More Endurance

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After years of very limited top-tier competition, the fastest class at Le Mans undergoing a spectacular resurgence. Works teams from Ferrari, Toyota, Porsche, Peugeot, and Cadillac all entered in 2023, with BMW, Lamborghini and Alpine all set to join in the coming years.

The 2023 24 Heures du Mans was won by a jubilant Ferrari, returning almost six decades after their last win, following an epic race-long battle with favourites Toyota. Joining his previously blogged classic Le Mans endurance racers, SFH_Bricks has recreated the 2023-winning Ferrari 499P brilliantly in Speed Champions form, alongside a host of other Hypercar-Class teams from this year’s event.

The second place Toyota GR010, doubtless still miffed at being slowed down by the FIA ‘Balance of Performance’ rules that likely cost them the win, the wonderfully-liveried (if uncompetitive) Penske Racing Porsche 963, and the third-placed Cadillac V-Series.R join the Ferrari 499P in SFH_Bricks’ ‘Le Mans 2023 Hypercars’ album.

Each Le Mans Hypercar wears an accurate livery -created in collaboration with brickstickershop – and is presented flawlessly, with building instructions available too. Join the 2023 race courtesy of SFH via the third link in the text above, plus you can check out the top-tier Le Mans cars from decades past via the second.

BrickCon is Back!

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This year will mark the 22nd BrickCon, the longest running Lego fan exhibition in the U.S., where Adult Fans of Lego will be welcomed from all over the world, alongside masses of public visitors who want to be a part of the fun.

As the premier Lego convention of the Pacific Northwest, every year BrickCon welcomes over 450 builders who create over 1,000 amazing Lego exhibits.

New Date & Location

Traditionally the annual event is held the first week of October at the Seattle Center. However, BrickCon has grown so large that more space is needed to accommodate all the exhibits, attendees, vendors, activities and members of the public!

Thus for BrickCon 2023 is at a brand new location and date, the Meydenbauer Center on September 7-10, with the public viewing days September 9-10.

Registration is now open for BrickCon 2023!

Registration is now open! To attend BrickCon 2023 as an Adult Fan of Lego, visit www.brickcon.org, where full event details and tickets can be found.

Duunan Duunan…

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One of Steven Spielberg’s most iconic movies – and his biggest cinematic regret – ‘Jaws’ was a triumph.

The highest grossing film ever upon its release, the 1975 blockbuster spawned several increasingly terrible sequels, taught an entire generation to (unfairly) fear sharks, and arguably led to the creation of the most-watched music video of all time. Which if anything Spielberg should be more regretful for than the whole shark-persecution thing.

Anyway, paying homage to one of the all-time film greats is Justus M., who has superbly recreated the ‘Orca’ fishing boat from the movie, along with an ominous fin in the water….

Join the hunt at Justus’ photostream via the link above, and cue the most famous two notes in film-score history…

Elven Argument

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We don’t speak elvish, but nevertheless we still understood the gist of the jabbering, pointing, and jumping up-and-down that occurred following one of Elves’ discovery of this car-transporting railway wagon.

Said creation is a DDm 915 Deutsche Bundesbahn Autoreisezug (apparently), and the aforementioned Elf was trying to convince us that it deserved eleven Smarties for finding it – one for each vehicle on board, and another for the wagon itself.

Despite being mildly impressed the Elf could count into double-digits it won’t be getting eleven Smarties, so whilst we have that argument you can check out more of the neat railway wagon that caused it courtesy of Thomas Reincke of Flickr via instructions by fellow Flickr-er BigDeady. Click the link to take a look.

Smiling Missiling

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This is the ‘LL-2329 Scuttlebug’, and whilst it might look rather adversarial, being a Classic Space thingumy it you can guarantee two things; 1. A perennially-smiling classic spaceman, and 2. Its purposes will be entirely peaceful, and very probably nerdy.

In this case the ‘Scuttlebug’s remit is one of mining and demolition, conducted of course by a perennially-smiling classic spaceman. Nevertheless, we bet Blacktron won’t be messing with it…

Flickr’s Duncan Lindbo is the builder and there’s more of the ‘Scuttlebug’ to see at his photostream. Click the link above to cheerily demolish a space mine or something.

A Whole Lotta Grass

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Surprisingly lucrative, easy to grow, and in demand just about everywhere, grass is bigger business than you might think.

Cue Arian Janssens, whose dope DAF 95.360 Space Cab hook-lift and drawbar trailer are designed solely to transport the stuff.

Both the truck and trailer can tip their respective containers independently, and share them with the world’s weirdest lawnmower for filling during the cutting process.

Hash your way to Flickr via the links above to roll one up.

Screeech… Crash!

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The absolutely inevitable sound that follows a Ford Mustang leaving a car meet. Like this one. Or this one. Or this one.

We’ll stand at a safe distance from IBrickedItUp‘s excellent 8-wide fourth generation Mustang then, which is pictured in front of an equally excellent forced-perspective city-scape backdrop. Expect to find the Mustang smashed into a telephone pole somewhere in there in about five minutes.

Grab your phone and head to the scene of the accident shouting “Ho-lee-shee-it!” on loop (the only other sound at an American car meet as inevitable as a crashing Mustang) via the link above!

It’s a Gas Gas Gas!

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You know how it goes, you wait ages for a Gasser and then three arrive at once. Or something like that.

Anyway, our third ‘gasser’-style hot rod in a week arrives courtesy of _Tiler, whose beautifully presented ’56 C1 Corvette has allowed to us to link to a brilliant title song, and which somehow sits in the centre of a Sacrilege/Inspired Venn diagram.

There’s more of the ‘vette to see on Flickr via the link above, you can jump to the aforementioned title song here, and you can check out the brand new official LEGO Icons 10321 Corvette set by clicking those final teal words.

The Best 4×4+1

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LEGO’s 40650 Land Rover Classic Defender is a rather nice little 150-piece pocket-money set. But add just a single extra stud to the dimensions (and a few more advanced building techniques) and it can become something altogether more authentic. Cue SvenJ.‘s excellent 7-wide Land Rover Defender 90, which adds the Defender’s famous ‘barrel side’, triple-rear-window, posable steering, and a whole heap more interior and exterior detail. Building instructions are available and you can upgrade your own 40650 set via the link above.

More Gas!

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It seems like only yesterday that we posted a delightful ‘gasser’ style hot rod by Flickr’s Tim Inman. Because it was. Anyway, he’s published another in quick succession, this time based on a Chevrolet ‘Chevy II’, better known as the Nova, and inspired by several real Nova racers built back in 1964. The silly drivetrain and even sillier engine are perfectly period-correct, and there’s more of the model to see at Tim’s photostream. Click the link for more gas.

Taking the Mickey

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The famed Fiat 500 was not the brand’s first city car. For that you have to go way back to 1936 and the Topolino, or ‘little mouse’ (which was also the Italian name for Mickey Mouse), a tiny 569cc, 13hp two-seater sold up until the 500’s introduction in 1955.

Designed for two, but often seen with four or five very uncomfortable people squeezed inside, the Topolino was one of the smallest cars in the world at the time, and a hugely successful one, with over half-a-million produced.

Important to Italy’s mobility as the Topolino was however, we wouldn’t think of it as the obvious choice for a ‘Gasser’ hot rod. Fortunately Tim Inman‘s mind works differently to ours, because the resultant creation is unhinged brilliance, and there’s more of Tim’s Topolino Gasser to see on Flickr. Click the link above to make the jump.

Absolutely Trolleyed

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If someone is British, posh, and drunk*, they may well be ‘trolleyed’ (amongst an almost unlimited array of other verbs). Cue a tenuous link to this ‘Wickham Trolley’, a petrol-powered railway engineering personnel carrier, as built beautifully by Liam Biggs. Cunning building techniques and lovely attention to detail abound, and there’s more of the model to see at both Flickr and Eurobricks. Get absolutely trolleyed via the links above.

*This TLCB Writer is currently two out of three. We’ll let you guess which!

8062 Redux

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The year is 1994, and LEGO’s Technic range is riding high. The line-up’s flagship may have been a high water mark, but there were some absolute gems to be had lower down the range too.

The 8062 Briefcase Set was one of them, a brilliant multi-model set that could be handily stored in a plastic, er… briefcase. One of the six models that could be constructed from 8062’s parts was a neat twin-rotor helicopter, and it’s this that previous bloggee Thirdwigg has rebooted for the modern age.

Constructed from smooth new panels and lift-arms, Thirdwigg’s 8062 Helicopter Redux recreates the set’s hand-cranked counter-rotating rotors and opening loading ramp, whilst adding (very clever) collective pitch control and retracting landing gear too.

There’s more of the model to see at both Flickr and Eurobricks, where we hope Thirdwigg will have a go at rebooting the other five models from 8062 using shared pieces too.

Lift-Off!

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The Lego Car Blog Elves are all excitedly running around the office making ‘Bwukushhh!!’ noises today, thanks to OA KD‘s superb landing/launch pad, and the rather awesome looking Neo-Classic Spaceship departing from it. Although seeing as TLCB Staff know absolutely nothing about sci-fi, perhaps the Elves have got the right idea… Click the link above to lift-off whilst we excitedly run around the office making ‘Bwukushhh!!’ noises!

It’s 106 miles to Chicago…

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…we got a full tank of gas, half a pack of cigarettes, it’s dark… and we’re wearing sunglasses.

Delightfully over-the-top, loud, and perhaps lacking some substance, the 1974 Dodge Monaco ‘Bluesmobile’ and the 1980 musical comedy ‘The Blues Brothers’ in which it starred are the perfect mirror of one another.

This glorious Speed Champions version of the ‘Bluesmobile’ captures the film car beautifully, coming from TLCB regular Jonathan Elliott who has based his superbly-presented model on brickhead_07’s free building instructions available at Rebrickable. 

There’s more of the model to see at Jonathan’s photostream via the first link, the building instructions on which it is based can be found via the second, and you can watch every car crash from ‘The Blues Brothers’ by clicking here. The movie set a world record for the most…