By the Hammer of Thor

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The wise words of Ron Burgundy there, as today we have a recreation of one of the final two Koenigsegg Ageras built before production ended, the FE Thor.

Built by the aptly-named 3D supercarBricks of Flickr, this incredible recreation of one the worlds rarest, fastest, and most expensive hypercars includes opening front and rear clamshells, a removable roof, and custom LEGO-compatible 3D-printed wheels and windshield surround pieces.

There’s more to see of the Agera FE Thor at 3D’s photostream via the link above, plus you can buy the building instructions and the custom pieces used to create it at 3Dsupercarbricks.com here.

Air Pirate

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Is there anything cooler than a fighter jet with a skull and crossbones painted on it? The answer is no, and thus here’s Lennart Cort‘s Grumman F-14 Tomcat resplendent in VF-84 ‘Jolly Rogers’ livery. See more at the link!

Game of Bricks – Light Kit (10271 Fiat 500) | Review

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It’s review time here at The Lego Car Blog, and on this occasion we thought we’d share the love and offer the product we were supplied to one of our readers. It just so happens that the reader in question owns a considerably more professional Lego site than we do…

So, over to Balasz at the brilliant Racing Brick, as he switches on one of Game of Bricks newest kits, bringing LED lighting to the lovely LEGO 10721 Fiat 500 set;

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TLCB kindly offered me a light kit by Game of Bricks for the Creator Expert 10271 Fiat 500 kit. This happened months ago, but due to some logistical issues on both sides (thanks Coronavirus, Ed.), I only had a chance to try it now.

The 10271 lighting kit comes in a nice black box, but it only has the logo of the manufacturer on it. I’m not sure if you get any additional identification if you order multiple light kits, but mine didn’t give any clues as to which LEGO set it belonged to.

Inside the box I found five numbered plastic bags and a battery box, and as you can see there’s not any extra documentation or anything in the box besides the hardware, which is a good thing if we think about the environment, but it makes the project a bit challenging if we are looking for some building instructions.I tried to go first to the web page of Game of Bricks and the product page of the Fiat 500 light kit, but there’re no instructions there.

As the text says I can ask for pdf instructions, but I was hoping to find them without the need to reach out to the team.As always Google helped me out; apparently Game of Bricks have a page for their instructions and I managed to find the one for the Fiat 500. I already installed some light kits from other manufacturers and the instructions were very similar, I can say that the steps for this set are pretty easy to follow.

The tiny LEDs and the cables are also familiar, if you ever saw a 3rd party light kit then there won’t be any surprises.

Installing the front lights is a pretty straightforward exercise, although I was a bit surprised that only the upper lights got a replacement piece instead of the LEGO pieces, the lower ones had to be squeezed under the transparent round 1×1 piece.Under normal circumstances there’s exactly zero space between the transparent piece and the stud below it, so even with this super thin wire it will be a bit off and you need to push it in place carefully.

The rear section has similar challenges to solve, and we get a light strip for the roof with an adhesive tape to attach to the sunroof. I decided not to attach it, as the cables can be arranged to hold it in place.All cables will meet at the bottom, where you need to attach them to a splitter piece, although the tiny connectors are not the easiest to handle, and you need some extra arrangement if you want to keep your model movable.

The battery box requires 3 AAA batteries and includes a USB connector. If you have a smaller power bank or something similar then it might be a good idea to change it, as the one in the kit barely fits in the model. It is also challenging to turn on and off, as you need to remove it to be able to access the button.

However the end result looks great, and can really spice up a display model. The modular design is a big plus, all my previous light kits were hard wired together so it was not possible to add only certain sections of them to a model. For example, if you don’t want to use the cabin light in the Game of Bricks kit then you can simply detach it whilst leaving the rest of the LEDs in the model.

The only thing I’d like to change if I wanted to display the set permanently with LED lighting installed would be the power source, if only to make the on/off button more accessible!

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Thanks to Balazs from Racing Brick for taking a look over Game of Bricks lighting kit for the 10271 Fiat 500 set. You can find this kit, along with all of the Game of Bricks kits for official LEGO vehicles, at their website, and you can check out Racing Brick too by clicking here!

Le Mans 2018

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This spectacular array of racing cars is the entire Le Mans 2018 GTE Pro grid, just one of the four categories that compete side-by-side at the world’s greatest motor race.

Built over two years by Lasse Deleuran, all teams and driver combinations from the GTE Pro class of 2018 are present, with Ferrari, BMW, Aston Martin, Chevrolet, Ford, and the race-winning Porsche squad recreated brilliantly in Miniland scale, many of which have featured here individually over the last two years.

Instructions for every single GTE Pro car are available for free, and you can see more of each racer and find the link to recreate your very own Le Mans 2018 GTE Pro grid via Lasse’s photostream by clicking here.

Rat Cat

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Heavy duty applications such as pick-ups, trucks, boats, and trains all benefit from the fuel efficiency and torque that diesel engines offer.

However the passenger car market, which here in Europe was once around 50% diesel, was sold a lie. Now realised, the diesel car market has collapsed, and manufacturers can’t get rid of their diesel products soon enough.

However an engine type that’s noisy, dirty, and obsolete may be wholly unsuited to a small European shopping car (apart from to dodge CO2 taxation), but it’s literally everything you could want in a rat rod!

Cue Sin City Motors’ wild Caterpillar diesel engined half-track rat rod, recreated here by TLCB favourite Redfern1950s in superb form.

Red’s Model Team interpretation of Sin City Motor’s spectacular creation captures the insanity of the real rat rod beautifully, and there’s a whole lot more to see on Flickr via the link!

Lego Loader

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Fuku Saku’s latest vehicle is massive, ungainly, and able to take a big load, but we’ve already done a ‘Your Mom’ line today. Moving on, this is Fuku Saku’s front loader, and much like today’s other post it is quite brilliantly detailed, despite only being Town scale.

There’s a raising bucket arm, pivoting chassis articulation point, and some rather cunning tyre usage too. A wealth of excellent imagery is available at Fuku Saku’s photostream and you can take a closer look by clicking here.

Lego Lumberjack

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Jonathan Elliott’s latest vehicle is large, heavy, and can handle a lot of wood. Just like your Mom. It’s a Mercedes-Benz Unimog U1700, fitted with a Hiab crane, stabiliser legs, and grabby-claw-thingy, enabling it to pluck felled logs from the ground for transport.

Jonathan’s model captures the real deal in beautiful detail, despite being only six(ish) studs in width, and there’s more to see of his brilliantly presented Lego lumberjack on Flickr – click here here to make the jump.

Return of the Mav

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This is an F/A-18 Super Hornet, and it is definitely not a car. But it is awesome, and it comes from Lennart Cort, who has recreated Maverick’s training aircraft from the upcoming Top Gun 2 movie in beautifully smooth fashion. There’s more of Lennart’s F/A-18 to see on Flickr – head into the skies over the Navada desert via the link above.

Chocolatey Contraband

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The humble Kinder Suprise egg – one part tasty Italian chocolate, one part crappy plastic toy – is illegal in the United States. Appalling animal welfare and firearms are fine though.

Fortunately for our American readers, the Kinder contained in the back of this superb Scania 1-Series truck and trailer by Vladimir Drozd is all tasty Italian chocolate and no crappy plastic toy (which is the way we prefer it), so you can have munch too.

Recreated in 1:22 scale, Vladimir’s beautifully detailed Scania includes Power Functions remote control drive and steering, suspension on all wheels, and an automatic trailer hitch.

There are more top quality images of Vladimir’s Kinder delivery truck available to view at his Flickr album, and you can find full build details and a link to building instructions at the Eurobricks forum here.

Take look via the links above whilst we work on our elaborate plan to smuggle deadly Kinder Suprise eggs into the U.S inside some harmless assault rifles.

300 ‘Z’s

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Nissan’s current range of vehicles is about as interesting as a Brothers Brick parts cataloguing evening. Still, it used to be more noteworthy, particularly in the ‘90s when the brand made several sports cars and sports sedans, including this, the 300ZX.

This excellent Speed Champions style recreation of the 300ZX comes from regular blogger SP_LINEUP and there’s more to see at his photostream. Click the link above to view a Nissan that won’t send you to sleep, a maybe dream their rumoured new 400Z heralds a sports car return.

750

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Another day, another Elf returns to TLCB Towers, and this time with something delightfully simple. Entitled ‘A Japanese 4-Cylinder 750cc Motorcycle from the 1980s’ this is tango-zero‘s Japanese 4-cylinder 750cc motorcycle from the 1980s. There’s only one image, it’s slightly grainy, and we love it. Head to Brickshelf via the link above to see it in full-size, alongside a few other lovely Model Team motorbikes from the same builder.

Lego Train Projects | Book Review

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We can be accused of many things here at TLCB, but not reading isn’t one of them. The mass of emailed complaints our inbox receives don’t read themselves…

Requests for building instructions also land here with frequency, and as such a whole industry has sprung up to provide the online Lego Community with step-by-step directions to build all sorts of creations, from realistic real-world supercars to tiny micro models. Today we have another addition to this increasing pool of instructional resource, thanks to Charles Pritchett and the guys at No Starch Press, this is ‘Lego Trains Projects‘.

Running to 200 pages, ‘Lego Train Projects’ brings seven rather lovely train creations to life via step-by-step building instructions, with everything from a coal hopper to a hefty diesel locomotive. Each is compatible with LEGO’s own 6-wide train system, and matches their more advanced models – such as the 10020 Santa Fe Super Chief – for detail, only without the need for stickers.

Whereas previous No Starch books have offered small descriptions or backstories to the builds within them, there’s little pre-amble here, as Charles gets straight down to the building steps. A title page for each model displays the number of pieces, whilst a bill of materials (aka a parts list) and alternative colour suggestions finish each section.

The instructions themselves are fantastic, equal to LEGO’s own with clear steps, sub-assemblies, additions to each step highlighted in yellow, and probably a touch more complexity. The models aren’t necessary more complicated than the more advanced of LEGO’s own offerings, but they do pack in a variety of techniques that are probably above those within the grasp of the average builder, thus ‘Lego Train Projects’ could be a worthwhile educational aid for those wishing to up their game beyond basic studs-up construction.

The result is a set of train-based models that will up the realism of most layouts considerably, and which can be easily tailored to suit the preferred colours of the owner, with our favourite of Charles’ seven designs probably being the milk tanker, which could easily be converted to an Octan tanker if you prefer petrol over cow juice by simply switching the coloured rings.

Verdict

As we’ve become used to with No Starch Press publications, the quality of both print and paper is superb; ‘Lego Train Projects’ not only looks great, it feels great too, with a soft matte cover and beautifully crisp pages within. Whilst we personally don’t always understand the need for building with instructions, if you’re looking to use them to build yourself some really rather lovely train creations, they don’t come much better than this.

★★★★½

No Starch Press

Dog Years*

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This is an M8 Greyhound 6×6 Light Armoured Vehicle (or something close to it, as builder Robson M doesn’t specify!), built by Ford in the 1940s for Allied troops during World War 2.

The British, who like naming their military hardware after animals and the weather, gave it the ‘greyhound’ name, as it could sustain 55mph on reasonable roads, which was very quick for the time. And – at least in this one’s case – it was grey.

Much like a real greyhound though, the M8 wasn’t particularly well armoured, especially underneath, and nor was it very good off-road, despite being a 6×6. However it was useful enough that 8,500 were made, and – again like its namesake dog – many found new homes after being retired from their first military owner, with some M8s still in service around the world as late as the 2000s!

This neat Town scale version captures the M8 Greyhound rather well, with Robson using a few custom decals and a custom machine gun mounted on top to add to the model’s realism. There’s more of Robson’s build to see at his photostream – click the link to make a visit to the dog track.


*Today’s lovely title song.

Gemera

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The Koenigsegg Gemera – the brand’s first four-seater – hasn’t been released yet, but has already generated a fair bit of interest thanks to a 2.0 three-cylinder engine that is supposed to make a scarcely believable 600bhp. Of course we’re in the age of electrification now though, so that’s not all the Gemera has, with three electric motors boosting the total power to a claimed 1,600bhp.

Normally at this point we’d lose interest, as we do with every hypercar concept proclaiming ridiculous performance figures, however Koenigsegg do have a habit of building what they say they will, making the Gemera concept really very interesting indeed.

We have a while to wait until we learn how realistic Koenigsegg are being, so until then here’s a Speed Champions version of the wild 1,600bhp hyper-sedan from previous bloggee Gerald Cacas, who has captured the 2020 concept car beautifully, even matching its real world colour scheme.

There’s more to see of Gerald’s model at his Koenigsegg Gemera album on Flickr – click the link above to make the jump.

Liebherr Again

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With over four thousand pieces, seven electric motors, and the new Control+ bluetooth receiver, LEGO’s enormous 42100 Technic Liebherr R 9800 Control set is a great place to start if you want to build a B-Model. So much so that previous bloggee Eric Trax has actually built two. Following his Bobcat skid-steer loader that appeared here earlier in the year, Eric has constructed another alternate from only the pieces found within the 42100 set; this spectacular Liebherr PR776 bulldozer.

Packed full of working functionality including remote control drive, steering, accurate blade and ripper mechanisms and a highly detailed exterior you’d be hard-pressed to know that Eric’s ‘dozer is a B-Model. Best of all Eric has made his design ridiculously accessible if you own a 42100 set and you’d like to build it for yourself, with downloadable instructions, sticker sheet, and even a BuWizz profile that you can add straight to your own third-party BuWizz app to control it. There’s lots more to see of Eric’s incredible B-Model build at his ‘Liebherr PR776’ album on Flickr and the Eurobricks forum, where links to all of the above can be found – click the links in the text to take a look!