Tag Archives: 1980s

Cruiser of Choice

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Toyota’s legendary 70-Series Land Cruiser has traversed the world’s most inhospitable places since the mid-’80s (as well as a lot of Australian supermarket carparks), and is still on sale today.

Over that incredible forty year production run, the 70-Series has been fitted with a bewildering array of engines and body styles, courtesy the hugely diverse markets in which it is sold.

All of which makes it rather hard to choose one particular variant if you’re intent on recreating the 70-Series out of our favourite plastic bricks. So Eurobricks’ 2GodBDGlory hasn’t. He’s made all of them.

Yup, 2God’s fantastic modular Land Cruiser 70-Series can be built with five different engines (or Power Functions remote remote control), 1980s, 2000s, or 2020s styling, short, medium, or long wheelbase, SUV (with hard or soft top) or Pick-Up (with various tray/bed configurations), and a roof basket or rack.

Best of all, he’s made building instructions available for free, so you can recreate your perfect Lego Land Cruiser 70-Series at home! Find out more at the Eurobricks forum, and you can see various configurations on-location in his Bricksafe album here.

Superliner

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Another day, another Elf returns to TLCB Towers in the hope of a meal token and a Smartie. Which it has definitely earned, as we are rather partial to a classic American truck.

This one is a mid-‘80s Mack Superliner, and not only does it look excellent, it’s got a working V8, functioning steering and fifth wheel, and opening doors and hood.


Constructed by previous bloggee DamianPLE there’s more to see, including building instructions, at both Eurobricks and Bricksafe, and you can take a look via the links.

The Indestructible Hilux

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The best selling pick-up everywhere except North America, the Toyota Hilux is favoured by farmers, NGOs, terrorists, and… Top Gear.

Some twenty years ago Top Gear embarked on what would become one of their most famous sequences ever filmed. And created the best advert for the Hilux that Toyota could have dreamed of.

Famed for their indestructibility, Top Gear decided to put the Hilux’s toughness to the test. They bought an old rusty example from a farm, and crashed it. A lot. They left it in the sea. Dropped a caravan on it. Set fire to it. Hit it with a wrecking ball. And, finally, placed it atop a tower block, and blew it up.

After all of that the Hilux was – unbelievably –  still working, and thus it became a permanent fixture in the Top Gear studio until the show’s demise. Which means the Hilux didn’t just outlive all of the tests that Top Gear put it through, but even Top Gear itself.

This homage to the world’s most famous pick-up truck comes courtesy of NV Carmocs of Flickr, who has recreated the Top Gear Hilux – dents, buckled chassis, fire-scorched paint and all – brilliantly in brick-form.

There’s more of the model to see at NV’s photostream via the third link in the text above, and if you’re one of the few people on earth that haven’t seen Top Gear’s most famous of vehicle tests, take a look at the first two…

Sunset Stripe

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We love a sunset stripe here at The Lego Car Blog. From classic Toyota pick-ups to vintage LEGO sets, red over yellow looks the business. And even more so when it’s been applied to a remote control 6×6 off-road truck.

This remote control 6×6 off-road truck is the latest creation by TLCB Master MOCer Nico71, who has equipped it with Power Functions Servo steering, twin L-Motor six-wheel-drive, a high/low gearbox, a V8 piston engine, all-wheel suspension, opening doors and hood, plus the coolest of sunset stripes.

There’s lots more to see at Eurobricks and Nico71’s excellent website (where building instructions are also available), and you watch the sunset via the links above.

YouTube Video

It’s Got a Crate V8, Mate

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Chevrolet’s third-generation Camaro was not just a huge visual departure from its ’70s predecessor, it had fuel injection, a hatchback, and was over 200kgs lighter than the second generation. All of which added up to a car that was faster, more agile, and more economical.

Except that first bit. Because even the 5.0 V8-engined Camaros made…. 145bhp. Chevrolet upped that with a new V8 engine a few years after the third-generation Camaro launched, but it still didn’t trouble 200bhp.

Which is rather different from what Chevrolet offers today, as in 2025 you can buy, brand new, a 1,000bhp crate engine. And put it in anything.

The guys at Hoonigan have done just that, dropping said 1,000bhp Chevrolet crate engine straight into a third-generation Camaro. And the resultant car is rather more lively than it was back in the early-’80s.

Cue previous bloggee and TLCB Master MOCer Firas Abu-Jaber, who has recreated Hoonigan’s wild third-generation Camaro in brick form, complete with that outrageous engine, working steering, opening doors and rear hatch, a detailed interior, and authentically replicated decals.

There’s much more of the model to see at Firas’ ‘Hoonigan Camaro’ album on Flickr, you can find instructions for Firas’ builds at his excellent ‘Bricks Garage’ website, and you can read his interview here at The Lego Car Blog via the first link in this post.

Take a look via the links above, whilst we try to figure out if a 1,000bhp Chevrolet crate motor will fit in the engine bay of the office Rover 200…

Plastic Fantastic

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The plastic bodykit is more associated with badly modified hatchbacks than supercars. But that didn’t stop Lamborghini, who – in the mid-’80s – bolted the mother and father of all bodykits onto their ageing but previously svelte Countach to make it fit for the Decade of Excess, and in doing so created the poster car of the time.

Previous bloggee RGB900 has recreated the aforementioned bodykit – and the Countach that’s somewhere underneath it – brilliantly in brick form, complete with opening doors and engine cover, and a removable engine. There’s more of the model to see at RGB’s photostream, and you can jump back to investment banking in the ’80s via the link above.

Night Out Of The Museum

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It’s Star Wars Day! So to celebrate here’s a classic Porsche 936.81 Le Mans racer. Yeh, we’re not great at sci-fi. But no matter, because the story of the Porsche 936.81 is much more interesting than George Lucas’s space saga.

First racing in the mid-70s, the 936 was rather outdated by the early ’80s, and thus surviving units were residing in a museum. Needing a car for Le Mans, Porsche brought the cars out of retirement, brought their drivers out of retirement too, and fitted a detuned engine from an Indy Car.

The resultant hodge-podge unbelievably won the 1981 Le Mans 24 Hours, with a museum-piece car, a retired driver, and a left-over engine. And that’s a better story than anything in Star Wars.

Built by previous bloggee SFH_Bricks, this fantastic Speed Champions recreation of the 936.81 captures the unlikely race winner brilliantly, and there’s more to see of his superbly presented model at his ‘1981 Porsche 9361.81’ album here.

Romanian Renault

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Crappy communist cars such as this, this and this weren’t just made out of old Fiats. No, because there was an exception! Dacias were made out of old Renaults. 

Based on the Renault 12, Dacia produced the 1310 from 1979 until 1999, before Renault took over the company from the Romanian state and, well… just continued making it for another seven years. Small revisions to the design were made over that lengthy production run, although all were somewhat ungainly, with the 1980s example pictured here looking particularly tragic.

Still, when you’re part of a communist dictatorship choice is somewhat limited, and thus over two million Dacia 1310s were sold.

This superb replica of the 1310 is the work of previous (but newly named) bloggee blockostalgia, who has done a tremendous job of recreating the humble Romanian people’s car in brick form. Everything opens, there’s a detailed interior and engine bay, and presentation is top shelf. Literally.

There’s lots more of block’s delightful Dacia to see on Flickr via the link above, and if you’re wondering what became of the brand after Renault’s take-over… well they now make the best selling car in all of Europe.

Double Dump

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We’re dumping double today, courtesy of regular bloggee Arian Janssens and this brilliant DAF FAS 3300 DKX in ‘Bas Van Buuren’ livery.

A huge tipping bucket is mounted behind that DAF FAS’s cab, whilst behind that a drawbar trailer is fitted with a second enormous tipper.

Both are exceptionally well detailed and presented (although we’re not sure you’d dump the load from the truck whilst the trailer was hitched…) and there’s more to see of the whole rig at Arian’s photostream. Take a look via the link whilst we congratulate ourselves on successfully avoiding a minefield of double-entendre.

Foxy Horse

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American cars in the late-’70s through mid-’80s were rubbish. They were rubbish long after the mid-’80s too of course, but even the iconic Ford Mustang was a throughly mediocre specimen in its early-’80s guise.

Base on Ford’s then-new ‘Fox’ platform, the third-generation ‘Foxbody’ Mustang could be had as a prosaic coupe, a dreary hatch-back or a lacklustre convertible, and was powered by an array of engines ranging from an inline-4 that produced no horsepower whatsoever to a 5.0 V8 that produced no horsepower whatsoever.

Getting with the times however, and Ford did add a 4-cylinder turbo, which did produce some horsepower – briefly – before it broke.

You may have guessed we’re not fans of Ford’s third-generation ‘stang, and we’re not. Until that, is comes to its 1986 facelift.

Adopting Ford’s ‘aero’ design, the Foxbody instantly went from dreary to desirable, and even the engines got a glow-up, with the 4-cylinder breaking the 100bhp mark (up from a miserly 88) by the early-’90s, and the 5.0 V8 surpassing 200bhp.

This excellent Model Team recreation of the Foxbody Mustang captures the facelift’s sleek exterior brilliantly, and comes from previous bloggee Szunyogh Balázs (aka. gnat.bricks). There’s an opening hood (under which can be slotted both a V8 or 4-cylinder engine as Szunyogh has created both), opening doors and trunk, and a superbly life-like interior.

There’s more of the model to see at Szunyogh’s ‘Lego Mustang – Foxbody’ album on Flickr, and you can take a look at the moment when America’s automotive malaise era finally ended via the link above.

Gotham is Burning

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I know… Isn’t it beautiful?

Arthur Fleck, riding in a 1977 Dodge Monaco police car, stares out of the window in wonder at the disorder he has sparked.

Flickr’s _Tiler has captured the moment that down-trodden Arthur became ‘The Joker’, and there’s more to see of the Dodge Monaco in which it occurred via the link above.

Cruise Control

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Cruiseliners. Giant floating shopping malls filled with the terrifically fat, the terminally elderly, or the terrifically fat and terminally elderly. And if you’re reading this thinking ‘But I went on a cruise ship…’, then yes, you are one of the above.

Today’s creation is a truck that takes its name from that dreadful excuse for tourism, and comes from newcomer Lecz, making their TLCB debut.

Skilfully blending Technic and Model Team styles, Lecz’s classic Mack Cruiseliner features a working V8 engine under a tilting cab, ‘HOG’ steering, and a functioning fifth wheel lock, with lots more to see – including high quality digital renders and a link to building instructions – at the Eurobricks forum and Bricksafe.

Click the links above to fight off a fat lady at the buffet before docking in a quaint fishing village and ruining it.

Arabian Nights

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Truck drivers travel a looong way. Few however, travelled quite so far as those on the overland haulage route from Europe to the Middle East.

Crossing more than a dozen countries and over 4,000 miles, trucks such as this ‘Rynart’-operated Scania LB141 journeyed from Holland to Saudi Arabia (and back again) in the late-’70s and early-’80s, before the existence of most highways, and long before Google Maps and sat-nav. We’re guessing they probably weren’t transporting vegetables or milk…

This astonishingly life-like recreation of one of the trucks to travel that epic route has been constructed by Dennis Bosman (aka legotrucks), who has replicated the Scania LB141, trailer, and ‘Rynart, Holland – Saudi Arabia Express’ livery in stunning detail.

Fantastic presentation matches the phenomenal build, and you can join Dennis on the long road from Europe to the Middle East at his ‘Scania LB141 “Rynart” album on Flickr, plus you can check out how he creates spectacular models just like this one via his Master MOCers interview here at TLCB.

Big Fifty

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Turning fifty is a big occasion, and especially so for today’s birthday boy. Yes Big Foot, the original car-crushing monster truck, is half-a-century old!

This spectacular brick-built replica of the Ford F-250-based colossus is the work of Orion Pax aka Alex Jones (no not that one), complete with custom chrome, superbly authentic decals, plus LED lights and remote control drive and steering.

It’s a monstrously good build and there’s more to see of Alex’s fantastic fiftieth birthday homage to the all-time monster truck great at his photostream. Click the link above to take a look, or here to see more of Big Foot doing what it does best.

Three-Hundred Zeds

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In 2025, in TLCB’s home market, Nissan sell exactly nothing that we would want to buy, own, sit in, or be seen in. Back in the early ’90s though, and Nissan were altogether more exciting.

This is just one of several sports cars Nissan used to sell before they gave up trying to do anything at all, the fabulous second-generation 300ZX.

Launched in the late ’80s, the 300ZX was ridiculously futuristic, and utilised one of the first supercomputers (and – at the time – the world’s fastest) in its design. It was also powerful, with a naturally-aspirated V6 producing over 220bhp or a twin-turbo over 300bhp – big figures for the time.

Cue this brilliant Model Team replica of Nissan’s high water mark, created by previous bloggee Mihail Rakovskiy, who has captured the 300ZX beautifully.

Opening doors and hood, a ‘glass’ targa roof, and a superbly detailed interior, engine bay, and drivetrain all feature, and you can jump back to a time when Nissan made something other than wheeled sleeping pills at Mihail’s ‘Nissan 300ZX’ album.

Click the link above for a very different sort of Z to ones Nissan induce today.