Try as we might we couldn’t think of a Christmassy title for SaperPL‘s Technic JCB Fastrac with rotary rake and tipper trailer, but it’s appearing here nevertheless (a hundred TLCB Points if you can).
Working steering, power-take-offs, a raising three-point hitch, a folding and spinning rotary rake, and a mechanical tipper all feature, and there’s more to see at the Eurobricks forum. Click the coloured text above to take a look, and try to think of a Christmas link.
Green, ugly, and ruining beloved institutions, the Grinch and the Lamborghini Urus are, in this writer’s eyes, effectively the same thing.
Of course Lamborghini will sell more hateful Uruses than the rest of their range combined, such is the current automotive fashion, but this writer still violently dislikes every fibre of the damn thing.
Not so TLCB Master MOCer Lachlan Cameron (aka loxlego), who has recreated the automotive grinch in Technic form. And he has – begrudgingly – built an awesome model as a result.
Powered by the BuWizz 3.0 bluetooth battery, Lachlan’s Urus features remote control steering and all-wheel-drive, a V8 engine, working suspension, opening doors, hood and trunk, and – just like many real Urus customers, who somehow don’t consider Lamborghini’s travesty obnoxious enough – custom wheels and ‘carbon fibre’ bodywork accessories.
Further fantastic photography and a link to building instructions can be found at Lachlan’s Lamborghini Urus album on Flickr. Click the final link to see more of the vehicular Grinch, or those above to learn more about the builder of this model, and the excellent third-party battery that’s powering it.
It’s only two more sleeps ’til Christmas! Which means as the Elves have returned to TLCB Towers they’ve been placed back into their cages for their enforced Christmas ‘break’. They don’t mind working over Christmas of course, but we’d rather be down the pub, er… we mean ‘working at the homeless shelter’, so they’re confinement is necessary if we aren’t to come back to the office to find all the glue sticks have been eaten.
Seriously though, Christmas is far more important than this dumpster fire of the internet, so this is the last creation to appear here before we pause for a few days. It’s a really good one though!
Built by previous bloggee Wigboldly/Thirdwigg, this brilliant Mercedes-Benz Unimog U430 is everything we like to see in a Technic creation. There’s working steering and suspension, all-wheel-drive, a 4-cylinder engine underneath a tilting cab, a tipping load bed, and front and rear power-take-offs with the option of pneumatic attachments.
All in it’s really not far off the much larger official Technic 8110 Mercedes-Benz Unimog set, so if you missed your chance to buy that when it was on sale, Thirdwigg’s U430 is an excellent alternative you can build at home. Yup, he’s even made instructions available too.
There’s more of Thirdwigg’s build to see at his ‘U430’ album on Flickr, and you can check out his equally good Technic Unimog U500 and Unimog U400 models that have appeared here previously via the bonus links.
Click the coloured words in the text above to make the jumps to all things Unimoggy.
Car choice seems to be shrinking of late. Despite manufacturers creating ever more models, they mostly seem to be crossovers of marginally different sizing but uniform monotony.
Engine choices are shrinking too, with many cars in TLCB’s home nation available with just one. Thankfully the Germans, although very much on the make-everything-a-crossover bandwagon, do still offer a bewildering array of engine options.
However even that’s a bit of a ruse, as they’re pretty much all the same engine, only you have to pay extra for the software to release more power (which the engine already has, locked behind a paywall). Urgh.
Fortunately Wigboldly (aka Thirdwigg) of Flickr is railing against the current miserable new car situation with this, his ‘Ionos Sports Sedan’ Technic Supercar.
A good old-fashioned executive saloon, Wigboldly’s creation can be had with three different engines, rear or all-wheel-drive, and a manual or sequential gearbox, just like real cars used to be.
Of course if it were real, Wigboldly’s Ionis would totally bomb in today’s new car market, as it’s not a boring one-engined crossover with power-behind-a-paywall, but we’d still choose it!
Luckily Wigboldly isn’t trying to make money out of his design, what with it being Lego, but that even extends to the building instructions, which he has created and published for free.
We rarely publish direct links to instructions here at The Lego Car Blog, but we will today.
Click here to jump to the Ionis’s free building instructions on Rebrickable, where there’s more drivetrain choice than many cars on sale today, and give Wigboldly a thumbs up on Flickr via the link in the text above.
Lifted trucks, a favoured vehicle for a subset of the American populous that we mock regularly on these pages, are resolutely awful.
Even though the suspension is raised, the lowest point of the chassis (usually a differential) is unchanged, thus ground clearance remains exactly the same. Only now the handling, fuel economy, and refinement are worse.
The Lego Car Blog Elves of course, having very small brains indeed, absolutely love lifted trucks.
This one comes from JLiu15, and – despite it being much too slow to run any Elves over – the Elf that found it seems rather pleased.
Remote control all-wheel-drive, three-mode steering (front wheels, four wheels, and crab), a V6 piston engine, and – most notably – ludicrously lifted suspension all feature, and there’s lots more to see at the Eurobricks discussion forum. Click the link above to take a look.
It’s been a while since the last Elven smushing event. This is partly because TLCB Elves are marginally wiser these days, after years of running one another over, but mostly it’s because they hadn’t found a suitable vehicle. They did today.
This Technic Baja truck comes from Teo LEGO Technic, and it was discovered by one of our Elves on Eurobricks.
Lightweight, with independent front and live axle rear suspension, return-to-centre steering, and – importantly – Buggy Motor propulsion with BuWizz power, Teo’s Baja truck is a fast, agile, and easily capable of bouncing over a moderate number of fleeing TLCB Elves.
Which is of course exactly what happened when the Elf that found it returned to TLCB Towers.
We now have to remember the optimum sequence of cleaning products for the removal Elf blood and vomit from the office carpet, so whilst we do that you can check out more of Teo’s truck at both the Eurobricks discussion forum and the extensive Brickshelf gallery. Click the links above to make the jump.
LEGO’s 42129 Technic Mercedes-Benz Zetros set offers the chance to get a fully remote controlled ‘truck trial’-capable model off-the-shelf. And we like that.
What we like even more is taking the ready-to-go RC components and off-road hardware from the official set, and using them to create something entirely new. It’s what LEGO is all about.
Cue gyenesvi of Eurobricks, who has dismantled his 42129 Mercedes-Benz Zetros set, repurposing the pieces within it to create this; a splendid Jeep Wrangler Rubicon alternate.
LEGO of course already make an official Technic Jeep Wrangler Rubicon set, but it’s nowhere near as capable as this one. And nor does it look as good.
Gyenesvi’s 42129 B-model includes floating axle suspension front and rear, remote control drive and steering (operating via the Control+ app), a high/low range gearbox with selectable four-wheel-drive, opening doors, hood and trunk, and a detachable hardtop.
All in, it’s a far more convincing Technic Jeep than LEGO’s version, and if you own the 42129 Mercedes-Benz Zetros set you can create it for yourself, as building instructions are available.
Find out more via the link to Eurobricks above, plus you can watch gyenesvi’s 42129 alternate in action via the video below.
YouTube Video
The definitive 1980s supercar, the Ferrari F40 has become – like most old vehicles – ludicrously expensive. Of course it was ludicrously expensive when new too, but fortunately we have a thoroughly more attainable version of Ferrari’s 40th birthday present to itself here today.
Built by previous bloggee paave, this excellent Technic F40 includes plenty of features found on the real car, including independent suspension, a working V8 engine, and pop-up headlights, plus Power Functions remote control drive and steering.
Modular construction and opening doors, front clamshell and rear engine cover allow all of the above to be easily accessed, and paave has produced building instructions so that you can create your very own remote control Technic Ferrari F40 at home.
There’s more to see at both Eurobricks and Bricksafe, and you can take a look and find the link to recreate paave’s F40 for yourself by clicking the hyperlinked words above.
We like a good knob twiddle* here at The Lego Car Blog. Get your minds out of the gutter – we’re talking hand-powered mechanical functions.
This is one such creation imbued with knob twiddling goodness, and it comes from previous bloggee M_Longer, who has repurposed the pieces found within the LEGO Technic 42121 Heavy Duty Excavator set to create it.
Loosely based on a JCB skid-steer loader, M_Longer’s 42121 alternate utilises a pair of knobs to mechanically control the arm and attachment tilt, so you’ll need to play with the knobs a bit before you can get forking. Ask your Mom.
There’s more of M-Longer’s B-Model to see at the Eurobricks discussion forum, where links to both further images and to building instructions can also be found. Twiddle your knob via the link above!
*Except in this case. As it’s ridiculous.
What? Yes, us too, but apparently the Spania GTA Spano is Spain’s hypercar, and with 925bhp on tap, it’s quite a potent one.
This incredible Technic recreation of the GTA Spano first appeared here yesterday, when BuWizz used it to reach 181mph (we may have adjusted that for scale), and in doing so set a record for the fastest 1:8 scale Technic car.
The builder responsible for this amazing record-breaking model is Zerobricks of Eurobricks, who has now revealed further details and imagery of the spectacular engineering behind it.
No less than ten BuWizz motors power the 3D-printed rear wheels to deliver that awesome top speed, whilst five LEGO Powered-Up motors power the rear spoiler, steering, opening doors, and V10 piston engine.
All-wheel independent suspension, plus an opening hood, engine cover and rear trunk also feature, and there’s more to see of this astonishing build at the Eurobricks discussion forum by clicking here, and you can watch the model in action at 181mph (kinda) by clicking here.
Is there anything in the vehicular world more pointless than truck racing? OK, The Brothers Brick’s review of the blue LEGO Fiat 500 set – which is exactly the same as the yellow one, only blue – probably takes the win, but truck racing is a close second.
Why take something designed specifically to pull heavy things long distances in the most fuel efficient way, and adapt it to go a short distance quickly whilst pulling nothing? It’s like using an airliner as the basis for a powerboat.
Anyway, pointlessness of source material aside, TLCB Master MOCer Nico71 has created a rather excellent racing truck from his 42083 Technic Bugatti Chiron set, with steering, an eight-speed sequential gearbox, functioning suspension, a working piston engine, and a tilting cab.
Nico’s made building instructions of his alternate available too, so you can convert your own 42083 Bugatti Chiron set into this brilliant Lego version of the world’s most pointless racing vehicle at home.
There’s more of Nico’s Bugatti B-Model to see at his Brickshelf gallery by clicking here, you can read his Master MOCers interview here at TLCB via the link in the text link above, and you can watch all of the race truck’s features in action in the video below.
YouTube Video
We love the unexceptional here at The Lego Car Blog. McLarens, Lamborghinis and Porsches are all very exciting, but we sometimes prefer to celebrate the ordinary. (Maybe we’ll run a building competition to that end one day…)
Ironically, due their uninterestingness, ordinary cars are rarely built by the online Lego Community, which understandably prefers to build things of a more exciting nature. More ironically, ageing every-day cars are probably now rarer in the real world than the aforementioned exotica, which in our eyes makes them much more interesting. We’d certainly pay a 1980s Toyota Corolla station wagon (if ever we saw one) more attention than we would a modern Aston Martin.
And so it is on these pages today, where we’re eschewing brick-built exotica for said 1980s family estate car, with its 1.6 litre engine and well under 100bhp.
This wonderful Technic recreation of the TE70-series Toyota Corolla comes from Danifill of Eurobricks, who has captured the mundane exterior brilliantly in brick-form. Underneath is brilliant too, as a LEGO Buggy Motor, Servo Motor, and third-party BuWizz bluetooth battery provide the model with remote control drive and steering, and a surprising turn of speed.
There’s lots more to see of Danifill’s celebration of the unexceptional at the Eurobricks forum via the link above, plus you can watch the model in action via the video below. Take a look whilst we ponder a possible building contest…
YouTube Video
This excellent looking Technic Mercedes-Benz truck was discovered by one of our Elves on Brickshelf today, coming from previous bloggee mpl and being constructed solely from the parts found within the enormous Technic 42078 Mack Anthem set.
Like its parts-source, mpl’s Mercedes-Benz alternate features a detailed cab interior, opening doors, functioning steering, and a working fifth wheel.
Interestingly, mpl has chosen only to re-use the parts from the tractor portion of the 42078 set, whilst retaining the infuriating trailer. We’d probably have had a go at improving that too, but that’s only because it annoys us.
There’s more to see of mpl’s 42078 Mercedes-Benz B-Model (and that carry-over trailer) on Brickshelf via the first link above, plus you can read our review of the original set via the second.
The McLaren Senna has appeared in LEGO form a few times, from the official 75892 Speed Champions and 42123 Technic sets, to a full-size display version. However there hasn’t yet been a Senna in our favourite form; a Technic Supercar.
Jordan Langerak has fixed this omission in spectacular style, with this incredible Technic replica of McLaren’s limited run hypercar.
Working suspension, a paddle-shift gearbox linked to the V8 engine, functioning steering, butterfly doors, and – perhaps most impressively – mechanical ‘active’ aero all feature, and make Jordan’s Senna one of the finest Technic Supercars of recent times.
There’s more to see of the build via Jordan’s ‘Lego Technic McLaren Senna’ album on Flickr, which includes extensive imagery and a link to a video of the model’s impressive features in action. Take a look via the link above.
Don’t worry, that video of your Mom hasn’t resurfaced again. This lovely vintage tractor was discovered by one of our Elves on Eurobricks today, and it looks rather splendid pictured here against an actual agricultural backdrop.
Proran is the builder and they’ve included functioning steering, a three cylinder engine (with working pistons and valves), a rear power-take-off, and high/low gearbox, along with some rather clever parts usage.
There’s more of Proran’s vintage tractor to see at the Eurobricks discussion forum and you can head out to the farm via the link above.