Monthly Archives: April 2021

Heavy Metal

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This is some heavy metal. The Ural 43206 features the usual terrible Soviet name, but otherwise it’s a most excellent heavy-duty off-road truck.

This Model Team recreation of the Ural 43206 is equally excellent, and it comes from previous bloggee Krzysztof Cytacki (aka dirtzonemaster).

Featuring a full remote control drivetrain, Krysztof’s model deploys two XL Motors to drive all four wheels, with impressive suspension on both axles, and a Power Functions IR receiver mounted in the cab.

Of course as anyone who’s put XL Motor torque through a LEGO UV-joint will know, off-roading with a driveline made from plastic can cause a few issues, usually in the form of a UV-joint exploding.

This isn’t something that will afflict Krzysztof’s Ural however, as he’s replaced the LEGO UV-joints in his model with custom metal ones, allowing for proper off-road ability.

A canvas load cover, opening tailgate, and detailed cab complete the build, and there’s more to see of Krzysztof’s metal-enhanced Ural 43206 off-road truck at both Flickr and via the video below, which includes a suitably metallic soundtrack. Click the links to take a look!

YouTube Video

Bookstore Cafe

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Ah, the cafe in the bookstore; the place to go to meet attractive hipster girls whilst trying to look intelligent. “Yes I did enjoy ‘Infinite Jest’, although I found it strayed towards a wandering narrative in places… Can I buy you a coffee?”

Cue seb71‘s ‘cafe racer’ style motorcycle, which is pictured here on its own but forms part of some rather lovely bookends (see, it all makes sense).

Built for a challenge on a French forum (which if he isn’t French makes this so hipster it hurts), Seb’s motorcycle captures the ‘cafe racer’ style superbly, and there’s more to see of both it and the bookends of which it is part on Flickr.

Click the link above to take a look, and if you’re reading this in a bookstore cafe you can pretend you’re exploring the romanticism of classical transportation in France if you’re asked, before buying that attractive hipster girl a coffee.

Champagne Chevy Nova*

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We like rusty cars here at The Lego Car Blog. The staff car park features several. Although in those cases the rust is due to neglect, age, and general decrepitness rather than some kind of rat-rod based badassery.

So too is Tim Henderson’s ‘barn find’ ’68 Chevy Nova, although unlike the office Rover 200 it somehow manages to look seriously cool as well as neglected, old, and decrepit.

A cunning deployment of mini-figure seats form the doors, an array of browns convey years of oxidisation, and there’s more of Tim’s ‘barn find’ Nova to see at his photostream here.

*Today’s magnificent title song.

Whirligigs & Thingamabobs

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Things (amongst many) that TLCB staff are not very good at; Fashion. Displays of emotion. Star Wars. Snack self-control. Reality television. Construction machinery.

Cue TLCB Regular Damian Z (aka Thietmaier), and some construction machinery. Sigh.

This is, apparently, a DitchWitch RT75 trencher/cable plowing machine, but if we were told it was a spaghetti extractor we’d probably have believed it. However it is also absolutely excellent, being constructed superbly from an array of ingenious building techniques with Damian’s trademark amazing attention to detail.

Fortunately for this TLCB Writer there’s also a wonderfully realistic Mercedes-Benz Unimog U1250 truck and trailer to accompany it, and all three are packed with lifelike detailing and playable functions that belie their small scale.

There’s much more to see of Damian’s WitchDitch RT75, Unimog U1250, and cable-reel trailer on Flickr via the link above, plus you can check out a previous construction machine of his about which we also know nothing by clicking here.

Man-ic Monday

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From the world’s biggest land vehicle to one of the littlest, and the official World Record holder for the smallest road-legal production car ever made.

The Peel P50 was built for just a few years in the early 1960s, capitalising on the demand for small cheap cars that could be driven on a motorcycle license. A few companies made a great success from this need, albeit not for ever, Peel… didn’t.

Ingenious though the P50 was, a car with 28mph top speed designed for city use, but coming from the Isle of Man (a small mostly rural island off the coast of England with no cities) had (very) limited appeal, and just fifty units were produced.

Around half survive today, and they’re worth a ridiculous amount of money, with one recently fetching $176,000 at auction.

Cue John Carpenter of Eurobricks, who has built one that’s far more attainable, and it’s not even that much smaller than the real thing!

There’s working steering, suspension front and rear, an authentic single-cylinder engine driven by the rear wheel, an opening and locking door, and even a working handbrake.

There’s lots more to see of John’s Peel P50 at the Eurobricks forum, including build details and a video of the working functions in action. Head to the Isle of Man c1964 via the link above! (Just be prepared for the villagers to point and laugh.)

Towering Inferno

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This is the NASA ‘Launch Umbilical Tower’, designed to send the world’s most powerful machine – the Saturn V rocket – into space, and carried by the world’s heaviest land vehicle.

LEGO’s enormous 92176 NASA Saturn V set has allowed space fans to conduct their own bedroom-based lunar missions, but the ‘blast-off’ bit (in this writer’s opinion, the coolest bit) requires a few additional accessories not supplied by LEGO…

Fortunately Janotechnic of Eurobricks – here making his TLCB debut – has the answer, not only building this incredible 1:110 scale Technic Nasa Crawler and Launch Umbilical Tower, but doing so from three official LEGO Technic sets; the 42055 Bucket Wheel Excavator, the 42082 Rough Terrain Crane, and the 42098 Car Transporter.

That expansive parts supply has enabled Jano to equip his B-B-B-Model with a huge array of motorised functions, including drive and steering, crane rotation, retractable support swing-arms, and even a working lift within the tower!

It’s an incredible creation and one that (in simplified form below) you can build for yourself, as building instructions are available. There’s more of Jano’s amazing NASA Crawler and Tower to see – including a video of the model’s motorised and mechanical functions – at the Eurobricks forum. Click the link above and prepare to blast-off!

Contain This

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Most of what’s around you (unless you’re reading this on your phone in a field) got to where it is via a shipping container. They might just be big metal boxes, but the entire global economy hinges on their transportation (cue headlines when said transportation stops). This Detroit Diesel-powered Skoda Xena is pulling two such monuments to global capitalism, which Martin Nespor has recreated brilliantly in brick form. A neat three-axle trailer with lifting axles and an extending rear overhang follows the Skoda, which itself features Power Functions and SBrick bluetooth remote control. Excellent custom decals complete the build and there’s more to see at Martin’s ‘Container Semi-Trailer’ album on Flickr; click here to take a look.

Modular Building

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LEGO’s brilliant line-up of modular buildings have been a roaring success, but they’re not really TLCB fodder. This awesome Neo-Classic Space ‘T-ATV’ by Flickr’s SweStar is though, and it’s ‘modular building’ too. Sort of.

A superb tracked chassis can carry an assortment of spacey things atop it, including a cabin that doubles as a spaceship, a pair of containers for important spacey-looking devices, and there’s even a mini-figure jet-suit arrangement concealed in the back!

Each module can stand alone as a thoroughly good build, and add them all together and you have a model with such great playability that this TLCB Writer could happily spend an entire afternoon swooshing and tracking and doing other suitably spacey stuff with it.

Whilst he does that you can see more of SweStar’s brilliant build at his ‘T-ATV’ album on Flickr – click the link above for more modular building.

My Other Tracked Vehicle is an Excavator

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We’re not sure that this title really works as a bumper sticker, but as this snow groomer by Dyens Creations doesn’t have a bumper it’s moot anyway. Dyen’s creation is indeed constructed from another tracked vehicle though, being built entirely from the parts found within the Technic 42121 Heavy Duty Excavator set. There’s an adjustable elevating blade, a rotating and extending crane, and an attachable ice grinding thingumy too. Building instructions are available and there’s more of Dyen’s snow groomer B-Model to see on Flickr, at Eurobricks, and via the video below.

YouTube Video

Easter Bunny

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We often find it easy to forget the story of Easter (which is usually about a rabbit laying chocolate eggs or something), so here at The Lego Car Blog we’re publishing a mechanised bunny rabbit exo-suit. We’re not sure what that achieves. Anyway, there’s more to see of Simon Liu‘s ‘Bunnies Rise Up!’ on Flickr via the second link, or click the first for an alternative easter story featuring a rigged trial, murder, and with a major twist at the ending.

Panzer III

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Designed by Daimler-Benz, this the Panzer III Sd.Kfz 141, the German military’s primary medium battle tank built to take on the formidable Soviet T-34 during the Second World War. It was powered by a 300bhp Maybach V12 giving it a top speed of just over 20mph, which wasn’t fast (but then it did weigh around twenty-two tons), and it was armed with either a 37mm, 50mm, or 75mm gun, depending on specification.

Around 5,700 Panzer IIIs were built between 1939 and 1943, seeing service in Poland, the Soviet Union, France, North Africa, the Netherlands, and Italy – amongst other theatres of war. This superb Lego version of the Sd.Kfz 141 comes from previous bloggee Rebla, who has recreated the design brilliantly, including a rotating turret, elevating cannon, and a crew of custom mini-figures.

Rebla has presented his model beautifully too, and there’s more to see at his photostream – click the link above to make the jump to all the imagery.

Mini Mechanics

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The creations we feature here at The Lego Car Blog can – at times – become a bit ‘aesthetics over everything’. That’s entirely our fault, as we want images that look cool on a screen and that our readers want to share, but building with Lego is about much more than just that.

This Technic mini mobile crane by SaperPL is an example, as whilst it does look rather nice, its real beauty is in the proper mechanical engineering packed inside.

Despite its small size, SaperPL’s crane includes working steering on three axles, with the forth non-steered axle driving a little piston engine under the cab, extending stabiliser legs, and a crane boom that can rotate 360 degrees, elevate, extend and winch, all via hand-powered knobs and cogs.

It’s exactly what Technic should be about and it’s well worth your click, particularly as SaperPL has made free building instructions available, which earns him a hundred TLCB points.

There’s more to see at Eurobricks via the link above, plus you can watch all of the excellent mechanical features in action via the splendid video below.

YouTube Video

Black Horse

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There are two wonderful exceptions, but most non-red Ferraris are owned by horrible ‘influencer’ types, whose personalities are so vacuous the most interesting thing about them is the wrap on their car. Which usually looks ghastly.

Not so here though, as K MP‘s lightly modified Ferrari 458 Italia looks mega in black and gold, wearing a brick-built Vorsteiner bodykit which in real life looks pretty decent too.

Suggested by a reader there’s more to see of K MP’s Speed Champions Vortsteiner 458 on Flickr via the link, and if we’ve offended any influencer types reading this who’ve wrapped their car, sorry – but it probably does look ghastly.