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.

Dodgy Camping

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Yoga-practicing, vegan-dieting, top-knot-wearing bus / camper life douchebags are everywhere. Well, as long as everywhere has good WiFi, so they can upload their latest ‘adventure’ to their followers. Urgh.

We try to avoid such content of course, but so too would we steer clear of the owner of this battered ’70s Dodge B100 van and Shasta trailer. Decidedly un-Instagram friendly, we suspect its inhabitant’s diet would be more road-kill than ethnic-peace-crisps, and healing crystals would be swapped for actual, um… actual crystal.

Which leads neatly on to today’s second dodgy camper, a Dodge-based ’77 Winnebago that’s almost guaranteed to be a meth lab. An update to his previously blogged ‘Minnie Winnie’, 1saac W. is the builder of both recreational vehicles, and you can head to the abandoned parking lot on the edge of town to check them out via the link above.

Hamm It Up

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Longstanding readers of The Lego Car Blog will know that our workforce of mythical Elves have a penchant for extreme violence, which is normally manifested by squashing one-another with the vehicles they find.

Constructed by previous bloggee Keko007, this Hamm 3412 HT road-roller looks perfect for that task. However despite Keko’s creation being hyper realistic it’s actually rather smaller than it first appears, thus there’s no remote control motorisation going on here. Hooray! There’s more of the model to see on Flickr, including a wider set of construction vehicles that accompanies it, and you can roll on over via the link above.

And if you’re disappointed that there’s no Elven squishery today; firstly you don’t have tidy up afterwards, but this ought to satisfy your own penchant for extreme violence with a steam roller…

Unnecessary Tinkering

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For every motorcycle on the road there seems to be another two in a garage somewhere being fixed. Which means they’re kinda like Range Rovers. We suspect it’s more of an unnecessary tinkering situation with bikes though, rather than a catastrophic electronics failure.

Whatever the reason, TLCB newcomer DePin0 has constructed a medley of motorcycles in their natural habitat, with an array of tools and removable bits so they can be tinkered with unnecessarily. There’s more to see at DePin0’s photostream and you can tweak the timing / adjust the outer sprocket / fine-tune the mixture / decombobulate the flux-capacitor via the link above.

Ampere Romeo

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Ripping the piston-engined heart out of a classic Alfa Romeo to replace it with batteries and an electric motor is either a brilliant modernisation or an abominable travesty, depending on your school of thought. Now we’ve started that fight, here’s an example of a car that’s done just that (at least, a stunning Lego Technic replica of one); this is Zeta Racing‘s fantastic Totem Automobili Alfa Romeo Giulia GT Electric.

Replicating their jaw-dropping resto-mod of Alfa Romeo’s classic sports saloon, Zeta has recreated every curve of Totem’s wonderfully restyled Giulia GT brilliantly in Technic form, with working steering, suspension, and a superbly detailed interior too.

The hood raises (although of course there’s no engine underneath it), and the doors and trunk open too. In fact Zeta has photographed his incredible creation in the front trunk of the real Totem Giulia GT Electric (where its engine once lived), making us wonder if he could build a smaller version of his own model to place under its hood…

Travesty or brilliance, Totem’s electric Alfa Romeo is certainly exquisitely engineered, and you can see more of the real car plus this equally spectacular Technic replica at Zeta Racing’s photostream. Click the link above to go electric.

Nightrain*

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This – according to its talented maker AlienCat! – is ‘New Hashima District 8’s Shipping Yard 81’, where immense hover trains depart the, um… station(?) pulling their wares of spacey goods. OK, we’re well out of our depth here, but it’s a) a phenomenal build, and b) it’s allowed us to tenuously link to peak Guns ‘n Roses. There’s more of Aliencat!’s ‘District 8’ to see on Flickr, and you ride the Nightrain (never to return) via the link above.

*Today’s wild title song. Of course.

Little Green Man

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Why is it depictions of aliens are always little green-ish grey men with big black eyes? Answer us that Science. Anyway, this little green man is not the standard depiction of an otherworldly being, but a simple vintage tractor by the now-truck company MAN.

Christoph Ellermann is the builder behind it, and he’s constructed it beautifully. Pictured atop its full-size counterpart there’s more to see at Christoph’s photostream. Click the link above to visit Area 51 and take a closer look…

Origins

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The BMW M3 is now in its eighth generation. Powered by a 470bhp turbocharged inline-6, weighing 1.7 tons, and fitted with the largest nostrils in the automotive industry. Which means it interests us not one bit.

But rewind nearly forty years and the M3 interests us very much indeed. Launched in 1986 the ‘E30’ generation M3 was built for German Touring Car Championship (DTM) homologation, featured a multitude of bodywork and chassis adaptations, plus BMW’s new S14 2.3 litre 4-cylinder engine making around 200bhp.

That might not sound a lot today but it was a serious figure for the 1980s, particularly as it used no forced induction, and it only had 1,200kgs to move – a full half-a-ton less than the latest M3.

The result was (and remains) one of the finest drivers’ cars ever produced, and this brilliant homage to the original M3 was constructed as a commission for (we presume) one very lucky owner of the real deal.

Flickr’s Leo 1 is its maker, who has captured the definitive ’80s sports sedan perfectly in Lego form. Ingenious construction techniques replicate both the E30’s famous shape and interior, and you can recreate them for yourself as Leo has made building instructions for his M3 available.

Head to Leo’s photostream to take a look at all of the stunning imagery, and to find the aforementioned instructional link so you can create BMW’s best M3 for yourself.