Short of a dumpster fire, if there’s an image more suited to summarising 2020 than this we’re yet to see it. Faber Mandragore‘s scrapyard is a fitting way to end probably the weirdest year of modern times; a huge pile of broken junk largely consigned to the bin. And on that happy note we’ll sign out for 2020. See you all in 2021!
Ah, LEGO’s ‘Light & Sound’ system. Before Control+ Apps, Code Pilots, and third-party SBricks, a simple 2×2 brick with a little battery in it that went either ‘Niiii!’ or ‘Wooo!’ depending which way it was turned was the only thing available. And it was marvellous. If a little annoying for every parent of a child that owned one.
Ralph Savelsberg has dug out his thirty-year-old LEGO ‘Light & Sound’ bricks to fit them to his thoroughly modern Miniland scale Dutch police Volkswagen Transporter, and they duly give it ‘Niiii!’ and ‘Wooo!’ abilities as well* as they did to models three decades ago!
Ralph hasn’t left it there either, installing a Power functions remote control drivetrain to his Transporter, cunningly concealed in the back.
There’s more to see of Ralph’s excellent ‘Niiii’-ing and ‘Wooo’-ing Dutch police van on Flickr. Click the link above to annoy your parents.
*’Well’ is a relative term.
Well that was awful wasn’t it. As TLCB’s home nation plunges into another lockdown, the health services are overwhelmed with Coronavirus cases, and President Trump barricades himself in the oval office, 2021 looks to be carrying on where 2020 is leaving off.
Still, here at The Lego Car Blog, things have been alright…
After two years of reducing views, 2020 saw a surge in visitors, taking us back towards the million a year mark. We know people have been bored during lockdowns but there are surely much better places to visit than here!
The U.S remains the top nation for visitors, with more than twice as many of you joining us from America than the next nearest country, despite us annoying a few of you by mentioning some of the U.S’s foibles. Visitors from over two-hundred and twenty other nations visited over the course of 2020, and if you’re the one visitor from Christmas Island, Sierra Leone, Tonga, Samoa, or Gabon an extra warm welcome to you!
Search Engines and Pinterest were the largest source of referrals, with our Review Library and The Rise and Fall of MOCpages receiving the most visits.
Oh yeah, if a killer virus, the undermining of American democracy, and race-related riots weren’t enough, 2020 also saw the surprise deletion of MOCpages. Once the bastion of creation-sharing online, Sean Kenney decided to delete the site without warning, taking with it countless creations and duly collecting the ‘Villain of the Year’ trophy in the process.
After years of changing virtually nothing about this site whatsoever, our hand was forced in 2020 as our un-supported platform finally crapped out on us. Cue a shiny new platform that looks exactly like the old one, except with a proper side bar for advertisements.
We then displayed all the intelligence of an anti-vaccine group by clicking these ads to check they were OK and not leading anywhere unpalatable, and consequently got frozen by Google. Whoopsie. Anyway, they should be back soon, and the revenue they generate will continue to go to good causes that need it more than we do, only now the cheques will be much larger!
With many of you stuck inside during 2020’s various COVID-19 lock-downs it was the perfect time to hold a competition that we’d been mulling over for some time: Take a set you already own, and turn it into something new. The Lego Car Blog Lock-Down B-Model Competition was a roaring success, with over forty creations making the shortlist to win an awesome array of prizes from our sponsors. It was seriously close at the top, with about seven creations separated by only one or two points! Much arguing later and we had our Winner and Runner-Up, who each received some properly good SBrick Bluetooth Controller packs.
We also opened our Review Library up to our readers via our Facebook page, with several of you joining us to review official LEGO sets, and to take home some free (apart from writing a review of course) Game of Bricks lighting kits.
As we move into 2021 we’re still here to blog the best Lego vehicles that the web has to offer. We know 2020 has been exceptionally hard for thousands of you, and sadly 2021 looks to be no better at the moment, despite the promise of a Coronavirus vaccine. However, we hope LEGO can still be a source a joy, and that this crummy little corner of the internet provides an escape every once in a while.
Remember that you can suggest a creation to appear here via the Contact or Submission Suggestions pages (just make sure you read our Submission Guidelines first), you can leave a comment on any page via the feedback box, even if it’s to tell us we’re idiots, and that your views and clicks really do make a difference, particularly once we’re off the naughty step and adverts reappear, with all the revenue earned here at TLCB going to good causes.
Wishing you a very Happy New Year, and a better 2021 for all of humankind
TLCB Team
*OK, the shortest and most underwhelming Technic Set Preview ever, but only because we’ve already revealed the 42122 Jeep Wrangler Rubicon, 42125 Ferrari 488 GTE, 42123 McLaren Senna GTR, and 42118 & 42119 Monster Jam trucks.
That leaves the two entry points to the 2021 Technic range, 42116 Skid Steer Loader and 42117 Race Plane, each consisting of around 150 pieces, aimed at ages 7+, and costing under $10.
Both look pretty reasonable too, each managing to be realistic and functional, with the Loader including two gear-driven functions (arm elevation and bucket tilt), and the Race Plane’s propeller being driven by the landing gear.
No, that’s not much, but at the age and price point they’re worthy additions to the Technic range, effectively teaching gearing and levers to younger builders. Good job LEGO, and there are still two more sets to come later in Q1…
This is a Pontiac Firebird Trans-Am, a car made famous by the ’77 movie ‘Smokey and the Bandit’, and possibly the only car in history to look kinda-cool with pin-striping. Plus a giant flaming bird motif of course.
This exceptional 1:8 recreation of the American icon is the work of Chris Radbone of Flickr, who has not only replicated the exterior of the ’77 Trans-Am beautifully, complete with pin-striping and giant flaming bird motif, his model is a qualified Technic Supercar underneath.
A Technic frame holds a working V8 engine, all-wheel suspension, functioning steering, and a D-N-R gearbox, all of which are concealed behind the wonderfully accurate Model Team exterior.
It’s a great way to finish the year and there’s more to see of Chris’s superb ’77 Pontiac Firebird Trans-Am ‘Bandit’ at his photostream. Click here to make the jump to Flickr for the complete gallery of images, here to see the Smokey and the Bandit movie trailer in which this car stars, and we’ll be back soon with our 2020 round-up.
LEGO’s new Speed Champions canopy has popped up all over the place since its release on the the 75890 Ferrari F8 set. It looks great in many applications, and this superb Ferrari F40 continues that trend. Builder barneius has used 368 pieces to create his Speed Champions F40 making his design an easy one to recreate at home. Instructions are available so you can do just that and you can find out more via the link!
2020 has been a weird year. By ‘weird’, we mean ‘total crap’, and thus we completely understand those who choose to leave it all behind and head out into the wilderness.
Two of the best vehicles for ‘overlanding’, as it is known, are the Toyota 4Runner and Jeep Wrangler, recreated here brilliantly in mini-figure scale by Christian Cowgill of Flickr. Well, we say ‘overlanding’, but the Jeep does look to have an enormous gun on the roof, so maybe these mini-figures are expecting something a bit more end-timesy than a trip the wilderness would first suggest.
They’re probably right too.
Join us preparing for the inevitable apocalypse at Christian’s photostream via the link above.
Snow is falling outside TLCB Towers today, so here’s a VW buggy built to race in the desert. No we couldn’t think of a Christmas link. And we’re really cold.
Anyway, this Speed Champions style ‘Baja Bug’ comes from regular bloggee Jonathan Elliott, it’s rather excellent, and there’s more to see at his photostream. Click the link above and pretend you’re somewhere hot. Unless you’re already somewhere hot, then you can just click the link.
No tenuous links to Christmas are needed for this post! Versteinert’s classic station wagon entitled ‘Ready for Christmas’ includes a (brilliant) Christmas tree, a boot full of presents, and Saint Nicholas himself at the wheel! Ingenious parts usage is in abundance and you can check out Santa’s station wagon in more detail at both Flickr and Eurobricks.
We’re stretching the Christmas metaphors already, and there are still nine days of Christmas to go! This tenuously linked post comes courtesy of Ted Andes, and his marvellous ‘Corsair Parallax’ starfighter, which appears here thanks to some of the coolest stripe work we’ve ever seen. Head to Ted’s photostream to see more.
We’re back! After the Elves’ enforced Christmas break they’ve been re-released out into the web to continue their search for the best Lego vehicles that it has to offer.
One particularly speedy Elf has already returned to TLCB Towers with this, the gloriously eighties Ferrari Testarossa, in Miami Vice white.
Of course Miami Vice often dealt with a very different sort of ‘snow’ to the type our title is referring to, but it’s Christmas – the season of tenuous links!
This excellent Speed Champions style Testarossa comes from The G Brix of Flickr, and you can get your snow fix in Miami via the link above.
The Lego Car Blog Elves have been returned to their cages, the detritus from the office Christmas party has been cleared away, and the inevitable party-related ‘inappropriate physical contact’ reports have been filed by HR. We’re all set for the holidays.
As we take a break for a few days to remember what should be most important, we’d like to wish you all a very Merry Christmas from everyone here at TLCB, and hope – despite what a weird year 2020 has been – that you have peace and happiness is abundance over the festive period.
If you’re one of our readers who visits this site for a bit of that peace and happiness (which always shocks TLCB Team), then do remember that you can visit the Interviews, Review Library, and Archives to continue to get your Lego car fix, plus our Directory is full of excellent car or Lego-related sites that might be worth your click.
Wishing you all a very Happy Christmas
TLCB Team
Built (mostly) from the LEGO 10271 Fiat 500 set, Flickr’s Orion Pax has decided to use his primrose yellow pieces for something far more American.
This is a 1960s Chevrolet Impala convertible, complete with custom chrome bricks, and no less than four Power Functions motors. However they don’t do what you might expect…
Instead of the driving the wheels, Orion’s Impala deploys each motor for fully adjustable suspension, with each wheel able to do its own thing independent of the rest. Servos bounce the front wheels up and down, whilst the rears are adjustable thanks to a pair of motor-driven linear actuators.
It’s an ingeniously simple piece of engineering, and one we’d love to see fitted to a MOC of an old Citroen. Because we’re so un-street here at TLCB that we find old Citroens more interesting than pimped American barges.
Until then you can check out Orion’s brilliant Chevy lowrider album on Flickr by clicking here, which includes a video of the remotely controlled suspension in action.
*Today’s title song. Obviously.
The Lego Car Blog Elves are gradually being returned to their cages for our Christmas break, but we still have time for a few more of their finds before the drinking, er, we mean ‘festivities’, begin.
This wonderful little classic police car was discovered by one of their number today. Leewan is the builder, and the model features opening doors, room for two mini-figures, and some beautifully neat construction techniques.
There’s more to see of Leewan’s excellent creation at the Eurobricks forum – click the link to make the jump.
The Lego Car Blog Elves aren’t allowed to play Grand Theft Auto. Having a tendency to enact whatever it is they’ve most recently seen, playing a game based upon wanton destruction would only add to their already violent disposition, and we have enough tidying up to do already.
Fortunately today’s GTA has nothing to do with that long-running – and admittedly very good fun – video game, but rather this brilliant Speed Champions style Alfa Romeo Giulia GTA, as built by TLCB debutant PleaseYesPlease. Neat decals and a trademark yellow nose make Please’s GTA a properly good homage to the original ’60s sports car, and there’s more to see of their Giulia GTA on Flickr.
Click the link above to take a look, whilst we jack a car, blow up a security truck, and go on a rampage.