Great White

Lego Mercedes-Benz AROCS 4163

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.

Lego Mercedes-Benz Arocs 4163 Truck RC

6698 Redux

Lego Land Rover Boat Tow

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!

Lego National Lampoon's Vacation Wagon Queen Family Truckster

“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

Lego Mass Effect Andromeda Nomad Rover

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

Lego Christine Plymouth Fury

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!

Lego Police Patrol Car

Barn Find Bugatti

Lego Barn Find Bugatti Type 35 Grand Prix

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

Lego Airco DH.2 Fighter

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.

Lego Airco DH.2 Fighter

Death Trooper

Lego Death Trooper Motorcycle

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

Lego Container Ship

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

Lego Speed Champions Cars

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

Lego Land Rover

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.

Lego Town Delivery Van

Storken the Coast

Lego Coast Guard Mech 'Storken'

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

Lego VW T2 Pick-Up

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.

Cannonball

Lego Porsche 956 Cannon

Six minutes and eleven seconds. The fastest ever lap of the fearsome Nurburgring Nordschleife, recorded not by a Formula 1 car or a Bugatti Veyron, but way back in 1982 by this; Porsche’s amazing Group C 956.

Powered by a development of the successful 936’s turbocharged flat-6, the 956 took power to over 600bhp and used the world’s first double clutch gearbox to send it to the rear wheels.

Jacky Ickx and Derek Bell debuted the car at the 6 Hours of Silverstone before taking pole, ahead of Porsche’s two other 956s in second and third, at the Le Mans 24 Hours. The race finished as it started, with Porsche taking a 1-2-3 and with Ickx and Bell claiming their third win together for the Porsche team.

This superb recreation of Porsche’s dominant early ’80s Group C Champion comes from Flickr’s Manuel Cara, which despite its small size is  wonderfully accurate, made more so by the authentic-looking period Canon decals. There’s more to see of Manuel’s 956 at his photostream by clicking here, and if you’d like to see the real car in action, take a look here!

Easy Rider

Lego Easy Rider Motorbike Harley Davidson FLH

‘A man went looking for America. And couldn’t find it anywhere’. The protagonists in Dennis Hopper and Peter Fonda’s 1969 cult movie Easy Rider may not have found America, but they found a lot of other things along the way.

Lego Easy Rider Motorbike Harley Davidson FLH

This brilliant Model Team recreation the Harley Davidson FLH motorcycle that Dennis Hopper rode in the film comes from previous bloggee Andre Pinto, and it not only recreates the bike in glorious detail, it’s been appropriately chromed (and flamed!) too. Hit the road in search of free love and LSD* via either Eurobricks or Flickr.

Lego Easy Rider Motorbike Harley Davidson FLH

*Not the second one.