Ralph Savelsberg adds another star TV car to his collection. The Ferrari 308 was one of the most famous cars of the 1980s, thanks mostly to an extravagantly moustached Tom Selleck – playing simultaneously the most masculine and the most camp TV character of all time – in the hit American TV show ‘Magnum P.I’. You can see the full gallery on Flickr at the link.
*A large prize** to those of you who get the cross-televisual title reference!
**Not really.
This year’s MOC Olympics are already into their third round, over on MOCpages. TLCB Elves don’t often look at the listings for this competition, as despite being packed with loads of creative builds, the MOC Olympics don’t produce many cars. Our hungry Elves were initially attracted by the modular cafe which headlines this MOC but were then delighted to find two cars, which meant that they got two meal tickets to spend.
Matt Rowntree’s challenge was to build a Back to the Future Lego set and he chose to avoid the obvious DeLorean and go for the scene at the diner, along with the two vehicles. First up is Biff’s ’46 Ford Super DeLuxe Convertible, with its sculpted front end, typical of that era. The second vehicle is D. Jones’ manure truck, complete with working tipper function so that it can fill Biff’s car. You can see more of the cars, plus the cafe and the mighty wurlizter jukebox by clicking this link to MOCpages.
But one of the nicest Town-scale helicopters we’ve ever seen. TLCB newcomer pif500 is the builder behind it, and you can see more here.
This might be the most American post we’ve had here on The Lego Car Blog since the ThunderCougarFalconBird, a symbol of freedom and obesity; the Hummer. LegoMarat‘s excellent model recreates the car driven by American NASCAR racing hero Robby Gordon in the 2012 Dakar Rally, which was, er… disqualified.
The Dakar Rally is no longer held from Paris to Dakar due to the threat of terrorism in North Africa, and instead races through the deserts of Argentina and Chile, but retains its iconic name.
Curiously, Hummer may undergo a similar transformation. Following its collapse in the wake of the financial crisis (no tears were shed here at TLCB for that) the American icon may be sold to the Chinese. Hilariously, a communist Hummer is a real possibility.
And with American patriots now spitting coffee over the keyboards we’ll quietly depart with a bonus photo. If you want to see more you can check out all the images of LegoMarat’s work via Flickr at the link above.
After a quiet few days here at The Lego Car Blog Towers, Jon Hall ends the break with his beautifully shot fictional fighter, the V-29 Firestorm. Never before has beige Lego looked so good. See this and John’s previous work on Flickr here.
The Elves are fiercely competitive creatures. They have to be, otherwise they won’t win any food tokens from TLCB staff. Whilst this occasionally leads to fights/riots, it can also lead to a bumper haul of similar creations. Today is one such event, so here’s our Mid-Week Motorcycle Special!
First up is BricksonWheels’ magnificent Harley Davidson, available to view on Flickr and MOCpages. This black ‘n chrome ‘Sons of Anarchy’ Street Glide continues BricksonWheels’ recent run of motorcycles, and you can check out its predecessors by using the Search function at the foot of this page.
The second creation in today’s special swaps chrome for Technic and was discovered by a lucky Elf on MOCpages. Bernhard Mollema‘s motorcycle, nicknamed ‘Fat Pig’*, puts the awesome wheels from the 8448 Supercar set to a great new use. Check it out at the link above.
The final creation in this Hump Day Special was suggested to us by one of our readers via the Feedback page. This mean looking Hard Tail, nicknamed ‘Widowmaker’ (it seems you can’t build a motorbike without giving it a name!) is the work of Jonsson on the Eurobricks forum. See the pictures and join in the discussion at the link, and if you’d like to suggest a creation take a look at our Submission Guidelines here.
*Your Mom.
It might be well into Ma.Ktober but here at The Lego Car Blog, we’re still not sure what that is. One of the Elves thinks that it has something to do with October being rainy and people needing coats but we’re not convinced. In the meantime, a crew of Elves has just dragged this late entry to SHIPtember up the stairs to our penthouse office. It’s the work of Crimso Giger on Flickr, who is well-known for his colourful sci-fi builds. We think that he’s outdone himself here in creating this 132 stud long, dazzling monster.
The appropriately named “Morning Glory”, seems to have a certain gravitas to it, despite being a feast of red, yellow and black patterns. This deep-space ship features brick-built wings and loads of greebling in all three of its colours. We post photos at a maximum of 500 wide on TLCB, so it’s well worth clicking this link to the Flickr page to take it all in. If you’re a bit overwhelmed by this SHIP (the Elves who delivered it to us nearly were) then relax your eyes with a spacecraft, in the very unusual colour of green, by the same builder. The Elves liked Crimso’s “Soyuz 2267” because it reminded them of the “Starbug” from Red Dwarf, which is a treat for them to watch if they’ve worked VERY hard. Click this link to its Flickr page, to see more.
Not just another version of General Lee, but also another epic vehicle by Clayton Marchetti.
A recent visit to Clayton’s page showed us a series of famous movie vehicles, and not only the vehicles are spectacularly good, the scenery and storylines are really well worked out too. Give Clayton a visit by clicking on the link above.
Another day, another Elf looking for meal token. Today’s is well deserved though, as this Scania T144 Tow Truck by Flickr builder-extroadinairre Rolic is a breathtakingly brilliant build. See all the pictures at Rolic’s photostream here.
This superb 1955 Ford Fairlane by Lego Junkie comes in a distinctive colour scheme that generates the car’s ‘Black Widow’ nickname. See it on Flickr via the link above, or at BrickCon 2013 where it’s on display.
With SHIPtember over a few days ago the online Lego Community needed another tenuously named month in order to function. Rumour has it that without such months certain quarters of the online community would just pace around in circles, unable to decide what to do. So behold, MAKtober!
‘But what is MAKtober?’ we hear you cry. Well, here at The Lego Car Blog we pride ourselves on our highly professional excellent working knowledge of Lego-related trends. And we have absolutely no idea. Still, if D-Town Cracka‘s ‘Applecart’ self-propelled gun is an indication of what we’re likely to see, we’re all for MAKtober. Whatever it is.
Find out more via the links above.
Stripes are cool. Whether on an animal, in your toothpaste, or on a car. A previous ‘Featured TFOL‘ here at TLCB, Harry Gravett’s latest work includes some excellent striping. His Ferrari 360 Challenge Stradale was suggested to us by a fellow ‘Featured TFOL‘, and you can check it out on Harry’s MOCpage here.
This utterly beautiful rat rod is the work of TLCB regular _Tiler, whose perfectly photographed creations continue to amaze us with their simplicity and grace. His latest work is a replica of Mike Burroughs’ BMW-powered 1928 Ford Model A, and it’s one of the best Town-scale hot rods we’ve ever seen here at TLCB. Check out the full gallery of _Tiler’s brilliant build here, and you read about the amazing real car on which _Tiler’s creation is based at the Stance|Works website.
Nathanael Kuipers’ original Build-It Book (publicised here earlier in the year) featured instructions and designs for 10 amazing vehicles which can be built using the same palette of bricks, and is a great way to learn to build more from what you have, or to teach builders how they can use the same pieces in different ways.
Nathanael recently posted a preview of the follow-up Volume 2 (‘More Amazing Vehicles’) on his MOCpages account, and to TLCB office at least, it looks reassuringly ‘Godfather Part II’ rather than ‘Speed 2’.
Nathanael’s sequel contains instructions and ideas for another 10 great vehicles that can be constructed from the same basic parts, ranging from a hot rod to a fork lift, and with everything in-between. To see further details on what’s inside Volume 2 and to buy your copy, visit the No Starch Press website.
Rhys’ Pieces’ RX-7;
Earning an Elf a meal token (plus a yellow Smartie)