Category Archives: Lego

Santa’s Day Off

Leave a reply

When Santa’s not making and delivering presents, looking after reindeer, or monitoring children’s behaviour, we’re pretty sure he enjoys some downtime in a biker gang. The beard. The extravagant outfit. The drinking. He’s a perfect fit.

Flickr’s Yuan He clearly thinks so too, having built this characterful mechanised vignette featuring a motorbike-riding Santa, a sleigh trailer in tow, and a very relaxed looking Rudolph.

Yuan has attached a motor to bring Santa’s Day Off to life, and you can see the creation in action via the link to their photostream in the text above.

Peace on Earth

Leave a reply

This Christmas will mark the fourth since Russia’s full-scale invasion of its neighbour Ukraine. There have been at least 400,000 casualties since then, with Russia continuing to target residential areas (breaking international humanitarian law) and civilian energy infrastructure (also breaking international humanitarian law).

This means millions of Ukrainians are currently without heating in freezing winter conditions. Children. The elderly. Babies.

But there is hope, with various charities risking their own lives to bring heating and supplies to civilians suffering and freezing near the front line. You can find one such charity below, where you can donate to help provide wood-burning stoves that may keep a baby from freezing to death this Christmas.

Dnipro Hope Mission

The excellent models featured in today’s post come from Flickr’s Konstantin, being a Russian 2S43 ‘Malva’ self-propelled gun and 2S40 ‘Floks’ self-propelled mortar respectively. There’s more of these (and lots of other Russian military equipment) to see at their photostream, and you can head to a warehouse near the front line in the East of Ukraine via the link above.

Merry Liftmas

Leave a reply

This is a Sennebogen 608 telehandler, which is used to lift things and people to and from high places. And its maker Ralph Savelsberg has absolutely missed a Christmas trick by not building a Christmas tree for it to place a star atop. Still, despite the festive omission it is a brilliant build, and includes interchangeable attachments on the extending and elevating boom, deployable stabiliser legs, and some excellent replica decals. You can reach for more images at Ralph’s photostream, where you can take a look at it not placing a star atop a Christmas tree via the link above.

Wipeout!*

Leave a reply

It’s nearly 2026 and we still don’t have anti-gravity vehicles. Engineers; get with the programme already. Fortunately Sony’s ‘Wipeout’ has filled the void for three decades, providing wild anti-gravity racing to electronic beats.

Cue today’s build, this superb recreation of AG-Systems’ ‘Wipeout’ racer from the iconic video game, complete with a mini-figure scale cockpit and a fantastic replica livery.

Newcomer Andre Lackman (aka djdrey909) is its maker, and you can see further of images of his AG-Systems’ racer (and a few of its competitors) on Flickr, plus you can read more about the design and build process as well as access building instructions so you can go anti-gravity racing for yourself at Andre’s excellent website.

*Today’s title song. Of course.

Old Red

Leave a reply

Some cars are so cool that they transcend their real world existence to become something greater. Far greater. This one of those cars.

Owned by previous LEGO designer Craig Callum, whose hand was behind several of the new vehicle sets that have been revealed on these pages over the years, this battered and rusty Ford Model-A Coupe hot rod ‘Old Red’ has become an official Hot Wheels toy, which means that for hundreds, maybe thousands of kids, it’ll be the single best car in all the world.

Of course we’re not ‘The Hot Wheels Car Blog’, and thus today we’re featuring a recreation of Craig’s magnificent hot rod in Lego form, courtesy of regular bloggee _Tiler who has recreated ‘Old Red’ beautifully, complete with Craig at the wheel. There’s more to see at _Tiler’s photostream via the link above, and you can read more about the original car (and than man that owns it) by clicking this bonus link.

Friday Farming

Leave a reply

We’re off to the farm now, courtesy of Konstantin of Flickr and these splendid agricultural machines. The first (above) is an MTZ ‘Belarus’ tractor made in, um… Belarus, whilst below is a very modern looking tracked combine harvester pouring grain into a very un-modern ZIL 130 truck. All are brilliantly detailed for the scale and you can bring in the harvest via the link above.

Wait For It…

Leave a reply

These days, everything is turbocharged. Which normally means a tiny engine, often with three-cylinders, fitted under the hood of a homogenous crossover. Sigh. But turbos used to be cool. Albeit laggy.

This is the BMW 2002 Turbo, one of the first turbocharged production cars, and powered by a 2.0 litre engine fitted with a 0.55 bar twin-scroll KK&K turbocharger that boosted power to almost 170bhp. Well, it did once the turbo-lag was over, usually a few seconds after you asked for it.

Launched in 1973, the 2002 Turbo’s arrival coincided exactly with the oil crisis, which meant it wasn’t exactly a success. The technology it pioneered however, is now fitted to almost every new non-electrified car on sale, and with the lag left in the past.

This excellent brick-built homage to the 2002 Turbo comes from brickphisto of Flickr, who has recreated it beautifully in 8-wide form. The doors, trunk, and hood all open, under the last of which is a replica of the M10-turbo engine that powered it, and there’s more of the model to see at brickphisto’s photostream. Put your foot down and wait a few seconds via the link above.

The Lego Cow Blog

Leave a reply

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.

Yule Logs

Leave a reply

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.

Vintage Viper

Leave a reply

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.

Seaspan Canadian Polar Icebreaker | Picture Special

Leave a reply

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.

Cabs & Cops

Leave a reply

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.

Cardboard Car

Leave a reply

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.

On the Wings of an… um, Seagull

Leave a reply

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.

Chain Plane

Leave a reply

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.