The Indestructible Hilux

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The best selling pick-up everywhere except North America, the Toyota Hilux is favoured by farmers, NGOs, terrorists, and… Top Gear.

Some twenty years ago Top Gear embarked on what would become one of their most famous sequences ever filmed. And created the best advert for the Hilux that Toyota could have dreamed of.

Famed for their indestructibility, Top Gear decided to put the Hilux’s toughness to the test. They bought an old rusty example from a farm, and crashed it. A lot. They left it in the sea. Dropped a caravan on it. Set fire to it. Hit it with a wrecking ball. And, finally, placed it atop a tower block, and blew it up.

After all of that the Hilux was – unbelievably –  still working, and thus it became a permanent fixture in the Top Gear studio until the show’s demise. Which means the Hilux didn’t just outlive all of the tests that Top Gear put it through, but even Top Gear itself.

This homage to the world’s most famous pick-up truck comes courtesy of NV Carmocs of Flickr, who has recreated the Top Gear Hilux – dents, buckled chassis, fire-scorched paint and all – brilliantly in brick-form.

There’s more of the model to see at NV’s photostream via the third link in the text above, and if you’re one of the few people on earth that haven’t seen Top Gear’s most famous of vehicle tests, take a look at the first two…

Screen Rant

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LEGO do not make enough types of windscreen. A million types of curved bows, lift-arms, and foliage yes. Windscreens, no.

So regular bloggee _Tiler has flipped a standard 6-wide clear screen 270° to make it fit his wonderful ’64 Chevrolet Impala Convertible.

Ingenious building techniques and/or magic hold it in place, and you can see more of _Tiler’s brilliant solution to LEGO’s chronic windscreen shortage on Flickr via the link above.

BuWizz Gathering 2025

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The BuWizz Team is thrilled to invite you to the annual BuWizz Gathering, a two-day paradise for all LEGO Technic fans with competitions and fun activities for all ages.

Regular readers of The Lego Car Blog will know that some of the most impressive remote control creations to appear here are powered by BuWizz. Bringing programable bluetooth control to Lego creations, BuWizz earned a coveted 5-Star Review when we tested their awesome 3.0 Pro system.

If you’re a BuWizz builder or a fan of seeing what remote control Lego can do, the BuWizz Gathering 2025, held in BuWizz’s beautiful native Slovenia, is coming this July 18th-20th.

The 2025 event will include five vehicular competitions, daily prizes, conferences, and a social dinner, with tickets on sale now for €50 (competitors) and €20 (spectators).

Find full details and tickets for the BuWizz Gathering 2025 here

 

Virtual Adventure

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These days most adventuring is viewed digitally. TikTok, Instagram, YouTube… there are millions of videos purporting to show adventure, available to watch from the comfort and safety of wherever people consume such content on their phones. Which is everywhere. And so ironic it hurts.

Thus today we too are virtually adventuring, courtesy of newcomer CelestialCapture and this tremendous overland-equipped Toyota Land Cruiser 70-Series. Replicating the legendary off-roader brilliantly, Celestial has also fitted an exciting array of adventure items, including a snorkel, spot lights, bull-bar, and roof-rack, whilst some excellent bespoke ‘decals’ add to the adventure-based vibe.

There’s more to see of Celestial’s digital Land Cruiser 70-Series on Flickr, and you can head on your own virtual adventure via the link above. Once you’ve done that though, perhaps put your phone in your pocket and head outside. Real adventure is often just around the corner.

Baling Bricks

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We love well-engineered small-scale Technic almost as much as we love toilet humour. So you can imagine our delight when one of our Elves found this neat Technic tractor and baler, because it looks like it’s, um… laying a brick. Cutting some rope. Pinching a loaf. Dropping a deuce. Releasing the kraken. Building a log cabin.

Anyway, the aforementioned amusing farm machinery is the work of TLCB Master MOCer Thirdwigg, it features functioning steering and a rear hitch, and Thirdwigg has also pictured the tractor pulling a tipper trailer. But that doesn’t look anywhere near as funny.

There’s more to see at Thirdwigg’s photostream, where a link to free building instructions can also be found, and you can relieve yourself on Flickr via the link above.

Training Day

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Yes we’re a car blog. When we’re not making Your Mom jokes or referencing Putin’s tiny todger. But we’re a train blog today, courtesy of this fantastic K-Class steam locomotive crossing a truss bridge at the Brickvention 2025 show. Photographed (and built as part of a collaboration) by Flickr’s narrow_gauge, there’s more to see via the link above.

And what’s better than one enormous train-based diorama? That’s right – two! Which is the nerdiest sentence we’ve ever written. But no matter, because TLCB Master MOCer mahjqa joins the railway shenanigans here at TLCB with one of the most brilliantly engineered creations we’ve seen yet.

Also constructed for a Lego event, mahjqa’s Friends railway (the LEGO theme, not the TV show) includes a remote control crane so gloriously playable we could watch it all day. And fortunately mahjqa filmed a whole day’s worth of it in operation, so we can do just that.

Join us watching it load and unload in delightful smoothness on loop via the video below, plus you can check out the discussion thread on Eurobricks here.

Rainbow Skies

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Rainbow flags are so hot right now. But before they were adopted by corporations to sell more stuff, um… we mean be more inclusive, they were a regular sight floating gently above us every summer. Hot air balloons love a rainbow envelope, and this one looks like every balloon we remember seeing as a child on warm summer days. Beautifully created by Flickr’s Tong Xin Jung you can soar into the skies in a wicker basket under a rainbow via the link above.

Digger

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So prolific are JCBs in TLCB’s home nation that the word ‘digger’ and the acronym ‘JCB’ are used almost interchangeably. In fact this writer remembers a LEGO catalogue from the early ’90s that referred to a Town backhoe set simply as a ‘JCB’, in the days before anyone bothered about licensing.

Cue this excellent digger that is in fact a JCB by Flickr’s keko007. A miniature replica of the brand’s 3CX backhoe, it captures the real deal superbly, including  posable booms and buckets with ingeniously brick-built hydraulic cylinders. There’s more to see at keko’s ‘JCB 3CX Backhoe Loader’ album on Flickr and you can dig your way over to it via the link above.

Plus Twenty-Four

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You own LEGO’s excellent 10295 Porsche 911 set, but what if you want something… racier? Firas Abu-Jaber has the answer.

Constructed only from the parts of the official LEGO 911 set, Firas has recreated one of Porsche’s wildest 911-based racers, the Le Mans, Sebring, Daytona and 1000km of Nurburgring winning 935.

With opening doors, hood and engine cover, working steering, a detailed engine and interior, and enough parts left over for a very appropriate trophy cabinet, Firas’ 935 is an excellent way to recycle your 10295 pieces, with building instructions available to assist.

There’s much more to see at Firas’ ‘Porsche 935’ album on Flickr, and you can add twenty-four to your 911 via the link above.

Booty Shot

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LEGO’s pirate treasure chest piece is normally found with, um… pirates. But not today, because it works perfectly as the boot-mounted chest of this lovely vintage Citroen by Flickr’s K P. Photographed beautifully, there’s more of K P’s model to see on Flickr. Click the link above for more booty shots.

Grab & Go

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It’s a sunny day here at TLCB Towers and the Elves are off hunting for the best Lego vehicles that the web has to offer. All except one, who we found dangling alone from the grab of a hefty remote control excavator left abandoned in the corridor. We may have laughed. A lot.

Said creation is based on an ET-25 excavator, and comes from deltamc of Eurobricks who has recreated both its visuals and operation beautifully. Constructed from around 2,000 pieces, delta’s model can drive, steer, slew, and position the two-stage boom (equipped with either a bucket or grab) via remote control, thanks to a suite of six Power Functions motors and four linear actuators.

It’s an impressive piece of Technic engineering, and one you can watch in action via the video below and create for yourself, as delta has made free building instructions available. Find out more at the Eurobricks forum via the link above.

YouTube Video

Notable Extension

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Sometimes things need to be a bit longer. At least according to your Mom. Well she’ll be pleased today, because Arian Janssens’ already impressively-sized creation can grow even more lengthy.

That’s because Arian’s DAF FTS XFc 530 truck is pulling an enormous extending three-axle trailer, the length of which can be adjusted depending upon its load, with the front and rear parts separating via a central girder that’s concealed when the sections are joined. A crane can slide fore and aft along the trailer’s span when the front and rear are connected, whilst steered axles assist with its manoeuvring, all recreated brilliantly in brick form.

It’s an outstanding member of Arian’s extensive DAF truck garage, and there’s more to see of this spectacularly sizeable model at his ‘DAF FTS XFc 530’ album on Flickr, including images of the trailer at its full gargantuan reach.

Sunset Stripe

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We love a sunset stripe here at The Lego Car Blog. From classic Toyota pick-ups to vintage LEGO sets, red over yellow looks the business. And even more so when it’s been applied to a remote control 6×6 off-road truck.

This remote control 6×6 off-road truck is the latest creation by TLCB Master MOCer Nico71, who has equipped it with Power Functions Servo steering, twin L-Motor six-wheel-drive, a high/low gearbox, a V8 piston engine, all-wheel suspension, opening doors and hood, plus the coolest of sunset stripes.

There’s lots more to see at Eurobricks and Nico71’s excellent website (where building instructions are also available), and you watch the sunset via the links above.

YouTube Video

LEGO 76304 Batman Forever Batmobile | Set Preview

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Batman has had more reinventions than this website has had angry letters. And that’s a lot. Which means that LEGO have a seemingly endless back-catalogue of Batmobiles to plunder for officially-licensed sets. This is the latest, the brand new LEGO 76304 Batman Forever Batmobile.

Exactly thirty years since the late Val Kilmer’s rubber-suited vigilante squeaked onto screens in the outlandish ‘Batman Forever’, and he’s arrived in mini-figure form, alongside one of the wildest Batmobiles of them all.

Constructed from 909 pieces, LEGO’s interpretation includes “a moulded windscreen, rotatable wheels, authentic decorations, and an opening cockpit”. Which sounds like a lot of style over substance to us, but does make it the perfect brick-built metaphor for the cinematic mess that spawned it.

Aimed at ages 12+ 76304 will cost £90 / $100 when it reaches stores later this year. Where for us, like the 1995 movie, it’ll stay,