Coles Express

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We’ve featured thousands of cars here at The Lego Car Blog, but very rarely do we feature the places where they fill up. Of course the days of the gas station – at least in their currents forms – are numbered, but for now they remain one of society’s few remaining meeting places.

Wealth, gender, and race matter not at the gas station, where the entire spectrum of humanity congregate by hoses full of ancient zooplankton, over-priced bags of sweets, machine-served coffee, and last-minute flowers.

This superb brick-built recreation of one of the last bastions of physical interaction comes from Kale Frost who constructed it as a commissioned piece. Click the link to join us standing at the pump pondering which over-priced bag of sweets to buy at his ‘Coles Express’ album on Flickr.

A Supercar. Only Smaller

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Japan’s wonderful ‘Kei car’ class, which restricts size, weight, and power in favour of tax breaks, is one of our very favourite things in the automotive world. The antidote to the SUV arms-race, it includes vehicles of almost every type, from one-box people movers to off-roaders, fire engines, and tipper trucks. Back in the early ’90s, it even included a supercar. Kinda…

This is the Autozam AZ-1 / Suzuki Cara, a gull-wing doored, mid-engined, turbo-charged coupe built in collaboration between Mazda and Suzuki, that took all of the ingredients of a ’90s supercar, and miniaturised them.

With a government-mandated 67bhp, the speed was miniaturised too, but then would you really want to do 180mph in something the size of a large shoe?

This one is even smaller, being a Speed Champions recreation of the mad ’90s original, it comes from Ilya M, there are free building instructions available, and there’s more to see on Flickr. Shrink a supercar via the link above!

Drift Tax

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Do you own a Japanese sports car from the 1990s? If so, your retirement is paid for. Because at the current trajectory, previously near-worthless Japanese metal will be valued at around $1billion a piece by 2030.

Supras, worth under £10,000 in TLCB’s home nation just a decade ago, are now up to £50,000. MR2s, which were scrap value just a few years ago, now make £10,000. And the humble Nissan 240SX – even a knackered ‘project car’, now costs five figures, with good examples north of £20,000. For a thirty year old Nissan!

We don’t pretend to understand it, but we suspect much of the hype is down to the video games Gen-X-ers and Millennials played two decades ago, which were awash with modified Japanese metal.

The resultant phenomenon today is a boom in ’90s Japanese sports cars, with all of them ending up looking likes this; 1saac W.’s superb modified Nissan Silvia / 240SX. Wide wheels, silly camber, a phat exhaust, and huge aero tick all the drifty boxes, and you can take a closer look at 1saac’s immensely valuable Nissan at his photostream.

Click the link above to pay the Drift Tax, whilst we rue the fact that Gran Turismo didn’t feature the sheddy old Rovers that make up TLCB carpark instead of ’90s Japanese sports cars…

Pack-Away Peril

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If this is a glimpse into the future of urban mobility, we’re on board! A speeder bike that packs away into a handy cube, Dan Ko‘s design looks the perfect tool for the scooter subscription service of tomorrow.

Expect these to be dumped across pavements, doorways and bus stops, ridden with almost comical disregard for safety, and chucked into city canals within fifteen minutes of service commencing. Join us in definitely not doing any of the above via the link!

Race on Sunday, Sell on Monday

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Motor racing has long been used to change brand image. Or, in the case of the tobacco industry, market cigarettes to children.

Audi’s ‘What Dieselgate?’ hybrid Dakar racers, Inifiniti, then Aston Martin, and next Ford, all pretending they have something to do with the Red Bull F1 car, fictitious energy drink company ‘Rich Energy’ sponsoring Haas F1, without having any money… or even an energy drink… Yes the world of race sponsorship makes about as much sense as a LEGO website staffed by Elves.

Fast-forward to the future of racing (or is the past? We’re never quite sure with Star Wars), and the Galactic Empire is still using the same tactics to transform its brand image / market itself to children. Because what better way to convince a sixteen year old to die* on a far away planet than to go racing!

This marvellous ‘Imperial Pod Racer’ is the work of Rubblemaker of Flickr, who has imagined what it would look like if the Galactic Empire went racing. TIE Fighter aesthetics, top-notch building techniques, and stellar presentation have us ready to enlist at the Stormtrooper recruitment office, and you can join us there via the link above!

*And yes, this is actually happening. Still, it’s better than Marlboro.

Out on Bale

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Pieces of farm equipment, like American cars, are often named after scary things. Cue the Claas Scorpion telehandler, so called because it looks precisely nothing like the desert-dwelling arachnid.

It is a good bit of kit mind, as is regular bloggee Damian Z’s brick-built recreation, which not only looks the part, it functions like it too.

A variety of implements can be attached to the telescopic elevating boom, including a pair of forks, a tipping bucket, or a horizontal grabby thingy.

Said thingy can be used to manoeuvre bales onto the drawbar trailer, which can then be towed behind, and there’s more to see of Damian’s excellent creation at his ‘CLAAS Scorpion’ album on Flickr. Click the link above to get out on bale.

They Think It’s Febr-Over…

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…It is now!

Yes the annual festival of all things other-worldly is over for another year, with a smorgasbord of wonderful roving contraptions entered, about which we know exactly nothing. We’re not sure what our strong suit is, or even if we have one at all, but we certainly know it isn’t sci-fi.

But before TLCB staff can breathe a collective sigh of relief and return to writing about the engine capacities of 1960s British sedans, here are two final Febrovery rovers, as entered by Julius Kanand and Nathan Hake of Flickr, and about which – as is customary – we know exactly nothing.

Both look great though, with Julius’ final Febrovery ’23 rover (above) available to view at his photostream (where an array of other rovers can also be found), and Nathan’s fully remote controlled entry (below), complete with articulated steering, 8×8 drive, and an ingenious LEGO Spikes Colour Sensor front light, available to view at his.

Take a look via the links above, and you can check out all the Febrovery madness from this year by clicking here.

I Said a Ten Second Car

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Here it is. The car responsible for more hype, mis-understood physics, and ignorant YouTube comments than any other over the past two decades. Yup, this is Brian O’Conner’s modified Toyota Supra Mark IV from first film in the seemingly never-ending ‘The Fast and the Furious’ movie franchise.

Complete with retina-searing orange bodywork, the single worst decals ever applied to an automobile, and various unspecified modifications, the star movie car would became an icon. An icon that, despite LEGO having a license both with Universal Pictures and Toyota, is yet to become an official LEGO set.

Cue previous bloggee barneius, who has recreated that Toyota Supra from 2001’s ‘The Fast and the Furious’ brilliantly in Speed Champions scale. Retina-searing orange bodywork, the single worst decals ever applied to an automobile, and various unspecified modifications have all been faithfully replicated in brick form, and if you fancy your owning your very own ‘ten second car’ there are building instructions and purchasable stickers too.

More superbly presented images of barneus’ build are available to view at his ‘Toyota Supra MK4 The Fast and the Furious’ Flickr album, and you can live your life a quarter-mile at a time via the link in the text above, before starting a fight in the comments about how the Toyota Supra Mark IV is the best and most awesomest car ever.

Life Begins at Forty

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Or so people in their 40s like to say. For Ferrari however, it’s very probably true, as – despite their amazing pre-1980s back-catalogue – the Maranello marque’s all-time high water mark came in 1987 with its fortieth birthday present to itself, the astonishing F40.

Pioneering twin-turbochargers, a kevlar and carbon-fibre body, and semi-flat under-tray, the F40 was the fastest, most powerful, and most expensive Ferrari yet, and the last to be personally approved by Enzo Ferrari himself before his death in 1988.

All of which means F40s are now worth around $1.5million, even though they are not – at least in supercar terms – rare cars, with over 1,300 produced during the model’s five year production run.

Unfortunately the result of such iconic status is that even TLCB’s executive team can’t afford one, despite the immense riches that blogging about Lego brings, but no matter because today we have the next best thing; Lachlan Cameron’s brilliant Technic Ferrari F40 replica.

Utilising the latest parts from the official LEGO Technic 42143 Ferrari Dayton SP3 set, Lachlan has faithfully recreated the definitive Ferrari in brick form, complete with a v8 engine and 5-speed gearbox, working steering and suspension, opening clamshells and doors, a highly detailed interior and engine bay, and pop-up headlights.

Accurate decals, chromed pieces, and printed tyres maximise the realism, and there’s lots more to see of this incredible creation at Lachlan’s ‘Ferrari F40’ album on Flickr and at the Eurobricks forum.

Join Ferrari’s fortieth birthday celebrations via the links in the text above, plus you can find out Lachlan builds amazing models like this via his interview here at The Lego car Blog; click these words to read more.

Tippin’ it Old Skool

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We love simple mechanical models here at The Lego Car Blog, particularly if they’re recreating simple mechanical vehicles. Cue regular bloggee Thirdwigg, and his thoroughly excellent Mercedes-Benz 917 AK truck.

Featuring no electric motors, zero app-based controls, and completely devoid of bluetooth, Thirdwigg’s truck is an old-school homage to vintage Technic sets, with a range of mechanical hand-powered functions in place of the software-based wizardry now commonplace in Technic construction.

Working ‘Hand of God’ steering, a piston engine connected to the pendular-suspended rear wheels, a high/low gearbox, tilting cab, and a three-way (snigger) tipper with dropsides pack the model with mechanical functions, and there’s more to see – including free building instructions – at Thirdwigg’s ‘Mercedes 917’ Flickr album, Rebrickable page, and Eurobricks discussion topic.

Click the links to tip it old skool.

My Other Car is a Raptor. And a Giant Truck

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Retro-inspired off-roaders are all the rage right now, with many buyers swapping their sleek modern-looking SUVs for vehicles with a more rough-and-ready pastiche. They’re still only used to drive to Walmart of course, but at least the parking lot looks more interesting.

Cue previous bloggee gyenesvi, who has recreated Ford’s newest/oldest model, the rather excellent looking Bronco, trading in an F-150 Raptor. And a Mercedes-Benz Zetros truck.

Yup, this superb fully remote controlled 2022 Bronco, complete with four-wheel-drive, steering, live-axle suspension, opening doors, hood and trunk, plus an ‘expedition kit’ for those particularly arduous trips to Walmart, is constructed only from the parts found within the official LEGO Technic 42126 Ford F-150 Raptor and 42129 Mercedes-Benz Zetros Trial Truck sets.

The bright orange body panels of 42126 and the Control+ remote control hardware (and wheels and tyres) from 42129 provide the perfect combination, with the model further enhanced by some excellent custom decals to recreate the Bronco’s distinctive front-end.

Building instructions for gyenesvi’s double B-Model Bronco are available and there’s lots more to see at both the Eurobricks forum and an extensive Bricksafe gallery. Click the links above to take a look, you can watch the model in action via the video below, plus you can click here to see gyenesvi’s previous alternate for 42129.

YouTube Video

Wheelie Big

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Nothing makes our smelly little workers happier than flattening one another with a remote control find. Cue much excitement from the Elf that found this enormous fully remote controlled Komatsu WD900-3 wheel dozer as it entered TLCB Towers, high on the expectation that it could smush any number of its colleagues into the office carpet.

Fortunately for us, that number was zero, seeing as Beat Felber‘s 1:28.5 scale replica of the 100-ton dozer is much too slow to catch any of them. But whilst it is indeed slow, it’s also incredible, with remotely operable all-wheel-drive, articulated linear-actuator controlled steering, a fully adjustable blade positionable via three pneumatic cylinders, each equipped with their own Servo-actuated valve, and an on-board pneumatic compressor.

That enormous blade can lift, lower, pitch fore and aft, and tilt left to right courtesy of the compressor, valves and pneumatic cylinders, all of which can be controlled remotely via bluetooth thanks to two third-party SBricks and an on-board rechargeable Power functions battery.

A work of engineering brilliance, there’s lots more to see of Beat’s Komatsu WD900-3 replica at his album of the same name, where twenty stunning images can be found along with further build details and a link to a video of the model in action.

Click the first link in the text above to make the jump, whilst we cheer up a despondent TLCB Elf with a well-deserved yellow Smartie.

A Lot of Front

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This is a New Holland TD90 tractor, and it’s large, slow, and rather front-heavy. Just like your Mom. Unlike your Mom however, it has been recreated superbly in brick form by Flickr’s Damian Z, and comes complete with a range of attachments including a forklift, straw bailer, and the front-loader bucket shown here. A full gallery of excellent imagery is available and you can take a look at all the pictures by clicking these words.

Wrath of the Sith

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This is a ‘Sith Wrath Class Light Frigate’, and we know that because builder BobDeQuatre wrote it in the description. Yup, this is another attempt by The Lego Car Blog to post something about Star Wars, a topic about which we understand as much as Kim Kardashian does about plumbing.

Should the proper Lego blogs pick this one up they will no doubt be far more useful. Until then, you’ve just got us going ‘Ooooh, that looks cool’. See more of Bob’s spectacular Sith thingy at his ‘Sith Wrath’ Flickr album via the link above, where further Star Wars information may be available.

Brown Range

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It’s FebRovery, but it’s not all sci-fi lunar rovers here at TLCB. Nope, because here’s the real deal. Launched in 1970 the Range Rover took the immensely successful Land Rover, added coil springs, a luxury-ish interior, and a 3.5 litre V8 engine to create arguably the world’s first luxury off-roader.

Which means of course that the Range Rover is responsible for more hateful gargantuan vehicular atrocities than probably any other car in history, as its success led to the ever increasing SUV arms-race that has culminated in vehicles like this. Apologies if you’re eating whilst reading this.

Still, that’s not exactly the Ranger Rover’s fault, particularly as early 3-door cars were – by modern standards – tiny. And excellent.

Cue this fantastic (and fantastically brown) Creator-style version of the early first-generation Range Rover, as created beautifully by 1corn of Flickr.

Opening doors, hood and split tailgate, a detailed engine and interior, and working suspension all feature, and there’s more to see of 1corn’s superb recreation of the difinitive luxury 4×4 at his ‘Range Rover’ album on Flickr. Click the link above to take a look.