We know, another Porsche. But this one is a bit different to the creations we usually post, seeing as the whole thing is only two plates high. This neat video-game style ’08 Porsche 911 GT3 RS mosaic was suggested by a reader and comes from Blaine R. of MOCpages. There are 4,796 bricks in there, and you can see them in more detail by clicking the link above.
Nope, your Mom hasn’t started wearing that blonde wig for her nighttime rendezvous again, we’re referring to this; Andre Pinto’s pimped classic Moto Guzzi Le Mans 3, complete with a gloriously golden customised LEGO Technic frame.
It’s certainly a unique look, perhaps the motorcycle equivalent of this. Or this. Or even this. But probably this. Whatever, as this writer is a reserved Brit it’s not really his kind of bike, but it is an exquisite build. There’s more to see of Andre’s superbly detailed Moto Guzzi at his Flickr photostream, or via the Eurobricks discussion forum here.
TLCB favourite ShineYu is back, and this time he’s brought a truly massive erection – an enormous, fully RC, and fully working, Liebherr LTM 1350 all-terrain crane.
Measuring almost a meter long and weighing over 10KG, ShineYu’s creation is of genuinely epic proportions, so much so that photographing it must’ve been a real challenge (we’ve even relaxed our ‘exclude any clutter from shot‘ rule to accommodate it!).
The model is driven by four XL Motors with two Medium Motors controlling the four steering axels. A further Medium Motor rotates the crane turnable whilst another two XLs take care of the boom elevation and extension. A final two XL Motors power the lifting winch. All of that power means that ShineYu’s LTM can lift a load of up to 2KG to 2 meters using unmodified official LEGO parts.
You can all the details of this incredible build at the Eurobricks discussion forum, where there’s also an extensive image gallery and a link to a video of the crane in action.
That’s right – The Lego Car Blog has finally gone social! Facebook, the site that young peoples’ parents use, now has one more page! All of the posts that we publish here at thelegocarblog.com will also simultaneously appear on our Facebook page from now on, where you can Like, Share, and Comment on them via your Facebook account.
To find us on Facebook you can search for ‘The Lego Car Blog’, but as you’ll probably still get a load of inane pictures of sunsets with curly font over the top, we recommend clicking on the giant letters below to jump straight there, and don’t forget we’re on Flickr too…
Uh oh… The Lego Car Blog is venturing into yet another subject of which we know nothing (apologies in advance). This blue contraption is, apparently, an All Terrain Speed Racing Mech, powered by two Honda plasma engines and piloted by a Stark Industries hardsuit-wearing mini-fig (off of Iron Man? Score one to TLCB for an accurate sci-fi reference!).
Rumour has it that the Mercedes-powered racers in the Mecha Racing League have around 50bhp more than this Honda mech though, and are almost certain to take the championship title. However their two drivers are starting to loath one-another and a big team shake up could be coming… (ha! We got this post back to a topic we know!).
You can see more of the Honda-powered All Terrain Racing Mech above courtesy of Marco Marozzi of Flickr – click the link to jump in.
If there’s one defining characteristic of Japanese cars from the 1990s it’s Black Plastic. Lots of Black Plastic. Despite this affliction the ’90s were something of a golden age for Japanese manufacturers, when Toyota, Mitsubishi and Subaru all ruled the WRC, Mazda won at Le Mans, and Honda were Formula 1 World Champions.
However, unlike today’s other ’90s Japanese post, this car isn’t one of the era’s highlights. The Mitsubishi Shogun / Pajero was quite a successful 4×4 (long before the term ‘SUV’ came into being), but it came from a time when all 4x4s were, frankly, a bit crap. This one is the three-door Pajero, which makes it particularly pointless. Oddly though, with the rise of the increasingly unnecessary small-SUV, it’d probably be quite popular these days.
This excellent Model Team replica of the Mitsubishi Pajero has been built by TLCB regular Senator Chinchilla, and he’s absolutely nailed the ’90s Black Plastic. There’s more to see at his photostream – click the link above to make the trip.
This neat modified Nissan 180SX was discovered by one of our Elves on Flickr. It’s the work of VovaRychkov and it reminds us of a time when Nissan’s European line-up wasn’t entirely made of crossovers. There’s more to see of Vova’s classic ’90s Nissan at his photostream – click the link above to make the jump.
If there’s one thing we understand even less than sci-fi here at The Lego Car Blog, it’s sci-fi that isn’t really sci-fi. This is sky-fi, where the laws of physics are only very loosely respected. This particular sky-fi contraption comes from Flickr’s Sylon-tw and there’s more to see at the link.
It’s time for another one of your Set Reviews here at TLCB! We’ve been ’employing’ readers to bolster the official LEGO set count in the wonderful Set Review Library so that – just like your Mom – it’s an ever expanding curiosity.
Today’s guest reviewer has decided to take on one of LEGO’s more unusual sets, but one that has provided a key part to many of the most impressive creations to appear here over the years. If ever you’ve wondered where the infamous LEGO ‘Buggy Motor’ comes from, this is that set. Over to Marco QM…
This LEGO Racers 8376 Hot Flame RC from 2003 is what was missing from TLCB’s Review Library. With twin Race Buggy Motors allowing the set to reach improbably high speeds (and perform wheelies), it’s a set that’s very simple to build, yet very fun to play with.
When building 8376 you’ll notice that the main structure of the car is the battery box – which also receives the signal from the Remote Control – and leads to the steering system. This makes the car very rigid, and also makes the building process easier, although the building instructions might not be as intuitive as those found in LEGO’s newer sets.
The 8376 set also comes with two drift wheels to transform the vehicle to a very fast drift car, so that you can have even more fun when driving it around the kitchen floor (or the Executive Washroom and Sauna here at TLCB Towers; Ed.). Continue reading
We’ve featured a lot of large creations at TLCB over the past few weeks, but you don’t need thousands of bricks to make something that could appear here. 1saac W proves this point beautifully with this lovely 1940 Ford Coupe, and it’s got one of the most ingenious grills we’ve found at this scale.
1saac also demonstrates the other crucial factor necessary in getting a creation blogged; excellent photography. Our Elves (and readers) find lots of superb creations that we can’t publicise here because they fail to meet our image standards. It’s really simple to take high quality photographs of your creation though! You can check out 1saac’s via the link above, and you can read some tips on how to photograph your models well by clicking this link to our handy tutorial.
If there’s one car that sums up the wide-boy 1980s best, it could well be this – the Porsche 911 Turbo. We must confess we’re not really fans of the 930-series 911 Turbo. Compared to the elegance of Porsche’s earlier models the 930 was a bit brash, and – to be honest – a bit crap too. When a car with, er… let’s be polite and say ‘interesting’ handling, has 130bhp – as the original 911 did – then it’s not too much of an issue. Give that car over 300bhp, which also arrives suddenly a few seconds after you’ve pressed the throttle, and people die. Which they did.
Anyway, whilst the 1980s 911 Turbo was not a very good Porsche, it has been turned into a very good Technic model. This one is the work of Blaž Dlopst aka blaz62, making his TLCB debut, and it has working steering, suspension, a 4-speed gearbox, and the famously lethal flat-6 piston engine slung way out the back.
There’s lots more to see of Blaz’s 911 Turbo at his Flickr photostream, Brickshelf gallery, or via the Eurobricks discussion forum, where it has – like many of the recently featured Porsches here at TLCB – been built for the latest LEGO ReBrick competition.
As a result of the current competition our Elves are finding lots of Porsches worth blogging (this one meant an orange Smartie reward, and they’re the best kind), so if you’re not a fan of Porcshe – sorry! However if you do like Porsches there are lots to see! – You can view all of those featured by using the Search bar at the foot of every page, or by clicking on the ‘Porsche’ tag under this post.
This incredible-looking vehicle is a 1980s Porsche 962C, one of the most dominant racing cars in the history of Sports, GT and Endurance racing. Built by previous bloggee Tamás Juhász aka mbmc this remarkable 1:8 replica is very probably the finest Technic racing car that we’ve featured here this year.
Underneath the beautifully replicated bodywork is one of the most brilliantly engineered chassis that we’ve come across. Each wheel is fully independently suspended (although that sentence really doesn’t do justice to just how incredible the suspension set-up on this model is), there’s working steering with Ackerman geometry, a functioning four-speed gearbox complete with gear indicator in the cockpit and – most impressively of all – an automatic clutch.
There are also working pneumatic brakes operated via the brake pedal in the cockpit, plus possibly the finest Technic engine that we’ve ever seen. It’s a twin-turbo flat-six, as per the real 962C, and you really need to click the links above to see it!
Tamás has published an extensive gallery to both Eurobricks and Flickr, and as his Porsche 962C also features opening doors and a removable engine cover for better access, the engine and chassis shots are really worth your clicks. You can see all of the spectacular imagery via the links in the text above – it’s where most of TLCB Office have been all afternoon.
We’re great fans of free labour here at TLCB. It’s why we employ unpaid mythical creatures to scour the internet for the best Lego creations, and it’s also part of the reason for the The Lego Car Blog’s Set Review Competition! Yup, we want your opinions on some of the official LEGO sets not yet part of the Set Review Library! – Only not enough to pay you for them.
Anyhow, previous bloggee Nils O has decided that the lack of pay won’t stop him, and thus he joins us here at TLCB Towers to review something a little older than the sets we usually feature. Over to Nils…
The 8845 Dune Buggy was not one of the big Supercar sets, but for me in 1981 it was one of the coolest. It had “only” 174 parts, so with a few weeks of saving the pocket money it was even affordable for us kids. After the first more or less “brick built” Technic sets it was part of the 2nd generation which included some extremely cool parts.
8845 contained a completely new and more compact steering mechanism, a roll cage with new “ratchet” connectors, and – yes! – suspension struts for the rear suspension. The car was so cool with all those functions, I played with it for weeks.
As usual there were also instructions for an alternate model, in this case a more or less strange Dragster. Yes, it had a long wheelbase, a steering and a roll cage, but it had no suspension and was quite ugly, so the main model was rebuilt quite quickly. There were also instructions to motorise the main model, but also without rear suspension, so I didn’t build that version.
The best way for me to have fun was modifying the set. A HOG steering, for example, was easy to add. With a longer steering column, a second Cardan joint, an axle and a spare tire on the rear end it was done. Today I would add a third 16 teeth gear in the front to add a second, more or less hidden, steering column, but back in 1981 the two (then new) 16 teeth gears from the set were the only ones I had. Continue reading
This incredible replica of Land Rover’s iconic Defender 90, in full Camel Trophy specification, comes from previous bloggee and TLCB legend Sariel, and it’s a very special bit of kit.
Other than the custom decals, all-terrain RC tyres and a suite of LEGO-compatible SBrick bluetooth controllers Sariel’s creation is all LEGO, and it’s one of the most thoroughly engineered and capable machines that we’ve ever come across.
Beneath the wonderfully accurate bodywork is a full remote control drivetrain, with two XL motors powering all four wheels and Servo controlling the steering. Of course 4-wheel-drive doesn’t necessarily mean ‘good off-road’, as for that you need locking differentials. Sariel’s model has three.
He’s also equipped his Defender with a remotely operated 4-speed gearbox, a front mounted winch (geared to match the gearbox’s lowest ratio), live axle suspension, and working lights.
To really appreciate this beautiful build you need to see it in action. Luckily Sariel’s got that covered as he’s produced an excellent video to accompany the superb photography. Watch it below, and you can see the Defender’s full gallery of images via Flickr, MOCpages and Brickshelf, plus you can read all the details of how this model was created at Sariel’s own website here.
YouTube Video:
The Lego Car Blog favourite Crowkillers is back, and this time he’s not working alone – but he hasn’t teamed up with another builder as you might expect. Instead Crowkillers has collaborated with the legendary Count’s Kustoms hot rod shop from the History Channel’s ‘Counting Cars’ TV show in order to create a pair of unique creations.
Above viewers of the show will recognise Count’s 1956 Chevrolet truck, complete with custom flame decals, whilst below is a model that some of our readers may recognise from a previous post.
Based on his ‘Assassin’ Technic Supercar, Crowkiller’s latest creation has been custom-painted by Count’s Kustoms’ own Ryan Evans and you can own it!
This amazing one-off Technic Supercar is being auctioned for charity to raise money for a little boy with acute lymphoblastic leukaemia, and it also includes two customised mini-figures from the TV show. You can read more about the model via Eurobricks, and if you’d like to see more of this unique collaboration and bid for your chance to own it you can do so by clicking on the giant letters below.
