Yes, yes we do. A lot of it. Thanks to Mathjis Bongers and his Peterbilt 389 and Manac forestry trailer. There’s more to see on Flickr – click the link above to get your pecker up.
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Pneumatic Crane Truck – Picture Special
After a series of small creations we’re back with something big. Really big. Measuring almost a meter long, weighing over 8KGs, and constructed from around 8,000 LEGO pieces, Lucio Switch’s astonishing remote control and pneumatically-powered crane truck is one of the most complex creations that this site has published.
With seventeen Power Functions motors, eighteen pneumatic pumps / cylinders, and six switches, Lucio’s truck takes Technic construction to the limit of what is possible with Danish plastic. Four XL motors drive the rear wheels which are suspended on live axles, whilst the two front axles are steered by twin Servo motors and are suspended independently (which makes for no less than twenty-four shock absorbers in all!).
Underneath the fully suspended and tilting cab (with a working steering wheel, suspended seats and an opening engine cover) is a working V8 piston engine, with twin LiPo batteries that power the motors and six sets of LED lights hidden within the chassis.
Nine M and two L motors then drive everything from the front and rear stabilisers, crane rotation, winch, and the pneumatic pumps which provide air pressure for the three-stage crane elevation and extension mechanism, all of which are controlled via four IR receivers through an SBrick bluetooth device.
Fortunately for us here in TLCB office that lot is much too complicated for our Elves to figure out, so Lucio’s incredible truck was unable to cause carnage and mayhem. It is however absolutely worth checking out, either at Lucio’s Flickr photostream or via the Eurobricks discussion forum, plus you can watch the truck in action via the video below. Prepare to be amazed!…
YouTube Video:
Digital Delight
We receive loads of requests to blog digital creations here at TLCB, and our answer is almost always ‘no’. However this time we’ve bent our usual rule, because this, readers, is how to build a digital creation.
Designed by Alan Guerzoni it’s a Speed Champions scale Ferrari 512 Long-Tail as raced by Ecurie Francorchamps at the 1970 Le Mans 24 Hours.
Not only is Alan’s design brilliantly executed he’s also maximised his use of the digital medium, by adding Ecurie Francorchamps period-correct decals and a printed canopy (as LEGO do themselves) to recreate the 1970 512 as accurately as possible.
If you like Allan’s historic Ferrari as much as we do you can vote for it to become an official LEGO set via the LEGO Ideas platform – click this link to make the jump and add your vote.
Chicken Coop
We’re not really sure why this ’34 Ford Coupe hot rod is called the Chicken Coupe, but we do know that we love it. TLCB regular _Tiler is the builder, and as always it’s both beautifully built and photographed. See more at the link.
Febr-over
The annual bandwagon that is Febrovery is over for another year, with rovers of all shapes and sizes being submitted by the online community. We’re ending our coverage of this year’s event with two rovers from the very opposite end of the roving spectrum.
First above (above), and suggested to us by a reader, is this neat tracked satellite dish transporting rover, resplendent in a Classic Space livery and with a beautiful classic space monorail pictured behind it. There’s more to see at RVA LUG’s photostream by clicking here.
Today’s second Febrovery entry (below) comes from previous bloggee F@bz, and although it too is mini-figure scale, it’s an enormous machine. There’s some wonderfully inventive building in evidence too, and you can see more at F@bz’ photostream by clicking here.
Despite having zero sci-fi knowledge we’ve rather enjoyed this year’s Febrovery, so much so that we may get involved next year (although probably not in the way you’d expect!), so until then, happy roving, and we’ll return to vehicles of a more earthly nature.
I Believe I Can Fly
We’re longing for the day when the hover car is a reality. Better yet, for when a normal car can be retro-fitted with a hover function. It happened in Back to the Future Part II, which whilst set in the future is now of course in the past, and they accurately predicted the flat screen TV, video calling, and gesture control, so there’s hope!
In the meantime we’ll turn to Flickr’s Tim Henderson, who has retro-fitted some of his lovely Town-scale vehicles with their own hover function by replacing their wheels with a variety of futuristic hovering paraphernalia .
Each vehicle’s hovering facility is unique and all can be viewed in more detail at Tim’s photostream by clicking here. If you’re reading this and work for a tech or car company, take a look and get to work!
Sunset Tanker
The gorgeous image comes from previous bloggee Ingmar Spijkhoven, who has teamed up with third-party lights specialists Brickstuff to create this stunning set-up pictured above.
Ingmar’s Mack truck and Polar tanker trailer are fully remotely driven via LEGO Power Functions components and you can see more of the rig on Flickr – click here to take a closer look.
Lamborghini Centenario – Picture Special
This incredible-looking car is a Lamborghini Centenario, built to celebrate the 100th Birthday of Ferruccio Lamborghini, and based on a 760bhp version of the V12-engined Aventador supercar.
Just forty Centenarios were produced, each costing well over $2million, and all were pre-sold, so it’s unlikely that we’ll ever see one. Fortunately Ryan Link has built the next-best thing; a near perfect Model Team replica of the limited-run supercar.
With a detailed interior and engine, opening doors and engine cover, and the Centennario’s carbon-fibre monocoque recreated beautifully in brick form it’s a model that’s well worth a closer look.
The full gallery of images is available to view on both MOCpages and Flickr – click the link to make the jump.
Submarover
We thought that Febrovery had every possible base covered by now, but Flickr’s Galaktek has managed to find a roving niche as yet unfilled. And now we think about it, it’s an obvious one too. Any planet worth inhabiting must have water, but until now the liquid surface of space has been completely ignored by the rover designers of the internet. However, with niftily retractable wheels and a suite of propellors, Galaktek‘s Beatles-esque ‘Submarover’ can explore the oceans and land in equal measure, all whilst singing an irritating tune. Set sail via the link above.
Coming Up Trumps
Flickr’s vehicle-building society LUNuts are very on-topic right now, with their current monthly building contest taking in all things dystopian.
Previous bloggee Lino Martins’ entry pays homage the bleak dystopian masterpiece ‘1984’, which contains absolutely no similarities with the current state of U.S politics.
Coincidentally, we’ll hand over to Lino to explain some of the features of his ‘Murica-mobile’; “The roof mounted loud speakers are so that the driver may broadcast alternate facts, and many people are saying that the gun rack and truck nuts are a classy touch. Many people. Believe me. And no one knows classy better than I do. Let’s make America great again. Bigly”.
No similarities whatsoever… See more courtesy of Lino’s photostream.
Duplo in Space
This year’s Febrovery is almost at an end, with rovers of all shapes, sizes and designs hitting the interweb over the last four weeks. Flickr’s Brian Grissom is sure to take home the ‘Nice Parts Usage’ Award (which we’ve just made up) with his effort, which has taken Duplo-building to another planet. There’s more to see of his ingenious Duplo Classic Space Police thingumy on Flickr – click here to see more.
Complex Simplicity
The Porsche 911 was not a complicated car when it launched in the 1960s, and some would argue it still isn’t today. It is however, fiendishly difficult to built accurately from LEGO, as every single panel seems to have three different curves on it. Flickr’s Michael Jasper has nailed it though, with some ingenious building techniques that have bricks facing in all six possible directions. See how Michael has done it, thanks to a handy cut-away image, at his photostream here.
Jawa Powa
This Eastern European oddity is an air-cooled Jawa 350 motorcycle, a bike that was launched back in the ’50s, yet is still in production today. This neat Technic recreation of the Czechoslovakian motorbike comes from František Hajdekr and there’s more to see at his photostream via the link.
Back To The Future’s on TV Again!
We’ll watch the Back to the Future trilogy literally every time it’s on television, which means it plays quite regularly here at TLCB Towers. Flickr’s Primoz Mlakar has gone one step further though, as cinema’s most iconic movie car is permanently showing on his TV.
This absolutely wonderful period-correct 1980s Sony television, complete with the famous flying DeLorean from Back to the Future Part II, has caused our collective jaw to drop here in the office, and we cannot recommend taking a closer look highly enough. This is the build of the year so far.
Travelling Light
Before the Mini Traveller, now called the ‘Clubman’, became a larger rebadged BMW 1 Series, it looked like this. This is the van variant, of which over half a million were produced until the early 1980s, but with a payload of just 1/4 of a ton it wasn’t going to trouble Ford’s Transit.
However, the Traveller van was perfect for light-duty work nipping down city streets, which is what Flickr’s Peter Schmid has deployed his to do, delivering pizza for Al Capone’s pizzeria. Based on the official LEGO 10242 Mini Cooper Creator set, Peter has faithfully replicated the van version of the iconic original Mini, complete with the famous twin barn doors at the back.
Place your pizza order at Peter’s photostream via the link above.
