It’s Halloween! Which means ’tis the season of pumpkins, spooky monsters, and skimpy outfits. Unfortunately we don’t have any images of the latter, but we do have a spooky monster-driven vintage pick-up truck loaded with pumpkins, which is good enough for us. Regular bloggee _Tyler is the builder and you can click here to ghost your way to his photostream.
Mini are these days owned by BMW. But before the ‘new’ Mini was the 1959 original, which was actually first called the Austin ‘Seven’ and not the ‘Mini’ at all. And that’s because it had an even smaller predecessor, the pre-Second World War Austin 7, a car that was also – weirdly – BMW’s first.
Produced under license in-between Britain and Germany killing one another and then Britain and Germany killing one another again, almost 10,000 Austin 7-based BMW Dixis were built, before BMW designed their first in-house model in the early-’30s (although this still used a licensed Austin engine).
This lovely recreation of the BMW Dixi 3/15 comes from SvenJ. of Flickr, who has captured the German Austin 7 beautifully. There’s more to see at Sven’s ‘BMW Dixi 3/15’ album and you can head back to 1920s Germany via the link above.
This fabulous vintage fire truck was discovered by one of our Elves on Flickr today, and it cunningly uses a vintage (in LEGO terms) single-piece Fabuland chassis that is absolutely perfect for the job. A rolled hose, ‘brass’ grab rails, and a bench seat recreate the details of the time, and you can head back a hundred years courtesy of a forty-five year-old piece and 1saac W via the link above.
It’s been a full century since the United States’ prohibition era, a time in which you could own a rifle but not drink a glass of wine. Still, if that sounds mad today, you can still own a rifle but you can’t eat a Kinder Egg.
Flickr’s Evancelt reimagines one of America’s weirdest decades with his marvellous array of 1920s mini-figures, but it’s the splendid vintage cars behind them that are of more interest to us.
There’s more to see at Evancelt’s photostream so grab a beer, Kinder Egg, rifle and head back to 1920s America via the link above.
LEGO’s pirate treasure chest piece is normally found with, um… pirates. But not today, because it works perfectly as the boot-mounted chest of this lovely vintage Citroen by Flickr’s K P. Photographed beautifully, there’s more of K P’s model to see on Flickr. Click the link above for more booty shots.
Bicycle wheels, a Fabuland middle, and a flag for a scarf. It’s the little pieces that make the whole, and there’s more to see of _Tiler‘s wonderfully presented Ford Model-T here.
The best imaginations are based on reality. This odd looking machine is a ‘Savoia S-21’ as depicted in the Japanese animated movie ‘Porco Rosso’. It is however, based on a real Italian 1920s air racer, that if anything looked even stranger than its cartoon counterpart. Eero Okkonen is the creator of this appealing brick-built interpretation, complete with the cape-wearing titular protagonist, and there’s more to see at his photostream.
We’re back! And mostly sober. The Lego Car Blog Elves, locked in their cages over the festivities, have recommenced their hunt for the best Lego creations that the web has to offer, and no sooner had they been released it seemed, than one of their number had returned with this lovely vintage truck, complete with a Christmas tree, mini-figure family, and a pair of otters for some reason. We’re not sure otters are known as yuletide animals, but no matter, they’re wonderful nevertheless, and there’s more to see of K P‘s truck, family, and otters on Flickr via the link.
We’re a car blog here at the, um… Lego Car Blog, but we do like other forms of brick-built transport too. Cue today’s array of vintage railway-based machinery, all of which come from Franz of Flickr, who has created them beautifully to fit with LEGO’s traditional 6-wide tracks.
Whilst LEGO’s own trains and rolling stock were 6-wide too, Franz has added an extra stud to allow for enhanced realism, with his lovely steam and SLB E11 locomotives also fitted with Power Functions motorisation.
Flatbed wagons (complete with vehicular cargo) and a tanker car accompany the power units, with all superbly presented at Franz’s photostream. Take a look via the link above, where you can find the four fantastic creations pictured here and much more besides.
Even demons need wheels. Well, at least according to Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman’s 1990 novel ‘Good Omens’, which recently became a hit for Amazon Prime.
Crowley (Bentley-driving demon) and Aziraphale (angel, guardian of the Eastern Gate) have become accustomed to their comfortable lives in England, so it is with some alarm that they learn of the arrival of the infant anti-christ, heralding both the end-times and the imminent loss of their cushy lives.
An unlikely partnership follows, as the pair attempt to sabotage the end-times for the good of… themselves, with Crowley’s 1926 semi-sentient Bentley Coupe playing a starring role in the TV adaptation.
Cue Daniel Church‘s superb brick-built rendition of the demonic Bentley, both constructed and presented beautifully, which you can take a closer look at via his photostream. Click the link above to join Crowley for a spot of lunch, followed by searching for the notorious son of Satan.
With every new generation of car, the manufacturer will – without fail – claim it’s lower and wider than before, in order to “project an assertive dynamic stance” or some other bollocks. They can’t keep getting lower and wider indefinitely of course, otherwise at some point everything will be a Can-Am racer.
However despite this vehicular marketing nonsense, there is probably some truth in it, as back in the early days of the motor car designs were rather more… upright.
A narrow track, a chassis on top of the wheels, and space in the cabin for elaborate hats meant cars from the 1920s were wobbly, tottery affairs. Although with a top speed of about 30mph and tyres as wide as those on a bicycle, this probably mattered not. Plus you could keep on your elaborate hat.
Flickr’s _Tyler (aka Calin) reimagines a time of more vertical motoring (and headwear) with this beautifully presented creation, and there’s more to see of his vintage ‘Oldtimer’ at his photostream; click the link above take a look.
Poop poop! It’s time for a vintage car here at The Lego Car Blog. Because vintage cars are cool. This one – inspired by the classic LEGO 5920 Island Racer set – uses parts from the Speed Champions 96907 Lotus Evija plus a raft of black hoses and clips beautifully. Entitled simply ‘#50’, there’s more to see courtesy of Flickr’s atp357; click the link above for a vintage race.
A long time ago it wasn’t diesel, electricity, or gasoline that powered humanity’s vehicles, but steam. Very heavy, with minimal range and requiring regular impractical refuelling, steam-powered vehicles were nevertheless immensely powerful – far more so than those powered by other fuels – and thus they were the engines of choice for heavy duty applications, even as all other vehicle types moved on.
This is one such steam vehicle, Nikolaus Löwe‘s fabulous Fowler traction engine, here outfitted with a working crane. Connected to the tractor-part via a wonderfully complicated-looking arrangement of ratchets and gears, Nikolaus’ creation harks back to an era of coal, soot, noise, and perhaps a little magic.
Get steamy at Nikolaus’ photostream via the link above, whilst we ponder if today’s electric fuel of choice – being very heavy, with minimal range and requiring regular impractical refuelling, but nevertheless immensely powerful – really marks a century’s worth of progress from when this was trundling down the roads.
No, it’s an NS omC! OK, that’s maybe not as catchy as the famous Superman musical lyrics, but we have at least learned something here at The Lego Car Blog, having had no idea what an ‘omC’ was before today.
What it is, is an ‘Oilmotor Vehicle’, a combustion-engined carriage used by the Dutch Railways during the 1920s as a cheaper, easier-to-run alternative to steam locomotives.
This one – being a ‘C’ designation – is for third-class passengers, which is where you’d probably find TLCB staff. There were ‘BC’ versions too, where first-class passengers such as The Brothers Brick’s Contributors could luxuriate away from the peasants.
Constructed by TLCB debutant Malik Geldermans, this 1:45th scale replica of the NS omC beautifully captures the real ‘Oilmotor Vehicle’ thanks to some truly fantastic building techniques.
Presented perfectly, there’s more of Malik’s model to see at his ‘NS omC’ album, and you can take a closer look on Flickr via the link in the text above.
Not the Mazda Demio… Not the Mazda Demio… ‘2015 Mazda Demio’. Damnit!!
A cycle of disappointment familiar to anyone who’s played ‘Gran Turismo Sport’. However today’s ‘gift car’ is not a 2015 Mazda Demio, and is in fact rather good.
Cunningly created by previous bloggee K P and suggested to us by a reader, this neat vintage Dodge Coupe comes packaged inside its own brick-built case, aping the format commonplace with metal scale models.
A clever two-colour ‘ribbon’ wraps around the box encasing the Dodge and there’s more to see of K P’s uniquely presented creation at their photostream via the link above, plus you can click on the following links to check out our reviews of IDisplayIt and BOXXCO‘s cases for rather larger LEGO models…