Cop Classic

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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 Other GTA

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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.

Bōsōzoku!

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Japan’s ‘Bōsōzoku’ scene is a sub-genre of car culture that we really don’t understand, but that we’re really glad exists. Ralph Savelsberg is too, having created this magnificent Bōsōzoku-ed Nissan Skyline C110 complete with a wild bodykit, skywards exhausts, and a cool-looking Japanese character to drive it. See more on Flickr at the link.

Gullwing

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Is there anything cooler than doors that open skywards? Nope, and that makes the 1955 Mercedes-Benz 300 SL ‘Gullwing’ one of the coolest cars of all time. Powered by a three-litre straight six, the 300 SL was also the first car to feature fuel injection, boosting power by around 50% and making it the fastest production car in the world, with a top speed in excess of 160mph.

This spectacular recreation of the 300 SL is the work of Tobias Munzert, who has built it largely from the pieces found within the 10262 Aston Martin DB5 ‘Goldfinger’ set. As well as accurate opening ‘gullwing’ doors, Tobais’ model includes an opening trunk, raising hood, and a detailed engine, and there’s more to see of his fantastic creation at his ‘Mercedes-Benz 300 SL’ album on Flickr, where a link to building instructions can also be found.

Catalina

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This beautiful aircraft is a PBY-6A Catalina, as built by Henrik Jensen of Flickr. Introduced in 1936 over 3,300 Catalina were constructed, making it one of the most widely used flying boats during the second world war. The Catalina saw service in maritime patrol, night bombing, anti-submarine warfare, and search and rescue, with some still in use today as fire fighting water bombers.

The PBY-6A Catalina depicted here was operated by the Royal Dutch Air force, and has been recreated wonderfully by Henrik using a myriad of clever building techniques, with a few stickers enhancing the realism too. There’s more to see of Henrik’s Catalina at his photostream – click the link above to head there and take a look.

Double DAF

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Here’s a DAF being pulled by another DAF, which makes sense as builder Arian Janssens has appeared here numerous times over the years, usually with a DAF. Arian’s DAF NTT 2800 and DAF FT 2500 share the same brown and orange livery (brorange?), there are custom chromed parts, and giant brick-built ‘DAF’ letters. Because DAF. Head to Arian’s photostream via the link above for these and many other DAFs.

A-Game

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Those working in Mercedes-Benz’s commercial vehicle naming department are much better at their jobs than their counterparts in the passenger car division. Whilst Mercedes-Benz cars are just a nonsensical collection of letters, their trucks all have proper names. Although they must begin with the letter ‘A’ for some reason.

We have two here today, each found on Flickr and each recreating an A-named Mercedes-Benz truck brilliantly in Town(ish) scale.

First up (above) is Fuku Saku‘s exceptional Mercedes-Benz Arocs tipper truck, with detailing equal to what we would expect to find on a Model Team creation several times larger. There’s a superbly lifelike cab, a realistic tipping mechanism, and building instructions are also available. Head to Fuku’s photostream via the link above to take a look.

Today’s second small-scale Mercedes-Benz truck is the work of fellow previous bloggee Keko007, who has recreated the Antos in skip lorry form. Although just six-studs wide, Keko’s model not only looks recognisable, the skip hoist kinda works too, and there’s more to see at his ‘Mercedes Antos 2133 album’. Click the link above to make the skip over to Flickr.

Digital Doodoo

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Our workers may be mythical creatures, but their turds sure aren’t. And that doesn’t even make any sense. Fortunately a reader has suggested this robotic street sweeper, which looks just the thing for removing Elf droppings for TLCB Towers. Finn Roberts (aka ORION_brick) is the builder, or rather ‘designer’ as this is a digital creation, although so good is the render it’s very hard to tell. There’s more to see of Finn’s cyberpunky cleaning robot on Flickr – click the link above sweep the streets on 2077.

Windy Rear

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Yes we’ve opened this post with a fart joke. Named after a hot wind, Volkswagen’s Scirocco took the successful Golf GTI recipe and coupe-d it, creating a quick and light front-wheel-drive two-door.

Like the Golf GTI on which it was based, the Scirocco was an excellent car, but it would be even more excellent if it were rear-wheel-drive (ah, now the title makes sense! Ed.). Cue Danifill of Eurobricks, who has built this rather neat looking Volkswagen Scirocco MKII, fitted remote control drive and steering via bluetooth (thanks to a BuWizz battery), and sent the power to the rear wheels.

Of course that is an easier way to build an RC Lego car, but it also means Danifill’s Scirocco can drift! There’s more to see at the Eurobricks forum here, where you can watch a video of Danifill’s RWD Scirocco getting far more sideways than the real car ever could.

Rambo Lambo

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The Urus is not Lamborghini’s first SUV. But it is their ugliest, which is something we suppose. No, back in the late 1980s, the maddest of all the car manufacturers decided to do something even madder than usual, and built a military-grade, V12 engined off-roader.

Nicknamed the ‘Rambo Lambo’ (younger readers, ask your parents), the LM002 featured the 5.2 litre engine from the Countach up front, although if you liked to literally burn money you could order the LM002 with Lamborghini’s 7.2 litre engine that had – up until that point – been reserved for Class 1 offshore powerboats.

A tubular frame with riveted aluminium panels, all wheel drive, 169 litre fuel tank, and specially developed Pirelli run-flat tyres designed specifically for use on hot sand where also included, which gives a clue as to who Lamborghini was pitching the LM002 at.

However even if you’e not an oil sheik, you can still own a Lamborghini LM002, courtesy of previous bloggee filsawgood and this spectacular fully RC Technic recreation.

Powered by four L Motors with Servo steering, filsawgood’s incredible Technic replica of Lamborgini’s wildest car can be controlled via bluetooth thanks to a third-party BuWizz bluetooth battery, which can also up the power to the motors by a factor of eight versus LEGO’s own Power Functions battery.

All-wheel-drive with planetary hubs, independent suspension, opening doors and hood, a brilliantly detailed interior, and a V12 piston engine all feature, and there’s more to see of filsawgood’s astonishing Lamborghini LM002 on Flickr via the link above, where yes – a link to instructions can also be found!

Medium ‘Mog Magnificence

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LEGO’s 8110 Technic Mercedes-Benz Unimog set earned a stellar 9/10 review here at The Lego Car Blog. With working steering, suspension, engine, all-wheel-drive with portal axles, Power Functions motors, and pneumatics, it’s one of the finest sets in Technic history. However, as is often the way, you guys can do even better.

This is MajklSpajkl’s Mercedes-Benz Unimog U400, and it’s around half the size of the official 8110 set. And yet, even more incredible functions are squeezed inside.

Like the official LEGO set, MajkleSpajkl’s Unimog features all-wheel-drive with portal axles and three differentials, in this case linked to both a four-cylinder piston engine and an XL Motor that provides the model with drive. A Servo controls the steering, simultaneously turning the steering wheel, whilst a Medium Motor drives both the front and rear power take-offs.

A further L Motor powers a pneumatic compressor for the attachment functions, and can also tilt the rear bed (if fitted) in three directions. We write ‘if fitted’, because as per the real Unimog, MajklSpajkl’s creation can be equipped with a variety of attachments, with a tilting bed, front winch, rear-mounted crane, double-auger gritter, and snow plough variously pictured here.

Both the crane and snow plough movements are controlled via pneumatics, pressurised via the on-board compressor, whilst the PTOs provide motorised drive to the crane’s rotating turntable and outriggers, and the gritter’s rotating dispenser respectively. Not only that, but the cab doors open, the cab itself can tilt, and there’s a front mounted winch option, again motorised via a PTO.

All the above are controlled via a BuWizz Bluetooth battery, allowing the U400 to be operated via mobile phone, and there’s lots more to see of MajklSpajkl’s incredible (and beautifully presented) creation at the Eurobricks forum. Click here to take a closer look at one of the best Technic models of 2020.

RRRNEEEUUUURRGGGHHHHH!

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It’s said that pictures say a thousand words. This picture only says one though, and that word is ‘RRRNEEEUUUURRGGGHHHHH!’

Flickr’s Johnni D is the builder behind it, with a little photographic help from a fellow Flickr-er, and there’s more to see of his ’33 Ford hot rod via the link above.

The Moneylorian

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Props to Disney. After buying Lucasfilm for $4 billion in 2012, they have cranked out Star Wars movies to capitalise on their investment, with additions to the main storyline, spin-offs, and now a TV series, all with essentially the same plot.

Still, we do keep watching them, because pew pew pew! This is one of Disney’s newest additions, and one we haven’t seen, because well… it’ll be the same as all the others and there’s already plenty of pew pew pew in those.

From what we can tell ‘The Mandalorian’ seems to have been devised primarily to sell a toy of a green alien with poor sentence structure, but it has resulted in this rather magnificent creation from Flickr’s Jerac.

Entitled the ‘Razor Crest’, it sounds like a combination of things you’d find in your bathroom, but Google assures us it’s a gunship used by Mandalorian bounty hunter Din Djarin, which gets destroyed during a skirmish on Tython. That may have been a spoiler.

Anyway, Jerac’s spectacular Razor Crest build took five months and around five thousand pieces to create, and it looks simply wonderful photographed on the sand with a few LEGO plant stalks poking through as in the images here.

A three seat cockpit, opening hatches and doors, and internal lighting are all included, and there’s loads more to see at Jerac’s photostream via the link above, where – sticking with the cashing-in theme – Jerac will soon add a link to building instructions available to buy, so that you can build your own Razor Crest at home.

I Can’t Hear You, There’s a Helicopter

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President Trump is going to have to return to his own helicopter from February. Whilst we’re sure this will still offer plenty of toupee-glue testing moments, incoming President Joe Biden’s numerous cosmic alterations seem not to include a wig, more’s the pity.

Anyhoo, whichever cosmetically enhanced face is in the White House, it will be flown about in this, the specially adapted Sikorsky SH-3 Sea King ‘Marine One’.

Often a feature on the White House lawn, doing its best to drown out whatever spur-of-the-moment nonsense is being spouted to the press, Marine One has been a Presidential fixture for decades, with almost twenty (Marine One and Twos) in operation the current Presidential fleet.

This superb mini-figure replica of the world’s most famous helicopter comes from BigPlanes of Flickr, who has recreated the real VH-3D Marine One beautifully, including custom decals and a fully-fitted interior, although there’s no angry orange mini-figure shouting from underneath it, which is surely a missed opportunity.

No matter, there’s more to see of BigPlanes’ creation at his ‘LEGO VH-3D Marine One’ album on Flickr, plus you can find his amazing previously blogged recreation of Air Force One by clicking here.

What the Frack?

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This is a Tatra T815-7 10×10. Plus a few other things.

Built in collaboration across five companies and two continents, this remarkable machine is a mobile fracking rig, capable of extracting shale gas from deep inside the earth. The base is a Tatra T815-7 10×10 off-road truck, powered – in this case – by a six thousand horsepower diesel engine mounted behind the cab.

The reason for all that power is what is you can see at the rear of the vehicle, a GD-2500 Quintiplex well-pump constructed by American pump specialists Gardner Denver – itself rated at 2,500bhp – used to propel a mixture of water, sand and chemicals into the well to force the shale gas to the surface.

The engine powering this pump comes from German company MTU, whose designs are more normally associated with ships than land-based vehicles, with a Czech Talosa auxiliary gearbox allowing the twelve cylinder diesel to drive both the pump and the truck itself.

Cylinder deactivation drops the power for driving the truck, so you don’t have 6,000bhp to play with (although that does sound like it would be fun), with this ‘one engine’ solution and the vehicle superstructure created by engineering company M.G. Bryan Equipment.

It’s an amazing real-world vehicle, recreated here in LEGO form (and to an equally amazing standard) by Pavol Vanek aka Paliason. Measuring a metre long and weighing 8kg, Pavol’s brick-built replica of the M.G. Bryan ‘Percheron’ Tatra T815-7 is a huge creation, and it features a host of impressively engineered features underneath the superbly well executed Model Team exterior.

A complete 10×10 chassis, with nine differentials, full suspension, and steering on the first, second, fourth and fifth axles accurately replicates the real truck, with the steering alone driven by four linear actuators and an XL Motor.

A working twelve-cylinder piston engine sits behind the cab, LEDs illuminate the head and taillights, and there are opening doors and control panel covers.

It’s a phenomenal recreation of a unique real-world vehicle, and there’s loads more of Pavol’s astonishing model to see at both Flickr and the Eurobricks discussion forum. Click here to visit Pavol’s ‘M.G. Bryan ‘Percheron’ – Tatra T815-7 10×10′ album on Flickr, and here to visit Eurobricks where full details of the model, the real truck, and how it is used to frack for shale gas, can be found.