Rise of the Phoenix

We were going to title this post ‘Rise of the Phoenix’ until we realised that there was no suitable image of the tipper of Porsche96’s Tatra Phoenix 6×6 actually rising. But then we couldn’t think of any other titles…

No matter, because the tipper of Porsche96’s Tatra Phoenix 6×6 does rise, thanks to an L Motor driving a linear actuator, which is controlled remotely via BuWizz bluetooth brick.Two further L Motors power all six wheels, all of which are suspended, whilst an M Motor steers the fronts (along with the steering wheel too), and there’s an inline-6 engine under the tilting cab.

It’s a top quality Technic build and there’s more to see, including a video of it in action (tipper rising and everything) at the Eurobricks forum, with the complete gallery of images available on Bricksafe. Click the links above to see the Phoenix rise.

‘That’ Toyota Supra

If there’s one car responsible for the over-hyping of an entire model line-up, this is it.

Brian O’Conner’s ’10 second’ Toyota Supra from 2001’s ‘The Fast and the Furious’ took a fairly fat, mostly automatic GT cruiser and turned it into a 1,000bhp legend. Complete with orange paintwork and the stupidest stickers, millions of teenagers suddenly had a new hero car, and the internet has been full of arguments about 2JZs ever since.

However even TLCB Team, convinced though we are that the ‘Fast & Furious’ movie franchise is one of the worst Hollywood has ever produced, have to admit that LEGO is on to a winner by turning the films’ star cars into official sets.

The Technic 42111 ‘Dom’s Dodge Charger’ set is rather good, and LEGO have now shrunk the big bald baby’s car to Speed Champions scale as well. But LEGO don’t just have a license with Dodge. They have one with Toyota too…

We’re pretty sure that an official LEGO ‘Fast & Furious’ Toyota Supra set will follow, but ArtemyZotov of Eurobricks couldn’t wait, and thus has built his own ‘Brian O’Connor’s Toyota Supra’ from the first ‘Fast & Furious’ movie, matching the scale of the official Technic 42111 Dodge Charger set.

So good is Artemy’s Technic Supra that we think LEGO will struggle to top it, and not only does it really look the part (stupid stickers included), it features remote control drive and steering, opening doors and hood, and a modular chassis and body.

There’s lots more to see at the Eurobricks forum and via the video below, plus Artemy has made building instructions and a download for the decals available too, so you can build this Supra for yourself at home. If you own the Technic 42111 Dom’s Dodge Charger set and a LEGO train, you know what you need to do!

YouTube Video

Carbon Clam

The Ferrari F40 was a technical marvel when it was revealed in 1987. The last car personally approved by Enzo Ferrari, the F40 deployed twin-turbo-chargers to produce around 500bhp from its relatively small 2.9 litre V8, featured electronically adjustable suspension, and became the first series-production car in the world to be built from composite materials; carbon fibre and kevlar.

Often overlooked, it’s the F40’s composite bodywork that is its most ground-breaking feature, and Darren Thew has recreated the complex opening front and rear carbon fibre clamshells brilliantly in Technic form.

Working steering, suspension, pop-up headlights, and a realistic V8 engine live underneath the huge opening pieces, and there’s more to see of Darren’s excellent Technic Ferrari F40 on Flickr.

Click the link above to take a look inside the clam.

Seventies Cycling

Peugeot, like many car manufacturers, didn’t begin by making cars. The company’s earliest products were saw blades and coffee and pepper grinders, but it was the bicycles that followed that made the business famous.

A decline in cycling interest post-war forced the company to refocus on automobile production, but a resurgence in the 1960s, as the bicycle transitioned from a transportation method to a leisure activity, created a new market for Peugeot’s pedal-powered products.

The company capitalised on this, producing road and race bikes that became world famous, and demonstrated their leadership in the world’s toughest (and Frenchiest) cycle race; the Tour de France, winning the event in ’75 and ’77.

This lovely 6-wide recreation of Peugeot’s 1970s Tour de France support car, complete with boot-mounted bicycles, comes from previous bloggee PalBenglat, who has captured both the ’70s Peugeot 504 and the vintage building style of LEGO at the time wonderfully.

Clever techniques and excellent presentation are evident throughout the build, and there’s more of the classic Peugeot to see at Pal’s photostream. Click the link above to put on your jersey and head into the French mountains c1975.

Snow Cone

Today’s ice-based erection is brought to you by Markus19840420, whose hefty rocket is rising skywards ready for launch.

A 6×6 transport rover sits underneath the frosty phallus, whilst two mini-figures watch the action from the sidelines, and you can join them at Markus’ photostream via the link above.

Truck on Trucks on Trucks

If you like trucks, this post is for you! Specifically, if you like 1980s DAF FA and FT trucks this post is for you, but that’s probably a bit niche. Still, there must be a DAF fan club somewhere.

Anyway, this suite of DAF trucks was discovered by one of our Elves on Flickr, and it’s now hoping for five meal tokens.

Previous bloggee (and, unsurprisingly, DAF-building specialist) Arian Janssens is the man behind it, having constructed a DAF FA 95.380 ATI sleeper cab transporter and trailer, plus a DAF FA 800, FT 2100, FT 2500, and a DAF 400 flatbed for it to haul. That’s a lot of ’80s Dutch trucking.

All are excellent recreations of their real-world counterparts, and there’s more to see of all five Model Team DAFs at Arian’s ‘DAF FA 95.380 ATI Truck Transporter’ album. Click the link above to join the DAF fan club.

The Greatest Racing Game…

…Is not Forza, Gran Turismo, or some other ultra-lifelike simulator. It’s Mario Kart, specifically on the ancient N64 console. Because where else can a dinosaur annihilate an Italian plumber with a dead tortoise? Exactly.

Flickr’s cshowd has captured the vintage Mario Kart madness wonderfully, and although his characters from the iconic video game are only built in digital form, if anything their slightly pixelated appearance is more appropriate!

There’re more to see of Bowser, Mario, Luigi, Yoshi, Mushroom and the other Mario Kart characters at his photostream – click the link above and fire that green shell!

Ambition is a Dream with a V8 Engine

Blue suede shoes, white rhinestone jumpsuits, cheeseburgers, and pink Cadillacs. Just some of the things the great Elvis Presley was famous for besides his captivating musical performances.

Elvis’ first pink Cadillac was a ’54 Fleetwood that he purchased in 1955, and it lasted all of a few months before the brake lining crapped out and the car was incinerated by the ensuing fire. Undeterred, Elvis bought a ’55 Fleetwood in blue, and had it repainted in custom pink by a neighbour, before he gave it to his Mom as a gift.

Now Mrs. Presley didn’t have a driver’s license, which meant Elvis continued to drive the Fleetwood through ’55 and ’56 (which sounds like a rather cunning ‘present’ to us), during which time it was repainted again due to an accident whilst in the hands of his guitarist.

After completing his military service in 1960, Elvis lent the Caddy to his friend and road-manager, buying himself a new ’61 Cadillac Coupe deVille, before the Fleetwood was parked up in a carport.

Many white rhinestone jumpsuits and cheeseburgers followed, the latter of course contributing to Elvis’ untimely death on the toilet at his Graceland home.

The musical world mourned his loss, and Graceland became a museum to Elvis’ life. Fortunately the ’55 Cadillac Fleetwood that Elvis had purchased, painted, gifted, crashed, painted, and lent had somehow survived, and it was saved to go on permanent display in the Graceland museum.

This lovely homage to that car, and the home in which it rests, comes from Joey Klusnick, who has recreated it beautifully in Miniland scale. A complete album of images can be found at Joey’s photostream, and you can head to Graceland in a ’55 Pink Cadillac via the link in the text above.

Tips Welcome

We like workhorsey-type vehicles here at The Lego Car Blog. This is perhaps because, whilst we frequently blog Ferraris and Lamborghinis, we’re rather far removed from those in the real world; this writer’s current vehicle is an office chair held together by duct tape.

Cue mpj’s excellent little Iveco Eurocargo tipper truck, which is about as unpretentious a Technic model as it’s possible to get. No motors, no bluetooth remote control, no V12 engine. Just mechanical steering, a tipping load bed operated by hand-turning an axle, and dropping sides so the load can tip out. Marvellous.

It’d make a fine official Technic set, and there’s more to see at mpj’s ‘Iveco Eurocargo Tipper Truck’ gallery on Brickshelf. Click the link above for a good tip.

Black Kitten

LEGO have produced some legendary vehicle sets over the years. The 8880 Technic Supercar. The 10220 Creator Volkswagen Camper. And, the all-time high of the Model Team range, the 5571 Black Cat truck.

Launched way back in 1996 and featuring and over 1,750 pieces, 5571 is now worth approximately a $billion, putting it well out of reach of even TLCB’s Editor, who – rumour has it – owns a private island entirely staffed by TLCB Elves.

Today however, we have a Black Cat that is rather more attainable. If a little smaller…

This ‘Micro Black Cat 5571’ is Flickr builder -Brixe‘s entry into a LEGO Ideas competition, celebrating 90 years of The LEGO Company. Instantly recognisable as a miniaturised version of the 5571 set (even without the printed tiles…), -Brixe’s model captures the aesthetic of the original model wonderfully, and you can check it out at both their photostream and at LEGO Ideas via the links in the text above.

Now, how does this writer get himself an invite to the island…

Pink & Slippy

This is resolutely not this TLCB Writer’s kind of car. But the rest of the staff are ‘busy’ in the corridor doing something with a remote control bulldozer and some Elven ‘volunteers’, so it falls to him to write about a pink drift-pig BMW.

That said, whilst this model is based on a real and eye-searing car, Fuku Saku‘s brick-built homage to the sideways E36 is thoroughly excellent, being both instantly recognisable as an E36 3-Series Coupe, and managing to replicate the drifty modifications of the real thing.

The doors and hood open to reveal further cleverness within, and there’s more to see of Fuku’s E36 Drift Car at his album of the same name on Flickr. Click the link above to go sliding about in something pink.

Das Boot

15,000 pieces, 4½ years, and 1.8 metres. A few of the astonishing statistics associated with Ciamosław Ciamek‘s breathtaking 1:38 scale Second World War U-Boat.

Constructed in six sections, each with a removable sides to reveal the spectacular detail within, Ciamosław’s incredible mini-figure scale replica of a German ‘Typ VII C U-Boot’ accurately recreates the control room, front and rear messes, bow, engine rooms, and stern, all of which were designed digitally before being built from thousands of LEGO pieces.

A crew of dozens of mini-figures are shown throughout the interior of the boat, many operating the equipment, engines, and weaponry, whilst others are off-shift in the mess.

It’s a jaw-dropping creation, with hundreds of images across two albums required to capture the model’s scale and complexity, and you can check out the first of these on Flickr via the link in the text above. Click it, sit back, and take in the most amazing World War 2 creation you’re likely to see in 2022…

Not a WRX

Subaru don’t just make the WRX. In fact they’ve made all sorts of weird things, from trains and planes, to wind turbines and generators.

From a vehicular perspective Subaru’s products vary widely too, some of which are rather further from the WRX than you might think.

This is one of them, the dinky Sambar micro-truck. A ‘kei’ car in Japan also badged as the Daihatsu Hijet and Toyota Pixis, the Sambar first launched in the ’60s, and today is on its tenth generation, powered by a 660cc engine and available in a variety of body-styles.

This is the pick-up variant, as built rather nicely by Joey Klusnick in Miniland style, replicating a Sambar owned by his local model shop. There’s more to see at Joey’s Flickr album, where his model is pictured alongside its real world counterpart.

Click the link above for a Subaru that’s not driven by an irritating bro with a blow-off valve.

High Five

It’s not just Chrysler from an earlier post this week that went mad for a bit. The French have a history of going berserk, automotively speaking, with even Renualt – who currently manufacture nothing but boring crossovers – having moments of insanity. This is their best.

The Renault 5 was an excellent city car. Front-wheel-drive, well packaged, safely slow. Not a rally car then. But Renault wanted to go rallying, and thus they took their aforementioned econo-box, removed the engine, turbocharged it, and then put it back in where the rear seats used to be. And let it power the rear wheels instead.

The result was the Renault 5 Turbo, a wild mid-engined super-hatch designed to go rallying, with just under 5,000 across two generations also produced for the road. Road cars made a healthy-for-the-time 160bhp, but in rally trim the R5 Turbo could make almost 400bhp (from just 1.4 litres!), and won the Monte Carlo Rally at the first attempt in 1981.

The spectacular Technic model pictured here is a recreation of the road going R5 Turbo, as built by TLCB Master MOCer Lachlan Cameron (aka Lox Lego). Featuring remote control drive and steering, LED lights, working suspension, opening doors, front trunk and tailgate, and – of course – a mid-mounted engine, Lachlan’s creation captures Renault’s moment of madness brilliantly, and there’s a whole lot more of it to see at his ‘Renault Turbo R5’ album on Flickr.

Click the second link above to make the jump to all the images, and the first to read how Lachlan creates his amazing models like this one.

Kongs in a Cart

This is not a car. But it is Donkey Kong (and Diddy Kong) riding in a motorised mine cart, which means it’s absolutely getting blogged.

Built by Peter Zieske, Donkey and Diddy’s cart is based atop a LEGO train motor, meaning an entire mine track could be constructed for it to traverse…

Whilst we dream of that you can check out more of Donkey Kong’s cart at Peter’s ‘Donkey & Diddy Kong album’ via the link above!