Author Archives: thelegocarblogger

Fantasticar

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TLCB must confess that it has not watched 2025’s ‘The Fantastic Four: First Steps’.

However the plot will be, without question; ‘Some evil guy from space / another dimension is intent on destroying Earth because he wasn’t loved enough as a child and a crew of super-powered heroes will just barely defeat him despite the illogical unavailability of various other super-powered characters whose involvement would’ve made the endeavour immeasurably easier’. And the aforementioned defeat will only last until the inevitable sequel. And the title sounds like an Enid Blyton book.

Nevertheless, whilst contributing to the continued proliferation of the ‘Marvel Cinematic Universe’ and therefore simultaneously the demise of cinema, ‘The Fantastic Four: First Steps’ does appear to contain an utterly splendid vehicle.

Inspired by the fabulous turbine concepts of the 1950s and ‘60s, two units of the ‘Fantasticar’ (urgh) were built for the movie, in which it can drive or fly, and features a remarkable split opening bubble canopy where all four heroes can sit.

This incredible recreation of the ‘Fantasticar’ comes from previous bloggee SFH_Bricks and includes that trick canopy, plus custom movie-accurate stickers and LEGO’s official ‘Fantastic Four’ mini-figures.

Building instructions are available too, so if you love the movie (or, like us, just love the car), you can head to SFH’s photostream to create it four yourself. Click the link above for all the fantastic details.

6x6x2

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The Lego Car Blog Elves are running about making spacey noises today, courtesy of this; Gaurav Thakur’s enormous Classic Space ‘Enceladus Expedition Convoy’.

Consisting of two linked 6×6 mobile laboratories, Gaurav’s creation is packed with Classic Space goodness, including complicated control centres, beep-boop robots, and a variety of lab equipment.

A crew of Classic Spacemen (plus a few Space babies – perhaps there’s an board crèche too) studiously operate the convoy vehicle and its contents, and there’s heaps more Classic Spacery to see on Flickr.

Join the ‘Enceladus Expedition Convoy’ at Gaurav’s album of the same name via the link above!

Golden Girl

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The world is full of people with strange outlooks. These include those who think melon is an acceptable starter, enthusiasm for the Tesla Cybertruck, and people who put Christmas lights up in October. But right up there with the climate-change denying flat-earthers in the weird stakes are fans of ‘Girls und Panzer’, a Japanese anime in which high school girls compete against one another in World War 2 tanks.

Cue this golden Italian CV-33 tank commanded by a Japanese school girl named after a fish. It’s the work of Flickr’s lavishlump, here making their TLCB debut, and both tank and school girl are brilliantly built, particularly given the limitations of LEGO’s gold piece portfolio.

There’s more to see of lavishlump’s ‘Anchovy & CV-33 Tankette’ at their album of the same name, and you can head to a playing field in Japan for the weirdest school sports day via the link above.

Tractors in Space

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LEGO surprised us all in 2024 with the shock arrival of the Technic Space line, becoming the mash-up we never knew we needed. Flickr’s Tung Pham has taken his terrestrial Technic into space too, converting the 42136 and 42157 John Deere sets into vehicles rather more other-worldly. Tung’s speeder, floating front-loader, and maintenance mech alternates each requisition the pieces from their donor sets and include both mechanical and pneumatic functions. There’s more to see – including a link to building instructions – on Flickr, and you can click here to take your tractors into space.

ZIL 130 | Picture Special

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It’s time for a truck here at The Lego Car Blog, and today’s is something rather special. Created by previous bloggee Michael Kulakov / Michael217, this gorgeous ZIL 130 captures one of the workhorses of the Soviet Union spectacularly in LEGO bricks. Plus a few items that aren’t strictly LEGO…

Powered by a mix of genuine LEGO motors and third-party electronics, Michael’s model can drive, steer, and change between high and low gear ratios remotely, and also features a working V8 engine under the raising hood, opening cab doors, a mechanically locking trailer hitch, plus all wheel suspension.

Those wheels are non-LEGO parts, beautifully replicating real truck rims from the period via 3D printing, and are shod in RC tyres. The steering arms too are 3D-printed, and include metal inserts, which – along with some metal driveshaft components – toughen the drivetrain to handle the remote control system.

The rest of the build, including that wonderful bodywork, engine bay and interior, is all LEGO, and demonstrates superb attention to detail. Over a dozen perfectly presented images are available to view at Michael’s ‘ZIl 130’ Flickr album, plus you can find full build details, further links, and a video of the model in action at the Eurobricks discussion forum.

Rust n’ Dust

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It wasn’t just British and Italian cars in the late-’70s and ’80s that failed to start in the morning and/or dissolved if they got wet. No, the French made some awful cars too, including today’s, the woeful Renault 20.

Sitting at the top of their line-up, there was (much like the aforementioned British and Italian cars) a lot to like about Renault’s executive hatchback, including some innovative engineering that included both crumple zones and side-impact protection.

But none of that mattered when the cars were heroically unreliable, tragically underpowered, and rusted within just a few years of leaving the forecourt, resulting in a resale value of almost nothing at all. Still, there is one Renault 20 we like, the pioneering Turbo 4×4 Dakar, with a 1.6 litre turbocharged rally engine and all-wheel-drive courtesy of the rear axle from a Renault Trafic van.

Constructed by Flickr’s NV Carmocs, this 8-wide replica of the Renault 20 Turbo 4×4 captures the 1982 Dakar-winning car beautifully, thanks in part to a superbly accurate livery and some brilliant photo editing.

There’s much more of NV’s Renault 20 to see at their photostream, and you can head to the desert in 1982 via the link above, where the lack of rain and a whole load of available spare parts were probably sorely missed by every other Renault 20 owner at the time…

One Fabuland Return Please

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If there’s a model for social cohesion, LEGO’s vintage Fabuland theme is it. Where else could you see an elephant riding a scooter, a monkey pushing parcels, and a rabbit, a donkey and a dog about to board a whimsical primary-coloured steam train. In today’s increasingly divided society there’s probably a lesson in there somewhere. We’ll be boarding at HarrisBricks’ wonderful Fabuland Hilltop Station to find it, and you can buy your ticket at the Eurobricks forum via the link.

Common Hooker

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This is an Isuzu NPR, and they are everywhere. Box trucks, tipper trucks, recovery trucks, chiller trucks, cherrypickers, and – today – hook-lifts. This excellent Technic version of the ubiquitous NPR comes from TLCB Master MOCer Thirdwigg, and not only features a working hook-lift mechanism but a host of other hand-operated functions too, including an inline-4 engine under a tilting cab, ‘HOG’ steering, and opening doors and tailgate.

Building instructions are available should you wish to create it for yourself and you can find more imagery and information at Thirdwigg’s ‘Isuzu NPR’ album here, you can read his Master MOCers interview here at TLCB via the link above, and you can find a few other Isuzus (mostly NPRs) that have been recreated in brick form at the A-Z of Trucks here.

Mine’s Longer Than Yours

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No really, it is. Because unless yours is a supertanker, today ours is bigger. This spectacularly long DAF and Nooteboom Telestep trailer combination comes from Ralph Savelsberg of Flickr, and replicates the real wind-turbine transporting trucks operated by Van der Vlist of the Netherlands. Because the Dutch love a windmill.

So do we as it happens, what with them providing endlessly renewable energy and still allowing sheep and whatnot to graze underneath. Anyway, Ralph’s creation can elongate to a quite unbelievable length, and like the real rig cunningly includes five axles with four that operate consecutively greater steering angles, presumably so it doesn’t require all of Belgium or another neighbouring country to turn around.

There’s much more to see at Ralph’s Flickr album and you can take a look at the longest erection on Flickr via the link above.

Decking Vietnam

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This is a Vought F-8E Crusader II, one of the first supersonic carrier-based fighters, and it flew from the decks of U.S aircraft carriers from the late-‘50s right up until the mid-‘70s. Which of course meant it served in the Vietnam War, where it earned the nickname ‘MiG Killer’ because it, well… killed MiGs, with an astonishing 19:3 kill ratio.

This exceptional brick-built replica of the F-8E is the work of Flickr’s Juliusz D., and includes working landing gear, the Crusader’s trick variable incidence and folding wings, an opening cockpit, a deployable air-brake, functioning flaps, a full compliment of missiles and bombs, and phenomenally accurate period-correct markings.

It’s one of the finest Lego fighters we’ve ever featured, and you can take flight from a carrier deck somewhere in the South China Sea in 1967 via the link above.

Technically Camping

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After pondering the deliciousness of animals in today’s other post we promised a vehicle for vegans, and they don’t get more vegany than a Volkswagen Camper!

This tremendous Technic example comes from Flickr’s Darren Thew, who has not only recreated the ‘60s exterior beautifully, there’s a fully fitted interior inside the opening doors complete with furniture, a folding bed, and a kitchen for making, um… lentils? We’re not sure what vegans cook, but whatever it is they can do it here!

There’s lots more of Darren’s split-screen VW to see at his photostream, and you can enjoy eat a delicious healthy van-based meal via the link above.

Farm Fresh

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We don’t usually know what’s in the back of a truck, but we do today thanks to those tell-tale openings. Delicious animals, that’s what.

But if you’re vegan don’t worry, today’s other post will be for you. Until then we’re off to have a steak, lamb shank, or rack of ribs courtesy of Arian Janssens’ splendid DAF FA XD livestock truck, and you can join us for dinner via the link.

18th Century Idiocy

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The sailing boat is the 18th century equivalent of the Ford Mustang. At least it was in our home nation, where hundreds, if not thousands, were smashed into sand bars, rocks, each other…

Cue this excellent Imperial Ship by Flickr’s Brick Knight, which has just crashed into a rock probably whilst doing something reckless leaving a boat show.

Being the 18th century, the spectators can’t video it to put it on YouTube, but we’re sure the taverns will be filled with reenactments tonight.

There’s more of the historic idiocy to see at Brick’s photostream and you can join the scene of the accident via the link above.

Brickin’ Blazer

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‘What’s that crunchy sound?’ muttered this TLCB Writer to himself as he sat in TLCB Office. A weary trudge out to the corridor revealed the source, as a remote control 4×4 drove forwards and backwards over a small pile of flattened TLCB Elves.

On seeing a human the Elf at the controls abandoned its activity and fled the scene cackling maniacally, leaving its vehicle of choice (and the pile of Elves underneath it) behind. We’ll administer first-aid to the victims later, but first let’s take a look at the model!

It’s a K5-series Chevrolet Blazer, as recreated superbly in Technic form by Madoca 1977. A suite of Powered-Up electronics are packed inside, providing remote control four-wheel-drive, steering and a high/low gearbox.

Madoca has also engineered a properly clever drivetrain, with linked pendular suspension that automatically locks the differentials at high rates of axle articulation. No wonder it made such light work of squashing our mythical workers.

There’s lots more of Madoca’s model to see – including images of the ingenious engineering within – at the Eurobricks forum, plus you watch the Blazer in action via the video below. Click the links to take a closer look.

YouTube Video

Ridge Racer

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It’s the mid-’90s, and the peak of racing games involved far too few pixels, minimal physics, empty highway tunnels, and an array nondescript Japanese-esque cars. Cars like this one, the ‘F/A Racing Kamata Fiera’ from 1993’s ‘Ridge Racer’.

Wonderfully constructed by Flickr’s StudWorks, this Speed Champions homage to the earliest days of Playstation racing captures the fictional racer brilliantly, including an authentically recreated ‘Namco’ livery on its appropriately blocky exterior.

There’s more to see at StudWorks’ ‘Ridge Racer – F/A Racing Kamata Fiera’ album and you can join us on a pixilated mountain highway in 1993 via the link above. And if you have no idea what racing games were like three decades ago, click here to see just how good you have it now!