Half-Size Supercar

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This is an Autozam AZ-1, and it’s awesome! Produced from 1992 to ’94, fewer than 5,000 units were built across all three brands that marketed it (Mazda, Mazda’s kei car brand Autozam, and Suzuki, who supplied the engine), with sales hampered by a high list price, collapsing economy, and it being weird even by the standards of the Japanese kei-class.

Effectively a 1:2 scale mid-engined gull-winged supercar, the AZ-1 we have here is even smaller, at 1:11, but it’s as packed with interestingness as the real thing. Built by syclone of Eurobricks, this brilliant Technic recreation of the coolest kei-car of them all features remote control drive, steering and headlights, a working steering wheel inside a detailed cabin, independent front and rear suspension, a working piston engine (in there somewhere!), and – of course – opening gull-wing doors.

Building instructions are available and there’s much more to see of syclone’s brilliant Autozam AZ-1, including a video of it in action, at the Eurobricks discussion forum. Take a look at this fantastic 1:11 recreation of a 1:2 supercar via the link above!

Hall of Armour

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The ‘Hall of Armour’ might sound like somewhere in ‘Game of Thrones’ where witchcraft, disembowelling, and incest take place (which is most places in ‘Game of Thrones’), but in this case it’s far more exciting.

Tony Stark (aka Iron Man)’s ‘Hall of Armour’ – effectively the coolest basement ever – contains his tools, equipment, flying mech suits, robotic arms, and – being easily the best Marvel superhero – a few tasty cars too.

This is our favourite, his flame-decalled hot rod roadster, as recreated wonderfully in Speed Champions scale by KosBrick of Flickr.

KosBrick has captured the hot rod from the movie beautifully, plus he’s constructed a variety of items found in Tony Starks ‘Hall of Armour’ too, which are – in place of witchcraft, disembowelling and incest – much more interesting from an engineering perspective.

You can build these for yourself thanks to the building instructions released alongside the stunning imagery, and there’s more to see of KosBrick’s ‘Hall of Armour’ on Flickr. Click the link above to check it out.

Technic 42131 App-Controlled CAT D11 Bulldozer | Set Preview

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Household pets and TLCB Elves don’t usually get on. From October 2021 however, we expect they might share a common nemesis; this is the brand new LEGO Technic 42131 App-Controlled CAT D11 Bulldozer. All 3,854 pieces of it.

Measuring 57cm in length and 37cm wide, 42131 brings the Caterpillar brand into LEGO’s burgeoning array of official partnerships – alongside equipment manufacturers such as Volvo, Claas, and Liebherr.

Four ‘Powered UP’ motors and a Control+ hub enable the set to be controlled via your mobile phone, with the huge yellow tracks, blade elevation and tilt, and ripper height all powered and remotely operable.

Those yellow tracks are new for 2021 too, making their debut on 42131, and featuring a tightening/loosening mechanism that we expect will make them highly sought after for builders’ own tracked creations.

A working piston engine complete with details such as brick built turbo-chargers, realistic (and – we must admit – rather excellent looking) decals, and a high level of visual exterior detailing including rails, ladders, exhausts, and lights, make for very impressive looking set, and one we expect will become mighty popular.

Aimed at ages 18+, the new LEGO Technic 42131 App-Controlled CAT D11 Bulldozer is expected to cost around £420, which – much to the relief of our Elves – is comfortably outside TLCB’s budget. If it’s within yours you can get your hands on all 3,854 pieces from October 2021, and your cat will never be able to relax again.

Dude, We Could Totally Jump That Lake!

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You might think that a Ford Mustang and a golf cart have nothing at all in common.

One’s a loud, (usually) V8-powered muscle car designed for bros who think that wheel-spin is the single greatest achievement in motoring, whilst the other is a slow, (usually) electric-powered mobility scooter designed for Donald Trump-types to avoid doing any exercise whatsoever during their ‘sport’.

But they’re actually much more alike than they first appear…

That’s because they are both driven by absolute morons. As evidenced here. And here. And here. And here. Oh, and here.

See, they’re exactly the same. Which makes the humble golf cart the perfect vehicle to recreate from the pieces found within the official LEGO 10265 Ford Mustang set, as demonstrated today by Jakub Marcisz who has done just that.

There’s more to see of Jakub’s alternate at his ‘10265 B-Model Golf Cart’ album on Flickr, where it’s only a matter of time before someone jumps it over an ornamental flower bed.

BriksMax Light Kit (42111 Dom’s Dodge Charger)

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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 →

Phlattening Phoenix

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It was a peaceful morning here at TLCB Towers. Some Elves were quietly watching cartoons, some TLCB Writers were… er, quietly watching cartoons, and all was well with the world.

And then a BuWizz-powered truck ran a load of them over. Elves you understand, not Writers.

Built by Eurobricks’ blaz62, this monstrous Tatra Phoenix trial truck made easy work smushing our smelly little workers, thanks to twin motors, fully independent suspension, and six-wheel-drive.

The Elf at the controls was clearly enjoying itself, but fortunately we were on hand to promptly pick up the creation in question and end the violence, much to its annoyance.

A closer inspection of the model revealed modular construction, opening doors, and – for a Technic creation at least – a kinda detailed interior, but with a trial truck it’s really all about how the model drives.

Whilst we conduct some arduous ‘testing’ to determine this, you can see more of blaz62’s excellent all-wheel-drive Phoenix at the Eurobricks discussion via the link above, plus you can check out the creation in action via the video below.

YouTube

Blank Face

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Things with blank, expressionless faces are terrifying. How do you know what they’re thinking? That’s why car styling always sort of resembles a face, even if that face is an increasingly angry one these days.

Oshkosk didn’t get that memo though, and – in creating their HMETT 8×8 off-road truck – gave it a face of such horrifying blankness it could belong to a Cyberman.

Still, vacant serial-killer stare aside, the HMETT is a mega bit of kit, and so too is Thesuperkoala‘s Technic recreation, which includes eight-wheel-drive, four-wheel-steering, lockable differentials, a high/low gearbox, all-wheel springless suspension, a removable load bed, and BuWizz bluetooth remote control.

Which means it could drive around the house seemingly of its own free-will, which gives this writer shivers.

There’s more to see of Thesuperkoala’s excellent Technic Oshkosh HMETT 8×8 truck at both Flickr and via the video below; click the links to take a look, whilst this TLCB Writer draws smiley faces on anything vaguely resembling a head in TLCB office and tries to think happy thoughts…

YouTube Video

White Angles

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Back when this TLCB Writer was a boy, LEGO bricks came in exactly three angles; Right, 45°, and Somewhere (half-way?) in Between.

Not so today, where a myriad of wedges are available in numerous widths, lengths, and thicknesses, and it seems previous bloggee Fabrice Larcheveque has deployed every single one of them in his recreation of Lamborghini’s ultra limited-run Reventon.

Inspired by a fellow previous bloggee The G Brix and constructed in 8-wide Speed Champions scale, Fabrice’s Reventon captures the angular aesthetic of the real car brilliantly, and there’s more to see of his collection of wedges here.

Devil Dog

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We love Technic Supercars here at TLCB. There’s no need for motors, and the car doesn’t have to actually be a ‘super car’, it just needs steering, suspension, a gearbox, and a piston engine. Perhaps it should be out next competition?

Anyway until then, here’s a Technic Supercar from one of the very best. Suggested by a reader, TLCB Master MOCer Crowkillers’ latest creation fits the Technic Supercar brief perfectly, with steering, all-wheel suspension, a 4+R gearbox (with a gear indicator on the dashboard too), and a V8 engine up front.

The doors, hood and trunk also open, and there’s more to see of Crowkillers’ ‘Cerberus’ Technic Supercar via Bricksafe, where two-dozen high quality images are available, and via the YouTube video below with a suitably devil dogish soundtrack.

YouTube Video

Skull and Crossplane

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Americans, like TLCB Elves, are excited by decals. There’s the Pontiac Firebird’s Giant Flaming Bird motif, the Ford Mustang’s twin stripes, aircraft with teeth, and many more besides.

Despite this clear appreciation for decal work, that most American of cars – the Chevrolet Corvette – isn’t really famous for any stickers at all.

Fortunately László Torma is here to correct this, by equipping the unloved LS1 crossplane-engined C4 Corvette (see, the title does make sense!) with a giant skull on the hood.

You can also build both the aforementioned skull and the car wearing it at home, as László has made building instructions for his C4 Corvette ‘Skull Edition’ available. Go on, get a boner via the link above!

Cars of Futures’ Past

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For reasons unknown, movies depicting cars of the future always seem to choose 1976 as a start point. Still, as the results are sometimes as good as these cyberpunk concepts by Finn Roberts we’re cool with that.

Based on the conceptual designs of Syd Mead – and a Lancia Stratos – Finn’s concepts capture the retro-futuristic nature of cyberpunk film brilliantly, and are part of his wide ranging ‘Cyberpunk’ Flickr album.

There’s more to see of Finn’s two cyberpunk concept cars featured here on Flickr, where a range of other brick-built retro-future machinery can also be found. Take a look via the link above.

Build-a-Countach

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Lamborghini have just revealed the new Countach, celebrating 50 years since the original first appeared in concept form and re-wrote the supercar rule book. In looks only of course, as the actual car, when it arrived in 1974, was rather rubbish.

Still, how a car drives is irrelevant when it’s a poster on your bedroom wall, and the Countach fulfilled the bedroom poster brief better than any car before it, or since.

Which makes us rather disappointed that Lamborghini’s ‘new’ Countach looks mostly like every other Lamborghini, and is yet another ultra-limited special edition (just 112 units will be made) costing $2m a piece.

Not that it matters what we think of course, because the new Countach is already sold out.

No, we’ll stick with the old one produced from 1974 until 1990 (by which time it had grown to look rather silly), despite it being a pretty bad car – even by 1970s supercar standards.

Cue Flickr’s barneius, who has recreated one the later (silly) original Countaches – the extravagantly-titled ‘LP5000 Quattrovalvole’ – beautifully in Speed Champions scale.

Clever build techniques are matched by an even cleverer use of black stickers, and there’s more of barneius’s build to see, plus a link to building instructions, at his ‘Lamborghini Countach’ album on Flickr. Click the link above to make the jump.

Farmville

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The Lego Car Blog is full of sports cars, supercars, and trucks. But for the braver builder, there’s a whole world of fantastically complicated machinery ripe for harvesting into Lego form.

Not many builders have the skills to take on the complex mechanisms found in agriculture, and as such farm equipment remains a relatively rare genre to appear here at The Lego Car Blog.

However one ridiculously-talented builder has managed it, and has appeared here with more superb brick-built pieces of agricultural equipment than probably all other builders put together.

Yes, Michał Skorupka (aka Eric Trax), whose fully operational replicas of real-world tractors, harvesters, balers, and manure spreaders have consistently wowed the entire team here at TLCB, has finally been recognised by our team of supercar-and-truck focussed writers, becoming the latest builder to be inducted into the Master MOCers Hall of Fame.

Eric Trax joins us as the eighth builder of Master MOCers Series 2, the nineteenth Master MOCer of all time, and the first to build a machine specifically for throwing poo.

Take a look at Eric’s story, find out his favourite LEGO piece, and learn who he’d have in the passenger seat of an Audi R8 via the link to his Master MOCers page below! Congratulations Eric, and we can’t wait to see what’s next.

Click here to read Eric Trax’s Master MOCers Interview

Life-Size LEGO Supra

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LEGO have a long tradition of building life-size vehicles. From build-your-own McLarens, to full size Lamborghini sets, via drivable Bugattis, a Fiat 500, and a Ducati superbike, all manner of vehicles have been recreated in 1:1 scale from little plastic bricks.

Cue LEGO’s latest full-size creation, this time constructed for Legoland Japan over 4,500 hours, it’s the stunning Toyota GR Supra.

Pictured above alongside the real car, LEGO’s replica faithfully captures the GR Supra’s wild lines from 477,303 mostly-yellow LEGO bricks in 1:1 scale.

LEGO’s life-size GR Supra recreation also features a few components from the real Japanese sports car, including the wheels, tyres, seat and steering wheel. Why the wheels, tyres, seat, and steering wheel? Because this brick-built GR Supra can drive!

OK, it doesn’t feature the real GR Supra’s 3 litre inline six, but nevertheless an electric motor hidden within does enable this full scale model to move. We assume Legoland Japan has a similarly enormous skirting board to crash it into too, for the full Speed Champions experience.

The model’s top speed of 17mph doesn’t quite match the real GR Supra’s electronically limited v-max of 155mph, despite it weighing not too much more than the real deal, but we suspect that’s probably fast enough in a vehicle held together by studs-and-tubes.

Our Japanese readers can check out the full-size LEGO Toyota GR Supra at Legoland Japan where the model is on display, whilst the rest of us will have to make do with something considerably smaller…

Old-Timey Police Chase

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It’s time for an old-timey police chase! Which would be similar to a modern police chase, only with more “Stop you reprobate, do you hear me? Stop!” type phrases being shouted somewhat politely through a loud hailer, and fewer ‘News’ helicopters broadcasting the unfolding mayhem live to the serially unemployed.

The cars would also likely be much cooler than today’s police chase defaults of battered Dodge pick-ups or 2003 Honda Civics, at least in the mind of this TLCB Writer, and certainly if 1saac W.‘s glorious ’53 Hudson Hornet and ’51 Nash Statesman police car are involved.

Built using only original LEGO pieces and off-cuts from LEGO sticker sheets, 1saac has captured each car beautifully in Speed Champions form, and there’s more to see of both the Hudson and the Nash at his photostream – click the link above to jump downtown in the mid-’50s.