Tan Parade

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In recent years most military vehicles – such as these these American ‘Mine-Resistant Ambush Protected’ (MRAP) light tactical vehicles – seem to be painted tan, what with all the oil being in the desert. Er, we mean the ‘complicated political nature of the Middle East’, or something.

Of course a certain minimally-endowed despot has changed the landscape somewhat, bringing war back to the greeny-brown lands of Europe, and we suspect many national militaries will be re-painting a proportion of their equipment accordingly, even if they have no intention of joining in.

However the ’90s-2010s will be remembered, in a military context at least, for desert-based conflicts, and the tan-coloured vehicles that operated in Afghanistan, Iraq, Syria and other sandy locales.

Cue Robson M (aka BrickDesigners), and these excellent Middle-East spec MRAPs, armoured trucks, and personnel carriers. Each captures its real-world equivalent brilliantly, helped by custom decals and weaponry, and there’s more to see of all of Robson’s desert warfare vehicles on Flickr via the link.

It’s Quiet. Too Quiet…

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Lego Set Review Library

The Lego Car Blog has been quieter than a Date Night at The Brothers Brick of late. We could blame the TLCB Elves of course (we normally do), but to be fair to them they do have a strict criteria to adhere to, particularly egregious failures of which are enforced by way of ejection from the building by the office catapult.

So whilst we wait for a blogworthy creation, there are a few places you can head to here at TLCB for your Lego car fix. And that continue to bring us advertising revenue to keep the Executive Washroom and Sauna operational…

The Review Library contains every LEGO set, movie, book, and third-party compatible product that we have ever reviewed.

There are over one hundred reviews in all, from classic Technic sets to the latest officially-licensed Creator products, and you can find them all via the link below.

Visit the Review Library here

Lego Microphone

The online Lego Community is a wonderfully varied place, where builders of all nationalities, ethnicities, and specialisms can create and share their brick-based talents. Here at The Lego Car Blog we love to showcase the very best vehicular models the community has to offer.

Occasionally this extends to the builders behind them too, so that you (and we) can learn from the masters.

TLCB Interviews Page contains dozens of interviews with the best Lego builders in the world, including those that have seen their models turned into official LEGO sets, become published authors, and even paid professional model-makers. Find out how they’ve done it via the link below.

Visit the Interviews Page here

Finally, if you’d like to find a particular LEGO set, vehicle brand or model, you can do just that via the ‘Looking for Something’ search function that is available on every page. Wondering if a Citroen Mehari, Trabant 601, Pontiac Aztek, or other automotive oddity has appeared here, then use the search function to navigate TLCB Archives! Cool cars are available too of course…

So there you have it, some stuff to do whilst we wait for a blogworthy build. Of course if you’d like to help us out you can suggestion a creation our Elves have missed via the Feedback or Contact Us pages. Make sure you take a look at the Submission Guidelines first to check eligibility, and drop us a note!

Suggest a Creation here

BuWizz Camp 2022

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BuWizz Camp 2022!

Our friends over at BuWizz, who sponsored our recent Festival of Mundanity building  competition and power countless creations appearing here at TLCB, are back for 2022!

Held in their home nation of Slovenia this August, the BuWizz Camp features competitions for BuWizz-powered builds, including Sumo, 1:10 Supercars, Mini Racers, and Off-Road contests, all with awesome BuWizz prizes on offer for the winners, and a chance to meet Lego-legends Racing Brick and Sariel.

Tickets are €10/day/person with food and drink included, and you can check out full event details (including the beautiful cabin setting) at the BuWizz Camp page.

Click here to find out more about BuWizz Camp 2022

…And here to read our 5-star review of the incredible BuWizz 3.0 Pro and BuWizz Motor.

Caprice Classic

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TLCB’s home nation didn’t get to the enjoy the delights of ’90s full-size American sedans. And by ‘delights’, we mean oversize bodywork, fantastically lazy engines, and the plastics quality of a Kinder Egg toy. This is one such car, the Chevrolet Caprice Classic.

Launched in ’91, the fourth generation of Chevy’s full-size sedan wore new aerodynamic but unpopular bodywork, carried over V8 engines from the previous generation, and rode on a chassis from 1977. Which unbelievably was enough to earn it Motor Trend’s ‘Domestic Car of the Year’, showing just how rubbish American cars were in 1991.

This excellent 6-wide homage to the early-’90s American barge comes from aaref1ev of Flickr, who has captured the Caprice Classic brilliantly, also rendering the design in NYPD and Taxi Cab flavours. Head to aaref1ev’s photostream to jump back to the early-’90s, and be thankful that automotive era is long over…

Moe-Mobile

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What’s this, two creations from one builder in the same day? How lazy are we?

The answer is ‘Yes’, and ‘Very’, but 1saac W.‘s ‘Moes Mobile Diner’ is just too delightful not to publish. Plus it’s lunch time in TLCB Towers and this writer was thinking about food.

Place your order at 1saac’s photostream via the link above, whilst this writer heads to the fridge.

Tiny Trakker

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Small scale, but enormously detailed, Damian Z.’s creations are firm favourites here at TLCB Towers.

His latest, an Iveco EuroTrakker tipper truck, is a perfect example of his prowess. There are ‘working’ stabiliser legs, an ingenious four-stage folding Palfinger crane, and a two-way tipper, all constructed from standard System parts.

Damian’s presentation is beautiful too, and there’s lots more of the build to see at his ‘Iveco EuroTrakker’ album on Flickr. Click the link above to see just how good small scale can be…

Cream Dream

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Things this TLCB Writer would like; More sleep, better hair, Jennifer Lawrence’s phone no., and a modified Toyota FJ60-Series Land Cruiser.

Whilst the first three aren’t going to happen any time soon we do have the latter here today, courtesy of regular bloggee 1saac W, whose superb brick-built FJ60 – suitably modified for overland adventures – is an absolute dream car.

Big tyres, a bull-bar, a roof cage, and a snorkel make the already awesome FJ60 even cooler, and you can check out 1saac’s brilliant build on Flickr via the link above.

360° Digging

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This marvellous contraption is a Hydrema 614 360° backhoe, as constructed brilliantly for a Eurobricks building competition by MP LEGO Technic Creations.

Pneumatically powered front a rear excavator arms can be pressurised via the exhaust stack, there’s mechanical articulated steering, linear actuator folding support legs, and a recreation of the Hydrema’s party-piece; a 360° rotating cab, allowing the driver an unobstructed view as they smash the backhoe bucket through a water-main.

It’s an expertly engineered creation that could make a superb official LEGO set, and there are more images of MP’s Hydrema 614 360° to see on Flickr via the link above, further build details are available in the build discussion topic at the Eurobricks forum, and you can watch all of the model’s working features in action via the video below.

YouTube Video

Big Green Boxes

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This is a Tatra PR3333 6×6 truck, outfitted with a hook-lift system and depicted in Dutch Army specification by Flickr’s Arian Janssens.

We’re not sure what’s in the big green box it’s carrying, nor the second one towed behind via the neat drawbar trailer, but as we assume it’s army stuff we probably wouldn’t understand anyway.

The truck, trailer, and boxes are all superbly built, and there’s more to see of all components at Arian’s photostream. Click the link to take a look.

*Points for us for not going down the ‘Dutch Hooker’ route with this post! Until now. Damn.

Polish Bison

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The European Bison is one of Poland’s national animals. Hunted to extinction in the wild (as late as the 1920s – surely we knew better by then?), the heaviest land animal in Europe has now been reintroduced successfully across multiple countries, led by Poland, and has progressed from ‘Extinct’, through ‘Threatened’, and is now classified as ‘Near Threatened’, which has got to be a win for nature.

Cue this rather formidable looking classic combine harvester by Flickr’s Montgomery Burns (no, not that one), a Polish machine which shares its name with their national animal. The whirly thingies, spikey thingies, and the tube out the side (we’re not farmers…) are all accurately recreated in brick, and there’s more to see at Montgomery’s photostream. Click the link above to take a look.

Fake Tan

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This glorious vehicle is a brick-built recreation of Jeep’s Wrangler ‘Africa Concept’. Designed for overland expeditions, and reinforcing that – to many Americans – Africa is not a continent but a country, Jeep’s 2015 one-off looked the business on 17″ steel wheels shod with 35″ tyres, and featured fox shocks plus a 2.8 litre diesel engine that made it far more appropriate for long distances than most domestic Jeeps.

This ace Lego version of the Jeep Wrangler ‘Africa Concept’ is the work of regular bloggee Jonathan Elliott, who has captured it beautifully in tan bricks. Except he hasn’t, as not all the pieces required were available in tan, so he built it in grey then photoshopped it. Still, it allowed us to write a clever title, and you can check out Jonathan’s fake tan at his photosteam via the link above. It’ll still be more real than anything you see on Instagram today.

What a Knob

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A lot of knobs. No, not TLCB Staff, nor the summation of your Mom’s summer, but this properly mechanical Technic skid-steer excavator by Flickr’s Thirdwigg.

There are knobs for the boom arm, knobs for the bucket, knobs for the blade, knobs for the turntable rotation, and very possibly other knobs we’ve not spotted too.

It’s a wonderful reminder of old-school mechanised Technic, and you can see more of all the knobs in question at Thirdwigg’s ‘Skid Excavator’ album on Flickr. Click the link above for more knobs in one place than your Mom’s beach-house parties.

Ride of the Valkyries*

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The economic outlook, driven largely by worldwide energy price inflation, is looking increasingly bleak. A global recession is not unlikely, but – if you’re rich enough – such events can have no effect whatsoever. They might even make you richer.

Thus whilst normal cars for us plebs are certain to become more expensive (and sales will slow accordingly), we expect the production of ultra-limited hypercars to continue unabated. Which is fine by us, because dream cars, within reach of only a few, provide inspiration for the many.

Cue Jeroen Ottens, who has recreated Aston Martin’s sold-out 2023 $3m Valkyrie hybrid hypercar, rising to $3.5m if you’re one of the lucky 25 who’ve placed a deposit for the track version.

Designed in conjunction with Red Bull Advanced Technologies (back when Red Bull and Aston Martin weren’t fighting) and powered by a Cosworth V12 with a Rimac hybrid system, the Valkyrie will be the highest revving and most powerful naturally-aspirated road car ever built.

It also features some wild aerodynamics, which Jeroen has replicated brilliantly in brick from. Accurate venturi channels necessitate pushrod in-board suspension, whilst the mid-mounted V12 connected to an eight-speed gearbox sits within one of the tightest engine bays we’ve ever seen.

Working steering via a brick-built yoke plus an opening engine cover and butterfly doors complete the technical features, and you can recreate Jeroen’s expertly-engineered creation for yourself as building instructions are available. Click these links to Flickr and Eurobricks to ride out the coming recession like the super rich with your very own Aston Martin Valkyrie.

*Today’s title song. We’re feeling very cultured. (Normal service of Your Mom jokes and poo references will resume shortly).

Ghost Rider

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The Lego Car Blog Elves are a superstitious bunch. They are mythical creatures from another realm though, so perhaps there’s some justification. Anyway, we’re exploiting said weakness today thanks to piterx, and his BuWizz powered self-balancing remote control Technic motorbike.

Watching it lean through turns as if controlled by an invisible rider is a spooky sight, and we’re having great fun terrorising the Elves with it. Take a look at the bike in action via the video below, and you can find out more about the build on Eurobricks via the link in the text above.

YouTube Video

Another Punk

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Uh oh, another ‘punk’… Just as we’ve got our heads around ‘Steampunk’ and ‘Dieselpunk’*, along comes ‘Atompunk’ to mess with us.

We have absolutely no idea what ‘Atompunk’ means, but if an ‘Atompunk’ future means we get to float about in machines like this ‘Banshee Delux’ hovercar by Jacob Sadovich we can get on board. See more of whatever this is on Flickr!

*Not really, we’re still none the wiser. Can someone just build a Ford Focus or something?