirtzonemaster) and it’s one of the finest Model Team creations of the year so far.

It’s not just accurate aesthetically either, as underneath the brilliantly realistic exterior is a complete remote control drivetrain consisting of eight-wheel-drive,  four-wheel-steering, and eight-wheel suspension. The tipper works too, thanks to a remotely operated linear actuator, with all of the Power Functions components hidden so well you would never know they’re there, with our particular favourite being the beautifully effective way Krzysztof has concealed the battery box inside the fuel tank.

You can see just how he’s done it (plus view all of the truck’s other features) via the link to Krzysztof’s ‘MAN F90 Tipper Truck’ album on Flickr above, and the YouTube video below.

YouTube Video

 

Come Back Around*

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Things have a habit of coming back around. Lava lamps, 1920s baby names, politicians called Bush or Clinton…

We hope this does, the glorious 1970s Maserati Boomerang. Named after the indigenous Australian bendy stick that always comes back (for reasons we don’t understand at all), the Boomerang was a one-off concept car designed by Giorgetto Giugiaro that was unusually registered for road use and that even more usually still exists today.

Previous bloggee RGB900 has recreated the iconic Maserati in Speed Champions scale, and in a neat circularity has brought LEGO’s new canopy piece back around again to shape the cockpit of his build, following its use by Jonathan Elliott for a Lamborghini Countach earlier in the month and its original appearance in the official 75890 Ferrari F8 Speed Champions set.

We suspect it’s a part that will keep coming back too, so well does it seem to fit all sorts of Speed Champions designs, and there’s more to see of its appearance on RGB900’s lovely Maserati Boomerang at his photostream. Click the link above to give it a throw.

*Today’s ace title song.

Blue Boxer

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We know absolutely nothing about sci-fi, but we do know that this ‘A-10 Asimov’ is a spectacular build, and it looks a bit like it’s wearing boxing gloves. Designed by noblebun there is ingenious parts usage everywhere, particularly on the engines where dozens of mini-figure flippers and skis form the thruster casings. Head to Flickr via the link above to check out the complete gallery.