This is not a car. But it is a pirate ship being attacked by a gigantic sea monster, and that’s good enough for us. W Navarre owns the mind behind it and there’s more to see of this terrifying encounter on Flickr.
The Lego Speeder Bike Contest ’18 ‘Battle for District 18’ has come to an end! Contest judge and Lego Speeder Bikes overlord _zenn joins us here at TLCB Towers for a full run-down of the competition results. Over to _zenn!
This year we chose a ‘Futuristic City’ theme that evolved into the whole ‘Battle for District 18’ concept, perfect for building speeder bikes and sparking creativity/imagination. Feedback among contestants was front of mind; competitions should encourage contestants to give and recieve constructive criticism in order to become better builders, and to help us to see building from a different point of view or perspective.
And what a turnout it was this year, with a huge 234 bikes and 34 districts entered! On to the results – the toughest part for us at LSB – the judgement of all those bikes. Let’s get into it!
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The ‘Rebel’ (criminals) category winner; Djokson‘s Necrohiver. A tight finish with just 1 point difference between the top two entries. What’s more rebelious than a dark bio-mechanic giger-esque styled bike which will claw the cr*p out of you when you come across its path?
Clockwise from top left;
1. Guy Smiley‘s Police Speeder. Urban, rugged and bulky, yet incorporating smooth angles on the front and back-end, Guy’s speeder looks ready to make the streets of District 18 a better place.
2. Anthony Wilson‘s Needler X13. At first glance you might think it’s just a pile of bricks thrown together, but take a closer look to see the careful and painstaking planning to layer each part together into one coherent design.
3. Random Vector‘s Steam Denizen. An angled engine consisting of old-school Modulex parts combines with smooth flowing pipes, a Throwbot visor canopy and atmospheric lighting.
4. F@bz‘s Volkswagen Cardinal Speeder Bike. The first time I’ve seen a bike build with flexible spike parts that are actually used when flexed.
5. Graham Gidman‘s Street Devil. Superb stickering and photo editing gives this bike a real sense of speed while dashing through the streets of the District.
Lastly we like to thank The Manifesto, eclipseGRAFX and Chrome Block City for sponsoring this year’s contest, and Keith Goldman for being our ‘sideline cheerleader’ as well as Christopher Hoffmann for being our guest-judge. We’d also like to thank also all the blogs/groups/people for getting the word out, and most importantly we like to thank you; the participants/’riders’ out there, for putting such a tremendous effort in time, design and enthusiasm into building all the bikes and displays. We couldn’t have done it with out you!
Courts adjourned, _zenn.
There’s an arms-race going on in the SUV market at the moment, with small rich women continually trying to one-up each other in their quest for the largest and most pointless school-run vehicle. Flickr’s Alexis Dos Santos has fast-forwarded to the logical conclusion of this meaningless contest with the perfect vehicle for taking little Ethan and Isabella to the school gates. Unless someone makes a bigger one of course.*
Derived from the new ‘Mortal Engines’ movie trailer, Alexis’ amazing tracked town ‘Salthook’ features Power Functions drive and steering, folding bridges and a wealth of mini-figure scale detailing. A large gallery of stunning imagery is available to view on Flickr – click the link above to check out all of the photos.
*See the official ‘Mortal Engines’ movie trailer here, where there indeed a ‘bigger one’. The next Cadillac Escalade will probably beat it though.
This is the new 2018 Toyota Camry. Except this one hasn’t been made on a mind-bendlingly efficient Toyota production line. Nope, this 2018 Camry has been hand-built from around half-a-million LEGO bricks.
Commissioned by Toyota Australia, certified LEGO Professional Ryan McNaught (aka The Brickman) and his team have recreated an exact life-size replica of the new Camry sedan, complete with working headlights, brake lights and turn signals. Weighing in at over two tons Ryan’s Lego replica costs more than the real car in bricks alone, is significantly heavier, and at 900 hours took fifty times longer to build than those clever Japanese robots take to make the real thing.
Ryan’s incredible life-size Toyota Camry can be seen in-person at the Brickman Awesome show (currently in Melbourne, Australia) and you can see more of this amazing build courtesy of the Toyota Australia video below.
YouTube Video
Suggested by a reader, and then necessitated by a massive Elven tantrum, today’s post comes from previous bloggee Alexey Tikhvinsky aka SilenWin. It’s based upon an earlier blogged creation of his, which it turn was based upon a model by another previous bloggee Lucio Switch back in 2015.
The subsequent three years of development has led to this, the ‘Indominus Mk3’. Driven by four RC Buggy Motors – the most powerful motors LEGO have ever produced, with two BuWizz third-party bluetooth bricks delivering up to eight times the power of LEGO’s own Power Functions system, pneumatic shock-absorbers, and portal-axels with planetary gear reduction, SilenWin’s Indominus trial truck can go just about anywhere and over just about anything.
We’re going to explore this all-conquering ability in the corridors of TLCB Towers today, where there may be some ‘accidental’ Elven casualties. Whilst we have some fun at the Elves’ expense you can check out full details of the build on Eurobricks plus you can see all of the images on Flickr here.
It’s a hot rod sort of day here at The Lego Car Blog. The day’s second hot rod comes from previous bloggee ianying616, and whilst it may look like it’s based more upon a tractor than a vintage car, the result is rather cool. There’s a load more images to see at ianying’s photostream – click the link above to take a look.
If ever there was a car styled by a TLCB Elf, this is it. Flickr’s Mark of Falworth clearly has Elf blood running through him which – whilst undoubtedly concerning for Mark’s friends and family – does mean his mind is capable of some gloriously outlandish oddities. There’s more to see of this one at his photostream via the link above.
The Volkswagen Karmann Ghia may have just been a Beetle in a pretty dress, but what a dress! Penned by Italian design-house Ghia the car debuted in 1953 before going into production with German coach builders Karmann in ’55. A twenty year manufacturing run produced almost half-a-million Karmann Ghias, plus a few ultra-rare (and ultra-expensive) Type 34s.
Sadly only Volkswagen seemed to profit from such success, as whist the Karmann Ghia was replaced by the very different – but equally iconic – Scirocco in 1974, Karmann filed for bankruptcy in 2009 whilst Ghia were purchased by Ford and ended up no more than a trim grade on Fiestas and Mondeos.
We’ll remember their glory days, thanks to this brilliant 1960s Volkswagen Karmann Ghia from previous bloggee Henrik Jensen. With working steering, a fully detailed interior and engine, and wonderfully accurate bodywork, Henrik’s model is a fitting tribute to one of the world’s most beautiful cars. We think it’d make a rather lovely official set too, seeing as LEGO have already produced the Volkswagen Beetle and Camper as part of their Creator line-up.
There’s lots more to see of Henrik’s gorgeous Karmann Ghia at both Flickr and MOCpages – click on the links to see the full build details and all of the images.
[Elven screaming]… [Thump!]… [Elven screaming]… Sigh. It’d been a while since that last serious incident of Elf-on-Elf vehicular violence, but today normal service was resumed thanks to this remote control ‘Dirt 2’-inspired Class 1 off-road buggy by newcomer Teo.
Powered by twin LEGO Buggy Motors and with mega-travel suspension all round Teo’s buggy made easy pickings of the Elves unfortunate enough to be caught the corridors of TLCB Towers.
We now have some tidying up to do as we try to remember which combination of cleaning products most effectively removes Elf blood from carpet, so whilst we get on with that you can see more of Teo’s Class 1 buggy from the video game Dirt 2 at either Flickr or via the Eurobricks forum, plus you watch the model in action courtesy of the video below.
YouTube Video:
The Lego Car Blog Elves don’t normally like run-of-the-mill workhorse-type vehicles, preferring cars with superchargers, stripes, or rocket-launchers. And if possible all three. We, however, do like run-of-the-mill workhorse-type vehicles, as without these the fun stuff wouldn’t exist at all.
The humble Iveco Daily tipper truck encapsulates this mantra beautifully, being neither fast nor desirable, instead being utterly disposable once it can take no more building-site abuse.
This excellent (and very orange – which has cheered the Elves up marginally) Technic Iveco Daily comes from mpj of Brickshelf, and just like its real-life counterpart it eschews glamour in favour of robust functionality. Working steering and a linear-actuator activated tipping bed are the functions, both of which are powered by hand. As they should be too.
There’s more to see of mpj‘s Iveco Daily tipper on Brickshelf – click the links in the text to make the jump to the full gallery.
Your Dad’s browsing history contains this post’s title, but for very different reasons. Anyhoo, these two lovely classic muscle cars by previous bloggee Jonathan Elliott were discovered on Flickr today and they’re a superb accompaniment to LEGO’s own Speed Champions sets. Jonathan’s grey 1960s Ford Mustang Fastback and red Chevrolet Corvette capture the iconic shapes of their real-world counterparts beautifully, both being instantly recognisable even at this small scale. There’s more to see of each classic muscle car at Jonathan’s photostream – click the link above to take a look.
Jaguar’s iconic E-Type was described by Enzo Ferrari as the most beautiful car in the world. We’d have to agree (in its early form at least), but that sure does make it a tricky thing to build from rectangular plastic bricks.
Flickr’s Lennart C has given it a go though, and he’s made as good a job of the classic Jaguar’s incredible curves as we’ve seen at this scale. Lennart has deployed some magnificently complicated techniques to create his E-Type Coupe, with the roof in particular boggling our minds here at The Lego Car Blog. It’s a great build underneath too, with the front clamshell opening to reveal a superbly replicated Jaguar straight-6 engine.
There’s more of Lennart’s excellent E-Type to see at his photostream – make the jump to Flickr via the link above to view all the photos.
The Lamborghini Diablo. The last mad Lambo before the Volkswagen Group acquired the brand and started building cars that, you know, actually worked. The Diablo wasn’t a particularly good car, but it will probably always be remembered as one of brand’s greats.
Launched in 1990 the Diablo (so called everywhere bar Mexico, where they took exception to the name) was powered by Lamborghini’s existing 5.7 litre 48 valve V12 engine which produced a little under 500bhp, making the Diablo the first Lamborghini to crack 200mph.
Over the Diablo’s eleven year production run numerous special editions, updates and drive-train options were released, before the car was finally replaced by the Audi-engineered Murcielago in 2001 – a much better car, but sadly a lot less mad too.
Today we’re remembering the last ‘proper’ (by which we man ‘not actually that good’) Lamborghini thanks to Daniel H, who has recreated the Diablo rather wonderfully in Model Team form. Opening doors, hood and engine cover all feature, and the underside and engine are each as well detailed as the bodywork and interior.
There’s lots more to see of Daniel’s Diablo at both MOCpages and Flickr, where you can also find a link to the creation on the LEGO Ideas platform. Take a look via the links above.
Third-party bluetooth control wizards BuWizz have powered numerous creations that have appeared here at The Lego Car Blog over the past few years. With up to eight times the power of LEGO’s own Power Functions battery and IR Receiver set-up, BuWizz-powered creations are capable of very un-LEGO-like speeds.
The BuWizz team would like to see just how fast your creation can go and as such they’re running a competition this month to find the fastest Lego cars on the internet. There’s a twist too, which can you discover in the link and/or video below…
If you’d like to enter your own remote control Lego creation you can do so via the BuWizz website, and there are some fantastic prizes on offer for the winners! First place will receive the new LEGO Technic 42083 Bugatti Chiron set revealed here previously, whilst second and third places will get their hands on some awesome BuWizz goodies (so you can make your fast car even faster!).
To read the competition rules and to enter your own fast car click the link below!
This utterly wonderful vehicle is a 1940s Mack LMSW 6×4 wrecker, as used by both civilian towing companies and the British and Canadian military during the Second World War. The LMSW was powered by a 10-litre 6-cylinder petrol engine driving the two rear axles, with a Garwood single and later double crane (as shown here) mounted above them, each of which was capable of lifting 8 tons. The fiendishly complicated-looking booms and stabilisers are actually very simple, using steel wires to winch into position without the need for hydraulics and other complications.
This stunning Model Team creation comes from Flickr’s Dirk Klijn and he’s recreated the classic Mack absolutely beautifully. Underneath the unbelievably realistic and superbly detailed exterior is a fully remote controlled drive train, with a combination of XL and Servo motors plus a third-party SBrick bluetooth controller allowing the model to be driven via the SBrick app on a mobile phone.
Dirk’s model is one of the finest Lego trucks you’ll find anywhere and there’s more to see of his Mack LMSW on Flickr. Head over to the Mack’s Flickr album via the link in the text above for all of the superb images.
