This is, obviously, not a car. But for much of the world, it really is. And unlike a clapped-out hatchback, when it’s too old perform reliably it can become a delicious dinner. Flickr’s Andreas Lenander is the builder behind this fantastic rural transportation scene, and you can join the road to the market via the link above.
It’s the first day of Advent, which means we can begin tenuously-titled posts vaguely linking to Christmas! Our first is a double too, as we have two magnificent similarly-scaled brick-built logging trucks.
The first is a Kenworth W900L 62″ Aerocab Flat-Top Sleeper, and it comes from Ben of Flickr who has captured truck, trailer, and log load brilliantly, with more of the model to see at Ben’s photostream at the link above.
Today’s second logging truck is this splendid P9 from the now-defunct Canadian specialist truck builder Pacific. Constructed by Flickr’s MountainGoat32 (weirdly there must be a lot more ‘Mountain Goat’s on Flickr than there are ‘Ben’s), this fantastic creation features posable steering, ingenious rubber-band pendular suspension, and a trailer that can be pivoted onto the rear of the truck, as per the real Pacific rig.
There’s much more of Goat’s Pacific P9 to see (including a few images revealing the clever techniques within it) at his Flickr album of the same name, and you can grab some yule logs via the link above.
It’s Novvember, the annual building bandwagon about which TLCB Staff know as much as Kim Kardashian does particle physics. Cue this splendid ‘Viv Viper’ entry by The One and Only Mr.R inspired by the ’80s video game ‘Gradius’, about which we also know nothing. Which makes this a short post. But fear not, we’ll be back with a weird car imminently, and until then take a closer look at this superbly presented starfighter on Flickr via the link.
This incredible creation is the Seaspan Canadian Polar Icebreaker, a 150,000-piece commission for Canada’s new $multi-billion icebreaker programme currently under construction in Vancouver.
Created by Paul Hetherington (aka Brickbaron) and certified LEGO Professional Robin Sather, this enormous brick-built colossus replicates the real Seaspan Canadian Icebreaker due to go into operation from 2030.
Measuring 2ft wide and 11ft long, and taking 520 hours to construct alone (not including design and planning), Paul and Robin’s creation recreates every detail of the real ship in mini-figure form, including the bridge, heli-deck, lifeboats, engine room, cabins and more, with Seaspan’s engineers themselves part of the design process.
Split into six sections, Paul and Robin’s astounding creation not only mirrors the design of the real ship, but also reflects its crucial job, with the model set amongst the ice and sea floor in which it will operate – with the brick-built ice doubling as support for the model’s cutaway design.
Now on display at Seaspan’s headquarters in North Vancouver, there’s lots (and lots) more to see of this spectacular ship at Paul’s photostream, where nearly twenty images of the build are available to view. Click the link above to head to Canada’s polar waters in a truly magnificent brick-built boat.
We’re sure that many of our readers are familiar with today’s car. And not just because we’re big in the criminal underworld. The Ford Crown Victoria was a car sold almost entirely to two very specific customer types; cabs and cops, with millions of Americans having sat willingly or unwillingly in the back seat. This one is likely to have a less-than-willing occupant in the back, and you can take a look courtesy of ilyabuilder724 on Flickr.
Flickr’s Szunyogh Balazs has appeared on these pages several times before, with vehicles that are fast, loud, or both. But not today, because his latest creation is at the opposite end of the vehicular spectrum. This is the communist East German Trabant, a car made fro cardboard for people that had no choice.
Almost three million Trabant 601s were made, making it the East German equivalent of the West German Beetle. Although the Beetle became a Polo. And a Golf. Whereas the Trabant carried on until the collapse of the Soviet Union and reunification of Germany in 1991. There’s more to see of Szunyough’s splendid Lego Trabant 601 on Flickr, and you can head to the other side of the iron curtain via the link above.
Seagulls are roundly disliked in TLCB’s home nation. Found on rubbish dumps or in British seaside resorts (which amount to the same thing), they make irritating ‘CAAAW!’ noises, crap all over the place, and mug people for their chips. However in car form, they’re rather wonderful…
This is the mid-’50s Mercedes-Benz 300SL ‘Gullwing’, perhaps the only time a coupe has been more desirable than the roadster, thanks entirely to those magnificent doors.
This splendid Speed Champions version, complete with the aforementioned gullwing doors, comes from previous bloggee SFH_Bricks, and with building instructions available you can recreate it for yourself. There’s more to see at SFH’s ‘1954 Mercedes-Benz 300SL’ album and you can CAAAW, crap all over the place, and steal someone’s chips via the link above.
This strange looking creation is the product of no fewer than seven builders. Published by Flickr’s [Intense Potato], the ‘Beluga Gunship’ was formed via a digital file being passed from one builder to the next after 48 hours, with each adding what they liked to the design in their allotted time. Which means that this creation may have started life as a 1982 Morris Ital, an 18th century battleship, or a small dog, but whatever its beginning it’s turned out rather well. You can see more of this virtual oddity, and discover the chain of builders that formed it, at Potato’s photostream. Click the link above to pull the chain.
The mid-’90s were a high watermark for Renault. Their Espace multi-purpose-vehicle was a smash hit, creating an entirely new class of car in Europe that other manufacturers scrambled to copy, whilst on track their V10 Formula 1 engine was winning absolutely everything with Williams and Benetton. And then in 1995, in moment of utter genius, they decided to merge the two…
The result was the Renault Espace F1, a one-off carbon-fibre minivan with a mid-mounted 800bhp V10 F1 engine, a top speed of nearly 200mph, and publicity other manufacturers could only dream of.
This fantastic recreation of Renault’s unhinged MPV is the work of Flickr’s Sergio Batista, and features replica decals, 3D-printed wheels, LED lights, a detailed engine and brick-built suspension, plus – in authentic Espace tradition – space for multiple mini-figures. There’s lots more of the model to see at Sergio’s photostream you can race back to when Renault were on top via the link above.
We’ve gone all Toad-of-Toad-Hall today, courtesy of this be-goggled mini-figure and his marvellous 1931 Mercedes-Benz SSKL. Flickr’s SvenJ. owns the hands behind it, which he’s also used to stretch LEGO’s latest tyres over their vintage rims for the perfect wheel/tyre combo. There’s more to see at Sven’s photostream and you can race along the roads in the early-’30s via the link above. Poop-Poop!
And so has Daniel Church. This is his ‘Wayward Wanderer’, a spectacular twin-sail concept yacht with a gorgeous curved jib formed of tessellating hexagons. The Wanderer’s beautiful brick-built hull is equally well crafted, with the only wonky element of the whole photo being the horizon. Point your bow towards it and set sail via the link above.
It’s been two decades since the Ferrari Enzo, and two since an official LEGO set depicting it. Cue nopingrid of Eurobricks, who has recreated Ferrari’s iconic early-’00s hypercar from the parts of one of their newest, the Technic 42212 Ferrari FXX K. Using 85% of the FXX K’s 900 pieces, nopingrid’s Enzo includes working steering, a V12 engine, plus opening butterfly doors, and we think it looks rather better than the donor set. Building instructions are available and you can find out more at the Eurobricks forum via the link above.
If TLCB Elves were to design a car, it’d probably look like a ’70s Plymouth Barracuda. Lime green bodywork, a black hood with a giant scoop in the middle of it, racing stripes, and an enormous V8 engine packing up to 425bhp from over 7 litres, the Hemi ‘Cuda was wildly different to the cars trundling around our home nation at the time.
Cue this splendid Speed Champions scale recreation of Plymouth’s third-generation Barracuda from previous bloggee gnat.bricks, which includes all of the aforementioned attributes plus -and more unusually at this scale – a brick-built drivetrain, including full-length exhausts, gearbox, driveshaft and differential, and steering arms/suspension. These don’t function of course, but then neither did the steering/suspension of the real ‘Cuda.
There’s more of gnat’s brilliant Barracuda to see at his ‘CUDA SC’ album on Flickr, and you can jump back to ’70s America via the link above, whilst clicking the link below for the most appropriate soundtrack imaginable.
*Today’s excellent title song. Of course.
Hope, magic, and more than a little ingenuity. The Lego Car Blog staff have built a great many things, but none have deployed antenna ball-joints as fenders. There’s so much going on in 1saac W.‘s Volkswagen Beetle there is genuine bafflement here at TLCB Towers as to how it all holds together. Join us trying in vain to figure it out at 1saac’s photostream via the link above.
Batman has never looked so… small. This perfect miniature of the Tumbler (and The Dark Knight himself) comes from _Tiler of Flickr, who has chosen his pieces flawlessly. Head to the tiny streets of Gotham via the link above.