Motoring Mundanity

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Aaaand here it is; the pinnacle of mundane motoring. It’s the plain white rice of cars. It’s anything by Will.I.Am since ‘Where is the Love?’. If it were a country it would be Belgium. TLCB’s fridge has more character than this. Yes, it’s the mid-2000s Toyota Corolla Sedan. In white.

There are interesting iterations of the Corolla of course, and the current one is actually a rather funky looking thing (even more so when the Gazoo Racing version arrives), but this one… er, no.

Which means it’s exactly the sort of thing we’re’ looking for in the Festival of Mundanity Competition we’re co-hosting with BrickNerd.

Flickr’s 1saac W. is the lucky duck who owns one of these in real life, and has recreated the world’s best selling car in brick form in the hope of winning some most excellent prizes.

He’s scored some decent mundane points, but there’s a long way to go, with a load of new entries appearing in the Flickr group over the last few days. You can check out these and 1saac’s brilliantly boring build via the links above, and if you’re inspired to build you own entry (we haven’t had any large scale cars yet) you check out the competition details here or over on BrickNerd, where mundane objects are the order of the day.

Tediously Tracking

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A 1990s Asian-American econobox is the definition of mundane motoring. There was the Toyota Corolla rebadged as the Geo Prizm (which was somehow even more boring), the miserable Daewoo Matiz rebadged as a Chevrolet, and this; the Suzuki Vitara rebadged as the Geo Tracker.

This Lego version comes from Flickr’s Thomas Gion, who has constructed it for the Festival of Mundanity competition, and earned some decent mundane points in the process.

However, he’s also lost a few by building his Tracker in yellow and putting a surfboard in the back. Thomas, Thomas… white with a brown box in the back would have been so much more mundane.

Despite this monotonous faux-pas it’s still a worthy entry and you can check out more of Thomas’ Tracker on at his photostream via the link, plus you can read the contest details and see the prizes on offer for the most boring builds by clicking here.

Forever Sweeping

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A proportion of mankind are – let’s be honest – knobs, and if you chuck your litter on the ground, you’re part of this subset.

Fixing this problem, at least on hard-standing areas, is the humble street sweeper truck, which will brush up all the detritus dropped by the aforementioned cockwombles, before they re-litter the streets and it has to do it all again. And again.

Representing this infinite loop of tedium is Zsolt Nagy (aka kodlovag), whose Technic sweeper truck perfectly captures the mundanity of the real thing.

There are working brushes underneath (plus a detachable one up front), that can be powered either as the truck is pushed along or by the on-board Power Functions motor. A tilting cab, functioning steering, and a working piston engine complete the Technic features, and there’s more of the model to see at both Flickr and Eurobricks.

Click the links above to tidy up.

Anything but Mundane

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The Festival of Mundanity Competition is beginning to receive some wonderfully dull entries. This flying Porsche 911 Turbo is not one of them. Suggested by a reader and built by BobDeQuatre, this futuristic Porsche is based on the official LEGO 10295 Porsche 911 set, only with a few choice modifications.

These apparently include “two anti-grav generators, and a powerful VV hydrogen repulsor motor, integrated into the old bodywork without disrupting the lines. The interior features very old accessories like the strange levers between the two seats, but also top notch controls”.

Which makes for a vehicle that we really hope becomes a reality one day. Until then you can join us in dreaming at Bob’s ‘Porsche 911 Turbo VV’ Flickr album or at the Eurobricks forum here.

Quick Cig

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LEGO’s new 42141 McLaren Formula 1 Race Car comes from a time when advertising dangerous things is no longer acceptable. Unless you’re Ferrari of course. Back in the ’80s and ’90s though, anything was OK.

Cue this giant packet of cigarettes, which – like the aforementioned LEGO set – isn’t based on one particular McLaren Formula 1 car, but rather is inspired by the Marlboro McLarens of the time.

It comes from apachaihapachai of Eurobricks, who has included a BuWizz bluetooth battery, and Buggy Motor to ensure his model has the speed to match the looks. Free building instructions are available and there’s more to see of apachai’s renders at the Eurobricks forum via the link above.

Torpedo!

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This interesting grey machine is a 1928 Renault CV Torpedo, which somewhat surprisingly is a car we’ve probably all seen before, as it featured in a convoy scene from ‘Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade’. A lot of stuff blew up in that movie though, so we’d forgotten it too. Anyway, this neat Lego version comes from Owen Meschter of Flickr, and you can recreate the vintage chase scene in the desert via the link to his photostream above!

Vintage Pump Rules

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It’s one minute past midnight here at TLCB Towers, and this writer – for complicated home/partner-based reasons – is sleeping in the office. Or trying too.

An eerie whiring noise awoke said domestic refugee, which was followed by the unmistakable sounds of Elven rage.

Sigh. At least sorting out whatever shenanigans were going on would break the monotony of failing to sleep upright in a wheelie chair.

It turns out the shenanigans were rather unusual; an Elf, perched high up a Technic ladder, was squirting water down upon its previously-slumbering colleagues, much to their wrath.

The cause of the commotion was just as unexpected; a glorious fully remote controlled vintage fire truck, complete with a working water pump.

Flickr’s Nikolaus Löwe (aka Mr_Kleinstein) is the builder behind it, and not only does his vintage fire truck really pump water, there’s remote control drive and steering, motorised support legs, and an enormous elevating, rotating and extending ladder, which the previously mentioned Elf had deployed rather cunningly to soak its unsuspecting brethren.

Come to think of it, perhaps this TLCB writer should use a big ladder to get to the bedro… No, no… that’d probably make things worse.

You can check out more of Nikolaus’ beautiful build at his ‘Fire Ladder Truck’ album on Flickr, whilst this writer ponders his current predicament.

The Moody Hues

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Black on black has been the default colour choice of gangsters, politicians, and vigilante crime-fighters for decades. Regular bloggee Jonathan Elliott goes back to the earlier days of moody paint schemes with this deeply black hot rod roadster, which uses just two colours; the image could be black-and-white and it’d look exactly the same. Join the gangsters, politicians and vigilantes in the dark via the link above.

Acid Train

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The elimination of acid rain by the U.S and Europe (but not China, cough*) is one of very few environmental success stories in world we are still polluting much faster than we can clean it up.

In the ’70s and ’80s forests were dying, lakes became barren, and those living in affected areas suffered respiratory problems. A concerted effort** to lower sulphur and nitrogen emissions – despite the usual environmental denials and refusal to accept blame (sound familiar?) – reversed the catastrophe, and nature is – miraculously – healing itself of the damage.

Back in the early 1900s though, there were no such concerns, and pretty much anything could be dumped into the air, water, or soil in pursuit of profit. Acid included.

This beautifully constructed Epoche 1 ‘Säuretopfwagen’ (acid wagon) and Bayerische PtL 2/2 shunter comes from previous bloggee Pieter Post, who was inspired to recreate some commonplace turn-of-the-century environmental vandalism by the news that a Dutch chemical company has been granted a license to annually discharge up to 14,000kg of micro-plastics into one river.

And thus over a century later, even with the success of halting acid rain (except in China), nothing has really changed at all.

*Seriously, cough cough. China’s acid rain has actually worsened in the most recent data.

**Unless you’re Volkswagen

Cybercity Supercruiser

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Simultaneously ’80s and futuristic, ‘cyberpunk’, like steampunk, is something of which we know nothing here at TLCB Towers. But we like motorbikes, and this one looks fantastic. A boombox-carrying, aerosol-wielding rider completes the cyberpunk aesthetic, and there’s more to see courtesy of Tino Poutiainen via the link.

Space Karts

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It’s race day at the lunar track, and an eclectic mix of characters are watching the kart-based antics of the Classic Space-kids. Flickr’s Frost (aka TFDesigns!) is the builder and – if you’re weird enough – you can join the spectators trackside via the link above.

LEGO Technic 42141 McLaren Formula 1™ Race Car | Set Preview

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LEGO Technic 42141 McLaren Formula 1 Car

Here it is! After dropping a few hints when we revealed the rest of the 2022 Technic line-up earlier, this is the brand new 42141 Technic McLaren Formula 1 car.

Which is a surprisingly generic title, given Formula 1 cars usually have ludicrously long names to encompass their various marketing requirements. This is because 42141 isn’t (perhaps disappointingly) a 1:8 scale recreation of a single McLaren Formula 1 car, rather it’s a homage to recent McLaren Formula 1 cars in general, without actually being one in particular.

The reason for this odd approach is due to Formula 1’s regulations changing significantly for 2022, and McLaren haven’t yet revealed their new MCL36 car. Thus the 42141 set uses the new proportions expected, design cues from last year, and the colour scheme from the 2021 MCL35 (although this may well appear again in 2022) to create an approximation of a modern McLaren racer. Perhaps LEGO could’ve just waited a bit?

The sponsors are all present and correct though, with accurately recreated decals (‘splunk’ being our favourite) adorning many panels just like the real thing. Er, things. Several of the panels are new too, debuting on 42141 alongside the return of the Batmobile Tumbler wheels (which are wrongly the same front and rear, boo.), and the appearance of some new Technic frame pieces.

There are 1,432 pieces in all, contributing to a sizeable 65cm length, and – perhaps less so – to the ’18+’ age range on the box. Which we all know is just a marketing ploy.

With a working V6 engine, suspension, steering, and an oddly-locking differential (we’re not sure why an F1 car would have this?), 42141 contains nothing more advanced than you would expect to find on a 10+ Technic set, but with ’18+’ printed on a black box, LEGO can both sell this set to adults more easily and charge more for it; 42141 is due to cost around $180/£160.

Which to us seems rather a lot for a model that isn’t actually a McLaren Formula 1 car – despite also definitely being one – and which has more marketing than substance.

Then again, that might just make it the most realistic Formula 1 car you could ever wish for…

Yellow Niva

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The Soviet Union was full of terrible cars. This is not one of them.

The Lada Niva / VAZ-2121 is unibody 4×4, capable of going as far as a Land Rover (only more comfortably, as it had proper springs) and able to be easily worked on with limited tools. And it’s brilliant.

Unusually, the Niva was an in-house design – rather than using left-over bits of old Fiats – and so successful is it that is still being built today. Not for long though, as the Niva’s days are numbered, after which it’ll be replaced by a re-badged Dacia Duster courtesy of Lada’s parent company Renault.

Now we quite like the Duster, but it’s not a Niva, and it certainly can’t go as far as a Land Rover off road. Which means we suspect the original Niva will become quite a sought-after vehicle once production stops, not something you might expect of a Communist-era Lada.

This rather lovely Lego version comes from previous bloggee Legostalgie, who has evolved his previously featured design and has now made building instructions available. If you like the Niva as much as we do you can check out all the images of Legostalgie’s update, and find a link to building instructions, by clicking here.

Prizes of Mundanity!

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BrickNerd & The Lego Car Blog’s

Festival of Mundanity Competition is Go!

That right, enough Lamborghinis, monster trucks and fighter jets for a bit, we want to see the most boring creations. The tedious. The unexceptional. The bland. White Toyota Corollas. A suburban street filled with identical grey crossovers. A tired minivan in a Wallmart parking lot.

But why build boring? Well firstly because boring can actually be very interesting (we’ve published more Ferrari’s here than we have Hondas), and secondly because there are some awesome prizes on offer for the winners, and they’re not mundane at all!

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The Prizes!

Yup, the incredible BuWizz 3.0 Pro bluetooth battery (or a 2.0 if preferred) is up for grabs! Able to control up to six motors, whilst delivering much more power, there is no way to make your Lego creations faster.

Programmable and controllable through your phone, the BuWizz 3.0 Pro can measure G-Force, acceleration and altitude, and enables full bluetooth remote control from up to 100m away.

We’ll let you know just how good the new BuWizz 3.0 Pro is in a full review due here soon, but even the original BuWizz 1.0’s ‘ludicrous mode’ blew our minds.

Find full BuWizz details here

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Now you can display your LEGO sets (or your own creations) with purpose-built clear acrylic angled stands designed to perfectly support Lego vehicles, with the winner collecting an iDisplayit bundle for a multitude of Technic and Creator-sized models. You could even proudly display your Festival of Mundanity winning creation!

Check out the extensive range of iDisplayit purpose-built LEGO stands and cases here

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The awesome guys over at Game of Bricks are giving not just the Festival of Mundanity winners, but the runners up too, the choice of any Game of Bricks lighting kit! And there are hundreds to choose from.

Architecture, Star Wars, Harry Potter, Modular Buildings, and – of course – Technic, Creator and Speed Champions vehicles, there are lighting kits for a huge variety of official LEGO sets, all of which are seamlessly integrated to spectacular effect.

See the full range of Game of Bricks lighting kits here

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And that’s not all!

BrickNerd will be adding a swag bag and LEGO gift cards into the prize pot, so the winner will be able to buy a new LEGO set, supercharge it with BuWizz, light it with Game of Bricks, and then showcase it courtesy of iDisplayit.

Remember that there are similar prizes over at BrickNerd too, who are eagerly waiting to see mundane objects built in brick, whilst we’ll be brining you the best mundane vehicular entries here at The Lego Car Blog.

Get boring, er… building, and Good Luck!

Dyb Dyb Dyb

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The Festival of Mundanity entries are starting to arrive! Hoping to win one of the awesome prizes on offer (more on those later today) is PalBenglat of Flickr, whose International Harvester Scout (hence the title) is, well… actually not very mundane at all.

But despite not exactly maxing out his Mundane Points, Pal’s logic is rather clever. Back in the 1970s the Scout was marketed to middle-America couples, usually living in the suburbs with a dog, as per the recreated advertisement image above. And it doesn’t get more mundane than that.

Of course middle-America didn’t need Sports Utility Vehicles, but International Harvester forecast that it would want them. Which it did. By the million.

Now, partly thanks to the Scout, middle-America only buys SUVs and crossovers, they’re all exactly the same, and suburban motoring has never been more mundane.