Space Race

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It’s sometime in the next century, and Formula 1 is still the world’s foremost race series in the hands of Liberty Media. There are now 43 races each season (not counting the sprints), with half of those taking place in the skies above America!

Nineteen of the world’s best pilots (plus Lance Stroll, who’s still looking for his first win) are competing to become World Champion, and previous bloggee David Roberts can exclusively showcase two of the machines that have been piloted to glory so far.

‘Orange 6‘ is one of the fastest atmo-and-space racers yet, being both highly manoeuvrable and fitted with an underside cannon able to spike viewing figures with remarkable effectiveness whenever Liberty need a little extra pizzaz.

It needs it too, what with ‘Green 21‘ being otherwise dominant in the hands of multiple-World Champion Max Velocity.

Will No.6 manage to blast past Max? Will Liberty Media find space to squeeze in another US Grand Prix? And will Stroll finally get that maiden win in return for his father’s billions? Click the links above to tune in!

8-Wide-8

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Remember when BMW’s were understated and classy? Well this was not one of those cars. But by today’s BMW standards it’s positively minimalist.

Launched in 1990, the E31 8-Series was a technical tour-de-force, featuring the world’s first drive-by-wire throttle and the first combination of a V12 engine with a manual gearbox. And BMW were going to go further still, with an even more powerful ‘M8’ version.

However it wasn’t to be, with a global recession and the Gulf War (thanks Saddam) killing the M8 before it could be released. That hasn’t stopped Flickr’s LegoSEB77 from imagining what could have been though, and you can check out his excellent 8-wide BMW ‘M8’ via the link above.

Pick It Up

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After some quiet days we’re picking up the pace of posting, with today’s second creation being this gorgeous 8-wide ’50s pick-up truck by TLCB regular 1saac W.

Taking inspiration from many classic trucks, 1saac’s creation packs in a plethora of clever building techniques with some inspired parts orientation. Whitewall tyres and chrome pin-striping adds to the period appeal, and there’s more to see at 1saac’s photostream. Click here to pick your way over.

Optimally Posting

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It’s been a while since we last posted a Lego creation. This may have been because we’ve been at the pub, but as there’s a longstanding narrative running through this website to do with mythical Elves finding blog-worthy Lego creations, let’s go with them not finding anything. Yeh, that.

We do genuinely only publicise creations that we believe warrant it though, and today we have the first of many now we’re back from the pub TLCB Elves have found some.

This one comes from TLCB debutant Levente Lévai, whose own interpretation of Transformers’ Optimus Prime transforms from truck to robot and back again with such incredible complexity it makes our heads hurt. Although that could be the lingering aftermath of the pub.

There’s loads more to see of Levente’s spectacular transforming Autobot on Flickr, where there are dozens of images depicting the extraordinary metamorphosis. Click the link above to roll out.

Find My Car in Lego | S to Z

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It’s the final chapter of the Find My Car in Lego series, as Part 4 takes us from the letter S to the end of the alphabet. As with Parts 1 to 3, we’re focussing on the most frequently featured car brands, which admittedly omits most of the Soviet and Chinese weirdness that monopolises the final few letters of the alphabet. You guys aren’t building many Xpengs, Zotyes or Zeekrs yet…

However fear not, because there are some great manufacturers in the final quarter of the alphabet. And UAZ. Take a look…

…

S to Z

Skoda

Once-derided marque from behind the Iron Curtain, now a competent mainstream arm of the Volkswagen empire. Which means today it’s exceptionally boring. Fortunately Lego builders seem to prefer making the rubbish but interesting cars of Skoda-past.

Subaru

Kei-trucks, rear-wheel-drive sports cars, and – of course – all-wheel-drive performance saloons. Find WRXs galore (plus the rest) by clicking these words.

Suzuki

Suzuki have made all sorts of vehicles, but it’s their pint-sized 4x4s that seem to have captured Lego builders’ imaginations most frequently. Find all the brick-built Samurais, Jimnys, and Vitaras here.

Tatra

Today famed for their off-road trucks, Czech manufacturer Tatra also once made truly ground-breaking cars. Find them (in a sea of their awesome heavy-duty trucks) by clicking here.

Tesla

The brand that brought EVs to the masses, and the one with the most insane fans of any manufacturer. Ludicrous speed, appalling quality, and a share price more volatile than Kanye West, click here to find every brick-built Tesla to appear. All have better panel gaps than the real thing.

Toyota

From one end of the quality scale to the other, almost 170 Toyota images have appeared to date. Sedans, 4x4s, racing cars, pick-up trucks, sports cars, vans, and a certain ’10-second’ orange Supra…

UAZ

Soviet 4x4s, vans, and small trucks. All are very ugly, many are very capable, and there are some excellent Lego versions to be found in the Archive.

Volkswagen

Humungous global conglomerate responsible for tens of millions of fantastically dull hatchbacks, crossovers and SUVs. Which is perhaps why it’s VW’s Beetles, buses and beach buggies that populate the Archives. Find them all, including official LEGO sets, by clicking here.

Volvo

Glorious slabs of rectangular Swedish magnificence, there’s probably no car more suited to LEGO than an ’80s Volvo. Over a hundred, including the trucks, buses and pieces of construction equipment that have also worn the Volvo logo, can be found here.

…

That wraps up Part 4 of Find My Car in Lego, and with it the series, much to the relief of our researchers. We’ve covered every manufacturer whose models have been recreated in brick form in sufficient numbers, and you can find Parts 1 (A to F), 2 (G to L), and 3 (M to R) via these links.

Some surprisingly well-known brands didn’t make the cut, including Saturn, Seat, Talbot, and Vauxhall in this final part alone, each with just a single entry in the Archives at the time of publication. Of course there are loads of other oddities in the Archives too, and you can find them all plus much more besides via the Search box on every page.

And if you don’t manage to find your car, we’d love to see you build it.

Elaborate Hattery

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With every new generation of car, the manufacturer will – without fail – claim it’s lower and wider than before, in order to “project an assertive dynamic stance” or some other bollocks. They can’t keep getting lower and wider indefinitely of course, otherwise at some point everything will be a Can-Am racer.

However despite this vehicular marketing nonsense, there is probably some truth in it, as back in the early days of the motor car designs were rather more… upright.

A narrow track, a chassis on top of the wheels, and space in the cabin for elaborate hats meant cars from the 1920s were wobbly, tottery affairs. Although with a top speed of about 30mph and tyres as wide as those on a bicycle, this probably mattered not. Plus you could keep on your elaborate hat.

Flickr’s _Tyler (aka Calin) reimagines a time of more vertical motoring (and headwear) with this beautifully presented creation, and there’s more to see of his vintage ‘Oldtimer’ at his photostream; click the link above take a look.

We’re All Like, People of the World Man

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It was the Eurovision Song Contest last night, and if any non-European readers tuned in during the vote reveal, they may have thought they’d accidentally arrived at a 1970s Vietnam War opposition rally.

Almost every country’s host took the opportunity to remind us that the competition’s songs were not in fact banal Euro-pop as we thought, but the source of love and world peace. Urgh. It’s enough to make us want to start a fight.

It was more straightforward back in actual 1970s, when world peace was dispensed not by pseudo-intellectual television hosts, but by Volkswagen-van-driving-hippies with names like Waterfall and Crystal, via beads, tie-dye, and foreign narcotics.

Cue previous bloggee 1saac W., whose Volkswagen T2 bus is so peaceful it has itself been tie-dyed. A kaleidoscope of coloured plates, afforded by LEGO’s ever expanding colour-pallet, make up the VW’s groovy exterior, and you can collect your beads and foreign narcotics from Waterfall and Crystal at 1saac’s photostream via the link above.

You’ll be contributing to world peace about as much as this does anyway…

Conscripts & Criminals

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Deaths from Russia’s invasion of Ukraine now number several hundred thousand, with many times that number injured. The seemingly random shelling of schools, hospitals, and parks continues, with machines such as this one launching 110kg shells over twenty miles.

Built by Flickr’s Константин Тихомиров, this 2CZM Pion ‘Malka’ self-propelled cannon was introduced in 1975, when Russia and Ukraine formed the two largest republics within the Soviet Union, and stood together against the West.

The machines operated by each now fire upon one another, with this one wearing Russian insignia. This means it’s likely supporting a front-line of conscripts and convicts, disposable to Putin in his bid to return the ‘glory’ days of the Soviet Union.

You can see more of Константин’s creation via the link above. Please note that we’re publishing his creation despite holding views in opposition to his own, as if we were only able to hear the story as told by Russian state-owned media, we might share them also. Fortunately we’re rather freer, and thus – as we often do with creations relating to the Ukraine War – here are some extra links work clicking.

UNHCR  |   World Vision  |  Affaires Mondiales Canada

LEGO Technic 42175 Volvo FMX Truck & EC230 Electric Excavator | Set Preview

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Following our preview earlier this month of the brand new H2 2024 LEGO Technic sets you may have been wondering where the promised fourth real-world vehicle was. Well today can we reveal all, starting – as the more eagle-eyed reader will have spotted – with the new 42175 Volvo FMX Truck & EC230 Electric Excavator not being one real-world vehicle at all, but two.

Following a long tradition of truck-with-trailer-and-vehicular-load Technic sets, 42175 ushers Volvo’s off-road FMX truck and electric EC230 tracked excavator into the Technic line-up, bringing pneumatics back in the process.

Aimed at ages 10+ and constructed from 2,274 pieces, 42175 features working steering, a tilting cab, and a six-cylinder engine on the truck, fold-down ramps on the trailer, and a 360° slewing superstructure and a two-stage pneumatically-operated bucket arm on the excavator.

There’s also a ‘charging station’ that can be lifted off the trailer by the excavator for when it needs some more electricity, which we can only assume in real-life would be a giant battery or – more ironically – a diesel generator. Either way it looks a bit pointless within the set, doing precisely nothing whatsoever.

The three other components (truck, trailer, excavator) look sufficiently playable however, if a little under-endowed aesthetically for the £170 / $200 asking price. This is particularly true for the excavator’s bucket arm, which uses two small buckets to create one of the correct size. If this approach isn’t to support a B-Model, it’s a bit of a corner cut.

Still, 42175 could be a worthwhile addition to the 2024 Technic line up, and you’ll be able to get your hands on it when it reaches stores in August of this year.

My Other Car’s a Ford GT

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This is a Red Bull SMG Dakar Buggy, of the sort used by World Rally Champion Carlos Sainz (no not that one, his father) to compete in the world’s toughest enduro, before he switched to the works Audi RS Q e-tron that took him to the 2023 Dakar victory.

Built by previous bloggee gyenesvi, this superbly liveried creation has been constructed only from the parts found within the 42154 Technic Ford GT set, and features all-wheel suspension, a mid-mounted V6 engine, ‘HOG’ steering, and opening doors.

Building instructions and a downloadable decal sheet are available, and you can convert your own Ford supercar into a desert conquering buggy via both Eurobricks and Bricksafe.

BrickCon 2024

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The premier LEGO convention of the Pacific Northwest is back for the 23rd year! Taking place at the Meydenbauer Center Sept. 5th-8th, with the public viewing days Sept. 7th-8th, BrickCon hosts over 450 builders, creating upwards of 1,000 amazing exhibits for the 12,000 attending fans.

Foundations

This year’s theme is Foundations, and comes with a double meaning. BrickCon is celebrating the formation of the BrickCon Foundation, a nonprofit dedicated to using LEGO bricks to educate and enrich the lives of children through science, technology, engineering and maths (STEM). At the same time, we will be celebrating the iconic sets that Adult Fans of Lego consider foundational to the hobby. The convention will feature a special exhibit of these sets with contributions from AFOL attendees.

Registration is now open for BrickCon 2024

Registration is now open! To attend BrickCon 2024 as an Adult Fan of Lego, visit www.brickcon.org, where full event details, accommodation options, and tickets can be found.

Crossbreed

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Porsche are now an SUV maker, with a small sideline in sports cars. Lamborghini are the same. And so are Aston Martin, Bentley, and even Lotus. It was inevitable then, that Ferrari would cave too, and build a four-wheel-drive, off-road capable two-ton monstrosity for the terminally wealthy.

Of course Ferrari, like every other sports-SUV-maker, claim the Purosangue (which translates as ‘thoroughbred’*) isn’t actually an SUV at all. Which is of course nonsense. But it is fitted with a naturally-aspirated V12, so it does at least sound like a supercar.

This fantastic Technic recreation of the Ferrari Purosangue has one too, along with an 8-speed sequential gearbox, all-wheel suspension, four opening doors, hood and tailgate, and remote control drive and steering courtesy of a third-party BuWizz bluetooth battery and LEGO Buggy Motors.

New comer brictric is the creator behind it, building instructions are available, and there’s lots more to see of their incredible replica of Ferrari’s ‘not-an-SUV’ at both the Eurobricks forum and Flickr. Take a closer look via the links whilst we await a letter from Ferrari’s lawyers.

*Which is trying just a bit too hard.

Mad Maximum Squashing

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Longstanding readers of this stagnent puddle in the corner of the Internet will know that TLCB Elves – the mythical creatures whose unending and unpaid job it is to find the creations that appear here – have a penchant for extreme violence towards one-another. This usually takes the form of a hit-and-run (see here, here, here, here and here), and today normal service was resumed as one of their number found this.

‘This’, is a fully remote controlled replica of the wild ‘Big Foot’ monster truck from ‘Mad Max – Fury Road’, as built by TLCB Master MOCer Sariel, and powered by twin Control+ L Motors driving all four wheels. Said wheels are shod in huge non-LEGO RC tyres, plus there’s working suspension, a V8 piston engine, and two bed mounted guns for maximum movie authenticity.

All of which means that for the Elves that weren’t squashed, it’s probably the Best Creation Ever. And even for those that were, it was still the Best Creation Ever right up until the moment it smeared them into the office carpet. There’s more of the model to see at Sariel’s ‘Mad Max Big Foot’ album, you can watch it in action via the video below, and you can read the builder’s interview here at The Lego Car Blog by clicking these words.

YouTube Video

Winged Horse

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The Lego Car Blog has published dozens of Mustangs over the years. But not all of them are the four-wheeled variety.

This is the North American P-51B Mustang III, built to bolster Allied fighter number numbers over Europe during World War Two.

Outfitted with the British Rolls-Royce Merlin supercharged engine, the P-51 Mustang scored an incredible 6,000 kills, many delivered by the Polish Air Force as they battled for air superiority over Germany in the final two years of the war.

This astonishing Lego version of the British-engined, American-designed, Polish-operated North American P-51B Mustang III is the work of JuliusZ D. of Flickr, who has captured the iconic fighter in magnificent fashion.

Accurate brick-built camouflage, an authentic livery, working control surfaces, and retractable landing gear all feature, and there’s more to see of JuliusZ’s phenomenal P-51B Mustang model at his Flickr album. Click the link above to fly over hostile Germany in 1944.

Landspeeding

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It was Stargate Day yesterday or something, and – what with TLCB always having a finger on the pulse of the social zeitgeist – here’s an appropriately spacey build in celebration of Captain Pickard’s adventures.

Built by Flickr’s Wynd, this alien-piloted retro-liveried Landspeeder is every bit as good as TLCB is bad at sci-fi, and you can boldly go to a galaxy far far away via the link above.