The Lamborghini Huracan is boring. At least if the regularity at which YouTube ‘influencers’ (yuk) switch out of them into the next clickbait supercar is any indication. But no matter, because if you’re bored with your Huracan too (in LEGO Technic 42161 form), you can switch it up into this rather neat Technic truck, as previous bloggee mpj has done with his. Click the link above to see more of mpj’s 42161 B-Model on Brickshelf.
It’s the last day of September, which means the annual building bandwagon ‘SHIPtember’ – wherein builders create colossal spaceships measuring one hundred studs or more – is concluding too. Which is good news if you like cars, or you’re Sci-Fi Incompetent.
TLCB Team are of course both of the above, so expect lots of “this is a Really Massive Spaceship”, and little else, in the rest of this post…
Anyway, on to the first creation, and it’s a Really Massive Spaceship. Constructed by Oscar Cederwall, it cleverly utilises a LEGO Crane Support Element down the centre, and there’s more to see via the link above.
The second creation in our SHIPtember 2023 roundup is a Very Large Spaceship Indeed, and sports a veritable rainbow of colours. Nathan Proudlove is its maker and there’s more to see here.
The third SHIPtember model appearing here comes from -Soccerkid6, whose 106-stud racer ‘Falchion 55’ is a Truly Sizeable Spaceship. Ingenious parts usage abounds throughout the design and there’s more of No. 55 to see via the link.
On to the fourth creation in our SHIPtember roundup, this Decidedly Enormous Spaceship by Andreas Lenander, with three superbly constructed engines, beautifully neat asymmetry, and – at least to the eyes of this car blog – wearing Honda racing colours. Click here to see more.
And so, much to the relief of the proper Lego sites that can actually do sci-fi, here’s the final model in our SHIPtember Special, LegOH!’s brilliant ‘Octan Mining Ship’. A Spaceship of Gigantic Proportions, LegOH’s entry packs in a variety of spacey details, none of which we can explain, but that you can see more of via the link above.
There you have it; TLCB’s immensely incompetent roundup of some Really Massive Spaceships for 2023. Don’t be fooled by our crap write-up though, each is a phenomenal build and well worth checking out, even if – like us – you don’t understand sci-fi whatsoever.
All can be found on Flickr (plus a lot more besides), and you can make the jump to hyperspace via the links above. Take a look whilst we get back to writing about things that have wheels and engines.
We’re pretty sure not every vintage car went ‘Poop poop!’*, but we can’t help but feel all Toad-of-Toad-Hall when we see one.
This lovely Speed Champions scale example comes from previous bloggee K P of Flickr, using only simple pieces and neat presentation to wonderful effect.
Poop poop your way to K P’s photostream for this and other old-timey creations via the link above.
*Some of course, went ‘Aaoogha!’
The LEGO Company’s products are built on oil.
Made from acrylonitrile butadiene styrene, LEGO bricks are a ‘virgin’ plastic; non-biodegradable, and crude oil based.
Of course this longevity means that LEGO bricks can be passed on to the next generation, an antidote to the mountains of disposable single-use toys cluttering up the world’s landfills, but the crude oil problem still looms.
LEGO are all too aware of this, having pledged to create bricks from sustainable materials that can continue to be passed down the generations. Polyethylene terephthalate (PET) looked a promising solution; reusing the millions of single-use plastic bottles (that invariably end up in our oceans) to create LEGO pieces.
Unfortunately, following two years of testing, LEGO have scrapped the project, after discovering that using recycled PET bottles didn’t reduce carbon emissions.
The cause was the extra energy required to turn a recycled bottle into a LEGO brick, and thus the company has “decided not to progress” with making pieces from PET.
And we think they should be applauded. So many companies would have proceeded, doubtless with an immense PR fanfare, claiming the development meant their products were ‘good for the environment’, despite knowing the truth to be rather different. In the age of egregious green-washing, The LEGO Company have done what is right, not what looks to be.
LEGO remain committed to producing bricks from sustainable materials by 2032, and when they do we’ll be rather more sure of their environmental claims than we are of most.
We go from the beginnings of the hot hatch in a small factory in Scotland in the late-‘70s, to their zenith some 45 years later. Yes, the days of the hot hatch are numbered, what with imminent safety, CO2 and fuel legislation, which will effectively outlaw small, fast, fun cars in favour of EV crossovers. Sigh.
Still, they’re going out with a bang, with several hot hatches now making more power than even supercars of a few years ago.
This is Subaru’s last hurrah in the genre, the Japan-only Impreza WRX STI Spec-C.
Packing over twice the power of the world’s first hot hatch, the WRX STI Spec-C features all-wheel-drive, over 400Nm of torque, and a lightened and stiffened body.
This amazing Model Team replica of the ultimate WRX comes from Mihail Rakovskiy of Flickr, who has captured it brilliantly in brick-form, with opening doors, hood and tailgate, a life-like interior, and a superb recreation of the 308bhp turbocharged boxer engine.
There are more excellent images to see at Mihail’s ‘Subaru Impreza WRX STI Spec C’ album on Flickr – take a look at the zenith of the hot hatch via the second link in the text above, and you can jump back to its genesis via the first.
LEGO’s 42081 Volvo Autonomous Loader set thoroughly perplexed us when it was revealed a few years ago. It still does really, but tungpham of Eurobricks saw greater potential in the Technic oddity than we did, turning his 42081 set into this fantastic backhoe loader.
Looking considerably better than the set on which it’s based, tungpham’s 42081 B-Model includes a raising and tilting front bucket, in-cab steering and rear arm skewing control, stabilising legs, and a rotating driver’s seat.
It also features some of the finest presentation we’ve ever seen on a LEGO model, mimicking LEGO’s own box, catalogue and digital imagery with superb photography and editing.
Building instructions are available and there’s more to see of tungpham’s incredible alternate at the Eurobricks forum – click the link above for a B-Side that’s better than the Single.
The internet is full of wonderful Lego models, many of which can be recreated at home thanks to readily available building instructions. For a fee.
Because one of life’s few certainties is that if something can be monitized, it will be.
But not today! Previous bloggee Thirdwigg is the hero we need, having created this excellent Technic tracked excavator, complete with a linear-actuator operated arm and bucket, a working piston engine, and a slewing superstructure, and he’s released building instructions for free.
The Lego Community could do we a few more members like Thirdwigg, and you can see more of his tracked excavator on Flickr. Click here to take a look, and here for a direct link to the free instructions.
Despite what Volkswagen would have you believe, the Golf GTI was not the world’s first hot hatchback. Nope, that honour goes to a little factory in Scotland that was originally part of the Rootes Group.
Rootes owned a variety of successful British brands, including Hillman, Humber, Singer and Sunbeam, before they were acquired by Chrysler in 1967, who then proceeded to ruin them.
In just a few short years the whole thing was loss-making, and the French government – fearing the demise of the French brands that Chrysler also owned – encouraged Peugeot-Citroen to purchase the remnants, which they did. For a dollar.
The result was the return of the Talbot name, which was applied to various Rootes products including their Sunbeam small hatchback. It was a design Chrysler kept hold of too, being quite a good one, successfully selling a very similar looking model as the Dodge Omni / Plymouth Horizon in the US.
In Europe, Peugeot-Citroen wanted to raise the profile of the reborn Talbot name, and so they decided to go motor racing, with Group B rallying their chosen route. Fortunately for them, Chrysler had already developed a sporty version of the Horizon / Sunbeam, having turned to Lotus for the development, but didn’t have time to launch it before the sale to Peugeot-Citroen.
Thus when it finally arrived, the 150bhp Sunbeam Lotus wore a Talbot badge, becoming the world’s first hot hatchback, and duly winning the World Rally Championship in 1981.
Such immediate success meant that Talbot become a household name, which must’ve pleased Peugeot-Citroen. Or so you would have thought. By the mid-’80s they’d killed it, with the marque lingering on a van for few a years before disappearing completely.
Still, SIM CAMAT of Flickr does remember the Talbot Sunbeam Lotus, and has paid homage via his wonderful Model Team recreation of the world’s first hot hatchback.
Beautifully accurate, SIM’s Sunbeam features opening doors and hood, a highly detailed interior complete with folding seats, and a stunning removable replica of the 2.2 litre slant-four Lotus engine that powered the car to the ’81 World Rally Championship.
There’s lots more of the model to see at SIM CAMAT’s photostream, and you can head back to the often-forgotten genesis of the hot hatchback via the link in the text above.
The LEGO Technic 42157 John Deere 948L-II Skidder set is one that – after a look through our archives – we must’ve missed, what with it not being there. Still, we’ve never claimed to be competent, and the set does look rather good. Cue Dyens Creations of Flickr, who has repurposed the 42157 John Deere to create, well… another John Deere.
Dyens’ is the 9R, an XL wheeled tractor with up to 700bhp (there’s a tracked one too, which looks mad), outfitted in this case with a pneumatically operated bulldozer blade. There’s also articulated steering, a working piston engine, and a rear hitch with PTO, and there’s more to see of Dyens’ 42157 John Deere B-Model on Flickr.
We haven’t written a post regarding golden air transport since we blogged about Donald Trump’s Air Force One showers*. Today though we’re back to golden air travel, courtesy of Ralph Savelsberg and this lovely Mitsubishi Fuso Canter box truck, wearing the livery of Japan’s ‘Meitetsu Golden Air Cargo’ company.
Ralph has captured both the truck and livery beautifully in Miniland scale, and there’s more of the Meitetsu Mitsubishi to see at his photostream. Click here for golden air delivery.
*Trump likes to be pissed on.
This is the unmistakable shape of the Lancia Stratos, designed by Bertone and powered by a Ferrari Dino V6, it was the first car purpose-built for rallying, winning the World Rally Championship three times consecutively between 1974 and 1976.
This lovely diorama by Flickr’s alex_bricks, who appeared here recently with his stunning 1988 Monaco Grand Prix scene, depicts a works Alitalia-liveried Stratos scything through a muddy forest.
Forced-perspective foliage and an array of mini-figures – including a driver and co-driver and some hardy spectators – add to the ambiance, and you can join them trackside c1975 via the link in the text above.
After decades of peace, Europe is once more at war, thanks to an under-endowed dictator intent on re-colonisation. However the last time war raged along Russia’s borders, it was defending against, rather than fighting for, a maniacal despot.
This wonderful diorama depicts a small part of that fight, when in 1942 German ace Wolf-Dietrich Wilcke was shot down by a Soviet Air Forces Hawker Hurricane, crash landing on an icy lake.
His Messerschmitt Bf 109 slipped through the ice to the bottom of the water, but Wolf-Dietrich survived to continue his service in the Luftwaffe, before finally being killed in action in March of 1944, with a scarcely believable 162 victories to his name.
Constructed by Jonah Padberg, this beautiful creation captures the moment of Wolf-Dietrich’s crash, and you can visit the frozen lake on which he landed, before it claimed his Messerschmitt Bf 109 but not his life, via the link above.
A lucky Elf is the recipient of two meal tokens this morning, thanks to Flickr’s Calin (aka _Tiler) and these two fantastic hot rods beautifully presented alongside one another in the same shot.
A regular bloggee here at TLCB, these two hot rods join an extensive back-catalogue of blogged builds, and there’s more to see of them and the rest of Calin’s creations at his photostream via the link above.
Don’t worry, we’re not exposing your Mom’s side hustle. Rather this excellent brick-built Petebilt 389 dump truck, the full-size version of which is owned by the uncle of its creator StudWorks of Flickr.
StudWorks’ aforementioned uncle is apparently “dash cam sensation” ‘Joey Whispers 1776’ who we… er, hadn’t heard of, but a quick look at his videos shows he doesn’t whisper at all. He does swear though. A lot.
Stud’s homage to his uncle’s truck includes a working dumping mechanism with lift-gate, posable lift-axle, and some splendid detailing, with more to see at his ‘JoeyWhispers1776 Peterbilt 389 Dump Truck’ album on Flickr.
Click the first link in the text above to find all of the imagery of StudWork’s Peterbilt, or the second to watch ol’ uncle Joey swearing at traffic.
The Porsche 911, having its roots in the Nazi’s “peoples’ car“, is a rather bubbly, round, and curvaceous vehicle.
The official LEGO 10295 Porsche 911 set is not therefore the obvious parts choice from which to construct a supercar from a brand at the very other end of the design spectrum; wilfully angular Lamborghini.
At least it wouldn’t be the obvious choice for the unimaginative dullards here at TLCB Towers, however previous bloggee Marcin Majkowski is rather more creative.
Taking the resolutely round 10295 set, Marcin has somehow managed to turn it into one of the most straight-edged supercars of modern times, the limited-run Lamborghini Countach LPI 800-4.
Utilising 1,204 (c80%) of the 10295 Porsche 911’s parts, Marcin’s Lamborghini includes opening scissor doors, a lifting engine cover, and working steering, and there’s more of his angular alternate to see at Eurobricks, on Bricksafe, and via Flickr, where a link to building instructions can also be found.
Click the links above to square your 10295 circle.
