This superb RABA 2800/3300 truck, effectively a re-badged DAF, comes from previous bloggee Arian Janssens, who says these were common sights on European roads in the 1980s. Recreated in beautiful detail, Arian has constructed a RABA 2800/3300 complete with a ‘curtain side’ load area and an additional drawbar trailer, for hauling even more Hungarian exports. There’s lots more to see at Arian’s ‘RABA’ album on Flickr; take a look via the link above.
The Elves, under strict instructions to bring back a car, have brought back a motorbike. Sigh. Still, it is a rather lovely motorbike, being an Indian Bobber as built by previous bloggee Peter Schmid. There’s a working engine, steering and suspension and there’s more to see on Flickr via the link.
It’s a big week! Much of Europe is entering a second Coronavirus Lock-Down, two old men are having a fight in America over the postal service, and – more importantly than any of that – TLCB has reached that greatest of birthdays; nine!
Yup, nine years ago in a derelict tower block, the bolts were slid back on a handful of metal cages. Slowly, tentatively, the mythical creatures held within them crept out and disappeared into the shadows.
Frankly sometimes we wish they’d then stayed in the shadows, but annoying as the Elves are they have found some wonderful Lego creations over those nine years, with 2020 being no exception.
In addition to blogging the best Lego vehicles the world has to offer, this year we also ran only our third competition in nearly a decade, with dozens of builders entering TLCB Lock-Down Competition and two collecting some awesome SBrick prize bundles.
We’ve also managed to add a few American patriots to the ‘I’m never visiting this site again!’ commenters’ club, joining the Russian patriots who were outraged in 2018. However despite losing a few readers, more of you have joined us here at TLCB this year than last, and we still have November and December to go. We guess people must be really bored during COVID-19…
So whether you’ve been here for all nine years or 2020 is your first, thank you very much for joining us and supporting the Lego vehicle building community.
If you are new here and are yet to discover all the sections of this miraculously-still-functioning site, take a look at the links below, and remember that the small advertising revenue that your views and clicks generate goes directly to those who need it more than we do.
Until next time, thank you for visiting us.
TLCB Team
This is a Toyota Stacker, or ‘Forklift Truck’ as it’s known here at TLCB, and it’s been built rather brilliantly in Model Team form by recent previous bloggee Andre Pinto.
As the U.S Election hangs on the postal votes yet to be counted, the ballots inside the containers carried by this forklift are off to the counting centre, where they could well decide the outcome. Or they could be heading for a river if Donald Trump has anything to do with it, claiming first that postal Republican votes were dumped there, and now – ironically – that we should cease counting and dump the uncounted postal votes.
Whoever ends up in the White House we’re glad we’re far, far away here in TLCB Towers.
There’s more to see of Andre’s excellent Toyota Stacker at both Flickr and Eurobricks. Open the containers and start counting via the links above.
Considering how rubbish we are at writing about anything that’s not a car, you might be wondering why the last six creations to feature here haven’t been cars. We’re wondering that to…
Anyhoo, this ‘not a car’ is apparently a DRAKE Vulture from the video game ‘Star Citizen’, a single-operator salvage ship recreated (rather wonderfully) by Flickr’s Volker Brodkorb in mini-figure scale, meaning it measures eighty-three studs long and over forty studs wide.
A complete interior, working landing gear, and opening loading ramps all feature, and there’s more to see at Volker’s photostream. Click the link above to take a look, whilst we instruct the Elves to find us a bloody car.
In Ninjago City and need some food on the go? Then fly on over to Parvel Artemov’s floating food stand! Visit Eurobricks or Flickr to place your order.
Andre Pinto is the builder behind many of the motorbikes that have appeared here over the years, and he’s now built a workshop to house them. Complete with an impressive array of superbly detailed tools and equipment, including a ramp, compressor, pallet truck, tyre fitter, and – that workshop essential – a girly calendar, there’s more to see on both Flickr and Eurobricks. Get your bike serviced via the links.
Ok, we’ll start out by saying we are absolutely not going to do these two brilliant podracers by Rubblemaker of Flickr justice. Knowing virtually nothing about Star Wars isn’t something we feel the need to correct, but it does make writing about Star Wars more tricky…
What we can say is that Classic Space themes Blacktron and, er… Classic Space look thoroughly awesome as Starwarsy racing thingumies, particularly when kicking up a cloud of brick-built lunar dust.
Rubblemaker’s inventiveness is evident throughout the builds, with Benny’s Classic Space podracer even using Star Wars Death Star pieces for its engine intakes, which we’re immensely pleased with ourselves for noticing.
That’s the limit of our Star Wars knowledge though, so we’ll leave this to the proper blogs at this point. Until they pick this up you can see of Rubblemaker’s brilliant creations on Flickr. Click the link above to pod race in Classic Space.
After the violent events that occurred here in TLCB Office yesterday we’ve been nervously awaiting the next remotely controlled Lego creation that the Elves would find. Fortunately for all concerned (except the Elf that found it), this Daniel Best steam traction engine by Flickr’s Nikolaus Löwe managed to do no damage whatsoever.
Despite its BuWizz battery, Nikolaus’s creation is heroically slow, and therefore accurately represents the real contraption from the early 1900s which had a top speed of… 4mph.
However such glacial velocity allowed us to view the magnificently recreated pistons and rods that Nikolaus has faithfully recreated, which all do their things thanks to well concealed Power Functions motors. The Elf at the controls was less impressed, and after watching its find trundle across the floor squashing precisely no-one, ran off in disgust.
It’ll be back for its meal token reward soon enough, but if you like this build as much as we do there’s more to see on Flickr. Click the link above to head very slowly across America in 1905.
This enormous green and cream spiky looking arrangement is a Krone BigX 770 with an EasyCollect 600-2, and it is – if you’re a TLCB Elf – not something that you want to see at all.
Built by Michal Skorupka (aka Eric Trax), the Krone BigX and EasyCollect 600-2 are equipped with no less than three SBrick bluetooth controllers and nine Power Functions motors, providing the model with spectacularly life-like functions, all of which can be controlled remotely via a phone or – in this case – a Playstation controller.
Which is marvellous if you want to cut down some Lego corn, but considerably less so if you’re an Elf asleep on the floor as it enters the Cage Room.
It’s been a while since the last act of remotely controlled violence here at TLCB Towers, so the Elves were gradually becoming more complacent. This of course gave the Elf that discovered this creation a golden opportunity, which it seized by driving the Krone through the Elven Cage Room with the whirling EasyCollect 600-2 easily collecting its sleeping colleagues.
With XL Motor all-wheel-drive and Servo rear axle steering, Eric’s model is almost purpose-built for mashing the maximum number of sleeping Elves. A wide path of destruction was enabled by the deployable harvesting arms, each powered by Medium Motor, with the harvesting mechanism itself driven by an L Motor powered PTO, and another Medium Motor able to raise and lower the whole attachment to the optimum Elf-mangling height.
The Elf at the controls fulfilled its self-appointed Grim Reaper role admirably, with the BigX and EasyCollect only halted due to an Elven body-part jam in the mechanism, following which it fled the scene giggling maniacally.
We now have a lot of clearing up to do, including Elven first aid that may or may not include a few trips to ‘Elf Hospital‘, so whilst we get the Pritt Stick out and attempt to match Elven body parts with their owners you can check out all the details of Michal’s stunning creation on both Flickr and Eurobricks, plus you can watch the Krone BigX 770 and EasyCollect 600-2 in action below.
YouTube Video
Harry and Ron are heading back to school, thanks to Ron’s Dad’s 1960s Ford Anglia 105E and a sprinkling of magic. TLCB regular Jonathan Elliott has recreated the flying Ford beautifully and there’s more to see at his photostream. Head to Hogwarts via the link above.
Regular readers of this farce of a Lego site may recognise this GAZ-2402. Matthew Terentev‘s soviet station wagon has appeared here before, first as a mundane family car and then as a V8-powered drifter. Now though, and perhaps mirroring where society is headed, Matthew has converted the classic Communistal estate car into something far more… aggressive.
As the world’s economy teeters on the brink of collapse, its climate on the brink of a catastrophic irreversible temperature rise, and a deadly disease has wiped out a million and counting, we’re waiting for the rioting and looting to start. And it’s not even Black Friday yet.
Matthew is well prepared for the impeding nightmare though, outfitting his GAZ-2402 with all-wheel-drive, raised suspension, an enormous spiky snowplough arrangement on the front (that necessitated the engine moving to the interior), and roof-mounted gun turret.
The office’s Rover 200 looks woefully inadequate for the coming apocalypse by comparison, so whilst we consider what we can do to upgrade it with $12 and some duct tape, you can check out Matthew’s post-apoc creation on Flickr via the link above.
The end is nigh.
From one Speed Champions Italian supercar marque to another, also thanks to a reader via our Feedback and Submission Suggestions page. It’s the late ’80s, hair is big, wallets are full, and Ferrari are riding a wave of buoyancy. These are two of their most iconic cars from the period, the F40 and 288 GTO, recreated in 8-wide form by Fabrice Larcheveque of Flickr. Utilising the larger Speed Champions scale to great effect there’s more to see at Fabrice’s ‘Ferrari GTO & F40’ album – click the link to take a look!
Is there anything more supercar-y than a yellow Lamborghini Diablo? Suggested by a reader (and previous bloggee themselves), this one comes from newcomer Attila Gallik of Flickr, who has done an excellent job recreating Lamborgini’s 1990s supercar in Speed Champions form.
Available in both GTR (giant wing) and standard specification, Attila’s Diablo can fit two mini-figures inside and includes a detailed engine underneath the opening rear cover, and if you fancy one for yourself instructions are available too! Take a look via the link above to see more.
