Category Archives: Lego

Rock Tour

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Writing for The Lego Car Blog is much like being in a rock band. Fame, groupies, easy access to drugs and liquor… whilst we get precisely none of those, we do earn $0.0001 every time someone consumes our work. Which means we get paid just like artists do on Spotify.

The future of music is therefore looking bleak (and even more so with AI), but for the tiny fraction of musicians who do make it to the top, there is the promise of traveling the world in a flame-painted truck. Plus fame, groupies, and easy access to drugs and liquor.

Cue this magnificently rendered ‘Flame Tourer’ truck by László Torma, which contains everything a touring rock band needs to put on a moderately-profitable show! Instruments, sound and lighting equipment, and a stage all fit inside – accessed via opening doors and a removable roof – plus there’s a bar and bunk beds for the aforementioned liquor and groupies too.

There’s lots more of László’s creation to see at both Eurobricks and Flickr, and you can join the band on tour via the links above!

The Rat & The Antelope

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Sounding like a whimsical children’s book, today’s post captures two sub-cultures of the car community superbly in Lego form. A brilliant Chevrolet Impala lowrider and rat rod couple, both come from previous bloggee ER0L, and you can take a closer look at this delightfully odd animal pairing on Flickr via the link.

Onward Guinevere!

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It’s normally the inside of an old van that has all the illegal stuff…

This is ‘Guinevere’, the pegasus-painted van of the elven protagonists in Pixar’s ‘Onward’, and it’s got more illegal moves than Max Verstappen.

Held together by a combination of immense skill and hope (we suspect there’s a reason this model is only photographed from one side!), 1saac W.‘s remarkable creation pushes the limits of brick-based building.

Take a closer look at 1ssac’s photostream, just don’t try to pick it up.

Flight of the Camel

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The First World War was pretty pointless, but it did hasten aircraft technology at a rate so astonishing we’re unlikely to see any sector advance so quickly ever again. At least until AI becomes sentient, and then we’re all doomed anyway.

One of the products borne out of this intense pace of development was this, the British Sopwith Camel. Entering service in June 1917, the Camel was the peak of fighter aircraft technology. Powered by a hefty radial engine, armed with twin synchronised machine guns, and with 90% of its weight in its first two meters imbuing it with incredible agility, the Camel scored numerous kills… Until the middle of 1918, when it was obsolete.

This lovely brick-built Camel comes from Thinh Thi, who’s recreated and presented the (briefly) dominant World War 1 fighter superbly, complete with posable ailerons, ‘wire’ wing bracing, and an appropriately attired mini-figure.

There’s more of the model to see at Thinh’s ‘Sopwith Camel’ album, and you can claim air superiority in 1917, or air mediocrity in 1918, via the link above.

Magnum Force

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‘Magnum Force’ is the title of the 1973 sequel to ‘Dirty Harry’, with Clint Eastwood reprising the role of Harry Callahan – and the movie named after an energy drink. Or a signature wrestling move. Or a condom. Or a gun. Probably the last one.

Anyway, as well as Eastwood, ‘Magnum Force’ also starred the 1972 Ford Custom 500, with this neat 6-wide example coming from previous bloggee Sseven Bricks of Flickr.

Some clever techniques recreate the 500’s details, and you can jump back to early ’70s San Fransisco (where everyone seems to die – including the Ford) at Sseven’s photostream via the link above.

The Indestructible Hilux

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The best selling pick-up everywhere except North America, the Toyota Hilux is favoured by farmers, NGOs, terrorists, and… Top Gear.

Some twenty years ago Top Gear embarked on what would become one of their most famous sequences ever filmed. And created the best advert for the Hilux that Toyota could have dreamed of.

Famed for their indestructibility, Top Gear decided to put the Hilux’s toughness to the test. They bought an old rusty example from a farm, and crashed it. A lot. They left it in the sea. Dropped a caravan on it. Set fire to it. Hit it with a wrecking ball. And, finally, placed it atop a tower block, and blew it up.

After all of that the Hilux was – unbelievably –  still working, and thus it became a permanent fixture in the Top Gear studio until the show’s demise. Which means the Hilux didn’t just outlive all of the tests that Top Gear put it through, but even Top Gear itself.

This homage to the world’s most famous pick-up truck comes courtesy of NV Carmocs of Flickr, who has recreated the Top Gear Hilux – dents, buckled chassis, fire-scorched paint and all – brilliantly in brick-form.

There’s more of the model to see at NV’s photostream via the third link in the text above, and if you’re one of the few people on earth that haven’t seen Top Gear’s most famous of vehicle tests, take a look at the first two…

Screen Rant

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LEGO do not make enough types of windscreen. A million types of curved bows, lift-arms, and foliage yes. Windscreens, no.

So regular bloggee _Tiler has flipped a standard 6-wide clear screen 270° to make it fit his wonderful ’64 Chevrolet Impala Convertible.

Ingenious building techniques and/or magic hold it in place, and you can see more of _Tiler’s brilliant solution to LEGO’s chronic windscreen shortage on Flickr via the link above.

Digger

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So prolific are JCBs in TLCB’s home nation that the word ‘digger’ and the acronym ‘JCB’ are used almost interchangeably. In fact this writer remembers a LEGO catalogue from the early ’90s that referred to a Town backhoe set simply as a ‘JCB’, in the days before anyone bothered about licensing.

Cue this excellent digger that is in fact a JCB by Flickr’s keko007. A miniature replica of the brand’s 3CX backhoe, it captures the real deal superbly, including  posable booms and buckets with ingeniously brick-built hydraulic cylinders. There’s more to see at keko’s ‘JCB 3CX Backhoe Loader’ album on Flickr and you can dig your way over to it via the link above.

Booty Shot

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LEGO’s pirate treasure chest piece is normally found with, um… pirates. But not today, because it works perfectly as the boot-mounted chest of this lovely vintage Citroen by Flickr’s K P. Photographed beautifully, there’s more of K P’s model to see on Flickr. Click the link above for more booty shots.

Plastic Fantastic

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The plastic bodykit is more associated with badly modified hatchbacks than supercars. But that didn’t stop Lamborghini, who – in the mid-’80s – bolted the mother and father of all bodykits onto their ageing but previously svelte Countach to make it fit for the Decade of Excess, and in doing so created the poster car of the time.

Previous bloggee RGB900 has recreated the aforementioned bodykit – and the Countach that’s somewhere underneath it – brilliantly in brick form, complete with opening doors and engine cover, and a removable engine. There’s more of the model to see at RGB’s photostream, and you can jump back to investment banking in the ’80s via the link above.

Night Out Of The Museum

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It’s Star Wars Day! So to celebrate here’s a classic Porsche 936.81 Le Mans racer. Yeh, we’re not great at sci-fi. But no matter, because the story of the Porsche 936.81 is much more interesting than George Lucas’s space saga.

First racing in the mid-70s, the 936 was rather outdated by the early ’80s, and thus surviving units were residing in a museum. Needing a car for Le Mans, Porsche brought the cars out of retirement, brought their drivers out of retirement too, and fitted a detuned engine from an Indy Car.

The resultant hodge-podge unbelievably won the 1981 Le Mans 24 Hours, with a museum-piece car, a retired driver, and a left-over engine. And that’s a better story than anything in Star Wars.

Built by previous bloggee SFH_Bricks, this fantastic Speed Champions recreation of the 936.81 captures the unlikely race winner brilliantly, and there’s more to see of his superbly presented model at his ‘1981 Porsche 9361.81’ album here.

Using Tongue

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Lightning McQueen has deployed his tongue to get over the finish line first in Bousker‘s scene from the movie ‘Cars’, which captures the trio of racing protagonists wonderfully. Will McQueen’s tongue win him the cup? Take a look via the link above.

Street Fight

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Pew! Pew! Bhoooouum! Screeeeeaaanch! An in-depth and comprehensive summary there, of this absolutely phenomenal scene from Flickr’s Carter. A spectacular homage to LEGO’s Exo-Force theme, this is the single most dynamic creation we have ever seen, and there’s more to see of this astonishingly effectual build at Carter’s photostream. Click the link above, watch the pavement explode in front of you, and get ready to duck.

Truckster

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Trucks are designed to haul heavy things, rather slowly. So regular bloggee 1saac W. has turned his classic Ford C-Series truck into a dragster, a vehicle capable of hauling nothing at all, very quickly.

The Elves of course, devoid of logic, love this approach, and – because we have the minds of seven-year-olds – we do too.

Thus if you’re an Elf, seven, or just think like one, you can check out 1saac’s beautifully built and wonderfully pointless Ford C600 on Flickr via the link above!