Inspired by the amazing Tucker Sno-Cats used in polar exploration, Flickr’s Uspez has constructed this delightful vintage sno-cat complete with four rotating tracks, a deployable snowplow, and some subtle communications equipment. We’re not sure what it could be for but the locals have some suspicions. Read more via the link…
“Lobsters live for over one hundred years, are blue-blooded like aristocrats, and stay fertile all their lives.” The lobster is an unconventional theme for a movie or name for a spacecraft, which are normally given an exciting spacey titles or confusing alpha-numeric codes. Not so this one, which has been named after the long-lived crustacean due to the ‘two large claws that it uses to grip containers, in place of any kind of cargo hold’, according to the builder, Blake Foster.
It’s a superbly built spacecraft too, rocking a Neo-Classic Space aesthetic and some exquisite detailing on both itself and the containers it’s carrying. Head into space to take a closer look at Blake’s ‘Blue Lobster’ cargo shuttle via the link above, and remember if you don’t find love in 45 days you’ll be turned into an animal of your choosing*. Why not a choose a lobster?
*If you haven’t watched The Lobster that will mean nothing to you. Which we suspect is most of you. Go watch it, it’s beautiful.
The National Health Service of TLCB’s home nation are heroically battling COVID-19 infections, as they are in Spain, Italy, France, Iran and countless other countries around the world. If you’re one of them, thank you, and this post is for you.
Whilst a ‘Fanstatic Voyage’ style microscopic spaceship fighting Coronavirus from the inside is pure whimsy, it’s a nice thought, and who better to crew it than the perennially happy astronauts of Classic Space.
Flickr’s MadLEGOman is the builder behind this Corona-busting spacecraft complete with anti-virus lasers and three highly trained mini-figures who are successfully blasting COVID-19 from the inside. Of course we know the reality is you and a ventilator battling the respiratory shutdown of a dying patient.
If you’re a front-line healthcare worker off-shift and reading this we award you a million TLCB Points, which we wish were redeemable for something useful. Click the link above to see more, and keep battling.
The Lego Car Blog Elves are, we think, immune to the Coronavirus. Not that we’d really care, but the little turds could bring it into TLCB Towers, so it’s a relief to know their DNA is sufficiently different from ours. Which shouldn’t really be a surprise looking at them.
However, whilst they can’t catch the deadly respiratory disease, they can still cause carnage amongst their own kind, as was proven today by one of their number at the controls of this; apachaiapachai‘s ‘Tangerine’ Technic rally car.
Powered by a single L Motor, but boosted by a third-party BuWizz bluetooth battery providing up to eight times the power of LEGO’s own system, apachai’s creation is ludicrously fast, with the Elves caught on the floor no match for its speed.
Fortunately it’s also quite a low, so before long several were wedged underneath and the rampage was brought to an end, but not before quite a lot of Elven bodily fluids had got onto the carpet.
We could be mad at apachai for that, but a) it’s not his fault our workers are hell-bent on annihilating one another, and b) his creation is so damn cool! Looking like a mashup of many late ’80s – early ’90s rally cars, and with opening doors, hood and a roll cage inside it’s not just a riot to drive but looks thoroughly excellent too.
That said, we are going to have a go driving it (once we’ve wiped the front clean), so whilst we do that you can take a look at apachai’s remote control Technic rally car at the Eurobricks forum via the link above, where you can also find a video showing just how quick this thing is!
Following yesterday‘s Mercedes-Benz Unimog here’s another recreation of the iconic off-road truck. If the escalating Coronavirus apocalypse continues vehicles like this could become very in-vogue, so perhaps it’s reaching building habits on a subconscious level?
This one – a much older ‘406’ variant – comes from TLCB regular Jonathan Elliott, is fitted with a ‘canvas’ top, and looks just the thing for raiding the supermarket to stockpile toilet paper. But don’t do that, because you’re not an absolute douchebag.
Head to Flickr via the link above to check it out, whilst we expect a flurry of apocalypse-proof vehicles to appear here over the coming weeks…
This strikingly-liveried aircraft is a Northrop F5-E Tiger supersonic fighter, and it looks really rather conspicuous indeed. Conspicuous is not what you want from a fighter of course, but whilst the F5-E was mostly designed to do battle against MiGs, it’s also used by the Patrouille Suisse aerobatic display team. Because what else do the Swiss need to do with a fighter jet?
Recreated here by previous bloggee Dornbi this brilliant brick-built Patrouille Suisse F5-E Tiger replicates the real aircraft’s livery in spectacular fashion, including the white ‘X’ on the bottom which we can’t even begin to fathom out. Head to Dornbi’s ‘F5-E Tiger’ album on Flickr to see if you can.
LEGO’s incredible 8110 Mercedes-Benz Unimog was one of the first officially licensed Technic sets and – we think – still one of the all-time greats. With a vast array of functionality, motorised, pneumatic and mechanical, it’s one of the finest ever showcases of what LEGO can do. But LEGO’s not just about the big stuff, and little builds can be equally brilliant – case in point, this beautifully presented Town-scale version of the 8110 set.
Built by previous bloggee Nikolaus Lowe it not only looks absolutely brilliant, it kinda functions too, with a posable crane, steering, and working stabiliser legs too.
There’s more to see of Nikolaus’s fantastic mini-figure Unimog at his photostream via the link above, you can read our review of the huge 8110 Technic Mercedes-Benz Unimog set via the first link, and you can read some tips on how to create images as stunning as Nikolaus’s by clicking here.
Well this is has the best name of any vehicle we’ve ever posted! The SNSC ‘Zoomlion’ is not an ultra fast lion, but instead a fairly slow forklift truck (props to SNSC’s marketing department), recreated here in fully remote controlled Technic form by Danifill of Eurobricks.
Controlled and powered by a third-party BuWizz bluetooth battery, Danifill’s Zoomlion features motorised drive, steering and forklift elevation, plus a pneumatically controlled forklift pitch via two pneumatic cylinders supplied by an on-board compressor.
Click here to make the jump to the Eurobricks discussion forum where further images and a video of the Zoomlion zooming can be found.
Ah the age of steam, when no-on had to worry about catching a deadly virus named after a beer, and idiots vomiting ‘advice’ on social media in the name of clicks were just idiots vomiting advice down the pub that could be quietly ignored. There was polio, consumption and no National Health Service though, so on balance today is probably a better time to be alive, however romantic the past may look.
This particular piece of romantic looking past is a Thompson Class L1 steam locomotive, produced between 1948 and 1950 and run – in this case – by the London North East Railway.
Built by Britishbricks it’s a breathtaking replica of one of the ninety-nine Class L1s constructed, with custom valve gear and beautiful decal work too. A convoy of superb trucks follows and there’s more to see of the complete train at Britishbricks’ Album on Flickr. Head to a romanic looking past via link above. Toot toot!
Toyotas don’t always have the most fortunate names. There’s the ISIS, the BJ, and the perfectly-acceptable-until-recently Corona. Which is now a deadly virus. Oops. The name Corona actually means ‘crown’, just like Toyota’s Corolla, Camry, and, er… Crown.
It’s the Crown we have here, which means essentially the same thing as Corona, but doesn’t evoke the ongoing mass morbidity of the elderly. This Lego version of the Crown comes from Ralph Savelsberg of Flickr who has recreated the Japanese saloon in Tokyo Police specification, complete with authentic decals and the odd raising light-bar on the roof.
There’s more to see of Ralph’s Toyota Crown police car at his photostream via the link above, which has gotta be better than a Corona. Probably not a BJ though…
Some things were acceptable in the ’80s. Perms. Sexism. Straight lines. And turbos. Everything had the word ‘turbo’ written on it, even sunglasses. However the Honda City Turbo II did actually have a turbo attached to its little 1,200cc engine, giving it 100bhp. Nearly.
It was also designed entirely using straight lines, as was the minute Honda Motocompo folding scooter, a vehicle so small it could actually fit in the trunk of the City Turbo II, as proven in this magnificent ’80s commercial.
Despite being borne in the ’80s the Motocompo didn’t have a turbo, producing just 2.5bhp from its 49cc engine. Still, we bet even that was pretty terrifying. We’ll stick to the City Turbo II, which we’ve decided we really want in real life. But we are a bit odd.
These superb Model Team recreations of both the Honda City Turbo II and Motocompo scooter come from Dylan Denton, who has built each ’80s icon beautifully. Both models feature wonderful attention to detail (enhanced by accurately replicated decals) inside and out, and are absolutely worth a closer look.
Head to Tokyo c1983 courtesy of Dylan’s photostream via the link in the text above!
LEGO have had a lot of officially licensed themes over the years. Some have been marvellous, including the current tie-up with a multitude of vehicle manufacturers to recreate real-world vehicles (keep these coming LEGO!), whereas some… Micky Mouse? Pirates of the Caribbean? Scooby Doo? Even we’d forgotten about the last two.
The new Nintendo Mario theme is, we fear, going to drop straight into whatever the equivalent of a Bargain Bucket is for LEGO sets. Still, this most tenuous of upcoming partnerships hasn’t stopped TLCB regular SP_LINEUP from building his own Mario-themed model, creating this neat Mario Kart complete with a brick-built Italian plumber on board.
Neither has the absurdity of LEGO’s newly licensed theme stopped fellow Flickrist BenBuildsLego from creating his own Mario-themed MOC either, with his admittedly rather wonderful homage to some of Mario Kart 64’s most infamous tracks, including the perilously difficult ‘Rainbow Road’ which makes us nervous just looking at it.
Click the links in the text above to fire up your engine and to fire that red shell, whilst we await LEGO’s new theme with minimal excitement.
We’re pretty sure that for some of you reading this your very first car was made out of wood, and looked like this. This marvellous ‘wooden’ fire engine is not wooden at all, and comes from Jens Ohrndorf who has recreated the iconic classic toy beautifully from LEGO pieces. Head out to rescue Mr. Duck, Giraffe, big sister’s Barbie, and whatever other toys are in peril via the link above!
We’ll let Russian readers insert their own joke linking to the title so we don’t get poisoned by Novichok. Or we can make one about what fetish your Dad’s internet history reveals… Nope, we’re going to rise above it today* – on the the model!
This gorgeous GAZ-53 dump truck is the work of previous bloggee Samolot, who has created this beautiful fully-functioning Technic replica of the Soviet medium duty truck produced from 1961 right up until 1993.
Samolot’s model looks superb (particularly in the wonderful outdoor shot above), and features a long list of engineering ingenuity, including working front and rear suspension, remote control drive via a single XL Motor, steering via a Servo, a remote control four-speed gearbox, and a Medium motor-powered functioning tipper.
There’s much more to see of Samolot’s brilliant build at the Eurobricks discussion forum by clicking here, where you can also find a video demonstrating the GAZ’s working functions.
Is there anything more American than a pick-up truck with a dead animal nailed to the front? OK, maybe obesity and firearms activism, but other than those this has got to be top.
This particular pick-up truck with a dead animal nailed to the front is a late ’70s Chevrolet Silverado K30 series, as built by previous bloggee Filsawgood.
Working suspension, remotely controlled four-wheel-drive and steering, opening hood and doors, and a third-party BuWizz bluetooth battery all feature, and you can see more of Filsawgood’s classic Chevy K30 at both Flickr and Eurobricks.
Click the links to grab your gun and bag yourself a new hood ornament. Yeehaw!
