Category Archives: Review

LEGO Icons 10353 Williams Racing FW14B & Nigel Mansell | Review

1 Reply

The Lego Car Blog Review Library is packed with over one-hundred LEGO sets, books, compatible products, and even a theme park. But it didn’t have moustache. Until now…

Yes today we’ve finally reviewed the magnificent championship-winning facial topiary of mini-figure Nigel Mansell. And the car that transported it; the wonderful Williams-Renault FW14B.

Constructed from 799 pieces and aimed at ages 18+ (more on that later), the Icons 10353 Williams Racing FW14B brings one of Formula 1’s most famous racing cars to the LEGO range as part of the expansive array of Formula 1 cars past and present released in 2025.

It also brings one of the best enhancements LEGO have made to their vehicle line up in, well… ever, because 10353 features new proper, staggered-width slicks. Hurrah! These are even correctly branded ‘Goodyear’, forming part of 10353’s superb set of accurate sponsors, with only the tobacco ones (this was the early ’90s) absent.

These sponsors are all stickers of course, with the few printed tiles reserved for livery duty, but it’s an F1 car, so that’s appropriate. Gloriously, the technical details of the Williams Racing FW14B are all brick-built – no sticker-based laziness here – and some are really quite intricate. Whilst others are really quite pointless…

Before we explain why, 10353 begins with a large black box we’re used to seeing for the adult ‘display’ sets, inside which are a number of bags, now paper rather than plastic (good job LEGO), the aforementioned stickers, and the instructions.

The latter include some reasonably complicated sub-assemblies, and a little Nigel Mansell mini-figure progresses along the bottom of the pages as you build to chart your progress (although sadly he’s in profile so his moustache is obscured). Another nice touch is that a few pages include a fact about either the real car, or explain what it is you’re recreating in brick-form, which is something we think could benefit many sets, not just the 18+ ones.

The working features of 10353 are limited to steering and a removable engine cover, this set is all about visual display. As evidenced by the fact the last bag of pieces is reserved solely for a display stand, whilst the first contains mini-figure Mansell and an iceberg upon which he can stand for some reason.

Frankly we’re not sure these add anything to the set, other than perhaps being the ’18+’ differentiator (whilst 10353 does feature some advanced techniques, it’s no more technical a build than many younger-rated sets), however the Williams-Renault FW14B itself is excellent.

Immensely detailed, 10353 includes enough greebly-grey pieces to keep even the Lego Space Community happy, with probably a dozen of these, plus the same number of bows and clips, completely alien to this TLCB Writer.

Many of these parts form the mighty Renault V10 engine, accessible once the engine cover is removed, but weirdly many more are hidden elsewhere in the model with no way to access them whatsoever. The only person who’ll see that detail is you during the build process, before you cover them up forever with blue and yellow bodywork.

We’re not quite sure why LEGO chose to add invisible internal detail to a model that’s designed to be put on a shelf, and for us both it – and the display stand and iceberg – are rather superfluous, inflating the price beyond where it needed to be. At £70 / $80, 10353 is far too expensive.

However the car is spectacular to behold, more delicate than most LEGO sets, and more visually detailed too. It’s also currently available for quite a bit less than the £70 / $80 launch price, which means that even if you – like us – feel the stand, iceberg, and invisible detailing are pointless costly additions, you can make the Williams Racing FW14B absolutely worth your investment.

★★★★½

The Great LEGO Puzzle Book | Review

Leave a reply

Things have been quiet here at TLCB Towers. Days have passed without us publishing anything, during which time the only sound in the office was the soft clicking together of bricks. And that’s because our friends at No Starch Press sent us a copy of their new book to review, and it’s a belter! This is The Great LEGO Puzzle Book by Jacob Berg.

An ingenious idea (that we’re amazed hasn’t surfaced until now), The Great LEGO Puzzle Book takes a handful of the most basic pieces that all LEGO fans are likely to own, and uses them to create over a hundred building puzzles.

Jacob begins The Great LEGO Puzzle Book with ‘2D to 3D’, with the challenge being to turn an image of pieces in profile into a real-life 3D stack. The challenges progress with increasing difficulty before moving on to more complex variations via ‘Complete the Cube’, ‘Master the Shadows’, ‘Third Shape Missing’, and lastly – our favourite – ‘Fill It!’, which is kinda like a brick-based version of that wild Japanese game show.

Each of the aforementioned chapters contains dozens of puzzles, solvable using the same basic LEGO pieces, and is seriously addictive. It’s also seriously accessible, and a great game to play with kids that teaches both building and orientation skills, with all of the solutions detailed in the book’s final chapter and a few hints given along the way.

Our copy of The Great LEGO Puzzle Book was in digital form, which was clear and easy to read, and with several physical copies of No Starch’s past titles on shelves here in the office we’re confident the printed version will be up to their usual high standard.

The Great LEGO Puzzle Book is rather unique (and captivating) addition the No Starch’s expansive LEGO book catalegue, deploying our favourite little plastic bricks to a whole new purpose. If you like sudoku, crosswords, brain puzzles, or Rubik’s Cubes (or you know someone that is), we can thoroughly recommended it

On sale in the No Starch Press store, The Great LEGO Puzzle Book is available now at $17 for printed and $14 for eBook versions, which is a bargain to keep yourself (or a partner, friend, or your children) wholesomely amused for hours.

★★★★★

Legoland Windsor | Review

1 Reply

It’s review time here at The Lego Car Blog, but unusually we’re not reviewing a LEGO set, because we – and a few Elven stow-aways – took an exciting trip to the Legoland Windsor Resort!

First opening in 1996, Legoland Windsor is located just outside Windsor in the south east of England and is now the UK’s post popular theme park, with a huge 2.4 million people visiting per year. That’s even more than the original Legoland park in LEGO’s native Billund.

Comprising of several hotels, miniature golf, and the park itself across 150 acres, there is a lot going on, and we’re focussing on the park today.

Arrival by car is relatively easy, with the magic beginning at the roundabout just outside the entrance, which features a few life-size brick-built deer recreating those that inhabit the surrounding royal forest, and making it much more interesting than the faded road signs, garden centre sponsorship, and ‘We Clear Your Junk’ posters that usually adorn the UK’s junctions.

The magic ends in the carpark however, which features nothing LEGO-y whatsoever, unless you count painted concrete blocks. A missed opportunity.

Fear not though, because it restarts a short walk up the hill to the entrance, which not only includes some impressively large models, but a view across the whole park beneath it, Windsor Castle (the real one), and – on a clear day – the skyscrapers of London beyond.

This view is afforded by the park stretching across a plain below the entrance, which is accessed by either the Hill Train or a switchback walk. The train runs regularly and has lots of space for wheelchairs and buggies, and has been pulling itself up and down the hill for nearly thirty years.

Which brings us to a notable deficiency of the Legoland Windsor park… its age. Well, not its age per-say, but its upkeep.

Back in the early ’00s The LEGO Company was in deep financial trouble, and thus it sold its theme parks to Merlin Entertainments to raise capital, who have since (in Legoland Windsor’s case) done a tremendous job increasing visitor numbers. But a terrible one painting a decorating.

The Hill Train (the first thing most visitors will ride) is faded and rotting, and where it deposits you (the iconic Miniland brick-built world) is little better. There are new models here (as it has evolved alongside the cities it recreates), including a fantastic space shuttle that blasts off every so often, but most models have stood since 1996. Which means today they are looking very tired indeed. One advantage of the passage of time however is the landscaping, which was exceptional at the park’s creation and has matured wonderfully in the three decades since.

Anyway, on to the rides… Continue reading →

The LEGO Builder’s Handbook | Review

Leave a reply

We like books here at TLCB Towers and have a growing library of titles written by members of the LEGO Community, sharing their knowledge, techniques, and sometimes even building instructions with their fellow LEGO fans.

Cue our friends at No Starch Press, whose latest title ‘The LEGO Builder’s Handbook | Become a Master Builder’ was offered to us for review. But who better to review a book about becoming a Master Builder than someone who’s attained that status already! Thus said copy was dispatched to one of our TLCB Master MOCers, the immensely talented Kyle Wigboldly (aka Thirdwigg), for a vastly more qualified appraisal than our own. Over to Kyle!

…

In today’s internet centrick world, you can find any group to connect with that you need or want. We in the LEGO world can find any number of ways to connect with other builders just like us. We are constantly barraged with the specific LEGO interest sites, reviews, and purchasing options. So there is something refreshing for me about being presented with a book that may not fully connect with my specific build interest. Reading a LEGO book can be a nice way to slow down and wander along with where the author is leading you, rather than in the direction a nondescript algorithm (or TLCB Elf. Ed.) is pushing me. The LEGO Builder’s Handbook written by Deepak Shenoy is such a book to let me wander. The book was published in 2024 by No Starch Press, longtime publishing friends of the LEGO community.

The book is organized in three main parts; The Basics, Breaking Free of the Grid, and Computer Assisted Builds. While there are a number of pictures, renders, and examples, this is a text heavy book. Rather than showing lots of images of what others have built, the book focuses on teaching you how to build. It shows various ways you can expand your building techniques provided you have the parts needed. Though it is hard to define for whom this book is written.

The audience seems broad which is evident when you start with The Basics. As a LEGO builder who is squarely in the LEGO Technic area of building, this book is not directly for me. But the value started to be more clear when I started sharing the book with various children in my house and neighborhood. But ‘The LEGO Builder’s Handbook’ is not squarely directed to them as well. I found the book is at its best when experienced with a wide range of building skills. The book starts with learning the basics about building with system bricks; how do you make a strong wall, and how do you think about recreating a scale building with the correct propositions? There are skills that every good builder will need to learn to become a better one. Skills that the children in my life do not yet know. But working through the book together gave them some tools to get better. This section used building a large Empire State Building model as a throughline to demonstrate the skills being shared. I found this connection both practical and overwhelming. It was nice to see how the skills being taught could be applied to a large, and impressive building, but it was overwhelming because moving straight from learning about how to use overlapping brickwork to a three foot tall structure is a little bit of a leap.

The next section, Breaking Free of the Grid, had less of a practical/applicable gap. If you want to take your building from “thanks for showing me your creation” to “featured on The LEGO Car Blog,” working outside of the grid is the best next step a builder can make. It is in this chapter that both myself and the children in my life could connect on is the fascinating mathematical integration of the LEGO system. Stacking brick and plates, using brackets and sideways studded bricks, and half stud offset, continue to impress upon me the versatility of the LEGO system. This chapter of the book is extensive, and fascinating. A whole chapter is focused on the half stud offsets, and another on building with SNOT (studs not on top).

The final chapter, my favorite, is the chapter about angled building (so much math!) This chapter is accessible, but it is certainly not entry level. An experienced builder should be expected to know and use this information. A growing builder will need to develop into these areas, and this book gives you the tools and images to help you with this. This part of the book shines brightest.

Continue reading →

IDisplayIt LEGO Display Case | Review

1 Reply

Here at The Lego Car Blog, we – somewhat unsurprisingly – love LEGO cars. And trucks. And motorbikes. Which means we own rather a lot of them.

It also means that the LEGO fans foe – dust – plagues TLCB Team, with our sets and creations all gradually turning grey unless we get a paintbrush out or the bristly attachment thingy on the vacuum-cleaner.

However even then our LEGO models still face a grave peril, what with there apparently being “a ridiculous number” of them, and further partner complaints such as “Our living room is not looking like a toy shop”. But that’s not our fault. LEGO models take up loads of space. Or do they?…

Cue Official LEGO Affiliate IDisplayIt, and their huge range of LEGO display cases. Constructed from 3mm clear acrylic, IDisplayIt’s cases are strong, beautifully machined, and – best of all – stackable, allowing models can be placed on top of one another so that you have space for even more! er, we mean they’re less likely to annoy long-suffering partners.

IDisplayIt sent us two of their cases to review, the Display Case for the LEGO 10295 Porsche 911 (which is also the perfect size for several other sets), and a copy of their Display Case for the LEGO 10321 Corvette, complete with a period-appropriate pre-applied vinyl background.

Each case arrived flat-packed in a well-protected envelope, and – as per rivals BOXXCO – with all six sides covered in a protective film which is immensely satisfying to peel off. Unlike the previously reviewed BOXXCO offering though, iDisplayIt’s design uses twistable plastic connectors to join the sides together, instead of machined aluminium blocks.

Whilst we appreciated the engineering of those metal cubes, iDisplayIt’s method offers a number of advantages, with the connectors being less visible (matching the transparency of the case panels), requiring no tools (an allen key is provided), and taking mere minutes to construct with half the number of screws. Seriously, we spent longer removing the protective film. Although we did really enjoy that.

IDisplayIt’s cases are also beautifully engineered, with a superbly printed background in the case of the Corvette, and with tolerances that LEGO themselves would be proud of. The result is that IDisplayIt’s cases make the LEGO models within them look absolutely fantastic, so much so – and we don’t give such scores away lightly – that they earn the maximum TLCB rating. Yes, they really are that good.

Order in the next few days (if you’re reading this at the time of publication) and IDisplayIt will guarantee Christmas delivery, or if you’re reading this a little later they’ll do their best (just let them know).

You can check out the full range of IDisplayIt’s LEGO Display Cases via the region-specific links below. We recommend you do.

IDisplayIt Stores;

United Kingdom | Europe | United States / Rest of World

★★★★★

The Worst LEGO Sets Reviewed by TLCB

Leave a reply

The LEGO Car Blog’s ‘Review Library‘ contains well over a hundred LEGO set, book, and third party LEGO-compatible product reviews. It also, with an average score of 7.8/10, shows that we generally rate LEGO sets rather highly. No surprises there.

However, whilst several LEGO sets have achieved a coveted 10/10 or 5 Star score, depending upon which rating system we remembered to use at the time, a few… haven’t.

So here they are, the worst LEGO sets we’ve reviewed to date. Although bear in mind we haven’t reviewed any of the abysmal Jack Stone or Galidor sets. And nor do we plan to…

8865 Test Car

Lego 8865

What, a Technic Supercar made this list? Well, two could have in fact, each earning a thoroughly mediocre score of 6/10, but this one’s more controversial.

The 8865 Test Car arrived in 1988, and brought bodywork – of sorts – to the ‘supercar’ chassis formula for the first time. Double wishbone suspension appeared front and rear, as did a V4 engine (still using the old square pistons) hooked up to a three-speed gearbox, some truly rubbish seats, and a plethora of LEGO’s early ‘interference fit’ black pins, which meant that once the Test Car was built, there really was no taking it apart again. Which kinda defeats the whole point of LEGO.

Our reviewer wasn’t overly impressed by the end result, and took his ire out in Review form, his fingers likely still stinging from trying to dismantle it.

8437 Sahara Blaster

Lego Technic 8437 Sahara Blaster

Fast forward a decade and – visually at least – LEGO could still get it just as wrong. This is the 8347 Sahara Blaster, “a sort-of dune buggy, Paris-Dakar type thing, but so loose was its affiliation with the real world vehicles on which it was apparently based in some markets LEGO called it the ‘Future Car’ to hide its inaccuracies”, to quote our reviewer.

It wasn’t just the looks though, as for some unfathomable reason LEGO decided to use their ‘Flex-System’ for the steering arms, which meant the steering broke constantly. It was also rubbish at actually steering, so when the 8437 was fitted with the neat slide-in 9V electric motor, it was incredible easy to crash. Which would break the steering again.

The Sahara Blaster was not a favourite, but it could’ve been worse – it could have been that awful B-Model. Or our next set…

8432 Red Hot Machine

Lego Technic 8432 Review

A year later and LEGO were still flex-tubing mad, with almost every set from 1998 sporting it one way or another. The 8432 Red Hot Machine probably wore this new look the best, looking sleek, futuristic, and enticingly modern with the inclusion of a ‘CD-ROM Game’.

It also included, alongside poor steering and even poorer suspension, some very funky looking new parts – just look at those wheels! Except – despite appearing on a range of 1998 Technic sets – they were never to be seen again. And nor it seems, was the ‘CD-ROM’ game, which doesn’t exist anywhere on the internet.

Everything exists on the internet, but the Red Hot Machine’s game? Nope. Gone. Which probably tells you all you need to know about it. 5/10, and one of LEGO’s darkest years.

42058 Stunt Bike

LEGO 42058 Stunt Bike Review

There was a time when Technic ‘Starter’ sets included everything the big sets did. Steering, piston engines, suspension… all gone by 2017.

What we got instead was a pull-back motor, a cardboard ramp, and a ’40th Anniversary of Technic’ brick. And the single worst motorcycle ever conceived.

The Technic 42058 Stunk Bike achieved the lowest score of any set in the Review Library, earning just a 3/10.

However 42058 is still a LEGO set. And that means it can be taken apart to be turned into something altogether better than the model on the front of the box.

Thus, even a bad LEGO set, remains a thoroughly excellent toy.

…

You can find all the LEGO sets reviewed here at The Lego Car Blog – both good and bad (although none are really that bad) – in the Review Library, and if you think we’ve missed a set that should be included, do let us know, especially if you think you own a set worse than 42058. Just as long as it’s not Galidor.

The LEGO Lighting Book | Review

1 Reply

LEGO and lighting have been wired together for decades. From early 4.5V lighting sets, via the 12V and 9V eras, to the latest LEGO LEDs, a huge range of sets have been enhanced by the addition of light over the years.

Of course it took third-party companies about five minutes to figure out that for a niche group of builders, there was demand to go well beyond LEGO’s own lighting offerings. Cue Game of Bricks, Lightailing and others, who have created some fantastically intricate, fully programmable lighting products designed to bring official LEGO sets to life.

But building with LEGO isn’t just about official sets. The best models are those designed and built uniquely, using scale, techniques, and themes that could never be packaged into what is at heart a children’s toy.

These are the models we publish here of course, many of which have an even greater potential to be brought to twinkly life by in-built illumination. Now Brickworld Coordinator Brian M. Williams and the excellent No Starch Press can show you how. This is The Lego Lighting Book.

Available in digital download or hardback, The LEGO Lighting Book is the latest in No Starch Press’ ever-expanding catalogue of brick-based titles. Combining LEGO history, step-by-step building instructions, example images, and a few not-quite-purist approaches to wiring lighting into LEGO bricks, Brian M. Williams’ runs to around 180 pages, with production and printing as lovely as we have come to expect from No Starch Press publications. That said, it is worth noting that whilst most images are super sharp, a few look like they were taken in the dark on a camera phone in 2009. Probably because they were.

The book begins with a brief background to lighting at Lego shows, and a history of LEGO’s own range of lighting components, before moving on to applications, step-by-step instructions, and – interestingly – a bit more physics and electronics than we were expecting.

Whilst rather detailed, the author makes good use of imagery, layout and white space to ensure The LEGO Lighting Book is easy to follow and engaging, exemplified by high quality building instructions that both demonstrate how to build – and then illuminate – example creations, and also create brick-built electronics components, which is something of a niche within a niche.

Not all of the instructional builds will be suitable for everyone however, with the steps of a few involving ‘double-sided tape’, ‘soldering’, and one beginning with “drill holes to create a path for the wires”…

Continue reading →

BOXXCO LEGO Display Case | Review

2 Replies

Displaying LEGO sets. Or creations for that matter. Part of the appeal of LEGO vehicles is that, once complete, they can look rather awesome on a shelf. LEGO themselves have recognised this, releasing ever more intricate (and expensive) sets, many with the express aim of being a ‘display piece’. The “Adults Welcome” advertising tagline isn’t for nothing you know.

However, displaying a LEGO model isn’t without faff. Particularly for those responsible for dusting. But what if there was a way to display a LEGO set, or a custom creation, in a crystal clear case, sized perfectly and exactly for the model within it, just like a frame for a picture…

Enter display case specialists BOXXCO, and their brand new officially-LEGO-affiliated range.

Constructed from premium acrylic (which is both recycled and recyclable), BOXXCO’s range of display cases encompasses over 150 LEGO sets at the time of writing, from Technic cars to Harry Potter, and everything in-between. Better yet, cases can also be specified to bespoke dimensions, so if you own a LEGO set not yet catered for, you can create a case to fit it. Or – as we did – you can design the perfect case for your own creation.

Designing a custom case is the work of but a moment via the BOXXCO website; simply input the dimensions of your model (plus a bit), choose your background and base type, and BOXXCO will machine a unique display case accordingly.

Ours – a suitably enormous case for an enormous vehicle – arrived promptly, well packaged, and with each of the five clear acrylic sides covered with a peelable protective film. If you’re the kind of person that revels in peeling the protection from the screen of a new phone, the act of removing BOXXCO’s film is worth the price of admission alone.

Once (satisfyingly) removed, you’re left with five clear panels, a black base, and a few little bags of beautifully machined metal blocks and screws. Read on to find out how we got on with assembly, and what we put inside…*

Continue reading →

BuWizz 3.0 Pro & BuWizz Motor | Review

34 Replies

Regular visitors to this smoking hole in the ground will have seen countless creations featured with the word ‘BuWizz’ included in the description. Over the last half decade the third-party bluetooth battery has brought remote control to thousands of Lego models, delivering levels of power previously impossible.

Our four star review of the BuWizz 2.0 back in 2018 highly commended the product for ease of use and – as we’re children – the enormous power it could deliver, whilst recognising a few areas for development.

Now, four years on, we have the BuWizz 3.0 Pro (and a pair of BuWizz Motors) to see how the BuWizz team have spent their last couple of years…

BuWizz 3.0 Pro

Our BuWizz 3.0 Pro arrived in a professional looking box, inside which was the bluetooth battery brick itself, a slim instruction booklet, and a USB-C charge cable. Points already awarded for progress, as the BuWizz 2.0 included no such cable to enable charging.

The booklet amounts to only two pieces of information; charging, and the app. Charging is simple, just plug in the cable, watch the lights blink, and come back later. The app too, is an ease. Replacing the original BuWizz app (which now becomes a ‘legacy’ one), we quickly found our device, completed a required firmware update (super easy, barely an inconvenience) and began building a controller.

There are plenty of pre-loaded controllers, but BuWizz now allows you to create your own customised controller – something that was lacking from the software when we reviewed the 2.0 several years ago – bringing it bang in line with its chief rival SBrick.

The new BuWizz 3.0 allows control of up to four Powered Up motors (or sensors) and two Power Functions (or old 9V) motors, all of which are powered by the in-built high-performance Li-Po battery, and each of which can be measured via the on-board current sensors and identified by individual port RGB LEDs – clever stuff.

Quality is excellent, with the plastic feeling perhaps slightly shinier than an official LEGO item, but otherwise its equal, and a good step up over the 2.0. Where the 3.0 Pro really scores though, is in its programmability.

A giant leap forward compared to the 2.0, the 3.0 now offers not just immense power, but programable power, and – as per the famous tyre slogan – ‘Power is Nothing Without Control’.

A range of sliders, buttons, joysticks, and even a tilt function (so you can use your phone’s own accelerometer) can be created, assigned to ports, and labelled, plus there are now a suite of gauges available too, including g-meters and voltage. This makes the BuWizz 3.0 and ideal tool not just for creating custom motorised Lego creations, but to learn (or teach) robotics and programming too.

BuWizz Motor

We attached two BuWizz Motors to the Power Functions ports of our BuWizz 3.0 Pro for our test, and they are mega.

Comparable with LEGO’s own discontinued Buggy Motor, the BuWizz Motor matches the dimensions, weight, and connections of LEGO’s most powerful ever motor, but brings 20% more power (and at a higher RPM), with nominal gains in torque and efficiency too.

Like the 3.0 Pro, quality is excellent. Soldering is visible through the motor cooling vents (which – although these are larger than the official LEGO item – we suspect LEGO wouldn’t countenance), but nevertheless this is a top quality item, well moulded, and robustly assembled. BuWizz back this up with a 2 Year guarantee, which is double LEGO’s standard warranty for electrics.

Our motors delivered prodigious power, now easily controlled via the BuWizz app, which meant only a few TLCB Elves were run over during testing (and – if we’re honest – some of them may have been on purpose). With the old BuWizz system all the power but none of the finesse meant almost anything within sight was a potential accident.

A PF-compatible cable is integrated into the BuWizz Motor too, so it can be powered and controlled by an official LEGO system (likewise the BuWizz 3.0 Pro can power and control an official LEGO motor also), but to really take advantage of the most powerful LEGO-compatible motor on the market, you can’t beat BuWizz’s programmable control with ‘Ludicrous Mode’…

Verdict

And that’s where the BuWizz ecosystem really excels. Always the place to go for the most power, BuWizz have not only improved their core bluetooth battery with even more power, up to 100m range, and increased ports – in doing so producing the only product on the market able to control Powered Up and Power Functions simultaneously – the BuWizz app now enables all of that to be programmed and customised without a computer and without programming skills.

Whether creating a simple skid-steer rig as we did, or a complex multi-motor, multi-sensor creation, the BuWizz 3.0 Pro (and the accompanying motors if you so choose) are the best thing to happen LEGO since the invention the brick. Maximum score.

★★★★★

Take a look at the BuWizz 3.0 Pro & BuWizz Motor here

Lightailing Light Starter Kit | Review

1 Reply

It’s Christmas, the time of family, giving, food, and – most importantly, if this TLCB writer’s better half is to be believed – twinkly lights.

An industry devoted to lighting up LEGO sets has boomed in recent times, with many lighting kits for official LEGO sets already reviewed here at The Lego Car Blog.

But good as some of these kits are, what lights us up is builders designing their own creations. It’s what LEGO is all about, and yet there hasn’t been a product allowing builders to easily light up their own vehicular designs. So we asked LEGO lighting specialists Lightailing to make one…

This is what they sent us, the Lightailing Light Starter Kit, containing a power source (USB or coin-cell batteries), two expansion boards, connecting cables, and two bright white LEDs, two red LEDs, and a white self-adhesive strip light, all neatly packaged using the components readily available from Lightailing’s other kits.

So is the Lightailing Light Starter Kit any good, and what creation did we light up? Read on to find out! Continue reading →

BriksMax Light Kit (42111 Dom’s Dodge Charger)

Leave a reply

The LEGO Technic 42111 Fast & Furious Dom’s Dodge Charger set received a rather good review here at TLCB when we got our hands on it. Certainly a better one than movies did. But, like those awful awful movies, could there be sequel; one that’s even faster and furiouser?

Well no, neither of those adjectives. But we do have a 42111 sequel that’s more sparkly.

That’s because we’ve outfitted our 42111 Dom’s Dodge Charger set with an array of LED lights courtesy of suppliers Lightailing, who have a huge range of LEGO compatible light kits available for sets including Creator, Modular Buildings, Star Wars, Harry Potter, City, and – as here – Technic.

Our 42111-compatible kit is produced by BriksMax, and it came in a neat box containing an instructions booklet, a 1 Year warranty card, a remote control, a battery box, and an alarming number of resealable bags.

Said bags were numbered and described, corresponding to the relevant point in the instructions denoting when to open each one. Inside each was a well-coiled set of wires, tiny circuit boards, sticky pads, or a combination of these.

So is adding the BriksMax light kit to your 42111 Dom’s Dodge Charger set fun? Absolutely not. Fiddly – yes. Fun – no.

Despite the instructions being reasonable, the installation process is effectively threading needle around two hundred times. It makes us wonder if these LED lighting kit companies could design a little attachment that clips into Technic holes and holds the wire, removing the need to endlessly thread LEDs through Technic beams and making the instructions simpler to boot (you can have that recommendation for free Lighting People!)

The process is made harder by the wires being black and in this case the model being black too, although the BriksMax kit does sometimes differentiate between wire types via coloured band, plus each LED has the bag no. printed on its reverse, which is a thoughtful touch.

Only a few parts of the set need to be disassembled to install the LEDs, and only two pieces are replaced (the front indicator bricks switching from tiles to studs to give more room for the LED inside).

Overall though, the installation process is not fun one bit. However, the end result is, well… fantastic. Continue reading →

The Best LEGO Sets Reviewed by TLCB

2 Replies

The Lego Car Blog has many interesting pages away from the main page. Ok, that’s not true. The Lego Car Blog has some interesting pages away from the main page. One of them is the Review Library, which – according to the wizards over at Brick Insights – now contains 108 reviews. Some of which are even written by you guys.

Nearly three quarters of the reviews in the Review Library are scored (we probably forgot the rest), with the average score being 7.8/10, which probably makes sense as LEGO sets are usually rather good and we tend to review sets we like (although not always). Technic is the most popular theme, with sixty-six sets reviewed so far, and fifteen sets have received a score above 9/10 (or 5 stars) so far, versus sixteen sets with a score of below 6.

So, with over a hundred reviews now published, which LEGO sets have earned a much coveted perfect score here at The Lego Car Blog? Read on to find out! Continue reading →

Game of Bricks – Light Kit (76139 1989 Batmobile) | Review

1 Reply

The Lego Car Blog laziness, er… we mean ‘generosity’ continues today, as we’ve passed another impressive looking Game of Bricks lighting kit on to a reader for their thoughts. Greg Kinkaid (aka black_hand_bricks on Instagram) was one of the lucky readers first to respond to our Facebook call, and bagged himself a Game of Bricks kit to light up the huge LEGO 76139 1989 Batmobile set. Read on to find out Greg’s thoughts!

…

“Where does he get those wonderful toys?” people might ask of me. Well the Batmobile comes from LEGO, but the light emitting from within it – that’s all Game of Bricks. I was offered the opportunity to write a review here at The Lego Car Blog, making this both my first review and my first light kit; the Game of Bricks 76139 1989 Batmobile.

My Game of Bricks light kit arrived in a plain padded envelope, which held a nice sturdy box filled with individually numbered bags. At first I was unsure of how to even begin putting it together, but a link to the online instructions was in my order confirmation e-mail, leading to thorough and well photographed build steps.

Onto the kit, and a tedious process starts at the back of the Batmobile set running wires from the rocket booster, tail lights, as well as the fin lights, and moves forward from there. Much of the set must be disassembled during the installation, with wheels, headlights, side panels, the back panel as well as the intakes all removed, but the result is wires that are very hard to see when the installation is finished. That said, several of the kit’s lights are fitted with 3M tape, so I don’t get the feeling the lighting kit will be reusable if the set is ever disassembled again.

The wiring on the lights seems thin but is stronger than it looks, with some wires twisted together and others a single strand, depending on the number of LEDs attached. All the boards and the battery pack fit nicely within the back end of the set between the rear wheels, and these had command strips so they’re not just floating around. 

Now for the bad bits; The lights in the headlight area and the turrets were tricky to run in-between gaps within the front wheel-wells and through to the bottom of the vehicle. Once they were run to the back of the set I discovered the wires were the exact length of the model. That made it even more difficult, because – whilst the instructional photos showed a bit of slack to pull the board out and easily plug in the lights – instead I had to fat finger the plugs in the lower part next to the axle and hope the lights didn’t pull out of the other end.

The 3M strips I mentioned before didn’t seem to hold up after the recent heat wave and I had to go back in and push them back down. Afterwards the underside looked messy so I used the wire ties that were in the packaging to clean it up, and perhaps this kit would be better to use these in the official installation instructions.

Overall though, even after the frustrating installation, I would recommend the Game of Bricks  lighting kit for those looking to make their LEGO 76139 1989 Batmobile set even more impressive ; visually the end result is amazing.  And in hindsight I should probably have opted for the remote version too, so I wouldn’t have to mess about with the backend to turn it on!

…

Visit the Game of Bricks Shop here!

Game of Bricks – Light Kit (42114 6×6 Volvo Articulated Hauler) | Review

Leave a reply

It’s review time here at TLCB! The guys over at Game of Bricks, makers of bespoke LED lighting kits for LEGO sets, offered us a few of their products for review, and because either a) we’re awesome, or b) this site is too incompetent to be sent sets from LEGO, this time we’re handing over to our readers!

Wojtek Hildebrandt was one of the readers to respond to the offer of a free lighting kit (via our Facebook page) the fastest, and fortunately for us he’s a throughly good reviewer too. Check out his thoughts on Game of Bricks’ lighting kit for his recently reviewed Technic 42114 6×6 Volvo Articulated Hauler set below! The answer was (b) by the way…

…

They see me hauling, they lighting.

The LEGO Technic set 42114 6×6 Volvo Articulated Hauler is a big and very yellow piece of equipment that I really like and that’s hard not to notice. That is of course if there’s light outside. But what if you need to haul whatever it is you are hauling around when it’s dark? The Game Of Bricks lighting kit comes to the rescue and frees you from filling in endless Health and Safety forms so I’m glad that TLCB together with GoB came up with this review idea. The kit I got is the full version – lights and sound with remote control. How does it look? How does it sound? What about installation and control? First things first.

The package comes in a nice black box with components divided into steps and packed in separate string bags containing required wiring, boards, and LEDs as well as any additional LEGO pieces needed to install it. Depending on the version of the kit – standard, remote, or remote + sound – there are different motherboards and additional equipment like remote or speaker. There is also a user manual, but it’s not the one that gets the user through the installation. It’s rather a general description of components and how to handle them. An actual step-by-step instruction is available on the Game of Bricks website, which is mentioned both in the user manual and in the order confirmation email from GoB. For the 42114 lighting kit, it is a series of pictures showing where to put which components, how to route the wiring, and sometimes what to remove from the set and when to put it back. Some other sets get video instruction – perhaps this one will get it too at some point.

Read twice, place once.

Before you start your installation or even before you open the bags, have a good look over the entire web instructions. Twice. Game of Bricks’ pictures are usually rather clear but not as much as LEGO’s own instructions. Black wires can sometimes hide in the shadows, other times some important details can get unnoticed as there is no description to point it out – this is, in particular, the case for rear lights that have two different LED colours. Still, I was able to follow the instructions with only a minor slip so I guess everybody should be fine. But knowing what to do is one thing and knowing how to do it is another thing entirely.

Do you fancy some knitting after a day of hauling? Have I got news for you!

Installing the lighting kit is a totally different experience to building the LEGO set itself. It feels more like knitting or sewing – at least I guess so. LEDs and wires seem fragile (even if they aren’t, excuse me for not running the stress test) so be gentle and patient. Get a pair of trusty tweezers, maybe even a magnifying glass, and make sure you have a good strong light on your workplace. You’re thinking of a headlamp? Why not. It takes light to install the lights, let’s call it a “circle of light”.

As for the LEGO set, you will need to remove or collapse the side mirrors to be able to lay the hauler on the side, and some wheels will need to be temporarily removed too. The beacon can be a problem when the hauler needs to be put upside down, so prepare for that as well. I need to say it quickly became tricky to handle this heavy set with an increasing number of wires leaving less and less space to firmly grasp the vehicle without worrying. The wires are a bit springy which is both a blessing and a curse. You will need to force them to your will, but eventually, they will obey. Connectors are tiny, they need to be put into ports precisely and with a click. Motherboard, extension boards, and optional speaker are attached to the set with double-sided adhesive tape. It seems to keep things together well, even the big speaker sits firmly in place. My only fear for the future is how to uninstall the lighting kit when I’d like to disassemble the set – will I be able to put it all back together?

Anyway, slowly but surely – like the hauler stuck on the first gear – you will get to the final step of the instructions; plugging in the power source. You can choose either the battery box that’s included in the lighting kit or any power bank – power goes through a USB connector so there are plenty of possibilities. Where to store it? If only there’d be a vast free space on the rear part of the hauler… Finally, the set should be ready to shine… Continue reading →

Technic 42114 6×6 Volvo Articulated Hauler | Review

9 Replies

It’s review time here at The Lego Car Blog, as we add another LEGO set to the by now pretty huge Review Library! This set review comes from one of our readers, who dons the Reviewing Anorak (which may or may not be a real thing) and takes on the enormous remote controlled LEGO Technic 42114 6×6 Volvo Articulated Hauler. Wojtek Hildebrandt is the reader in question, and so good is his review that TLCB Team are frankly a little worried for their jobs. That’s not true of course, as they don’t get paid… Anyway, over to Wojtek!

…

LEGO has a long-standing tradition of recreating dominantly yellow construction equipment in Technic sets. This is rather a grateful theme for construction blocks after all – simple shapes and function over form. Recently these have mostly been Volvo licensed vehicles; wheel loaders, excavators, and haulers with different degrees of motorisation – from full (as in 42030 loader) via optional (to power 42053 excavator pneumatics) to none (for endless knob spinning fun with 42081 concept loader). The time has come for a fully remote-controlled articulated hauler – a Volvo A60H with the Control+ app.

Beauty is in the eye of the behauler.
First, let’s have a look from the outside. This is a looker, at least for a construction machine. We can see it already on the box cover, where the hauler is put in some blurred quarry environment. It fits well, but then the same image is sometimes used without the background, which makes the chassis twist look weird, like doing some unlikely stunt.

Speaking of weird: LEGO’s previous attempt to minify a Volvo hauler – the B model for 42030 – had it all wrong (even with the number of wheels), but if you’re generous enough, you can say it was a tribute to vintage, skeletal Technic sets. If so, then 42114 is more from a bloodline of Model Team or recent adult Creator sets, even if it uses mostly Technic parts. Of course, the pins and holes are there and some proportions and colors are off, but both overall shape and some neat details are very true.

Let’s start from the business end; the dump body – we’ll call it the body from now on – has a complex shape with clever usage of tapered panels (which are flat on both sides, unlike straight panels) and very few empty spaces. I guess you couldn’t haul sand in it, but it should be perfect for some beans or potatoes. Or lemons to match the colour. The driver’s cab is correctly centred and surrounded by a proper, orange safety railing as well as accurate big mirrors. There is a slightly surprising mudguard serving as a dashboard, my favorite seat made of a single curved panel 3x5x3 (which seems to fit the same purpose regardless of model scale), and a warning beacon on the roof that twists slightly to turn the Control+ hub on or off.

Further to the front, we have one of the best-looking parts – a nicely sculpted bonnet. The impression is improved by a few stickers, but even without them all the angles and curves feel just right, even if they’re not entirely true to the original, e.g. with headlights. One curved panel covers the limits of the other and everything works together nicely. It’s wobbly during construction but becomes solid enough eventually. The front bumper on the other hand is no match for a durable look of the original, but to me, it doesn’t harm the overall impression too much.

Green energy
Now we get to the hardware. Both real-life and miniature versions of the Volvo hauler are powered by six cylinders. In full scale, they are six, famously green inline cylinders of an internal combustion engine. For the set, they are 6 AA/R6 batteries. Which one is “greener” energy depends probably on whether your batteries are rechargeable and if so – how you recharge them. Continue reading →