Tag Archives: 1960s

Super Nova

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Here in TLCB’s home nation we know the ‘Nova’ as an early-‘80s to early-‘90s supermini that was everywhere, and then nowhere, as rust and neglect killed – like all ‘80s economy cars – almost every last one.

In 1960s America however, an ‘economy car’ meant something rather different, and General Motors used the same nameplate for the Chevrolet Nova, the base engine for which was more than twice as big as the largest engine ever fitted to its later Vauxhall namesake.

But we’re not interested in the base Nova, not when there was a V8 engine of over five litres available in the Super Sport variant. Imagine that in a Vauxhall shopping car…

This beautiful ‘67 Chevrolet Nova SS is the work of Flickr’s PleaseYesPlease, and it’s about a billion times cooler than the Novas we got. Superbly built and presented, there’s more to see at Please’s photostream and you can take a look via the link.

Industry of Machinery & Tractors

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Before Yugoslavia dissolved into seven separate countries (we’re counting Kosovo – live with it Serbia), it was a communist dictatorship like so much of Eastern Europe. And with the usual foibles of Communism, that meant magnificently unimaginative naming.

Cue the Industry of Machinery & Tractors (IMT) 533, a 33hp tractor licensed from Massey-Ferguson and built in large numbers from the 1950s and for decades thereafter.

This neat Lego example comes from Flickr’s Keko007, and pulls an equally neat wooden drop-side drawbar trailer. There’s more of the model to see at Keko’s ‘IMT 533’ album and you can head to the former Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia via the link.

Get Your Skates On

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From one beautiful classic car to another, only this one isn’t real. But gosh we wish it were.

Created by Flickr’s SHARPSPEED, this gorgeous classic coupe has notes of Corvette, Volvo P1800, E-Type, Aston Martin, and many others, with our particular favourite elements being the conical rear lights and ice-skate grille.

There’s more to see at SHARPSPEED’s photostream and you can take a look via the link.

Better the DeVille

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We’re used to big black Cadillacs, and they’re, um…. not really our bag. Except today, because this is a 1965 Cadillac Coupe DeVille, and it’s all the class a modern Escalade isn’t. Flickr’s gGh0st is its maker and you can take a closer look via the link.

In Transit

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Exactly half way between the Russian Revolution and Zane Malik leaving One Direction came this, the Ford Transit Mark 1.

Using components from Ford Europe’s cars, but with a wider track than existing vans to enable more cargo space, the Transit was a revelation, and it quickly became not just the best selling van of all time, but a synonym for the word ‘van’ itself.

This lovely Speed Champions scale version of the mid-‘60s Transit comes from regular bloggee Sseven Bricks, who has captured the transport icon beautifully.

Clever details and custom decals add to the realism and you can transit to Sseven’s photostream for a closer look at his classic Ford via the link above.

In the Cloud

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That utter cringefest of toxic positivity, humble bragging, and ridiculous self-promotion, LinkedIn, is overflowing with meaningless posts about AI and ‘The Cloud’.

Nothing we write can adequately convey just how much we don’t care about your humble receipt of the Cloud Networking Award at the 2026 Delaware CAICP2 Conference, nor how the leaders of tomorrow are forging the future via cloud-based software to realise efficiencies and business automation.

If we’re going to be ‘In the Cloud’ we’d like it to be one of these, the stupendous Rolls-Royce Silver Cloud II.

Powered by a 6.2 litre V8, weighing over two tons, and fitted with power steering and electric windows, the Silver Cloud was nothing short of the finest automobile in the world in the early-‘60s.

Cue this wonderful recreation of the 1960 Silver Cloud II by previous bloggee SP_LINEUP, who has replicated it in brick form beautifully. A range of clever techniques capture the Cloud’s coach-built bodywork and detailing (including the famous Spirit of Ecstacy), with a closer look available at SP’s photostream. Get In the Cloud via the link above. And LinkedIn sucks.

If You’re Going to San Francisco

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For those who come to San Francisco
They’ll find bricks placed with care everywhere 

On the streets of San FranciscoCars and vans will climb hills into the air

The improved lyrics of 1960s hippy nonsense, prompted by this fantastic diorama published by Brickleas of Flickr, who – with his fellow collaborators – has captured the spirit of ‘60s San Francisco wonderfully in this epic diorama.

Beautiful detailing abounds and you can go to San Francisco via the link above. Be sure to wear some flowers in your hair.

Insert Shiny Meathead

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We can’t see a ’60s black Dodge Charger without hearing “…Family…”, mumbled in barely comprehensible English.

But shiny meathead and terrible dialogue aside, the second-generation Dodge Charger is nevertheless an iconic American muscle car.

Produced from just 1968 to 1970, the Charger’s base engine was a 5.2litre V8 (a still big 3.7 six-cylinder would arrive later), and rose to a gargantuan 7.0 litre Hemi. Because the oil crisis was still three years away…

Until then though, fuel economy was of little concern to Americans, and the Charger was a riotous success, with almost 100,000 units produced in that short run.

This fantastic ‘Icons’ scale example comes from previous bloggee Szunyogh Balázs (aka gnat.bricks), and features opening doors, hood and trunk, a superbly detailed (and easily removable) engine and transmission, and a highly realistic drivetrain and interior too.

Stunning presentation accompanies the build, with many more beautiful images available to view at Szunyogh’s ‘Lego Dodge Charger’ album on Flickr. Click the link above to take a closer look, or here to live your life a quarter-mile at a time.

Tanked Up

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It’s the day after TLCB Christmas Party, which means we’re still drunk. No matter though, as we’ll be tanked up from now until New Year anyway. Cue TLCB debutant JLD25’s splendidly rendered Dodge L700 tanker truck, which could well be full of virtual alcohol. Hurrah!

If the L700 looks rather small for an American semi-truck that’s because it was based on the A100 van, and if it looks a bit more digital than you’re used to here, that’s because it… um, is. Despite the lack of physicality however, it carries both excellent detail and a range of ‘working’ features, and there’s more to see JLD’s ‘Dodge L700 Semi’ album on Flickr. Click the link to get tanked.

Christmas Star

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It’s nearly Christmas, and so TLCB is entering the season of tenuously-titled festive posts. Cue this excellent FSC Star 21 tipper truck, which probably isn’t quite as important as the star that appeared two-thousand years ago over Bethlehem, but we still like it.

Created by Flickr’s Jakeof_ it captures the 1960s Polish truck superbly, including a working tipper with an opening tailgate too, and you can follow the Star to our infant saviour in a Bethlehem stable a building site in Poland via the link above.

Mon Ami

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1960s Citroens were properly weird. This is a Citroen Ami 6, a front-wheel-drive economy car available as saloon, estate, or van, powered by the mighty 602cc sub-30bhp two-cylinder engine from the 2CV, with a reverse-rake rear window, and seats you could remove to form picnic chairs. Because France.

This glorious homage to the little Citroen captures the, um… ‘unique’ styling of the Ami brilliantly in brick form, and it comes from previous bloggee SIM CAMAT who owns the real thing. With opening doors, hood and trunk, plus a detailed engine and interior, SIM’s Ami is a really lovely replica, and you can head to 1960s France via the link to his photostream above.

Cardboard Car

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Flickr’s Szunyogh Balazs has appeared on these pages several times before, with vehicles that are fast, loud, or both. But not today, because his latest creation is at the opposite end of the vehicular spectrum. This is the communist East German Trabant, a car made fro cardboard for people that had no choice.

Almost three million Trabant 601s were made, making it the East German equivalent of the West German Beetle. Although the Beetle became a Polo. And a Golf. Whereas the Trabant carried on until the collapse of the Soviet Union and reunification of Germany in 1991. There’s more to see of Szunyough’s splendid Lego Trabant 601 on Flickr, and you can head to the other side of the iron curtain via the link above.

Beetle Built Different

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Hope, magic, and more than a little ingenuity. The Lego Car Blog staff have built a great many things, but none have deployed antenna ball-joints as fenders. There’s so much going on in 1saac W.‘s Volkswagen Beetle there is genuine bafflement here at TLCB Towers as to how it all holds together. Join us trying in vain to figure it out at 1saac’s photostream via the link above.

ZIL 130 | Picture Special

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It’s time for a truck here at The Lego Car Blog, and today’s is something rather special. Created by previous bloggee Michael Kulakov / Michael217, this gorgeous ZIL 130 captures one of the workhorses of the Soviet Union spectacularly in LEGO bricks. Plus a few items that aren’t strictly LEGO…

Powered by a mix of genuine LEGO motors and third-party electronics, Michael’s model can drive, steer, and change between high and low gear ratios remotely, and also features a working V8 engine under the raising hood, opening cab doors, a mechanically locking trailer hitch, plus all wheel suspension.

Those wheels are non-LEGO parts, beautifully replicating real truck rims from the period via 3D printing, and are shod in RC tyres. The steering arms too are 3D-printed, and include metal inserts, which – along with some metal driveshaft components – toughen the drivetrain to handle the remote control system.

The rest of the build, including that wonderful bodywork, engine bay and interior, is all LEGO, and demonstrates superb attention to detail. Over a dozen perfectly presented images are available to view at Michael’s ‘ZIl 130’ Flickr album, plus you can find full build details, further links, and a video of the model in action at the Eurobricks discussion forum.

Decking Vietnam

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This is a Vought F-8E Crusader II, one of the first supersonic carrier-based fighters, and it flew from the decks of U.S aircraft carriers from the late-‘50s right up until the mid-‘70s. Which of course meant it served in the Vietnam War, where it earned the nickname ‘MiG Killer’ because it, well… killed MiGs, with an astonishing 19:3 kill ratio.

This exceptional brick-built replica of the F-8E is the work of Flickr’s Juliusz D., and includes working landing gear, the Crusader’s trick variable incidence and folding wings, an opening cockpit, a deployable air-brake, functioning flaps, a full compliment of missiles and bombs, and phenomenally accurate period-correct markings.

It’s one of the finest Lego fighters we’ve ever featured, and you can take flight from a carrier deck somewhere in the South China Sea in 1967 via the link above.