Wings (Part I)

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Lego Datsun 240Z Drift

Drifting, as we learned earlier this week, has been around for some time. Today’s favoured drift weapons are 1990s Japanese cars, being relatively cheap (although the drift tax is now causing values to rocket), rear drive, and – most importantly in the modern drift scene – cool.

We’d prefer this though. It’s a glorious 1970s Datsun 240Z, one of the prettiest cars to come out of Japan, and one of the prettiest cars to come from the ’70s too. Flickr’s Simon Przepiorka is the builder as he’s fully driftized (what – it’s a word!) his 240Z with the addition of a wide-arch kit, what looks like a front-mounted intercooler, and an enormous rear wing.

Why drift cars need rear wings we don’t know, seeing as they’re going too slow to generate any downforce, they’re sideways so the air isn’t flowing it in a straight line, and surely downforce (and therefore grip) is the opposite of what helps cars to break traction anyway.

If you know drop us a note in comments, but we strongly suspect it’s to do with that ‘cool’ thing mentioned above. Anyway, Simon’s lovely Speed Champions scale be-winged Datsun 240Z can be found on Flickr – click the link above to get sideways.

Lego Nissan 240Z Drift

Paint My Porsche

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Lego Porsche 911 Le Mans 70th

With nineteen overall wins (plus numerous class victories) Porsche have won the Le Mans 24 Hours more times than any other manufacturer. Over their 70 year history they’ve also raced in some wonderful liveries, advertising everything from fuel to cigarettes to alcohol – basically all the cool stuff.

To mark their 70th year Porsche will be fielding three of their iconic past liveries in the GTE Pro class at this year’s Le Mans 24 Hours race. Flickr’s Lasse Deleuran has recreated each in Lego form, applying them to his previous Porsche 911 RSR design, and they look incredible! Head over to Lasse’s photostream via the link above and pick your winner!

Lego Porsche 911 Le Mans 70th

What’s in a Name?

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Lego Mitsubishi Shogun Pajero

This is the Mitsubishi Pajero. Or not, depending on where you live. Mitsubishi’s toughest 4×4 was originally named after the pampas cat (Leopardus Pajeros), but the word means something entirely different in many Spanish-speaking countries…

TLCB Towers are not situated in a Spanish-speaking country, but nevertheless the big 4×4 is called something different here too. The Shogun, as it’s known in our market, was one of the founders of the modern SUV craze, but has long since been left behind by more car-like rivals. In fact we can’t remember the last time we saw a new-ish Shogun on the road.

We do still occasionally see early ones though, as they keep going forever. This lovely 6-wide mini-figure scale model of a late ’80s Shogun comes from previous bloggee Pixel Fox, adding to his already impressive line-up of Lego 4x4s. Take a look via the link above.

The Other Hybrid

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Lego Technic Honda CRV

Toyota may be the flag bearer for Hybrids in TLCB’s home market (in fact, they sell more ‘alternatively fuelled’ vehicles than all the other manufacturers put together), but Honda were right alongside them in the earliest days of Hybrid power when they launched in Insight way back in 1999, just two years after the first Prius.

Since then Toyota have gone on to massive Hybrid success with no less than seven Hybrid models available, however Honda now don’t sell a single Hybrid in our home nation at all. So what went wrong? Part of the blame lies with this car; the brilliant-looking CRZ.

With cutting-edge Japanese looks, forward-thinking Hybrid power (with a manual transmission too), and following the legacy left by the funky CRX, the CRZ should have been a success. Unfortunately 135bhp, a high list price, and underwhelming fuel economy (at least compared to European cars) meant the CRZ – along with the second generation Insight – bombed.

Honda ceased selling both models in Europe after just a few years, leaving a product range of just three cars – something the brand is only just recovering from now.

Perhaps what they should have built is this. Lachlan Cameron (aka Lox Lego) has recreated the CRZ’s razor-sharp looks in his Technic CRZ brilliantly, and he’s given the chassis a bit more bite than Honda managed too; Lachlan’s model adds a second electric motor giving his CRZ all-wheel-drive, which sure would’ve pepped-up the real car. There’s also remote control steering, electrically opening doors, torsion beam suspension, LED lights front and rear, a four-cylinder piston engine, and bluetooth control via SBrick.

The result is a superb Technic supercar that’s well worth a closer look, which you can do via both Flickr and the Eurobricks forum. We suspect the real Honda CRZ may one day be worth a closer look too, as we anticipate it becoming something of a cult car in time. Ironically – considering its failure – if the CRZ were relaunched today it’d probably do rather well…

Lego Technic Honda CRV

The Search for Red Rackham’s Treasure

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Lego Tintin Sirius

The Lego Car Blog’s offices don’t have a classy desk area with those little brass plaques and fancy green desk lights. We do have a mostly-stocked beer fridge and a shrine to Megan Fox behind the photocopier though, and not many workplaces can say that.

However, if we did have a fancy desk area we’d love to place this in it. This beautiful creation is a mini-figure scale replica of the Sirius ship used by Tintin in the search for Red Rackham’s treasure, and it’s ludicrously pretty. Built by previous bloggee Stefan Johansson there are gorgeous details and ingenious building techniques in abundance, and there’s much more of Stefan’s wonderfully photographed vessel to see on Flickr. Click the link above to hoist anchor.

French Thunder

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Lego 1905 Darracq 200hp

The French don’t often get much credit for their automobiles. Least of all here at The Lego Car Blog, even though France pretty much invented motor racing, the world’s most famous race is held there every year, and of course they’re (sort of) responsible for the world’s fastest production car too. Well today we put that right, with one of the most amazing cars from the early years of motoring.

Powered by a 200hp V8, the Darracq LSR was little more than a enormous engine bolted to two girders, an approach that we like the sound of very much. It set the Land Speed Record in 1905 at almost 200km/h and it still exists today, regularly tackling the Goodwood Festival of Speed hillclimb almost completely sideways, despite coming from a time long before drifting was a thing.

This neat Technic replica of the monstrous French racer comes from Nikolaus Löwe of Flickr, and it’s genuinely about as technically advanced as the real car, which isn’t hard. Take a closer look at one of the forgotten heroes of motor racing via the link above.

Big Train*

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Lego CP 1408 Locomotive

Just like your Mom, today’s model is much, much larger than you think it’s going to be. Riding on brick-built wheels (each made from nineteen pieces), Andre Pinto‘s CP 1409 locomotive is a seven thousand piece Goliath, with another seven thousand pieces in the brick-built tracks and base.

These engines were constructed in England in the 1960s for use in Portugal, where 67 of them pulled pretty much anything across the country. Andre’s creation replicates the original locomotives beautifully and there’s more to see at his Flickr album via the link above, plus you can join the discussion at the Eurobricks forum here.

Lego CP 1408 Locomotive

*The surreal British comedy from which today’s title is taken. Good if you want to see what Simon Pegg did before he was a famous movie star, not so good if you want to laugh…

Knucklehead

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Lego 1936 Harley Davidson 'Knucklehead' Motorcycle

This TLCB staff writer is not allowed a motorcycle. Well he could have one, but then he would no longer have a wife or a mother that would talk to him. Best make do with this then, and that’s OK because it might just be the single most beautiful motorcycle he’s ever seen.

Lego 1936 Harley Davidson 'Knucklehead' Motorcycle

Built by TLCB favourite Henrik Jensen it’s a near-perfect replica of a 1936 Harley Davidson ‘Knucklehead’, and it’s beyond gorgeous. Such perfection comes at a slight cost though, as a few parts have been (look away now purists) spray painted and chromed…

Lego 1936 Harley Davidson 'Knucklehead' Motorcycle

Still, you can’t argue with the result, which is surely one of the finest Lego motorbikes on the ‘net. There’s much more to see, including a description of how the model was built, at both MOCpages and Flickr. Take a closer look via the links. Just don’t tell this writer’s Mum.

Saving Lives in Space

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Lego Sci-Fi UN

It’s Thursday, and for reasons unknown The Lego Car Blog is going spacey! Today’s finds fast-forward us to a time when hospitals can hover and the UN may actually be an effective organisation. No that’s silly, but hospitals probably will be able to hover.

First up (above) are the United Nations who have got themselves one heck of a cool looking buggy! Built by Flickr’s taxonlazar, making his TLCB debut, it features some gloriously retro Technic rims, custom mini-figures, and very un-UN-looking machine gun.

Next, and doubtless far more effectual, is Ted Andes‘ ‘M-E-H’ (mobile emergency hospital), surely otherwise known as an ambulance Ted? No matter, it looks the business in Red Cross livery and is ready to ‘mitigate a broad range of epidemics, from zombie apocalypses to race fans getting alcohol poisoning from Malort‘.

There’s more to see of each build via the links above, and our customary link to the Red Cross can be found here.

Lego Sci-Fi Mobile Hospital

The LEGO Movie 2 | Official Teaser

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The LEGO Movie 2 Preview

Revealed here a few weeks ago, the first official teaser for ‘The Lego Movie 2: The Second Part’ has dropped in advance of the new film reaching cinemas on the 8th of February 2019.  If the teaser is accurately teasing, ‘The Lego Movie 2’ looks both distinctly spacey and yet has a Mad Max vibe too, perhaps due to the ‘two perspectives’ storyline revealed here previously. We can’t wait!

You can watch the new ‘The Lego Movie 2’ official teaser below, plus you catch up on the first The LEGO Movie instalment here, and you can see How It Should Have Ended via this secret link!

Nee-Naw!

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Lego Scania P410 Fire Truck

The Lego Car Blog Elves are being particularly annoying today, thanks to one of their number finding this. It’s a stunningly accurate replica of a Scania P410 Aerial Platform fire truck, and it’s beautifully detailed. Flickr’s Robson M built this Scania as a comission-piece and has used some excellent custom decals to further enhance his model’s realism.

You can see more of Robson’s Scania P410 at his photostream, where you can also see the model with the aerial platform in use and find a link to the real truck on which this creation is based. Head over via the link above, whilst we dig out Mr. Airhorn and put a stop to some considerable Elven ‘NEE-NAW’ing with warning siren of our own.

Cream on Top

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Lego 4x4

Flickr’s de-marco is beginning to appear here with such regularity that he’ll need his own page soon. This is his latest build, and it’s our favourite, a brilliant-looking 5-wide classic 4×4, complete with LEGO’s glorious spring suspension from the Town theme of the late ’80s/early ’90s.

de-marco’s model also features some inspired piece choices, including the ingenious use of an oval window laid sideways to form the rear hardtop. Clever techniques are in abundance in fact, and you can see more photos and build the 4×4 for yourself on Flickr via the link above, where de-marco has made instructions available!

Lego 4x4

42063 Technic BMW R 1200 GS Adventure | Review

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Lego Technic 42063 BMW R 1200 GS Adventure Review

It’s time for another LEGO Set Review here at The Lego Car Blog! It’s big, it’s blue, and it’s an officially-licensed replica of an awesome real-world vehicle. OK, it isn’t that big blue officially-licensed Technic set, but it is quite an exciting product nonetheless.

BMW’s Motorrad division has made some mighty products over the years, from the ridiculous 200bhp S1000RR (until recently the fastest production motorbike in the world) to some of the finest long-distance adventure bikes ever made. It’s the latter LEGO have chosen for the 42063 set (although we hope an S1000RR will follow!), and since our Set Preview back in 2016 we’ve been itching to get our hands on it.

The R 1200 GS Adventure is BMW’s best-selling bike, and in TLCB’s home nation it’s the best selling bike, which seeing as we have no deserts or tundras to cross is somewhat of a surprise. LEGO must be hoping for a similar success, but does the 42063 set deserve it? Let’s find out…

Lego Technic 42063 BMW R 1200 GS Adventure Review

Containing 600 pieces 42063 joins LEGO’s ever expanding line-up of officially-licensed replica vehicles, a range that we think is the best decision LEGO have ever made. The instructions feature exactly 200 steps to turn a pile of blue, black and grey into an authentic replica of BMW’s desert-crossing motorbike.

Well, not just blue, black and grey, as like some of LEGO’s other recent Technic sets 42063 contains pins, connectors and axles in almost every possible colour. There’s even a brown one! This is to make finding said parts easier (with the side benefit that the instructions are clearer to read too), and it doesn’t impact too much on the finished aesthetic, but this TLCB Writer is from a time when every single Technic part was either black or grey, and he managed OK. What’s wrong with teaching kids perseverance?

Anyway, upon emptying all that lot on to the floor it seemed that around a third of the parts were black Technic connection pins, which may help to explain the decision above. In fact there are 123(!) of them, which we suspect might be the greatest ratio of pins to bricks of any Technic set ever.

As always the instructions are masterfully designed, combining single-part steps with more complicated sub-assemblies, and they make the building of 42063 both pretty fun and reasonably challenging too. There’s a 3-hole Technic beam printed with the 40th Anniversary of Technic decal (which is pretty pointless but a nice easter egg) and a cool-looking sticker sheet with a raft of BMW/GS/R1200 decals so there can be no mistaking what you’ve built.

Lego Technic 42063 BMW R 1200 GS Adventure Review

The build flows nicely and begins to look quite bikey fairly early on. As it progresses though that huge pile of black pins seems to hardly diminish at all, leading you to wonder what the hell they’re all for. Continue reading →

Sky Warrior

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Lego US Navy A-3B Skywarrior

This amazing aircraft is a 1950s US Navy Douglas A-3B Skywarrior carrier-based nuclear bomber and its purpose was… well, chillingly obvious. Thankfully the Skywarrior’s nuclear bombs were never used in combat, as – perhaps worryingly – the US and the other nuclear-armed nations managed to shrink their nuclear bombs so that they no longer needed to be carried on bombers like the A-3B, but could fit on conventional fighter aircraft. Yay progress!

Such advancement saw the A-3Bs re-fitted as air-to-air refusing tankers to service those fighters, a role they fulfilled right up until the early 1990s, last seeing action in the first Gulf War of 1991.

This spectacular recreation of Douglas A-3B Skywarrior comes from plane building extraordinaire Ralph Savelsberg aka Mad Physicist who has recreated the historic bomber in glorious detail. With folding wing-tips for carrier storage, working landing gear, and an accompanying aircraft tug there’s lots more to see. Head over to Ralph’s photostream via the link above for all the images, plus you can read Ralph’s interview here at The Lego Car Blog as part of the Master MOCers Series by clicking here.

Lego US Navy A-3B Skywarrior

White Lightning

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Lego Nissan 300ZX

White is strange automotive hue. Found on boring builders’ vans at one end of the spectrum and yet looking awesome on sports cars at the other. It’s the latter we have here for you today courtesy of Simon Przepiorka and his brilliant Speed Champions style Nissan 300ZX. So far dodging the ‘drift tax‘ the 300ZX makes a great classic Japanese buy at the moment too, especially in white. You can see more of this one on Flickr at the link above.