Supersonic Bricks

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TLCB bold statement of the weekend; the Aérospatiale/BAC Concorde is the greatest aircraft ever made. And simultaneously one of the worst…

Concorde is one of only two airliners ever to fly supersonic (the other of which was basically a Soviet copy), with a top speed of over 1,300mph. That’s twice the speed of sound, and it enabled passengers to travel from New York to London in three hours, meaning that check-in probably took longer than the transatlantic flight.

This remarkable feat was enabled by Concorde’s incredible delta wing design and the four Rolls Royce Olympus engines engines that took the plane to around 60,000ft, an altitude 50% higher than other commercial airliners.

However despite this height the aircraft was spectacularly loud, and not just because of its engines. A sonic boom – caused by the pressure wave that builds up around an object travelling above the speed of sound – is not a one-off ‘bang’, it’s continuous, travelling with the object. This meant that Concorde was only allowed to travel at supersonic speeds over water, and thus almost all of the world’s airports refused to take it.

With costs spiralling to over £1 billion (in the 1970s!), the British and French governments effectively bought the programme, with each country’s national carrier (British Airways and Air France) becoming the only operators to fly the plane. From an original sales expectation in the low hundreds, just fourteen aircraft were built (plus six test units), entering service between Europe and America.

With Concorde only able to take around 100 passengers at a time, tickets were enormously expensive – costing dozens of times more than a conventional transatlantic flight. However in the booming 1980s both operators were finally able to turn a profit, as Concorde’s wealthy passengers were happy to pay the huge price for the speed and status offered by a supersonic transatlantic flight.

It couldn’t last forever though, and with Concorde ageing, fuel prices increasing, and alternative flights becoming more luxurious and much cheaper on conventional aircraft, the business case for supersonic passenger flights became less viable. A fatal accident in 2000 (Concorde’s only such loss in three decades of flying) and the global demand slump after the September 11th attacks led to the aircraft retiring in 2003, and with it the era of supersonic transatlantic flight was over.

This spectacular replica of the world’s most iconic airliner is the work of BigPlanes of Flickr, whose incredible recreation of Air Force One appeared here at the start of the year. With a fully fitted mini-figure interior including kitchen, cockpit, and bathrooms, a working ‘droop nose’ (which allowed the pilots to see the runway as the plane approached), functioning landing gear, afterburners, and a wonderful brick-built classic British Airways livery, BigPlanes’ Concorde is one of the finest Lego aircraft that we have ever featured.

It’s a fitting tribute to one of the most ambitious engineering masterpieces of modern times, and there’s more to see of his phenomenal model at his photostream. Click the link above to head out over the Atlantic Ocean and go supersonic.

Double Bubble

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It’s Valentine’s Day, and what better way to show the Classic Spacewoman in your life that you love her than through a romantic journey across the wilderness of an empty moon? Flickr’s Horcik Designs has built the perfect tool for the job, with this brilliant Neo-Classic Space rover able to transport two mini-figures in style thanks to separate bubble canopies suspended above the rover’s six wheels. This setup may make conversation difficult of course, but perhaps that’s the secret to a long and happy relationship. Click the link above to head out on a date across the moon.

My Other (Muscle) Car’s a Mustang

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LEGO’s awesome 10265 Ford Mustang set is generating an array of equally awesome B-Model machinery. Hot on the heels of his Mustang GT500, TLCB favourite Firas Abu-Jaber has constructed another alternative from the parts found within the Creator set, and this time it isn’t a Ford. It is another classic muscle car though, and the Mustang’s arch rival; the Dodge Charger R/T.

It’s a superb looking creation too, every bit as playable as the set that donated its parts and you’d never know it was constrained by virtue of being a B-Model. Plus, just like the original 10265 Creator set, Firas’ Dodge Charger can also be built in modified form too, with the option of a huge supercharger protruding from the hood to satisfy your inner seven year old / Elf, as shown below.

You might notice that two of the three images here show Firas’ design constructed from black parts not available in the 10265 Ford Mustang set, but fear not – it can be built in blue as a genuine B-Model. Black is the colour the Charger is most famous for though, so it’d be rude not to publish these images alongside the 10265 alternate version.

There’s much more to see of Firas’ incredible ’68 Dodge Charger R/T B-Model at his Flickr album, you can read his interview here at The Lego Car Blog as part of the Master MOCers Series by clicking these words, and you see the other alternative models built from the pieces found within the 10265 Ford Mustang set via the search box that can be found on every page.

Six Swooshes

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Three swooshes are better than one. Three times better in fact. Flickr’s Ted Andes didn’t stop there though, and has built six variants of his ‘Corsair’ spacecraft. Head to his photostream via the link to see more of the version above, the three below, plus another two.

Nice Cans*

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Today’s model is a bit front heavy, what with those two heavy cans out front and a see-through top as well, but it sure looks good. Now that we’ve messed with the search engines and there are probably people viewing this who expected to see something rather different we can link you to builder de-marco‘s Flickr page. Click his name for more, including a link to instructions should you wish to build this Town forklift for yourself.

*Secret link.

Into the Wild

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In April of 1992 a young man by the name Christopher McCandless set out across Alaska on foot. With minimal supplies, a rifle, and a new alter ego (Alex Supertramp), McCandless left civilisation behind to live simply off the land in Alaska’s remote wilderness.

After hiking along the snow-covered ‘Stampede Trail’, McCandless discovered the old Fairbanks Bus 142, a 1946 International Harvester K-5 that was one of several that had been outfitted as shelters for a construction crew repairing the trail in the early 1960s.

When the mine that used the trail closed in the 1970s the buses were removed, all apart from Bus 142 which – thanks to a broken axle – was left behind in the wilderness. Already fitted with beds and a wood burning stove, it became McCandless’s new home.

McCandless attempted to leave the area in which the bus was abandoned several times, but the thick Alaskan undergrowth and swollen rivers made progress impossible, and so he returned, trapped in the shelter.

After 113 days, and weighing just 30kg, McCandless died of starvation and poisoning from wild potato seeds, his final diary entry on day 107 simply reading “Beautiful Blue Berries”. Days 108 to 112 contained only unintelligible slashes, whilst day 113 contained nothing at all.

Two weeks later a group of hunters entered Bus 142 looking for shelter, and discovered McCandless’ decomposing body inside a sleeping bag.

McCandless’ tragic story has since become a book and a movie, and the bus – deteriorating more each year – is now an attraction for Alaskan tourists. This beautiful recreation of the International Harvester that became Chris McCandless’ tomb comes from TLCB favourite and Master MOCer Andrea Lattanzio (aka Norton74), of which there is more to see at his ‘Into the Wild’ album on Flickr. Click the link above to take a trip to the wilderness around Fairbanks Bus 142. Just don’t eat the wild potato seeds.

Sci-Fi Spectrum

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Febrovery continues apace and today we have two builds from the annual nerdfest to share with you, one which looks like it could be an actual lunar rover in the not too distant future and one which… doesn’t.

First up (above) is Ivan Martynov‘s ‘SOL 317’. We assume that by the use of those little 1×1 figures that Ivan’s design is for a rather massive machine, but increase the scale about ten times and it could easily be one of the small robotised vehicles that mankind is so fond of for current planetary exploration. Whichever it is it’s a great build and you can see more at Ivan’s photostream via the link above.

Today’s second rover throws realism out of the emergency airlock and arms the space villains Blacktron with an enormous rocket, which has got both your Mom and TLCB Elves excited for different reasons.

Shannon Sproule‘s Blacktron ‘BRUTE’ missile launching rover involves ‘towing a nuke onto the battlefield, launching it and then hiding in the observation tower to record the destruction’ according to the builder’s mildly unhinged description. Apparently he’s working on one twice as big too…

Stand well back and shield your eyes at Shannon’s photostream via the link above.

My Other Car’s a Mustang

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LEGO’s brilliant 10265 Ford Mustang set has already spawned several alternate builds, including an F-150 pick-up, a DeTomaso Pantera, and an, er.. Ford Mustang, but this is the first 10265 B-Model to drop the Ford connection entirely. And the engine too.

The Tesla Cybertruck, revealed last year by having its windows smashed on stage (oops), might look like something from the future from a movie forty years ago, but that hasn’t stopped it generating the usual billion orders that Tesla somehow manages to take before anyone has driven it.

You can beat the queue however, and get your hands on one today if you own the 10265 Ford Mustang set, because Flickr’s Gerald Cacas has repurposed the pieces found within it to recreate Tesla’s decidedly odd EV pick-up.

With opening doors, rear hatch thingy, and tailgate, Gerald’s model is at least as functional as the set from which it came and there’s more to see of his 10265 B-Model at his Tesla Cybertruck album by clicking here.

A Real Foodie

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All the best food comes out of the back of a food truck. Also all the worst food, but the jeopardy is half the fun! This beautifully constructed food truck comes from November Juliett who has used a range of clever building techniques throughout the build, particularly the SNOT (Studs Not On Top) bodywork, has found brilliant new use for some lovely early Technic wheels, and has built a detailed (and operable) serving hatch.

Place your order on Flickr via the link above, and hope November’s food truck is one of the good ones, otherwise…

If Only the World were a bit more Classic Space

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The world could learn something from LEGO’s perennially smiling Classic Spacemen, peacefully conducting whatever research and exploration missions their giant fleshy masters directed them towards.

First featured here over five years ago, TLCB favourite Billyburg has recently updated his 6950 Rocket Launcher redux, and we like it more than ever. Of course this being a Classic Space vehicle the rockets on board Billyburg’s 8×8 transport are not firing Russian implements of death at airliners, rather satellites for, well… we’re not sure, but we bet it’s something wholesome.

There’s more to see of Billyburg’s brilliant 6950 redux at his photostream – click here to head into Classic Space.

Lunar Rescue

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The annual nerd-filled bandwagon that is Febrovery is upon us once more, with rovers of all shapes and sizes expected top appear over the next four weeks. For those new to this blog and/or the online Lego Community, we’re not referring to the defunct British car manufacturer (although maybe one day we’ll run our own – considerably less cool – Febrovery…), rather the wheeled contraptions that inhabit all sorts of far away planetary objects in the minds of Lego builders.

This is one such vehicle, TFDesigns / Frost‘s ‘Roveside Assistance Wrecker’, built to fix your magnetonium fusion reactor, busted thread sprocket, solar panel failure, or any other cosmic malady. With a brick-seperator tow hitch, the coolest wheels we think we’ve ever seen, and that canopy again, it’s a fine way to kick off the Febrovery month. Call Intergalactic Roveside Assistance via the link above for more.

Laying Pipes

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We’re not quite over poo-based titles just yet. Discovered by one of our Elves on Brickshelf, this is gkurkowski‘s Volvo PL4809E pipe layer, a fully remote controlled Model Team replica of Volvo’s real tracked crane.

Phenomenal attention to detail and some seriously intricate pneumatics make gkurkowski’s creation spectacularly accurate, both aesthetically and in its operation.

An array of hidden Power Functions motors drive the tracks, superstructure rotation, boom reach, and the cable winch, enabling the Volvo to lay pipe as efficiently as this TLCB Writer does when he’s rushing to leave for work in the morning.

An extensive gallery of top quality photos is available to view on Brickshelf, where comparison imagery showing gkurkowski’s model alongside the real vehicle and WIP shots can be found, plus plenty more images displaying the completed crane as you see here. Click the link above to head to Brickshelf and lay some pipe.

Blue Bull

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First featured here a year ago, Jeroen Ottens’ beautiful Technic interpretation of Marco Van Overbeeke’s spectacular design concept had us all wishing the car was real. It still isn’t, but Jeroen has refined his creation adding these stunning new images to his ‘Il Toro Azzurro’ album. The name may have changed but the car is if anything even more gorgeous to look at, with Jeroen’s model including four-wheel steering, a V10 engine, working gearbox, and independent suspension. There’s more to see of both the original and new images at Jeroen’s ‘Il Torro Azzurro’ album on Flickr – click the link to take a look.

Huge Steamer

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We’re much too mature to link this post with today’s other one, however tempting it is. If your mind has connected the two though, that’s on you…

Now we’ve got that out of the way, on to the vehicle. This is an 1870 Batho 25-ton road roller, a prototype that would become the world’s first mass-produced road roller (‘mass’ being a relative term we suspect).

It’s also both the oldest (we think) and most unusual vehicle that this site has ever featured, and it comes from previous bloggee and weird-vehicle extraordinaire Nikolaus Löwe, who has based this exquisite recreation of the 1870 Batho on a scale model of the original vehicle.

Working steering and a considerable quantity of old-timey cogs and gears are present and correct (they’re for-real cogs and gears too, not any of that steampunk nonsense), and there’s lots more to see of Nikolaus’s remarkable model of a remarkable machine at his Batho 25-ton Road Roller album on Flickr – click the link above to see more of his impressive steamer.

Laying Logs

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We like a good poo-based title here at The Lego Car Blog (see here, here and here). Today’s comes courtesy of bill2build and his neat Ural logging truck compete with grabby thingy and, er… logs. Lay one for yourself on Flickr at the link above.