My Other Car’s a Land Rover

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If – like this TLCB Writer – you think that Land Rover’s new Defender is just another version of the Range Rover to be bought by wealthy but unimaginative financiers for driving between the electric gates of their mock-tudor house and the golf club, then this post if for you.

You see, underneath the utter madness of this build is the new Land Rover Defender, or rather the official LEGO 42110 set, and we know which we’d rather have.

It’s the work of previous bloggee “grohl”, who had clearly had a lot of sugar, turning the 42110 set into the wild ‘Claw Car #2′ from the Elves’ favourite post-apocalyptic wreck-fest, ‘Mad Max – Fury Road’.

Loosely based on a late ’60s Plymouth Barracuda, “grohl”‘s 42110 alternate replicates the movie car superbly, and it’s packed with Technical functions too. Some of which the Elves have found very amusing.

Four-wheel-drive, a four-speed gearbox, a mid-mounted V8 engine, and working steering and suspension make this a qualified ‘Technic Supercar’, plus there are a few items of additional equipment that Land Rover didn’t see fit to include with their Defender…

Firstly there’s a roof mounted gun with two axis of movement, followed by a working harpoon gun mounted inside the engine bay. Said harpoon gun fires a Technic axle around two metres, which the Elves have found particularly fun today. Finally there’s the rear-mounted plough; a huge ratchet-operated claw for slowing down harpooned tanker trucks.

If that’s hard to picture in action then check out “grohl”‘s excellent video below, and you can see full details, imagery, and find a link to building instructions by clicking here.

YouTube Video

 

HEMTT

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A military truck loaded with mystery green canisters can’t be good. Well, the model is good, but you know what we mean. Regular bloggee Ralph Savelsberg is the builder of this ’80s M985 ‘Heavy Expanded Mobility Tactical Truck’ loaded with the rocket launcher cargo used in Operation Desert Storm. Blow up something in Iraq circa-1991 via the link above.

My Other Car is a Ferrari

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Today’s title is the bumper sticker equivalent of a ‘You don’t have to be mad to work here, but it helps!’ mug. In this case it fits though, as this ace Technic Meyers Manx beach buggy is built only out of the parts from the LEGO Technic 42125 Ferrari 488 GTE set.

Previous bloggee paave is the builder, whose 42125 B-Model includes working steering, all-wheel suspension, opening front trunk and engine cover, and a flat-4 engine. Building instructions are available and there’s more to see at Bricksafe and the Eurobricks forum.

Speed Champions 2021 H2 | Set Previews

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The Elves have been busy! A crack team of ‘volunteers’, sent into the bowels of The LEGO Company’s HQ, have returned, some of them without any German Shepherd teeth marks at all! The fruits of their mission are six new Speed Champions sets for 2021, and – more excitingly – two brand new manufacturer partnerships.

76900 Koenigsegg Jesko

The first of the two new manufacturer partnerships is the hardest to spell. Swedish hypercar maker Koenigsegg have been a bedroom wall staple for years, and 76900 will bring Koenigsegg’s 1,300bhp (and rumoured 300+mph top speed) Jesko to bedroom floors too when it arrives alter this year. The Speed Champions version includes 280 pieces and – to our eyes – really looks the part. Expect it to cost around $20/£15 when it hits stores, and for bedroom floors to be a much faster place.

76901 Toyota GR Supra

The second new partnership is the one we’re most excited about, although perhaps not the first model to come from it. 76901 marks the first officially licensed Toyota set, and brings their spectacularly styled fifth generation Supra into the Speed Champions line-up. It’s a shame then that the resulting model looks so awkward, in particular the dodgy-looking stickered headlights. Still, LEGO know what sells, and we suspect that 76901 will be mighty popular. Plus, if it opens the door to a Technic or Creator Toyota Land Cruiser, Le Mans racer, or Yaris WRC car, we’re all for it. Aimed at ages 7+, expect 299 parts and the usual $20/£15 price-tag.

76902 McLaren Elva

The third new set in the 2021 Speed Champions line-up recreates yet another McLaren in brick form. The near $2million Elva is one of far too many real-world McLaren special editions, giving LEGO a vast range of McLaren cars to turn into sets. It’s not one of our favourites this one, although the wing-mirror looks cool. Less stickers (good), less parts (bad), and likely the same price-tag as the sets above.

76903 Chevrolet C8.R & ’68 Chevrolet Corvette

This is more like it! The first double-car set of the 2021 Speed Champions range, 76903 brings the Chevrolet Corvette C8.R racing car and ’68 Corvette C3 to the line-up, and they both look fantastic. The modern C8.R shows how stickers should be applied (i.e. to create a livery, not as a substitute for the brick-built basics), whilst the classic C3 might be one of the nicest Speed Champions road cars ever. 76903 includes 512 parts, two mini-figures, and is expected to cost around $40/£35 when it arrives later this year.

76904 Mopar Dodge Top Fuel Dragster & ’70 Dodge Challenger

The American road and racing car combo continues with 76904; Dodge’s iconic ’70 Challenger (in their excellent ’70s purple!) alongside an enormous Mopar Top Fuel dragster. Unlike the larger sets from previous years no gantry or starting lights are included (which is fine by us as they always look a bit rubbish), but the size of the dragster alone increases the piece count to 627. Two mini-figures and a lot of stickers for the dragster are included, and we expect 76904 to cost around $60/£55.

76905 Ford GT Heritage Edition & Bronco R

The final new set in the 2021 H2 Speed Champions range continues LEGO’s successful partnership with Ford, recreating the Ford GT in Heritage Edition spec and the brand new Ford Bronco. The GT features as many stickers as the rest, although they do work well here, whilst the Bronco R is covered in even more. They kind of suit the Bronco though, which also includes a very cool looking blue roll cage, sump guard, and spare tyre cage too. Like the other double vehicle sets, 76905 is aimed at ages 8+, and actually includes the most parts at 660 (although many are small pieces). Expect 76905 to cost around $55/£50, and for that Bronco to be used to jump over all manner of household objects after it goes on sale later in the year.

Not a Car

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But we rather like boats. They fetch tasty things out of the sea, take us to exotic places, and bring us pretty much everything from where it’s made to where it needs to be.

This one is a research vessel, itself the noblest of purposes, Luis Pena is the builder, and there’s more to see on Flickr. Click the link above to take a look.

Trade it in for a Newer Model

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This is not the best Lego Porsche 911 model ever made. In fact, it’s not even the best Porsche 911 model made by this builder. However, what it is, is the best Porsche 911 model built from another Porsche 911 model. By miles.

LEGO’s ace official 10295 Porsche 911 set is a wonderful addition to the line-up, particularly as it features a classic version of Porsche’s iconic sports car. However what if you like your 911s a little newer?

TLCB Master MOCer Firas Abu-Jaber has the answer, constructing this 2021 Porsche 911 Turbo S only from the parts found within the official LEGO 10295 classic 911 set.

Now the usual 911 joke here would be ‘well, all 911s look the same anyway’, but the proportions of the modern iteration (and any new car) are actually drastically different to those from 40 yers ago.

Firas’s B-Model somehow manages to convey these superbly, even if the outcome is a little squashed, and best of all he’s made building instructions available via his excellent Bricks Garage website so that you can swap your classic 911 for the latest model too.

There’s more to see of Firas’ 10295 911-alternate-911 by clicking these words, plus you can see an ex-LEGO set designer’s take on a 10295 B-Model by clicking here.

Truckasaurus REXX

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Whiiiir, crunch. Whiiiir, crunch. That’s not a good noise thought this TLCB Writer. A weary and well-worn trudge out of the office revealed the source, and more Elven carnage than we’ve experienced for some time.

Stampeding down the corridor was a troop of Elves, being chased by the most enormous, and enormously fast, truck that this writer had ever seen. Behind it, squashed thoroughly into the carpet, were those that had failed to keep up the pace, or – more likely – those that had been tripped by one of their colleagues.

With the driver apprehended we can take a look at this astonishing 1 metre long machine, which turns out to be a fully working replica of the enormous 160-ton Australian REXX mining truck.

It comes from previous bloggee Kirill Mazurov (aka Desert Eagle/desert752), and it is a phenomenal bit of kit.

No less than fifteen motors and four third-party BuWizz bluetooth batteries power the REXX, with five Buggy Motors delivering power to all ten fully-suspended wheels. That explains the almost implausible speed.

Three Servo Motors drive the steering, the vast tipping bed is powered by both an XL and L Motor, whilst five Medium Motors operate the cab’s motorised ladders, doors, and even the windscreen wipers.

It’s a truly astounding build and one that is definitely worth a closer look via Kirill’s ‘REXX Truck’ Flickr album, the Eurobricks discussion forum, and via the excellent video showing the model in action below.

Click the links above to make the jump, and you can check out the BuWizz bluetooth bricks that provide Kirill’s REXX with all that power by clicking here.

YouTube Video

May the Fourth…

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It’s May the 4th, a day observed by countless nerds in celebration of a ’70s movie that began part way through for some reason. Star Wars devotees mark the occasion through quiet contemplation, internet forum bickering, and absolutely not taking to girls, because they’re scary. Which is the same as every other day, only this one involves a Star Wars-y pun.

TLCB, what with our formidable knowledge of popular culture and cinema history, are joining the Star Wars Day festivities with a quartet of Tie Fighters, which all probably feature in a movie or something.

Each has come spectacularly built and presented by Flickr’s Jerac, with (clockwise from top left); a TIE Fighter, Iden Versio’s TIE Fighter, a TIE Interceptor, and a Royal Guard TIE Interceptor, which we definitely knew ourselves and aren’t simply quoting the builder.

It means today The Lego Car Blog has more TIEs than a political convention, and thus we feel satisfied we have sufficiently acknowledged this great and noble day and can lay it to rest for another year, unless we forget about it in which case it might end up being longer.

Adherents to the Star Wars religion can see more of Jerac’s stunning brick-built TIE Fighters via the link above, where quite contemplation, internet forum bickering, and absolutely not talking to girls can all be undertaken too.

May the fourth be with you.

Just Like a 911. Sort of.

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The Porsche 911 is not the only rear-engined rear-wheel-drive European car. In fact there were loads, including Volkswagens, Tatras, Skodas, the Smart ForTwo, and – of course – Fiats.

Following the phenomenally successful 500, Fiat followed up with another rear-engined, rear-driven design, the near five-million selling 126.

Much of the 126’s technology was based on the 1950’s 500, which – considering it was produced in Polski-Fiat 126p form until the year 2000 – is both an astonishing achievement and rather frightening.

It’s the Polski-Fiat version we’re featuring here today, a car that mobilised Poland, although only if you were prepared to wait years or had communistical connections. Recreated in a fetching ‘hearing-aid beige’ / ‘baby-sick yellow’, Legostalgie‘s Model Team replica of the 126p captures the real car wonderfully, with a near perfect exterior, detailed interior, plus opening doors, front trunk and engine cover, with a realistic two-cylinder engine underneath.

Legostalgie has presented his model beautifully, and there are more top-notch images available to view at his ‘Polski Fiat 126p’ album on Flickr – click on the link above for all the drawbacks of a 1970’s Porsche 911, but none of the thrills…

Small Brits

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Over one in three Americans are obese, but TLCB’s home nation isn’t far behind, with 28% of the population being medically categorised as ‘chunkadunk’. Today though, we have two really small Brits, each being constructed in diminutive Speed Champions scale, yet still instantly recognisable as miniatures of their real-world brethren.

The first (above) is a tiny car in real life too, being a delightful recreation of the late-’50s Austin-Healey ‘Frogeye’ Sprite by RGB900. The real Spite measured just 3.5 metres in length, making it almost a third shorter than McLaren’s ridiculously-long 5.1 metre Speedtail.

Suggested by a reader, this neat Speed Champions version of one of McLaren’s million special editions is the work of newcomer User 5346 and there’s more of each small-scale Brit to see on Flickr. Take a look via the links above whilst we go and eat a donut or six.

Space Slurry

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No, we’re not referring to Star Wars dialogue – we’re a day early for that – rather this giant black tanker truck by previous bloggee Arian Janssens. It’s a DAF FT CF480 Space Cab, pulling a huge three-axle tanker trailer filled with more crap than an Anakin Skywalker monologue. Whoops, we’re a day early. Er, let’s say Trump’s Twitter account. Either way, it’s a whole lot of crap, and there’s more to see of Arian’s enormous slurry tanker on Flickr via the link.

Ferrari F50 GT | Picture Special

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This is the Ferrari F50 GT, a GT1 racer designed to compete in the Global GT Series of the mid-’90s against supercars such the McLaren F1 GTR, Jaguar XJ220 and Porsche 911 GT1.

However, Ferrari being Ferrari, they were unhappy that homologation specials like the 911 GT1 were allowed to race, and so threw their hands in the air, shouted something Italian, and stormed off to continue monopolising Formula 1’s TV revenue.

Thus only three F50 GTs were built, none of which raced, and these days they’re probably worth a gagillion of any currency you care to pick. Fortunately this one is rather more attainable, being a (stunning) 1:10 scale Technic ‘Supercar’ replica.

Created by Jeroen Ottens, this beautifully presented build features all of the Technic Supercar requirements, including all-wheel suspension, functioning steering, a working V12 engine and four-speed sequential gearbox, plus opening doors and front and rear clamshells.

It’s a jaw-dropping model and there’s more to see at both Flickr and Eurobricks, where you can also find a link to building instructions so you can create Jeroen’s F50 GT for yourself. Just ensure you refuse to race it against a Porsche and shout a lot in Italian about things not being fair for the authentic Ferrari experience.

Chasseurs de Fantômes

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We don’t know what a French ghost looks like (it’d probably be smoking, with an attractive accent, and a penchant for striped jumpers), but we do know that if the Ghostbusters were French they’d probably drive this. Well, according to Tobias Munzert anyway.

This rather lovely Citroen DS is constructed solely from the pieces found within the official LEGO  10274 Ghostbusters Ecto-1 set, and it’s looks perfect for hunting down some gallic ghouls.

Building instructions are available and there’s more to see of this apparition-busting alternate at Tobias’ photostream. Click the link above to taaaake a loooook (in a ghost voice).

Get Your Bricks on Route 66

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This wonderful vintage Route 66 scene was found by one of our Elves on Flickr, and it comes from the collaborative efforts of previous bloggee Dornbi and TLCB debutant Bricking Robo.

A gloriously evocative vignette, Dornbi and Robbo‘s build features a wealth of classic American metal, plus a brilliant motel, gas station, and auto shop, and there’s lots more to see at both builders’ photo streams via the links above.

My Other Car is Also a Porsche

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Well, kinda. This lovely looking sports coupe is not actually a brick-built version of a real Porsche, but it contains so many Porschey cues we had to double check. It comes from Nathanael Kuipers, who has redeployed the parts from the official LEGO 10295 Porsche 911 set to create this superb alternate. Building instructions are available and there’s more of Nathanael’s 10295 B-Model to see at his photostream by clicking here.