Author Archives: thelegocarblogger

Cubist

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We were going to title this post ‘Square Heads’, but upon Googling it we learned it’s an offensive term for German, Dutch or Scandinavian persons. That was close. The perils of being an international blog we suppose! Anyway, these micro-scale bikers do have square heads, but we’re going to say they’re American, so we’re alright. They come from Flickr’s jarekwally (who might need to Google his title too…), whose inventive parts usage doesn’t stop at riders’ heads, but continues to both the motorcycles and the road upon which they’re travelling. (Square) head to jarekwally‘s photostream for more!

Pumping on Your Stereo

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We’re not sure who even uses the word ‘stereo’ any more. Meaning a sound coming from two places, Liebherr have applied it to their L518 wheel loader because – weirdly – it has two steering mechanisms.

Cleverly combining both a steered rear axle and an articulated centre pivot, the L518 Stereo can swivel about in small spaces like a pair of Elves on a hoverboard.

This neat Technic recreation of the L518 Stereo comes from Jundis of Eurobricks, who has replicated not only the cunning ‘stereo’ steering but also a mechanically controlled arm with an interchangeable fork/bucket, pendular rear suspension, and a working piston engine.

It’s the kind of good old-fashioned mechanical engineering that we love, and there’s more to see of Jundis’ Liebherr L518 wheel loader at the Eurobricks forum. Click the link above to pump on your stereo.

*Today’s title song. Obviously.

C3-R2

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This post title refers not to some Star Warsy droid (we’re not Bricknerd), but rather this; the spectacular-looking Citroen C3 ‘Rally2’.

‘Rally2’ is the second tier of the World Rally Championship, with cars a little less powerful (and less expensive) than the WRC top class, and a little closer to production spec.

Confusingly these ‘R2’ cars are classified as ‘R5’ in the regulations, which makes no sense to us at all, but whilst they tend to be a bit slower than the full-fat WRC machines they nevertheless compete on the same stages over the same distances, occasionally beating a few WRC cars in the process.

This is Citroen’s latest ‘Rally2’ entrant, based upon their new C3 road car. Powered by a 1600cc turbocharged engine driving all four wheels, the C3 will face similarly-specified entrants from Skoda, Volkswagen, Peugeot, Ford, and sister-brand DS.

The incredible Lego replica of the C3 R2 pictured here was commissioned by Citroen themselves, coming from Martin Vala, who has recreated their latest ‘Rally2’ car in astonishing detail.

Opening doors reveal a remarkably life-like interior, complete with a full cage, realistic dashboard, pedals, and seats, whilst the superbly replicated exterior is enhanced by some brilliant decals that accurately recreate the real car’s livery.

Martin’s model has been photographed and presented beautifully too, and there’s more of the build to see at his ‘Citroen C3 Rally2’ album on Flickr. Click the link above to make the jump to the complete gallery of immaculate images.

My Other Car’s a Jeep

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LEGO’s 42122 Technic Jeep Wrangler Rubicon set seems to have only been on sale for about fifteen minutes, yet already the online Lego Community are successfully repurposing its pieces in new and interesting ways. Which is exactly what Lego building should be about! This 42122 alternate comes from Dyen’s Creations of Flickr, and there’s more to see of this excellent B-Model quad bike via the link above.

Escape to Sea

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OK, this is clearly not a car, but this TLCB Writer is doing anything he can to avoid the Harry & Meghan Oprah Interview (aka ‘Posh Jerry Springer’), which is everywhere as he types this. And thus, here’s a boat.

It’s a rather lovely boat too, being an Intrepid 375 by previous bloggee Edwin Korstanje, and featuring a fiendishly complicated brick-built hull, a pair of Yamaha outboards, and some rather neat custom decals.

There’s more of Edwin’s creation to see at the Eurobricks forum, which has got to be more worthwhile than watching two of the world’s most privileged persons badmouthing their own family on international television. Join us in escaping to the sea via the link above.

Desert Storm

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Saddam Hussein didn’t have the best record during his leadership. Despite his relative religious tolerance, creating world class healthcare and high quality education systems, and being an advocate for womens’ rights, Saddam still falls within TLCB’s unofficial ‘brutal scumbag dictator’ category.

Gassing his own people, crushing opposition, and numerous human rights abuses make sure the scales tip towards the negative, as does invading a neighbour in a despite over oil and effectively sending 50,000 Iraqi troops to their deaths, knowing full well the world would respond.

And respond it did, with a coalition led by the US of over thirty countries formed to liberate Kuwait from the Iraqi invasion. And it got a really cool name.

Operation Desert Storm restored Kuwaiti independence around seven months after the Iraqi invasion, with the final push into Kuwaiti City by coalition forces depicted here by Nicholas Goodman, in which a US tank and Humvee are cruising through a perfectly generic middle-eastern street.

Custom mini-figures, decals and weaponry add to the realism and there’s more to see of Nicholas’s recreation of Kuwaiti City in February 27th 1991 via both Flickr and the Eurobricks discussion forum.

Delightful Sedan

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We’re not sure what ‘DS’ stands for these days, as Stellantis (what?) seems be using the brand solely in an attempt to charge 50% more for some extra chrome attached to decidedly average Citroens.

‘Deeply Cynical’? Wait, that’s not an ‘S’. ‘Dollar Signs’ perhaps? ‘Devoid of Substance’? Whatever it is, it isn’t working.

However a long time ago Citroen did used to produce the world’s best luxury cars, leading the way with hugely advanced technology, styling, and comfort.

This is one such car, the magnificent 1950s-1960s DS19, a car with front-wheel drive, hydro-pneumatic self-levelling suspension (with variable ride-height), power steering, a clutch-less gearbox, and disc brakes. All in 1955.

This beautifully presented Speed Champions recreation of the DS19 comes from Jonathan Elliott of Flickr, who has replicated the iconic French design wonderfully, even tapering the bodywork from 7 to 6 studs wide along the model’s length.

Jump to ’50s French luxury via the link above, and for comparison you can find one of DS’s current offerings here, where you can mutter dejectedly at it. Because they’re Depressingly Sardonic. Ah, that’s it!

Blazin’ Trails

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This TLCB Writer rather likes old square 4x4s, particularly if they have winch, roof rack, and assorted adventuring stuff piled on top. Suggested by a reader, Andrea Lattanzio’s classic Chevrolet Blazer has appeared here before in various guises, and there’s more to see of this one – including the wider diorama of which it is part – on Flickr here.

Gives You Wings

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The 2021 Formula 1 season is about to begin, with the team reveals arriving thick and fast. TLCB – with our finger on the pulse as usual – are bringing you a car from 2011…

Of course what colour sponsorship the teams have this year won’t change the fact that they’ll be fighting for second place, and we’ll be watching Formula-1-driver-cum-irritating-eco-warrior Lewis Hamilton cruise to an 8th World Championship in the dominant Mercedes-AMG.

However it wasn’t always Mercedes-Benz who ruled Formula 1. In fact there have been several teams that have dominated the sport for a period, including Williams (remember that!), McLaren, Ferrari*, and – just before the current AMG-whitewash – Red Bull.

From 2010 to 2014 Red Bull and Sebastian Vettel won four consecutive World Championships, in part due to this car; the fabulous Adrian Newey designed ‘blown diffuser’ RB7, that used exhaust gasses to create downforce even when the engine was coasting. Not bad for a soft drinks company.

This brilliant recreation of the title-winning Red Bull RB7 comes from Noah_L of Flickr, who has not only built and photographed his RB7 absolutely beautifully, he’s endowed it with some of the most realistic (and complicated) decals we’ve ever seen on a Lego model, even down to the ‘Pirelli P Zero’ labels on the tyres.

It’s a wonderfully accurate build, with removable rear bodywork, a highly detailed engine, and spindly ‘suspension’, and there are loads more stunning images to see at Noah’s ‘Red Bull RB7’ album.

Click the link to head to a time before Mercedes-Benz domination, taking the knee, spectator-less venues, and Lewis Hamilton tweeting that we need to do more for the environment from inside his private jet.

*We know the link isn’t to a dominant early 2000s Ferrari, because surprisingly the Archives reveal we’ve never blogged a Scuderia Ferrari from the Schumacher-era. However we will take any opportunity to remind people that Ferrari are scumbags… Here’s the link again.

The Pusher

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This TLCB Writer’s peaceful afternoon watching Top Gear re-runs working hard to keep TLCB wheels in motion was unwelcomely disturbed today. Disturbed by the unusual sound of distant Elven screaming, getting increasingly louder, before fading away again, only to be repeated a few minutes later.

Sigh. Whatever was going on it probably wasn’t good. A trudge out to the corridor revealed the cause; a rather unique vehicle, powerfully pushing a cohort of several enraged Elves up and down the halls of TLCB Towers with a large blade.

Upon seeing a ‘hoomun’ arrive to interrupt the fun, the Elf at the controls raised the blade so its colleagues passed underneath it, only for them to be squashed not once but twice by the following tracks, whereupon the delighted perpetrator promptly abandoned the controls and ran off.

Order restored we can take a look at the vehicular cause, a fully remote controlled Technic ‘Snow Dozer’ by Kirill Mazurov (aka desert752), powered by no less than thirteen Power Functions motors.

Eight of these drive the tracks, with two more powering the articulated steering, another two the rear crane, and the last the blade elevation used so effectively by the Elf that found it. A pair of third-party BuWizz bluetooth batteries provide the power (eight times as much as LEGO’s own system) and control mechanism, allowing Kirill’s machine to both push an impressive quantity of snow (or TLCB Elves) and to travel far faster than it has any right to.

There’s much more of Kirill’s strange yet spectacular creation to see at both his ‘Technic Snow Dozer’ Flickr album and via the Eurobricks discussion forum, plus you can watch it in action in the snow via the video below.

YouTube Video:

*Today’s wonderful title song. Which could be about a different kind of snow.

Oh Lord, Won’t You Buy Me…

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Three Mercedes-Benz?

Mercedes-Benz have made all sorts of vehicles. Cars, vans, trucks, and buses, plus engines for cars, vans, trucks and buses have all borne the three-painted star.

Flickr’s Moritz Zielger has built several items from Mercedes-Benz’s diverse back catalogue, and we have three to share with you today.

First (top) is a ’60s Mercedes-Benz W112 ‘Fintail’ in two-door coupe form, whilst above is a more modern Unimog off-road truck (complete with a working tipping bed), and below the classic 300SL Roadster.

Each has been built and presented beautifully and there’s more to see of all three Speed Champions Mercedes-Benz models (plus a few more) at Moritz’s photostream. Click here to take a look!

*Obligatory title song.

I Owe You a 10 Second Car

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‘The Fast & The Furious’ has a lot to answer for. Terrible dialogue, questionable physics, and finding a way (any way*) to keep characters going throughout the series (however absurd) are standard action-movie faux-pas, but the film franchise has had a larger and more irritating impact on the minds of internet commenters.

What? The new Supra doesn’t have a 2JZ? Not a Supra! What? The new Supra doesn’t have 1,000bhp from the factory? Not a Supra! What? The new Supra shares parts with BMW? Not a Supra!

OK internet commenters, here goes; The A80 Supra is not the fastest most awesomest car ever made. It was fairly fat cruiser for fairly fat people, with an engine that you could also get in a Toyota station wagon. Putting ‘NOS’ in it won’t give it 1,000bhp, and to get that power you’d need the world’s laggiest single-shot turbo, making the car borderline undrivable on the street.

Right, now that’s cleared up, here’s the fastest most awesomest car ever made, with ‘NOS’ and 1,000bhp.

Brian O’Conner’s modified A80 Toyota Supra Targa has become possibly the most revered movie car of all time, setting the stage for a dozen mostly terrible ‘Fast & Furious’ sequels, blasting fourth-generation Supra values into the stratosphere, and creating an unsurmountable barrier of hype for any future cars wearing the nameplate.

This glorious recreation of O’Conner’s A80 Supra brings the iconic movie car to life in full ‘Technic Supercar’ specification, with working suspension, gearbox, steering, and a replica 2JZ engine.

More importantly builder spiderbrick has faithfully replicated the slightly weird livery, bodykit, roll cage, nitrous system, and huge rear wing found on the movie car to such perfection that we can almost hear Dominic Toretto breathing the word ‘family‘ for the six-hundredth time for no discernible reason.

There’s loads more of Spider’s ‘The Fast & the Furious’ Toyota Supra A80 to see at his Brickshelf album, including a link to a video showing the model’s features, plus engine and chassis images. Click the link above to live your life a 1/4 mile at a time…

*Bad guy turns good? Check. Back from the dead? Check. Bad guy turns good again? Check.

Red Racer

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The 2021 Formula 1 season is about to begin, in which some tiny sports car manufacturers (Aston Martin, Alpine, McLaren, Alfa Romeo and Ferrari) will fight over second place behind Mercedes-AMG.

Of course for three of the five teams above, it’s literally just the brand name stuck on the side of the car, which the team itself has nothing whatsoever to do with. Which might be part of the problem.

We’d go back to the more interesting (and sponsorship free) old days, where manufacturers built the cars they raced and the rules were lax enough to allow them to make what they were good at.

Regular bloggee Tim Henderson is enabling the time travel, and there’s more to see of his ‘Vintage Formula 1’ creation via the album of the same name by clicking here.

Steam Rollin’ Rollin’ Rollin’*

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It’s been over a hundred years since steam rollers were built, and yet in TLCB’s home nation we still call road rollers ‘steam rollers’ over a century later. No we don’t know why either. Anyway, this one is a steam roller, being effectively a giant kettle with a big metal drum attached to the front, powered by burning lumps of fossilised wood.

It comes from previous bloggee Nikolaus Lowe, who has done a tremendous job building this beautiful and fully functional Model Team/Technic c1910 steam roller, complete with working rope steering, rear ripper, drivetrain pistons and valve gear, and even the weird centrifugal spinning thingy that steam-powered vehicles always seem to have, the purpose of which remains a mystery.

A wealth of superb imagery is available to view at Nikolaus’ ‘Steam Roller’ album on Flickr, where you can also find details on how to vote for this model to become an official LEGO set. Click the link above to go rollin’.

*Today’s loosely related title song!

Koenigsegg Jesko | Picture Special

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A new supercar company seems to start every week, announcing something with a million horsepower and a top speed of 400mph, before immediately going into liquidation never having built a thing. However there is one exception; Koenigsegg.

Now twenty years old, Koenigsegg have built some of the most exciting hypercars of the modern era, including this, the 1,300bhp Jesko.

This spectacular Technic replica of the Koenigsegg Jesko comes from Pvdb of Eurobricks, and – like the real world car – it’s one of the finest examples of its class.

The beautifully replicated bodywork includes Koenigsegg’s patented dyhedral doors that swivel skywards to open, opening rear clamshell and front trunk, and an adjustable rear wing.

Pvdb’s creation also features the Jesko’s unique front and rear ‘triplex’ (three damper) suspension, along with Hand of God steering, and a mid-mounted piston engine hooked up to an six-speed (plus natural and reverse) sequential paddle shift gearbox, operated via levers in the cabin.

It’s all superbly executed and demonstrates how real a Technic supercar can get if – as in this case – you spend over a year refining the engineering.

There are more images of Pvdb’s incredible Technic Koenigsegg Jesko to see at the Eurobricks forum, where you can join the discussion and await the upcoming video that’s currently in progress. Click on the link above to make the jump to one of the best Technic supercars of 2021 so far.