Green Giant

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This big green box is a DAF YA 4442 DNT 4×4 truck, as ordered by the thousand in the late-’70s to the mid-’80s by the Dutch military.

A huge variety of YA 4442 were built, including artillery tractors, cranes, amphibious landing vehicles, mobile command centres, drone-launchers, fuel tankers, fire engines, and – as depicted here – er, trucks.

Still, whilst it might not be the most exciting version of the YA 4442 it is nevertheless a superb (and massive) brick-built replica of the Dutch military’s trucking backbone. Arian Janssens is the builder and there’s more of the model to see at his ‘DAF YA 4442 DNT 4×4′ album on Flickr. Click the link to take a look.

Combining Technic

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TLCB Elves like aggressive-looking farm equipment, and Thirdwigg’s recently-updated combine harvester more than fits the bill. With working steering, thresher, spreader, extractor, hopper, header lift, cut-bar, auger, and grain extractor, there are all sorts of mechanised implements capable of impaling a TLCB Elf. Whilst we stop them trying to feed one-another into it you can check out the complete image gallery on Brickshelf, where a link to building instructions can also be found.

Six in the Sand

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Much like sandwiches and body crevices, LEGO Technic gears do not like sand. Sand however, as per the aforementioned lucheon staple and your belly button, loves to get all up in there, first causing horrible noises, then a jamming drivetrain, and finally broken pieces. But not today, as this simple yet superbly engineered 6×6 trial truck can withstand not just sand, but snow, mud, and 8cm of water!

Built by Eurobricks’ keymaker there’s 6×6 drive via three Power Functions L Motors, Servo steering, all-wheel suspension, and – crucially – complete underbody protection thanks to some strategically placed curved Technic panels.

It’s such a simple solution we’re amazed it a) hasn’t been done before and b) expect it will soon be fitted to every remotely controlled off-road Lego creation, particularly as keymaker has published instructions for his creation that are available for free. We don’t normally link directly to instructions but if you release them free of charge we will!

There’s more to see of keymaker’s sand-proof truck at the Eurobricks forum, and you can take your truck trial to the beach via the link above.

YouTube Video

Do It Yourself

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Taking advantage of the new year sales is not something this TLCB Writer is inclined to do. Mr. Bean on the other hand, was very excited at the prospect of grabbing himself a bargain. Cue one of the most brilliant vehicular capers in TV history, wherein an ingenious Bean attempts to transport rather more than he should home via his British Leyland Mini. Flickr’s Tomáš Novák is the latest builder to create a brick-built Bean atop a bright green Mini, and there’s more to see of his homage to TV gold at his photostream. Click the link above to push the mop onto the accelerator!

Time Attack

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We’re back to cars, and what a car to return to our site title for. This is a ’68 Chevrolet Camaro ‘Time Attack’ racer, modified with a twin-turbo V6, side-exit exhausts, aero, and a full roll-cage, all built in miniature in Speed Champions scale.

Flickr’s Stephan Jonsson is the creator behind it, and there’s lots more of the Camaro to see – including excellent imagery showing the highly detailed engine and a radically extreme aero-package – at his ‘1986 Pro Street/Time Attack Camaro’ album. Click the link above to set your time.

Pew Pew Pew!

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After our, er… ‘success’ in writing yesterday’s sci-fi post, here’s another! Meaning more absolute incompetence from TLCB staff because anything without four wheels is some kind of witchcraft.

Cue OA KD‘s ‘Moon Escape’, about which we know nothing except that if there’s an image that goes ‘Pew Pew Pew!’ more than this one, we’ve haven’t seen it.

A ship formed of a pair of rubber bands and a Belville triangular window piece is dodging the trans-yellow lazers, and you can join in the pew-pewing on Flickr via the link!

Sunday Sci-Fi

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Uh oh. TLCB Elves failed to find any cars this weekend, but they did unearth some sci-fi. Which means the vehicular competence you’re used to, and the eloquence of our prose, are about to take a nose-dive. And the bar was already very low…

Here are two spaceships. Swoooosh!

The first (above), entitled ‘The Nurikabe’, is the work of Flickr’s noblebun, whose spectacular image is reminiscent of those annoying online gaming ads that frequently appear on questionable websites (cough…). Noblebun’s photostream is bursting with exquisitely rendered spacecraft like that pictured here, and you can make the jump to hyperspace or something else science-fictiony via the link above.

The second creation giving TLCB Staff difficulty today comes from previous bloggee Oscar Cederwall (aka o0ger), and is a ‘Light Space2Surface Shuttle’ or ‘L-S2S’ for short. The Neo-Classic Space aesthetic looks the business with the downward-facing cockpit, which – come to think of it – probably makes sense as you’d want to see the planet you’re landing upon rather the sky you’ve just descended through above it.

Crikey, did we just write some sci-fi-related sense? We’d better end there before we ruin it! See more at Oscar’s ‘L-S2S’ album via the link above!

More Power to the People

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First appearing here over a decade ago (in fact it was one of our earliest posts!), the Honda CG 125 continues to be one the great mobilisers of the people. Whilst many assume the most influential vehicles are the Toyota Corolla, the Volkswagen Beetle, or the Ford Model-T, this humble Japanese moped has moved people than probably every other private transport method combined.

First produced in 1976, the Honda CG 125 is still being made today, and units built forty years ago are still carrying entire families, shops, and livestock the world over.

This beautiful Technic recreation of the world’s greatest people mover comes from Master MOCer Nico71, who has updated his decade-old design with newer parts, excellent presentation, and building instructions so you can create it for yourself.

There’s much more to see at Nico’s Brickshelf gallery; join the millions of people who ride a Honda CG 125 every day via the link in the text above!

You Better Bolide It

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Revealed here at The Lego Car Blog as part of the new Technic line-up for 2023, the new 42151 Bugatti Bolide set is not a TLCB favourite, being an expensive officially-licensed version of a car we hadn’t heard of, with limited technical functionality.

But that hasn’t stopped previous bloggee M-Longer, who has used 42151’s 905 pieces to create something rather better.

M_Longer’s fantastic 42151 B-Model, which not only looks far more appealing than the set from which it has been built, appears completely unconstrained by the Bolide’s 905 pieces. In fact the only giveaway to the model’s origins are a few upside-down stickers.

Better yet, the Bolide’s black-and-yellow colour scheme works a treat on this alternate, creating a Formula 1 car reminiscent of those that wore the Renault-Sport livery in the late 2010s.

Working steering and a V6 engine turned by the rear wheels feature, and there’s more to see of M-Longer’s brilliant Bugatti Bolide B-Model at both Bricksafe and Eurobricks, where a link to building instructions can also be found.

Tank Hunter

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Does anyone else remember that fiendishly addictive early computer game in which the player was tasked with manoeuvring around a seeming infinite plain populated by the outlines of various 3D shapes, hunting and destroying enemy tanks? Just us? OK.

Anyway, perfect cubes and prisms aside, the concept of hunting tanks was based on reality, with specific machines (themselves looking rather like tanks) designed for their destroy enemy counterparts.

This is one such device, the Sturmgeschütz III tank-hunting assault gun, as deployed by Germany during the Second World War (and Syria until 1973).

Handily known as the STuG III, it saw service on almost every front, from Russia to Europe to Africa, and proved very successful at destroying Allied armour.

This excellent fully remote controlled Lego version of the STuG III comes from TLCB favourite Sariel, who – despite the model measuring just 32cm in length and weighing under 1kg – has packed in drive and steering, fully suspended tracks, and an oscillating and slewing gun barrel, all powered by a LEGO battery and controlled via bluetooth courtesy of a third-party SBrick.

There’s more to see of Sariel’s STuG III at his Flickr album of the same name, plus you can watch the model in action via the video below. Go tank hunting across a plain of cubes via the links!

YouTube Video

Ferrari LaFerrari | Picture Special

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You might think Japan has the stupidest car names. The Isuzu Mysterious Utility Wizard, the Daihatsu Naked, the Mazda Bongo Friendee, and (most ironically) the Mitsubishi Carisma – to name a few – are all incredibly daft, but the most ludicrous car name of all is surely the Ferrari The Ferrari.

The Ferrari LaFerrari is stupid only in name though, as in all other respects the Ferrari Ferrari Ferrari is one of the greatest hypercars of the modern age.

The first production car to feature an F1 kinetic energy recovery system, the LaFerrariFerrari produced 950bhp from its combination of a 6.3 litre V12 and an electric motor, whilst – somewhat superfluously – improving fuel economy over past V12 Ferraris by around 40%.

This jaw-dropping Technic replica of the Ferrari FerrariLaFerrari comes from T Lego of Eurobricks, who has recreated the 2013 hybrid hypercar in astonishing detail.

An unbelievably accurate exterior, complete with opening butterfly doors, engine cover and  front trunk, hides a modular chassis equipped with a V12 engine hooked up to an 8-speed sequential paddle-shift gearbox, dynamic suspension with nose-lift connected to the working steering, a deployable spoiler and aero flaps, and bespoke 3D-printed wheels.

It’s an incredible Technic creation and one you can take a complete in-depth look at via the Eurobricks forum, where a wealth of incredible imagery and full build details can be found. Click the link above to check out T Lego’s amazing model of the car so good that Ferrari named it twice.

Weekend in Drag

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This a dragline crawler crane, used in open-cast mining for digging really big holes. Built by previous bloggee Beat Felber, this incredible creation is a fully-working replica of one the world’s largest; the 700-ton P&H 2355 diesel-electric dragline that worked the Rix Creek Mine in Australia.

Remotely controlled by three SBricks, Beat’s creation can hoist and drag the bucket, rotate the superstructure, raise the boom, drive and skid-steer, and even raise the two access ladders thanks to seven Power Functions and two Micro Motors.

Four pairs of LEGO LEDs illuminate the floodlights and interior, whilst removable panels give access to the motors and winches within.

It’s a spectacular build, with a fully detailed machine room and interior to match the astonishing working mechanisms, and you can head to the mine via Beat’s ‘P&H 2355’ album to get in drag.

The Claaaw…

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The claw is our master. The claw chooses who will go and who will stay. This one also moves pieces of scrapped spaceships around a junk yard, according to builder David Roberts. Point upwards and say ‘Ooooo!’ via the link above.

Itsawhat?

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This is an Isdera Commendatore 112i. Nope, us neither, but apparently it was a Mercedes-Benz V12-powered supercar numbering just two units.

Futuristic in a way only an early ’90s supercar can be, the Isdera Commendatore 112i was engineered with support from Mercedes, Bilstein, and BBS, featured a gearbox from RUF, active suspension, a space-frame chassis, and even an air-brake.

The long bodywork was designed to go endurance racing, and indeed the car proved to be seriously fast. Unfortunately however, Isdera went bankrupt even faster…

Just one unit was built before Isdera’s insolvency, with a second completed six years afterwards via an enthusiast who bought an unfinished space-frame and the body moulds. Which makes the Isdera Commendatore 112i rarer than your Mom refusing cake.

This magnificent Model Team recreation of the unknown 1993 supercar is the work of TLCB debutant Jakob Semajer-Garic, and features gull-wing doors and engine covers, a replica V12 engine, and some truly incredible chassis detailing.

There’s much more to see of Jakob’s 1,600-piece Isdera Commendatore 112i at his Flickr album of the same name, where you can view over thirty superbly presented images of the model. Click the link above to take a closer look.

Shadowy Seas

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The Lego Car Blog is not the best place to find intricate techniques for realistic castle walls, thatched roofs, or ocean waves. This is because the aforementioned items rarely appear on vehicular creations, and if they did we wouldn’t know how to talk about them. A flat-plane crank V8 or the subtleties between super and turbo-charging – yes, the finer points on lifelike rock-work – not so much.

Except today, where here at The Lego Car Blog is the most spell-bindingly beautiful – and somewhat haunting – brick-built landscape we’re sure you’ll see in brick form. Constructed from over 50,000 pieces, this is Huynh Khang and Ky Duy Phong’s ‘Kraken Shadowy’ pirate ship, and the astonishingly real ocean beneath it.

A literal sea of transparent 1×2 bricks and plates, layered over a rolling base varying in hue and elevation, Huynh Khang and Ky Duy Phong’s creation is perhaps the finest example of a brick-built ocean it’s possible to conceive. Jagged rocks stretch out of the waves like a hand from the depths, looking perilously close to the wonderful mini-figure-crewed pirate ship navigating the waters around them.

Beautifully lit, photographed and presented, there’s a whole lot more to see of the ship – and the spectacular ocean it sails upon – at Khang Huynh’s ‘Kraken Shadowy’ album. Click the link above to jump into the ocean.