We’re 10 Today!!*

1 Reply

‘Remember, remember, the fifth of November’. Or so the nursery rhyme popular in TLCB’s home nation goes. Well we forgot.

Not Bonfire Night, which is impossible to forget what with all the fireworks and whatnot, but our own birthday. Still, an effigy of the Brothers Brick lemur won’t set fire to itself.

So whilst we did enjoy the Bonfire Night festivities, we completely missed the ten year anniversary of our own creation. However we’ve remembered now, thus ten years (and eleven days…) later, we’re quietly marking the occasion with a Duplo No.10 brick stolen from Google images.

Of course a lot has happened in the last decade, much of which we’d like to add to the list of things we’ve forgotten, but miraculously this dingy back-alley of the internet has survived, with over seven million of you joining us since our first post back in November of 2011.

Currently around a million of you end up here at The Lego Car Blog each year (many probably by accident), whilst our most popular pages (outside of the Home Page) continue to be the Review Library (which is now pretty huge**), The Rise and Fall of MOCpages, and the Directory.

Over the last decade we’ve also interviewed many of the Lego Community’s very best vehicle builders, including boat-builders, truck-makers, Technic-masters, and creators of things altogether sillier, held three competitions, annoyed ‘patriots’ of various nations (mostly America though), and – most importantly – showcased thousands of the best Lego creations on the web.

So as we continue into double figures, all that’s left to say is a massive thank you if you’re reading these clumsily written words. Without you this site would not exist, and nor would the $thousands raised in advertising revenue for good causes, only some of which has been spent on the executive washroom and sauna.

If you’re new here and you’d like to take a look around, some good places to start can be found below;

  • Review Library: Over one hundred reviews of LEGO sets, books and third-party products.
  • Directory: The place to find links to other (usually much better) LEGO-related websites.
  • Interviews: A TLCB Elf armed with a sharpened pencil can get even the most famous builders to talk…
  • Feedback and Submission Suggestions: Let us know what you think. No, really.

Until next time, thank you for visiting us.

TLCB Team

*Almost
**Just like your Mom

Ferrari at Forty

Leave a reply

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.

High Five

Leave a reply

Renualt’s humble 5 was a shopping-car favourite in the 1980s. And a joke by the 1990s. Now that most have been thrown away though, they are properly cool. Particularly in ‘Turbo’ flavour, from back when a whole model could simply be called ‘Turbo’ and nothing else, as it was clearly the most important bit.

Cue Darren Thew’s wonderful Renault 5 Turbo rally car, in tarmac ‘Tour de Corse’ specification, and sporting some fantastically accurate decals (which the Elves seem to really like too for some reason).

Blending Technic and System parts beautifully, Darren’s Renault 5 includes a detailed interior, complete with roll cage and harnesses, plus a highly accurate dashboard and controls, whilst under the opening hood is superb replica of the 5’s four-cylinder engine, including the famed forced-induction component that the whole car was named after.

It’s a brilliant build and one that’s definitely worth a closer look. Spool up your turbo and head to Corsica in the 1980s by clicking these words, plus here’s a bonus link of the real Renault 5 Turbo Tour de Corse winner in action.

Speed Kills

1 Reply

And so do cigarettes.

This is the Cigarette One 515, an unfeasibly enormous AMG-powered speedboat built by the Cigarette boat company, whose story is rather fantastic. Or rather, the story of their designer is…

Donald Aronow was born in Brooklyn to a Russian-Jewish immigrant family in 1927. After working overseas during the Second World War, Aronow returned to the U.S and started a construction firm during the boom of the 1950s. A few years later, aged just 32, Aronow was a millionaire, and moved to Miami where he began racing boats for fun.

Over the next decade, and after winning two Powerboat World Championships, racing boats had become a business, with Aronow selling his race-winning Cigarette powerboat designs to the super-rich, politicians, and crime bosses alike. We suspect some were all three.

The speed of Aronow’s boats meant they became a popular choice for Miami’s cocaine smugglers, and the U.S Customs Service who aimed to catch them (via a deal brokered by Vice President George H.W Bush, who was a Cigarette customer himself).

This choice of customer eventually became Aronow’s undoing, and he was shot dead in 1987 by fellow-boat racer turned racing-company owner Ben Kramer and an accomplice, after a business deal turned sour. That Kramer was already a drug smuggler himself (despite winning the American Offshore Powerboat Championship only the year before) perhaps should’ve been a red flag.

The Cigarette Company continued after Aronow’s murder however, and this awesome looking Lego recreation of the One 515 shows their boats are as mad today as ever. It comes from previous bloggee Drop Shop, who has packed it with details and brilliant building techniques to accurately capture the insanity of the real thing, and there’s lots more of the build to see at Drop Shop’s ‘Sinister Cigarette’ album on Flickr.

Finally, if you think all of the above would make for an amazing movie, you’re right. Unfortunately we got a terrible one. Still, you can check out the ‘Speed Kills’ trailer here, as the post’s title hinges on it!

UMM Alter II | Picture Special

Leave a reply

The UMM Alter II is surely one of the most tragic looking off-roaders ever conceived. Designed in France, but then sold to Portugal presumably for being too ugly, the UMM was a pretty decent off-roader, and found a reasonable following around the Mediterranean with militaries, utility companies, and civilians.

Simple, easy to work on, and powered by common Peugeot engines, around 10,000 Alter IIs were produced in an eight year production run beginning in 1986, with many still in use today.

Most don’t look like this though.

Ricky.Silva’s Model Team UMM Alter II is in ‘v.Sport’ specification, and it looks a lot cooler than standard 4×4. Chunky wheels under working suspension, an external cage, roof lights, fender flairs, and snorkel all feature, plus the model features a detailed interior behind opening doors and a highly realistic engine under an opening hood.

Ricky’s UMM Alter II is presented beautifully too, and there’s lots more to see of the build at his ‘UMM Alter II v.Sport’ album on Flickr. Click the link above to take a closer look at the coolest UMM there is.

I’m Going Out, I May Be Some Time

Leave a reply

He might sound like something from the Urban Dictionary, but Windle Poons is in fact the oldest wizard of Ankh-Morpork’s Unseen University faculty, with an age of well over 120. Fortunately Windle’s mobility is aided by a magnificent wheeled chair complete with a variety of horns, which even saw service in battle during one of Ankh-Morpork’s regular magical crisis. Recreated here by Eero Okkonen, who sounds fairly wizardy himself, Windle’s chair looks marvellous in brick form, as does the mystical centenarian himself. Take a trip to the Disc’s finest university of befuddled old men via Eero’s photostream at the link above.

Choo Choo!

Leave a reply

If there’s a more ‘Choo Choo!’y Lego creation than this, we haven’t found it. Wonderfully built by Owen Meschter, this is a Class Y14 steam locomotive, as used by LNER at the turn of the century who classified them as J15s, and which saw service on British railways right up until 1958. But that’s enough boring train facts. You now have permission to run around your house or place of work shouting ‘Choo Choo!’. If anyone stops you tell them TLCB sent you.

Every Wagon

Leave a reply

The Suzuki Wagon R was roundly mocked when it arrived in TLCB’s home nation in the late 1990s. These days though it’s, well… still roundly mocked, but we think Japan’s kei cars deserve to be taken seriously outside of the country that created them.

After all, as the population rises and urban dwelling intensifies homes have become smaller. Appliances have become smaller. Even chocolate bars have become smaller. So why not cars?

Oh yeh, because size somehow signifies social importance, and f*** the planet. Sigh.

This is the Wagon R’s successor, the Suzuki Every Wagon, and whilst the name is undoubtedly silly, we’d happily take one of these over a BMW X7. We could probably take three of them for a BMW X7 and still have room left over to be honest…

This one comes from previous bloggee Ralph Savelsberg, and there’s more to see of his kei creation at his photostream. Click the link above and think small. It’s all you really need anyway.

Purple Haze

Leave a reply

If you have a Plymouth Barracuda, it has to be purple. Fortunately Jonathan Elliott’s is, thanks to the new purple pieces available in the LEGO 76904 Dodge Challenger set, and if you’re still in doubt about purple being the best colour ever, click here.

VTEC Just Kicked In Yo

1 Reply

The car of nine thousand memes. And nine thousand revs. Which is a lot.

The Honda S2000 was quite a special thing when it debuted in 1999, taking Honda’s VTEC system to the max, and fitted with a naturally-aspirated engine delivering a higher specific output per litre than anything that had gone before. Supercars included.

It also had rather spiky handling and a gauge cluster from a 1980s microwave, but none of that mattered when you reached peak power output at 8,800rpm.

This one was discovered by one of our Elves on Flickr, and comes from Mihail Rakovskiy who has captured it near perfectly in brick form.

Take it to the 9,000rpm red line via the link above.

Twiddling Knobs

1 Reply

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.

The Other Jaguar

Leave a reply

This is the EBRC Jaguar, France’s new armoured reconnaissance & combat vehicle, and – according to builder Jordan Parmegiani (aka ParmBrick) – it’s equipped with electronic IED countermeasures and missile alert systems, a 40mm cannon, two MMP anti-tank guided missiles, a 7.62mm remote controlled machine gun, and eight smoke grenades. Which all sounds marvellous, but more importantly, being French, just look at how many poles there are to hang a white flag on! See more of Jordan’s Jaguar at both Eurobricks and Flickr via the links.

DUNE

Leave a reply

A new attempt at a ‘Dune’ movie arrived in cinemas this month, which – unlike past films baring the name – actually looks rather good. Cue today’s creation, which is entitled ‘Fresh Duner’, so we’re in no way using the aforementioned film to trick unwitting movie-goers to this crumbling corner of the internet.

The ‘Fresh Duner’ comes from Martin Vala, and it looks like a combination of a Dakar and Extreme E racers. Martin’s constructed it in Gulf colours too, which would be ironic if it raced in the latter formula, but nevertheless it looks fab here.

The brilliantly bodywork sits atop a wonderfully life-like chassis, with brick built steering and suspension components adding a dose more realism to Martin’s concept racer. A desert backdrop completes the build, and there’s more to see of Martin’s ‘Fresh Duner’ at his photostream via the link above.

Tada!

Leave a reply

Sounding a bit like an Italian magician pulling a rabbit from a hat (and thereby adding both Italy and Japan to TLCB’s long list of offended nations), Tadano are Japan’s largest crane and arial platform manufacturer, dating way back to the 1940s.

This is their TL200M mobile crane, or rather, a Lego version of it as built by TLCB newcomer Marco Gan.

Posable stabiliser legs and crane boom, plus a working winch all feature, and there’s more to see at Marco’s ‘TADANO TL200M’ album on Flickr. Click the link to magic your way over.

Creations for Charity 2021

Leave a reply

The world is a tumultuous place at the moment. The dumpster fire that was 2020 has continued to rage throughout 2021, and – unless COP26 achieves something meaningful this week – 2021 might be as good as it’s going to get.

But really, if you’re reading this, things are probably alright. We’re the lucky ones, and we all have the joyous privilege of being able to redistribute some of our wealth to those to whom it would be worth far more. Even better, we can do it via our favourite plastic bricks…

Creations for Charity 2021

Now in its thirteenth year, the wonderful Creations for Charity initiative has provided thousands of LEGO toys to children in need, funded via the sale of creations designed and built by members of the community. Which means that you can buy an incredible one-off Lego creation knowing that all of the proceeds are going straight to children to whom they will make the biggest difference. How awesome is that!

Get Involved

You can join the Creations for Charity 2021 fundraiser in several ways; by donating a creation to the Creations for Charity store, by buying a creation, or by giving a monetary donation. All are used to get LEGO sets into the hands of underprivileged children, providing the gift of building, imagination, and escapism to kids who really might need a place to escape to every now and then.

You can take a look at the creations already donated to the Creations for Charity store by clicking the link below, with many more models to be added over the coming weeks.

Give the gift of LEGO this fall, and help to bring a little happiness to the children who need it most.

Visit the Creations for Charity store here