Only By the Night*

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From a tiny and beautifully packaged vehicle to… er, not that. The Ram 1500 is a ‘full-size’ (read ‘bloody massive’ for non-Americans) pick-up truck, marketed first as a Dodge, and today spun-off as an independent brand.

Now in its fifth generation, the 1500 is available with an array of enormous engines and – as pictured here – also as a ‘Night Edition’, which according to Ram’s own website means “Boasting a menacing monotone exterior and backed by equally intimidating capability”.

The words ‘menacing’ and ‘intimidating’ appear a few times on the first page in fact, which suggests both that Ram really need a thesaurus, and also that the 1500 ‘Night Edition’ is very much not our kind of vehicle.

Despite the real truck’s pointless dick-waving, this Model Team recreation of the Ram 1500 ‘Night Edition’ is rather excellent however, and comes from previous bloggee 3D supercarBricks.

Featuring working steering and suspension, plus opening doors, hood, load cover and tailgate, 3D’s creation also includes a few 3D-printed pieces and custom wheels. Presumably to enhance the truck’s menacing monotone exterior and intimidating capability.

There’s much more to see at 3D’s photostream, and you can click the link above to check out all of the superb imagery.

*The first track from today’s title album. It’s a good one.

Micro Machine

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Unlike your Mom, Kei-class microbuses are really very small indeed. However they manage to pack a whole lot into their tiny footprint, with room for four adults plus luggage, some feature all-wheel-drive, and a few are even fully-fitted campers.

Cue apachaihapachai‘s terrific Technic microbus which, despite measuring just nine studs by twenty-four, features a complete remote control drivetrain courtesy of an L Motor, a Servo, and a BuWizz bluetooth battery, all completely hidden inside a neat 1990s kei-bus body. There’s even an interior. Kinda.

It’s a miracle of ingenious packaging and you can find out how apachai has done it at the Eurobricks forum. Click the link above to squeeze inside.

Challenge This

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Chrysler, beaten to the ‘pony car’ market by the Ford Mustang, decided that if was going to be late, strength in numbers would win the day. As such the corporation launched about a dozen pony/muscle cars, all of which seemed to do more-or-less the same job, and each being available with a bewildering array of engines.

This is one of Dodge’s offerings from the time, the Challenger. Like its Charger brethren that appeared here last month, this stunning replica of the ’70s pony car comes from Szunyogh Balázs (aka gnat.bricks), who has recreated the Challenger magnificently in Model Team form.

A detailed engine resides under an opening hood, the doors open to reveal a life-like interior, and even the Challenger’s chassis and drivetrain have been accurately replicated.

Excellent presentation caps a really impressive build, and there’s much more of the model to see at both Szunyogh’s ’12 Studs Challenger’ album on Flickr or via the Eurobricks discussion forum by clicking these words.

Crack Commando Corvette

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In 1972, a crack commando unit was sent to prison by a military court for a crime they didn’t commit. These men promptly escaped from a maximum security stockade to the Los Angeles underground, whereupon they bought a GMC van and a C4 Corvette, painted a giant red stripe down the side of each, and were somehow completely untraceable to the government.

No, we don’t understand how that works either, but no matter, because it allows us to publish this brilliant brick-built Chevrolet Corvette C4 (complete with a giant red stripe), as driven by the ‘A-Team’s Arthur Templeton “Faceman” Peck. Or someone rather more visually appealing.

Flickr’s László Torma is the builder behind it, instructions are available, and you can head to the Los Angeles underground via the link in the text above.

Hell Hath No Fury

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‘Tis this season of scaring small children, taking candy from strangers, and dressing in little-to-nothing. But enough about this TLCB Writer’s plans for tonight, we’ve time for one final post before the Halloween spookiness begins. Cue Stephen King’s ‘Christine‘, a haunted ’58 Plymouth Fury containing the vengeful spirit of a past owner, and a taste for blood. Regular bloggee Jonathan Elliott has brought Christine back in brick form, and you can take a closer look on Flickr via the link. Just make sure you take good care of her…

Fifty Shades of Grey

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The Lego Car Blog Elves, who are effectively mythical toddlers, like eye-searing colours. Yellow. Orange. Pink. A combination of all of them. If they could choose a car’s colour scheme it would probably look like this.

TLCB staff however, prefer far more muted hues. As do 95% human adults, judging the almost universally monochrome cars on the roads of our home nation. If a car isn’t black, silver, grey or white, it’s because the owner must be an obnoxious show-off.

Previous bloggee K P certainly shares this school of thought, creating this rather beautiful Jaguar-ish / Bentley-esque classic car from three monochrome colours, which are neatly reflected in the driver’s attire too.

The dog remains light brown though. The obnoxious show-off.

Inventive parts usage and excellent building techniques abound, and there’s more to see of K P’s lovely classic luxury car on Flickr. Click the link above to take a closer look, whilst we ponder why colour adventurism fades as we age, and consider if we should paint the office Rover 200 orange. And pink.

NEE NAW!

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It’s been quiet. Too quiet…

Not because TLCB Elves were plotting anything, although that is a perennial concern, but because they hadn’t found anything blogworthy in ages. Fortunately the quiet was shattered today by a multitude of Elves all screaming ‘NEE NAW!!’ as loud as they could.

We have necomer lukarepinc, here making their TLCB debut, to thank for ending the drought, with not one, nor two, but a whole fleet of superb Model Team emergency vehicles.

Uploaded simultaneously to Flickr, these include a Slovenian Volkswagen ambulance (pictured above), a NYPD Bell 429 helicopter, ERV-1, and – in the absence of a title or description – a Giant Fire Truck (all pictured below).

Each is a fantastic brick-built recreation of its real-world counterpart and there’s more to see of all of the creations featured here, plus a lot more besides, at lukarepinc’s photostream. Switch on your siren via the link above!

We’re Jammin’

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From kids not talking to one another except through social media, to deliberate misinformation, constant comparison, a mental health crisis, addiction to ‘likes’, the polarisation of debate, the threat of cancellation, and endless ‘influencers’ touting nothing but the lie that materialism leads to contentment, the world would be a better place if some of its signals were jammed.

Cue the ‘Teal 1’, a signal-jamming star-fighter collaboration published by previous bloggee Alec Hole, and designed to ‘interfere with transmissions’.

Complete with a crew of three, tilting engines, folding landing gear, and a superb landing pad built by fellow Flickrer Rogue Bantha, Alec’s signal-jamming spacecraft is an exquisite example of sci-fi creativity.

There’s more of the collaboration to see at Alec’s photostream; click the link above to check it out, and do the world a favour by jamming a few signals. We’d start by pointing it straight at TikTok.

*Today’s title song. Of course.

The Living Daylights

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Controversial opinion of the week; The Timothy Dalton era Bond films were the best Bond films.

OK, ‘best’ is definitely subjective, but they were perhaps the most accurate to the books. They were dark, rather violent, and a magnitude less absurd than the Roger Moore era movies that preceded them.

1987’s ‘The Living Daylights’ also benefited from a fantastic Bond Car; the awesome Aston Martin V8 Vantage. Fitted with a set of skis, laser hubcaps, rockets, and a rocket motor (Less absurd!? Ed.), 007’s Vantage was rather more highly specified than the police Lada 1500s in pursuit, culminating a snowy car chase that involved a fishing shed and a cello.

OK, perhaps they were just as absurd (our editor has likely interjected already somewhere above to this end…) (Sure has! Ed.), but the Vantage was still awesome.

Cue (or ‘Q’, hah!) this marvellous Speed Champions recreation of Bond’s Aston Martin V8 Vantage from ‘The Living Daylights’, as built by previous bloggee barneius of Flickr. Complete with skis and a rocket motor, barneius’ build is ready to take on a whole fleet of police Ladas, and you can join the chase on a frozen lake somewhere in Czechoslovakia via the link above.

GT-ONE

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Built for the GT1 regulations of the late ’90s, this is the Toyota GT-ONE, a V8-powered homologation endurance racer (yes, there really was a ‘road’ version’) that took second at the Le Mans 24 Hours.

Created by SFH_Bricks, this incredible Speed Champions replica of the GT-One captures the astonishing real car wonderfully, with the excellent brick-work enhanced by a superbly accurate livery courtesy of Brickstickershop.

Building instructions are available and there’s more to see of SFH’s fantastic 1999 Le Mans racer on Flickr – click the link above to take a closer look.

She’s Electric*

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Despite supposedly being a car blog, we’ve featured all manner of trains over the years. However they have almost all been steam or diesel powered, which doesn’t really reflect what is actually the prime energy source for moving people and things about on the railways.

Today electricity powers the majority of rail traffic, with it being far more efficient, a lot less polluting, and much quieter than burning fossilised dinosaurs, even if the electricity itself is generated by doing just that.

This exceptional electric locomotive is an SNCF CC6500, published by KMbricklab fresh from a win at the ‘Brick Train Awards 2023’. And they probably know about Lego trains.

There’s much more of KM’s beautifully presented model to see at their ‘SNCF CC6500 Electric Locomotive’ album on Flickr, and you can buy your rail ticket via the link in the text above.

*Today’s excellent title song.

Ghostly Porsche

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Following on from the ‘Initial D’ manga series, ‘MF Ghost’ resets the Japanese street racing scene to the late 2020s, when self-driving electric cars are the norm and internal combustion engines are consigned to history. Except in the mountain passes…

Protagonist Kanata Rivington’s Toyota GT86 beats everyone it seems, regardless of how exotic their car is, including Jackson Taylor’s modified Miami-blue Porcshe 911 Carrera GTS, recreated here by Ilya M.

Clever techniques, accurate ‘8’ decals, and top quality presentation all feature, and there’s more of Taylor’s Porsche 911 to see on Flickr, including a link free building instructions. Click the link above to recreate your own ghostly 911, and then lose to a Toyota with half the power.

Take Charge

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The Lego Car Blog Elves are happy today because, whilst this isn’t Dom’s Dodge Charger, it’s close enough for us to relent and let them watch one of the terrible ‘Fast & Furious’ movies.

Szunyogh Balázs (aka gnat.bricks) is the builder behind this stunning Model Team Dodge Charger, which features opening doors, hood and trunk, a detailed interior, a life-like V8 engine, and some brilliant details of the real car’s mechanics, including brake discs and callipers, a full-length exhaust, and even a brick-built differential.

Szunyogh’s presentation is top-drawer too, and you can check out all the images on Flickr via the link above, whilst we watch Vin Diesel repeatedly mumble ‘family’ in an attempt make up for the lack of a coherent plot, dialogue, or physics.

Pimp My Duplo

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The genius of LEGO is that every part can work with every other, across themes, times and even sub-brands. Cue regular bloggee Jonathan Elliott, who has demonstrated this compatibility by combining a LEGO Duplo car shell with far more intricate System pieces. The result is one heck of a rad’ toddler ride, and you can see more of his inspired Duplo/System mash-up on Flickr via the link above.

A Beautiful Nightmare

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Hailing from the golden era of Japanese sports cars, the ‘FD’ Mazda RX-7 was the third and final generation of the rotary-engined icon.

With assistance from twin-turbos, the FD’s 1.3 litre twin-rotor motor produced up to 276bhp, getting very hot and drinking a lot of oil in the process. It was also, in this writer’s opinion, perhaps the prettiest of all the ’90 sports cars, which is enough for many to overlook the ownership nightmare of that unique engine and enter a relationship of intense unreliability and ruinous expense. Which is probably a metaphor for something.

Anyway, this excellent Technic recreation of the RX-7 comes from previous bloggee Matthew Terentev, and includes opening doors, hood and trunk, plus a brilliantly accurate interior in very ’90s-Japan-appropriate black plastic.

There’s much more to see at Matthew’s ‘Mazda RX-7 (FD)’ album on Flickr, and you can click the link above to make the jump.