Fighting Fiction

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Lego Steam Wars

With the world in a particularly turbulent place at the moment we’ve been a little hesitant to post conflict-related creations. Today though our Elves (who regularly make the office a turbulent place too) have discovered a pair of fictional fighting vehicles that are a nice safe distance from the painful reality of Ukraine, Iraq and Gaza.

Thus, our Military tag gets another airing with these two splendidly constructed war machines. First up (above) is another exploration of the Steam Wars whimsy, this time built by TLCB newcomer Atin. It’s an Omni Terrian Impetum Pod (OT-IP), and it looks perfect for a trip to the supermarket.

Our second creation (below) comes from TLCB regular Lego Junkie, with his Raptor Improvised Fighting Vehicle. In most of the world an ‘improvised fighting vehicle’ seems to be a Toyota HiLux with a gun attached to the back, but Mr. Junkie’s looks a lot more accomplished. See more on Flickr at the link above.

Lego Rapto Truck

Sax Appeal

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Lego Citroen Saxo

Some readers of The Lego Car Blog might be wondering why we’re featuring a model of a crummy French hatchback with racing stickers, but European rally fans will immediately salute this little Citroen.

Rallying is a big deal in Europe, and whilst a bastardised version of rally-cross is starting to make waves in the States, the original is still filling European forests with noise every weekend.

The big boys run Imprezas, Evos and other all-wheel-drive machinery. However rally entries are mostly made up of little shopping cars like the Saxo above. This is because they’re cheap, easy to fix, slow enough not to kill you (unless you’re really trying) and front-wheel-drive, meaning to correct a slide you just have to add more power.

Well, except for this one, which due to the difficulty of making functioning front-wheel-drive from Lego bricks is actually rear-wheel-drive. Still, driveline inaccuracy aside it’s a truly marvellous little machine. Builder/Owner Gsia17 has even taken it rallying!

You can see all the photos via Eurobricks, and we highly recommend checking out the video below! Thanks go to one of our readers for the tip-off – and If you’d like to alert us to something the Elves have missed you can get in touch with us via the Feedback and Submission Suggestions page.

YouTube Video:

Small Starfighters

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steebles

Like all fans of Lego*, The Lego Car Blog Elves love a good swooshing session every now and then. Of course it’s not much fun if you’re the unfortunate Elf who is being swooshed at the time. There is no finer sight in the eyes of our happy little helpers, than one of their motion-sick colleagues flying across the editorial offices, spraying vomit as he goes. The Lego Car Blog executive jacuzzi has been used as a clean up facility after several of these sessions and is therefore a tax-deductible necessity and not a luxury item. A team of excited Elves has just returned from the Starfighters Group on Flickr, making “Pew! Pew!” noises and swooshing a hoard of finds.

Simon Liu

The Starfighters Group started a competition in July, which continues this month, for “Small Starfighters”. The builds must be of mini-figure scale and fit into a 14x14x6 stud box. Builders have come up with some neat designs, ingenious folding mechanisms and some clever ways of presenting their 14x14x6 boxes as hangars and transporters.

At the head of this post is Steebles’ “EDF-10 Basilisk” powered by an “electrospray” engine. Next up in our post is Simon Liu’s “KG-7 Tigerfish” which he describes as, “a chubby and unfortunately disaster prone craft that, even after four iterations, was still terrible.”, a bit like our fatter elves. Featured below is one of the Classic Space and Blacktron inspired builds, Automaton Pictures’ “G-3 Infiltrator” . Click this link to visit the group, see more brilliant builds and find out who wins the contest.

Automaton Pictures

*Okay, so most of the Elves are only in it for the Smarties and Meal Tokens.

Liberty Walk

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Lego Liberty Walk Ferrari 458 Italia

As a rule staff at The Lego Car Blog do not like exotic ‘tuning’ companies. Catering for the rich but utterly tasteless (of which there is burgeoning population world-wide), they modify vehicles that took $billions to painstakingly develop over many many years, but which can apparently be improved with stick-on carbon fibre and some new badges.

However, last year there was one exception to the rule – the utterly gorgeous Ferrari 458 Italia by Liberty Walk. Flickr’s Aaden Hughes thought so too, and he’s recreated the remarkable car from our favourite plastic blocks.

Unfortunately though, for every car like Liberty Walk’s 458 there are at least ten like this, this or this. And they all seem to be German. If you win the lottery, you know what not to do!

The Rain Man

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Lego Ayrton Senna McLaren

This summer marks twenty years since the passing of one of sport’s greatest men, the legendary Ayrton Senna.

Born to wealthy Brazilian landowners in 1960, Senna started racing go-karts in his native Brazil, before moving on to Formula 3 in the UK and then rising to become one of the greatest talents that the sporting world has ever seen, winning three Formula 1 World Championships in ’88, ’90 and ’91.

This McLaren-Honda MP4/6 was the car in which Senna won his last World Championship, after which he departed McLaren at the end of the 1993 season to drive for Williams.

Senna was tragically killed the next year, when his Williams FW16 left the track at Imola’s Tamburello corner, hitting the concrete wall at 145mph. Brazil lost its hero, and Formula 1 lost probably its greatest ever talent.

Senna’s McLaren MP4/6 pictured here is the work of the brilliant Nathanael L, and was suggested to us via the Feedback Page by a reader. Nathanael’s work has featured here numerous times, and you can see more of his McLaren as well as all of his other wonderful vehicles through his Flickr photostream at the link above.

Twenty years on from that awful weekend in 1994, in which Austrian driver Roland Ratzenberger also perished, Ayrton Senna’s legacy continues. Following the implementation of significant safety changes after the events at Imola, no driver has since died in a Formula 1 car, making Senna the last driver fatality in the sport.

It’s also been discovered that Senna secretly donated $millions to the children living in poverty in his native Brazil. He never told anyone, because that’s the kind of man he was.

 

Deadly Nightshade

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Lego RC Buggy

Don’t worry, you haven’t accidentally clicked on Gardener’s World magazine. This is still The Lego Car Blog and we’re still blogging the best Lego cars from around the interweb. Cars like this one, although it is indeed named after a highly toxic herbaceous plant.

It’s the work of Flickr’s Doc Brown, and whilst we don’t think licking it will do you any harm, it does look pretty mean. The Doc’s ‘Deadly Nightshade’ is powered by two Lego RC buggy motors and features some brilliant looking suspension – we think it’ll be killer off-road. You can see more of the poisonous buggy at the link above. Just don’t eat it.

Goldfinger

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Lego Aston Martin DB5

The Elves are all very happy this afternoon. One of them returned to TLCB Towers with this, an absolutely wonderful Aston Martin DB5 by Flickr’s ER0L, and we’re so enthralled by it we’re letting them all watch 007 at the wheel in the 1960s film classic Goldfinger.

Er0l’s beautiful recreation of the famous British GT is only seven studs wide, but a more perfect replica of the DB5 we couldn’t imagine. It might be the best Town scale car you’ll see all year. Click the link above to visit Er0l’s photostream (and let him know that a version with Q’s bullet shield and machine guns is what we’re all waiting for!).

Red Vixen

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vktechnic_mustang1

We here at TLCB are suckers for classic cars and gorgeous construction alike, so put the two of them together and we’re sold. This first-gen Mustang by VKTechnic comes complete with opening trunk, hood, and doors, and has RC and functioning suspension as well! And naturally, the gorgeous outdoor photography doesn’t hurt the paintjob either.  You can check out this beauty and more of VKTechnic’s work over on Flickr.

vktechnic_mustang2

Tiny but Mighty

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Tommy ñ's GTR - front

It’s not often that one of the Lego community’s most diminutive vehicle scales – Tiny Turbo – puts detail on full-scale models to shame, but every now and then one does. This GTR by Tommy ñ over on Flickr has enough intakes, greebles, and realistic details to go toe-to-toe with models tens of times its size (and look good doing it).  You can check out this and more of Tommy ñ’s cars over on Flickr.

Tommy ñ's GTR - front

Penguins Unlimited

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Lego Space Tanker

Enormous spaceships aren’t normally our bag, but this ace 120-stud Octan Space Supertanker by Flickr’s Lego Junkie reminded us too much of a certain penguin pollution catastrophe to pass up. If only they’d made it with 6001 hulls…

Dat Car*

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Lego Datsun Roadster

We balance out today’s posts with something befitting the beautiful sunny weather we have outside TLCB office. This lovely little Model Team Datsun Roadster is the work of TLCB regular Senator Chinchilla, and it’s earned a very happy Elf a delicious yellow Smartie. See more of the diminutive Datsun on Flickr.

*You might think this is just another exceeding witty (yeah right!) TLCB title, however it is in fact the name given to the very first Nissan (Datsun) ever manufactured. Yes, it really is!

Powder Pusher

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Lego Technic Unimog 8110

It might be the middle of summer here at the TLCB Towers (causing us many hot pant/mini skirt related distractions whilst driving), but our worldwide readership means that many of you will be reading this with your heating cranked up and a jumper on. If you’re one of our winter-bound readers then today’s post is just for you!

It’s the work of Brickshelf’s stefanbetulapendula, and he’s done a superb job fitting LEGO’s own 8110 Unimog set with all the equipment needed for a snowstorm.

Up front is a fantastically intricate looking snow blower, whilst a grit/salt hopper and dispenser has been mounted on the Unimog’s load-bed. Stefan has also retro-fitted Power Functions receivers and motors, making his Unimog fully remote-controlled too.

You can check out all the modifications via the complete gallery on Brickshelf by clicking the link above, and you can read TLCB’s expert review of the original LEGO Technic 8110 Unimog set by clicking here.

Truck Time

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Lego FedEx Truck

Shipping is big business, and even though your local carrier doesn’t drive a Ferrari (seriously though, how cool would that be), they somehow manage to bring excitement and joy in parcel form, without a V12 engine.

Even if they are the grunts of the automotive world, we’d be nowhere without delivery trucks, and this FedEx truck from Kosmas Santosa reminds us that even delivery vehicles have unique design cues and forms worth appreciating! See more of his mini-figure scale creation at Flickr via the link above.

Written by Guest Blogger Chris Elliott

Lego FedEx Delivery

Air Force One

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Lego Air Force One

It’s time for some American patriotism here at TLCB, and the supremely talented Orion Pax gives us just the model to do it! His brilliant mini-figure scale recreation of the President’s Boeing 747-200 – otherwise known as ‘Air Force One’ – can be found on Flickr.

Head on over via the link above. U. S. A! U. S. A!

Stop The Massacre

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Lego Stop Sign

Occasionally here at TLCB we dip into current events – if the seriousness of these dictates. Sadly the ongoing bombardment of Gaza is one of these times.

Most of you reading TLCB today are visiting from America, and we know that for many of you Israel is an emotive and politically charged issue. However, we do think that as we’re relatively neutral, we might be able to be a little more balanced than Fox News Propaganda elects to be.

TLCB readers in need:

What has the Gaza conflict got to do with LEGO? Not much. However, we are a global blog with readers from all over the world, including (according to our stats) both Israel and the State of Palestine. This means that someone will be reading this – a LEGO fan just like you – who will today, maybe even right now, hear the sound of a Hamas missile launching, or will need to run for their life from an Israeli airstrike in the State of Palestine.

As of today 1,300 civilian Palestinians (hundreds of whom are children) have been killed by the Israeli bombardment of Gaza. Many more will lose their power, water, medical treatment or next meal due to the blockade on their city – in which they are trapped and cannot flee.

Your clicks help!

If you are reading this from either side of the the Gaza-Israel wall, our thoughts are with you. To our readers from around the world; please remember that on both sides of this conflict somewhere there will be a LEGO fan just like you.

To see if you can help please join us at The Red Cross, Christian Aid, or Oxfam (amongst many others), which is where the advertising revenue generated by your visit here will be donated. To find out more about our not-for-profit policy please click here.