Following the sinister MAZ 7907 featured earlier this year, the Elves have snaffled another, and this one performs slightly more friendly duties. Nexus7.1‘s MAZ 543 airport fire truck is a beautiful bit of kit, recreated by way of some fiendishly clever brickwork. See the full gallery on Flickr at the link above.
Picture courtesy of Søren Schaffstein
With worldwide success comes many benefits. Groupies, foreign narcotics, exotic parties. None of these have found their way to TLCB Towers. But nevertheless things are getting busy here, and as such it’s time for us to expand the team!
A few months ago we became an international organisation, with the arrival of European playboy carmaster1990. We’re now delighted to announce a further addition to our staff writers, in the form of the rather mysterious Dr. Asp Menace.
Rumour has it he won his doctorate in a game of Asteriods, and that he’s been smiling continuously since 1978. But that’s probably enough clues. We hope you enjoy his writing as much as we do, and as always, if you have any feedback, suggestions or relevant insults, you can direct them towards us via the handy Feedback link at the top of the homepage.
Interesting photography, isn’t it? We think so.
Most petrolheads know the Audi S1 Quattro: it’s one of the rally legends. This sleek looking 4-wide version by Starscream Soundwave does fulfil the expectations of a rally machine. Check SS’ work out by clicking on the link, and see the original Nils O’s version that inspired it here.
We’ve written about this astonishing Peterbilt 379 by bricksonwheels before, but when a builder updates their portfolio with photos like these it’s definitely worth a revisit. Bricksonwheels moves his spectacular truck to a remarkably well-suited setting, where he’s joined by the equally brilliant Dennis Bosman and his previously featured Scania LT tipper. View the full gallery resulting in their meet at either of the aforementioned links. And now, for no reason other than a tenuous link the title, a bonus video to demonstrate how street we are.
David Roberts, our Guest Contributor earlier in the week, earns a slot here with one of his own creations; a rocket-powered lunar motorbike. And if there’s a better reason to blog something than it being a rocket-powered lunar motorbike, we’re yet to hear of it.
Oh, maybe a monkey riding a motortrike. Wait, we’ve got one of those too? Today is a good day! Karf Oohu is the culprit.
We’ve seen planes in a lot of sizes around, but this micro EP-5 looks bigger than you would expect. The fact there’s a hangar and a runway in the same scale makes it twice as nice. General Electric is the creator, visit his MOCpage to see this plane.
We’re not big fans of LDD here at The Lego Car Blog (Elves are relentlessly analogue…), but when something is this exceptional, we make an exception. The Chevy Suburban might not be the greatest car ever, but this model just might be. Phil Flipson is the creator; it’s there to be appreciated on MOCpages.
Angka Utama has an impressive back catalogue of over 160 micro-scale cars over on MOCpages. It includes both real and fantasy creations, in a variety of styles and colours. His latest creation is rather like a Swiss watch. It’s small, cleverly designed, packed with moving parts and powered by clockwork. The Elves were particularly attracted to the “Redster”, as they can open the bonnet, the boot and the doors to sit on its white seat. The car is built on a pull-back motor chassis. Unfortunately this means that the Elves have been zooming across the office floor all morning without having to exchange their food tokens for motor batteries.
This post was kindly written by Guest Contributor (and previous blogee) David Roberts. Check out his own wonderful creations here.
Friend of The Lego Car Blog, Nick Barrett, is back with – surprisingly – something he has built twice before. This glorious Citroen 2CV is his third version of the French Peoples’ Car. Each iteration has improved upon the last, and this latest incarnation is about as close to the real thing as you could hope to achieve in LEGO.
Underneath the wonderful two-tone pinstriped bodywork is one of the most thoroughly engineered chassis we’ve ever seen, complete with fully independent suspension, front wheel drive, ackerman steering, rear angled kingpins and sliding cardan joints. All of this means the suspension is as beautifully supple as that found on the real car – which was designed to carry a basket of eggs across a ploughed field without them breaking. Nick decided eggs are a bit too easy though, and opted for a grand father clock to demonstrate the Citroen’s remarkable suspension, and a quip about the 2CV’s performance stats. View what might be the car of the year at MOCpages.
Karwik, a builder of some beautifully unusual vehicles, is back with another two for your delectation. The tractor is a Mazur D-50, an odd enough vehicle on its own, but when fitted with a cable-operated-bucket-scoop-on-rails* it becomes easily one of the most bizarre construction vehicles we’ve seen. The Elves, who are themselves a little odd, love it. See more on Flickr. (*We have no idea what it’s called!)
Next up in today’s post of unusual construction equipment is an armoured bulldozer being driven by a cat. No further explanation needed. See more at Lego Junkie‘s photostream.
Bricklink.com (or ‘Cracklink’ as some call it, such is its addictiveness) is an invaluable online resource allowing fans to buy and sell individual LEGO pieces. Sadly its founder, Daniel Jezek, passed away tragically young a few years ago, and since then the site has been run by his family.
In a recent statement, Daniel’s family have announced the sale of Bricklink to online game entrepreneur Jung-Ju ‘Jay’ Kim, who plans to invest in enhanced security and a site modernisation programme. The full announcement is pretty dry so we haven’t posted it here, however you can read it in full, and find links to the parties involved, at The Brothers Brick.
This spectacular spaceship is the work of Lazer Blade on Flickr, which (probably coincidentally) resembles a very patriotic tribute to the great space-exploring nation of, er… Belgium. See more at the link above.
This is about as much epic as we can fit in one post here at The Lego Car Blog! Stephan Sander on MOCpages has recreated the coolest cars from the coolest shows of the 1980s, and every one is as good as anything we’ve blogged here to date. Built in LEGO’s own ‘Miniland’ style each vehicle even includes the lead characters from the relevant TV show. See if you can identify them all! Oh, and check out Stephan’s website here – where there’s even more ’80s automotive goodness available.
The LEGO Group has recently announced plans to build a 250,000 visitor per annum ‘LEGO House’ exhibition centre in the heart of its hometown of Billund in Denmark. Over to the official press release:
When the LEGO House opens in 2016 visitors to the house in Billund, Denmark will enter a building that resembles gigantic LEGO bricks combined and stacked in a creative way to create an imaginative experience both outside and inside. In the experience center guests can expect hours full of active fun while at the same time engaging in an educational and inspirational experience – everything that LEGO play offers.
Kjeld Kirk Kristiansen, LEGO owner, explains:
“The LEGO House will show the past, present and future of the LEGO idea and I am certain it will be a fantastic place, where LEGO fans of all ages and their families and friends will get a wide range of unique LEGO experiences. It is our belief that LEGO play fosters innovative thinking, and the LEGO House gives us an opportunity to make it very tangible what LEGO play offers and how it stimulates children’s creativity and learning.”
The LEGO House will be approximately 30 meters tall, and there will be public access to several roof-top gardens from the outside. The building will offer visitors a total of 7,600 square meters of exhibition areas, a café, a unique LEGO store and a large public square.
Construction of The LEGO House is due to start early next year. You can read the full press release at LEGO’s official news-room, and watch LEGO’s video showing the proposed building design below:
History teachers think a Centurion is a Roman soldier in command of 100 men. The Lego Car Blog staff think it’s a drinking game involving 100 shots a beer*. Lucio Switch has come up with a third option, with his beautifully engineered Centurion 8×8 off-road truck.
Inside Lucio’s Centurion chassis sit four XL Power Functions motors (yes, four!), one for each axel, as well as working remote control four-wheel steering, a W16 piston engine, pneumatic doors powered by a compressor, independent suspension… there really is too much for us to list here. Take a trip to MOCpages and see the full detail.
*Don’t try this.