It’s another tenuous Halloween titl… oh, this one actually is Halloween related? Points for us!
Previous bloggee Jonathan Elliott is the owner of this magnificent ’65 Cadillac Miller Meteor hearse, and the bat-filled gravestone that it’s pictured alongside. Well, not the owner of the gravestone per-say…
No matter, it’s a dead good build and you can pay your respects at Jonathan’s photostream via the link!
It’s Halloween, the season of pumpkins, candy, spooky household ornaments, girls wearing literally nothing, and tenuous TLCB links.
TLCB Towers doesn’t feature any of the first things, so we’ll try to make up for it with the last one on the list, beginning with this; the McDonnell Douglas F-4J Phantom II.
Constructed by Flickr’s Juliusz D., this incredible recreation of the U.S military’s 1960s long-range supersonic fighter-bomber captures the aircraft in Vietnam War livery, as flown from the USS Constellation aircraft carrier in 1972.
With working flaps, folding wing tips, retractable landing gear, an opening cockpit, and a variety of scary weaponry, Juliusz’s Phantom is spookily accurate. Top quality decals and beautiful presentation make this a ghost that’s worth a closer look, and there’s lots more to see at Juliusz’s ‘McDonnell Douglas F-4J Phantom II’ album. Click the link to go ghost hunting.
The excellent Technic Iveco Eurocargo off-road truck was discovered by one of Elves today, and it comes from previous bloggee Thirdwigg aka Wigboldy.
Eqiupped with both a three-way tipper and a knuckleboom crane, Thirdwigg’s creation is packed with mechanical features, including a piston engine and high/low gearbox, pendular suspension, steering, a two section extending and slewing boom, a tilting cab, and working outriggers.
All are hand operated via an assortment of hidden knobs and gears, making the model a fantastic homage to the way Technic used to be.
There’s much more of the build to see at both Flickr and Eurobricks, where a link to free building instructions can also be found, because Thirdwigg is awesome. Take a look via the links above.
Today’s beautiful brick-based image comes from previous bloggee Pieter Post, who – in collaboration with two other builders – has created this gorgeous Prussian P8 steam locomotive, tender, prisoner car, post and luggage car, and passenger coaches, along with the stunning heather-landscape in which it is pictured.
Produced for a Lego train show in the Netherlands, Pieter and his compatriots’ 1920s steam train includes a BuWizz bluetooth battery powering bespoke LED lighting and three L Motors concealed within the tender and boiler driving custom wheels.
Full details can be found and Pieter’s photostream and you can traverse the heather on board his Prussian P8 steam locomotive via the link in the text above.
The coolest car company on the planet right now is… Hyundai. Yes, the company that really not that long ago made cars like this, this, and this, is now one of the largest, most innovative, and successful motor manufacturers in the world.
Hyundai began producing cars in 1968 by building a licensed Ford Cortina, but by the mid-’70s the company wanted their own car. They hired top British engineers along with legendary designer Giorgio Giugiaro, creating their first in-house product (albeit with Mitsubishi mechanicals), the 1974 Pony. And it was rather good.
Exports began the following year, and by the next decade Hyundai products were sold in the U.S and Canada, where the Pony became briefly (and somewhat amazingly) the best selling car.
Hyundai’s growth continued throughout the ’90s and ’00s, when they completely forgot about their rather good first effort and instead produced two-decades of automotive magnolia wallpaper.
But magnolia wallpaper sells, and the profits enabled Hyundai to begin a radical transformation of both its products and itself, with rapid powertrain development, a racing division, and – remembering their roots – hiring some of the best car designers in the business (something of a relief after years of cars that looked like this).
Cue the Hyundai N Vision 74 concept, a car that incorporates a nod to the company’s sharply styled 1974 Pony, their ‘N’ high performance and motorsports division, and their remarkable leap to technology leadership, with 670bhp coming from two electric motors powered by a hydrogen fuel cell system.
It’s a demonstration to the astonishing progress Hyundai have made since the sale of their first in-house car four decades ago, and – more so – since the complete crap they foisted on the world for the whole of the 1990s and 2000s. In a decade we could well be talking about Hyundai as the largest car maker on earth. Few companies would have done more to earn it.
This fantastic Speed Champions version of the phenomenal Hyundai N Vision 74 comes from previous bloggee The G Brix of Flickr, who has constructed and presented his brick-built recreation beautifully. There’s more of the model to see at G Brix’s photostream and you can take a look at probably the coolest car anywhere right now via the link above.
You join us today at the Industrial Decombobulation International Operations Technostructural Station, where vital and complex work is performed via highly specialised machinery. Such important manufacturing can only be enabled thanks to the unique vehicles that operate within the facility, with three such examples depicted here, as produced by the great technical minds of Stefan Johansson and Robert Lundmark.
Each vehicle is perfectly engineered for its required task, from Thermoelectrometal Immunocytochemical Tetrachlorethylene Semidisintegration to Aerothermodynamic Noninterchangeable Agammaglobulinemic Lipoinfiltration, and we don’t need to tell you how important those are. Grab your PHD and head into the facility via the link above.
This is an MAN Lion articulated bus, created in Technic by Fosapifi of Eurobricks, and in place of the usual nonsense we write on these pages, this post is mostly an almost unfathomably long list. Because Fosapifi’s model is as complicated – and has as much hidden from view – as Trump’s tax returns.
Firstly the bus is remotely driven, with four Power Functions XL Motors driving the third axle. A Servo steers the front axle, and there are eight sets of LEDs illuminating the lights.
Two separate pneumatic systems, each self-compressed by individual Power Functions L Motors, power the doors and air-suspension, allowing the bus to ‘kneel’ at the kerb for passenger embark/disembarkation. A total of twenty-two pneumatic cylinders (plus ten shock absorbers) are built into the suspension, controlled via Servo, whilst another Servo and six further cylinders operates the doors, the second and third of which can be deactivated via a switch in the cab.
Finally, a Micro-Motor unfolds the wheelchair ramp, with all the above controlled remotely via four SBricks and a BuWizz Bluetooth battery, with all of it hidden away to allow for a complete bus interior.
No we don’t know how it’s possible either, but you can join us having our minds bent at the Eurobricks forum via the link above, where a video and a link to building instructions can also be found.
Flickr’s Rubblemaker appears to have had something on his mind* when he built this Neo-Classic Space galactic racer. Two enormous rounded engines dominate the design, their curves falling gently downwards as if gravity is softly tugging at them. Which is nonsense of course – there’s no gravity in space.
This enormous pair no doubt aids the pilot’s success on the Galactic Racing Circuit, and there’s more to see of them, and the Neo-Classic spacecraft they’re attached to, at Rubble’s photostream. Click the link above for more front-loaded racing.
*Or we do.
This is where it all began. Supercars, muscle cars, minivans, Tesla, drive-thus, The Fast and the Furious franchise, Magic Tree air fresheners, and the Pontiac Aztek. All trace their existence back to this, the 1886 Benz Patent-Motorwagen, the world’s first commercially-available motorcar.
Designed by German engineer Carl Benz, and financed by his wealthy wife, around twenty-five Patent-Motorwagens were produced, each powered by a 950cc single-cylinder four-stroke engine making between 2⁄3hp and 1.5hp. The car transported Carl’s wife Bertha and their two sons on the first ever long-distance car journey (66 miles) to raise publicity for the machine, a feat that she undertook without Carl’s knowledge or approval from the authorities. Which makes her excellent.
It worked of course, and began Benz’s journey to becoming one of the most well known companies on earth, ushering in the complete dominance of the internal-combustion-engined motorcar too, with all the planetary consequences that followed.
This lovely recreation of the motorcar’s genesis comes from Simon Pickard, who has built and presented the Benz Patent-Motorwagen beautifully in brick form. Click the link above to take a look at where it all began.
Swedish hypercar manufacturer Koenigsegg have the coolest logo of any car brand. No prancing horse, raging bull, leaping cat, or angry snake here, because Koenigsegg use a ghost.
The spooky symbol isn’t some nod to the occult, but rather has its heritage in the building in which the cars are built; an ex-Swedish Air Force hanger, the squadron of whose jets were adorned with a little ghost motif.
Koenigsegg’s 2010s hypercar, the 1,500bhp plug-in hybrid Regera, took the ghosting a little further, with the addition of the $280,000 ‘Ghost Pack’. We thought this might be neon-lighting and a spectral paint job, but it in fact consisted of additional aerodynamic pieces to increase downforce by around 20%, meaning this is one ghost that definitely won’t leave the ground.
This spectacular brick-built replica of the Regera Ghost Pack by Flickr’s 3D supercarBricks uses a few 3D-printed parts to maximise the accuracy of those aero-enhancing extras, plus features opening clamshells, a wild orange interior, and opening scissor doors too.
It’s also – unlike every other image that purportedly captures a ghost – photographed beautifully, and there’s much more to see at 3D’s photostream. Click the link above to ghost on over.
Few production cars have been powered by a V10 engine. The Dodge Viper. Various Lamborghinis. The e60-series BMW M5 (aka the really unreliable one). The Audi R8, The Lexus LFA. And this, the Porsche Carrera GT.
Powered by a 5.7litre 600+ bhp V10, the Carrera GT lasted from just 2004 to 2006, becoming an all-time great in the process. This excellent Speed Champions recreation of the iconic V10-powered supercar is the work of The G Brix of Flickr, who has captured the Carrera GT superbly in small scale. See more at G Brix’s photostream.
This is a Lanz HL12 Bulldog, a 1920s German tractor powered by a single cylinder ‘hot bulb’ engine that was so ubiquitous, in some parts of Germany tractors are still known as ‘bulldogs’.
‘Hot bulb’ engines featured very few moving parts, no carburettor, no cooling system, and – much like the flux-capacitor in Doc Brown’s time machine – could run on almost anything.
This one has been recreated wonderfully by Nikolaus Löwe, who has replicated not only the engine but the Lanz’s full suite of 1920s mechanicals, and there’s more to see at his ‘Lanz HL12 Bulldog’ album via the link above.
We like a good mash-up here at The Lego Car Blog, even if we don’t really understand one or more of the things being mashed. Cue previous bloggee Slick_Brick, who has successfully merged Christopher Nolan era Batman (aka the best Batman) with the Mass Effect video game, of which we know nothing. We assume it has some lovely flowers in it though. Anyway, the results are excellent, with a neat Tumbler-esque rover driving through a wonderfully constructed alien landscape, and there’s more to see of Slick’s Bat Effect mash-up via the link above.
We all need an escape sometimes. Particularly if your office includes a hoard of mythical creatures who got into the supply cupboard and have eaten all the glue sticks.
Thesuperkoala of Flickr has just the sort of vehicle that would enable this writer to escape the gluey mess that is TLCB Towers and hide out somewhere far away from Elves or Pritt Stick.
Powered by a third-party BuWizz bluetooth battery, Koala’s ‘6×6 Expedition’ includes a remote control six-wheel-drive system and steering, all-axle suspension, a detailed engine under a raising hood, plus opening doors and hatches.
It looks perfect for a remote expedition and there’s more to see at Koala’s Flickr album – make your escape with us via the link above.
It’s been a weird few years. COVID, war, spiralling energy prices, and the brink of global recession. All of that lot means we’re probably going to see a rise in poverty in the coming months, with children often feeling its effects greatest. But you can help.
Creations for Charity has provided thousands of LEGO toys to children in need, funded via the sale of creations designed and built by members of the Lego Community. Thus you can purchase an incredible one-off Lego creation, and know that all of the proceeds are going straight to children to whom they will make the biggest difference. Which is awesome.
You can join the Creations for Charity 2022 fundraiser in several ways; by donating a creation to the Creations for Charity store, by buying a creation, or by giving a monetary donation. All three methods will result in LEGO sets being provided to underprivileged children – it might be the only toy they get, so let’s make it the best toy there is!
You can take a look at the creations already donated to the Creations for Charity store by clicking the link below, with more models to be added over the coming weeks. You could even donate your own!
In the midst of so much global turmoil, do something amazing this year, and you could change a child’s life.
