Peak Mitsubishi

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It’s hard to believe today, but back in the 1990s Mitsubishi where one of the most advanced, dynamic and sought-after brands on the planet.

Dakar-winning 4x4s, World Rally Championship-winning sedans, and iconic street-racer favourites all came from Mitsubishi Motors, as did this – the wonderful 3000GT.

Available with a twin turbo-charged 24 valve V6, all-wheel drive, all-wheel steering, and even active aerodynamics, the 3000GT was a technical tour-de-force, becoming both a mainstay of ’90s racing games as well as proving to be quicker than much more exotic and expensive rivals on real roads.

Cue this fantastic recreation of Mitsubishi’s high water mark from Mihail Rakovskiy of Flickr. Opening doors, hood and tailgate, a highly detailed engine and interior, a brick-built drivetrain, and even accurate badging all feature, and you can check out more of Mihail’s stunning replica of the Mitsubishi 3000GT at his album of the same name via the link above.

And what of Mitsubishi Motors in 2025? Well their badge is now stuck, rather unconvincingly, on a Renault compact crossover… We’ll stick to the ’90s.

Due South

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A lot of 1970s American cars are described as ‘boats’. It’s not a compliment. However Buick, in a brief moment of unusual inspiration, decided to go all-in on the boat theme with their third-generation Riviera, giving it a spectacular ‘boat-tail’ design from ’71-’73.

The result is one of the most dramatic and iconic American automotive shapes of the ’70s, which became an immediate favourite of this TLCB Writer as a child due to its recurring appearance in an excellent early-’90s TV show.

This superb homage to the third-generation Riviera comes from Jakub Marcisz, who has captured the fabulous shape brilliantly in brick. Working steering, a detailed engine and interior, plus opening doors, hood and trunk all feature, and with building instructions available you can recreate it for yourself.

There’s more to see at both Flickr and Eurobricks, plus if you’re nostalgic for early-’90s crime television you can head Due South via the first link in the text above!

Insert Continuity Errors

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This splendid Speed Champions creation is a 1970s Porsche 911 Targa, and – being yellow – we can’t help but think of an iconic (if ropey) 1980s movie car chase.

Previous bloggee SFH_Bricks is its maker and you can try to outrun Arnold Schwarzenegger in a Sunbeam Alpine in your miraculously self-damaging / self-healing Porsche 911 via the link above.

Topless Swede

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If you’re here for the first time, lured by the title, expecting to see something else, sorry… but you might as well stick around to take a look at this exquisite Koenigsegg CC850 by 3D supercarBricks of Flickr!

Constructed from just under one thousand pieces, including a few custom parts (the windscreen and wheels being amongst them), 3D’s model is a near perfect replica of the real 1,200bhp Swedish hypercar, with opening front and rear clamshells, scissor doors, and inner workings as detailed as the stunning exterior.

There’s more of the build to see at 3D’s ‘Koenigsegg CC850’ album via the link above, and – if you were duped into visiting us by a misleading title – here’s what you were hoping to see…

Chinese Six

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We’re not sure why trucks with two axles at the front and one at the back are known as ‘Chinese Sixes’. Probably something to do with casual racism. We won’t delve any further then, but we will highlight this splendid example by prolific DAF-builder Arian Janssens.

A DAF FAB 2500 DHS, Arian’s beautifully detailed model captures the classic truck in its unusual ‘Chinese Six’ configuration brilliantly, and includes a folded crane behind the cab and a drawbar trailer in tow too.

Excellent presentation compliments the model’s stunning realism and there’s lots more of the build to see at Arian’s ‘DAF FAB 2500 DHS (Chinese Six)’ album. Take a closer look via the link.

Picking Cherries

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Cherry pickers seem to rarely pick actual cherries. Fixing telephone wires, street lamps, and lopping trees sure, but cherries no.

Cue Ralph Savelsberg and this excellent mini-figure scale Mercedes-Benz Unimog, complete with a rear mounted hoist able to elevate and rotate to pick the juiciest cherries. Or fix a rural community’s broadband after a storm. But whatever.

There’s more to see at Ralph’s Flickr album and you can take a look via the link above whilst this TLCB Writer heads to the fridge in search of fruit…

F1: The Movie

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Oh how we want to hate ‘F1: The Movie’. From its stupid name, to its cliched plot (old guy comes out of retirement for one last shot at glory), to the fact it is basically one giant advert for F1…

Except, it seems like it might – annoying – be rather good.

Currently with an 83% Rotten Tomatoes score, ‘F1: The Movie’ used real cars (modified F2 machines) and real tracks to create a film that takes the audience as close to being in the car as possible, even if the main protagonist being sixty years old is pushing the believability to breaking point.

Cue this fantastic recreation of the fictional team at the heart of the story, ‘APX GP’, as created beautifully in brick form by NV Carmocs of Flickr. A stunning livery perfectly captures the ‘real’ car, and you can head to the cinema, um… race track via the link above, where nearly a dozen images are available to view. Even if you’re sixty.

The Great Exhibition

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Held in an enormous temporary structure in London’s Hyde Park, the ‘Great Exhibition ‘ of 1851 was a triumphal showcase of the British Empire. Sponsored by the world’s first soft drinks company, featuring the world’s first public flushing toilets (which cost a penny to use, hence the phrase ‘spend a penny’), and with the world’s largest diamond at its centre, the equivalent of one in three of Britain’s entire population visited the exhibition during its five-month run.

Exhibits ranged from art, jewellery, and ornaments from across the Empire, to the world’s first fax machine, the world’s first voting machine, prototype Colt revolvers, and a weather forecasting machine powered by leeches. Because 1851.

Cue this astonishing creation by bartsbrickworks of Flickr, who has reimagined the Great Exhibition (and the remarkable Crystal Palace that housed it) in a LEGO Adventurers / steampunkish universe. There might not be leeches, but a steampunk submarine, space rocket, and time machine are amongst the varied exhibits on display to an enthralled crowd of mini-figures, with much of the model motorised to bring the contraptions to life.

There’s so much more of this incredible build to see at Bart’s ‘The Crystal Palace’ album, and you can purchase your ticket to an amazing exhibition of wonder and whimsy via the link above.

Saturn Streamliner

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This has the ring of genuine, bona fide, electrified, six-car monorail to it. Gettit? Because of the ri… OK, we’ve done better. Just be thankful we didn’t lead with a ‘Your Mom’ joke*. Anyway this marvellous contraption is a ‘Saturn Streamliner’, a suspended railway passenger train operating from an alternate timeline. Flickr’s Nannan Zhang owns the mind behind it and you can buy your ticket at the link above.

*The Saturn Streamliner is able to service an entire city. Just like your Mom. / The Saturn Streamliner has gone through more rings than your Mom has. / Large, heavy, but a quality ride… etc.

The Rarest Walrus

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This fantastically-shaped space racer was discovered by one of our Elves on Flickr, and it utilises one of LEGO’s rarest colours, making its tessellated composition even more difficult. But we can’t stop thinking it looks like a walrus’s face, which probably isn’t what builder The One And Only Mr.R had in mind.

Still, we’ve written the title now, thus you can head into space via the link above and try to un-see the head of a large marine mammal…

Insert Mullet

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Do you wear a mullet, loiter in alleyways chewing toothpick, and think that recycling is a socialist plot? Then we have the car for you!

This glorious black-and-gold 1977 Pontiac Trans Am is the work of previous bloggee RGB900, and – despite being just 8-suds wide – captures every identifier of the real car brilliantly bar a flaming bird motif on the hood.

There’s more to see at RGB’s photostream, and you can make the jump to it via the link above. Mullet optional.

Carbon Fiber Lego Wheels

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Carbon Fiber. (Or ‘Fibre’ if you spell it correctly. Ed.) The wonder material from which Formula 1 cars, the Ferrari F40‘s bodywork, the Lexus LFA‘s tub, and fancy road bikes are all made.

Which also means that, inevitably, carbon fiber fakery is everywhere too. Car interior trim, vinyl wraps, even wallets, laptops and suitcases can all be found in finest farbon ciber, mostly looking terrible.

But today we have the real deal, because this is the world’s first genuine carbon fiber Lego wheel. It may not look much, but it’s bona-fide carbon fiber, and its maker PlasticGear has detailed how he constructed it.

Take a look at PlasticGear’s pioneering project in the video above, you can join the discussion at the Eurobricks forum, and don’t even think about wrapping your wing-mirrors/spoiler/centre console in fake carbon, because we’ll laugh at you.

Monster Fight

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This writer was busy watching the nineteen of the world’s best drivers (and Lance Stroll) trying to handle the rain at the British Grand Prix, when a commotion erupted from the Elves’ cage room. Sigh.

After traipsing in, the cause was obvious; two Elves, each with a cartoon-esque monster truck, fighting in the middle of a circle formed of their compatriots. Mr. Airhorn duly separated the pair and dispersed the onlookers, and thus their two finds could be assessed.

Each creation comes from Flickr’s ianying616 and is a cartoon-version of a real Monster Jam truck. Both are blog-worthy two (which meant the Elf fight was pointless) and you can see more of his ‘tooned’ ‘El Toro Loco’ and ‘Silverado’ at his photostream.

Take a link via the link above whilst this writer tries to get back to watching the F1…

Highboy

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Well this is a lovely thing isn’t it? An early-’70s Ford F-250 ‘Highboy’ tow truck, Sseven Bricks‘ creation is as humble a workhorse as you can get. Yet here, in Lego form, it’s one of the most beautifully life-like small-scale models we’ve seen in ages. Top-tier building techniques create some exquisite details (just look at that tiny gap between the cab and the bed) and you can take a closer look at Sseven’s superbly presented creation at his photostream via the link.

Folgore Flop

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If you’re in the market for a Maserati you’re likely to be the sort of customer who’s willing to overlook wildly variable panel gaps, wobbly interior stitching, haphazard ergonomics, and intermittent electric faults because of one thing; the engine.

Usually a shared with Ferrari, the soul of a Maserati is what’s under the hood, so you’d have to be a unique customer to decide you’d like a car with Maserati build quality, but without a Maserati engine to off-set it. Cue the GranTurismo Folgore, which swaps Maserati’s ‘Nettuno’ twin-turbocharged V6 for three permanent magnet radial motors and a 92kWh battery.

With an additional 200bhp over its petrol twin, 0-60mph in under three seconds, and capable of over 200mph, the GranTurismo Folgore has been a sales… disaster. So much so that Maserati have cancelled the ‘Folgore’ version of their MC20 supercar. Because if you want a Maserati you want one with an engine.

Which means the only Maserati GranTurismo Folgore we’re ever likely to see is this one, built by Flickr’s 3D supercarBricks, and replicating both the gorgeous looks and non-existent sound of the real car perfectly. The doors, trunk, and hood open, there are more superb images available to view, and you can take a look at 3D’s photostream via the link above.