Uh oh! Space Pirates! You know, pirates… but in space! Flickr’s captainsmog owns the mind that has magnificently merged two of LEGO’s most beloved themes and you can see more of his piratical antics via the link above.
This is the Sukhoi S-37 ‘Berkut’, a Russian air-superiority fighter that never was. First flying in the early 2000s just one ‘Berkut’ was built. Until Ralph Savelsberg decided to tackle it of course.
This is his astonishingly well-replicated Lego version, complete with an opening cockpit, swept-forward wings, working landing gear, and an opening bomb-bay. It’s also black, and black planes are always cool.
Head to Ralph’s Sukhoi S-37 ‘Berkut’ album on Flickr by clicking here to see more stunning images.
The ‘Need for Speed’ franchise is to video games what ‘The Fast and the Furious’ franchise is to movies. Appalling physics, only the loosest of connections to racing or engineering accuracy, and yet… a right of motoring passage for probably most of you reading this.
The ‘Most Wanted’ episode in the ‘Need for Speed’ series arrived in 2005, pitting gamers against AI cops and featuring a heavily modified BMW M3 GTR E46 going sideways on the cover. This BMW M3 GTR in fact.
Suggested by a reader, this top quality recreation of the ‘Most Wanted’ cover star comes from previous bloggee Davanchi M who proves there’s still life in MOCpages once every so often. If Sean Kenney has decided to switch the servers on.
Head there via the link above and evade the cops like it’s 2005!
LEGO’s new 10271 Creator Expert Fiat 500 set has got us very excited. The press seems to like to too, with many inevitable jokes about how the real Fiat 500 is basically a model car anyway. Well LEGO have risen to that challenge! Built from 189,000 pieces (around 188,000 more than the set), LEGO’s expert model makers have constructed an exact 1:1 life-size scale replica of the iconic Italian classic.
Apart from the steering wheel – which is a real item from a 1960s 500 – everything is built from LEGO bricks, including the tyres, seats, and luggage rack (with luggage). A motor show-style cut out on the passenger side facilities entry, which the public will be able to do as this life-sized LEGO Fiat is due to go on tour to launch the new 10271 set.
YouTube Video
You can see how LEGO constructed the 1:1 Fiat 500 via the video above, you can check out our preview of the new 10271 Creator Expert Fiat 500 set by clicking here, and you see a fan-built 500 that arguably got there first by clicking this link.
The Prius isn’t the only compact hybrid car from the early 2010s. Based on the same underpinnings, sister firm Lexus released the CT200h back in 2011, a luxury take on the fuel-efficient self-charging hybrid formula. If ‘luxury’ just means having a slightly nicer interior.
The CT200h was memorable only for using Kylie Minogue to promote it, but it worked for previous bloggee Lasse Deleuran who owns a CT in real life and has chosen to recreate it in Miniland scale complete with his roof box and bike rack.
The little Lexus might be a bland box, but don’t underestimate the complexity of replicating it successfully in Lego form. Lasse’s recreation of his own CT200h is almost unfathomably complicated, capturing the car’s shape to near perfection through a multitude of clever building techniques. Our heads hurt just looking at that front fender.
Everything opens too, revealing that slightly nicer interior and even more monumentally complicated brickwork, from the stepped roof to the ingenious tilt applied to the side windows to ensure the model’s proportions accurately reflect those of the real car.
It’s one of the most thoroughly engineered and brilliantly realistic replicas that we’ve ever featured and there’s more of Lasse’s masterpiece to see at his photostream. Click the link above to join us gazing in awe at a Lexus CT200h, which is a sentence that no-one has ever said before.
This is not a car. But nor is it a lunar rover. We think. We’re not quite sure when a rover isn’t a rover, but we suspect this isn’t. Maybe. What it is, accordingly to builder Brick Ninja, is a ‘Doves of War’ artillery truck, complete with a ‘Big Peaceful Gun’. Which sounds a lot like it’s been named by the NRA’s marketing department. Unlike the NRA though, it is awesome, with some spectacular building techniques used almost everywhere you look. Join the fight for peace at Brick Ninja’s ‘Artillery Truck’ album by clicking here.
FebRovery really is over… (isn’t it Markus Rollbuhler and Chris Perron?). Luckily Markus and Chris’s building skills are significantly better than their timekeeping, so here are two more rovers before we really will get back to posting cars. Probably.
Markus’s effort (above), entitled ‘Stardust Snooper’, harks back to LEGO’s earliest space themes in its purpose, being solely an exploratory rover. A living space and research lab support the crew of two and there’s more to see on Flickr by clicking here.
Today’s second rover comes from Chris Perron, whose Blacktron ‘Surface Scout’ is also apparently an exploratory vehicle. Just one with a giant double laser cannon thingy on the roof. Four wheel steering and a beautifully built cockpit for one feature alongside the ginormous death ray and there’s more to see of Chris’s build on Flickr.
And here endeth the FebRovery Rovers. Unless someone uploads a cool one tomorrow. Now let’s find some cars…
Whilst it might look like the dreams of a TLCB Elf that’s been eating a glue stick all night, this specularly shiny creation by Flickr’s ianying616 is based upon a real vehicle. And what a real vehicle…
Built by drag racing legend Tommy Ivo in the late 1950s, the ‘Twin Buick’ dragster was the first gasoline powered dragster to run under nine seconds, recording an 8.69. Powered by two Buick ‘Nailhead’ V8s mounted side-by-side, the car was also the first to record speeds over 170, 175 and 180mph.
Tommy went on to build several other wild drag racers throughout the ’60s and 70’s whilst also sidelining as sit-com actor. Now in his 80s he was inducted into the Motorsports Hall of Fame in 2005, with his racers still appearing at shows around the world.
Ianying’s expertly presented recreation of Tommy’s ‘Twin Buick’ captures the insanity of the real car brilliantly and there is a huge gallery of further imagery to see on Flickr. Click the link above to head to the strip and buckle up for the most exciting nine seconds of your life*.
*Insert your own ‘Your Mom’ joke.
There was a whole extra day in this year’s Febrovery competition, with many builders taking advantage of this to squeeze their creations across the finish line. And some still missed it…
In celebration of those that didn’t quite manage the deadline, which was fittingly extended this year for space-based reasons, here are three of our favourite rovers that might be more Marovery than Febrovery.
First (above) is Scott Willhelm‘s enormous entry, complete with magnificent brick-built wheels fitted to ends of whatever you all those chassis-arm-thingies. Those chassis-arm-thingies are a bit of a theme this year, kinda like full-width light bars appearing on literally every new car design of late, but much like them they do look cool. See more at the link!
Our second fashionably-late Febrovery entry comes (above) from Faber Mandragore, who has also deployed chassis-arm-thingies to great effect. A transparent domed cockpit and an assortment of science fictiony equipment keep the build suitably futuristic and there’s more to see at Faber’s photostream via the link above.
Our final featured Febrovery creation (above) is very possibly our favourite, eschewing cool chassis-arm-thingies for a single slightly tragic looking jockey wheel, reminiscent of those miserable looking tractor tugs you see at the airport.
Spectacularly inappropriate for a surface littered with craters and rocks, and with an exhaust stack that raises unanswerable questions about how an internal combustion engine works without air, ‘Benny’s Space Trike’ is clearly our winner and you can see more courtesy of Blake Foster by clicking here.
Until next year, keep rovin’…
We love classic 4-wide Town creations. Whilst oddly proportioned and a bit frumpy looking compared to modern Speed Champions or City sets they were the heart of the LEGO range for decades. Previous bloggee de-marco‘s ‘semi-truck’ looks like it has come straight from Town’s golden age, managing to resemble both the truck from the 6541 Intercoastal Seaport set from 1991 and a soviet MAZ-504. There’s more to see at de-marco’s photostream, where you can also find a link to video building instructions should you wish to build this for yourself.
Roadworks seem to take forever. Perhaps because half the time there doesn’t appear to be anyone working. Flickr’s Edward Lawrence is here to help expedite the repairs, by equipping his construction workers with this delightful ‘Construction Moped’ hover-bike. With construction worker Geoff now able to float above the roadway there should be nothing slowing the construction team down! Of course if vehicles can hover there is probably no need for a roadway at all, but we’ll ignore that… See more at Edward’s photostream via the link!
An Italian LEGO set that isn’t a supercar! LEGO’s successful line of officially licensed sets has been a properly exciting shift in the brand’s strategy, bringing real-world cars to bedroom floors everywhere. Beginning with Ferrari, a host of brands have joined the line-up, with fellow Italian supercar manufacturer Lamborghini one of the most recent new additions.
However despite Ferrari being the first car maker to partner with LEGO, their parent company Fiat have been oddly absent. Perhaps Fiat’s current range of distinctly mediocre offerings doesn’t lend itself too well to models that people would want to buy. Fiat 500L anyone?
However Fiat’s back-catalogue is far more interesting, with the original 500 being one of the most loved and well known classic cars of all time. A perfect candidate to be recreated as a Creator Expert set then, joining contemporaries such as the Mini Cooper and Volkswagen Beetle.
LEGO’s new 10271 Fiat 500 set brings the iconic Italian city car to life in brick, with 960 of them forming the 500’s famous silhouette, many of which appear in this gorgeous primrose yellow hue for the first time.
Bespoke period-correct Fiat decals, opening doors hood and engine cover, a detailed interior, and a boot-mounted travel case all feature, as does – weirdly – an easel with a Fiat 500 painting placed upon it. Now if only the painting had an easel in the background of its Fiat 500, which of course would depict a Fiat 500 with an easel in the background… A thought that like that can break your brain.
Despite the moderate piece count the new 10271 Fiat 500 set will be one of the smaller models in the Creator Expert range, measuring 24cm long and 11cm wide – suitably befitting of the original car’s tiny dimensions – and will cost around $90/£75 when it goes on sale in March of 2020. In a line-up that was perhaps becoming a bit supercar-heavy, we think the addition of something small, slow, and classic is a fantastic choice. Top marks LEGO!
Cream is an unusual colour for Lego vehicles. Probably because it’s an unusual colour for real vehicles too, being associated with the German taxis, blandness, and the elderly.
We think cream gets an unfair rep though, because it can look awesome. Toyota’s legendary FJ40 Land Cruiser used the hue extensively, and it’s this colour that Flickr’s SP_LINEUP has chosen for his excellent commissioned 1:24 scale FJ40 model. It’s also the colour chosen by fellow previous bloggee Arian Janssens for his beautifully detailed classic DAF FAS 2600 truck, complete with a brick-built curtain side flatbed and drawbar trailer.
There’s more to see of both creations at each builder’s photostream. Click the links above to head to Flickr and cream yourself.
The current Lexus tagline might be pure marketing waffle, but it does link nicely to today’s creation. This is Lasse D’s stunning Lexus LFA, a model that first appeared here back in 2017. Built as a commissioned piece for Toyota Motor Europe, Lasse has refined his design (as shown by the white version below) and has now made instructions available, so you can build Japan’s amazing supercar for yourself. Head to Eurobricks via this link to see more images, a video of Lasse’s commissioned project, and to find that all important link to instructions!
We’re pretty sure that whatever your first car was, it probably came inside a box like this. This is Rolling Bricks‘ Matchbox 1957 Chevrolet Bel Air, a wonderful homage to the famous toy maker’s 1980s vehicles (and packaging), recreated beautifully in Lego form.
Stacked red, yellow, white and blue plates replicate Matchbox’s iconic classic livery beautifully, and he’s even built the hole thingy that enabled the boxes to hang from those weird metal poles in the toy store, so you could slide them all out to find the one you wanted.
There’s much more to see of Rolling Bricks’ glorious Matchbox Chevy at his Flickr album, where you can also find building instructions should you wish to recreate the cars of your youth yourself. Click the link above to head to the toy store.
