Bobcat

2 Replies

We don’t get bobcats here in TLCB’s home nation. We used to have the eurasian lynx roaming about, which is like a bobcat only three times the size, but we shot all of those. Along with pretty much everything else. Yay humanity.

Thus the only bobcats we’re going to see are the excavatorial types, such as this Bobcat S130. Constructed by Brick_Builder19, this neat Technic recreation of the skid-steer loader includes a working piston engine, a linear actuator operated lift arm, and a mechanical tipping bucket.

Full details of Brick’s Bobcat S130 are available on Eurobricks, where you can also find a link to the model on LEGO Ideas. Grab your gun and click the link above to take a closer look.

Speed Champions Semi

1 Reply

‘Semi’ means something rather different in the TLCB’s home nation…

No matter, in the U.S. at least, it seems to relate to trucks, as demonstrated by this ‘American Semi Truck’ by The G Brix of Flickr. Constructed in Speed Champions scale it features opening doors, a detailed interior (with living space), an engine under the opening hood, and there’s more to see via the link.

Clean Coupe

1 Reply

Another day and another Elf returns to TLCB Towers, this time with something rather shiny. Usually this means they’ve stolen someone’s keys, but in this case it is actually a Lego creation. Built by ianying616, this ’32 Ford Coupe hot rod looks superb, helped by some most excellent photography and presentation. There’s more to see at the link above, and you can learn some simple tricks to present your models as professionally as ianying616 has by clicking here.

Cosmic Cannon

1 Reply

The school-run arms-race is alive and well around TLCB Towers, where giant black 4x4s are seemingly in a competition to be the most unnecessary child transportation method.

This would be our repost, Horcik Designs‘ ‘Rattrax’; a Blacktron buggy with a giant space laser mounted on the roof, which seems more than capable of one-upping Liliane’s Range Rover. Or at least blasting it into a fine powder.

Head to Flickr via the link above to join the fight.

Raucous Rieju

Leave a reply

Ninety-five year old Spanish motorcycle manufacturer Rieju make some great looking off-road mopeds. And so too does previous bloggee Mathjis Bongers, who has recreated their MRT PRO ‘motard’ in Technic form, complete with working suspension, steering, and a replica of the Rieju’s tiny 50cc engine, which likely makes a disproportionately loud noise in relation to the forward movement in provides. Mathjis’ version is therefore our preference, despite how cool the real thing looks, and there’s more to see at both his ‘Rieju MRT PRO‘ album and via the Eurobricks discussion here.

New Sportscar Experimental

Leave a reply

Honda’s NSX broke new ground when it launched in 1990. Whilst not the fastest or the most exotic supercar, it brought reliability and usability to a vehicular segment that had – in some cases – completely ignored these attributes in favour of silly doors.

This of course meant that the NSX was seen as a bit boring at the time, or even ‘not a super car’, at all, but time has been kinda Honda’s experiment, and it has become one of the most revered and iconic ’90s cars ever, with prices exploding in recent years.

This puts the NSX out of reach for most of us, but fortunately regular bloggee SP_LINEUP has constructed one that’s far more attainable, and just as awesome looking.

A detailed interior behind opening doors, a beautifully accurate engine under an opening cover, and – get this – working pop-up headlights via a lever in the cabin(!) all feature, and there’s much more to see of SP’s superbly presented build on Flickr. Click the link above to make the jump!

Cyber Crime

Leave a reply

Much of crime now occurs online. From serious stuff like bank fraud, trivial stuff like calling someone names on Twitter, or absurd stuff like teaching a pug to nazi salute, the internet is a cesspool of scumbagery. It is, of course, where The Lego Car Blog is based, which probably just adds to the argument for closing the whole thing down.

Fortunately (apart from in that pug case), there are cyber police attempting to control the online douchbaggery, and in our minds they travel around in things like this.

Appropriately digitally rendered by TLCB debutant cixpack, this ‘2069 Polara’ NYC Police hover car looks like something in-between the Blues Brothers and Fifth Element; and would be suitably terrifying if it turned up outside a troll’s abode to administer a kick to the balls (TLCB’s favoured proposed internet policing style) whenever they used the internet as a toilet.

There’s more to see of cixpack’s virtual NYPD hover car on Flickr – click the link above to take a look. Just remember to be nice!

My Other Car’s Also Really Slow

1 Reply

The original Fiat 500 was so called because it was powered by a rear-mounted 500cc two-cylinder engine. Back in ’50s Europe though, you could go even smaller.

This is the Vespa 400, so called because – you’ve guessed it – it was powered by a rear-mounted 400cc two-cylinder engine, which came from a Piaggio motorcycle.

Said powerhouse afforded the 400 a top speed of just over 50mph (if you mixed the oil with the fuel correctly as it was two stroke), and like the 500 it could just about fit four people inside and featured a convertible canvas roof incase they were wearing tall hats.

This rather lovely Model Team recreation of the Vespa 400 comes from previous bloggee monstermatou, who has constructed it only from the parts found within the Creator Expert 10271 Fiat 500 set.

Monster’s got form too, with several of his ace alternates appearing here previously, one of which very nearly won the TLCB Lock-Down B-Model Competition.

There’s more to see of the Vespa 400 B-Model as well as monstermatou’s other alternates at his photostream, and you can do just that by clicking these words.

GrilleNerd

Leave a reply

We don’t think the previous management of BrickNerd thought much of us here at TLCB. And they’d be right not to, because we’re idiots.

However despite us not being with the ‘in’ crowd of famous Lego-y types, we did rather like BrickNerd’s little mascot Nerdly, contrasting with our utter hatred of that bloody lemur over at The Brothers Brick.

Now under new management, BrickNerd’s bespectacled brick Nerdly is popping up all over the place, including here, mounted to the front of Martin Harris‘ ‘Space City Cruiser’.

We’ve thought about doing something similar to a number of our Elves over the years, although that particular plan involved the front of a bin lorry, but so far we’ve refrained. So far…

Whilst this TLCB Writer dreams of tying Elves to bin lorries you can see more of Martin’s ‘Nerdly Strikes Back!’ at his photostream via the link above.

We’re Going to Need a Bigger Cracker

Leave a reply

Everybody knows the moon’s made of cheese. Which means that the ‘Moonmouse MkII’ makes perfect sense to us. Horcik Designs owns the mind behind it and you can check it out on Flickr by clicking these words.

Green Mean Machine

2 Replies

Being green is very fashionable these days, so here at TLCB we’re jumping on the green bandwagon with a V8-powered hot rod.

Built by TLCB regular SP_LINEUP, this ’41 Dodge hot rod pick-up is based on a real vehicle, in fact being constructed for the builder behind the full size version

There’s more of the model to see at SP’s photostream along with a host of other superb Speed Champions creations – click the link above to go green.

Cycling Circles

Leave a reply

The Lego Car Blog’s home nation isn’t good at many things, but track cycling is a rare exception.

Cycling quickly in circle in a big group, cycling slowly in a circle with someone else, before suddenly cycling quickly, cycling in a circle behind a weird electric scooter thing… we can do all of them. It’s a good thing there are so many ways to cycle in a circle too, otherwise we wouldn’t win half the number of medals.

Previous bloggee George P angeleno (aka ZetoVince) pays homage to cycling in a circle with this fantastic kinetic sculpture, with a slithery track cyclist at the bottom of the banking and a motorised mechanism hidden underneath to bring it to life.

There’s more to see including a video of the cyclist in action at George’s photostream. Click the link above to follow the weird electric scooter thing.

My Other Car’s a Jeep

Leave a reply

LEGO’s new Technic 42122 Jeep Wrangler Rubicon looks cool, although on close inspection not all that accurate, but is something of a disappointment technically. It does include plenty of decent parts though.

M_longer of Eurobricks has used every single one of them in the creation of his 42122 B-Model, turning the Wrangler into a trophy truck complete with working steering, pendular front and trailing-arm rear suspension, opening doors, and even a pair of jerry cans for longer off-road excursions.

Building instructions are available and there’s more of M_longer’s 42122 alternate to see at the Eurobricks discussion forum.

Mystery Machine

1 Reply

OK, we might be as bad with farm equipment as we are with Star Wars, but we’re pretty sure we’ve got this red and yellow contraption by Flickr’s Damian Z right.

Damian’s wonderfully intricate Mechanised Spaghetti Twirler is being pulled by a Mercedes-Benz Trac 1600, a Unimog-based tractor manufactured in the ’70s and ’80s before the design was sold on to Werner-Forst-und-Industrietechnik, who still produce it today.

Clever detailing abounds on both the MB Trac and the Maximum Penetration Autopump behind, and there’s loads more to see of both the tractor and the Industrial Decombobulator in tow at Damian’s ‘MB Trac 1600’ album by clicking here.

Seriously though, we know it’s a Uniformly Regulated Simultaneous Ice Cream Dispenser. Obviously.

The Future Belongs to the Nerds

1 Reply

In fact the present probably does too.

Is it engineers and racing drivers that develop cars today? Of course not, it’s software developers, writing a billion lines of code. Every part of modern life is controlled by code writers, and even those that seem cool now got to where they did by being massive nerds, however much they try to reinvent the person of their past.

Cue TFDesigns! aka Frost, who has entered this year’s Febrovery annual build-off (itself a pretty nerdy thing) with his ‘Futuron MoLab’; a big white box designed purely for science. What science we’re not told, but it looks really very nerdy indeed, so it must be important. Probably a new advert algorithm for Facebook or something.

Whatever it’s up to there’s more to see at Frost’s photostream – join the nerds writing the future via the link above.