Author Archives: Dr Asp Menace

A Clockwork Elf – 42034 Quad Bike – Set Review

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42034_Quad-Bike_01

What could be more fun than a hoard of The Lego Car Blog Elves, balanced on top of a careering vehicle, powered by a large, metal spring? For just £17.99 for 148 pieces from our local toy shop, we decided to find out!

Opening the box revealed two bags of Lego parts and a pull-back motor plus four tyres packed loose. As usual, the tyres rolled off under the TLCB office champagne cooler and had to be retrieved by a skinny Elf. The sticker sheet was also packed loose, resulting in the usual slight crumples (come on Lego put them in a bag with some cardboard!). Lastly, came the 60 page instruction book, which thankfully no longer features the terrifying, screaming child on its back cover. Why was he so angry?

60 pages of instructions, might seem a bit over the top but remember that this model is at the “fun” end of the Technic range and aimed at builders from 7 to 14 years old. That said, some of the steps did seem a bit small, such as adding two decorative bushes to the wheel axles in the final step. If you are ever in need of a mental challenge, go and build one of the big Technic sets from the early 1980s and you’ll be thankful for Lego’s modern day approach to instructions.

Disappointingly, there is no “B” model for this set. You can buy the other “Pull-Back” model in this year’s range (42033) and combine the two sets. However, that was too much of an investment for us as we weren’t sure if this model would survive the Elves “testing” regime for long enough to be re-combined.

Having distracted all 271 Elves in the office by giving them a Smartie to fight over, we started the build. The model starts with the chassis, in short rapid steps. By step 8, the pull-back motor is already fitted. For us, the motor was the exciting, interesting bit. How powerful would it be? How long would it last? How many Elves could we smush? Just 40 more pages and we’d be there…

The build continues in, what is now, traditional Technic style, strongly embedding the motor in a frame. Disappointingly there is no gearing in this model. It’s great introduction to Technic for younger builders but perhaps some gearing would have added to the educational value and interest? Maybe the motor wasn’t up to it? Just 35 more pages to go…

The decorative “engine” of this model is a two cylinder “V”. It’s neatly made from a 57585, 3 Branch Cross Axle and a pair of wheel hubs. The stickers start to come in at this point too. Applying them looked quite fiddly. We prefer to leave our pieces clean and ready for re-use in MOCs, so fortunately we skipped that part. The instructions now moved on to make the bodywork. Lego leave adding to wheels until the end of the build. How fast would our quad bike zoom?

Page 27 has a fiddly, combined axle and peg connection, with three things to go in. It’s a bit tricky and builders at the younger end of the age range will probably need a hand here. Page 30 adds an axle to the pull-back motor and the front axle too. It turns out the at the steering handle bars are just decorative. Perhaps a simple, friction based, steering could have added to the fun by allowing the quad bike to go in straight lines or in curves? It seemed quite hard to wind the motor up. Perhaps it would be easier once the wheels were on?

A few more steps, adding familiar Technic parts and panels (there were no exciting new components hidden in this build for the collector). Then it was time to add the wheels! Even though this model is aimed at younger builders, this took three whole pages of the instructions, which seemed a little excessive. The finished article is a nicely chunky, good looking, strong toy. It easily survived being dropped 30cm onto a table, thanks to its balloon tyres.

We loaded 13 and ¾ Elves onto the quad bike in the style of the White Helmets and started to wind up its motor. After four sets of easy 30cm pull backs, which stored a lot of energy in the spring, a ratchet cut in to stop it being over-wound and broken. The model easily covered the 6 metres across the TLCB executive sun deck, spraying Elves as it went. Fortunately it is light and has a strong front bumper built into it. Parents might want to guard some of their more delicate furniture.

To sum up. Value for money: perhaps not for the parts but you can buy this model online for a couple of pounds cheaper than we bought it in a shop. The palette is just black, yellow and grey, so the parts will easily combine with parts from your other Technic sets in MOCs. There are also two pairs of useful wheels, unlike the 42033 set. The model looks good, even without the stickers and is strong, fun and fast to play with. This is the model’s best point: it’s a fun introduction to the Technic style of building and a great toy to play with once it’s built.

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P.S. If you’re wondering what an Elf on a quad bike looks like, click this link.

Slick Ships!

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FW 190

“Variety is spice of life“, and here at The Lego Car Blog we like to add flavour to our diet of automotive builds with the occasional aeroplane, train, ship or spacecraft. Our Elvish workers hate variety. They much prefer a predictable diet of Lego, Smarties and violence: sometimes varying it in the form of violence, Smarties and Lego; or just violence served on its own.

First on today’s menu is Damien Labrousse’s “Space Wulf 190”. This sleek machine features a ventral fin almost as large as the one on top. Fortunately it folds neatly out of the way when the undercarriage deploys, allowing the ship to land safely.

Featured below is Chris Perron’s aggressively agile “Kronos” fighter. This features smoothly brick-built wings and some great trans-fluorescent details, which add some zing to the subtle, grey colours. You can see more of each ship by clicking the links in the text.

Kronos

Smashing Truck

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HW 01

The Homeworld strategy game burst onto the scene in late 1999. It soon gained a cult following, both for its game-play and its distinctive graphic design. Many of the ships were brightly patterned, reminiscent of designs from 1970s pulp book covers by the likes of Chris Foss and Peter Elson. The designs have inspired many Lego builders, most notably TLCB bloggee Pierre E Fieschi, who has built a variety of space and ground vehicles in this style.

Flickr’s curtydc has joined in the Homeworld inspired building with a micro-scale build of massive proportions. The Baserunner is a 6×6 truck, powered by two XL motors and steered using two M motors. Neatly tucked behind X-pod lids are 6 radio control car tyres. Although they’re not Lego, were very much appreciated by our Elves for their smushing potential. The rear of the vehicle features a hangar, with space for a fleet of micro-machines. You can see these in detail by clicking this link to curtydc’s Flickr Photostream.

HW 02

Arctic Roll

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Arctic 01

It’s Technic! It’s Power Functions! It’s Pneumatic! It can smush 17 Elves into The Lego Car Blog carpet in one go! We’re still scraping up and plumping up our flattened workers after some of their colleagues brought this giant machine into the office. It has the perfect blend of Lego features to excite our excitable workers.

Russian builder Desert752 Kirill’s land leviathan looks as though some of his countrymen have put one of their mighty ice-breaking ships onto tracks. Weighing in at 6.9kg, the handle-like gantry in the middle is actually a handle, so that the machine can be carried around. Click this link to MOCpages to see more of this beast, plus diagrams of the pneumatics and drive-train and lists of all of the PF gear that makes it function. There’s also a video of the Arctic Explorer in action.

Arctic 02

That Was Febrovery That Was

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Here at The Lego Car Blog, we pride ourselves on being a serious journal. We’ve chronicled and curated a high quality collection of Technic vehicles, Town & City minifig-scale machines and micro-scale builds. We would never demean ourselves with a photo feature on such a silly group as this year’s Febrovery. Oh, go on then: here’s a spaceman driving a giant caterpillar…

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Two of this year’s most prolific contributors to the group were Crimso Giger and TF Designs, both of whom produced a rover for each of the 28 days of the month. Featured above is Crimso’s “Caterpillar Rover” from day 23 and below is TF Designs’ “A.D.U. Rundown”. Each of TF designs’ vehicles was built from parts from Lego’s space themes from Classic Space to the present day.

ADU GTR

TLCB regular Billyburg’s style is ideally suited to the Febrovery theme and we featured one of his builds in our Valentine’s Day Special. Using many smaller pieces and slices of Lego tubing Billyburg produced a selection of rovers, featuring his trademark blue spaceman. The Elves particularly liked the playability of his Lunar R.O.V.E.R.

Billburg Soccer

The month also featured many impractical and dangerous designs from another TLCB bloggee, David Roberts. Fortunately these were all built in LDD and with nothing for the Elves to sink their teeth into, they didn’t meet our Submission Guidelines. Also in the useful but probably impractical category was Halfbeak’s CS Ravine Rover, apparently enabling spacemen to, “Cross that ditch without a hitch!”.

Halfbeak Canyon

We featured Tyler Sky’s very practical contribution to the Febrovery group almost a month ago. He went back in time, both to Classic Space and possibly to the Stone Age to create his Primitive Rover. A practical manual power back-up or a throw back to the Flintstones: you decide!

Primitive Rover

A newcomer to both Febrovery and The Lego Car Blog was French builder, Pirate Cox. We featured his charming, Morgan-like Rover #7 earlier in the month. The Elves also liked his Rover #5 monowheel, with its clever arrangement of cogs and control pedals for the driver.

PC Mono Wheel

Lastly, it’s worth mentioning another prolific builder of slightly silly space rovers, David Alexander Smith. He raised the intellectual tone of the month with a thoughtful and thought provoking article on his philosophical Lego blog, “Building Debates“. Visit the Febrovery Flickr group by clicking this link and see David Smith’s thesis in action that, “Lego builders do it best, when we do it together.”

On that high-brow, cultural note, it just remains for us to finish with another build from the man who started it all: Crimso Giger. Here’s a spaceman driving a giant snail.

Crimso Snail

Man With a Van

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red 01

Whilst many of our sci-fi oriented Elves are busy giggling at this year’s Febrovery creations, some of them are still scouring the rest of the internet. One Elf has just been rewarded with a shiny red Smartie for bringing back this pick-up truck. It’s the latest in Don Wilson’s series of flying vehicles, that has also included racing cars, speeders and a scrap metal lorry. Click this link to see more of Don’s models on Flickr.

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At Your Convenience

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CS-Bog

This year’s Febrovery is producing some wild flights of fancy, some strangely silly machines and even one or two practical bits of space surface transportation. Falling somewhere in between the very silly and very practical is Tyler Sky’s “Lunar Worksite Maintenance Bio-Break Rover”.

Naturally this appealed to the Elves’ sense of humour and has left them rolling around the floor in fits of smirking giggles for most of the day. We, of course, are mature, sophisticated bloggers and appreciate the build for its features. The double banked, rubber CS wheels; the greebly plumbing on the rear of the machine and the compactness of the cubicle. Click this link to see Tyler’s full width presentation, plus his other marvellous Febrovery machines.

Our Fine Four Fendered Friend

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Chitty 01

Okay, we admit it, the Elf Riot was our fault. It all started when we promised our pointy-eared workers a night off, watching a DVD. The story was based on a book by the man who wrote James Bond and the film features some explosions and a transforming car. What could go wrong?

The Elves settled down in expectation of seeing something with Megan Fox, fireballs, Megan Fox, Optimus Prime, Megan Fox… Well you get the idea. Dick van Dyke just didn’t cut it. The Elves who made it through the ensuing mutiny and endured 144 minutes of 1960s musical spectacular have been irredeemably scarred.*

Anyhow, relax and feast your eyes on Ralph Savelsberg’s latest creation in his series of vehicles from film and TV. Featuring detachable wings and a brick-built Caractacus Pott, this Lego version of the most expensive theatre prop of all time looks splendid on its vintage, 1970s wheels. Click the link in the text to see more photos of this car, including WIP shots and Ralph’s neat solution to building Chitty Chitty Bang Bang’s long exhaust pipe.

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*They’ve started to demand payment in Toot Sweets instead of Smarties.

Mean Machine

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Pirate 01

This Pro Street Racer is the work of piratecox on Flickr. It features all of the chrome and giant fins that you’d hope to find find on a 50s or 60s automobile. It also sports the obligatory hot-rod custom exhausts and an engine so large that the driver can’t actually see where he’s going. The car also has an instrument panel made from coffee cups and a mean looking driver.

Whilst the Elves were passing through piratecox’s Photostream, they collected the first of this year’s Febrovery builds to be blogged here. Many Rebrovery builds feature multiple wheels but this rather nice Classic Space motorbike has just the usual two. Click the links in text to see more.

Pirate 02

Maintenance Time

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Garage 01

The first of two car maintenance related posts today comes from L@go, over on Flickr. It’s a reworking of the classic 361 Garage set from 1979. This version has been updated and expanded too, leaving loads of space for an interior packed with details.

There’s an oil spill on the floor, that looks just like the stain on the carpet in reception at The Lego Car Blog Towers. There’s also a very nicely built bench vice and what we hope is a sausage in a microwave. Higher up, you might spot a fume extraction system and the typical collection of junk and old car parts that you’ll find on the office roof of many workshop. Click on this link to see the full album of the Raph brothers’ repair shop.

Garage 02

Pump Up The Volume

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Pump

One of The Lego Car Blog Elves has just staggered back into the office, having been lost in the Hardnuary group on Flickr for a while. It’s demanding a blue Smartie as a reward but as this build isn’t a vehicle of any kind (and Hardnuary finished 5 days ago), we’re saying, “No”. However we are blogging this model by Dicky Laban because we think it’s a neat bit of work, it’s car related and it also gives us an excuse to post a link to this classic tune from 1987.

Back to the Future (For the Third Time)

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CS III 01

Here at The Lego Car Blog our attitude to sci-fi is like our attitude to art: we don’t much about it but we know what we like. We’ve done quite well recently, having blogged both the first and second place winners in the third ever Classic Space Pocket Money Contest, well before the results were announced. The third place build was a spacey golf course in LDD, which didn’t really meet our submission guidelines, so we’ve an excuse for missing that one.

The Elves’ favourite was Locutus 666’s Rapid Reconnaissance Rover, an impressively large machine built from less than 100 pieces. Equipped with two cockpits and big wheels for high-speed rolling across the office floor, this vehicle kept our diminutive workforce entertained for a long time. Then they discovered that it’s a modular build, which can be quickly swapped into various configurations. That’s when the fighting started…

Regardless of this, we’re feeling a bit more confident about our sci-fi expertise, especially when things have wheels on. We’ll be watching this year’s Febrovery Flickr festival with interest.

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Outflanked!

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JO 01

One of the reasons that we originally created The Lego Car Blog and unleashed the Elves on an unsuspecting world, was our belief that quality vehicle builds were being neglected by Lego bloggers. It is therefore with some pride* that we can announce that one of the “proper Lego blogs” beat us to this beautiful Technic sports car by quite a few days.

Jeroen Ottens has skilfully used Technic panels and flex rods to produce a mid-engine machine with a smooth, curved body. He has based the car around the look of the Alfa Romeo 4C Spider and included some built-in Italian stripes to emphasise this. The car also has full Power Functions features, including a working gear box. Click this link to Jeroen’s Photostream see more.

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*This is our excuse and we’re sticking to it.

Mini Motor Mania

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VT 01

The appropriately named Vinny Turbo has just uploaded a load of new builds onto his MOCpages and Flickr accounts. Unfortunately this has resulted in a disorderly hoard of Elves stampeding into The Lego Car Blog offices and demanding Smarties of all sorts of colours. After dispersing our chaotic co-workers with a liberal use of Mister Airhorn, we’ve chosen a couple of the best to share with you.

At the top of this post is the Integra, a re-worked version of an earlier car, which now comes with adjustable front Bat-spoiler. At the bottom of this post is the sleek and refined VTS V10, which features some interesting SNOT bodywork. Also worth a look are the Bentrolls Steam Cloud limousine and the VTS Edge with its curvaceous black body. Click on the links in the text to see more of Vinny’s work.

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A Red Re-Vamp

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BBurg Red

The Elves were incredibly excited when they found this super Starfighter Transporter by billyburg. They thought that each of hub caps on its 8 wheels was a blue Smartie. Alas not but we have rewarded them with a handful of meal tokens. We’ve previously blogged the chassis of this machine but now it’s been topped off with a colourful, red starfighter which uses a nice mix of Technic panels and System bricks, plus a bit of white sticker. Billyburg has also posted a rather nice space-crane, in the same micro-scale, as you can see below. Click this link to billyburg’s Flickr Photostream to see more of both creations.

BBurg Grey