Monthly Archives: September 2022

E36

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BMWs have a weird lifecycle in TLCB’s home market. Mass-market Germanic greyness when new, they become increasingly popular with the scumbag portion of the population as their age increases and value drops.

During this phase many are poorly maintained, even more poorly modified, and then scrapped when something expensive inevitably breaks. But for the few that dodge the hands of the scumbags, a sunny future of classic status awaits.

The E36 3-Series is not yet at that point, but it’s not far off, making now the perfect time to buy. If you can find one that hasn’t been scumbagged of course.

Fuku Saku‘s BMW 3-Series E36 Coupe – with its big wing, bodykit and phat exhaust – is probably a car to steer well clear of in real life, but happily in brick form is rather excellent, and captures the E36 in its current usually-spotted state brilliantly.

A wealth of top-quality imagery is available to view, and you can check out Fuku’s E36 on Flickr via the link. Take a look whilst we trawl the ads to try and find one of the last remaining good ones.

Guardians of the Galaxie

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Like animals, space has proven a popular them for car names. Particularly at Ford, who have used Orion, Zodiac, Starliner, Comet, and Meteor, along with this; the Galaxie. Which is spelt wrong.

Although Ford corrected the spelling in 1995, we rather prefer the mis-spelt original, which IBrickedItUp has recreated beautifully in brick form. IBrickedIt’s Galaxie Hardtop captures Ford’s early-’60s full-size sedan wonderfully, building instructions are available, and there’s more to see at his photostream. Click the link above to baldly goo.

My Other Chevy’s a Chevy

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The brand new 10304 Chevrolet Camaro Z28 set is a fantastic addition to LEGO’s real-world vehicle line-up. But what if you prefer your Chevy’s a little more… trucky? Previous bloggee Tomáš Novák (aka PsychoWard666) has the answer, having converted his 10304 Camaro into this excellent mid-80s Chevrolet C10 pick-up, using only the parts from the official LEGO set.

Building instructions are available if you fancy having a go yourself, and there’s more to see of Tomáš’ classic Chevrolet B-Model at both his Flickr photostream and the Eurobricks forum. Click the links above to swap one Chevy for another.

The Most Expensive Car in the World…

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…can now be yours! The Ferrari 250 GTO is today worth approximately $70 million. That’s the equivalent to the entire annual value of smallest economy in the world (Tuvalu), 3,500 new Toyota Corollas, 1/3 of a Zlatan Ibrahimovic, or 1/35th of an Elon Musk. Which puts it slightly out of reach even for us here at The Lego Car Blog.

Flickr’s barneius can help though, having built this most excellent 314-piece Speed Champions recreation of the world’s most valuable car, and made building instructions available too, so you can create it for yourself. Click the link above to pretend you’ve got more money than Tuvalu.

Elf.

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The Elf. Green, weird looking, and rather small. Of course we had to publish this one.

First produced in 1959 and still sold today, Isuzu’s Elf light truck has seen six generations, been built in over twenty manufacturing facilities, and worn a multitude of badges on its nose, including Chevrolet, Nissan, Mazda, Hino, GMC and Bedford.

This is the first, as built from 1959 to 1968, and recreated here beautifully by regular bloggee 1saac W. 1saac’s model wears the marks of its life wonderfully (much like our own Elves), and there’s more of it to see at his photostream via the link above. Take a look whilst we award an extra Smartie to the Elf that found it.

Big Wheel Keep on Turnin’*

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“That’s not a car” we hear you thinking to yourselves. Er, well no, it isn’t. But it is probably one of the few vehicles on earth that – along with the Cozy Coupe Coupe – almost all of us have had a go driving. The primary coloured ‘Big Wheel’ tricycle is the shared beginning for countless lifetimes of automotive journeying, and Jacob sadovich‘s Lego recreation is so perfect we can almost hear the trundling of the wheels and feel the knee strain in getting it up the driveway. Go for a pedal at Jacob’s photostream via the link above – It may have been decades, but we bet you already know exactly how it drives.

*Today’s title song.

Suzuki’s Peak

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If you’re of a certain age (like this TLCB Writer) then you will absolutely know this car.

Playstation’s Gran Turismo 2 ruled racing games in the late ’90s. Populated with all manner of awesome mostly-Japanese cars from the county’s car-building zenith, pixilated racing glory could be yours at the wheel of an Impreza, a Skyline GT-R, a Supra, an RX-7, or a multitude of other machinery.

Of course you had to work your way up through a soup of crappy Suzukis and Daihatsus to get to the good stuff, but even they had some late ’90s monsters available in digital form. OK, Daihatsu didn’t, but Suzuki did; the mighty Escudo Pikes Peak.

Based on the humble Vitara (although it resembled the Vitara about as much as this TLCB Writer does Ryan Reynolds), the Escudo Pikes Peak produced almost 1,000bhp from a mid-mounted bi-turbo V6, and could do o-60mph in 3.5 seconds. On gravel.

Built for one race (the Pikes Peak…), the Suzuki Escudo won the 1995 event in the hands Nobuhiro Tajima, before he returned in the mid-’00s to win a further six consecutive Pike Peaks with Suzuki, by which time the Escudo was already a legend with an entire generation of Playstation owners.

This instantly recognisable Speed Champions homage to the iconic Gran Turismo 2 star and Suzuki outlier comes from Sergio Batista, with custom decals and bespoke wheels maximising the realism (far beyond what 1999 gaming graphics could manage…).

Building instructions are available and you can re-live your youth at Sergio’s photostream via the link above.