Mystery Box

2 Replies

Concept cars are often little more than an empty shell, made from wood, clay, and papier-mâché, draped over four-wheels and fresh air. But not today, because this 1960s Lincoln Continental road-race concept has as much thought and ingenuity put into its inner workings as it does its right-angled exterior. Which, incidentally, is the amongst the coolest we’ve ever seen.

Inside the boxy brilliance of the Lincoln’s bodywork are ridiculously well detailed modular mechanics, including brick-built pushrod suspension, a Cosworth DTV engine with independent throttle bodies, exhaust headers, radiators, brakes, steering linkages… It’d be impressive enough if it were based on a real racer, but it’s all the more so considering builder PROTOTYP. has designed the lot in his head.

A wealth of imagery is available to view at both PROTOTYP.’s ‘Lincoln Continental ARRC’ album and at the Eurobricks forum, where you can also read the model’s fictional backstory and mechanical details, plus find a link to building instructions should you wish to create it for yourself. Take a look at the coolest conceptual creation we’ve seen in a long time via the links above.

Cosmic Containers

Leave a reply

The good thing about trucking across a newly-populated planetary expanse, is there are no low bridges.

Which means no pesky height restrictions for your space shipping, something Flickr’s Walter Whiteside Jr. has taken maximum advantage of with this Febrovery entry.

Ship yourself into into space via the link above.

The Crispy Peking Duck Please

Leave a reply

This beautiful creation is a goza bune, a type of pleasure ship owned by Japan’s rich and powerful officials during the Edo period of the Tokugawa shogunate, from the early 1600s to the late 1800s. But we all know about that.

This writer thought it looks rather like the giant ‘Jumbo’ floating Chinese restaurant that resided in Aberdeen Harbour, Hong Kong. He ordered the crispy Peking duck amongst many other things.

Which yes, does mean he’s conflated a 17th century Japanese ship with a barge-based restaurant from an entirely different culture built in the 1970s…

Anyway, with apologies to our Japanese readers, there’s more to see of this superbly detailed Chinese restu… Edo era goza bune courtesy of previous bloggee Markus Ronge, including the stunning detail within. Order your Chinese meal via the link above.

Brickshelf Stay of Execution

Leave a reply

A few weeks ago we published the news that due to the passing of its founder, Brickshelf – and the two-and-a-half decades’ of Lego creations it stored – would cease to be available on March 1st 2025.

Unchanged since the turn of the millennium, Brickshelf was a time capsule for both the Online Lego Community and the internet itself, with both the site and the creations it housed being rather basic, right-angled, and unsophisticated. And it was excellent.

Admirably the estate handling Brickshelf’s cessation took the approach of alerting its users to the impending closure*, a message sites like this one could amplify (which we duly did on January 30th), allowing users to retrieve their images, and maybe even a new owner to be found.

Just two days on from our post, and Brickshelf’s alert was amended to include the following update;

“The initial notice generated many responses, including people interested in purchasing Brickshelf. Based on this response the estate will plan to keep Brickshelf online through mid April as discussions move forward with interested parties to purchase Brickshelf”

Whether or not new ownership is successfully established, this reprieve does provide users with a longer period to retrieve their images should they wish to, but of course we hope that this news means that the first (and last remaining) dedicated creation-sharing website may yet live on…

*See Sean Kenney, it’s not hard.

Blue Blood

Leave a reply

The Lego Car Blog Elves have been peaceful of late. We have Febrovery to thank for that, what with there being a regular supply of whimsical space-based vehicles arriving at TLCB Towers, none of which have motors, remote control, or giant smushy wheels at all.

We knew it couldn’t last forever though, and thus today normal service was resumed as one of the Elves thundered into TLCB Towers atop this, gyenesvi’s giant ‘Blue Bird’ BuWizz-powered remote control Ultra4 off-road buggy.

The Elves serenely making beep-boop space noises in the corridor stood no chance, as twin BuWizz Buggy Motors, four-wheel-drive, and double-wishbone / trailing-arm suspension squashed them into the carpet, before the Elf at the controls – maniacal with glee – fled the scene on foot.

We’ve now got some tidying up to do, so whilst we do that you can check out gyenesvi’s Ultra4 buggy at Eurobricks and Bricksafe, where further images, renders, a video, and a link to building instructions can all be found.

Febrovery Special

1 Reply

The Lego Car Blog Elves are well-fed during Febrovery. A huge array of blogworthy spacey vehicular creations are created, earning the Elves many meal tokens, and TLCB Staff much angst, as it’s a subject about which we know nothing.

No matter, because here are some of our Febrovery favourites from the last week or so, beginning with Pascal’s ‘Turtle P.O.W.E.R’ (above), cunningly created from an upside-down boat hull.

Next we have previous bloggee Nikolaus Lowe’s ingenious ‘Earth Mover’ (above), which has taken the most literal approach possible to its name, whilst newcomer EXT511’s ‘Mineral Detector’ (below) is deployed to… um, detect minerals. Look, we said we knew nothing.

On to Blacktron, and another builder making their TLCB debut. Luna S’s ‘Electroplanetary Tracer’ (below) joins the growing catalogue of 2025 Febrovery entries, and brings the villains of classic space into the roving community.

And finally (below, clockwise from top left), a montage of oddities, from Littlepixel’s ‘UggyBuggy’, Martin Spunkt’s ‘Biscuit Rover’ (no we don’t know why either), to – frankly – a pair of vehicles transplanted from the tarmac at Heathrow airport into space, courtesy of fiftyshadesofbley and David Roberts. Because spaceships need boarding stairs and avgas too.

All are available to view via their respective links in the text above, and you can find them – plus lots lots more – at the Febrovery Flickr group, where thousands of roving creations of all shapes and sizes reside.

Unimog For You

Leave a reply

LEGO’s fantastic Technic 8110 Mercedes-Benz Unimog set earned a near perfect score when it was reviewed on these pages nearly a decade-and-a-half ago. Which means that today it’s rather expensive. And it’s also rather large.

But fear not readers, because you can get your hands on your own Technic Unimog courtesy of prolific ‘mog maker (and Master MOCer) Thirdwigg, which is rather more affordable, and takes up rather less space.

His latest recreation of the Mercedes-Benz multi-purpose tractor comes in at 1:21 scale, and features working steering, an inline-4 engine, a tipping bed, and opening doors. Building instructions are available so you can create it for yourself, and you can find a link to them plus all the imagery at Thridwigg’s ‘Unimog U406’ album here.

Passing Wind

Leave a reply

Passing wind never smelt so good. Elven* adventurers Eol Skydiver and Kaledor Tesliar are traversing the atmospheric circulation in their magicanical botanical airship. We know not how it works, not where they’re going, but we’re delighted to float alongside them. Dwarlin Forkbeard is the director of this aeronautical adventure and you can join him, Eol and Kaledor via the link above.

*TLCB Elves must be a different sort. Their wind makes your eyes hurt.

Roving Magnificent

Leave a reply

This year’s Febrovery is just over half-way through, with interplanetary oddities of all shapes and sizes appearing by the dozen. This one comes from martin.with.bricks, rocking a Neo-Classic Space aesthetic, swing-arm mounted wheels, and a giant roof-mounted ray gun. Oh, this is Classic Space – we mean ‘scientific research device’. There’s more of Martin’s Febrovery entry to see on Flickr, and you can join the roving via the link above.

Rolling a Six

Leave a reply

Are you an ostentatious wealthy douchebag but your name’s Tanner rather than Al Mahmood? Then have we got the vehicle for you!

Powered by a 700hp V8, and with two extra wheels because… more, this is the Hennessey Ford Velociraptor, the perfect vehicle in which to win America’s ongoing pick-up truck arms-race.

Built by previous bloggee Rolic, this excellent Model Team recreation of the pointless pick-up features opening doors, tailgate and hood, a detailed interior and engine, working steering, and suspension on all six wheels.

There’s lots more to see at Rolic’s ‘Ford velociraptor’ Flickr album and you can one-up that guy in the Dodge Ram 3500 via the link above.

1917

Leave a reply

Nowhere has the pace of development through conflict been faster than in early aeronautics.

Less than a decade-and-a-half after the first ever powered flight – in which the Wright Brothers climbed 10ft into the air and travelled 120ft at 6.8mph – pilots could climb to 19,000ft and fly for 300 miles at well over 100mph. At least, you could if you were piloting a Sopwith F.1 Camel.

In service from 1917, the Camel scored more enemy kills than any other Allied aircraft during the Great War, and was a formidable fighter in both dog-fights and ground attacks. Until a year later, when it was obsolete.

Today just eight Sopwith Camels survive, but you can take a closer at this one courtesy of Flickr’s _Tiler, who has recreated the famous First World War fighter beautifully in brick-form, and presented it rather nicely too.

Head into the skies over France in 1917’s top fighter aircraft via the link above.

Skid Marks

Leave a reply

The Lego Car Blog Elves – being simple creatures – see an orange digger, and they like it. We, The Lego Car Blog Staff, are far more sophisticated; the Elves brought us an orange digger, and we liked it.

Constructed by kralls_workshop, this neat skid-steer loader features a mechanically-operated arm elevation and bucket tilt (via knobs at the rear), opening doors, plus interchangeable attachments. Free building instructions are available (one hundred TLCB Points Krall!) and you can find full details and imagery at both Flickr and Eurobricks.

Green Space

Leave a reply

Remote control all-wheel-drive, gearbox operation, steering, and all-wheel suspension, are features normally associated with large Technic Supercars with thousands of parts. Today however, they’re all present on a model with fewer than a thousand pieces. Plus opening doors, hood, and a full interior. Which is some kind of magic.

Slovenian builder Zerobricks is the engineering wizard responsible, and you can find out how he’s squeezed a suite of Powered-Up and BuWizz components invisibly into his 1:12 green wedge-shaped racer at the Eurobricks forum. Click the link above to take a look, and play the video below to watch his creation in action.

YouTube Video

A Grand Ending

Leave a reply

After two decades mucking about in cars, and a global audience of millions, Clarkson, Hammond and May have finally hung up their driving gloves. Well, May has. The others probably didn’t wear them.

Their final episode of ‘The Grand Tour’ – Amazon’s monstrously expensive continuation of BBC Top Gear – aired last year, in which the team returned to the location of their first ever road-trip adventure, undertaken some twenty years earlier.

A 1970s Lancia Montecarlo, Triumph Stag, and Ford Capri starred alongside the human trio, likely also completing their last ever drive, such is the nature of television production.

They live on in Lego form though, courtesy of NV_Carmocs (photographed by Studworks), who has recreated each car beautifully in Speed Champions scale. Accurate registration plates, 3D-printed wheels, and a brick-built animal skull on the Lancia enhance the accuracy, and NV_Carmocs has made building instructions available too, should you wish to relive ‘The Grand Tour’s last adventure at home. Have One for the Road via the link above.

Foot Fetish

Leave a reply

This TLCB Writer doesn’t understand feet. Sure they’re there to hold you up and everthing, but to him they are functional only. Like a trachea. Or a spleen.

But not today, because today’s he’s so into them, courtesy of Caleb Ricks and this fabulous space freighter ‘The Antipodes’. Caleb’s design is a rhythm of angles, with some truly inspired techniques deployed to create the triangulated hull. A stunning interior features too, with jaw-dropping detail throughout, yet the most brilliant parts of Caleb’s masterpiece are the landing feet, which deploy in mesmerising motorised scnyhrinoscity via the ingenious mechanisms hidden within.

Like a hydropneumatic Citroen, we could watch The Antipodes’ feet gracefully rise and fall on loop, and you can join us and our foot fetish on Flickr via the links above.