Category Archives: Lego

Duck Tails*

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Ducks have the best tails of any animal. Fact. And yes, we have seen those stripy lemurs (but The Brothers Brick ruined them).

Anyway, we love ducks’ tails (and Ducktails*), particularly on a car. Some readers (including TLCB Elves) might favour gargantuan spoilers on the back of cars, but they’re wrong. Duck tails are where it’s at.

Cue previous bloggee Laszlo Torma, and his superb Speed Champions duck-tailed Porsche 911. Capturing the definitive ’80s sports car brilliantly in brick-form, you can recreate Laszlo’s model for yourself, as he’s made building instructions available, both with and without the duck-tailed engine cover. But why ever would you option the latter?

You can take a look at all the images of Laszlo’s ’80s Porsche 911 on Flickr via the link above, whilst we look up a certain duck-based cartoon of similar vintage…

*Woo-oo!

Febrovery Special

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The Lego Car Blog Elves are well-fed during Febrovery. A huge array of blogworthy spacey vehicular creations are created, earning the Elves many meal tokens, and TLCB Staff much angst, as it’s a subject about which we know nothing.

No matter, because here are some of our Febrovery favourites from the last week or so, beginning with Pascal’s ‘Turtle P.O.W.E.R’ (above), cunningly created from an upside-down boat hull.

Next we have previous bloggee Nikolaus Lowe’s ingenious ‘Earth Mover’ (above), which has taken the most literal approach possible to its name, whilst newcomer EXT511’s ‘Mineral Detector’ (below) is deployed to… um, detect minerals. Look, we said we knew nothing.

On to Blacktron, and another builder making their TLCB debut. Luna S’s ‘Electroplanetary Tracer’ (below) joins the growing catalogue of 2025 Febrovery entries, and brings the villains of classic space into the roving community.

And finally (below, clockwise from top left), a montage of oddities, from Littlepixel’s ‘UggyBuggy’, Martin Spunkt’s ‘Biscuit Rover’ (no we don’t know why either), to – frankly – a pair of vehicles transplanted from the tarmac at Heathrow airport into space, courtesy of fiftyshadesofbley and David Roberts. Because spaceships need boarding stairs and avgas too.

All are available to view via their respective links in the text above, and you can find them – plus lots lots more – at the Febrovery Flickr group, where thousands of roving creations of all shapes and sizes reside.

Unimog For You

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LEGO’s fantastic Technic 8110 Mercedes-Benz Unimog set earned a near perfect score when it was reviewed on these pages nearly a decade-and-a-half ago. Which means that today it’s rather expensive. And it’s also rather large.

But fear not readers, because you can get your hands on your own Technic Unimog courtesy of prolific ‘mog maker (and Master MOCer) Thirdwigg, which is rather more affordable, and takes up rather less space.

His latest recreation of the Mercedes-Benz multi-purpose tractor comes in at 1:21 scale, and features working steering, an inline-4 engine, a tipping bed, and opening doors. Building instructions are available so you can create it for yourself, and you can find a link to them plus all the imagery at Thridwigg’s ‘Unimog U406’ album here.

Roving Magnificent

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This year’s Febrovery is just over half-way through, with interplanetary oddities of all shapes and sizes appearing by the dozen. This one comes from martin.with.bricks, rocking a Neo-Classic Space aesthetic, swing-arm mounted wheels, and a giant roof-mounted ray gun. Oh, this is Classic Space – we mean ‘scientific research device’. There’s more of Martin’s Febrovery entry to see on Flickr, and you can join the roving via the link above.

1917

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Nowhere has the pace of development through conflict been faster than in early aeronautics.

Less than a decade-and-a-half after the first ever powered flight – in which the Wright Brothers climbed 10ft into the air and travelled 120ft at 6.8mph – pilots could climb to 19,000ft and fly for 300 miles at well over 100mph. At least, you could if you were piloting a Sopwith F.1 Camel.

In service from 1917, the Camel scored more enemy kills than any other Allied aircraft during the Great War, and was a formidable fighter in both dog-fights and ground attacks. Until a year later, when it was obsolete.

Today just eight Sopwith Camels survive, but you can take a closer at this one courtesy of Flickr’s _Tiler, who has recreated the famous First World War fighter beautifully in brick-form, and presented it rather nicely too.

Head into the skies over France in 1917’s top fighter aircraft via the link above.

A Grand Ending

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After two decades mucking about in cars, and a global audience of millions, Clarkson, Hammond and May have finally hung up their driving gloves. Well, May has. The others probably didn’t wear them.

Their final episode of ‘The Grand Tour’ – Amazon’s monstrously expensive continuation of BBC Top Gear – aired last year, in which the team returned to the location of their first ever road-trip adventure, undertaken some twenty years earlier.

A 1970s Lancia Montecarlo, Triumph Stag, and Ford Capri starred alongside the human trio, likely also completing their last ever drive, such is the nature of television production.

They live on in Lego form though, courtesy of NV_Carmocs (photographed by Studworks), who has recreated each car beautifully in Speed Champions scale. Accurate registration plates, 3D-printed wheels, and a brick-built animal skull on the Lancia enhance the accuracy, and NV_Carmocs has made building instructions available too, should you wish to relive ‘The Grand Tour’s last adventure at home. Have One for the Road via the link above.

Foot Fetish

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This TLCB Writer doesn’t understand feet. Sure they’re there to hold you up and everthing, but to him they are functional only. Like a trachea. Or a spleen.

But not today, because today’s he’s so into them, courtesy of Caleb Ricks and this fabulous space freighter ‘The Antipodes’. Caleb’s design is a rhythm of angles, with some truly inspired techniques deployed to create the triangulated hull. A stunning interior features too, with jaw-dropping detail throughout, yet the most brilliant parts of Caleb’s masterpiece are the landing feet, which deploy in mesmerising motorised scnyhrinoscity via the ingenious mechanisms hidden within.

Like a hydropneumatic Citroen, we could watch The Antipodes’ feet gracefully rise and fall on loop, and you can join us and our foot fetish on Flickr via the links above.

Dalsey, Hillblom & Lynn

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The chances are that the item on which you are sitting, reading these words, or wearing travelled at some point in the back of a truck like this.

Founded in San Francisco in 1969 (with its name being an initialism of the founders), DHL is now a subsidiary of German state-owned Deutsche Post AG, and forms part of the largest logistics company in the world. Billions of items are delivered every year, with DHL trucks such as this Volvo FH 750 and Schmitz Cargobull trailer common sights on the roads across Europe.

This excellent brick-built recreation of what keeps the world moving comes from Keko007, who has captured the truck, trailer, and iconic DHL font brilliantly. There’s more to see at Keko’s ‘Volvo FH 750 & Schmitz Cargobull Trailer’ album on Flickr, and you can click the link above to be delivered there.

The Seventies Were Cool (II)

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Despite not even being a sperm at the time, this TLCB Writer is of the opinion that seventies cars were all vastly better than anything made today. A point proven by the Ford Capri, which was once a superb coupe for everyone, and is now an insipid electric crossover for people trying to pay less company car tax.

This splendid ’70s Ford Capri RS2600 comes Versteinert, whose yellow Mk1 Capri appeared here earlier in the year, and who has now updated his original model into the high power twin-headlight derivative of Ford’s classic European coupe.

Immaculately presented, there’s more to see of Versteinert’s beautiful RS2600 on Flickr, and you can jump back to when the Capri badge wan’t on the boot of a tragic electric crossover via the link above.

Super Supermarine

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It’s the 29th of December 1944, and RCAF Squadron 411 is in a battle with a group of Luftwaffe fighters over Osnabrück in western Germany.

At the controls of his Supermarine Spitfire IXe, Fight Lieutenant Dick Audet has an FW190 in his sights. The Spitfire’s guns tear into the enemy aircraft, until – after a moment – it rolls over and plunges downwards to destruction.

Audet watches for a few seconds, before snapping back to the fight raging around him, and turns his sights to the next German fighter. Over the next five to seven minutes Audet destroys a further four enemy aircraft, astonishingly becoming both an ‘Ace-in-a-Day’ and the only Spitfire pilot to achieve Ace status in a single sortie.

Audet would go on to fly over fifty sorties, claiming eleven enemy kills, before he too was killed in action, brought down in March of 1945 by the anti-aircraft defences of the German train he was strafing.

This spectacular homage to Fight Lieutenant Dick Audet was discovered by one of our Elves on Flickr, and comes from crash_cramer, who has recreated Audet’s glorious Supermarine Spitfire IXe in massive 1:9 scale.

Measuring over a metre long and with a 120cm wingspan, this incredible brick-built replica doesn’t look like LEGO at all, such is its phenomenal realism. Admittedly, that might be because a few components are not in fact LEGO, with the propellor spinner, exhausts, wheel caps, guns, aerial, and outer-wing leading edges meticulously 3D-printed, whilst the cockpit canopy is vacuum-formed.

A green vinyl wrap recreates the Spitfire’s camouflage, with superb decals replicating the roundels and squadron markings of Audet’s fighter.

The result is very probably the most accurate aircraft that this site has ever featured, and you can find all of the stunning imagery, plus read more about the build and the amazing story of Fight Lieutenant Dick Audet, at crash_cramer’s photostream. Join us there via the link in the text above.

Anthropomorphic Breadbins

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Febrovery has barely begun and we’re already deep into weird purple trees and anthropomorphicised breadbins. Amongst the peculiar biology is Frost (aka TFDesigns!)‘s fantastical rover, a unique dome-canopied 6×6 piloted by the famous adventurer Kepler Van Allen himself. There’s more to see of Kepler, his rover, and the sentient toasters on Flickr, and you can rove the planetary surface for yourself via the link above.

Coronet Cops

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Not all American police cars were big, lumbering Ford Crown Victorias. Because this is a big, lumbering Dodge Cornet. It’s was a rather lovely thing too, with _Tiler‘s 6-wide Highway Patrol iteration looking as good as its 1972 real-life counterpart. Take a look on Flickr via the link above.

Transiting

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It a Transit van double here at The Lego Car Blog today, with two rather different examples of Ford’s ubiquitous workhorse.

First up (above) is Versteinert‘s wonderful 7-wide 1970s face-lifted Mk1 Transit camper, wearing some slightly mismatched wheel-arch and sill repairs, a roof-rack loaded with adventure equipment, and being a thousand times cooler than the default Volkswagen Transporter. It joins several other Mk1 Transits in Versteinert’s photostream, and you can finn them all via the link above.

Four decades later, the Mk1’s great-grandson is here in the form of this 5-wide 2010s face-lifted Mk4 Transit crew-van (below) in ‘Abnormal Load Escort’ configuration. Make your own ‘Your Mom’ joke. Regular bloggee Ralph Savelsberg is its creator and there’s more to see of his excellent Transit, and the abnormal load it’s escorting, via the link above.

Prime Time

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It’s been a while since we last let TLCB Elves watch a ‘Transformers’ movie, but today they are doing just that, with previous bloggee SFH_Bricks to thank for another dose of Megan Fox. SFH’s one-hundredth creation captures the flame-painted Peterbilt 379-based ‘robot in disguise’ wonderfully, and you can check out all of the top quality images of Optimus Prime on Flickr. Click the link above to take a look, whilst we join the Elves watching Megan Fo… um, we mean ‘Transformers’.

MAZter Builder

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This tremendous machine is a Soviet-era MAZ-537L, an 8×8 heavy ballast truck which – in this configuration – was designed to pull the Soviet Union’s largest aircraft.

The exceptional recreation of the MAZ is the work of [Maks] of Flickr, who has constructed it beautifully, complete with four-wheel-steering and working suspension. There’s much more to see at [Maks]’s ‘MAZ-537L’ album, and you can tow a ginormous Cold War bomber somewhere in Russia via the link above.