Kick-Ass Classic Space

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The mini-figures of Classic Space led a peaceful and research-based life, flying across the galaxy to explore new worlds with a permanent smile printed upon their little yellow faces.

But things have changed. M-Tron, Blacktron and even the nerds of Ice Planet have recently got a whole lot more fighty, leaving the Classic Spacemen vulnerable. Flickr’s Uspez has arrived to help however, equipping the smiling spacemen with a brand new ‘LL-221 Leap-Frog’ rover, complete with a detachable cockpit spaceship and what looks like one heck of a rail-gun. That’s sure to keep them smiling.

See more of Uspez’s new Classic Space weapon on Flickr via the link above.

Mystery Box

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This is Dennis Bosman’s ‘Mystery Box’, and – unlike your Mom – he hasn’t published a single picture of what’s inside it on the internet. Evidence from Area 51? Kim Jong Un’s nukes? A copy of the final season of Game of Thrones? Whatever’s in there Dennis’s box is chained to an enormous ten axle Broshuis trailer pulled by a MAN TGX of unbelievable detail.

The MAN truck wears the livery of ‘Van der Vlist’ courtesy of superb custom decals, and rides – like the trailer – on non-Lego metal wheels. Underneath the spectacularly detailed tilting cab is a working 6-cylinder piston engine and a full remote control drivetrain, operable via bluetooth thanks to a third-party SBrick.

The axles of the huge Broshuis trailer steer too, with four Servo Motors providing the power, with each axle’s wheels turning at a different ratio. It’s a magnificent build – possibly one of the finest of the year – and there’s much more to see at Dennis’ MAN TGX Flickr album here, plus you can read our interview with Dennis as part of the Master MOCers series by clicking here.

Whitesnake*

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America has mixed form when it comes to supercars. The excellent Ford GT is at one end, the Corvette is in the middle, being now pretty good but mostly fairly hopeless, and the Dodge Viper… yeh, that’s still crap.

But that doesn’t mean we wouldn’t want a go in one. Especially this variant, the mad ACR edition. With the Viper’s V10 engine tweaked to 645bhp, carbon ceramic brakes, and a seriously extreme aero package the ACR was… well, still nowhere near as good as anything from Europe or Japan.

That didn’t stop it heading to the Nurburgring with aim of claiming the road legal lap record though. Three attempts ended with a wrecked ACR and no record, but it was the fastest road-legal-American-rear-drive-manual-transmission-car to lap the Nurburgring. Possibly because it was the only one to do it.

No matter, because this fully remote controlled Technic Dodge Viper ACR designed by previous bloggee Lachlan Cameron (aka Lox Lego) and photographed by Jeff McClain is every bit as good as the real car isn’t. Alongside the remote control drive and steering are working suspension, LED lights, a V10 engine underneath a flipping clamshell hood, and opening doors and tailgate.

There’s more to see of Lachlan’s amazing ACR at his Flickr photostream – click the link above to attempt the lap record…

*Today’s title song. Don’t pretend you don’t like it.

House Spider

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We rather like house spiders. They eat flies and other pests and are a rather elegant design in their own way. Sadly we’re probably in the minority by safely capturing them and releasing them outside TLCB Towers, as most people tend to prefer smushing them. This one would be harder to smush though, and it’s even more useful than its arachnid counterpart. Over to the blurb from the brochure;

“The Yogamabara Mechanization M-400 Multi-Purpose Shell is a commonly used type of shell. It’s very fast and agile. It gives the host AI the ability to follow its client around any ground based environment and has a full range of standard tools, like laser cutter, hydro spanners and standard data sockets to name a few. Its animal-like form gives it personality and this has made Yogamabara one of the biggest manufacturers of Personal AI Shells.”

You can place your order for a new M-400 courtesy of Oscar Cederwall on Flickr. Or alternatively you get get a really big glass and a piece of paper, capture it and release it outside. You know it’s the right thing to do.

Flying the Eastern Front

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This delightful scene of calm in the midst of a Great War era conflict comes from Tino Poutianen of Flickr, who has created a lovely generic Allied fighter with its two dashing crew casually catching up on news from home whilst a pig steals some lunch.

Sadly we doubt they or the pig will be around this time next year. The early years of wartime flight were terrifically dangerous, and pigs are, well… really tasty. For now all is well though, and happily it’s this scene that’s been preserved in brick by Tino. See more at the link.

The Boss

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LEGO’s new 10265 Creator Expert Ford Mustang revealed here last month looks like it could be one of our very favourite sets that the company has ever produced. But for a whole lot less you could have your own ’60s Mustang Fastback that looks every bit as gorgeous as the 1,400-piece set. TLCB regular Simon Przepiorka is the builder behind this wonderful 8-wide ’69 Mustang ‘Boss’ Fastback and there’s more to see of his brilliant small-scale version of the iconic classic pony car on Flickr via the link above.

Eleven Thousand Pieces of the Dark Side

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From our (very) limited knowledge of the Star Wars movie franchise we’ve deduced that the good guys fly things named after letters whilst the bad guys fly things named after shapes. Kind of like an inter-galactic Sesame Street, although we’re not sure Bricknerd would see it that way.

The most powerfully evil of all the bad guys’ flying things are the spherical ones, but the triangles aren’t far behind. This is one such triangle; the ‘Monarch’ Imperial Star Destroyer.

Built by Flickr’s 0necase this incredible creation is constructed from around 11,000 LEGO bricks, and measures well over a meter in length. The huge engines are even formed by three LEGO Death Star pieces, amongst the largest in LEGO’s range, in a gloriously circuitous homage to the Empire.

There’s much more to see of this astonishing recreation of the second-most-evil of all the shapes in Star Wars at 0necase’s ‘Monarch ISD’ album – click here to join the Dark Side.

The Anti-Hummer

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Some of our least favourite cars are SUVs. The Hummer. The Cadillac Escalade. The Chevrolet Suburban. And, despite its depth of engineering and wonderfully utilitarian roots, the latest Mercedes-Benz G-Wagon can probably be added to the list, seeing as these days it seems to be driven entirely by insufferable douchebags. There is a shining exception though, a leafy oasis in a brash and ostentatious desert that seems to be expanding every year. The utterly wonderful Suzuki Jimny.

Recently updated for the first time in almost twenty years the new Jimny is an excellent looking thing, far more charming than its predecessor anyway, yet just as brilliant off-road. A 1.5 litre engine drives all four wheels via locking differentials and tiny overhangs make the humble Suzuki a veritable mountain goat when the going gets rough.

This excellent Technic homage to probably our favourite recent off-roader comes from damianple of Brickshelf, and it’s every bit as marvellous as the real thing. With remote control all-wheel-drive and steering, suspension on all wheels, LED lights, and opening doors and hood we think it would make a most excellent official Technic set. Take a look via the link above and see if you agree, where damianple’s Suzuki Jimny Brickshelf album includes photos on-location off-road plus some neat chassis imagery too.

Meet the Fokkers

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Once the largest aircraft manufacturer in the world, Fokker are now perhaps best known for supplying the German Army during the first World War. The company wasn’t actually German though, instead being founded by Dutchman Anthony Fokker in 1912 whilst he studied in Germany, before moving back to the Netherlands in 1919.

The company that once supplied Germany then fought against them in World War 2, before the Germans invaded the Netherlands and requisitioned Fokker’s factories.

The bombing by the Allies that followed completely destroyed Fokker’s manufacturing facilities, and with a glut of cheap ‘lightly used’ aircraft available at the end of the war the company barely survived. But survive it did, right up until 1996 when the might of Boeing and Airbus finally put an end to Fokker aircraft production.

These two wonderful models depict Fokker in their glory days, when they designed arguably the best fighter aircraft in the world for the German Army during the First World War (and we won’t begrudge them that as the First World War was, as previously explained here, completely pointless).

Built by Dread Pirate Wesley they are a Fokker D.VII and Fokker Eindecker E.IV, both recreated (and photographed) beautifully in mini-figure scale. There’s more to see of each aircraft (plus many more) at Wesley’s brilliant ‘Lego Aircraft’ Flickr album – click the link to take off.

DAF Double

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Our American readers may not be familiar with DAF trucks, but in Europe they’re everywhere, pulling everything from dump trailers to tankers. We have one of each today, from Arian Janssens (above) and Biczzz (below), each being wonderfully detailed and each pulling an equally well-built trailer too. See more of both builds via the links above.

Mech Monday

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We don’t often publicise mechs here at The Lego Car Blog. This is mostly because we’re a car blog, but also because we know absolutely nothing about them, and we’d look silly.

So here are two mechs…

We’re actually publishing these two builds because whilst they are both clearly superb creations, they demonstrate the very best in presentation too, with outstanding photography and editing – something that can be applied to any genre of building.

Image quality is the most common reason for creations suggested to us here at TLCB not to meet our criteria, with even the most brilliant of builds rejected if photography is poor. However clean backgrounds are super easy to achieve using natural light and 50p worth of coloured or white card, successfully removing shadows and other visual distortions. Just take a look at Marco Marozzi‘s ‘KZ1 ma.k mech below to see how successful this approach can be!

The other option is a cunningly photoshopped image. These are much harder to achieve but gosh do they look good if done right! Red Spacecat shows us how to do it properly with the stunning image above showing his KA-9 Police Support Unit in action dispelling civil unrest on the streets.

Both of today’s builders demonstrate the very best in presentation and there’s more to see of each build and the amazing images in which they’ve been captured via the links in the text above.

Got Milk?

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Slow, quiet, and arriving in the dead of night, the humble electric milk float would be a spooky vehicle if it weren’t for the fact that it’s, well… a milk float.

Now sadly mostly replaced by boring (and not quiet at all) diesel vans, surely the time is right for the electric milk float to make a comeback. Stick a Tesla badge on it and the internet would love it at any rate.

This glorious homage to the silent dairy delivery knights comes from Flickr’s de-marco and there’s more to see of his brilliant milk float (and instructions too) at his photostream. Click the link above to bring the bottles in.

Tyrrell P34 | Picture Special

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Luca Rusconi (aka RoscoPC) is no stranger to this website. His various incredible historic Formula 1 racing cars have appeared here numerous times over the years and have earned him a TLCB Master MOCer accolade, and his latest build takes his Lego-building even further. This is a 1976 Tyrrell P34, it really did look like this, and it became the only six-wheeled design ever to win a Formula 1 race.

It’s those amazing wheels we’ll start with, designed to minimise the car’s frontal area whilst increasing grip. Luca’s spellbinding recreation of the P34 uses four Technic tyres up front (with some wonderful ‘Goodyear’ decals), but the 1:5 scale meant that unlike his previous P34 build, no suitable rear tyres were available in LEGO’s range. Luca’s solution was to create his own, using hundreds of 2×1 Technic rubber lift-arms, and the result is superb.

The larger scale also allows for greater technical – as well as visual – realism, with Luca’s latest model featuring remote control drive and steering for the first time. A third-party BuWizz bluetooth battery powers an XL drive motor, M steering motor, and a Servo that shifts the four-speed gearbox (with both the steering wheel and gear-lever moving when the motors operate). All four front wheels are suspended as well as steered and a beautifully replicated Ford-Cosworth DFV V8 engine, complete with air intake cones and radiators, sits behind the cockpit.

The build is completed with an accurate livery including period-correct decals, making Luca’s amazing Tyrrell P34 very probably the finest Lego Formula 1 car we’ve featured yet. There’s plenty more to see, including further images and a full build description, at the Eurobricks forum. Click here to view all of the photos and join the discussion, here to read Luca’s TLCB Master MOCers interview, and here to read our review of the BuWizz brick that powers this spectacular creation.

#Van Life(Size)

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Once the preserve of smelly hippies, the Volkswagen Transporter Camper has unfortunately now become the default vehicle of insufferable YouTube/Instagrammers promoting #vanlife and #adventure (but mostly themselves), all whilst never being further than fifty feet from a Starbucks’ free WiFi.

Still, that’s not the Transporter’s fault, and today we’re successfully dodging all of the T2’s millennial baggage because, despite the real Volkswagen wheels, this incredible van has been built from 400,000 LEGO bricks by Certified LEGO Professionals Rene Hoffmeister and Pascal Lenhard in just 6 weeks!

Weighing over 1,500lbs/700kgs and measuring 16ft long Rene Hoffmeister and Pascal Lenhard’s creation is an exact 1:1 scale replica of Volkswagen’s iconic 1960/70s T2 Transporter Camper. There’s even a superbly replicated interior inside the working sliding door, complete with a kitchenette, a functional pop-up roof, and some groovy artwork on the walls. And with no insufferable YouTubers around there’s not an all-natural-vegan-organic-peace-crisp-packet in sight!

Rene and Pascal’s amazing life-size T2 Camper is on show now at the F.re.e Travel and Leisure Fair in Munich (alongside a few real ones), and if you fancy your own LEGO Volkswagen Camper (although a bit smaller) you can check out our review of the official LEGO 10220 Creator Expert Volkswagen Camper set here.

[HOONIGAN]

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Ken Block might be a less-than-successful racing driver, but he makes one hell of YouTube video. DC Shoes owner Block’s ‘Gymkhana’ series has become an internet phenomenon, with views in the hundreds of millions and major corporate backing from the likes of Monster Energy and Ford.

The seventh film in the ‘Gymkhana’ series took the formula to the sheets of Los Angeles, and with it brought a new car into the Gymkhana garage; very probably the wildest first generation Ford Mustang ever built. With twin-turbos, almost 900bhp, and all-wheel-drive, Block’s ‘Hoonicorn’ Mustang is a very different proposition to the lovely but (let’s be honest here), rather comfy cruiser that was the original.

The results are as spectacular as you would expect, and have inspired previous bloggee Lachlan Cameron to build his very own Gymkhana 7 ‘Hoonicorn’ Mustang in Lego Technic form.

With accurate decals, wide arches, and wheels from the official 42083 Bugatti Chiron set, Lachlan’s Mustang certainly looks the part, and with a full remote control Technic ‘Supercar’ chassis, including all-wheel-drive, all-wheel-independent suspension, and a beautifully chromed V8 engine (complete with two turbos), it goes the part too.

There’s much more to see of Lachlan’s incredible creation at his Ford Mustang Hoonigan album by clicking here, and you can watch the real car tearing up the streets of Los Angeles in ‘Gymkhana 7’ by clicking this link, which will absolutely be the coolest thing you’ll watch all day!

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Kick-Ass Classic Space

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Mystery Box

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Whitesnake*

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House Spider

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Flying the Eastern Front

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The Boss

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Eleven Thousand Pieces of the Dark Side

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The Anti-Hummer

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Meet the Fokkers

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DAF Double

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Mech Monday

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Got Milk?

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Tyrrell P34 | Picture Special

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#Van Life(Size)

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[HOONIGAN]

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