Russia, currently undertaking a humiliating withdrawal from occupied Kherson in Ukraine following their illegal invasion, haven’t always been the scumbags of Europe. In fact, the Russian T34-85 Tank made one of the greatest contributions to saving Europe from the last set of scumbags intent on invading their neighbours.
Prior to the success of the T34-85 however, Russia’s tanks were a little more… experimental. Looking like a cross between something from Battle Bots and a child’s tricycle, this is the Netopyr or ‘Tsar Tank’, a 60ft long 1914 prototype armoured vehicle, crewed by ten personnel and powered by two 240bhp Maybach engines taken from a captured German airship, one for each enormous front wheel.
Those wheels measured almost 30ft in diameter, and were followed by a 5ft rear wheel, in-between which was a 26ft hull festooned with cannons. The idea was that the Tsar Tank could traverse large obstacles thanks to the massive front wheels, although little thought seemed to be given to the much smaller rear one.
This promptly got stuck in soft ground during the tank’s first test run, and even the most powerful engines of the time couldn’t get it out. Various extractions failed too, and thus the tank was left in-situ for a further 8 years before it was finally removed and scrapped.
Still, it looked bloody awesome, and so too does TLCB favourite Sariel’s spectacular recreation of Russia’s 1914 engineering failure. Propelled by two Power Functions motors, with a further three operating the various cannons, Sariel’s replica looks every bit as mad as its 60-ton counterpart, and there’s lots more to see at his ‘Tsar Tank’ album on Flickr.
Click the link above to take a look at easily the weirdest vehicle you’ll see today, and here to watch it in action, where it is – frankly – every bit as rubbish as the real thing was over a century ago.
This is a classic 1960s Ford Bronco. And so is this. Yup, we have two brilliant brick-built Broncos today, each of which looks stunningly accurate, and yet the two are constructed entirely differently, such are the infinite possibilities of the LEGO brick.
The blue ’68 Bronco is the work of Michael217, whose Model Team style creation deploys a raft of ‘Studs Not on Top’ techniques to recreate the iconic shape. There are opening doors, a raising hood, a removable hardtop, and a two-piece tailgate, behind each of which are beautifully detailed internals.
Built in exactly the same scale, but using traditional studs-up techniques, is FanisLego’s red ’65 Bronco, which also includes opening doors, a raising hood, a removable hardtop, and a two-piece tailgate, again behind each of which are beautifully detailed internals.
Fanis’ Bronco also deploys a few more ‘Creator’ style techniques, including ‘glass’ for the windows, and the smoothing of nearly every visible stud.
Michael217 has chosen to omit the glass in his windows, but there’s rather more hidden underneath the chassis of his blue ’68, where a complete remote control drivetrain has been packed in. All-wheel-drive courtesy of two L Motors, Servo steering, and all-wheel-suspension all feature, without a hint of the clever engineering within being revealing visibly.
Each Bronco is fantastic example of the versatility of our favourite plastic bricks, using two completely different compositions to deliver an identically scaled highly realistic creation packed with with features.
Both Broncos are presented beautifully on Bricksafe, with Michael’s blue ’68 available to view here (and on Eurobricks too), whilst FanisLego’s red ’65 available to view here. Check out each superb model via the links!
TLCB’s thought for the day; 1970s trucks all looked like toys. This primary-coloured block of magnificence is a classic DAF NAT 2800 hook-lift truck, as created by previous bloggee Arian Janssens, and it proves said thought wonderfully. Check it out on Flickr via the link, and then come back here later to learn other gems such as ‘Why Pandas are Pointless’ and ‘How the Pontiac Aztek is be the Most Underrated Car of all Time’.
It’s The Lego Car Blog’s eleventh birthday, and we’re celebrating the only way we know how! By forgetting the actual date and then publishing a post with a numbered LEGO brick image stolen from the internet a few days late.
Since our first post way back in November of 2011 we’ve grown to become one of the internet’s favourite LEGO sites. Well, not one of its favourites, but certainly popular. OK, perhaps not popular either, but we’re known.
In fact nearly 8 million mostly-lost visitors have come to know us since that first post, with the Review Library, The Rise and Fall of MOCpages, and our Directory attracting the most eyeballs beyond the homepage.
Since our last also-forgotten birthday we’ve added hundreds more of your creations to the Archives, held an immensely mundane competition with BrickNerd, and added Russian ‘patriots’ to the list of those we receive hate mail from, alongside the American ones we’ve been receiving messages from for ages.
So as we march towards our teenage years we’d like to say a massive thank you to each and every one of you reading this brick-based nonsense. Without you this site would be nothing at all.
If you’re new here and you’d like to see what we’re up to, some good places to start can be found below;
Thank you for taking the time to visit us
TLCB Team
Ford and Chevy people seem – as is so often the way – so be very separate communities. Which is a shame, because without the unnecessary tribalism, both products can be appreciated together.
Cue TLCB Master MOCer Firas Abu-Jaber, who has constructed this excellent Ford Mustang Shleby GT500 from only the parts found within the official LEGO 10304 Chevrolet Camaro Z28 set. Plus a set of more appropriate wheels in the image above.
Converting a Camaro into a Mustang may be considered sacrilege by certain quarters of the Chevrolet community, but fear not, Firas turned the 10265 Ford Mustang set into a Dodge Charger in the past too. See, there’s no bias here!
There’s more to see of Firas’ Camaro-based-Mustang B-Model at his ‘10304 Shelby GT500’ album on Flickr, and you can check out his previously-blogged Mustang-turned-Charger via the link in the text above if you’d rather see a Mustang taken apart than put together.
This is a Siemens E-House, a prefabricated electrical substation used for power distribution, pictured here sitting atop an incredible previously-blogged MAN TGX truck and 10-axle Broshuis trailer, as built by TLCB Master MOCer Dennis Bosman.
Dennis recently started work for Siemens after an absence of fifteen years, and created this amazing load for his ‘Van der Vlist’ liveried heavy-haulage truck, and his Siemens colleagues.
You can check out the E-House, and the spectacular truck that’s carrying it, at Dennis’ refreshed ‘MAN TGX “Van der Vlist”‘ album by clicking here, plus you can click the link above read Dennis’ Master MOCers interview here at The Lego Car Blog to learn how he builds dazzling creations such as this.
Whilst 1960s America got the Ford Mustang, we got this; the 997cc Ford Anglia 105E. Like the Mustang though, the fourth generation Anglia was phenomenally successful, selling over a million units in an eight year production run. It was just – with a top speed of 73mph and 0-60mph in 27 seconds – a little slower than its American cousin.
One of those million-plus owners was of course Arthur Weasley from the Harry Potter series, who outfitted his light blue Anglia 105E with the ability for magical flight, and cued the creation of a thousand blue brick-built Anglias.
But not today, because regular bloggee 1saac W. has not built the Harry Potter Anglia, rather a normal non-magical one, and we’re all in favour of that.
That’s because unlike say, a DeLorean DMC-12, which was total garbage as a car and only survives thanks to some time-travelling movie modifications, the Anglia was an excellent and widely celebrated little British car long before its starring role in the movie scene where it crashed into the Buggering Birch.
Which means we love this humble white Ford Anglia 105E, devoid of wizards, enchanted flight, and a tree with a lust for violence, and there’s more to see at 1saac’s photostream, where Harry Potter is nowhere to be found.
Two words (‘Sting Ray’) and two windows mark out the 1963 Chevrolet Corvette C2 amongst half a century of Corvettes. The iconic split rear window lasted just one year, although the fantastic shape lasted until 1968, and this lovely Speed Champions recreation of (probably) the most beautiful American car ever made captures it wonderfully. Jonathan Elliott is the builder and there’s more to see here.
Like, really shrunk it. 1994’s 1,300 piece LEGO Technic 8880 Super Car is one of the all-time great sets, and therefore these days it’s worth about as much as Twitter. With all-wheel-drive, all-wheel-steering, all-wheel-suspension, pop-up head lights, a 4-speed gearbox and a V8 engine, it’s one of the most feature-packed LEGO sets ever produced. Suggested by a reader, this tiny homage to 8880 is, er… not. However -Brixe‘s ‘Micro Super Car’, at a fraction of the cost and using a fraction of the pieces, really does look like the iconic set. Only much, much smaller. Take a look at 8880 in miniature via the link above!
We’re going to have a very fat Elf today. One of our mythical little workers brought back these three blogworthy Porsche 356s, meaning it receives three meal tokens. Will said Elf spread them out in order to moderate its intake, or binge on all of them on one go? We all know the answer to that…
Anyway, the three models are appropriate for the aforementioned piggy Elf, as each is a glorious Porsche 356, as built beautifully in Model Team form by ZetoVince of Flickr. All have opening doors, a detailed interior, and passive steering, with the red version available to buy in this year’s Creations for Charity fundraiser.
There’s more to see at Zeto’s photostream via the link above, and if you’d like to own the red car for yourself you can jump straight to the Porsche’s Creations for Charity page via this bonus link.
The seventies were weird. Inflation trebled, gas prices skyrocketed, everyone was on strike, and vans were adorned with murals for some reason.
The first three items on the list are making an inglorious resurgence in 2022, so we’re expecting the return of mural-adorned vans is imminent too. Flickr’s 1saac W. is one step ahead with this pair of wonderfully ’70s Dodge Street vans, each adorned with a celestial mural.
Head back to the 1970s via the link above, or just stick around for a bit, as the decade appears to returning for all of us.
If 2020 had a word (aside from ‘dumpsterfire’), it would be ‘mask’. Enacted to protect the vulnerable and elderly from an unknown and deadly disease, laws requiring the wearing of masks were widely adopted across the world, much to the anger of a small but very vocal minority of morons.
It’s also rather ironic that the ideology displaying said anger about being asked to wear a mask for protection seemed to have no qualms with carrying a gun… for protection. Sigh.
Anyway, with winter approaching and COVID on the rise again, we may have to get used to another round of mask wearing, which leads us neatly-and-in-no-way-tenuously on to these rather good creations by nickgreat.
Suggested by a reader, Nick’s models recreate the vehicles from the mid-’80s cartoon TV show ‘M.A.S.K’, in which the ‘Mobile Armoured Strike Kommand’ (because ‘M.A.S.C’ wasn’t as cool) fought ‘V.E.N.O.M’, the Vicious Evil Network of Mayhem, whilst wearing super-powered helmets (or masks. Ah… it all makes sense).
And if that isn’t the ideal marketing recipe for a range of plastic toys we don’t know what is.
With vehicles such as the ‘Rhino’, ‘Switchblade’, ‘Thunderhawk’ and ‘Jackhammer’ – that could transform into fighter jets, gun turrets, and hydroplanes – plus a protagonist named ‘Matt Trakker’, you’d be forgiven for thinking M.A.S.K might be the most American thing since excessive patriotism, but it was in fact French, and animated in Japan.
Nick has created seven of the transforming vehicles from the ’80s TV show superbly in mini-figure scale, three of which are pictured here, and you find the full array of ‘M.A.S.K’ models at his album on Bricksafe.
Put on your mask and take a look via the link above, or alternatively shout angrily about masks being part of a global conspiracy or something, depending upon your IQ.
Technic used to look rather, er… basic., with early sets such as the 8859 Tractor a far cry from today’s ultra realistic (and complex) offerings.
Cue TLCB debutant Christoph Ellermann, who has recreated the primary-coloured 1981 set for the modern Creator era. Gone is the Technic functionality, replaced by a more realistic aesthetic, and yet hidden inside is a full remote control drivetrain.
There’s more to see at Christoph’s photostream, plus you can check out the original set – and see just how far Technic tractors have come in four decades – via the links in the text above.
The current car design trend of fitting ridiculously enormous grilles is nothing new (best not to click the links if you’re eating…). Oldsmobile were doing the same back in 1956 with their Super 88, requiring Flickr’s Thomas Gion to use all the silvery-grey pieces to recreate the Super 88’s face. Robot hands, mini-figure crutches, an ice skate, and a few parts we can’t even name come together to replicate the 88, and there’s more of the grille to see (and the car it’s attached to) at Thomas’ album via the link above.
