Category Archives: Technic

Gatorade

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We love simple basic vehicles here at The Lego Car Blog, perhaps because we’re rather simple and basic ourselves.

Cue the John Deere Gator, an all-terrain utility vehicle powered by a 340cc lawn-mower engine, or a tiny diesel, fitted with a CVT, optional four-wheel-drive, and used for everything from estate maintenance to military supply and evacuation.

This splendid little Technic version of the Gator comes from regular bloggee Thirdwigg, who has captured it wonderfully in small-scale Technic, complete with working steering, suspension, and as tipping bed.

Building instructions are available and there’s more to see at Thirdwigg’s ‘John Deere Gator’ album on Flickr. Click the link above to take a look.

Sand Green

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Winter is coming here in TLCB’s home nation. The trees are red and yellow, the ground is thick with the shells of various nuts, and a good proportion of the country is under water.

So to cheer us up for the coming weeks when it’ll be dark at 4pm and we’ll be permanently cold, here’s a beach buggy for sunnier climes. Built by Eurobricks’ Jurss it features all-wheel-suspension, working steering, a rear-mounted flat-4 piston engine, plus a removable (and very green) body.

There’s more to see at the Eurobricks forum, and you can pretend you’re somewhere warm and sandy via the link in the text above. Unless you are actually somewhere warm and sandy, in which case can you invite us over?

Multiple Aliases

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This is one of those cars that is probably familiar to all of us, and yet may also not be at all. This is a Geo Tracker, built by 2GodBDGlory, and in fact it’s his Geo Tracker, being a Technic recreation of his real-world vehicle.

But it’s also a Suzuki Vitara (the name we know it as here in TLCB’s home nation), a Suzuki Sidekick, a Chevrolet Tracker, a GMC Tracker, an Asuna Sunrunner (what?!), and a Pontiac Sunrunner.

Which is confusing. Thus, because the Tracker/Vitara/Sunrunner is a Suzuki designed, engineered and produced product, with General Motors simply rebadging it and pretending it was theirs, we’re going to call it a Vitara from here on, and 2GodBDGlory’s is excellent.

Powered by two L Motors with Servo steering, and featuring all-wheel-drive, a remotely-operated high/low range gearbox, working suspension, LED head and tail lights, and a removable roof, 2GodBDGlory’s Technic Vitara is as capable off-road as his real one, and there’s much more of the model to see of both at Eurobricks and Bricksafe.

Whatever you know the Suzuki Vitara as where you’re from, click the links above to be impressed.

My Other Car is also an Off-Road Buggy

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LEGO’s Technic 42160 Audi RS Q e-Tron revealed here earlier in the year has brought a rather intriguing – if ultimately unsuccessful – prototype racing buggy to bedroom floors in brick form.

Powered by a 2.0 turbo-charged petrol engine, but driven by four electric motors, the real RS Q e-Tron is a hybrid of sorts, using the aforementioned internal combustion engine to generate electricity for those motors. It all sounds very clever, which it is, however Toyota’s traditional twin-turbo V6 petrol-powered Hilux T1s thumped it in the 2023 Dakar Rally.

Still, we like unusual vehicles here at TLCB, and thus we like the 42160 Audi RS Q e-Tron. But we like this even more.

Built only from the parts from the 42160 set, this superb Polaris RZR B-Model is the work of gyenesvi, and it captures the all-terrain side-by-side buggy beautifully in Technic form.

It also redeploys the LEGO Control+ remote control system from the 42160 set, with all-wheel-drive, all-wheel-suspension, and servo steering, which we’ve absolutely made the most of terrorising the Elves here at TLCB Towers.

Building instructions are available if you fancy turning your own e-Tron into a RZR, and you can find out more about the build at both Eurobricks and gyenesvi’s Bricksafe album. Click the links to make the jump, probably over a giant sand dune.

Nosing Ahead

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The new BMW M4, as with many of the brand’s latest offerings, is rather… er, nostrilly. Still, in racing form that humungous beak must help with cooling, and the M4 is indeed available to buy as a factory racing car in GT3 specification.

Cue this phenomenal Technic replica of the M4 GT3 by previous bloggee and TLCB Master MOCer Lachlan Cameron (aka Lox Lego).

Deploying not just his own talents, but also the best of third-party LEGO compatible creators including BuWizz (bluetooth battery), System of a Brick (custom rims), snakeeyes (racing livery design), and Brick Visions (interior stickers), Lachlan demonstrates that Lego building can be taken far beyond the basic bricks.

Underneath that superbly-liveried exterior is a full remote control drivetrain consisting of a BuWizz brick and dual Buggy Motors, working steering, adjustable suspension with five ride heights, a straight-6 engine, opening and locking doors, hood and trunk, and LED head and tail lights.

A road car variant is available too, and there’s lots more of both versions to see at Lachlan’s ‘BMW M4 GT3’ Flickr album, at the Eurobricks forum, and via a YouTube video available here. Click the links above to nose your way there.

Micro Machine

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Unlike your Mom, Kei-class microbuses are really very small indeed. However they manage to pack a whole lot into their tiny footprint, with room for four adults plus luggage, some feature all-wheel-drive, and a few are even fully-fitted campers.

Cue apachaihapachai‘s terrific Technic microbus which, despite measuring just nine studs by twenty-four, features a complete remote control drivetrain courtesy of an L Motor, a Servo, and a BuWizz bluetooth battery, all completely hidden inside a neat 1990s kei-bus body. There’s even an interior. Kinda.

It’s a miracle of ingenious packaging and you can find out how apachai has done it at the Eurobricks forum. Click the link above to squeeze inside.

A Beautiful Nightmare

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Hailing from the golden era of Japanese sports cars, the ‘FD’ Mazda RX-7 was the third and final generation of the rotary-engined icon.

With assistance from twin-turbos, the FD’s 1.3 litre twin-rotor motor produced up to 276bhp, getting very hot and drinking a lot of oil in the process. It was also, in this writer’s opinion, perhaps the prettiest of all the ’90 sports cars, which is enough for many to overlook the ownership nightmare of that unique engine and enter a relationship of intense unreliability and ruinous expense. Which is probably a metaphor for something.

Anyway, this excellent Technic recreation of the RX-7 comes from previous bloggee Matthew Terentev, and includes opening doors, hood and trunk, plus a brilliantly accurate interior in very ’90s-Japan-appropriate black plastic.

There’s much more to see at Matthew’s ‘Mazda RX-7 (FD)’ album on Flickr, and you can click the link above to make the jump.

Happy Being Single

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Discovered by one of our Elves on Eurobricks, this is newcomer McMarky’s rather good tracked excavator. Like all good Technic models, McMarky’s creation can operate just like the real deal, being able to drive and steer, rotate the superstructure, and dig – thanks to a three stage boom and excavating bucket – all of which are motorised.

Naturally such functionality necessitates a suite of motors, so how many do you think McMarky’s excavator has packed inside?

Nope. One.

Just a singular Power Functions L motor is able to drive all of the aforementioned functions, and – in many cases – multiple functions simultaneously. Which means not just no additional motors, but also no fancy programmable app-based remote control is required either, with the huge array of working functions instead controlled via a trio of red levers, each linked to the most complicated gearbox that we’ve ever seen.

It’s an outstanding example of mechanical engineering, and demonstrates that even if you don’t have the finances for a suite of motors, a third-party bluetooth battery, or access to a programmable app, immensely realistic motorised Technic creations are still within reach.

There’s more of McMarky’s seriously impressive uni-motor tracked excavator to see on Flickr and at the Eurobricks forum, where further images and a video of all those motorised functions in action can be found. Click the link above to be happy being single.

My Other Car’s a Huracan

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The Lamborghini Huracan is boring. At least if the regularity at which YouTube ‘influencers’ (yuk) switch out of them into the next clickbait supercar is any indication. But no matter, because if you’re bored with your Huracan too (in LEGO Technic 42161 form), you can switch it up into this rather neat Technic truck, as previous bloggee mpj has done with his. Click the link above to see more of mpj’s 42161 B-Model on Brickshelf.

B-Hoe

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LEGO’s 42081 Volvo Autonomous Loader set thoroughly perplexed us when it was revealed a few years ago. It still does really, but tungpham of Eurobricks saw greater potential in the Technic oddity than we did, turning his 42081 set into this fantastic backhoe loader.

Looking considerably better than the set on which it’s based, tungpham’s 42081 B-Model includes a raising and tilting front bucket, in-cab steering and rear arm skewing control, stabilising legs, and a rotating driver’s seat.

It also features some of the finest presentation we’ve ever seen on a LEGO model, mimicking LEGO’s own box, catalogue and digital imagery with superb photography and editing.

Building instructions are available and there’s more to see of tungpham’s incredible alternate at the Eurobricks forum – click the link above for a B-Side that’s better than the Single.

Get Your Digs for Free

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The internet is full of wonderful Lego models, many of which can be recreated at home thanks to readily available building instructions. For a fee.

Because one of life’s few certainties is that if something can be monitized, it will be.

But not today! Previous bloggee Thirdwigg is the hero we need, having created this excellent Technic tracked excavator, complete with a linear-actuator operated arm and bucket, a working piston engine, and a slewing superstructure, and he’s released building instructions for free.

The Lego Community could do we a few more members like Thirdwigg, and you can see more of his tracked excavator on Flickr. Click here to take a look, and here for a direct link to the free instructions.

My Other Tractor’s… er, Also a John Deere

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The LEGO Technic 42157 John Deere 948L-II Skidder set is one that – after a look through our archives – we must’ve missed, what with it not being there. Still, we’ve never claimed to be competent, and the set does look rather good. Cue Dyens Creations of Flickr, who has repurposed the 42157 John Deere to create, well… another John Deere.

Dyens’ is the 9R, an XL wheeled tractor with up to 700bhp (there’s a tracked one too, which looks mad), outfitted in this case with a pneumatically operated bulldozer blade. There’s also articulated steering, a working piston engine, and a rear hitch with PTO, and there’s more to see of Dyens’ 42157 John Deere B-Model on Flickr.

My Other Car’s a Ferrari

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Once seen as a knock-off Ferrari, yet now revered more than the Maranello products it sought to take on, Honda’s NSX is often regarded as the pinnacle of driver’s cars.

It’s fitting then, that this stunning Technic recreation of the first generation Honda NSX is built only from the parts found within an official Ferrari product, the LEGO Technic 42143 Ferrari Daytona SP3.

Built by Eurobricks’ Romanista, who is making not just their TLCB debut but also posting their first ever creation online, this amazing alternate includes all-wheel double-wishbone suspension with positive caster, working steering with Ackermann geometry, a V6 engine linked to a functional gearbox, pop-up headlights, and opening doors, front trunk and engine cover.

Full details and further imagery of Romanista’s spectacular 42143 alternative can be found at the Eurobricks discussion forum via the link above, and if you’d like to check out TLCB’s huge archive of brilliant B-Models that have appeared here over the years – many of which have building instructions available – you can start your search by clicking here.

Detroit to JDM

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There aren’t many Japanese cars that can challenge bona fide supercars, however the Toyota Supra Mark IV did just that, being faster and having more power than 1990s supercar exotica.

Cue this splendid Technic example, which is constructed only out of the parts from a genuine supercar; the LEGO Technic 42154 Ford GT.

Built by Eurobricks’ Alex Ilea, the Supra features working steering and suspension, a piston engine under an opening hood, and opening doors too.

There’s more to see at the Eurobricks forum and at Alex’s Bricksafe gallery, where links to building instructions can also be found, and you can convert your 52154 set from Detroit to JDM via the links above.

Skippy

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Following a vehicle that appeared here earlier in the week (which the builder has now updated with an indolent, tracksuit-wearing, oxygen-wasting, fly-tipping scumbag after reading the post, earning themselves 100 TLCB points), this is how you should actually dispose of waste, via a properly licensed skip company.

Cue previous bloggee damjan97PL (aka damianPLE), and this rather excellent Technic Scania P-Series skip lorry. (Damian also earns 100 TLCB Points for calling his build a ‘skip lorry’, rather than a ‘container truck’ as LEGO would.)

Wonderfully realistic, Damian’s Scania not only looks the part, it also features some fantastic manually-operated and pneumatic functions, including rear outriggers, ‘HOG’ steering, a working inline 6-cylinder engine underneath a tilting cab, and a pneumatically-powered boom, able to perfectly lower and hoist a neat brick-built skip.

Damian has made building instructions available and there’s more of his top-quality Technic Scania skip lorry to see at the Eurobricks discussion forum, his ‘Scania Skip Loader’ Bricksafe gallery, and via the video below.

Click the links above to dispose of your waste without vandalising the local environment, and keep indolent, tracksuit-wearing, oxygen-wasting, fly-tipping scumbags out of business.