Category Archives: Lego

Prime Position

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We’re breaking a few of our own rules today…

This creation is virtual. It features a cartoonish caricature. Oh, and a big bald meathead, who may or may not have LEGO arms.

But seeing as the movies from which it’s inspired are also pretty much virtual (no, physics does not do the things it appears to in the ‘Fast & Furious’ franchise), feature cars that too are cartoonish caricatures, and that also include the aforementioned big, bald meathead, we’re going to let it pass. In the name of “Family…”, or something.

Built for the ‘Iron Builder’ contest, in which participants must use a usually-obscure LEGO piece (in this case a Spike Prime Colour Sensor), Ivan Martynov’s homage to the most profitable (and worst) movie franchise of all time includes several of the chosen part hidden throughout it, including the Dodge Charger’s supercharger, the floodlights, hidden within the cityscape, and most cunningly as a meathead torso.

There’s more to see at Ivan’s photostream, and you can ignore physics whilst muttering “Family…” for little-to-no-reason via the link in the text above!

Sub-Optimus Prime

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If the Michael Bay ‘Transformers’ movies were directed by the people that make ‘Bob the Builder’, the result might look a little something like this.

Replacing angry alien robots with, er… cute alien robots, Angus MacLane has optimised the adorability of the leader of the Autobots, and there’s more to see of his charming ‘Sub-Optimus Prime’ transforming truck on Flickr.

Click the link above for the cutest robot in disguise you’ll see today.

Gaseous Emissions

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A fart on a bus is a most unwelcome travelling companion. Although it is immensely funny if you cut one just before your stop. Anyway, here’s a bus powered by compressed natural gas, being a Gillig CNG. Emitting around 20% less CO2 than diesel equivalents, CNG buses run mostly on the same stuff that exits your body, with this one (the bus, not a fart) being formed by previous bloggee 1saac W. of Flickr. There’s more to see at 1saac’s photostream and can toot on over via the link above.

Easter Cors-Hare

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Today’s title is about as tenuously linked to Easter as it’s possible to get, but seeing as egg-laying rabbits have about as much to do with Easter as a 1940s fighter aircraft, we’re going with it.

This is a US Navy Vought Corsair, made Eastery with only a minor spelling amendment, created and presented in this wonderful vignette by Nicholas Goodman of Flickr. Pictured in the Solomon Islands in 1944, Nicholas has deployed superb attention to detail, using fantastic building techniques, custom mini-figures, and hiding a few period-correct easter eggs in the vignette too.

See, it was Eastery all along!

There’s more to see at Nicholas’ photostream and you can head to the Solomon Islands in 1944 via the link in the text above, or alternatively click here for something actually Easter-related.

I Fold

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The results of the last TLCB poker night have caused this writer to owe a substantial beer-based debt to our editor (You have until Monday. Ed.). Knowing when to fold is everything it seems, and whilst this writer definitely doesn’t, TLCB newcomer Dan Nguyen sure does, with this wonderful 1940s Vought F4U Corsair.

Being a carrier-based fighter, the F4U Corsair needed to fit inside flight-deck lifts and on-board hangars, and as such featured wings that could fold neatly upwards whilst in storage before returning to their horizontal position for flight.

Dan’s model captures this feature beautifully, using some cunning techniques to recreate the Vought’s complex wing shape and fuselage, and enhancing the realism further with accurately replicated US Navy decals.

There’s more to see at Dan’s ‘Vought F4U Corsair’ Flickr album, and you can learn when to fold via the link in the text above.

Stranger Danger

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This classic Ford Econoline van, complete with some, er… ‘tasteful’ period modifications, was found by one of our Elves on Flickr, who clearly hadn’t listened to the office talk on stranger danger.

Driven by Brad, who makes a living selling foreign narcotics part-time, and his girlfriend Tiffany, who works in ‘entertainment’, this modified late-’70s to mid-’80s Econoline has got more red flags flying than a minefield.

But it’s also got a wicked three-tone stripe, side-pipes, a moon window, and is blasting Buckcherry out of the stereo, so maybe it’s worth a closer look after all… no. NO.

HCKP13 is the builder, and if you’re old enough there’s more to see of their superbly built and beautifully presented creation on Flickr, where alternatively if you’re not yet of age (or you’re a TLCB Elf), there’s also a bitchin’ monster truck version.

Variable Geometry

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This is a Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-23, a 1970s Soviet fighter and fighter-bomber, and the most-produced variable-geometry fighter in history. Over 5,000 MiG-23s were built, with hundreds sold around the world to various scumbaggy dictatorships, some of whom still fly the aircraft today. This excellent brick-built version comes from John C. Lamarck and it includes the MiG-23’s variable wing sweep, working landing gear, and a variety of exciting looking weaponry. There’s more of the model to see at John’s ‘MiG-23 MF’ album on Flickr and you can take a look at cutting-edge Cold War aeronautics via the link above.

Swoosh?

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Do sky-fi creations go swoosh? We’re not sure, and we’re insufficiently nerdy to bother finding out, but nevertheless previous bloggee Sylon_tw‘s cyperpunk-style sky-fi thing is well worth a closer look, with some ingenious building techniques and top-quality presentation on display. Click the link to swoosh on over. Probably.

Pre-E

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Jaguar’s E-Type is probably the marque’s most celebrated sports car. However perhaps the cars that came before it are even more beautiful. The XK series of sports cars, beginning with the XK120 in 1948 and ending in 1961 with the XK150, were amongst the fastest cars in the world at the time, and were named after Jaguar’s new inline-6 engine that went on to power not just the E-Type, but all manner of Jaguars up until the 1990s. This excellent small-scale version of the car that debuted one of the automotive world’s great engines comes from SFH_Bricks, and there’s more to see of this 1950 Jaguar XK120 Fixed-Head Coupe on Flickr – click the link to take a look.

Channel Crossing

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One hundred and twenty years ago, the Wright brothers took to the skies (briefly) to complete the world’s first powered heavier-than-air flight. Made of spruce, ash, and canvas, their ‘Wright Flyer’ propelled itself through the air for 260 metres / 850 feet, and into the record books.

Just six years later and aircraft development was so rapid that planes could stay airborne for hours at a time, with this, the Blériot XI, the first to cross the English Channel. A competition run by an English newspaper, Louis Charles Joseph Blériot took the £1,000 prize, and with it over a hundred orders for his new monoplane.

This incredible recreation of that pioneering aircraft is the work of Nikolaus Löwe, and includes functioning control surfaces via the cockpit stick, a foot-pedal operated rudder, suspended landing-gear, and a working semi-radial engine.

There’s more to see at Nikolaus’ photostream and you can head to the skies over the English Channel in 1909 via the link above.

Prime Mover

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LEGO’s 1,500 piece, £150, fully transforming 10302 Transformers Optimus Prime set got TLCB Elves very excited when we revealed it here last year. In fact we thought they could only be more hyped if Megan Fox herself arrived at TLCB Towers, at which point a few of the staff would likely have matched their fanaticism. However previous bloggee Ralph Savelsberg has proved there is even more excitement to be had, with his fantastic Optimus Prime ‘Combat Deck’.

Based on the Transformers G1 toy, Ralph’s creation attaches to the official 10302 set brilliantly, before unfolding to reveal an array of equipment essential in the protection of Earth. The toy’s boom-mounted rotating missile thingumy, combat stations, and a spring-fired ‘Roller’ armoured 6×6 car are all accurately recreated in brick form, as are the stickers and livery, which Ralph has replicated superbly via some cunning brickwork.

There’s a whole lot more to see at Ralph’s ‘Lego Optimus Prime with Custom Combat Deck’ album on Flickr, and you can join a gaggle of ridiculously excited Elves there by clicking the link above.

Porco Rosso

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This ace looking aircraft is a Savoia S.21 racing floatplane, as featured in the Japanese animated movie ‘Porco Rosso’. Like most things from Japanese cartoons (fighting robots, ball-stored transforming creatures, giant lizards, and improbably-proportioned schoolgirls to name a few), the Savoia S.21 not real, but it is titled after (and vaguely inspired by) an actual 1910s Italian floatplane.

Flown by a cigarette smoking, wine drinking, moustachioed pig, the S.21 is used to hunt air pirates, who are like regular pirates, only in the air. Look, it doesn’t have to make any sense, the plane’s still cool, and there’s more to see of this Lego version courtesy of LEGO7 on Flickr via the link.

Polestar

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Communist Polish manufacturer FSC – makers of vehicular magnificence such as this – also made something not terrible. FSC’s Star truck line began in the late 1940s, and despite the shackles of the Iron Curtain produced reliable, cheap and reasonably powerful heavy duty trucks for a variety of markets until it was swallowed up by MAN in the 1990s. This is one such truck, the Star 660, as created really rather wonderfully by previous bloggee [Maks]. Ingenious parts usage, clever building techniques, and a custom mini-figure are all worth a closer look, and you can follow the pole star on Flickr via the link.

Swoosh! Or Something.

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Uh oh. Sci-fi. It’s been four posts without a car, and our Elves are getting hungry. So here’s a spaceship, a genre about which we are heroically incompetent. However, TLCB debutant Loysnuva‘s creation does include quite a few wheels and has a racing stripe, which somehow makes TLCB Staff less nervous about it. It’s also – as you can see here – excellent, both in terms of build and presentation, and there’s more to see of Loysnuva’s top-quality space thingammy at their photostream. Click the link above to swoosh your way there.

It’s Be-Hind You

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This is a Mil Mi-24 Hind helicopter gunship, a 1970s product of the Soviet Union that remains a formidable aircraft even today.

The MI-24’s speed, size, troop carrying, and attack capability have led to its use in a depressingly long list of wars, conflicts and insurgencies over the last five decades, with over fifty operators worldwide, including countries in direct conflict with one-another, and some less-than-reputable dictators, despots, and militias.

The U.S even have a few, as does much of the former Soviet Union, with this excellent brick-built example by Flickr’s Steffan Johansson flying in Ukrainian colours. Ukraine’s former Soviet comrade Russia flies the greatest number of Mi-24’s of course, with many currently deployed in the ‘Special Military Operation’ (read ‘Illegal War’) in Ukraine.

At least five Russian and one Ukrainian Mi-24 helicopters have been lost in the conflict to date, which is a number that is at least the right way round, and you can see more of this one at Steffan’s ‘Mi-24/35 Hind’ album on Flickr.

Click the link above to take a look, or here to donate to those whose lives have been devastated by Russian aggression against their former ally. Both sides may be deploying the Mil Mi-24 Hind in the current conflict, but one deserves your support.