[Hoonitruck]

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This is the ‘Hoonitruck’, Ken Block’s ridiculously powerful all-wheel-drive, twin-turbo Ecoboost V6-engined classic Ford F-150 pick-up truck, and it’s glorious. You might now be expecting us to say ‘well, this one isn’t obviously, this is Lego…’ but we won’t, because this really is ridiculously powerful, all-wheel-drive, and comes with with a twin-turbo V6.

Previous bloggee Lachlan Cameron is the builder behind it, whose recreation of Block’s ‘Hoonigan’ Ford Mustang was TLCB’s most viewed creation of 2018, and his latest build is every bit as awesome.

A pair of third-party BuWizz bluetooth batteries delivery up to eight times the power of LEGO’s own system, with each hooked up to its own Technic Buggy Motor, the most powerful motor that LEGO have ever produced.

The result is… well something that a Lego model shouldn’t really be capable of, and thankfully Lachlan has fitted fully independent suspension and all-wheel-drive to try to manage that power.

The model also features a complete (and superbly accurate) exterior wrap courtesy of fellow previous bloggee Jaap Technic, plus a wealth of chromed parts via Bubul, and – to pre-emptively answer the question we’re sure to be asked – Lachlan has a habit of making instructions for his creations available too, so keep an eye out for the arrival a link.

In the meantime there’s much more of Lachlan’s spectacular build to see at both Flickr and Eurobricks, plus you can watch what all-wheel-drive and eight times the power can do via the video below…

YouTube Video

 

Pole Star

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The name your Mom went by when your Dad met her. You know, before she put on all that weight. Polestar is also the name of Sweden’s coolest new car company, and Volvo’s in-house tuning arm, who launch their new minimalistic-titled ‘1’ later this year. Built in China (as Chinese giant Geely own Volvo these days), the ‘1’ is powered by a 2.0 turbocharged and supercharged in-line four plus a pair of electric motors (yup, it’s a Hybrid), and is expected to produce a combined 600bhp.

We can also expect an astronomical price-tag before more normal (and all electric) Polestars follow, with just 1,500 units of the ‘1’ planned for production. Make that 1,501, because Davanchi M of MOCpages (and a previous ‘Featured TFOL’ here at TLCB, back when that was a thing) has decided to build one more. It’s not just any ‘1’ either, as he’s chosen the insane Khyzyl Saleem edition from the latest ‘Need for Speed’ video game to recreate in Lego form.

With some considerable aero, yellow paint, and a rear wing(s) that resemble a park bench, the Khyzyl Saleem edition somehow makes the standard ‘1’ look rather ordinary. It basically looks like it’s been designed by our Elves. It’s also available on LEGO Ideas should you like it as much as they do and you can find a link to Ideas and all the images at Davanchi’s MOCpage by clicking here.

Godzilla’s Return

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Nissan have joined LEGO’s awesome Speed Champions line-up for 2020 with a set that’s a bit… stickery. The official 76896 Nissa GT-R NISMO set will no doubt fly off the shelves, seeing as seven-year-olds a) love the GT-R and b) love stickers, but we’re not sure that using decals for even basic shapes such as headlights is really the point of LEGO. Flickr’s Simon Przepiorka (now known by SP_LINEUP) agrees, and as such has created his own 1:24 scale R35 GT-R with bricks* rather than sticky pictures. Matching LEGO’s own 8-stud wide Speed Champions sets, Simon’s Lego Godzilla looks far more appealing than the one you can buy, and you can take a closer look at his photostream via the link above.

*Save for a red pin-stripe and the fact that the images look suspiciously digital…

Lo lo lo lo Lola

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A song about gender fluidity way ahead of its time, and also a seriously cool British race engineering firm that built pretty much everything from the 1960s all the way up to 2012, and whose remnants now form much of the Haas Formula 1 team. This was one of their later creations, the Lola-Aston Martin B09/60 LMP1 endurance racer from 2008.

This spectacular Technic recreation of the mad Le Mans prototype comes from Leviathan / Nico Lego of Flickr, and it’s a properly brilliant Technic Supercar. With a working V12 engine, double clutch gearbox, in-board pushrod suspension, working steering, and superb swooping bodywork it’s a model that’s well worth a closer look. Around thirty high-quality images are available to view at Leviathan’s Aston Martin Lola LMP1 Flickr album – click the link above to make the jump.

2020 A.D.

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2020 A.D. sounds terrifically futuristic doesn’t it? Our forbears predicted it would be the age of commercial space travel, flying cars, holograms, and nuclear apocalypse. Instead we have hashtags, SUVs, the woke movement, and the Kardashians. Oh well, at least we’re a step closer to the nuclear apocalypse as of yesterday thanks to Donald Trump.

Flickr’s Angka Utama has been a bit more realistic than the futurologists of the past as his ‘2020 A.D.’ concept looks both probable and really rather good. Except of course it isn’t an SUV, so in reality it’s about as likely in 2020 as the Kardashians pioneering commercial space travel. No matter, see more at the link, where you can contemplate mankind’s inexorable slide towards an SUV-filled doom.

Ageing Orange

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Nope, not a play on words for this abomination in America’s history, nor the current President of the United States (we’ve done him already today), but this spectacular classic DAF N2800 truck from previous bloggee and truck-building legend Nanko Klein Paste. Nanko’s creation replicates the 1980s DAF heavy-hauler beautifully, using the livery of a Belgian sand and gravel company ‘Fa. Maes’.

The truck also includes Power Functions motors, allowing it to drive, steer, and tip the chunky container (with its load of c2,500 ‘rocks!) thanks to a motor-driven linear-actuator, plus it includes LED lights, custom decals, and a wonderfully detailed interior too. There’s much more to see of Nanko’s superb classic DAF at his photostream – take a look via the link in the text above.

Car Surfing

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Car surfing is Darwinism in action, and long may it continue. Still, if you’re not a complete moron you can still surf in your vehicle, and all without ending up as a thin veneer on the asphalt, thanks to Versteinert‘s ‘Aedelsten’ classic convertible. With surfboards for doors, binoculars for side-lights, and a windshield mounted, er… kinda diagonally upside down, Versteinert’s creation is bursting with brilliant building. See more via the link.

This is like, totally the best plane in the world. Just the best. Totally the best. Bigly.

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“In fact it is so good you might think it was built by tiny little hands. So tiny. The inside allows me to fulfil my great and unmatched wisdom, with 24/7 access to Twitter, a machine that makes the best covfefe, the very best, and a bedroom with a golden shower. So very golden.” Donald Trump

Mini-figure Donald seems pretty pleased with his new wings, and so he should be; it measures 6ft long, has a 5½ foot wingspan, includes functioning landing gear, flaps, stairs, and complete interior and exterior lighting courtesy of Brickstuff.

BigPlanes of Flickr is the creator behind this astonishing build, and you can join the orange-in-a-toupee en-route to his next impeachment hearing via the link in the text above. Bigly.

2019 | Year in Review

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Well it’s been quite a year. TLCB’s home nation had yet another election, President Trump became the third U.S leader in history to be impeached (not that it means anything at all), Greta Thunberg led the world’s children on strike over climate change, during which time the world’s leaders literally fiddled whilst California and Australia burned, and Russia were thrown out of the Olympics for mass state-sponsored doping (again).

It’s been a busy year for the automotive world too, with PSA and FCA merging to create, er… PSFCAA(?), Nissan-Renualt-Mitsubishi boss Carlos Ghosn’s arrest (and current exile in Lebanon after smuggling himself out of Japan whilst on bail), Elon Musk inadvertently smashing the windows of his own truck live at its unveiling, Volkswagen revealing the most ambitious ‘we’re not evil, honest’ plan since Italy swapped sides in World War 2, and flying cars still not becoming a thing despite Blade Runner now being set in the past.

But enough on the criminality of the President, Carlos Ghosn, Russian athletics, and Volkswagen, what about The Lego Car Blog? Well the good news is we’ve not done anything criminal…

Stats:

The bad news is we saw a drop in visitors for the second year, after six consecutive years of growth, and will end the year at about two thirds of a million. That’s still a lot of people mind, and we’re still surprised that anyone at all likes this site enough to visit it, so if you’re reading this; thank you. Those numbers don’t include visits to our Facebook page either, where all posts now also appear.

Search engines brought around 200,000 visitors, with Pintrest and Facebook the next greatest referrers. Our most popular page was, as ever, the Review Library, which now holds over one-hundred reviews of official LEGO sets, books, and third-party products such as BuWizz and SBrick.

The most viewed creation of 2019 was Lachlan Cameron’s awesome Ford Mustang [Hoonigan], which was also received the most clicks of any link we published whilst the video of the real [Hoonigan] Mustang tearing up the streets of LA at the hands of Ken Block was the most watched media. The second most clicked video link was altogether more silly.

The United States proved to be the most popular visitor country once again, perhaps as people try to escape the inane gibberish that seems to be going on there at the moment. Germany and the UK make up the rest of the top three, probably for similar reasons.

In all visitors from two-hundred countries visited The Lego Car Blog over the course of 2019, with several counties posting a visitor of number of one, including Iran, Liberia and Haiti amongst others. If you’re reading this and you’re that one – thank you, and you are part of something much bigger! There were also three visitors from Vatican City, which makes us kinda hopeful that one might be the Pope, but if it is we’d better stop making ‘Your Mom’ jokes…

Interviews:

OK, we forgot about these in 2019, with just one new builder added to the Master MOCers Hall of Fame. The wonderful Redfern1950s joined us for the twenty-first interview and you can find his page via the link above, plus read the twenty interviews that proceeded his via the main menu at the top of the page.

We’ll try to do better in 2020. Unless we forget again…

Advertisements:

Lastly, your visits and clicks here at The Lego Car Blog have continued to do good, with a few thousand dollars now raised in total via the adverts that you view. We don’t allow many ads to appear here, and whilst some are dubious in their content – ‘Local Mom makes $[insert ridiculous amount here] without working!’ is perhaps the most irritating – we hope they’re not too intrusive and we’re more than happy to take money from internet marketing companies and redistribute it to those that need it most.

As has been the case for some time we’re pondering whether we can and should do more with this platform, and should that ever happen we will of course let you know. For now though, things continue as they are.

2020:

As we enter a whole new decade The Lego Car Blog will continue to champion the best Lego vehicles created by the online community. TLCB Elves are searching Flickr, MOCpages, Eurobricks, Brickshelf and other creation-sharing sites as you read this, in the hope of uncovering the next blog-worthy model that will earn them a meal token.

If you’d like to suggest something they’ve missed you can continue to do so via the Feedback page, Contact page or on Facebook, where you can also let us know your thoughts (good and bad) about what we write.

Thank you for visiting us in 2019, and we wish you all a very Happy New Year!

TLCB Team

Technical Titan

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There’s just time to squeeze in one more creation of 2019 before our customary year-end roundup, and with a delightful circularity it has a whole lot squeezed into it. Suggested to us by a reader, this is Zbiczasty‘s awesome Mercedes-Benz Actros Titan 8×8 with Palfinger PK 150002 HDS crane, and it’s every bit as good as that impressive title suggests.

Firstly, it is indeed 8×8, with all eight wheels driven, all eight suspended, and the front four steering, all operable remotely via LEGO’s Power Functions IR system. That amazing drivetrain is just the start though, as this phenomenal truck features sixteen Power Functions motors, controlled by seven switches, four IR receivers and with three sets of LEDs thrown in too.

The motors drive everything from the stabilising legs to the incredible Palfinger PK 150002 crane mounted on the load bed, which unfurls like a coiled snake thanks to nineteen pneumatic cylinders and over ten metres of pneumatic hosing. We said it had a lot squeezed in…

Watching the crane in action is quite a thing to behold and you can do just that via this link to the YouTube video where you can also see the drivetrain, crane winch, and the stabilising legs doing their respective things. Take a look via the link above, plus you can see all of the images at Zbiczasty’s album on Brickshelf by clicking here.

Virtually Trolleyed

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We’re often asked why we don’t publicise more digital creations. The answer is most of them don’t look like this. Well, we don’t mean they’re not a Škoda 14TrM trollybus (although it is lovely), but this is the quality we need to be able to blog a rendered model. It comes from aaref1ev of Flickr who lives near to where these buses were built by Škoda under license during the late ’90s. Superbly well detailed, aaref1ev’s Škoda 14TrM has been rendered beautifully by liz_dewitt and there’s more to see of this digital delight at aaref1ev’s photostream via the link above.

On The Buses

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TLCB Elves don’t usually get excited about buses. They have no racing stripes, lasers, or supercharging, and such things are important to an Elf. TLCB Team do sometimes get excited about buses – because we’re a bit sad – but not bendy buses, which were introduced to the streets of our capital a decade or so ago whereupon they proceeded to run over cyclists and then get stuck on every tight corner.

Now removed, we’re back to double deckers, but that doesn’t mean the bendy-bus isn’t a good solution for more modern cities. It’s also a design, in the case of today’s creation anyway, that’s really cool. And yes we did just write that about a bus.

This is Sariel‘s Solaris Urbino 18, a remote controlled, five-motor engineering triumph. Looking almost exactly like the real deal, Sariel has managed to squeeze a spectacular array of working functions inside the Urbino’s shell. Firstly the bus drives and steers remotely, thanks to LEGO Power Functions motors and a third-part SBrick programmable bluetooth receiver. This SBrick also allows the bus’s head, tail, brake and indicator lights to be controlled, plus the ingenious motorised door opening mechanism with all doors powered by a single Medium motor.

Most cleverly of all there is a working ‘kneel’ system, where – just like the real bus – the ride height drops as the doors open to allow easier access for passengers to embark/disembark.

Lastly the model features accurate custom decals to replicate those of the real vehicle, illuminated numbers, and some seriously impressive working dot matrix displays thanks to a custom design by third-party specialists Brickstuff.

Sariel’s amazing creation is a great way to round out the year and you can see more of his Solaris Urbino 18 at both his Flickr album and via the Eurobricks discussion forum, where you can also find a video demonstrating the model’s incredible working features.

Bullet the Blue Sky

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This is the Lockheed U-2 ‘Dragon Lady’, an aircraft from the 1950s that is still in service today, flying on the edge of space. Designed for the Cold War, but carrying no weapons, the U-2 is able to operate at an altitude of over 70,000ft, taking photographs of the ground beneath it.

Believed to be out of range of ground-to-air missiles, the U-2 was flown extensively over the Soviet Union, supplying the United States with information on nuclear development, missile locations, and airbases.

Unfortunately for the U.S this theory proved inaccurate when, on May 1st 1960, a U-2 flown by Francis Gary Powers was successfully shot down. The Soviets had been tracking the aircraft from 15 miles outside of the border, and an indirect missile-hit brought the U-2 down, with Powers miraculously surviving.

The U.S didn’t believe that a pilot would survive a crash from 70,000ft and thus stuck to a pre-written cover story that the U-2 had drifted into Soviet airspace after the pilot became unresponsive. The Soviet Union cleverly let the U.S release their lie to the world before revealing that Powers was alive and had admitted spying under interrogation. Oops.

Powers spent a year and a half in prison before being swapped in a prisoner exchange at Glienicke Bridge between East and West Germany. He subsequently returned to the U-2 programme working for Lockheed before losing his life in a helicopter crash in 1977.

Amazingly though, the Lockheed U-2 is still in service today, with the United States Air Force taking over operations from the CIA. This splendid recreation of their incredible aircraft was constructed as a commission by Jonah Padberg (aka Plane Bricks) whose brilliant H145M rescue helicopter featured here earlier in the week.

Jonah’s model captures the iconic Cold War aircraft in stunning accuracy and there lots more to see of his superbly built and presented Lockheed U-2 spy plane at his photostream. Click the link above to fly to 70,000ft and take a look.

*Today’s excellent title song.

Funky Sheet

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TLCB Elves search far and wide for the best Lego vehicles that the internet has to offer. With food only available upon blog-worthy finds, they’re becoming fairly efficient little buggers. However it’s not just the model that must meet our criteria in order to be featured here, this images too must be worthy of appearance.

As highlighted here before, the best way to achieve high quality images is with the use of a plain background and natural light, however that doesn’t mean more inventive solutions aren’t also suitable. Take taxonlazar’s ‘G-110’ for example, which uses a sheet to great effect, creating the sand and rock plain upon which his model is driving. The model itself is rather nice too, featuring a transparent cockpit, posable steering, and some awesome retro Technic wheels.

Head to taxonlazar’s photostream via the link above to see more of the G-110 (and his bedsheet).

Christmas Coal

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We end today’s publications with this, a rather lovey looking vintage ‘convoi exceptionnel’ consisting of a six-axle truck, a low-loader trailer, and a fantastic mining excavator, on its way to supply coal to keep families warm over winter. Built by FiliusRucilo of Flickr each vehicle is wonderfully made and there’s more to see on Flickr via the link in the text above.