Oh, Go On Then

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…

Nine Second Nailhead

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.

Febrovery Finale

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’…

Town Truckin’

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.

Float-Ped

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!

Creator Expert 10271 Fiat 500 | Set Preview

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!

Double Cream

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.

Creating Amazing

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!

Everyones’ First Car

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.

 

Ford V Ford

‘Le Mans ’66’ had a different title in America. Becoming ‘Ford V Ferrari’, in a similar vain to ‘Northern Lights’ becoming ‘The Golden Compass’ (only ‘Le Mans ’66’ was actually a good movie), we can only assume this is because American audiences have different intellect tastes.

Tenuously linking to this today we have Ford V Ford, two astounding creations by Lachlan Cameron (aka loxlego), both of which have featured here previously. Pictured alongside one another for the first time Lachlan’s Ford GT and Ford Mustang ‘Hoonicorn’ signal the arrival of a new builder into The Lego Car Blog’s Master MOCers Hall of Fame.

Yup, the builder behind the most viewed creation of 2019 has joined us here in TLCB Towers to explain his Lego journey, how he joined the online Lego Community, and how he builds incredible creations like the two you see here. Read his full Master MOCers interview via the link below!

Master MOCers Series 2, Episode 7

Lachlan Cameron 

Mad Musk

Much as we like Mad Max style V8-engined hot rods, we think that pretty much every post-apoc movie has got it wrong. What you really want in a future populated by not much other than zombies is something that uses as little fuel as possible. Preferably none. And something quiet.

There’ll be no gasoline or diesel almost instantly (plus whatever is left sitting in tanks has a shelf life, so using it will almost certainly kill your engine eventually), yet when the power goes out there’ll still be wind turbines turning and solar panels, er… solaring, providing free energy for survivors to tap into.

Eurobricks’ paave has got the right idea, modifying the yet-to-be-released Tesla Cybertruck into a Cybermonstertruck, ‘Mad Musk’ style. We think Elon would approve, brilliant and idiotic as he is in equal measure.

Like the real Tesla, Paave’s creation is electrically driven with all-wheel drive, thanks to two large motors, two IR receivers and a LiPo battery. It also features leaf spring suspension, opening and lockable doors, hood and tailgate, and a removable body for when it inevitably goes wrong (it is a Tesla after all…).

It’s been built as part of the Eurobricks Mad Max competition (which has provided the Elves with some of their favourite creations to date) and there’s more to see of paave’s entry via the link above.

Two for Tuesday

It’s a supercar double at The Lego Car Blog today with two builds from the aptly named 3D supercarBricks. Both 3D’s Bugatti Chiron (above) and Koenigsegg Jesko (below) replicate their real-life counterparts superbly, with the Jesko finished by the addition of some excellent custom 3D printed wheels. There’s more to see of each build on Flickr – click the links above to take a look.

Mince Meat

Well the Elves have found their favourite creation of the year so far…

This is the ‘Harshharvestor’, it’s been built by Horcik Designs, and whilst it doesn’t feature any racing stripes, it does include just about everything else that a spectacularly violent mythical creature could wish for.

Mounted to the front, and engaged via a selectable power take-off, is a giant whirling spiky arrangement that we can only assume is for mincing one’s enemies. Linear actuators (controlled by the warning lights on the roof) allow the aforementioned implement to be raised, lowered and tilted depending upon which body part the driver would like to remove first, whilst rear four-wheel-steering controlled via a ‘Hand of God’ mechanism provides the agility to ensure that escape is very difficult indeed.

Horcik hasn’t stopped there either, having equipped his creation with a button-activated mine-laying device at the rear to deter assailants along with a giant towing crane, presumably to allow the machine to drag the minced/exploded remains of its foes back to base. A V6 engine up front, opening doors, and side mounted machine guns complete the specs, making this one of the most violent vehicles that we’ve ever featured.

Thankfully all of the ‘Harshharvester’s contraptions are hand operated, meaning no remote control and that we won’t spend today getting Elf blood out of the office carpet.

There’s more to see of Horcik’s magnificent if deranged creation at his Flickr album, much more at Bricksafe, and a video and build description at the Eurobricks discussion forum, where this creation was entered into ‘TC17’ building competition. Click the links to take a look!

Silver Bird

We’ve featured many creations here at TLCB that include custom chromed pieces. We don’t mind doing this as a) it’s not really against the spirit of LEGO and b) they usually look awesome. However, it is sometimes nice when a builder uses only LEGO’s own silver parts.

There aren’t many silver LEGO pieces, which makes BigPlanes‘ recently re-photgraphed (and superbly presented) Boeing B-29 Superfortress even more impressive. Custom decals and mini-figure crew complete the build and there’s more to see of this speculator recreation of the historic bomber at BigPlanes’ ‘B-29’ album on Flickr. Click the link above and head to the skies.

Selectable Six

The Elves are very excited today. One of their number brought this astonishingly well-engineered 6×6 off-road truck back to TLCB Towers, and whilst it’s too slow to mow any of them down, it’s certainly fast enough for them to enjoy riding around the office grounds in it.

Built by previous bloggee Thesuperkoala, the truck’s remote control prowess comes courtesy of a third-party BuWizz bluetooth battery delivering power to several LEGO Power Functions motors that drive the steering, high/low range gearbox, and selectable all-wheel-drive system.

Combined with pendular suspension on all axles this gives Koala’s truck brilliant off-road ability, allowing the Elves to ride out in the office courtyard and crush some flowers, which has excited them immensely.

It also features a working V6 engine, opening doors and hood, plus folding drop-sides. We’re about to pull the pins on these so the Elves will all fall out when they next go around a corner (in order to preserve our daffodils), so whilst we do that you can check out more of Koala’s awesome 6×6 at his Flickr album by clicking here, where you can also find a link to a video of the truck in action.