This year’s MOC Olympics are already into their third round, over on MOCpages. TLCB Elves don’t often look at the listings for this competition, as despite being packed with loads of creative builds, the MOC Olympics don’t produce many cars. Our hungry Elves were initially attracted by the modular cafe which headlines this MOC but were then delighted to find two cars, which meant that they got two meal tickets to spend.
Matt Rowntree’s challenge was to build a Back to the Future Lego set and he chose to avoid the obvious DeLorean and go for the scene at the diner, along with the two vehicles. First up is Biff’s ’46 Ford Super DeLuxe Convertible, with its sculpted front end, typical of that era. The second vehicle is D. Jones’ manure truck, complete with working tipper function so that it can fill Biff’s car. You can see more of the cars, plus the cafe and the mighty wurlizter jukebox by clicking this link to MOCpages.
It might be well into Ma.Ktober but here at The Lego Car Blog, we’re still not sure what that is. One of the Elves thinks that it has something to do with October being rainy and people needing coats but we’re not convinced. In the meantime, a crew of Elves has just dragged this late entry to SHIPtember up the stairs to our penthouse office. It’s the work of Crimso Giger on Flickr, who is well-known for his colourful sci-fi builds. We think that he’s outdone himself here in creating this 132 stud long, dazzling monster.
The appropriately named “Morning Glory”, seems to have a certain gravitas to it, despite being a feast of red, yellow and black patterns. This deep-space ship features brick-built wings and loads of greebling in all three of its colours. We post photos at a maximum of 500 wide on TLCB, so it’s well worth clicking this link to the Flickr page to take it all in. If you’re a bit overwhelmed by this SHIP (the Elves who delivered it to us nearly were) then relax your eyes with a spacecraft, in the very unusual colour of green, by the same builder. The Elves liked Crimso’s “Soyuz 2267” because it reminded them of the “Starbug” from Red Dwarf, which is a treat for them to watch if they’ve worked VERY hard. Click this link to its Flickr page, to see more.
This year has seen a new month added to Lego builders’ calendars on Flickr: SHIPtember. A SHIP is a Seriously Huge Investment in Parts and is typically over 100 studs in length. Builders from all over the world have been posting photos of both WIPs and completed projects, which are generally long and thin. Dover (Drew) has chosen to take a sideways look at the theme, literally, and produced this 101 stud wide Bubble Fighter.
The spacecraft is based on one flown by Matt LeBlanc in the 1998 film of “Lost in Space“. It has a pistol grip handle to hold when swooshing it and rotating wings too. There’s also some nice parts usage, with the Christmas decoration cockpit and especially the real teeth in the markings on the wings. The Elf who discovered this MOC is still a bit upset by the big, pointy fangs. Please don’t be scared to check more photos of this colourful spacecraft by clicking this link to its Flickr page.
This massive earthmover is described as a “Super Dozer” on its manufacturers website. The real-life version has a giant, 90 cubic yard blade, enough to carry all of the TLCB Elves and a few of their friends. Jorge Garcia’s Lego version is no less impressive. This yellow Technic monster contains 5 motors, a linear actuator and a plethora of pneumatics to make its functions work. All of this is covered with a realistic version of the D575’s bodywork and travels on some brilliant custom-built tracks, based on a design by mahjqa. You can dig it by clicking this link to the D575’s MOCpages listing.
The Elves were delighted to find this Lego version of a 1970’s Matchbox K111 Rocket Launcher on MOCpages. Their tiny, claw-like fingers were soon opening up all of its various hatches and doors to fiddle with the working features, and missiles quickly started flying from the hidden launcher in the back of the truck. It’s all fun and games until some Elf loses an eye, so Andy L’s vehicle was swiftly confiscated.
The TLCB staff appreciated the HoG steering, via the spare tyre on the back and the technical achievement of making the missile launcher pop out of the truck. It also reminded us of childhood days, wearing flares and tank-tops, and trying to fit Lego cars down a Streakloop. You can enjoy the nostalgia and see more of the working features at the K111’s MOCpages listing by clicking the link.
This WWII vintage M3 Halftrack is the work of Swedish builder =DoNe= (a.k.a. Viktor). The Elves were attracted to it as, despite it only being seven studs wide, there was loads of room in the front to drive it and even more space to climb in the back and play with the machine gun. We at TLCB Towers liked this MOC because of the neat techniques that Viktor has used to get the shape right for the front of the vehicle. The use of plates with clips to make the mudguards and radiator grille works very well. There’s also some nice parts usage in the running gear inside the tracks and the Technic pins in the windscreen frame. You can see more details of this build by clicking this link to its MOCpages listing. In the meantime, can anybody lend The Lego Car Blog some scissors? An Elf has got tangled in the Halftrack’s working winch and we’re going to have to cut him out…
Ever since they ripped open the delivery bag and saw the cover art on the 31006 Highway Speedster, the Elves have been playing the Miami Vice title music. Fortunately it’s on a TV Tunes of the Eighties playlist and we get to enjoy the Airwolf theme every now and again. Sharp little fingernails had soon ripped open the four bags of parts, eager to be zooming their white Ferrari lookalike across the floor and handbrake turning it on the tiles of the TLCB executive washroom & sauna. Once we’d helped the Elves rescue the tyres from under the TLCB deluxe minibar, they set to work on the 61 stages of the main build. As with the 31005 Construction Hauler this might seem like a lot of stages but this set’s starting age is just 7 years old and so the number of steps is understandable. Having said this, Step 61 is to turn the car the right way up, which even the Elves managed without getting too confused.
All three builds in this set follow a basic, studs up configuration, with some touches of SNOT work. The chassis for each of the models are two 16 stud, old-school Technic beams and the car gradually builds up using an impressive selection of slopes, curves and cheeses. The rear end has the most SNOT with a nice, Ferrari style lighting bar and a lifting glass cover for the engine. Disappointingly, the engine is perhaps the weakest part of the build, being made from just six 1×1 round plates and a couple of 1×2 grille tiles. There’s space for a lot more and it’s a great opportunity to do a bit creative building. The Elves got very excited at step 44, with the addition of a 1×1 round tile in trans-red. This sits inside the air scoop on the bonnet, almost like KITT’s sensor, which provoked a change of 80’s theme music for a while. Further steps build and attach the working, supercar style scissor doors and more body trim on the front of the car. This includes a neat front light cluster, which uses minifigure brackets for some SNOT. Surprisingly the wing mirrors aren’t colour co-ordinated with the rest of the bodywork, something of an omission for an expensive looking supercar. The glass roof neatly seals onto the windscreen, though the cockpit is hard to see into. This is no bad thing, as it is very sparsely furnished. Once the wheels are added, you’re left with a 10 wide by 22 long sports car. The build quality is well up to sustaining the odd crash into a skirting board or tumble from a table. The axles through the chassis (as opposed to clipped-on wheels) and low centre of gravity, give great performance for zooming across carpets in a straight line. The Elves managed runs of over 7 metres along the TLCB decking.
As with other sets in the Creator series, this set comes complete with an instruction book for each of the three builds. This will be a relief to parents and Elf keepers alike, as they’re spared the task of having to download and print instructions from Lego’s website. It’s a horrible sight to see an over-curious Elf dragged into the giant TLCB Lego instructions printer and rolled out flat on the other side. Apart from the waste of paper, it takes forever to get the pipe into their mouths to pump them up again.
The second build is a 16×8 tow truck. Again, this is a mainly conventional, solid Lego construction. A nice bit of SNOT work converts the sports car’s low profile windscreen into a flatter screen on the truck and clips it on quite neatly. The crane moves, pivoting on the back axle and friction pins. A few more parts could have added something more than the little tow hook but this set already has loads of parts for the price. The third build is a Lotus 7 type, front engined roadster. In common with the other models, this car is solidly built for zooming across floors, using conventional techniques with a bit of SNOT on the side.
This set provides good value for money. Its 286 parts currently retail in the UK for around £12.00 or $22.00 in the USA. For the same price, you get just 113 parts in the 79005 Wizard Battle set from the Lord of the Rings range. The set also includes some fairly rare parts. There are two of the white 93273 1x4x2/3 plate with bow, which currently sell on Bricklink for US $0.30 each and aren’t available from a UK vendor. A down side of all of the Creator series for younger builders might be the lack of minifigures. As we noted in the review of 31005, licensed sets are often minifigure rich but lacking in basic bricks with which to be creative and build your own creations. The 31006 Highway Speedster is a great source of a good variety of white bricks to help supplement any Lego collection.
With its value for money, variety of parts and three different alternative builds, 31006 is a great set for the young or old builder. It rates a 9/10 for value & contents and perhaps just an 8/10 for style because of the lack of detail in the engine bay of the main build.
If you’d like to see the complete catalogue of The Lego Car Blog’s set reviews simply click on the ‘Reviews’ tab in the menu.
When the weather is very, very bad we have to keep the Elves locked up at TLCB Towers in case they blow away. To prevent fights from breaking out we have to find ways of entertaining them and drawing pictures of cars is a natural favourite. There are also prizes of green Smarties (they’re the best kind) for the best efforts. You can therefore imagine the delighted grin on the face of the Elf who came into the office this morning, clutching handfuls of brightly coloured artwork of Lego cars and spaceships. Unfortunately for him, we quickly spotted the signatures of Polish brothers Marcin and Przemek Surma and so he was rewarded with a sharp blast from the airhorn.
The Surma brothers have been posting their colourful re-interpretations of classic Lego sets on their blog since January 2012. They have sustained an impressive rate of one a week. Marcin (Xulm) and Przemek’s (Surpiko) work covers two decades, with Xulm mainly covering the ’90s and Surpiko mostly doing the ’80s. Their art is a wonderful way to revisit the Lego of your childhood and see it through new eyes. Perhaps you might spot something that you missed the first time round, such as the beautiful ladies of Classic Space, as in Surpiko’s version of the 6870 Space Probe Launcher below. We bet you thought that they were all blokes! Younger builders will find inspiration in the fantasy shapes and colours too. Whatever your age, this fun and creative blog is well worth visiting at this link. The Elves have been busy printing out more pictures and sticking them to the fridge with magnets, along with their cheating colleague. Don’t worry: we’ll let him down before bedtime.
This is a different type of big rig from the ones that we normally feature on TLCB. A very tired Elf carried this 100kg creation up 27 floors to the penthouse office at TLCB towers this morning. After rewarding him with a nautical blue Smartie (they’re the best kind), we settled down to take in the details of this build. Mario Fabrio’s rig is over a metre square and is 1.6m tall. As with many builds of this size, a lot of the fun comes from zooming in on the photos and spotting all of the details and little scenes that the creator has included. As this blog’s mission is to feature vehicles, we should mention that the rig has four mini-fig scale lifeboats and a helicopter, all ready to launch. There are also plenty of workers scattered around the platform, as Mario says that they are just finishing a major repair job. Some of them are enjoying some time off, fishing from the lower decks.
You can enjoy spotting even more details on Mario’s MOCpage by clicking the link.
P.S. If anyone can recommend a specialist Elf osteopath or chiropractor, we’d be very grateful.
In contrast to Doc Brown’s Technic Ford Tudor, which we featured yesterday, comes 1saac W.’s tiny Model A hot rod, also from 1932. You can see more of Issac’s cars, including his Dodge Polara Police car which we featured recently, on his Flickr photostream.
In the meantime some of the Elves have been looking a bit malnourished recently. The doctors suggested more oranges in their diet, so here’s the result. This mini monster truck is the work of LEGOLIZE IT MAN, on Flickr, who’s better known for his stylish spacecraft, with accompanying concept artwork. As well as a colour scheme and graphics similar to some of his spaceships, this little car features multiple stud angles and a pair of lightsabers as axles, attached to a chunky propshaft. See more at the link.
After the success of Tuesday’s titles, we couldn’t think of a better name for this post featuring Gabor Horvath’s “Tow Truck from Johnny English”. As well as being a good representation of a Metropolitan Police Vehicle Removal Unit lorry, this build has a high degree of “workingness”. Everything is remote controlled, including the speed, steering and outrigger legs. Once you’re in position, you can rotate and extend the crane’s arm to hook up that illegally parked car. You can see more photos and technical design details on Gabor’s MOCpages page or his Flickr photostream. Gabor shows off his truck’s functions in this nicely humourous video, complete with some custom built figures.
We don’t often feature virtual Lego creations at The Lego Car Blog. The Elves can be a picky bunch and usually prefer something more solid; something that they can really get their teeth into. We’ve tried to train them not to bite but you have been warned!
The 5th July 2013 saw the first birthday of LDD to POV-Ray Convertor. This software created a user friendly method to convert well-built and interesting virtual MOCs into images which look good too. These images can then be processed in Photoshop or GIMP, just like photographs of real bricks. Over the last twelve months builders have refined their choices of settings, achieving increasingly realistic results, and in this Special we’ll showcase some of the best digital creations and builders around today.
Peter Blackert (lego911) has been extremely busy this month, publishing over 100 images on his Flickr photostream. His stylishly curved and chromed 1961 Dodge Polara, complete with a stylishly curved driver, features at the top of this post. Being made in LDD allows this car to be built in a colour which would be hard (or impossible?) to use in real bricks. Amongst the Cadillacs, Fords, Mercedes and combine harvesters that he has recently posted, is an Alfa Romeo Giulia in full Carabineri livery. These were the standard Italian police car of the 1960’s and feature in the “Italian Job” chases. Peter mentions this being part of his motivation to build this car. Continue reading
There is a generation for whom a tumbler will always be something from which to sip a single malt. Clayton Marchetti has posted this 1960’s classic over on MOCpages. The car features a jet engine under its hood, chromed missile launcher tubes and a fire extinguisher (or is it a big cannister of shark-repellent?) in the cabin. This mini-fig scale creation uses conventional, studs-up building techniques but still manages to capture the complicated shaping at the front of the vehicle, which was originally built by the Ghia workshop in the mid-fifties.
Please remember never to offer any passing TLCB Elf a tot of whisky: even if it’s a cold, snowy night and the Elf is looking particularly bedraggled. Alcohol goes straight to their heads and they fall asleep in the dungeons of castle MOCs.
A lot of modern Lego is focused on licensed products. These sets can be a great way of introducing children to the fun of building something from Lego. Unfortunately there are normally instructions for just one model, which often isn’t rebuilt into anything else. If you’re looking for old-style models, built from lots of bricks and with alternative models, then the Creator sets are for you.
One of the elves’ favourite Creator sets is the 31005 Construction Hauler. They’ve been clambering onto the desk at TLCB towers to play with it, when they should be out scouring the internet for MOCs. Elves have been busily driving the low-loader around and then using the digger to shovel paperclips about. Sadly, an elf has also been seen wearing one of the traffic cones on his head.
The first thing to be built is the cute little JCB-type digger. With a fully articulated backhoe and front loader, this small vehicle has lots of play potential and would be a great pocket money set in its own right. Unfortunately it has the weakest bit of design of any of the builds. The backhoe is attached via a 2×1 hook plate, which might not withstand the pulling and pushing of vigorous play.
The Tractor unit takes 32 pages of instructions to build and is packed with lots of lovely little details, such as wing mirrors, fuel tanks, sun visor, air-horns, lights and side mounted wind deflectors. Not bad for a 4-wide which is about 11 studs long and a great way to get young builders thinking about the sort of details that they could include in their MOCs. The finished unit feels solid in the hand and is sturdy enough to be zoomed across carpets or off the edge of desks… Continue reading
