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.

The Weekly Shop

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The weekly shop is probably the most mundane task there is. Pushing a trolley along the aisles whilst store radio echos out above your head, wondering why they’ve moved the bloody orange juice. Again.

Capturing this wearisome event is recent bloggee Nikolaus Löwe, whose shopping trolley (which is a vehicle people) could only more monotonous if it were outside empty in a line of other empty shopping trollies.

As it is, Nikolaus’ entry for BrickNerd and TLCB’s Festival of Mundanity competition is wonderfully uninteresting, with even the shopping within it managing to convey utter tedium, whilst the dangly coin-lock thingy ensures you can’t have any fun even if you wanted to. Not without losing your £1 coin anyway.

There’s more to see of Nikolaus’ glorious Festival of Mundanity entry via the link above, and if you fancy entering your own boring build you can do so via the newly opened Flickr group. You might even win yourself some awesome prizes.

LEGO Technic 2022 | Set Previews! (Pt.2)

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It’s been two months since the survivors of the select group of Elven ‘volunteers’ tasked with uncovering the new-for-2022 Technic sets returned from The LEGO Company’s HQ. We were down a couple of Elves of course, but you don’t make an omelette without a few Elves getting eaten by the guard dogs. Or something.

But no! Some eight weeks later three very bedraggled and rather thin Elves have made it back! Which means we have three more brand new Technic sets to share with you – huzzah. So without further preamble, here are the final* three new additions to the 2022 Technic line-up.

42140 App-Controlled Transformation Vehicle

The first is this, the ‘Transformation Vehicle’, which is a title both rather meaningless and wrong, as it doesn’t transform at all. What it does do is flip upside-down, revealing another body underneath, and we’d be lying if we said we weren’t properly excited about this!

Controlled by LEGO’s new Control+ app, 42140 can skid steer after the cat via your mobile phone, and if you accidentally turn it over against a chair leg, you can simply carry on using the blue body rather than the orange one shown here, thus continuing the pet torment.

It doesn’t appear as if 42140 does anything else, but nevertheless it looks great fun, although – full disclosure – we may have been influenced heavily by adverts for the Tyco Rebound as children. And yes, toy commercials really were like that in the mid-’90s.

The 42140 App-Controlled Transformation Vehicle includes 772 pieces, is aimed at aged 9+, and is expected to cost around $130/£115 when it reaches stores in March. Your cat’s definitely going to meet its match.

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42133 Telehandler

From $130 cat-chasing devices to a 143-piece pocket-money starter set. The 42133 Telehandler is one of the smallest Technic sets in the 2022 range, costing just $13/£9, and – as starter sets go – it’s perfectly good. There’s working steering (although at the front rather than the rear), and a boom that can raise/lower mechanically too, whilst keeping the fork level. A decent entry point for the Technic range.

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42139 All-Terrain Vehicle

The largest of the final three* sets to join the 2022 Technic line-up is this, the 42139 All-Terrain Vehicle. We’d call this a ‘quad’ in our home nation, which of course it isn’t as it has six wheels. All six are suspended, with a pendular axle on the front and shocks at the back, there’s working steering via the handlebars, a tipping load bed, winch, and a piston engine with a high/low range gearbox.

Which all looks rather good we think, although the stickers are probably unnecessary, plus there’s a chain-saw and a few logs so you can pretend to be a lumberjack.

42139 is aimed at ages 10+, features 764 pieces, and is expected to cost around $80/£65 when it reaches stores. It’s also probably our favourite of the bunch. Unless we want to chase cats.

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*You may have noticed a few asterisk symbols in this post. That’s because these aren’t quite the final three new Technic sets. There’s one more to come, and it might just carry both ‘McLaren’ and ‘Formula 1’ licensing….

Cozy Coupe

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The Festival of Mundanity Competition is go! We want to see your yawn-inducing vehicles, whilst the guys at BrickNerd are after your tedious objects, and Flickr’s James Bush has managed to build something that qualifies for both!

The Little Tykes ‘Cozy Coupe’ has been staple of family backyard life for decades, and James’ build could only be more hum-drum if he’d pictured it not merrily being driven whilst Dad watches on, but parked beside the bins on a grey Tuesday.

James, get on that for some extra boring points!

You can see this entry, along with James’ equally unexciting Chrysler PT Cruiser, at his photostream, and you can read all about our mundane competition via the link above, including the awesome prizes on offer for the entries that bore us the most!

Alternative Alternative Lifestyle

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It seems the ironic that those extolling the virtues of ‘alternative living’ all do it in exactly the same way. But you don’t have to be an all-natural-vegan-top-knot-wearing-bearded-Volkswagen-bus-driving-douchebag to live the ’60s bus life. You could do it in a Transit. And the Transit is better.

Faster, more comfortable, more reliable, less polluting, quieter, and easier to drive, the Mark 1 Ford Transit makes for a much better bus than the noisy, slow, absurdly expensive default.

This lovely recreation of the first generation Transit comes from Flickr’s OutBricks, who has captured the classic van wonderfully in 7-wide. There’s more to see of the build at Out’s photostream, and you can can explore his alternative to the alternative lifestyle vehicle of choice via the link above.

Blue and Steamy

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No, not your Mom’s old movies, but this rather lovely steam tractor by Flickr’s Nikolaus Löwe. Working ‘chain’ steering, a spinning flywheel, and other old-timey steamy things are all included, and there’s more to see at Nikolaus’ photostream. Click the link above for more steamy blue action.

Green Slopes

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Technic creations don’t have to be ginormous piece-hungry behemoths. Sometimes small and simple can be good, as proven here by Zsolt Nagy’s ‘Mini Snow Groomer’. Stick to the green slopes via Eurobricks or Flickr.

Festival of Mundanity | Building Competition!

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LEGO contests bring out the best in builders. You see entries with amazing castles, sleek cars, gorgeous flora, and fantastical locales. Well, this contest is different. This contest, from one of the best Lego blogs around (and The Lego Car Blog) is here to celebrate the mundane.

Welcome to the Festival of Mundanity!

You heard right! This time we don’t want to see Bugattis, monster trucks, racing stripes, or models combining all three. We want to see the vehicles that have been too boring to be built out of LEGO until now. We’re looking for the most ordinary, mundane, and uninspiring transportation methods you can think of.

Mundanity at Its Finest

There are two boring categories: objects and vehicles. Here at The Lego Car Blog we’ll be dealing in the latter, whilst our pals at BrickNerd will be looking for tedious objects. And if you’re cleverer than us you might be able to think of way to combine the two!

For vehicles that means 265,000 mile Toyota Corollas. In white. That faded red Rover 45 you saw on holiday in the UK and forgot about immediately. That Chevrolet Express van parked opposite your house for the last few days…

But be careful! There is a difference between ‘mundane’ and ‘bad’. Mundane doesn’t mean rubbish. It means common and uninteresting. So no Reliant Robins, no AMC Gremlins, and no concepts, invented vehicles, or indeed anything that in real-life would make you look twice.

However we do want you to make us look twice when it is built out of LEGO! Mundane doesn’t mean presented poorly;  your creations should still be built well, of course (NPU is still NPU!)

Entries will be judged on mundane concept, build quality, overall presentation, photo composition, and how uninspiring each is.

So get building! You have until the end of March!

Prizes!

In contrast to the boring nature of this contest, we have some flashy prizes for the top three creations in each category. These prizes may change (or be added to) at any time so keep an eye out for periodic updates, and we owe a big thank you to our prize sponsors for donating some really awesome stuff to the prize pool (more on them soon)!

Vehicle Category Prizes

1st Place

  • Golden Nerdly Trophy & BrickNerd Swag Box

  • $50 LEGO Gift Card (or local equivalent) from BrickNerd

  • BuWizz 3.0 or 2.0 Bluetooth Brick

  • iDisplayIt case/stand bundle for LEGO models

  • Game of Bricks lighting kit of your choice

2nd Place

  • $25 LEGO Gift Card (or local equivalent) from BrickNerd

  • Game of Bricks lighting kit of your choice

3rd Place

Object Category Prizes

Check out the equally awesome prizes that can be won in the Object Category at BrickNerd here, and remember that if you can build something boring that spans both categories, you qualify for both too!

Festival of Mundanity Rules

  • All entries must be new creations. Entries may be updated as long as the contest is still open.

  • Entries can be posted either on Flickr or Instagram. A link to your entry should be posted in the Festival of Mundanity Flickr group using the hashtags #FestivalofMundanity, #BrickNerd and #TheLEGOCarBlog. If you do not have a Flickr account, you can use the hashtags and tag BrickNerd on Instagram, who will post a link to your entry for you.

  • Please only add one photo/submission of each entry to the group (extras will be removed), but you may enter as many times as you want with unique creations.

  • Entries must be either a vehicle or an object (settings are welcome too). If you can figure out how to combine the two and still make it uninteresting, you could win prizes in both categories.

  • Digital renders are allowed, though the creation must be structurally sound and all the pieces must be available physically. Custom or modified parts are not allowed this time around though unique prints/stickers are acceptable.

  • These rules or the prizes may be modified at any point.

  • The contest ends on March 31st, 2021 at 11:59 pm PT (7:59 am GMT on March 31st for the Europeans). Winners will be announced a few weeks after.

  • The contest will be judged by both BrickNerd and The Lego Car Blog contributors who will evaluate entries based on mundanity concept, quality, presentation, composition, and how uninspiring the build is.

Get Building, Be Boring, and Good Luck!

The (Very) Cold War

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It’s freezing cold here at TLCB Towers, but it’s not as cold as Siberia. Not even close. Which is where this amazing ZIL-E167 was designed to operate, in one of the harshest environments on the planet.

An idea explored for the Soviet military during the 1960s, the E167 featured six wheel drive, no suspension (but balloon tyres), two 7.0 V8 engines, the ability to cross water, and a five ton payload. That all sounds rather good to us, but production never progressed beyond one working prototype due to transmission issues.

Built by TLCB Master MOCer Sariel, this (nearly) mini-figure scale recreation of the Soviet-Era arctic explorer encapsulates the weird but deeply cool vehicle wonderfully, with BuWizz remote control drive on all six wheels, steering on four of them, and an enhancement to the real truck in the form of working suspension.

There’s more of this amazing machine to see at Sariel’s ‘ZIL-E167’ album on Flickr, plus you can watch it in action in the cold via the video below.

YouTube Video

Paaaal-finger…

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We thought about butchering the Shirley Bassey ‘Goldfinger’ theme song for this post, but re-writing iconic song lyrics to fit a truck-mounted-crane-company seemed a bit of a stretch, even for us. And we’ve stretched pretty far before!

We’ll stick to the model then, a beautifully presented Mercedes-Benz Actros 4140 truck, complete with a fully foldable Palfinger crane fitted behind the cab.

Previous bloggee Damian Z. is the builder, and he’s used some fantastic techniques to replicate not only the truck and crane’s aesthetics, but their movements too. A full gallery of top-quality imagery is available to view how it’s been done, and you can head there via the link above.

Speed Champions 2022 | Set Previews

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The first month of 2022 is almost done, and our Elves have been sneaking! Sent on a mission to infiltrate The LEGO Company’s HQ, they have to sneak for fear of being eaten by a guard dog, but those that do manage to avoid the teeth of the German Shepherds return as heroes, held aloft by their peers to Elven chanting, and awarded a meal token by us TLCB staff.

You’d think they’d have figured out this is a wildly insufficient reward, but the office catapult ensures a regular flow of ‘volunteers’. Anyway, on to their finds – the brand new for 2022 LEGO Speed Champions sets. And they’re corkers!

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76906 – 1970 Ferarri 512 M

The first new set of 2022’s Speed Champions line-up is already one of our favourites ever, and we’ve only been looking at the box. The new 76906 1970 Ferrari 512 M is a glorious homage to the car that was… er, soundly beaten by Porsche at Le Mans. It did win the 12 Hours of Sebring though, and was regarded as equally fast as the conquering Porsche, just not as reliable.

LEGO’s Speed Champions version of the Ferrari 512 M looks magnificent, utilising a Star Wars canopy piece amongst some very cleverly printed parts to accurately capture the real car.

The historic livery means there’s no need for a smorgasbord of stickers, and LEGO have resisted the urge to include a pointless gantry or other trackside paraphernalia too, keeping the piece number, and – more importantly – price down to pocket money levels.

Expect 76906 to cost around $20 when it reaches stores later this year, and we absolutely love it.

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76907 – Lotus Evija

The second new set for 2022 jumps forward from 50 years ago to, well… the future actually, as the Evija isn’t even out yet. 76907 brings another legendary car maker to the Speed Champions line up, and – we hope – opens the door for some of the greatest classic racing cars ever made.

But before we start fantasising about classic Team Lotus F1 cars (although their tobacco sponsorship liveries might prove a bit tricky these days…), the first Speed Champions Lotus is their newest model, and is interestingly pictured on the box navigating the driveway of Goodwood House.

247 pieces, relatively light stickerage, and a good approximation of the new supercar make 76907 a solid if not especially memorable effort, but a welcome addition nonetheless. We’re exited for more Lotus sets to come.

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76908 – Lamborghini Countach

Yup, finally! The definitive 1970s-1980s supercar has made it into the LEGO Speed Champions range, and it’s every bit as good as the previous 76899 Lamborghini Urus isn’t…

LEGO have chosen a ‘Wolf of Wall Street’ spec Countach for 76908, which means a big wing, white bodywork, and a stronger ’80s vibe than parachute pants.

There are 262 pieces, including a mini-figure armed with a spanner (this is a classic Lamborghini after all), and some well chosen decals to enhance the model’s accuracy, without it being reliant upon them. A great effort, and well worth the expected $20 price when it arrives in March 2022.

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76909 – Mercedes-AMG F1 W12 E Performance & Mercedes-AMG Project One

The longest title of the 2022 line-up goes to 76909, thanks to it being the first double-vehicle set within the new Speed Champions range, and because modern F1 cars have every sub-brand possible squeezed into their names for depressing marketing purposes.

Silly name aside though, it does look rather good. The Mercedes-AMG-F1-ReallyLongName does a great job capturing the real deal, with even the tyres matching those used on the actual racing car. There are of course lots of stickers, but they’re more appropriate here as real-world sponsorship liveries are effectively giant stickers anyway.

LEGO’s 8-wide replica of the much-delayed Mercedes-AMG Project One looks fine, if nothing more, and would probably be the weakest set within the 2022 line-up if sold on its own.

564 pieces, two mini-figures, and an ‘interactive digital building guide’ are included, for an expected price of around $30/£35.

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76910 – Aston Martin Valkyrie AMR Pro & Aston Martin Vantage

The final new Speed Champions set of 2022 is this, the 76910 Aston Martin Valkyrie AMR Pro & Aston Martin Vantage.

With double the cars and double the pieces, but not double the price ($30 is expected), 76910 looks to be a good value addition to the line-up from a price-per-piece perspective.

Which is handy, as despite the slightly older starting age indicating more complicated building techniques, we’re less than sold on the visuals of either the Valkyrie or Vantage, which seem heavily reliant on stickers to replicate their real-world counterparts. Which is cheating, obviously.

Still, we expect 76910 will race off the shelves. A pair of lime-green Aston Martins can’t not appeal to a nine-year-old!

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That’s the 2022 Speed Champions line-up, and it is – we think – mostly really good. The new sets will be on sale from March of this year, and should continue the roaring success of the franchise. More real-world classics please LEGO, they work beautifully! We’ll take that Ferrari 512 M…

One Part Three Speed

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LEGO’s increase to eight studs of width for their Speed Champions range has added a dose more realism to the real world vehicles represented in brick form. Key to this change was a new windshield piece, which is somehow perfect for all manner of completely different supercars.

Previous bloggee Fabrice Larcheveque has utilised this part superbly, creating a myriad of instantly recognisable Speed Champions supercars centred around a uniform cockpit brick. We have three of his builds here today, with a Ferrari F40, Lamborghini Countach, and Ferrari 512 BB from left to right.

Each captures its real world counterpart brilliantly, with clever sticker use – as per LEGO’s official Speed Champions sets – making them even more authentic.

Building instructions are available and there’s more to see of these three ’80s supercars, plus many more besides, at Fabrice’s photostream. Take a look via the link.

Get Bent

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Ah the bendy bus. Commonly used at airports when those raised tubey tunnel things are too far away, and – until recently – found clogging up the streets of TLCB’s home capital.

However whilst the bendy bus works a treat on the wide open concrete of an airport (unless you’re the unfortunate sole stuck standing on the articulation point as it meanders back to Terminal 4), they absolutely do not work on the streets of a two-thousand year old city.

Many American cities though, are rather like airports, what with their wide open concrete, multitude of fast food outlets, and overly-zealous armed security. This makes the bendy bus a much more appropriate method of public transportation there than in London*.

Fortunately this bendy bus, a New Flyer Xcelsior XD60, is transporting commuters in the right place, as evidenced by the excellent ‘Newark Penn Station’ destination boards. And the American flag on the side.

Constructed by JLui15’s Studio, this brilliant brick-built bendy-bus not only looks spectacularly accurate inside and out, there’s a full remote control drivetrain hidden within it too.

Custom replica decals enhance the realism, as does the working articulation in the middle, and there’s loads more to see of JLui15’s incredible creation at their ‘Motorized New Flyer XD60 Articulated Bus’ album on Flickr. Click the link above to ride to Newark Station, New Jersey.

*On the flip side of course, the average American bus passenger would probably get wedged in the winding stairs of a Routemaster double-decker, so the inappropriateness goes both ways.

To the Bat Bus!

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What’s this? Is Batman giving up on vigilante crime-fighting in favour of all-natural-ethnically-sustainable-like-and-subscribe-#vanlife? Thankfully a ginormous gas-turbine-rocket-engine-propulsion-thingumy mounted in the bed of his ’60s Volkswagen Transporter suggests not.

Our hope is the Dark Knight is off to infiltrate the #vanlife community before beating the living crap out them. Not for being criminals, just for being douchbags. Whilst we luxuriate in that thought you can check out more of Batman’s new ride courtesy of 1saac W. of Flickr.

Batman’s going to give them not the beating that they deserve, but the one they need.

A Very Disney Holiday

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A Disney holiday is sure to be filled with wholesome activities, harmless japes, musical numbers, and mild antisemitism. Besides the last one you can count us in!

Suggested by a reader, Bas van Houwelingen‘s delightful creation could be straight from a Disney cartoon, with Mickey and Pluto on a caravan road trip courtesy of Goofy’s jalopy.

Bas has used some wonderfully chosen pieces to capture the cartoon high jinks, and you can join in the fun on Flickr at the link above, or alternatively click here to see how this holiday would unfold in real life. The Disney one would be better…