Primary-Palleted-Post-Apocalyptic-Paradise

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Not our title, but the words of TLCB debutant Blair Archer (aka Slick_Bricks), who has taken Fabuland’s well-documented descent into violence and chaos to its ultimate conclusion. It’s enough to make you lose your head.

Slick’s ‘Doom Buggy’, part of a wider ‘Fab Max – Furry Road’ initiative, equips ‘I am the Walrus’ and his crew of cut-throat critters with a variety of weaponry, not least a tailgate-mounted guillotine for the removal of heads whilst on the road. Makes sense to us.

Head to Slick’s photostream via the link above for all the imagery. Goo goo g’joob*.

*If you don’t know what we’re on about, click these words. Which probably won’t help at all.

The Pusher*

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This neat Liebherr PR776 bulldozer was found by one of our Elves today. Being small scale and unmotorised there was no smushing to be had, but it does look rather good, with great attention to detail and some inventive parts placement too. FLBRICKS of Flickr is is the builder behind it, making their TLCB debut, and there’s more to see at their photostream via the link.

*Today’s excellent title song.

Black Cat’s Back

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LEGO’s 5571 Model Team Black Cat set from 1996 is surely one of the brand’s best ever. With nearly 1,800 pieces the set was entitled simply ‘Giant Truck’ in some markets, which is an apt name. But it could be even gianter!…

Cue Havoc of Flickr, who has appeared here previously with his fantastic scaled-up redux of the 5590 Model Team Heli-Transport set, matched to a real world Freightliner cab-over and Bell 206 helicopter.

Like his previous build, Havoc has based his latest work on both an original LEGO set and a real world truck, this being a stunningly detailed Peterbilt 379 that’s also packed with references to its ‘Black Cat’ source material. A detailed interior includes a sleeper (complete with a to-scale 5571 box, road movie ‘Duel’ on the TV and – of course – a black cat (the original set’s hood ornament), plus the hood opens to reveal a replica Caterpillar diesel engine.

There’s much more of Havoc’s Black Cat redux to see at his ‘Peterbilt 379‘ album, plus you can see his previous homage to another vintage Model Team set via the link in the text above.

Silver Snail

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Small cars are different depending on where you live. Today’s other small car, a revolution in gas-guzzling America, had an engine more than three times the size of France’s equivalent.

France was in a rather different place after the Second World War though. Well, it was in the same place as it is now, but economically and infrastructurally it couldn’t have been more different from America, thanks to seeing the worst of the conflict.

The country therefore needed a small, cheap, reliable car that used the minimum of materials and ‘could cross a ploughed field’, or – we suspect more relevantly – a road network blown to bits by years of war.

With a two-cylinder engine around half a litre or less, easy maintenance, and minimal material costs, Citroen produced nearly 4 million 2CVs over a forty year production run, and – effectively – remobilised France.

This brilliant Town-scale replica of the ‘tin snail’ captures the iconic peoples’ car superbly, and it comes form previous bloggee Jonathan Elliott of Flickr. A myriad of curved plates has been deployed to capture a shape that was easy to make in metal, but fiendishly difficult to create in bricks, and bar the inappropriate tyres (get yourself some ’80s Town tyres Jonathan!) the result is about as good as it’s possible to get at this scale.

There’s more to see of Jonathan’s Citroen 2CV on Flickr, where this build and a host of other brilliant Town vehicles can be found. Click the link above to make the jump.

Metropolitan Revolution

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Cities can be wonderfully diverse places, where different cultures, races, and even languages mix together to create a greater whole. The automotive industry is rather similar, although these days certain quarters see this as some kind of evil globalisation, rather than countries making what they’re best at to, again, create a greater whole.

However back in the 1950s sharing production between countries wasn’t really a thing yet, until Nash came along with their design for a new sort of car (in the U.S. at least), railing against ‘bigger is better’ by making something… smaller. Their revolutionary mindset continued to production, which wouldn’t have been profitable in the U.S.

Instead Nash turned to Austin/Rover in England, who were selected to produce the car on behalf of Nash and fitted it with their own B-Series engine. The car became the ‘Metropolitan’ upon it’s return to the U.S where, in yet more revolutionary thinking, it became the first post-war American car marketed specifically to women.

The Nash Metropolitan received mixed reviews from an American motoring press rather unwilling to try anything that wasn’t sixteen feet long, but these proved to be rather different when people bought the Metropolitan and actually used it, whereupon it surpassed expectations.

It wouldn’t be until the oil crisis of the 1970s that America really took small cars seriously though, and marketing to women was probably further behind that even, yet Nash and Austin’s collaboration had proved the concept some two decades earlier.

Fast forward to today and we seem to be in some sort of ‘Tenet’ style inversion, as ’50s style ‘bigger is better’ and ‘not foreign’ are climbing America’s agenda once again. We’ll stick with the little ’50s Nash Metropolitan though, a revolution ahead, and now perhaps behind, the times…

Oh yeah, Lego… This beautiful little 4-wide recreation of the Metropolitan comes from previous bloggee 1saac W., and there’s more to see at his photostream. Click the link to join the revolution.

Jam Van

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British police vehicles don’t wear the myriad of different liveries that feature across the United States. All feature the ‘battenberg’ chequered design, named after the famous Victorian cake that shares the same pattern, and it does look quite cool. Even on an embarrassingly unthreatening 1.6L Astra or Focus.

However until recently The Metropolitan Police (who look after the thirty-two London boroughs, counter-terrorism, and the Royal family) did have a distinct colour scheme, wearing a livery based upon a simple lunchtime snack rather than an English cake. We’re not sure why British police forces design their vehicles after party food, but we’re all for it.

Anyway, this previous-generation Metropolitan Police Ford Transit does wear the now-replaced Met Police ‘jam sandwich’ livery, which has been recreated rather wonderfully by regular bloggee Ralph Savelsberg aka Mad Physicist, complete with a British police officer (aka ‘Bobby’). Said officer is a little out of date now as British police don’t wear their ‘custodian helmets’ when driving, but they do still put them on to beat you with their baton, what with that being a special occasion.

There’s more to see of Ralph’s Metropolitan Police ‘jam sandwich’ Ford Transit on Flickr, and you can take a bite via the link above!

Waterloo Station. And Make it Quick!

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Black Cabs are absolutely not fast. They are filthy smog spreading abominations though, and fortunately London has had enough and decreed only EVs and PHEVs now qualify to become Black Cabs. Fortunately the newly-renamed London Electric Vehicle Company, now owned by Geely (Volvo’s deep-pocketed owners), have built a new black cab fit for the 21st century, and it’s a delight. Plus it’s not poisoning us all like the last Black Cabs were, with a 1.5 litre Volvo petrol engine never driving the wheels, instead providing a range extension to the EV batteries.

Whilst we won’t mourn the loss of the soot-spewing old taxis, TLCB favourite and Master MOCer Redfern 1950s seems to, having created this ‘V8 Drag Car’ that to us looks a lot like an old Hackney Carriage (the technical term for London’s cabs) with an enormous V8 shoved in it.

It sure wouldn’t meet London’s new licensed-hire emissions rules, but we bet it’d get us across London a heck of lot faster. Actually that’s not true, crossing London is about as quick on a push-bike as it is in a Porsche, but it would be more fun! There’s more to see of of Red’s ‘V8 Drag Car’ (aka ‘Hackney Rod’, as named by us just now) at his photostream, plus you can learn how he creates brilliant models like this one at his Master MOCers interview via the link in the text above.

Beef Me Up Scotty

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“Tired of losing members of her herd to aliens, Gladys finally took matters into her own hooves…”

Blake Foster‘s farm sure has some unusual goings on at the moment. This udderly glorious depiction of the long-rumoured bovine resistance moo-vement captures the madness, and Gladys sure looks like she’s had enough of the little greys. We just hope the herd doesn’t decide to use their new-found technology on us omnivores once they’ve dispatched the alien threat.

Join us nervously pondering whether to go vegan on Flickr via the link above.

Build-A-Beemer

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We’re not fan of BMW’s latest M-cars. Enormous grilles, enormous engines, and enormous bodywork… all things that aren’t really about driving enjoyment. Nor are many others it seems, as BMW’s compact first generation M3, with it’s small grille, small (4-cylinder) engine, and small bodywork is becoming incredibly valuable, as people look for M-cars from a simpler time.

This neat Speed Champions E30 series M3 comes from Flickr’s Rolling Bricks, and it captures the car’s boxy lines, flared arches, and square rear wing brilliantly. Rolling Bricks has made building instructions available too, so if you’d like to own a classic M3 you can create your very own at home.

Head to Rolling Bricks’ ‘BMW E30 M3’ album via the link above to view the complete gallery, and to find the all-important link to building instructions.

Constructive Air

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Large, potentially dangerous, and full of air. No, not the 2020 U.S Presidential Candidates, but this excellent Technic backhoe loader from Shimon Bogomolov. Unlike the aforementioned angry old men, Shimon’s impressive creation uses the air within it for constructive purposes, with a working pneumatic front bucket and rear excavating arm. Air pressure can be generated manually or via a motorised compressor, plus there are working pneumatic stabiliser legs, steering, all-wheel-drive, and a 4-cylinder piston engine too. A complete gallery of images is available to view at Shimon’s ‘Pneumatic Backhoe’ album on Flickr, plus you can join the discussion at the Eurobricks forum by clicking here.

We’re in Deep Ship…

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TLCB rarely partakes in the annual monthly bandwagons that occur across the online Lego Community. We’ll pretend it’s because we’re too cool, what with our executive washroom and sauna, endless groupies, and the fleet of exotic cars bought by the riches that blogging about Lego brings, rather than we have no idea what they’re about or what the rules are.

Today however we’re jumping on said bandwagon, seeing as a) it’s the last day of ‘SHIPtember’, and b) last night’s Presidential ‘Debate’ simultaneously makes us want to leave this planet immediately, and for a neat title summing up both this post and the state of American politics.

The first of today’s ‘SHIPs’ is ZCerberus’s astonishing ‘LL885 NC Repair Freighter’, a huge orange behemoth carrying out a useful and humble purpose, which is a nice contrast. Spectacular building techniques and incredible attention to detail make this a must click, and you can do just that here.

Today’s second ‘SHIP’ comes from previous bloggee Sunder_59, entitled the ‘DCV-08 “Barra” Construction Drone Carrier’. Designed to transport construction drones to orbiting building sites, Sunder’s creation features all the ‘SHIPtember’ buzzwords you’ll find used with abandon on smarter Lego blogs than this one, such as ‘Colour Blocking’, ‘Greebling’, and ‘Bricknipinia’. OK, we made that last one up. See more via the link!

Our third and final* ‘SHIP’ explores something that’s completely alien in American politics; working together for a greater purpose. Constructed from three separate ‘SHIPs’, the ‘TriPerron Nomad Explorer’ allows up to three individual planetary explorers to combine for longer interstellar travel, then splitting again when their destinations differ. All the ‘SHIPtember’ buzzwords that we don’t understand found in Sunder-59’s build above apply here, only in threes, and there’s more to see courtesy of Simon Liu on Flickr.

And so that ends our (somewhat limited) round-up of ‘SHIPtember’ 2020. You can take a look at each build via the links in the text above, which is where we’ll be, trying to find out if any of them can be built in full size so we can escape the impending doom* about to drag America into the gutter. We would say the U.S election can’t sink any lower, but there are still two debates to go.

*Bonus SHIP. If these penguins can escape after we trashed their home, perhaps we can too…

Cherokee

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’90s off-roaders are becoming rather cool these days. As almost every car is now an SUV/Crossover, with zero off-road ability and all looking pretty much the same, old-school body-on-frame 4x4s stand out rather nicely. Admittedly they’re still total crap to drive on the road, but that’s part of the charm.

Jeep’s XJ-series Cherokee was at the start of the school-run 4×4 craze that has led the automotive market to the dismal place it is today, but the ageing American SUV is actually a capable off-roader, particularly when fitted with a few choice modifications.

That’s what regular bloggee SP_LINEUP has done with his 8-wide ’90s Cherokee, equipping his with a suspension lift and wide arches for big tyres, a bull-bar with spotlights and a winch, a snorkel for wading, and rear mounted spare that would make the tailgate impossible to open.

It all looks most excellent and there’s more to see of SP’s modified Jeep Cherokee at his photostream – click the link above to go off-road.

Stick Shift

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Here’s a stick man on a stick bike. Stick with us because whilst we’re a car blog we bet for most of you reading this your first vehicle was a bicycle, and the first person you ever drew was of the stick variety. Which is good enough for us. Milan Sekiz is the artist and there’s more to see on Flickr. Click here to make it stick.

My Other Car’s a Corvette

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TLCB’s Coronavirus Lock-down B-Model Competition is complete, although a lock-down could be on the horizon again as COVID-19 cases surge around the world and deaths pass one million. Oof.

Dozens of brilliant B-Models were produced for the contest, and whilst the competition may be over, alternate building keeps going, as demonstrated here by TLCB Master MOCer Nico71.

Constructed only from the pieces found within the 42093 Technic Chevrolet Corvette set, Nico has created this cool-looking sand buggy, complete with working suspension, a transverse three-cylinder engine, and functioning steering.

Nico has also made instructions for his alternate available so that you can convert your own 42093 Corvette into a sand buggy at home, and you can see all the images and find a link to building instructions on Brickshelf by clicking here.

Not a Car

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But it is yellow. And excellent. This lovely ’80s ‘cafe racer’ motorcycle comes from previous bloggee tango-zero. There’s a detailed engine, rear suspension, and a beautifully replicated front telescopic fork with steering. See more on Brickshelf.