Anyone who’s island hopped around Europe or Asia will likely know the French ATR 47/72 aircraft well. With over 1,500 in service the design is the default turboprop for shot haul jumps. This impeccably-built commissioned replica of the ATR 42 comes from Flickr’s BrickMonkey and you can take a flight at his photostream via the link.
This is a Tatra T-813 8×8 Kolos, and it’s (probably) the best off-road truck in the world. Well this isn’t obviously, it’s much too small, but it is (probably) the best Lego recreation of the best off-road truck in the world.
Built by Technic engineering legend Sariel, this Model Team-on-the-outside, Technic-on-the-inside marvel squeezes all of Tatra’s real-world off-roading cleverness into the smallest possible package, plus full remote control drive and steering, LED lights, and a V12 piston engine which seems to be mounted where the driver should be.
All of the eight wheels is independently suspended all are driven by two Power Functions XL Motors geared down 3:1, with the front to axles providing remote control steering. It’s an amazing thing to watch in action and you can do just that via the video below, plus you can see the full image gallery (including some wonderful outdoor shots) on Flickr here and you can join the discussion at the Eurobricks forum by clicking here.
YouTube Video
A digging cat usually only means one thing. This gives us a second use for Mr. Airhorn, who is normally only deployed for Elven-related incidents, to rid the office courtyard of the feline scourge.
Today’s digging cat is far more palatable, being this excellent pneumatically-operated Caterpillar 914K front loader from previous bloggee Thirdwigg. With pneumatic cylinders powering the lift and tilt of the boom and bucket, four-wheel-drive linked to a 4-cylinder piston engine, and Hand-of-God articulated steering, Thirdwigg’s Cat could be an official LEGO Technic set from the early 2000s (bring sets like this back please LEGO!).
There’s more to see of Thirdwigg’s Technic Caterpillar 914K at both Flickr and Eurobricks – click on the links to take a look.
This stunning image (complete with far too many watermarks…) comes from previous bloggee Ingmar Spijkhoven, who has decided to put his latest fully remote controlled Model Team truck into production. Yes, in what will be music to the ears of the many people we get here at TLCB leaving ‘where can I buy this?’ comments, you can buy this truck and build it for yourself! Click the link above to find out how.
We’re fast-forwarding forty years from our previous post to bring you another sort of truck, which is… er, at the other end of the class spectrum. Built by TLCB favourite Pixel Fox, this mid-’70s Chevrolet C/K pick-up shows us there’s nothing more highbrow than getting drunk in a swamp and blowing stuff up. Join the fun on Flickr at the link above.
The vintage truck vibe continues here at TLCB with this, another wonderful build by the prolific de-marco of Flickr. Creating some of the finest Town scale vehicles around, de-marco has a huge back-catelgue of creations, many of which include free instructions so you can build them for yourself. There’s more to see of this one and de-marco’s past models at his photostream – click the link above to check them out.
Indiana Jo… er, we mean ‘Johnny Thunder’ finally found the Treasure of Marco Polo (a box containing a stamp collection, a broken toastie maker and some Victorian pornography, since you ask) after the daring airborne race against Sam Sinister that featured here last week, and he’s now on the long road home with his bounty.
But what’s this! Sam seems to have caught up with our intrepid explorers and is deploying his much-feared office scissors to halt their escape! Will Johnny and his pals make it across the rickety bridge in time? Will Sam run carrying scissors? Find out courtesy of Travis Brickle by clicking here!
If you had to place a bet in the 1960s on which car manufacturer, BMW or Lancia, would be a multi-million unit selling colossus in 2018, it wouldn’t have been on the firm from Bavaria.
Lancia weren’t just a manufacturer of exceptional drivers saloon cars in the golden years, they were a pioneer. The first company to use monocoque construction, independent suspension, and even complete electrics, Lancia are one of the automotive innovators of the 30’s-’80s. BMW meanwhile, were making this…
Sadly though, under FIAT’s ownership today they’re not even a shadow of a shadow of their former self. Fortunately Senator Chinchilla of Flickr is here to remind us of what Lancia used to be, thanks to his glorious ’60s Fulvia Rallye with opening doors, hood and trunk, and a detailed recreation of Lancia’s ingenious narrow-angle double overhead cam V4 engine.
There’s a whole lot more of the Senator’s brilliant Lancia Fulvia to see at his photostream – click the link above to make the jump to Lancia’s golden years.
The Green Hornet is yet another superhero of whom we care very little. But that’s not really fair, as rather than another pointless Stan Lee invention (yeh, we said it…), The Green Hornet was originally developed as a radio programme in the 1930s. Success led to a TV show, and then of course the inevitable – and awful – 2011 film.
We’ll go back to the more respectable earlier incarnations of the masked crimefighter thanks to a reader’s suggestion of this, The Green Hornets’s customised Chrysler Imperial Crown ‘Black Beauty’, complete with mini-figures of the man himself and his trusty chauffeur Kato, courtesy of MOCpages’ NickGreat. Click the link to see more.
No sooner had we posted something as the antithesis of hot rods than we’re back with, er… two hot rods.
Built by regular bloggee Jonathan Elliott both are wonderfully clean Speed-Champions-esque designs representing two different takes on the hot rod genre. In green on the left is a seriously low chopped ’29 ‘Tudor’, whilst in red on the right is a ’31 Ford 5-Window ‘highboy’.
Both capture their respective styles beautifully and feature a wealth of neat detailing. There’s more to see of each build at Jonathan’s photostream via the link above, where you can decide if you want to go Higher or Lower.
*If you can get the tenuous 1980s British Television-related link award yourself ten TLCB Points!
The Lego Car Blog is normally full of Porsches, hot rods and fighter jets, but not today! Today we’re bringing you something much classier. And much older too…
Traction engines were the tractors of the late 1800s-early 1900s, effectively self-propelled steam engines for the roads that could pull immense loads. Very slowly, but immense loads nonetheless. The arrival of the internal combustion-engined tractor saw traction engine use decline massively, but many do still survive to this day. In fact this TLCB writer passed one close by to TLCB Towers recently that was comfortably towing both an enormous wooden caravan trailer and a Land Rover Defender behind that. Very slowly.
This superbly rendered turn-of-the-century traction engine comes from newcomer Bricked1980, and whilst it’s not our normal fodder we absolutely love it! Constructed in LEGO’s newer hues of dark green and gold, Bricked’s model features authentic chain steering, a spinning flywheel, much plumbing accoutrement, and a drawbar trailer full of assorted old-timey stuff. Which it will pull, very slowly.
Suggested to us by a reader there’s much more to see of Bricked1980s brilliant mini-figure scale traction engine design at both Eurobricks and Flickr, where you’ll also find a link to the model on the LEGO Ideas platform.
This delightful vintage tipper truck was discovered by one of our Elves on Flickr today. It comes from Versteinert MOC and it’s packed with brilliant detailing, including chassis details normally overlooked at this scale, such as an exhaust, spare wheel, gas tank, prop-shaft and even a differential casing. There’s a whole lot more to see at Versteinert MOC’s Flickr album – take a look via the link above.
This might be the squarest thing we’ve seen since the last Brothers Brick report from Brickfair. However, contrary to that it is somehow also rather cool. This lovely 6-wide cab-over-semi (or just a normal truck to European readers) comes from prolific bloggee de-marco of Flickr. As is usual for his builds, cunning SNOT (Studs Not On Top) techniques are used throughout, and if you’re wondering how you can build models like this one de-marco has made instructions available so you can see for yourself! Click the link above to check out the model in de-marco’s photostream where you can also find a link to the instructional video.
As regular readers of this site will know, we’re not a blog that fully appreciates the wonders of the Star Wars franchise. Not so today, as this LEGO Friends Star Wars mash-up is the stuff dreams a made of! Flown by Rebel Alliance pilot Emma, with a gunner and an all-important on-board pet, Tyler Sky (aka Bricksky)’s ‘BFF Y-Wing’ is ready to defend Heartlake City from the forces of the Dark side.
Ingenious details are in abundance throughout the model, and Tyler has even built a hanger for BFF Y-Wing maintenance and Heartlake City Rebel Alliance tea parties. Join the fight against the Dark Side and make new Friends via the link to the BFF Y-Wing album above!
LEGO’s late ’90s Adventurers series with Johny Thunder was one of this writer’s favourites. What was basically an unlicensed Indiana Jones theme, archaeologist ‘Johnny’ travelled around the world in search of unique and wonderful artefacts whilst trying to outwit his nemesis Sam Sinister and Baron von Barron, all the while being chased by rolling boulders. This lovely flashback to the theme comes courtesy of Flickr’s Markus Rollbühler and Grant Davis who have constructed not only a brilliant hot air balloon and classic bi-plane, but also the backstory to accompany them. Join the adventure by clicking here.