Category Archives: Lego

Cherokee

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’90s off-roaders are becoming rather cool these days. As almost every car is now an SUV/Crossover, with zero off-road ability and all looking pretty much the same, old-school body-on-frame 4x4s stand out rather nicely. Admittedly they’re still total crap to drive on the road, but that’s part of the charm.

Jeep’s XJ-series Cherokee was at the start of the school-run 4×4 craze that has led the automotive market to the dismal place it is today, but the ageing American SUV is actually a capable off-roader, particularly when fitted with a few choice modifications.

That’s what regular bloggee SP_LINEUP has done with his 8-wide ’90s Cherokee, equipping his with a suspension lift and wide arches for big tyres, a bull-bar with spotlights and a winch, a snorkel for wading, and rear mounted spare that would make the tailgate impossible to open.

It all looks most excellent and there’s more to see of SP’s modified Jeep Cherokee at his photostream – click the link above to go off-road.

Stick Shift

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Here’s a stick man on a stick bike. Stick with us because whilst we’re a car blog we bet for most of you reading this your first vehicle was a bicycle, and the first person you ever drew was of the stick variety. Which is good enough for us. Milan Sekiz is the artist and there’s more to see on Flickr. Click here to make it stick.

Flight of Fancy

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This is not a car, and nor is it a real aircraft, instead coming from the video game ‘Ace Combat’. It’s also a bit nonsensical, being Japanese but named after a Welsh dragon, however… it looks so cool!

Built by Corvin Stichert of Flickr, this beautifully detailed mini-figure version of the fictional ‘X-02 Wyvern’ fighter captures the variable geometry design brilliantly, and there’s more to see at Corvin’s ‘X-02 Wyvern’ album. Click here to fly over to the complete gallery.

And to Our Future. No Matter Who it May Take Us up Against, or Where…

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It’s the early ’80s, perms are big, jackets are leather, and 200mph, self-driving, talking cars exist only in the imagination. And then NBC shoved C-3PO into the dashboard of a Pontiac Trans-Am. Perms remained big and jackets remained leather, but the 200mph, self-driving, talking car was now a reality, on screen at least.

The Knight Industries Two Thousand (K.I.T.T) became the coolest car for every eight year old in ’80s America, and even though most of the technology it featured is now hilariously out-of-date (even Mrs. TLCB Writer’s compact hatchback can do more* today), it’s still one of the most famous and enduring TV cars of all time.

Capturing K.I.T.T superbly in mini-figure scale, László Torma has constructed a 6-wide version of the camp coupe complete with a mini-fig Michael Knight, and he’s made instructions available too so that you can build your very own. Head to Laszlo’s photostream via the link above to take “a shadowy flight into the dangerous world of a man that doesn’t exist. Michael Knight, a young loner on a crusade to champion the cause of the innocent, the powerless, and the helpless in a world of criminals that operate above the law“. It doesn’t get any more ’80s than that!

*OK, it can’t do 200mph, despite the way Mrs. TLCB Writer drives it.

Air Pirate

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Is there anything cooler than a fighter jet with a skull and crossbones painted on it? The answer is no, and thus here’s Lennart Cort‘s Grumman F-14 Tomcat resplendent in VF-84 ‘Jolly Rogers’ livery. See more at the link!

Le Mans 2018

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This spectacular array of racing cars is the entire Le Mans 2018 GTE Pro grid, just one of the four categories that compete side-by-side at the world’s greatest motor race.

Built over two years by Lasse Deleuran, all teams and driver combinations from the GTE Pro class of 2018 are present, with Ferrari, BMW, Aston Martin, Chevrolet, Ford, and the race-winning Porsche squad recreated brilliantly in Miniland scale, many of which have featured here individually over the last two years.

Instructions for every single GTE Pro car are available for free, and you can see more of each racer and find the link to recreate your very own Le Mans 2018 GTE Pro grid via Lasse’s photostream by clicking here.

Return of the Mav

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This is an F/A-18 Super Hornet, and it is definitely not a car. But it is awesome, and it comes from Lennart Cort, who has recreated Maverick’s training aircraft from the upcoming Top Gun 2 movie in beautifully smooth fashion. There’s more of Lennart’s F/A-18 to see on Flickr – head into the skies over the Navada desert via the link above.

300 ‘Z’s

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Nissan’s current range of vehicles is about as interesting as a Brothers Brick parts cataloguing evening. Still, it used to be more noteworthy, particularly in the ‘90s when the brand made several sports cars and sports sedans, including this, the 300ZX.

This excellent Speed Champions style recreation of the 300ZX comes from regular blogger SP_LINEUP and there’s more to see at his photostream. Click the link above to view a Nissan that won’t send you to sleep, a maybe dream their rumoured new 400Z heralds a sports car return.

Gemera

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The Koenigsegg Gemera – the brand’s first four-seater – hasn’t been released yet, but has already generated a fair bit of interest thanks to a 2.0 three-cylinder engine that is supposed to make a scarcely believable 600bhp. Of course we’re in the age of electrification now though, so that’s not all the Gemera has, with three electric motors boosting the total power to a claimed 1,600bhp.

Normally at this point we’d lose interest, as we do with every hypercar concept proclaiming ridiculous performance figures, however Koenigsegg do have a habit of building what they say they will, making the Gemera concept really very interesting indeed.

We have a while to wait until we learn how realistic Koenigsegg are being, so until then here’s a Speed Champions version of the wild 1,600bhp hyper-sedan from previous bloggee Gerald Cacas, who has captured the 2020 concept car beautifully, even matching its real world colour scheme.

There’s more to see of Gerald’s model at his Koenigsegg Gemera album on Flickr – click the link above to make the jump.

Brick Bull

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Lamborghini, like Volkswagen’s other brands Audi, Porsche, Ducati, and… er, Volkswagen, are now officially partnered with LEGO. Unfortunately so far the cars they’ve chosen to recreate in the brick are the butt-ugly Urus and a hypercar we’ve never heard of. We’d much rather see an Adventador set, particularly if – like today’s model – it’s orange.

Suggested by a reader this is David Elisson‘s Lamborghini Aventador and it is almost ridiculously accurate for its size. A myriad of complex techniques have been deployed to recreate the Aventador’s wild shape (just look at that windscreen surround!) and it is – as you can see here – really very orange indeed.

There’s more to see of David’s stunning Speed Champions Lamborghini at his photostream – take a look via the link above.

A Quick Cig

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The FIA is hardly a bastion of morality, but it has at least outlawed cigarette advertising on racing cars. Unless you’re Ferrari of course. Back in the ’90s though, promoting cancer was so acceptable that Williams not only had Camel cigarettes adorning its 1992 Adrian Newey-designed FW14B, they teamed it with alcohol sponsorship too.

We’re not sure the Camel or Labatt’s logos enhanced the FW14B’s speed in any way, but the money they brought sure helped, and Williams duly won the 1992 Championship – and made Nigel Mansell World Champion – with a then-record 9 race wins.

This brilliant small-scale replica of the title-winning Williams comes from TLCB Master MOCer Luca Rusconi (aka RoscoPC), who is better known for his hugely detailed large-scale Formula 1 recreations. Built using a fraction of the pieces but just as recognisable, Luca has turned his hand to historic racing cars on a much smaller scale, with the advantage of course that these are easier for others to build at home.

Suggested to us by a reader (and past bloggee themselves), Luca’s Williams FW14B is available to view on Rebrickable, where instructions can be purchased alongside those for a host of other famous classic F1 cars. Click here to see all the images and find downloadable building instructions to turn 169 pieces into William’s championship-winning cigarette advertisement.

Switch-a-Stallion

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If you’ve got one Ferrari in your stable, you probably have another too. And maybe another. If you’re like us though, even one Ferrari is a very long way out of reach, despite the glamour, fame, and groupies that blogging Lego creations brings.

Fortunately regular bloggee Angka Utama has an answer to the multiple Ferraris conundrum, with an update to his previously featured 308 GTS and 348 Testa Rossa models.

Angka’s design now includes some cunningly hidden pins and clips, allowing the 308 to morph into a 348 and back again in just few seconds. It’s like Transformers if they transformed from a robot into a slightly different robot.

Each classic Ferrari looks properly recognisable (plus we think interchangeable Ferraris would make a brilliant official LEGO Speed Champions set), and there’s more to see of how Angka has done it at his photostream. Click here to add two Ferraris to your Lego garage.

Alright M8

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How every text received and sent by this TLCB Writer began back in the 2000s. What happened to text-speak? Anyway, this M8 isn’t shorthand, being BMW’s Le Mans GTE racing car from the 2018 24 Hour race. Previous bloggee Lasse Deleuran is building the entire grid of Le Mans racers and there’s more to see of this superb Miniland-scale recreation of BMW’s GTE endurance racer on both Flickr and at the Eurobricks forum, where free building instructions are also available. Click the links to take a look, and where you can LOL, OMG, YOLO, and all the rest.

Eastern Education

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Every day’s a school day. Following yesterday’s post featuring a vehicle by a successful German truck manufacturer that we’d never heard of, here’s another.

This is an Industrieverband Fahrzeugbau W 50, or ‘IFA W50’ for short, which is what we shall definitely be calling it. Constructed in East Germany from 1965 to 1990, the IFA W 50 was titled simply after the conglomerate that ran all of the East German vehicle manufactures at the time, including Trabant, Wartburg, and a host of other rubbish Communist companies, plus a few designs pinched from West German DKW.

Like many manufacturers behind the Iron Curtain the W 50 was produced in huge numbers, partly because it was built for so long, and partly because, well… you couldn’t buy much else.

Almost 600,000 IFA W 50s were built during its 25 year production run across over sixty body varieties, with up to 80% exported throughout the Soviet Union and sympathetic countries in some years, until Germany reunified and the Union began to collapse, abruptly ending production in 1990.

This neat Lego recreation of the East German truck comes from Clemens Schneider (aka popider) of Flickr and it features a working tipper and a rather accurate drivetrain too. Head to Clemens’ ‘IFA W 50’ album via the link to see all the images.

Limey

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We’re not really sure why the British are named after fruits. Australians call them ‘Poms’ (short for pomegranate) whilst in the U.S. they’re ‘Limy’. Whatever the reason (probably something to do with boats and avoiding scurvy), it’s a good fit for today’s post, which is both British and very lime indeed.

These two searingly-coloured creations are Aston Martin Vantage AMR GTE racers, which competed in the GTE Pro category at Le Mans 2018, and made a rather wonderful noise to boot.

Previous bloggee Lasse Deluran has recreated the #95 and #97 cars beautifully in Minland scale, replicating their very lime liveries superbly too.

There’s more to see of Lasse’s Aston Martin Vantage AMR racers at both Flickr and the Eurobricks forum, where you can also find a link to building instructions should you wish to recreate these for yourself. You may need to buy some lime coloured bricks though…