Image courtesy of Nick Sweetman
Lest We Forget
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Scania R560 Crane Truck – Picture Special
It seems like only yesterday that we featured a truck by ShineYu (aka Yu Kee Liu), and that’s because it was. Still, when his creations are this good we don’t think anyone will mind. This is his newest, a magnificent fully remote controlled Scania R560 crane truck.
With drive, four-wheel-steering, working stabilisers, and a mightily impressive rear-mounted crane, we’ve had great fun plucking Elves from the floor and dropping them in the load area. Oddly they’re accompanying a naked-looking Technic figure, which has us perplexed, but no matter. There’s more to see of ShineYu’s brilliant truck on Flickr – click the link above to make the jump.
Great White
Previous bloggee Shineyu (aka Yu Kee Liu) is back on these pages again, this time with an impressive replica of Mercedes-Benz’s Arocs 4163 truck in heavy haulage specification. Underneath the superbly recreated body sits a set of twin Power Functions XL motors driving the two rearmost axles whist a Servo motor steers those at the front. There’s more to see at both the Eurobricks forum and on Flickr – click the links to take a look.
6698 Redux
One of this writer’s very favourite sets is 6698, released before he was born, and featuring what was quite clearly a Land Rover Series 3 towing nifty little speedboat. Must trawl eBay…
Anyway, TLCB favourite Pixel Fox has decided to build his own, thoroughly rebooted for the modern age. At 6-studs wide Pixel’s Land Rover is 50% larger than the ’80s original, and bang on the right size to be a current City set. The speed boat and trailer take advantage of their increased scale too, packing in some lovely detailing.
Pixel has presented his latest build in his trademark vignette style and you can see the scene in more detail by visiting his photostream – click the link above to head to the seaside.
Lampooned!
“You think you hate it now, but wait until you drive it!”. 1983’s ‘National Lampoon’s Vacation’ may have primarily been a vehicle for Chevy Chase’s comedic brilliance, but it featured quite a vehicle itself. The Wagon Queen Family Truckster was a modified ’70s station wagon, disguising it from any manufacturer association, and it had quite a trip. This top quality recreation of the star car comes from regular bloggee and TLCB Master MOCer Ralph Savelsberg aka Mad Physicist, who has captured the unique crapness of the real car wonderfully! Hit the road to Flickr via the link above.
Mass Effect Nomad
This is, apparently, the Nomad ND1 rover from the 2017 video game Mass Effect Andromeda. Unfortunately it is therefore something about which we know absolutely nothing, but to prevent an Elf riot here it is. Somewhat sadly you could ask us about the SD1 Rover though and we’d be fine…
Anyway, whilst we’re out of our depth with sci-fi as usual, we can tell you that this is a quality build, with a complete interior and fully independent suspension too. Check it out courtesy of Corvin Stichert on Flickr.
Classic Americana
The relentless pace of uploads by Flickr’s de-marco continues, with his two latest builds delightful slices of classic Americana. Above is a lovely 6-wide Plymouth Fury, before things turned strange courtesy of a Stephen King novel, whilst below is a neat 1960s police car in a rare blue-over-yellow paint scheme. There’s more to see at de-marco’s photostream via the link above, where there are also instructions for each model available!
Barn Find Bugatti
It’s every petrolhead’s dream to unearth an amazing classic car, unknown to the world for decades, hidden away in an unopened garage, workshop or barn.
It’s TLCB Master MOCer Andrea Lattanzio aka Norton74‘s dream too, so he’s decided to build his very own barn find, depicting the moment a farmer reveals the old Bugatti racing car that’s been sleeping untouched for half a century beside his hay.
This particular barn find would be sure to raise some global interest, with Bugatti Type 35 Grand Prix’s fetching around $1.5million at auction. Do you think he’ll sell it? Head over to Andrea’s photostream to ask the farmer really nicely.
The Spinning Incinerator
This odd contraption is an Airco DH.2, an early First World War fighter aircraft designed by legendary aeronautical pioneer Sir Geoffrey de Havilland.
The early years of flight were dangerous ones, with poor pilot training and machines pushing the boundaries of aeronautics almost continuously. This meant a huge incident rate (and the Airco DH.2 gaining the nickname in today’s title), but once the Royal Flying Corps were familiar with the design the DH.2 proved to be more than a match for its German counterparts, being highly manoeuvrable and relatively easy to fly.
The single Lewis machine gun mounted up front originally swung from side to side, but as pilots found it easier to aim with their aircraft than the gun it became fixed to the cockpit. Behind the pilot was a French 100bhp Gnome Monosoupape nine-cylinder radial engine, mounted there in ‘pusher’ configuration as unlike the Germans the British hadn’t yet developed a synchronisation system to allow a gun to fire between spinning propeller blades.
The Airco DH.2 had a ridiculously short yet successful career, destroying 44 enemy aircraft in The Battle of the Somme. Such was the pace of development in the First World War that just a year later the arrival of new German fighters meant DH.2 was outclassed and replaced by the DH.5, which itself only lasted a single year in combat operation before the S.E.5 arrived to see out the conflict, by this time looking far more like a plane we would recognise today.
This neat mini-figure scale recreation of the Airco DH.2 comes from Henrik Jensen, and it captures the aircraft’s weirdness rather well. With such a short life-span there are no surviving original DH.2s today, so this may be as close as we’ll get to seeing one – take a look at Henrik’s photostream via the link above, or at MOCpages here.
Death Trooper
The Lego Car Blog Elves are normally fantastically violent creatures. Not today though, as they’re all hiding in their cage room thanks to this, ianying616‘s terrifying ‘Death Trooper’. Based on a previous model by Lazereth LM487, itself based upon the Cyborg Motorbike from the movie ‘Terminator Salvation’ (in a part of the plot that made zero sense), ianying’s bike includes a working piston engine and a frightening-looking Bionicle-esque rider that’s giving the Elves nightmares. See more on Flickr via the link above where there are lots more images available to view, if you’re brave enough.
I Can’t Contain Myself
All the best things arrive in boxes. Fish fingers, LEGO sets, TLCB Elves. OK, maybe not the last one (and cages aren’t really boxes anyway), but pretty much everything else cool in the world will have reached you this way, even if it’s not packaged in a box itself.
Enormous container ships like this one are the vehicles that move almost every material good around around the world, without which we’d be stuck with having only what our local economies produce, and we dread to think what that would mean for TLCB Towers.
This spectacular Lego container ship by Flickr’s Jussi Koskinen was built as a commissioned piece for an advertisement and it includes over seven hundred 2×4 stud containers, stored both above deck and inside the incredible curved hull. The model totals a huge 112 studs in length and there’s more to see of Jussi’s vessel courtesy of his Flickr photostream. Click the link above to open the box.
Classic Speed
We have a very happy Elf here at TLCB Towers today, having found no less than six superb cars in one go. All come from Flickr’s Jonathan Elliott who has appeared here several times over the years with his wonderful Speed Champions style replicas. He’s recently photographed six of his most recognisable classics in one shot, and if you’re as automotively nerdy as we are you’ll be identify all six with no problem at all. Head over to Jonathan’s photostream via the link above to see how many you get right!
Box Fresh
No matter where you are in the world certain things are guaranteed. The elderly are (and always will be) in charge, Donald Trump will say something inappropriate on Twitter, and you’ll absolutely definitely be out when the delivery company attempt to deliver your package.
Today we have two extremes of the logistics spectrum, from a Land Rover Series 1 delivering where the roads are made of sand, to a sliding-door delivery van navigating city streets. Neither will arrive at a time conducive to actually dropping off your parcel though.
Both vehicles are the work of TLCB regular de-marco and there’s more to see, including building instructions for each model, at his Flickr photostream. Click the link above to take delivery.
Storken the Coast
This spectacular looking creation is, apparently, a Storken Coast Guard robot, built by the Swedes to retrieve objects lost to rapidly rising sea levels. Whilst we’re well out of our depth (hah!) with sci-fi builds, this simian-esque mech is a spectacularly cool way for us to dip a toe in the sci-fi pool (hah!). There’s more to see on Flickr courtesy of LEGOLIZE IT MAN‘s photostream, where there’s a wealth of other-worldly builds available to view.
Anti-Hippy
Dour grey, hard working, utilitarian… not words you’d usually use to describe a 1960s Volkswagen Transporter. Bought as the default vehicle by trendy hippy types looking to be individual (which is gloriously ironic), the VW Type 2 is typically a vibrant and colourful affair used to ferry people to posh festivals.
However this Volkswagen T2 ‘Doka’ by Jonathan Elliott is the very antithesis of the classic Transporter’s normal role in modern Western society, and for that we absolutely love it.
There’s more to see of Jonathan’s 6-wide Volkswagen T2 pick-up at his photostream – click the link above to check it out.