Readers of a certain age (and this writer), will be whisked straight back to their childhoods by this brilliant Classic Space layout from Primoz Mlakar on Flickr. Promoz has captured in micro-scale the type of image that millions of children looked at in wonder during the early 1980s in catalogues such as this. Click the link in the text to view the individual ships and vehicles and enjoy the nostalgia.
This year’s Creations for Charity event continues apace. It’s a great opportunity to help do some good via the hobby of Lego building (like reading this blog). It’s also a great opportunity to buy some brilliant models, designed by some of the top Lego builders from around the world. One example is this Ford Model-A pick-up hot rod from TLCB regular Tim Henderson, one of two vehicles he has donated to year’s fundraiser. Click the links in the text to view them and buy them.
Dutch builder Johnni D’s Photostream is home to some great, small Lego cars. Recently it’s been filling up with comic style, 4-wide hot rods of all sorts of shapes. There are over 120 at the time of writing. They range from rat-rods (above) to custom Transit vans (below), via hatchbacks, campers and pick-ups. It’s well worth clicking this link to enjoy the variety of these builds.
Unijob Lindo’s Photostream is full of strange, amusing things; just like our Elvish workforce. It includes a tank driven by parrots and these vehicles, which are charming in a violent way; just like our Elvish workforce. Fortunately for us, these are small scale models, rather than Technic Power Functions and so the only noises in our office today were Elvish giggles and the sound of pointy teeth gnashing on red and yellow Smarties.
…to paraphrase Obi Wan Kenobi. Marc R.unde has produced this 6-wide Ferrari 275 GTB. It recalls a more elegant age of sports cars, with its flowing lines. Click this link to see more photos of this car and Marc’s massive space-battleships, by way of contrast, on Flickr.
We love a good crane here at The Lego Car Blog. After supercars, cranes are one of the types of model that we seem to blog the most. Be they teeny tiny or monstrous, cranes are a favourite topic. Today’s crane comes from TLCB regular Galaktek. Many of the working features that you’d expect to see in a big Technic MOC have been included in this elegant 4-wide model. It also comes with its own back-up truck, which you can see in Galaktek’s Photostream.
Whilst most of the sci-fi Lego world has been focused on building massive SHIPs for SHIPtember or trying to come to terms with the perpetually enigmatic Ma.Ktober, Tim Henderson has taken his own path with the “Swan“. Tim says that it’s the biggest spacecraft that he’s built but it stills looks a nice size to take for a swoooosh. Added to this are plenty of opening hatches and play features. The ship looks to be a great toy, as well as being good to look at. As its origins are in the Corellian shipyards of Star Wars, that will keep another cohort of spacers happy too. What’s not to like? Click this link to enjoy the comprehensive back story and greebles on Flickr.
In the meantime, at the other end of the size scale, is “Lord Cockswain’s Endangerer”. Worth blogging for the name alone, it’s a nice example of economic micro-scale building. Grantmasters is the builder and here’s the link to his Photostream.
When a scorched & smouldering Elf staggered back from Flickr with this magnificent flying machine we immediately kicked him straight back out of The Lego Car Blog offices. Sadly, we weren’t quite fast enough and the smoke detectors triggered the sprinkler system. We’ve spent the rest of the morning hiring an industrial dehumidifier and hanging 169¾ Elves out on the washing line. This looks quite pretty and is really rather decorative. We might just leave them there. Then we got quite excited, as we thought that we’d never blogged a hot air balloon before. It turns that we have, but we have blogged a lot of stuff since the start in November 2011.
This particular balloon was built by Pete Strege. It’s a brilliant assemblage of all shapes and sizes of plain, angled and curved plates. The neat way that the basket is attached is obvious from the photos but not so much the internal structure of the balloon itself. Follow the link in the text and see if you can zoom in to the detail and figure it out.
TLCB regular Senator Chinchilla returns with this classic hot rod. Apparently, “There’s no replacement for displacement” and in this case the giant engine has displaced the bonnet* from the car’s body. Speaking of which, the engine catches the eye but there are some nice curves at the rear too. Click this link to the Senator’s Photostream to see more of this car and video of his working V12 Lego pneumatics motor, which sadly won’t fit in this car.
*translation = “hood”
The Flying Dutchman is a ship that has been condemned to wander the oceans for all eternity. It’s origins lie centuries ago and it has been celebrated in plays, films and operas. Now it has been created in Lego bricks too.
This particular version has been built by W. Navarre on Flickr. The hull looks just as worn and battered as wooden ship should look like after years at sea. It also features a nice balcony for the captain at the stern. Click the link in the text to see the ragged, brick-built sails in more detail and hope this never crosses your bows.
Come with us on a journey as we review the cheapest set that The Lego Car Blog has ever examined. We thought that we’d have a change from the big Technic sets that usually feature here. At £3.49 (30% off) from amazon will our purchase prove to be value for money? How will it rate for fun and playability? Will the Elves eat most of the 64 pieces before we can use them? Read on…
Packaged in LEGO’s usual bright and attractive box, 31041 scores over a large Technic set by only requiring a strong thumb to open its cardboard tab. None of that cutting or ripping sticky tabs here. Collectors will obviously want to cut the packaging open with a sharp knife in order to preserve its collectability, in a manner similar to this video. A recurring theme of our reviews is the need for parts to come in numbered bags in order to reduce confusion & sorting and to help make building more pleasurable. Sadly the bag of parts is not numbered, possible as there is only one. On the up side, a quick flick through the 32 page instruction book reveals that it contains instructions for all three models. As we’ve mentioned in other reviews, it would be great it if LEGO did this for their big, expensive Technic sets too. At the moment, builders having to traipse off to Lego.com and download PDF files.
Moving on to the build, the headline model is rapidly built in 14 pages. The construction is the conventional, studs up type. There’s nice use of commonplace bricks, such as 1×1 round bricks and headlight bricks with 1×1 round plates to give the detailing. There’s also the neat use of a 1×2 tile, at the centre of the model, which will make it easier for children to take apart and re-build (which is what LEGO is supposed to be for!). The backhoe is a conventional bit of building too but the front bucket and its arms, are a good example of economical use of parts to good effect.
Builders young and old can learn quite a bit from this tiny model. As with short stories when compared with novels, micro-scale builds force modellers to consider each and every brick carefully. With model completed, you’re left with a spare 1×1 trans-orange round plate, a dark grey clip arm and three 1×1 light grey round plates to shovel around.
In terms of functionality, this is a strong build, which rolls well across a floor or table. Sadly it suffers from the usual problem in LEGO vehicles of having poor Ackerman steering geometry. This is probably due to it having no steering but let’s skate over that one. Both buckets are firmly attached to the body of the tractor and have good ranges of movement. It’s a bit tricky to keep the grey plates on the front bucket, though this can be improved by swapping the corner pieces from the backhoe with on of the 1×2 edge pieces. Overall the model is fun and nice proportioned. It would be great if it had different diameter tyres, fore & aft, like a JCB but that would reduce the flexibility for making other models.
The other two vehicles are strong and fun to build and play with too. The dumper is a particularly nice little model. The way that the rear skip hinges is neatly and interestingly done.
This set is a great little parts pack, with most of the pieces in standard LEGO colours such as black, yellow and grey. There are four, yellow 1×2 curved bricks amongst other useful stuff. It’s also a brilliant, cheap bit of fun for the younger builder in your household: a great addition to that order for the 42055 that you’re buying for yourself (yes, we know, those big yellow rings are essential for your next MOC and it’s the only way to get hold of them). At this price, you could buy three 31041s and build one of each vehicle to use together in a diorama (obviously you wouldn’t be playing with them). Go on, make that investment!
It’s been a fairly calm week at The Lego Car Blog Towers. You can therefore imagine our dismay, as we stumbled down the steps into our luxury penthouse editorial suite and found smushed Elves embedded in the Axminster. It could only mean one thing: the Elves had found a Technic Power Functions model.
This particular creation was discovered on MOCpages. It’s been built by Piotr K and features working 6×6 drive, suspension and gears. Weighing just over 2.5kg, it’s slightly lighter than the 1950s original. Sadly that weight of bricks can smush even the largest of our workforce. Whilst we’re cleaning up, click this link to MOCpages to see more photos and a video of the machine in action.
According to a theory set out in 1929, everybody in the world is just 6 friendship links away from everybody else. This puts the all of world’s population worryingly close to every one of the 257½ TLCB Elves. Perhaps it’s time to equip yourself with your own version of Mr. Airhorn?
In the meantime, Flickr’s F@bz has found something to do with the brick separators which seem to come with every Lego set nowadays. He’s used no less the 56 of them to make the hull of his Altura 2nd spaceship. Some of them came from his Juuken SHIP, which we featured in our SHIPtember 2015 Review. Click the link in the text to see more of this unusual craft.
Okay, we’re muddling up our Gerry Anderson TV series in the title but then we’ve been a bit muddled with our approach to this MOC. When the TLCB Elves first saw this smoothly built, neatly photographed car on MOCpages they thought that it was one of Dave Slater’s LDD creations. As such, it wouldn’t meet our Submissions Guidelines. MOCpages can mangle images at times. Fortunately the Elves discovered some better quality pictures on Dave’s Flickr Photostream and so it was yellow Smarties all round! This 2015 Stingray complements the 1969 version from the same builder, which we blogged two years ago. Click the link in the text to see more views, the opening doors and the two cars together.
Apparently this futuristic artic tractor unit is a taxi. Whatever its function, it’s well worth visiting its creator’s Flickr Photostream to see more details and play features. The builder goes by the name of Gray Mini, though we can’t spot that particular vehicle amongst his models.
