Today’s post comes from TLCB regular Karwik, who returns with another stunning Town-scale truck. This time it’s an unusual Skoda 706, a truck that was made for nearly 30 years in Eastern Europe. Kawrik’s superb attention to detail abounds on this model, and you can see more high quality images via his photostream here.
One of our favourite builders, the Technic genius Nick Barrett, is back with two beautifully engineered forklift trucks. Each is loaded with Technic functionality, which Nick has used to hoist a rival, and most excellent, Lego blog’s logo. You can see Nick’s latest work on both MOCpages and Flickr.
We’re also delighted to announce that some of our Elves cornered Nick Barrett last week, and the result is that he joins The Lego Car Blog’s Master MOCers Series as our 8th Master MOCer!
It’s the opening weekend of the 2014 Formula 1 World Championship in Melbourne, and the Elves are riotously excited. So what’s this Technic crane truck by Eurobricks’ Razor got to do with F1? Well, it’s the first race weekend under the new regulations with new engines, new hybrid systems, new cooling, new exhausts and new downforce. All of this means new reliability problems, and therefore we expect to see quite a few F1 cars being parked during the race.
The Melbourne track is largely on public roads, so crane trucks such as this one are vital in removing broken cars from the side of the track to safety. Razor’s Technic version is powered by nine(!) Power Functions motors, with three battery boxes and four sets of lights. To see it in action and join the discussion head over to the Eurobricks forum via the link above.
Back to our tenuous F1 link; you might see more of crane trucks like this than the Renault-powered cars at Melbourne this weekend… We can’t wait!
Winter is finally coming to end here at The Lego Car Blog Towers. Good news for us, as skirts outside the office get shorter, and good news for the Elves, who require a lot less de-frosting than they did a few weeks ago when returning from their hunts. A perfect time to publicise a tan-coloured Lego creation then, a colour that’s not often employed in Lego builds due to its rarity, but one that looks superb if it’s used well.
Aircraft-building extraordinaire Sydag has done just that with his wonderful mini-figure scale B-25 Mitchell bomber. Flown throughout the Second World War in all regions of combat the B-25 was adopted by almost all the major Allied airforces and continued in service until well after the war ended. You can see more of Sydag’s beautiful tan recreation of the American classic on Flickr at the link above.
This is, without doubt, the coolest thing that Toyota makes. And yes, we know about the Lexus LFA. The Toyota FJ Cruiser appeared as a concept car back in 2003 to show what a modern take on the old FJ-series Land Cruiser could be. The positive reaction that followed resulted in the car reaching production in 2005, and now 9 years later that production run is about to end, with the final cars rolling out of the Hamura factory later this year.
This near-perfect replica of the FJ Cruiser was designed and built by Peteris Sprogis, known here at TLCB for his delightfully strange concept vehicles. Peteris’ has now stepped into the world of realistic replicas, and his work is so good it looks as if LEGO themselves created it for Legoland theme park. You can see all the photos of this superb build by visiting Peteris’ photostream here.
This enormous DAF XF truck with six-axle Noteboom trailer is the work of previous bloggee Nako Klein Paste aka nkle on Flickr. The build features an opening and tilting cab, steering axles and a realistic load of Liebherr mobile crane counter-weights. See all the photos at nkle’s photostream via the link above.
After some big posts last week we kick of the new week with something a bit smaller. This beautiful classic Polish Autosan H9-35 bus was built by Maciej Drwiega on Flickr. It may only be ‘Town’ scale but the detail is as intricate as on the largest model we’ve posted here. You can see more of the Autosan via the link above.
Like The Lego Car Blog Elves, Vinnie Turbo’s models are small and simple. Unlike the Elves though, they’re great to look at. Plus they probably don’t try to kill each other every time his back is turned. Here we feature two of Vinnie’s latest designs, and you can see many more at his photostream here.
Following on from Dennis Bosman‘s incredible Kenworth Wrecker and his Master MOCer interview published yesterday, the Elves are feeling quite trucky; one of them arrived back at The Lego Car Blog Towers this morning with no less than six amazing trucks!
So, six meal tokens for the lucky Elf? Er, no. You see we’ve featured several of these trucks here at TLCB before, but builder Andrea Lattanzio (aka Norton74) has recently posted all six of his current creations together in one awesome six pack group shot. We tried to think of other good things that come in sixes but ran out after beer, eggs and iced buns.
See all six of his brilliant ’80s and ’90s European trucks by clicking the links to MOCpages and Flickr in the text above.
One of TLCB’s favourite builders, the brilliant Dennis Bosman, is back, and his latest astounding model is already lining up to win ‘Best Truck of 2014’.
Dennis took a trip to see the company that owns the real version of this Kenworth K100E Aerodyne, who are oddly enough based in the UK. American trucks are a rarity on European roads and NYR imported their Kenworth K100E from the US especially for their recovery fleet. The cab and chassis were then fitted with a monster Century Rotator 1140, which Dennis has recreated in truly incredible detail.
Dennis has published an extensive gallery to coincide with the completion of this model, including close ups, shots of the Century Rotator in action, and photographs of the real UK-based wrecker at his Flickr photostream. Head there now to join us in our amazement by clicking the link above.
Dennis has also become The Lego Car Blog’s seventh ‘Master MOCer’, joining the six previous elite builders that make up the exclusive Master MOCers club. Read Dennis Bosman’s Master MOCer interview here, plus you can see all the interviews in the series by clicking the ‘Interviews’ tab of the main menu.
Not really a car, but a good excuse for a Lynryd Skynryd song title. Lukasz Wiktorowicz’s US Navy battleship is one of the smoothest, cleanest and most perfect creations the Elves have found this year. The polar opposite of them in fact. See more on Flickr here.
This cute Town tipper truck was discovered by one of the Elves on Flickr today. It’s built by de-marco, a builder who’s featured here on TLCB a few times before with his wonderful mini-figure scale vehicles. See more of this one, as well as his previous works, by clicking the link above.
This weird-looking off-roady-van-type-thing is called a Pinzgauer. Originally from Austria it’s been used by Europe’s militaries for years, and it can go pretty much anywhere. This Technic version was built for Truck Trial by Flickr and MOCpages‘ Nimdian, and it’s packed with Power Functions. See all the photos at either site via the links.
FebRovery might be finished for another year, but there are still a few Rovers appearing over on Flickr. Classic Spaceman Crimso Giger recently uploaded his cache of Rovery goodness. Here are four of his best, and you can see more of them and his other Spacey MOCs at his photostream via the link above.
Big points to anyone who can decode our (slightly nerdy) Rover-related title!**
**Not redeemable for anything useful.
Not just an excuse for a slightly rude title, but a comparison of Technic fork lift trucks….
We’ll start with set 850, just as Technic itself did, way back when the summers were warm and everybody was on strike. In 1977, this was the very first ‘Expert Builder’ set. In common with the other early sets, there were instructions for 3 models and a wealth of further ideas on the box. The model itself is very cute, if somewhat basic. A quick build, it uses the limited palette of pieces then available to good effect. The first technic model is still the one with the best steering system, for instance. Exceptionally smooth in operation, sensibly geared and with a generous lock; a system that simply hasn’t been bettered since. Ally that to the very short wheelbase and you have an amazingly manoevreable model.
Moving frontwards, things are less happy. The forks are too long and too close together, they don’t rise very far and the system to move them is very basic. Tilting them is but the fevered dream of a madman… as for loading them – you’ll need to put something heavy under the seat first. So, 850 the model is probably a 5/10. 850 the set is more like a 9. There’s a perfect mix of bricks and the new technic parts here to make all kinds of yellow building site stuff. The perfect starter kit.
Moving on to 1984, and a demonstration that original style pneumatics can actually work, in the form of the slightly unhappy looking 8843. Maybe it should just be red or yellow, rather than both… This time at least, the forks will tilt, and there’s even an additional hand-of-god steering control to supplement the one in the cab, which (praise be!) is still connected. It’s rather a pity, therefore, that the steering feels very stiff, because the system incorporates 8 bevel gears (4 of which are in the roof!) and these are the older, flat 14 tooth gears which seem to have more friction than the newer design. It doesn’t help that the cab’s wheel rubs against some of the pneumatic tubing as it turns.
Whilst it does feel somewhat churlish to criticize a feature that I’m always begging to see brought back, this would actually be better without it. Don’t think for a moment that this will stop me nagging to see its return on new models…. capricious, moi?
At the front, things are better. The pneumatic installation is quite neat, there’s an extra long piston (not as illustrated; the one pictured is assembled from my collection, with period pneumatics from 8040) to facilitate a good range of movement, and the forks are linked to it via short lengths of chain. Operate the pump and they whizz up and down very happily, and will do so with a reasonable load, as well. To achieve this, millimetre perfect lining up of the chain is necessary – it uses tread link pieces wedged in holes and some of the clearances are very tight – but do that and it’ll work fine.
8843 is a good effort; in some ways a useful improvement on 850, but it’s lost that model’s best features – the B model here is a sketchy looking tow truck and the varied colour palette means there’s not enough pieces of one colour in this small set to make convincing alternatives. 6/10.
Fast forward to 1989; it’s goodbye Berlin Wall and, somewhat less momentously, hello 8835. Much better looking than its predecessor, it also benefits from a lifting mechanism that closely mirrors the solution on real forklifts. Smoother steering too, although wouldn’t it be nice if there was a wheel in the cab….? (yes, yes, I know…)
The only demerit with this model concerns the jerky movement of the forks. The brick-built carrier that wraps around the spars is too tight-fitting to move smoothly, as if the designers had forgotten the far more elegant solution to this problem found on 8843. At least they hadn’t forgotten about the tilt function.
Although 8835 is just as multi-coloured as its predecessor, the colours are much more harmonious and this is a handsome model. The B model suffers in the same way as 8843’s, though. It’s a less-than-convincing tractor. Stick to the forklift though and this is a good set, with only one major flaw. 8/10
Still with me? You’re doing well, don’t give up now… Continue reading