[HOONIGAN]

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Lego Ford Mustang Gymkhana Ken Block Hoonicorn

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.

Lego Ford Mustang Gymkhana Ken Block Hoonicorn

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.

Lego Ford Mustang Gymkhana Ken Block Hoonicorn

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!

Hackney Carriage

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Lego Austin FX4 London Taxi

One of the most iconic vehicles in the world, London’s ‘Black Cab’ has remained visually unchanged for over sixty years. First built by Austin, which became British Leyland, and then by a succession of smaller specialist companies, the ‘Black Cab’ has ferried tens of millions of passengers around the streets of Britain’s capital.

This particular ‘Black Cab’ is an Austin FX4, a design first launched in 1958 that lasted right up until the late 1990s. Powered by various diesel engines the FX4, despite being a rather lovely vehicle, turned London’s air into a soot-filled soup, so thankfully they were banned from service in recent years (and their replacement is a far more air-quality friendly plug-in hybrid).

This brilliant Miniland-scale rendition of the old Austin FX4 comes from Peter Blackert aka Lego911 of Flickr and you can hail it for yourself via the link above. Just don’t breathe in what comes out the back…

It’s All White on the Night

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Lego Febrovery

‘Febrovery’ 2019 has entered its final days, with rovers of all shapes, sizes and colours being uploaded to Flickr. Previous Febrovery bloggee Frost has built many of them, but today we’re featuring three of his builds that take a more minimalist approach to aesthetics.

Frost has successfully managed to combine the colour approaches of these folks and this guy to create the planet Whitetron and the seriously cool-looking vehicles that rove about on it.

Lego Febrovery

Using pieces of only black and white Frost’s ‘Whitetron’ rovers are some of our very favourites from this year’s ‘Febrovery’ contest, and range from small quads to huge eight-wheel-drive armoured transports.

We’ve featured three of Frost’s rovers here and there are more available to view at his ‘Whitetron’ album on Flickr – click here to make the jump!

Lego Febrovery

10265 Creator Ford Mustang | Set Preview

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10265 LEGO Creator Ford Mustang

LEGO on are on quite a roll with their officially-licensed sets at the moment. Spanning the Speed Champions, Creator and Technic ranges, we’ve had authentic replicas from Porsche, Aston Martin, Ferrari, Mercedes-Benz, Caterham and many more besides. Ford are one of the more humdrum manufacturers to partner with LEGO, but for us their cars chosen are some of the coolest in LEGO’s line-up. Revealed today, LEGO’s newest officially-licensed Ford set has to be the coolest of the lot!

Lego 10265 Ford Mustang Review

10265 joins the ‘Expert Creator’ range, a 1,470-piece replica of one the most iconic American cars ever made; the 1960s Ford Mustang. LEGO and Ford have chosen the late-’60s fastback, complete with Shelby stripes and a beautiful blue finish. Printed tiles add authenticity with accurate badging, license plates and gauges, and the new 5-spoke wheels are faithful to those found on the real car.

10265 joins the 10262 Aston Martin DB5 at the top of the creator range, measuring over a foot long and featuring working steering, opening doors, hood and trunk, and adding another 200 pieces to the DB5’s count. With the two sets being the same scale (and the DB5 being packed with 007 gadgets) you might be wondering where those extra 200 parts go, but LEGO has put them to good use! Or bad use, depending on your taste…

10265 LEGO Creator Ford Mustang Review

10265 can be customised with all sorts of go-faster goodies, including a supercharger complete with hood-protrusion, an aero kit consisting of a ducktail rear spoiler and a front air dam, quad side-pipes, and even a rear axle lift.

If you’re a) 10 or b) a TLCB Elf you’ll no doubt love the add-ons included in the set, which are a great idea from LEGO to add extra play value to their new Mustang set. For us these extra bricks would probably go into our spare parts box, as we think they thoroughly ruin the car (as they do in real life too…), but we won’t begrudge LEGO for a second for including them.

10265 LEGO Creator Ford Mustang

To our eyes the new 10265 Expert Creator Ford Mustang set is the best looking officially-licensed vehicle yet, and if you agree you can get your hands on one from March 2019. Aimed at ages 16+ we expect 10265 to retail for around £120/€140/$150 and to be the coolest way to spend said cash short of getting a flaming skull tattoo or an electric guitar. Bravo LEGO and Ford!

Mantis

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Lego Technic RC Mantis Supercar

The mantis is surely one of Nature’s weirdest creations. Only not terrifying because they’re pretty small, if you saw a picture of one with no concept of scale you’d undoubtedly flee to the hills convinced mankind was about to be enslaved by a superior alien race.

Car makers love naming their vehicles after odd animals though, and the mantis is no exception, being used on Marcos’s early-’70s sports car that looked every bit as horrific as the insect which gave its name.

Fortunately their mid-’90s sequel was – if still not brilliant – far more palatable, but neither were as good to look at as this concept supercar from Flickr’s R. Skittle. Suggested to us by a reader, Skittle’s ‘Koncept Mantis’ is an interesting looking thing, with a full remote control drivetrain hidden under the unusual bodywork.

A pair of Power Functions motors drive the rear wheels whilst another controls the steering, there’s clever pushrod suspension, and an even cleverer automatically deploying airbrake that raises when the car ‘brakes’.

There’s much more to see of R. Skittle’s ‘Mantis’ Technic supercar on Flickr – click here to see the complete gallery and a video of the car in action.

Lego Technic RC Mantis Supercar

Grindr

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Lego Technic Red Alert Grinder Tank

It’s been a while since the last act of outrageous Elven violence here at TLCB Towers, but fear not readers, the little scumbags were back in business today. This is Desert752 aka Kirill Mazurov’s ‘Grinder’* tank from the classic video game Red Alert 3, and it’s nuts.

Controlled via bluetooth thanks to no less than three SBricks, Kirill’s Grinder* features ten Power Functions motors, six alone just for drive. A seventh powers the articulated chassis steering, the eighth the boom lift, and a ninth the huge rotating cutter on the end of it.

But what about the tenth you say? Well the lucky Elf that discovered this remote control monstrosity kept that one secret for a bit.

Driving it through the halls of TLCB Towers, Kirill’s Grinder* was frustratingly slow, certainly much too lethargic for the Elf in question to mow down any of its brethren. The other Elves in the office quickly got cocky, taunting the Elf at the controls by standing in front of the approaching tank with its whirling cutter, before jumping out of the way at the last second to much cackling and – we suspect – Elven profanity.

But that tenth motor had yet to be used, and after lulling its colleagues the Elf in control deployed motor No.10. With the secret high-gear engaged the Grinder’s* speed instantly trebled, and the taunters simply couldn’t get out of the way quickly enough.

Fed under the wheels by the cutter, then squashed by the Grinder’s* huge tyres, before being rolled flat by the tracks that followed thereafter, there has probably never been a worse machine to be run over by than this.

We were quite impressed by the Elf at the controls’ subterfuge too, and it’s now enjoying a blue Smartie whilst we have a go with the Grinder* ourselves.

There’s more to see of Kirill’s remote control behemoth at the Eurobricks discussion forum, the complete Red Alert Grinder* gallery can be viewed on Flickr, and you can watch the machine in action via the video below.

YouTube Video

*No, not that Grindr.

The Greatest Showman

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Lego Traction Engine

Before the internal combustion engine took over as the dominant technology, early vehicles were powered by all sorts of stuff. Electric – weirdly – was widely used (so things are coming full circle and perhaps Tesla aren’t that revolutionary after all), as was steam, which featured in everything from small(ish) runabouts to enormous tractors, or ‘traction engines’.

Unlike electric, steam vehicles probably aren’t going to make a comeback, but we do still like to see a nice traction engine. Yeah, we’re a bit sad. So does Flickr’s Nikolaus Lowe though, and as such he’s built this splendid mini-figure scale ‘Showman’s Engine’, completely with a wonderfully be-hatted showman at the controls. Head to Nikolaus’s photostream via the link above for more details.

Pagani Zonda Cinque | Picture Special

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Lego Pagani Zonda Cinque

Pagani’s Zonda is now twenty years old (it seems unbelievable typing that…), and the brand is the exception to the ‘New Supercar Start-Up Rule’ (i.e. they’re all complete crap and most will fold before a single car has even been built).

Pagani didn’t create a four-million horsepower W28 engine, instead borrowing a tried and tested unit from AMG and clothing it in one of the most remarkable bodies ever created for a road car.

Ten years after the first cars were built Pagani launched the ‘Cinque’, a run consisting of just five coupes and five roadsters, each costing $2million before taxes.

Lego Pagani Zonda Cinque

The spectacular model of a spectacular car comes from TLCB Master MOCer and vehicle-building legend Firas Abu-Jaber, who has recreated the Zonda Cinque beautifully in Model Team form, complete with the coolest folding roof we’ve even seen on a Lego creation.

Zonda production finally ended last year totalling 140 units, when Pagani replaced it with the even more startling Huayra. We probably prefer the Zonda though, and to see more of Firas’ incredible creation (including the amazing roof) head over to the Pagani’s Flickr album by clicking here.

Lego Pagani Zonda Cinque

Dangerous Erection

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Lego MAZ, RSD-10 Pioneer SS-20 Saber

This website has featured a few tenuously linked erection puns over the years, but today there’s no tenuousness at all, as this green phallus-on-wheels is actually called an ‘erector-launcher’.

This Cold War era Soviet RSD-10 ‘Pioneer’ ballistic nuclear missile and the amazing MAZ 547 transporter erector-launcher which carried it come from TLCB regular Ralph Savelsberg, and they’re terrifying.

Measuring over 54ft in length, weighing 37 tons, and capable of flying 7,500km whilst carrying up to three warheads by the end of its development, the RSD-10 was at the very forefront of pointless nuclear dick-waving.

Over 650 of the things were produced, but are now thankfully destroyed (bar a few decommissioned for display purposes) after the U.S and the Soviet Union signed an agreement in 1987 to stop being total morons*.

The Soviet Union though, being a model of responsibility, sold a few of the launchers to North Korea, because they’re trustworthy and accountable state nation. Sigh.

There’s more to see of this rather brilliant mini-figure scale recreation of the MAZ 547 and RSD-10 at Ralph’s Flickr album via the link above, and if you fancy seeing a real one you can do so at the Ukraine Air Force Museum in Kiev and at the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum in Washington D.C.

Or on the streets of Pyongyang in North Korea of course.

Lego MAZ, RSD-10 Pioneer SS-20 Saber*And if you think the U.S is any better, guess who this year pulled out of the agreement that ended the RSD-10 Pioneer’s use… Yeah, this guy.

Millennium Fal-gone

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Lego Febrovery Rover

Febrovery continues apace, with rovers of all shapes and sizes appearing across the interweb. The nerdier among you may recognise the shape and size of this one, which recycles the cockpit from some ship that appeared in a series of over-rated movies. Tim Henderson is the scrap metal dealer behind it and there’s more to see at his photostream here.

Tiny Tumbler

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Lego Batman Tumbler

Still the pinnacle of the Batman franchise, Christopher Nolan’s ‘Dark Knight’ trilogy created easily the best Batmobile in the Caped Crusader’s history (we don’t even recognise ‘Batman V Superman’ as a legitimate movie here in TLCB office). Recreated many times in LEGO form the Tumbler is a favourite among Technic builders. Flickr’s _Tiler though, has built one rather smaller, and it’s magnificent.

Beautifully photographed (and enhanced with non-LEGO tyres at the front and a custom Batman), _Tiler’s Tumbler is probably the coolest mini-figure vehicle we’ve ever seen, and if you you agree you can see more at his photostream via the link above.

Flight Risk

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Lego Technic Boeing Stearman Kaydet PT-17

From the depths of the ocean to the clouds in the sky now, although the route there may have been a little wobbly. This is a Boeing Stearman Kaydet PT-17, the U.S military’s default training aircraft of the 1930s. Flight was a risky business back then, and even more so with a seventeen-year-old student at the controls. This marvellous Technic recreation of the aeronautical equivalent of a driving school car is the work of Flickr’s Mihai Dreve and it’s been built as part of a competition currently underway at Eurobricks. Click here to find out more, and the link above to view the Kaydet PT-17’s complete album.

Into the Abyss

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Lego Abyss Deep Sea Submarine

Deep sea submarines may be unusual fodder for Lego builders and this site alike, but they’re amazing machines. Designed to travel through an environment even more hostile than space, they’re at the very limit of what mankind can achieve. This small scale Lego version comes from Flickr’s Faber Mandragore, and whilst it might not be able to go to the bottom of the ocean it’ll look really cool in the bath. It’s apparently based upon the ‘Cab 1’ submarine from the movie ‘Abyss’, which… er, we haven’t seen, but no matter because we’ll enjoy it in the bath* nonetheless. Dive in via the link above.

*AKA ‘TLCB Executive Washroom and Sauna’

Glorious Gulf

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Lego Porsche 917K Gulf Racing

Is there a cooler racing livery than Gulf? Probably not, and thanks to the fact that LEGO’s colour palette is ever expanding (just like your Mom), it’s one that is now buildable from our favourite Danish bricks.

Previous bloggee Greg998 has done just that, with this gorgeous 1970 Gulf-Racing Porsche 917K, resplendent in the oil company’s famous blue and orange livery (with a few custom decals too), under which is a wonderfully detailed flat-12 engine.

The Gulf Racing Porsche 917Ks didn’t actually win Le Mans in 1970 (that honour went to the sister Porsche-Salzburg team), but we know which car looked the coolest…

See more of Greg’s brilliant Porsche 917K on Flickr via the link above.

Right Said Fred

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Lego Ford Model T Pick-Up

“Right” said Fred, “Both of us together,
One each end and steady as we go.”
Tried to shift it, couldn’t even lift it
We was getting nowhere
And so we had a cuppa tea

“Right” said Fred, “Give a shout for Charlie.”
Up comes Charlie from the floor below.
After strainin’, heavin’ and complainin’
We was getting nowhere
And so we had a cuppa tea.

“All right” said Fred, “Have to take the feet off
To get them feet off wouldn’t take a mo.”
Took its feet off, even took the seat off
Should have got us somewhere but no!
So Fred said, “Let’s have another cuppa tea.”
And we said, “right-o”.

The mini-figures in Pixel Junkie‘s picture look like they’re about to feature in a classic comedy song, and that’s never going to end well. Still, their Ford Model T pick-up truck looks rather lovely and at least we’ve managed not to mistakenly reference the other Right Said Fred.

Dammit.

See more at the link.