Author Archives: thelegocarblogger

Night Rider

Leave a reply

We manage to post a car or two and then we’re right back to blogging a freaky chick riding a hover bike. Oh well, it is an excellent build nonetheless. This is ‘Lalibela Upbeat’, a curiously Game-of-Thrones-Night-King-looking figure who sounds a bit like a woke female DJ, riding her ‘Dawn Resurgence’ speeder. Nope, we don’t know what any of that means either but it is a rather excellent build, utilising some of LEGO’s more unusual colours, featuring some ingenuous techniques, and displaying a fair bit inventive parts usage too. Eero Okkonen is the builder and there’s more to see of Lalibela and her Dawn Resurgence on Flickr here.

Stuck in the Mud

Leave a reply

‘Stuck in the Mud’ is a staple of playground gaming. Like ‘It’ only without the transferable disease of ‘It-ness’, the game involves being rooted to the spot if a player is touched by the sticker, until they are freed through being touched by another player or – for those taking the game to the next level – a player crawls between the legs of the stickee.

Adults seem to find this concept appealing too, as there is a particular subset of off-roading enthusiasts (an already pretty weird bunch), who like to get themselves deliberately stuck just so that they can winch themselves out again. And that’s before we get to one of the oddest corners of YouTube involving girls getting stuck in mud whilst wearing inappropriate footwear.

We’re not sure if that’s what’s going on here, but SP Design has certainly managed to portray the new Land Rover Defender getting very stuck indeed. Fortunately he’s also built an original (proper) Defender to rescue the new version, with each being recreated brilliantly in brick form. Head to SP’s photostream via the link above to put your high heels on and get winching.

Space ‘Stang

Leave a reply

This is not a car, but it somehow manages to feature more car references than many cars do. And that doesn’t even make sense. Built for NoVVember (another annual month-long building bandwagon we don’t understand) by Mark B. aka ABS Shipyards, it’s a space-based nod to one of America’s most legendary muscle cars, the Ford Mustang 302 ‘Boss’.

The huge (and excellent) ‘302’ numbering on the sides complete with the tri-colour Mustang stripe running through it is hard to miss, but there’s a wealth of other brilliant references to the ’70s muscle car hidden throughout the build. Head into space via the link above to see how many you can spot, followed by doing whatever the equivalent of a burnout is in zero gravity before crashing into a space station. This is a Mustang after all!

‘Pizza’ Delivery!

Leave a reply

Nothing to see here, just an ordinary pizza van, picking up dough and delivering pizzas. On an entirely unrelated note, is there any way we could assist you in speeding up this large government tender? Perhaps there is an ‘additional fee’ we could pay you?…

Flickr’s Tim Henderson has created the perfect vehicle* for uncovering secrets – there’s literally nothing that gives its true purpose away! Head to Tim’s photostream via the link above to listen in to mob secrets, corrupt officials, or President Trump making a long distance phone call…

*Although there is the oversize novelty hat option.

Cigarettes on Safari

1 Reply

Nothing says adventure like lung cancer and breathing difficulties! At least that what was thought back when cigarette brand Camel sponsored the amazing Land Rover rally named after them from 1980 to 2000. Still, with Red Bull and Monster energy drinks sponsoring pretty much every extreme sport these days perhaps we’ve not moved on as much as we’d like to think…

This phenomenal Land Rover Defender 110 in stunning Camel Trophy spec is the work of Manuel Nascimento of Flickr, and it is very probably the finest 4×4 that The Lego Car Blog has featured this year. The iconic off-roader’s exterior has been recreated to perfection, including all the adventuring paraphernalia that accompanied these vehicles through jungles, mountain and deserts, and with accurate branding – including the infamous cigarette advertising – courtesy of superb custom decals.

Underneath the incredible exterior the engineering excellent continues, with working lights operated via a third-party SBrick, Power Functions remotely controlled steering, winch, and four-wheel-drive, working suspension, and a four-speed gearbox. Opening doors, a beautifully detailed interior and a roof-mounted tent also feature, plus Manuel has constructed a lovely desert base to accompany his model.

There’s loads more of this spectacularly built and presented creation to see at Manuel’s Land Rover Defender 110 Flickr album, where you can also find a link to a video demonstrating the model’s features. Light up a cigarette via the link above (no, don’t – but do click the link!).

MAZter Builder

Leave a reply

OK, it’s not a car, but at least it’s not a bloody Thomas the Tank Engine on legs or a mechanised snail. This rather wonderful MAZ 537 and trailer are the work of colognebrick of Flickr, who has captured the Soviet military transport superbly in small scale. The build is packed with properly ingenious building techniques to add realism beyond the model’s size, including a cab with bricks pointing in almost every direction.

There’s much more to see of colognebrick’s MAZ truck at his photostream, where he hopes to add some cargo at some point soon. Take a look via the link whilst we issue the Elves an ultimatum that involves bringing back a car for us to blog or getting a free one-way ticket for the office catapult…

Wrong Side of the Tracks*

1 Reply

Thomas the Tank Engine has had enough! Fed up of shunting along the stupid Ffarquhar branchline, rescuing the hapless James, and taking orders from the authoritarian Fat Controller, Thomas has grown himself mechanical arms and legs purely from the rage burning inside his boiler, he’s about to get mad, and Vicarstown isn’t going to know what hit it.

Flickr’s Dvd owns the somewhat unhinged mind that has managed to turn a children’s classic into a steam-powered automaton and there’s more to see of his frankly terrifying Thomas the Mech Engine creation at his photostream. Now will someone please build a car so we can blog without having nightmares.

*Today’s title song.

Steampunk Snail

1 Reply

This is a steampunk snail (of course it is) and that’s about all we can say about Andreas Lenander‘s latest build. You’ll have to head to his photostream via the link above to ask the inevitable questions, like ‘But… why?’, and ‘How fast is it?’, and ‘But… why’? again. Do just that via the link.

Perfect 10

Leave a reply

We don’t get many 10×10 trucks in TLCB’s home nation, but Eastern Europe seems to get far more exciting(?) machinery. Ok not this, this or this, but the vehicle in today’s post certainly is. It’s the snappily named Tatra 8P6R53 10×10, a DAF-based tipper built by Czech truck-makers Tatra with, you guessed it, a 10-wheel-drive system. Of the five driven axles all bar one steer too, making it a fiendishly complicated drivetrain which is necessary in the Czech Republic for reasons that we don’t really understand. Whatever they are, this magnificent Model Team recreation of the Tatra 8P6R53 10×10 comes from previous bloggee Arian Janssens and it features the truck’s four-axle steering plus a working tipper, and there’s more to see by clicking here.

Ka-Blaaam!!

Leave a reply

Also an appropriate title for yesterday’s reveal of the new 76139 1989 Batmobile set, Jeremy Williams‘ ‘Raptor Fighter-Bomber’ is about to turn someone’s day a whole lot more orange. To quote a brilliant Simpson’s line; “There might be a slight ringing in your ears… fortunately you’ll be no-where near them”. There’s more to see of Jeremy’s killer build on Flickr – head to his photostream via the link above to push the big red button.

LEGO 76139 1989 Batmobile | Set Preview

4 Replies

Great news for those of you who only work in black! LEGO have revealed their upcoming 76139 ‘1989 Batmobile’ set, at it is really very black indeed. With 3,306 pieces (at least 3,000 of which look to be black), 76139 is one of the largest Superheroes sets to date, and bridges nicely across the DC and Creator car lines.

The model is a faithful replica of the vehicle used in the 1989 Tim Burton movie, and comes with a rotating platform and three slightly superfluous mini-figures (Joker, Vicki Vale (who?!), and Batman himself), which gives away the model’s primary purpose as being a display piece rather than a toy or engineering demonstration. Nevertheless the new set does feature working steering, a sliding cockpit (using a new piece), and pop-up machine guns should Batman decide to go rogue.

The new 76139 ‘1989 Batmobile’ set is expected to cost a around £220/$250 – which is rather a lot – and will go on sale on Black Friday 2019, which seems both appropriate and quite possibly a dark joke considering the price…

SEMA

Leave a reply

Founded in 1963, the Specialty Equipment Market Association, or SEMA, has become a giant of the automotive landscape. The annual SEMA show in Las Vegas is now one of the largest automotive events non the planet, attended not just be tuning companies but also by mainstream auto manufacturers, who are embracing a culture that can help their brand image.

Previous bloggee Simon Przepiorka has decided to build a Lego homage to the upcoming SEMA show, taking the official 10265 Ford Mustang set as a base and reworking it to achieve the awesome looking wide-body Mustang you see here. Such an approach is perfectly in keeping with SEMA, where standard manufacturer products are modified to often wild extremes, these days occasionally by the actual company that made them in the first place.

We think Simon’s modified Mustang looks spectacular and there’s more to see at his photostream via the link above, plus you can take a look at some of the good, weird, and frankly awful vehicles from last year’s SEMA show by clicking here.

56

Leave a reply

Following on from his Mellow Yellow 1960s sedan publicised here last week, Flickr’s Tim Henderson has followed it up with a classic from the decade earlier. Tim’s 1950s sedan includes all the hallmarks of era’s styling including a chrome grill with prominent fenders, side stripes, and tail fins, and there’s more to see at his photostream via the link above.

We’re 8 Today!*

2 Replies

Two World Cups, two Olympics, and two Presidents have all passed since this ropey little corner of the internet spluttered into life eight years ago. Considerably less newsworthy than any of those things, The Lego Car Blog has quietly become at least a footnote in the annals of the Lego Community, and that’s good enough for us!

TLCB Review Library is now stacked with more than one-hundred set, book and third-party product reviews, there are over twenty interviews with the world’s greatest vehicle builders in the Master MOCers Series, and we’ve even finally gone and got ourself a Facebook page, around five years after Facebook was cool.

Since The Lego Car Blog’s peak of over a million visitors a year we’ve now settled in the high hundreds of thousands, so it seems at least a few people have got bored and wandered off (or left in anger), but if enough of you continue to like what you see here (or even if you don’t like it, continue to read it), we’ll endeavour to keep bringing you the best Lego vehicles that the web has to offer.

As always please let us know what you like and what you don’t, suggest creations our Elves have missed, and feel free to share, repost or steal anything you find here. The Brothers Brick do.

Thank you for stopping by, and remember that your views and clicks here at The Lego Car Blog generate advertising revenue that goes to those who need it more than we do, and for that we are incredibly grateful.

Onwards to nine, at which point we may well have to all get on with our lives and leave to this the proper blogs!

TLCB Team

*Yesterday, but we weren’t paying attention.

Retro Rampage

1 Reply

Whiiiir! Crunch. Whiiiir! Crunch. Elven Screaming. Whiiiir! Crunch.

Sigh. These are sounds we’ve heard too often here at The Lego Car Blog Towers before, and they usually mean we’re going to have to get the carpets cleaned again.

A weary trudge to the corridor outside the office revealed the cause, and to our surprise there wan’t just one, but three. Three Elves were each controlling three separate (and rather impressive) Technic Monster Trucks, bashing them into one another and occasionally adding variety to the proceedings by driving them at and over the Elves who had come to watch the spectacle.

It admittedly looked like great fun, so Mr. Airhorn was deployed to break up the ruckus, the injured were patched up with Pritt-Stick and plasters, and we’ve taken control of the trio of Technic trucks for ourselves.

Each truck comes from Technic building legend Madoca77 and wears a gloriously retro livery, including the famous Ford ‘Big Foot’ colours and Toyota’s wonderful ’80s ‘pick-up’ stripe, and the three models are all remotely operable via bluetooth thanks to two SBricks.

These control the four XL motors (one per wheel), the two Servo motors that steer both the front and rear axles, the Medium motor that switches between crab steering and normal steering modes (just like LEGO’s excellent 40254 Claas Xerion 5000 set), and the Medium motor that operates the clamshell bodywork lift.

Madoca’s builds also include LED headlights, opening doors and dropping tailgates, plus – most importantly – a mega suspension setup which includes portal axles. They easily make it into our favourite creations list of 2019, and if you like them as much as we do then head to the Eurobricks discussion forum via the link above to read more about the builds and to watch a video of Madoca’s vintage monster truck design in action!