A Super Car

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Technic Supercars are one of our very favourite things in the Lego Community, and despite LEGO’s foray into officially-licensed replicas of real-world vehicles, we do still like seeing interpretations of the fictional Technic Supercars that used to be LEGO’s flagships.

Cue this rather lovely example by IA Creations, whose fictional supercar nods to several real-world counterparts as well as LEGO’s own past flagship sets, and includes a wealth of Technic functionality.

Working suspension, opening doors, front trunk and engine cover, LED lights, and a V8 engine all feature, with IA going a step further by including full remote control drive and steering, plus an electronically deployed rear spoiler, courtesy of four Power Functions motors and a BuWizz 2.0 bluetooth battery brick.

It’s a fantastic build and one of which you can see more at both Eurobricks, where a link to building instructions can be found, and Bricksafe, where over forty high quality images are available.

Click the links above to see more of IA Creations’ super car.

Bukhanka

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Grey, ugly, and slightly depressing. Most Soviet items, whether architecture or vehicular, seemed to follow these designs rules, but at least the UAZ-452 got a good nickname.

‘Bukhanka’ means ‘bread loaf’*, and became attached to the UAZ-452 thanks to its slightly loaf-like aesthetic.

The 452 has maintained said shape since its launch in 1965, and it’s still being sold virtually unchanged today, even taking until 2011 to gain seatbelts and anti-lock brakes.

Used as a van, ambulance, pick-up truck, military vehicle, minibus, and countless other applications, the ‘Bukhanka’ is common sight across Eastern Europe, and has been recreated brilliantly in brick-form by previous bloggee PalBenglat.

Pal’s 6-wide ‘Bukhanka’ captures the design of the original wonderfully and there’s more to see at his ‘UAZ-452 Bukhanka’ album on Flickr. Click the link above to loaf on over.

*And not, as it turns out, when several gu… nevermind. Google carefully kids…

Insert Terrifying Child

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Why is it that kid’s toys are used as horror movie staples (LEGO thankfully excepted)? Sentient dolls, those horrific clapping monkeys, and tricycles pedalled around a creepy old hotels.

Perhaps our subconscious is dialled into imagined horrors thanks to said genre of film, but we’re wary of this seemingly unridden tricycle by Flickr’s dicken lui.

We won’t be taking a closer look for fear of blood-filled elevators and terrifying twins, but you can make the jump to the probably-innocent brick-built toddler transport via the link above.

The Graduate

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The second most visually arresting thing in 1967’s ‘The Graduate’, the Alfa Romeo Duetto Spider is surely one of the most beautiful cars ever made.

Costing the same as a Jaguar E-Type, early Spiders were fantastically expensive for a 1.6 litre 108 bhp 4-cylinder, but none of that mattered when they looked this good.

Marco Q thinks so too, having constructed this glorious early Duetto Spider, with opening doors, hood and trunk, working steering, and a brick-built recreation of the stunning mid-’60s Pininfarina styling.

There’s much more of Marco’s beautifully presented Alfa Romeo Duetto to see at his photostream, where further top quality images are available, and you can click the link above to graduate.

Vintage Haulin’

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There’s little cooler than a hot rod, but a modified classic car hauler will do it. Flickr’s  Johnni D is the builder behind this one, and he’s thrown a hot rod in too for good measure. See more at his photostream via the link.

Jurassic Re-Boot

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Hollywood loves a reboot. Cue ‘Top Gun, Maverick’, ‘Fast and Furious 10’, anything with ‘Star Wars’ in the title, and ‘Jurassic World’. That said, a genetically-modified dino-weapon running amok in a theme park is a winner in TLCB Office. Because we’re 6.

Also rebooting a dinosaur-based classic is chriselliott.art, whose marvellous vintage half-ton ute inspired by the 5975 ‘T-Rex Transport’ Adventurers set was suggested to us by a reader.

Clever techniques, gorgeous presentation, and a conspicuously absent T-Rex can all be seen at Chris’ photostream. Click the link above to reboot.

Pre-SUV

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Mazda have just launched their most powerful production car ever. And it’s a crossover SUV. Because of course it is. Is anything not a going to be a crossover SUV these days?

Back in the ’90s things were far more varied, with a whole array of sports and GT cars available from mainstream brands. This was one of the most interesting; the rotary-engined Mazda RX-7.

Powered by a 1.3 litre twin-turbo twin-rotor wankel engine, the third generation RX-7 was produced from 1992 to 2002 during which, in TLCB’s home market at least, only a few hundred were sold. Sigh, perhaps we only deserve crossover SUVs…

Of course subsequent popularity meant thousands more RX-7s were ‘grey imported’ from Japan, and the car now enjoys a cult following with prices that go along with it, so the closest most of us will get to one now is in brick form.

Fortunately Flickr’s Fuku Saku has got us covered, with this glorious Speed Champions style third-gen. Mazda RX-7 for which building instructions are available so you can create it too. There’s more to see at Fuku’s photostream and you can take a look via the link above.

Future Fuelling

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Uh oh – cyberpunk! A genre about which we know less than your Mom does about portion control.

Still, despite this incompetence, we absolutely love this scene by Flickr’s Slick_Brick, which is packed with so much brilliant detail even TLCB Staff have stopped to take a look. And usually that only happens for some obscure car from 1976.

See if you can spot; the jet bike, the tracked robot helper, the pot plant, and the ingenious dog water bowl with the rest of TLCB Team at Slick’s photostream.

Festival of Mundanity | The Winners!

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It’s Winners time in BrickNerd and TLCB’s Festival of Mundanity!

Over the past two months we’ve been looking for the delightfully dull, brilliantly bland and monumentally mundane; no supercars, monster trucks or powerboats this time!

Across both the Object and Vehicle categories almost one hundred entries were submitted, with BrickNerd looking after your boring Objects and The Lego Car Blog your soporific vehicles.

You can check out the fantastic winning entries within the Object category via BrickNerd’s Winners Announcement, whilst here at TLCB we’re delighted to announce the Vehicle category winners!

Four key criteria were considered by the judges:

  1. Mundanity – Does the MOC represent something you wouldn’t really think about in real life?

  2. Concept – Does the topic matter show creativity in its idea and overall execution?

  3. Quality – Is the MOC built well, feature any NPU (nice parts usage), and make you look twice?

  4. Presentation – Is the MOC photographed/presented and composed in a way that compliments the subject matter?

Honourable Mentions

It was really close, with vehicles or all types, sizes and functionality entered. Three entries scoop the prizes, but lots caught our eye, so before we move on to the winners here are few honourable mentions!

Caleb Flutur‘s ‘3x Upscale 6654’ recreated both a mundane vehicle and object in one go, whilst iBrickedItUp spanned both categories too with his Cozy Coupe parked by the bins on a grey Tuesday, which came seriously close to a prize spot! IBrickedItUp also entered a slew of boring vehicles, with the ‘Hurtz’ Rental car lot making us chuckle the most. Thomas Gion captured the height of dreary ’90s econo-SUVs, whilst Zsolt Nagy and Saberwing007 impressed with excellent technical functionality packaged with vehicles of utmost tedium.

There are plenty of other entries that scored highly too; from lawn-mowers to removal vans we can’t mention them all, but a big boring thank you to everyone who entered!

Winners!

1st Place | Toyota Corolla Sedan (1saac W.)

Scoring highly in every category, it’s the most default, boring, and unimaginative vehicle in existence, looking for a parking spot and finding only a loading zone. 1saac W. is the, um… lucky owner of a mid-’00s Toyota Corolla Sedan in real life, and has captured one of life’s most mundane tasks in brick-form. Keep looking 1ssac, there’ll be a space around the corner. Probably.

1saac W. wins a Golden Nerdly Trophy & BrickNerd Swag Box, a $50 LEGO Gift Card (or local equivalent) from BrickNerd, an awesome BuWizz 3.0 or 2.0 Bluetooth Brick, an iDisplayIt case/stand bundle for LEGO models, and a Game of Bricks lighting kit of their choice!

2nd Place | Hyundai Venue (Tim Inman)

In second place is what will undoubtedly overtake the Corolla Sedan as the most dreary vehicle on the roads; the Korean crossover. Bought to give an impression of adventure and dynamism, crossover SUVs instead portray nothing more than an imagination deficit created by the force-feeding of endless marketing drivel. Tim Inman‘s Model Team Hyundai Venue captures the segment brilliantly, being about as interesting as your Aunt’s Facebook feed. We’re bored just thinking about it.

Tim Inman wins a $25 LEGO Gift Card (or local equivalent) from BrickNerd, and a Game of Bricks lighting kit of their choice!

3rd Place | Er… Shopping Cart (Nikolaus Lowe)

Yes it is a vehicle. We’ve all driven one, they’re all crap, and if you do try to extract fun from one it immediately veers towards the watermelons and your parents / security / other shoppers shout at you. There is nothing more disappointing than a shopping trolley. They even make you put a coin in to gain access to the trundling misery. Nikolaus Lowe takes third spot (and very nearly earned a podium over at BrickNerd too) with his inspired homage to modern-day mundanity.

Nikolaus Lowe wins a Game of Bricks lighting kit of their choice!

And so concludes The Festival of Mundanity. Thank you to our amazing prize sponsors, BrickNerd for choosing to partner with us idiots here at TLCB, and to all of you who participated! Winners; we’ll be in touch via your online channels to discuss your prizes!

A Real American Hero

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Hasbro’s ‘Moveable fighting man’ G.I. Joe wasn’t called that in TLCB’s home nation. He was known as ‘Action Man’, and this Writer’s parents still didn’t let him have one, what with him being ‘too violent’. In hindsight, they may have had a point.

But no matter, because here at TLCB we’re fantastically violent. Probably something to do with not being allowed Action Man toys as children…

Thus today’s creation, in the original American ‘G.I. Joe’ Action Man form, is a giant tracked ‘Wolverine armoured missile vehicle’ that was somehow deemed to be an acceptable toy. Not by this Writer’s parents of course.

Recreated in brick-form by Big Easy Bricks, there’s a rotating rocket launcher, opening ammo store and cockpit, plus authentic-looking G.I. Joe decals, and there’s more to see at Big Easy’s ‘G.I. Joe Wolverine’ album on Flickr.

Click the link above to take a look, whilst this TLCB Writer investigates counselling…

The Walking Dead

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In this TLCB Writer’s opinion, it’s only a matter of time before the dead rise up to feast on the squishy bits of the living.

What we’d want in those inevitably approaching times is a shotgun and an RV, so we could a) shoot at reanimated corpses from the safety of the roof, and b) take a crap in comfort.

Dale in ‘The Walking Dead’ had the right idea, well – until he went for a walk in a field and his squishy bits were pulled out, but had he stayed atop his classic Winnebago he’d have been fine.

Jonas Kramm has recreated Dale and his RV pre-zombie dinner, and a dead-good job he’s done too! All details are present and correct including the roll-out awning, radio arial, roof-mounted parasol and deck-chair arrangement, and a mini-figure Dale with shotgun.

Best of all, Jonas has made instructions available so you can recreate it too, meaning at least a mini-figure or two in your collection will be safe from the certain zombie apocalypse that’s coming.

Recovering the Satellites*

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This wonderful 1971 LAPD Plymouth Satellite police car was discovered by one of our Elves on Flickr. It comes from regular bloggee Jonathan Elliott, whose Speed Champions scale models are beautifully diversified from the usual Ferraris and Lamborghinis that dominate the genre. Details and presentation are top-drawer and there’s more to see of this, and Jonathan’s other brilliant Speed Champions style builds, at his photostream here.

*Today’s title song.

Hauling up Hills

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This is a BR44, a heavy steam locomotive built from 1926 to 1949 to haul giant loads across Germany’s mountainous regions.

Able pull 1,200 tons through the hills, or 600 tons up steep inclines, the BR44’s were hugely impressive machines. We suspect much of what they hauled from the late-’30s was rather different from that originally intended though, with a simplified versions (ironically given the least simple title of ‘Übergangskriegslokomotives’) designed to speed up production during Germany’s phase of, er…. European ambition.

This brilliant brick-built recreation of the BR44 comes from Bricks_n_Trucks, who has not only replicated the design beautifully, there are two Power Functions L-Motors and a BuWizz 2.0 hidden inside to bring it to life.

There’s more of Bricks’ creation to see on Flickr, and you can travel into the mountains of wartime Germany via the link in the text above.

Ukrainer Container

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The war in Ukraine (or ‘Special Military Operation’ to our Russian and Belarusian readers) continues, with more devastation, civilian killings, and Kremlin lies. So far though, the Ukrainian flag continues to fly, being raised over areas retaken from the invading Russian forces in recent days.

Showing his support is Jonathan Elliott, whose neat hook-lift truck is pictured raising the Ukrainian flag in container form. If you’d like to show your solidarity with Ukraine too, please do build in blue and yellow, and you can donate to the enormous refugee crisis Putin has created via organisations such as the Disasters Emergency Committee.

Some Like it Hoth

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A fallen AT-AT, T-47 Airspeeders overhead, and somewhere Luke Skywalker is making a sleeping bag out of a Tauntaun carcass. It’s the Battle of Hoth, a Star Wars fight between the Dark Side and Jedis or something, of which we know nothing besides what Wookiepedia told us.

Still, TLCB’s usual sci-fi incompetence aside, this micro-scale scene by Flickr’s Pasq67 is fantastic, and sure to excite fans of George Lucus’ overlong space saga. If you’re one of them you can take a look at all the details via Pasq67’s ‘Micro AT-AT’ album via think above. You nerd.