Tag Archives: 1970s

Brick Slick

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We like vehicles that burn liquid dinosaurs here at The Lego Car Blog. But there is a dark side to the Oil Age, and it goes beyond climate change and air quality. Because when the extraction or transportation of oil goes wrong, the consequences are horrific.

This is the Amoco Cadiz, a Liberian-flagged supertanker that was on its way to England in 1978 loaded with crude oil. In rough seas off the coast of France the rudder jammed, and despite concerted efforts to save it the doomed ship grounded on rocks near the village of Portsall.

Battered by the waves, the rocks tore through the hull, breaking the ship into three, and all 230,000 tons of oil leaked into the sea in what was at the time the largest ever spill.

Huge environmental damage was done, with Loic Gilbert recreating the tragedy magnificently in microscale in the diorama here.

Capturing the wrecked Amoco Cadiz, the village of Portsall, and the immense slick of oil covering the French coastline, Loic’s creation is a reminder of the damage mankind’s obsession with oil can do.

There’s more to see at Loic’s photostream and you can join the multi-million dollar clean-up via the link above.

Beige is Beautiful

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Beige. The colour of hearing aids, old ladies’ bathrooms, and the interior walls of those with no imagination. And also German public transport.

This is a 1970s MAN SD200 double-decker bus, as used across the West German enclave of Berlin before reunification.

Recreated beautifully in Model Team form by the immensely talented Max Richter, this stunning replica of the SD200 captures the classic bus in spectacular detail, particularly inside, which is no doubt the finest bus interior we’ve ever seen built from LEGO bricks.

A range of working features accompany the visual realism, including functioning steering and an ingenious mechanical door operation via an axle that can be inserted into the side.

A detailed engine and opening hatches complete the build, and there’s more to see of this amazingly lifelike Berlin bus on Flickr and on YouTube, where a link to building instructions can also be found.

Click the links above to board a beige bus across Berlin in 1975.

Big Yellow Taxi*

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This TLCB writer always found it strange that American taxis used to be ginormous V8 sedans. Threading through congested city streets, the only thing lower than miles-per-hour was the miles-per-gallon.

Today’s far more efficient hybrids and EVs make much more sense, but they do somehow seem less… American than the V8 barges that preceded them.

Cue Sseven Bricks’ fabulous ‘75 Plymouth Fury taxi, which captures the spirit of the lost cabs beautifully. There’s more to see on Flickr, and you can hail a ridiculously inefficient ride via the link.

*Today’s absolutely lovely title song.

Green Gran

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We’re still in classic car territory here at The Lego Car Blog, which is fine by us; anything from years past is preferable to whatever Chinese electric crossover has been revealed in the last ten minutes.

This is definitely not a Chinese electric crossover. It’s a 1972 Ford Gran Torino Sport, a car that was available with five different V8 engines and a maximum of four gears. Because gas was cheap and nothing was going to happen to jeopardise that.

Anyway, this marvellous Model Team recreation of the ‘72 Ford Gran Torino Sport comes from previous bloggee Jakub Marcisz, and features working steering, opening everything, and a superbly detailed interior and V8 engine.

Building instructions are available and there’s more of the model to see at Jakub’s ‘Gran Torino 1972’ album on Flickr.

Winning Horse

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Modern Formula 1 cars last just one season. But back in the 1970s Scuderia Ferrari created a car that lasted for six. And it won four of them, making it the most successful design in Formula 1 history.

First competing in 1975, the Ferrari 312T featured a tubular steel spaceframe, a transverse 3 litre flat-12 making around 500bhp, and excellent reliability. The version we have here today is the T4 variant, featuring aerodynamic modifications to take the Constructor’s World Championship back from Lotus, whose ‘ground effect’ design ended the 312T’s winning streak in 1978.

It worked too, returning the Constructor’s title to Ferrari and giving Jody Scheckter the Driver’s Championship. This fabulous recreation of the 312 T4 comes from Andre Pinto of Flickr, and captures Scheckter‘s title-winning car in spectacular detail.

Custom chromed pieces, authentic replica decals, and stunning internals make Andre’s Ferrari 312T one of the finest vintage Formula 1 cars we’ve published yet, and you can find all the images at his ‘Ferrari 312 T4’ album via the link above.

The First of Many

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It’s 1970, and northern France is being pounded by heavy rain. Of the dozens of starters at that year’s Le Mans 24 Hours, only seven remain. The leading three are built by a manufacturer that has never won the race before. Richard Attwood and Hans Herrmann’s Porsche Salzburg 917K crosses the finish line five laps ahead of the rest, beginning a run that to date includes nineteen outright wins, making Porsche the most successful manufacturer in Le Mans history.

This fantastic Speed Champions homage to that first victory comes from SFH_Bricks of Flickr, whose Porsche Salzburg 917K includes a tremendous replica livery courtesy of Brickstickershop. Building instructions are available and you can head to a soaking Circuit de la Sarthe fifty-six years ago via the link above.

Mining Cornwall

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The Cornwall Peninsula in the very south of the United Kingdom is famous for its pasties, beaches, cider, and – at one time – mining.

This began with silver and tin, plundered by the Romans, and ended with coal, plundered by the Government.

Mines were a combination of dangerous ‘pits’ and open cast, with the latter exploited by enormous mechanisation in later years. This is one such machine from the time, the 390-ton Ruston-Bucyrus 195-B electric rope shovel.


Recreated in 1:28.5 form, this spectacular replica of the Ruston-Bucyrus 195-B comes from recent bloggee Beat Felber, to work alongside his Terex 33-11C mining truck.

Like his previously featured Terex, Beat’s electric rope shovel is packed with electronics to bring it to life, with four Power Functions motors driving the tracks, two the swing motion, another the main winch, and an eighth the dipper handle. No, we don’t know what a dipper handle is.

Finally two CaDA micromotors power the bucket door release and motorised access ladder, there are two sets of LEDs lighting the model, and the whole lot is controllable remotely via twin SBricks.

It’s a hugely impressive feat of engineering, with lots more of the model to see at Beat’s ‘Ruston-Bucyrus 195-B’ Flickr album – where it’s pictured alongside the Terex 33-11C with which it would have worked mining Cornish coal.

Grab a pasty and a cider and head to 1980s Cornwall via the link above.

A V10 Tip

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TLCB top tip; want a rear-wheel-drive Japanese V10-engined icon but can’t afford a Lexus LFA? Get yourself a 1970s Isuzu truck!

Yes the Isuzu V10ss had a V10 engine under the curvy cab, providing the power for all sorts of heavy duty applications across Asia.


This spectacular replica of the classic Japanese truck comes from previous bloggee TsungNing Lee, who has recreated the V10ss beautifully.

There’s working steering, a functional tipper, a tilting cab, and of course a brick-built V10 engine. Take our tip and visit Tsung’s ‘Isuzu V10ss Truck’ album for more stunning imagery.

Stingray

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It’s 1973, the US President is engulfed in scandal, and the US are supporting an Israeli war in the Middle East causing a global energy crisis. Thank goodness things like that don’t happen now…

Anyway, back to ‘73 and this, the gorgeous ‘C3’ generation Chevrolet Corvette Stingray.


Surely one of best American car designs of all time, this C3 Corvette comes from Ciamoslaw Ciamek, who has captured it brilliantly in Speed Champions form.

Building instructions are available and there’s more to see at Cismoslaw’s photostream. Click the link above and head back to an era with no similarities to today whatsoever…

Porsche Pair

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It’s a Porsche sort of day here at TLCB, with two more joining the prior proper Porsche.

These two Speed Champions Porsches come from their endurance stable, bookending it across half a century.

Built by previous bloggee SFH_Bricks, there’s more to see of the 1975 917KH and 2025 963RSP on Flickr, and you can take a closer look via the link above.

The SS

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From one end General Motors’ cool spectrum (well, almost. There was the Chevrolet Matiz) to the other. This is the glorious 1970 Chevrolet Chevelle SS, with racing stripes and a 7.4 litre V8 that could be optioned up to 450bhp.

This spectacular brick-built version of the top dog Chevelle comes from Jakub Marcisz who has updated his previous iteration of his model, and features working steering, a two-speed gearbox, and V8 engine, plus opening doors, hood and trunk.

Building instructions are available and you can see all of the images and find full details of Jakub’s incredible creation at both Flickr and Eurobricks. Click the links to take a look.

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.

Taking Out the Trash

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The big news this week is that of a scumbag despot who has massively overreached his electoral mandate being seized and tried by a scumbag despot who has massively overreached his electoral mandate.

The result is that New York City now hosts a Venezuelan President in court facing charges of drug trafficking and terrorism, after previously convicting – on 34 counts – the man that has brought him there.

Which brings us seamlessly to today’s creation, this splendid 1978 Autocar DK Trashmaster garbage truck, for decades the default vehicle for tidying NYC’s streets.

Constructed by previous bloggee Sseven Bricks, this excellent recreation of New York’s most recognisable garbage truck captures its appearance brilliantly, and includes a working trash compactor alongside some wonderful visual attention to detail.

Sseven’s Flickr photostream hosts full details and imagery of the build, and you can take the trash to the curb in NYC (or a president, whether Venezuelan or American) via the link in the text above.

Trucking Tuesday

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We’re a Lego car blog, which is why all of today’s posts haven’t been cars… OK, we sometimes suck at our brief, but this is a lovely model nonetheless. A DAF FAS 2200 DU, it comes from serial bloggee Arian Janssens, who has both constructed and presented his latest classic truck beautifully.

Working steering, folding drop-sides, a posable grab crane (complete with a mechanism to slide it along the load bed), a steered drawbar trailer, and loaded pallets all feature, with almost two-dozen images of the model available to view showcasing its exceptional attention to detail. Take a closer look at Arian’s ‘DAF FAS 2200 DU’ album via the link above.

Wait For It…

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These days, everything is turbocharged. Which normally means a tiny engine, often with three-cylinders, fitted under the hood of a homogenous crossover. Sigh. But turbos used to be cool. Albeit laggy.

This is the BMW 2002 Turbo, one of the first turbocharged production cars, and powered by a 2.0 litre engine fitted with a 0.55 bar twin-scroll KK&K turbocharger that boosted power to almost 170bhp. Well, it did once the turbo-lag was over, usually a few seconds after you asked for it.

Launched in 1973, the 2002 Turbo’s arrival coincided exactly with the oil crisis, which meant it wasn’t exactly a success. The technology it pioneered however, is now fitted to almost every new non-electrified car on sale, and with the lag left in the past.

This excellent brick-built homage to the 2002 Turbo comes from brickphisto of Flickr, who has recreated it beautifully in 8-wide form. The doors, trunk, and hood all open, under the last of which is a replica of the M10-turbo engine that powered it, and there’s more of the model to see at brickphisto’s photostream. Put your foot down and wait a few seconds via the link above.