This TLCB writer wasn’t alive in the 1970s, but it seemed like a very bleak time. Everyone was on strike and everything was either brown or beige. Apart from Formula 1.
F1 in the 1970s was something of a golden age, filled with colour, danger, and some of the coolest looking racing cars ever to take part in the sport. This top-notch generic 1970s Formula 1 car transports us back to that time, it’s been built by GiantAmbushBeetle of Eurobricks, and there’s more to see via the link above.
Wise words from the King of Pop there. Eurobricks member martijnnab has used this excellent advice to great effect, building two versions of his gorgeous Technic Jaguar XK120 Roadster in contrasting colours.
Martijn’s Jaguars are inverse to the meaning behind Michael Jackson’s 1991 hit however, as whilst they look the same on the surface they are very different underneath, with the white XK featuring mechanical functions including a straight-6 engine and working steering whilst the black XK includes a fully remote controlled Power Functions drivetrain.
There’s lots more to see of both versions of Martijn’s wonderful Technic Jaguar XK120 Roadster at the Eurobricks forum – click on the link above to make the jump.
But one heck of a beautiful steam train. And who doesn’t like steam trains? This particular locomotive is a New South Wales AD60 Class, of which 42 were built in the 1950s. Coming right at the end of the steam’s reign on the railways the AD60 Class were the most powerful locomotives ever used in Australia and this 97 stud long replica packs a punch too, being powered by twin Power Functions XL motors. Alexander of Flickr is the builder behind this stunning recreation of the AD60 and there’s lots more to see, including some ingenious ‘how to’ photos detailing the hidden building techniques, via the link above.
First debuting around a decade ago (like today’s rather excellent title song), The Avro Brothers’ Porsche 911 targa is something of a legend within the online Lego Community. Recently updated, the Brothers have now released their incredible classic Porsche in a brilliant black and gold colour-scheme, and they’ve made building instructions available too.
There’s more of this incredible Porsche 911 Targa to see at the Brother’s photostream, where you can also find a link to The Avro Brothers website and the aforementioned building instructions. Make the jump to Flickr via the link above.
Flickr’s de-marco is becoming a regular here at The Lego Car Blog with his ever-growing garage of superb 5-wide Town vehicles. Here are no less than six of our favourites from his latest batch, all of which are available to view at de-marco’s photostream and many include building instructions too!
As well as brilliant 5-wide cars and SUVs de-marco has built some of society’s more unusual vehicles, which are of course the ones we’re featuring here. Yes, we know we’re a bit odd. From a functioning skip lorry (top), to a fire engine (above left), freezer-truck (above right), and airport step truck (below) all de-marco’s builds are wonderfully creative, instantly recognisable and – most importantly – playable miniaturisations of their life-size counterparts.
All of de-marco’s builds include a few neat working features and they’re also packed with the related paraphernalia associated with their task, including traffic cones and roadsigns in the rear of the highway maintenance truck (below left) and a hand-truck for delivering water-cooler bottles attached to the water delivery truck (below right). Which as everyone knows is a pointless tool, because water-carrying trucks are always annihilated by passing car chases.
There’s more to see of each truck at de-marco’s Flickr photostream by clicking here, where you can also find links to building instructions so you can build these for yourself. Click the link above to take a look!
This absolutely beautiful creation comes from previous bloggee Eric Trax, and it’s a near-perfect replica of a Polish Autosan H9-21 39-seat intercity bus produced from the 1970s until the early 2000s.
Powered by a 6.5 litre turbodiesel the Autosan H9 only had 150bhp, but it was reliable, easy to repair, and could handle near constant use on poor quality roads, making it an ideal export around the world, carrying passengers in the USSR, Eastern Europe, North Africa, South America, Korea and China.
Eric’s wonderful Model Team version of the popular Polish bus recreates the exterior and interior brilliantly in Lego form, and the model also includes remote control drive, steering, a 2-speed gearbox, opening doors, a detailed engine under the raising engine cover, and opening luggage compartments.
There’s lots more to see of Eric’s Autosan H9-21 at Flickr, Brickshelf, and the Eurobricks forum, where you can also find a video showing the model in action. Hop on board via the links above.
Ken Block’s Gymkhana series is a YouTube phenomenon. A series of expertly choreographed driving stunts seamlessly sewed together, Ken’s online exploits have created a worldwide army of fans. TLCB Elves are included in this, and each new Gymkhana video release is followed by days of Elves riding anything with wheels (and a few things that don’t) around the office, annoying everybody.
Gymkhana 7, published three years ago, has racked up over 43 million views on YouTube alone, and stars an 800+ bhp all-wheel-drive 1965 Ford Mustang and some enticingly deserted Los Angeles streets.
It’s this video that builder Primoz Mlaker has chosen to recreate in Lego form, building both part of the Los Angeles set and Block’s ferocious classic Mustang. But it’s not just a static diorama…
Yup, thanks to some hidden Power Functions motors Primoz’s Mustang can throw down the moves from the film, including the obligatory Gymkhana donuts and also the opening seen from the video involving the Mustang’s unique all-wheel-drive system and a very strong chain…
You can see all the images and videos of Primoz’s brilliant moving diorama on Flickr by clicking here, plus you watch the original Gymkhana 7 film on which this creation its based by clicking the link above.
Operating from the late 1920s until the early 1940s in New Jersey, the Blue Comet pulled carriages between New York and Atlantic City, taking just three hours to complete the journey (including a ferry crossing to Manhattan Island), and able to reach speeds of over 100mph. This magnificent recreation of one of America’s most beautiful locomotives comes from Flickr’s Cale Leiphart who has faithfully recreated not just the locomotive, but the tender and carriages too. An extensive gallery of superb images is available to view at Cale’s photostream – click the link above to buy your ticket.
Launched in the 1940s the Dodge Power Wagon was a robust if unremarkable truck, with all-wheel-drive, a ladder chassis and a choice of inline-6 or V8 engines. It was produced up until the ’80s when the model was superseded by the Dodge Ram, however in the 1950s the Power Wagon was available with probably the weirdest, and coolest, optional extra ever fitted to a vehicle.
The Willock Chassis Swivel may sound like an old-timey dance (or something much ruder…) but it was in fact an articulated joint that allowed the front and back half of the truck to rotate independently, twisting the chassis to keep all four wheels on the ground no matter the terrain. Under 100 Willcock Chassis Swivel Power Wagons were produced between 1952 to 1958, and whilst the Willcock company no longer exists the swivel technology is available to buy today. You know what to spec on your next Camry!
Oh the model! This excellent recreation of one of America’s more unusual trucks comes from previous bloggee Pixel Fox, and there’s more to see of his wonderful mini-figure scale Dodge Power Wagon W300 with Willcock Chassis Swivel on Flickr – click the link above to take a look!
Jeep Wranglers and CJs appear regularly here at The Lego Car Blog in Technic form, yet oddly the brand’s most popular model, the Cherokee, has appeared just once (in Grand form, when we mocked it). This is probably because the Cherokee is seen as a bit of a Soccer Mom’s car in the U.S, used exclusively for taking Ethan Jr. to football practice and picking Alicia up from the mall.
However despite the Cherokee’s usual life of suburban drudgery it’s actually a very capable ‘proper’ off-roader. Which of course makes it horrible for use on the road where Soccer Mom’s spend all of their time. The American consumer makes zero sense. Anyway, damianple of Brickshelf has not only built a Lego Jeep Cherokee, he’s got it doing the things it was meant to do. Remote control steering, all-wheel-drive and an operable winch all feature, as do opening doors, a raising hood and an opening tailgate.
There’s more to see of Damian’s off-road ready Jeep on Brickshelf where it’s been photographed on-location (and not at the mall) – click the link above to check it out.
This remarkable airplane is a Shuttle Carrier Aircraft (SCA), based on the Boeing 747 airliner and pictured here piggybacking the Space Shuttle. It’s been built by Lia Chan of Flickr, who has appeared here before with his incredible Shuttle launch scene. There’s more to see of Lia’s spectacular replica of SCA NA905 on Flickr, where the album includes images of the model alongside its enormous real-life NASA counterpart shot on-location at the Houston Space Centre. Click the link above to visit the full gallery.
Contrary to today’s other post, this slice of orange magnificence is not of interest to the Elves one bit. It is however, so our kind of car! Old, square, and with the design aesthetic of an East German office block, the Volvo 240 DL and TLCB Towers have much in common.
This wonderful recreation of one of the finest lumps of Swedish steel comes from LegoJalex, and never has the humble LEGO brick seemed more suited to a vehicle. Opening doors, hood and trunk-lid all feature, as does a deliciously brown interior. If you’re as much of a fan as we are (and therefore probably a bit odd), you can see more of this classic Volvo on Flickr via the link above!
*Because it’s square. And orange.
This is very much an Elven kind of vehicle. An off-road buggy with a gun mounted to the back is probably their perfect car, and this one’s even orange! It comes from the online game ‘Battlegrounds’ and whilst initially simple in appearance it’s quite a clever bit of building. You can see more courtesy of LEGO 7 on Flickr whilst we reward a lucky Elf with a meal token and an orange Smartie.
This is the Williams FW14, designed by the legendary Adrian Newey and powered by Renault’s formidable 3.5litre V10, it won more than half of the Formula 1 races that it ever entered.
Launched in 1991 the FW14 was a technical masterpiece, and one that many thought too complicated to work. With active suspension, a semi-automatic transmission, traction control and incredible aerodynamics, they were initially right, and teething troubles meant a string of retirements throughout the 1991 season.
Despite the breakdowns Williams still managed to secure seven race wins and second place in the Constructor’s Championship, behind the slower but more reliable McLaren, and they set to work ironing out the reliability issues for the 1992 season.
The following year Williams returned with the upgraded FW14B and it proved utterly dominant, winning ten of the sixteen races and qualifying 2-3 seconds faster than anyone else. Williams took the Constructors’ World Championship in 1992, with Nigel Mansell becoming World Champion just a year after he considered retiring from the sport.
Williams replaced the FW14B with the FW15C for 1993, further the developing the active suspension, traction control and semi-automatic gearbox debuted on the FW14. The car took the team to another Driver’s and Constructor’s World Championship, before the FIA outlawed electronic driver aids in 1994, making the FW14 and FW15 possibly the most advanced Formula 1 cars that have ever been built.
This incredible recreation of the 1992 Championship-winning FW14B comes from previous bloggee and Master MOCer Luca Rosconi aka RoscoPC, who continues to upload his amazing back-catalogue of historic Grand Prix cars to Flickr. With a working V10 engine, pushrod suspension and functioning steering Luca’s beautiful build is as accurate underneath us it is on the outside.
There’s much more to see at the FW14B Flickr album, and you can read our interview with Luca as part of the Master MOCers series to find out how he builds creations like this one by clicking here.
It looks like this year’s Formula 1 World Championship is slipping way from Ferrari yet again. Assuming Hamilton and Mercedes-AMG wrap up another World Championship at the U.S Grand Prix in Texas later today it leaves the team a decade without a title.
So in commiserations here are two of the company’s finest road-going efforts of recent times, showing that even when performance on track is lacking, Ferrari can still produce a road car of epic ability.
First up (above) is the Ferrari 488 GTB, recreated superbly in LEGO’s Speed Champions style by previous bloggee Peter Blackert aka Lego911. Peter has recently become a published author with a new book that details how to build Lego creations like this one. You can see more of the 488 GTB at Peter’s photostream by clicking the link above, and you can read our interview with him as part of our ‘Become a Pro’ series by clicking this awesome link.
Today’s second modern Ferrari (below) comes from Flickr’s RGB900, who has recreated probably the most stupidly named car of recent times. And we include the Mazda Bongo Friendee in that. The Ferrari La Ferrari may have a ridiculous title but it’s quite a car, and RGB’s Speed Champions version captures the Italian hypercar in expert fashion.
You can see more of the build at RGB’s photostream via the link above, whilst we watch Mercedes-AMG stroll to another F1 World Championship. There’s always next year Ferrari…
