I Fold

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The results of the last TLCB poker night have caused this writer to owe a substantial beer-based debt to our editor (You have until Monday. Ed.). Knowing when to fold is everything it seems, and whilst this writer definitely doesn’t, TLCB newcomer Dan Nguyen sure does, with this wonderful 1940s Vought F4U Corsair.

Being a carrier-based fighter, the F4U Corsair needed to fit inside flight-deck lifts and on-board hangars, and as such featured wings that could fold neatly upwards whilst in storage before returning to their horizontal position for flight.

Dan’s model captures this feature beautifully, using some cunning techniques to recreate the Vought’s complex wing shape and fuselage, and enhancing the realism further with accurately replicated US Navy decals.

There’s more to see at Dan’s ‘Vought F4U Corsair’ Flickr album, and you can learn when to fold via the link in the text above.

More ‘Mog

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Ever since LEGO released the incredible 8110 Mercedes-Benz Unimog U400 set over a decade ago, the internet has been awash with home-made ‘mogs. Dozens of the best have appeared here over the years, countless Elves have been run-over by the remote control ones, and the online Lego Community is showing no sign of slowing up on the ‘mog-making. Which we’re totally OK with, because Unimogs are cool.

They’re also interesting from an engineering perspective, and offer plenty of scope for the recreation of real-world mechanics in brick form. Cue the latest Mercedes-Benz Unimog to appear here, this excellent flat-bed U5000 built by Teo LEGO Technic.

With a third-party BuWizz bluetooth battery remotely controlling the twin Power Functions XL Motor four-wheel-drive, M Motor steering, pneumatic differential locks, and a high/low gearbox, plus some serious suspension, Teo’s U5000 looks to be as good off-road as the real deal.

There’s more to see, including a video of the model in action, at the Eurobricks forum, plus a complete image gallery with mechanical break-downs can be found at Bricksafe. Click the links to take a look, and you can see all the many ‘mogs that have appeared here over the last eleven years via the search function in the sidebar or footer.

Life-Size Lego Kia EV6

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LEGO bricks have been used to create all manner of life-size real-world replicas, from Volkswagen Campers to Ferrari Formula 1 cars, via motorcycles, pick-up trucks, supercars, and classics. Korean electric crossovers haven’t featured though. Until now.

Of course until recently, creating a life-size Kia from LEGO bricks would’ve been like making the world’s largest rice cracker; impressive and yet also immensely dull. However with Hyundai/Kia now making some of the most interesting cars on the market, recreating one from hundreds of thousands of LEGO pieces is no longer a pointless endeavour. Cue certified LEGO Professional Riccardo Zangelmi’s company BrickVision and Kia Italia, who have turned 350,000 LEGO bricks into a 1:1 replica of Kia’s EV6 electric crossover.

Riccardo’s team took over 800 hours to create the life-size EV6, plus a further four months to develop the illumination system used to recreate the real EV6’s lighting signature.

It seems that Kia Italia used that time to write some of the most nonsensical marketing guff that we’ve ever read to accompany the build, with phrases like “strongly characterising luminous personality in every circumstance”, and “particular surfaces with accentuated inclinations, an expression of refined design” two of our highlights.

You can read more automotive marketing gibberish like that via Auto&Design by clicking here, or you can watch Kia Italia’s video on the project – which is mercifully free from the thoughts of their marketing department – by clicking play below.

YouTube Video

Pick-Up Bricks

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This is a 1980s Toyota Hilux, and it is the best pick-up truck ever conceived.

Slow, small, and seemingly unbreakable, the ’80s Hilux is the pinnacle of Toyota over-engineering. It also wore some excellent side stripe decals, which immediately makes it cool, as does (and is) this brilliant Model Team replica of the iconic 4×4 from previous bloggee Vladimir Drozd.

Underneath the wonderfully accurate exterior – resplendent with period-correct stripes, roof lights and fender extensions – is a Technic chassis with both steering and suspension, and there’s much more of the model to see on Flickr.

Take a look at Vladimir’s brick-built version of the best pick-up ever made via the link above.

Pure Garbage

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…is something the content of this website is routinely called in the comments. Which is mostly correct of course. Today’s creation can handle it though, being this brilliant Technic garbage truck (or ‘bin lorry’ where this writer is from).

Constructed by previous bloggee Thirdwigg (aka Wigboldy), the model is absolutely packed with working functions, the first of which has nothing to do with its garbage processing ability at all.

Thirdwigg has created a ‘Hybrid’ drivetrain for the truck, with the wheels turning either a traditional piston engine under the tilting cab, a brick-built ‘electric’ motor, or a combination of both, with a switchable differential doing the job of the power-control-unit that features on real-world Hybrid powertrains.

It’s a superb replication of the system used by many new vehicles, heavy trucks and buses included, and one we think could appear in all sorts of Technic models going forward, particularly as Thirdwigg has made building instructions for his design available.

Away from the trick powertrain and a wealth of Technic functionality continues, with four-wheel steering, a working bin lifting mechanism, a two stage cycle for garbage extraction, a linear actuator driven extractor plate, and an opening rear hopper, all of which are controlled via hand-powered mechanisms thanks to conveniently placed knob-gears though-out the model.

Over a dozen top quality images are available to view at Thirdwigg’s ‘Hybrid Garbage Truck’ album on Flickr, where a link to the aforementioned building instructions can also be found, plus you can watch all of the model’s working features in action via an excellent YouTube video.

Click the links above to take out the garbage, whilst we get back to writing it.

Stranger Danger

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This classic Ford Econoline van, complete with some, er… ‘tasteful’ period modifications, was found by one of our Elves on Flickr, who clearly hadn’t listened to the office talk on stranger danger.

Driven by Brad, who makes a living selling foreign narcotics part-time, and his girlfriend Tiffany, who works in ‘entertainment’, this modified late-’70s to mid-’80s Econoline has got more red flags flying than a minefield.

But it’s also got a wicked three-tone stripe, side-pipes, a moon window, and is blasting Buckcherry out of the stereo, so maybe it’s worth a closer look after all… no. NO.

HCKP13 is the builder, and if you’re old enough there’s more to see of their superbly built and beautifully presented creation on Flickr, where alternatively if you’re not yet of age (or you’re a TLCB Elf), there’s also a bitchin’ monster truck version.

Variable Geometry

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This is a Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-23, a 1970s Soviet fighter and fighter-bomber, and the most-produced variable-geometry fighter in history. Over 5,000 MiG-23s were built, with hundreds sold around the world to various scumbaggy dictatorships, some of whom still fly the aircraft today. This excellent brick-built version comes from John C. Lamarck and it includes the MiG-23’s variable wing sweep, working landing gear, and a variety of exciting looking weaponry. There’s more of the model to see at John’s ‘MiG-23 MF’ album on Flickr and you can take a look at cutting-edge Cold War aeronautics via the link above.

What Might Have Been

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The story of the 2022 Formula 1 season is one of what might have been. After years in the doldrums, Scuderia Ferrari finally had the fastest car on the grid, and not only that, they had one of the most talented driver pairings too. Ferrari duly won two of the first three races, with fastest lap at all three, and with only one podium place dropped. And then – courtesy of some inexplicable tactical decisions – they threw it all away.

Now longstanding readers of this crumbling ruin in the corner of the internet will know that we aren’t Scuderia Ferrari’s biggest fans, what with them being immoral scumbags and everything, but if they stopped us having to see Christian Horner’s smug face every week we’d have taken it. However, unfortunately for Ferrari’s drivers – and us – some of the worst decision making in modern Formula 1 history gifted Red Bull’s Max Verstappen a second consecutive World Championship, and Horner’s smugness gained its own gravity.

Still, Ferrari’s 2022 F1 car looked rather lovely, and probably was the fastest car of the season, if only the team weren’t run by muppets, and it looks just as stunning in brick form courtesy of Noah_L, who has added the F1-75 to his amazing catalogue of Scuderia Ferrari racers.

Noah’s astonishing attention to detail is brought to life by some truly masterful building techniques, with superbly replicated decals and impeccable presentation making his Scuderia Ferrari F1-75 one of the most realistic real-world cars of the year so far.

A beautiful gallery of imagery is available to view on Flickr, where links to Noah’s previous Scuderia Ferrari racers and building instructions for the F1-75 pictured here can also be found. Build your own 2022 title challenger and reenact Ferrari’s strategic incompetence (not pitting under the safety car, pitting two cars at once, pitting for the wrong tyres…) via the link above. Just don’t be surprised if Christian Horner appears out of nowhere looking smug.

Swoosh?

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Do sky-fi creations go swoosh? We’re not sure, and we’re insufficiently nerdy to bother finding out, but nevertheless previous bloggee Sylon_tw‘s cyperpunk-style sky-fi thing is well worth a closer look, with some ingenious building techniques and top-quality presentation on display. Click the link to swoosh on over. Probably.

Pre-E

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Jaguar’s E-Type is probably the marque’s most celebrated sports car. However perhaps the cars that came before it are even more beautiful. The XK series of sports cars, beginning with the XK120 in 1948 and ending in 1961 with the XK150, were amongst the fastest cars in the world at the time, and were named after Jaguar’s new inline-6 engine that went on to power not just the E-Type, but all manner of Jaguars up until the 1990s. This excellent small-scale version of the car that debuted one of the automotive world’s great engines comes from SFH_Bricks, and there’s more to see of this 1950 Jaguar XK120 Fixed-Head Coupe on Flickr – click the link to take a look.

Channel Crossing

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One hundred and twenty years ago, the Wright brothers took to the skies (briefly) to complete the world’s first powered heavier-than-air flight. Made of spruce, ash, and canvas, their ‘Wright Flyer’ propelled itself through the air for 260 metres / 850 feet, and into the record books.

Just six years later and aircraft development was so rapid that planes could stay airborne for hours at a time, with this, the Blériot XI, the first to cross the English Channel. A competition run by an English newspaper, Louis Charles Joseph Blériot took the £1,000 prize, and with it over a hundred orders for his new monoplane.

This incredible recreation of that pioneering aircraft is the work of Nikolaus Löwe, and includes functioning control surfaces via the cockpit stick, a foot-pedal operated rudder, suspended landing-gear, and a working semi-radial engine.

There’s more to see at Nikolaus’ photostream and you can head to the skies over the English Channel in 1909 via the link above.

Prime Mover

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LEGO’s 1,500 piece, £150, fully transforming 10302 Transformers Optimus Prime set got TLCB Elves very excited when we revealed it here last year. In fact we thought they could only be more hyped if Megan Fox herself arrived at TLCB Towers, at which point a few of the staff would likely have matched their fanaticism. However previous bloggee Ralph Savelsberg has proved there is even more excitement to be had, with his fantastic Optimus Prime ‘Combat Deck’.

Based on the Transformers G1 toy, Ralph’s creation attaches to the official 10302 set brilliantly, before unfolding to reveal an array of equipment essential in the protection of Earth. The toy’s boom-mounted rotating missile thingumy, combat stations, and a spring-fired ‘Roller’ armoured 6×6 car are all accurately recreated in brick form, as are the stickers and livery, which Ralph has replicated superbly via some cunning brickwork.

There’s a whole lot more to see at Ralph’s ‘Lego Optimus Prime with Custom Combat Deck’ album on Flickr, and you can join a gaggle of ridiculously excited Elves there by clicking the link above.

Porco Rosso

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This ace looking aircraft is a Savoia S.21 racing floatplane, as featured in the Japanese animated movie ‘Porco Rosso’. Like most things from Japanese cartoons (fighting robots, ball-stored transforming creatures, giant lizards, and improbably-proportioned schoolgirls to name a few), the Savoia S.21 not real, but it is titled after (and vaguely inspired by) an actual 1910s Italian floatplane.

Flown by a cigarette smoking, wine drinking, moustachioed pig, the S.21 is used to hunt air pirates, who are like regular pirates, only in the air. Look, it doesn’t have to make any sense, the plane’s still cool, and there’s more to see of this Lego version courtesy of LEGO7 on Flickr via the link.

Polestar

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Communist Polish manufacturer FSC – makers of vehicular magnificence such as this – also made something not terrible. FSC’s Star truck line began in the late 1940s, and despite the shackles of the Iron Curtain produced reliable, cheap and reasonably powerful heavy duty trucks for a variety of markets until it was swallowed up by MAN in the 1990s. This is one such truck, the Star 660, as created really rather wonderfully by previous bloggee [Maks]. Ingenious parts usage, clever building techniques, and a custom mini-figure are all worth a closer look, and you can follow the pole star on Flickr via the link.

Grand Veneer

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From one nuclear-armed Cold War superpower building a 1960s design for about two decades too long to another, and the Jeep Wagoneer.

Launched in 1963, the first generation SJ-Series Wagoneer was built all the way until 1991 and – despite it being as American as hot dogs and unnecessary gun ownership – it was also produced in some interesting markets outside the US, including Argentina (military dictator), Egypt (military dictator) and Iran (military coup d’etat). America’s veneer as the leader of freedom is about as thin as the Wagoneer’s wood.

This splendid Model Team recreation of the ’91 ‘Grand Wagoneer’ from its final year of production comes from Flickr’s Jakub Marcisz, who has replicated the luxury 4×4 brilliantly in brick form. Opening doors and hood, a dropping tailgate, working steering, an excellent interior and engine, and wonderfully authentic faux-wood panelling all add to the realism, and there’s much more to see at Jakub’s photostream via the link above.

Back to dodgy dictatorships, and what with there being a rather more strained relationship between Iran and the USA today, the Iranian company that built the Jeep Wagoneer for over a decade in the ’60s and ’70s now builds Renaults instead. The same Renault that just lost $2billion pulling out of Russia. Perhaps with those morals they deserve to lose £2billion after all…