Tag Archives: 1990s

LEGO 77984 Jurassic Park Jeep Wrangler | Set Preview

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An adventure 2,000 bricks in the making… this is the brand new LEGO 77984 Jurassic Park Jeep Wrangler!

Crashing through cinema screens back in 1993, the square-headlamped Jeep Wrangler instantly became an icon of film, despite being quite literally in the shadow of pursuing dinosaurs.

Part of an expansive new LEGO ‘Jurassic World’ line-up that includes dinosaur skeletons, Duplo, and mini-figure scale sets, 77984 brings one of the most recognisable movie cars of all time to the 18+ Icons range.

Constructed from 1,924 pieces, including a trick new canvas roof, 77984 allows for any one of four different variants of the Jurassic Park Jeep to be created. All feature working steering via the spare wheel, a lovely engine under an opening hood, opening doors, a variety of accessories from the movie, plus an info plaque and a Dennis Nedry mini-figure ready to meet a gruesome end.

Expected to cost £179.99 / $199.99 / €199.99, you’ll be able to get your claws on the LEGO 77984 Jurassic Park Jeep Wrangler set from May 2026.

DAF-ish

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When is a DAF not a DAF? When it’s a GINAF. No, us neither, but this is indeed a GINAF, specifically a M3132-S 360 ATI, which admittedly sounds like a washing machine.

It comes from DAF-building specialist Arian Janssens, who has captured the enormous three axle hook-lift / tipper / crane / trailer arrangement superbly.

Multi-axle steering, a working crane, removable tipping container and hook-lift all feature, and you can see more of this giant GINAF on Flickr via the link.

Blue and Yellow*

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There are few things cooler than a red (they were all red) Ferrari F40. But if that thing is a blue and yellow F40 racer, that’d do it.

Cue Lachlan Cameron’s spectacular Technic Ferrari F40, which appeared here in road-going form back in 2023, and has now been built – courtesy of Lachlan producing instructions for his models – in a brilliant blue and yellow racing livery by another builder.


Xiao Baiya is behind the F40’s stunning conversion from road car to racer, which includes custom 3D-printed wheels with brakes behind them, and of course the epic decal work required to transform the model into the 1996 Team Ennea Ferrari F40 Le Mans contender.

There’s much more of the F40 to see at its original designer’s photostream, and you can check out our interview with Lachlan Cameron via this bonus link.


*Today’s excellent title song.

Top G

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The Lego Car Blog Elves like Lamborghinis and monster trucks and things with rocket launchers. Which means they’re pretty unimpressed by this. The Lego Car Blog staff however, rather like humdrum mundanity, and in Europe few things are more humdrum and mundane than an old Opel Astra Caravan (also known as the Vauxhall Astra Estate).

The G-series Astra was launched in 1998, looked quite fantastically boring even back then, and was available in a bewildering range of bodystyles and engines, with a hatch, sedan, station wagon, van, coupe and convertible, a dozen petrol and half-a-dozen diesel engines, production across eleven countries, and Holden and Chevrolet versions too.

Most G-series Astras were bland 1.6 litre petrol hatch and station wagons though, just like this splendid brick-built example from Flickr’s Mansur Soeleman, who has recreated his grandfather’s final car as a gift to him.

There’s a detailed interior, space for four mini-figures, and you can take a ride with Mansur’s grandfather via the link above.

Peak Nineties Nissan

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Japanese performance cars, and Nissan in particular, used to be on top of the world. With all-wheel-drive, all-wheel-steering, and a twin-turbocharged inline-6 engine, the ‘R32’ generation Nissan GT-R dominated early-’90s Class A racing.

Around 50,000 road-going examples were produced alongside the racing counterparts, with the GT-R quickly becoming one of the cars of Japan’s golden performance era.

This phenomenal brick-built replica comes from Eurobricks’ NoEXIST, who has not only replicated the R32 GT-R’s exterior wonderfully via a blend of Technic and System parts, he’s included the car’s defining all-wheel-drive, all-wheel-steering, and twin-turbocharged inline-6 engine, plus all-wheel independent suspension, working steering, and opening doors, hood and trunk.

Building instructions and a remote controlled version are both available, and there’s more of this amazing Nissan GT-R recreation to see at the Eurobricks forum, where full build details, links, and a video of the RC version can also be found, with the complete image gallery available at Bricksafe. Click the links above and jump back to peak ’90s Nissan.

Ridge Racers

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These days car manufacturers are delighted to work with video games makers. What you drive virtually as a kid may one day influence what you decide to drive for real. But back in the ’90s video game licensing was still rather hit-and-miss, which meant there was a glorious variety of eccentrically-named vehicles available that were inspired by – or downright copies of – real world cars.

Namco’s ‘Ridge Racer’ was one such title that eschewed licensing in favour of some tremendous own-brewed vehicles, including the ‘Assoluto Bisonte’, ‘Terrazi Troop’, ‘Age Solo Dirigient’, and – our favourite – the ‘Lizard Detector’.

Flickr’s Studworks takes us straight back to racing circa-1998 with his brilliant Speed Champions homage to the cars of ‘Ridge Racer Type 4’, complete with superb replica liveries printed by Brickstickershop.

Building instructions and access to the stickers are available, and you can fire up your PS1 to take the ‘Lizard Detector’ up ‘Wonderhill’ via Studworks’ ‘Ridge Racer Type 4 Cars’ album here!

LEGO Icons 10353 Williams Racing FW14B & Nigel Mansell | Review

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The Lego Car Blog Review Library is packed with over one-hundred LEGO sets, books, compatible products, and even a theme park. But it didn’t have moustache. Until now…

Yes today we’ve finally reviewed the magnificent championship-winning facial topiary of mini-figure Nigel Mansell. And the car that transported it; the wonderful Williams-Renault FW14B.

Constructed from 799 pieces and aimed at ages 18+ (more on that later), the Icons 10353 Williams Racing FW14B brings one of Formula 1’s most famous racing cars to the LEGO range as part of the expansive array of Formula 1 cars past and present released in 2025.

It also brings one of the best enhancements LEGO have made to their vehicle line up in, well… ever, because 10353 features new proper, staggered-width slicks. Hurrah! These are even correctly branded ‘Goodyear’, forming part of 10353’s superb set of accurate sponsors, with only the tobacco ones (this was the early ’90s) absent.

These sponsors are all stickers of course, with the few printed tiles reserved for livery duty, but it’s an F1 car, so that’s appropriate. Gloriously, the technical details of the Williams Racing FW14B are all brick-built – no sticker-based laziness here – and some are really quite intricate. Whilst others are really quite pointless…

Before we explain why, 10353 begins with a large black box we’re used to seeing for the adult ‘display’ sets, inside which are a number of bags, now paper rather than plastic (good job LEGO), the aforementioned stickers, and the instructions.

The latter include some reasonably complicated sub-assemblies, and a little Nigel Mansell mini-figure progresses along the bottom of the pages as you build to chart your progress (although sadly he’s in profile so his moustache is obscured). Another nice touch is that a few pages include a fact about either the real car, or explain what it is you’re recreating in brick-form, which is something we think could benefit many sets, not just the 18+ ones.

The working features of 10353 are limited to steering and a removable engine cover, this set is all about visual display. As evidenced by the fact the last bag of pieces is reserved solely for a display stand, whilst the first contains mini-figure Mansell and an iceberg upon which he can stand for some reason.

Frankly we’re not sure these add anything to the set, other than perhaps being the ’18+’ differentiator (whilst 10353 does feature some advanced techniques, it’s no more technical a build than many younger-rated sets), however the Williams-Renault FW14B itself is excellent.

Immensely detailed, 10353 includes enough greebly-grey pieces to keep even the Lego Space Community happy, with probably a dozen of these, plus the same number of bows and clips, completely alien to this TLCB Writer.

Many of these parts form the mighty Renault V10 engine, accessible once the engine cover is removed, but weirdly many more are hidden elsewhere in the model with no way to access them whatsoever. The only person who’ll see that detail is you during the build process, before you cover them up forever with blue and yellow bodywork.

We’re not quite sure why LEGO chose to add invisible internal detail to a model that’s designed to be put on a shelf, and for us both it – and the display stand and iceberg – are rather superfluous, inflating the price beyond where it needed to be. At £70 / $80, 10353 is far too expensive.

However the car is spectacular to behold, more delicate than most LEGO sets, and more visually detailed too. It’s also currently available for quite a bit less than the £70 / $80 launch price, which means that even if you – like us – feel the stand, iceberg, and invisible detailing are pointless costly additions, you can make the Williams Racing FW14B absolutely worth your investment.

★★★★½

Insert Low Level Drug Dealer

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Now this is a common sight in our home nation. The badly-modified ’90s BMW M3; ill-fitting bodykit, 3D-lettered private registration plate, and absolutely, without question, a low-level drug dealer behind the wheel.

They’re our version of an ageing Trans-Am, and they are to be avoided like a sexually transmitted disease. Which will most likely also be present in the carpets.

This one (in both coupe and convertible forms) comes from Flickr’s ZetoVince, and looks like every single E36 M3 parked on double-yellow lines in the crap parts of London. Which means Zeto has nailed it.

There’s more of the Bimmer to see at Zeto’s photostream, and you can collect your stash from the driver via the link above.

Space Race

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The mid-’90s were a high watermark for Renault. Their Espace multi-purpose-vehicle was a smash hit, creating an entirely new class of car in Europe that other manufacturers scrambled to copy, whilst on track their V10 Formula 1 engine was winning absolutely everything with Williams and Benetton. And then in 1995, in moment of utter genius, they decided to merge the two…

The result was the Renault Espace F1, a one-off carbon-fibre minivan with a mid-mounted 800bhp V10 F1 engine, a top speed of nearly 200mph, and publicity other manufacturers could only dream of.

This fantastic recreation of Renault’s unhinged MPV is the work of Flickr’s Sergio Batista, and features replica decals, 3D-printed wheels, LED lights, a detailed engine and brick-built suspension, plus – in authentic Espace tradition – space for multiple mini-figures. There’s lots more of the model to see at Sergio’s photostream you can race back to when Renault were on top via the link above.

Stealth Bomber

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This is the Northrop Grumman B-2A Spirit, otherwise known as the ‘Stealth Bomber’. In service since 1997 and designed to be invisible to radar, the B-2 is the only known stealth bomber capable of carrying nuclear bombs, which means it’s probably a good thing there are only twenty-one of them.

Well, twenty-two today, courtesy of previous bloggee Kenneth Vaessen. Constructed a decade ago but only recently photographed, Kenneth’s spectacular 1:36 scale B-2A Spirit is built from around 12,000 pieces, with working bomb bay hatches, flaps and landing gear doors, a folding crew entrance, refuelling receptacle, and a wing-span of nearly five feet (146cm).

It’s a jaw-dropping replica of one of the world’s most recognisable (and feared) aircraft, with more superb imagery available to see at Kenneth’s ‘LEGO Northrop Grumman B-2A Spirit 1:36’ album. Click the link above to be spirited there for a stealthy closer look.

Paint it Black

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This splendid creation is a Porsche 911 (964) Turbo, and it isn’t quite possible to build in black. But is is possible to build it in red, which is why we’ve pictured a black one here obviously.

Designed by previous bloggee ArtemyZotov, this fantastic 1:12 recreation of the early-’90s 911 features opening doors, front trunk and engine cover, a fully removable body, working steering, independent suspension, and a detailed flat-6 engine.

Artemy has produced building instructions too, so you can recreate this outstanding model for yourself, although only in red. Which is fine by us at it looks the business in red.

Artemy didn’t have all the red pieces for his design, hence the black build with a few (cough) clone parts, however you can see what the 911 looks like rendered in red at the Eurobricks forum, plus you can find the full gallery of the black brick-built version you see here at Bricksafe.

Take a look via the links in the text above and perhaps create Artemy’s brilliant 911 Turbo for yourself. In red of course.

*Today’s title song.

Ridge Racer

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It’s the mid-’90s, and the peak of racing games involved far too few pixels, minimal physics, empty highway tunnels, and an array nondescript Japanese-esque cars. Cars like this one, the ‘F/A Racing Kamata Fiera’ from 1993’s ‘Ridge Racer’.

Wonderfully constructed by Flickr’s StudWorks, this Speed Champions homage to the earliest days of Playstation racing captures the fictional racer brilliantly, including an authentically recreated ‘Namco’ livery on its appropriately blocky exterior.

There’s more to see at StudWorks’ ‘Ridge Racer – F/A Racing Kamata Fiera’ album and you can join us on a pixilated mountain highway in 1993 via the link above. And if you have no idea what racing games were like three decades ago, click here to see just how good you have it now!

Rallye Raid

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France may not be the first nation that springs to mind when thinking about the world’s best off-roaders. British Land Rovers, American Jeeps, Japanese Land Cruisers… sure, but the French? Except they are. By miles.

The originators of expedition rallies, French drivers have won the Dakar more times than any other nation, which makes sense seeing as the race used to start in Paris. This is one of the amazing machines that propelled a Frenchman to a Dakar win, the wild Citroen ZX Rallye Raid.

Based (kinda) on a small French family car, the ZX Rallye Raid won a total of four Dakar Rallies, cementing itself as one of the greatest rally-raid endurance racers of all time. This fantastic Speed Champions recreation of the 1994 Citroen ZX Rallye Raid Evo 4 encapsulates the iconic off-roader brilliantly in brick, and comes from regular bloggee SFH_Bricks.

With removable front and rear clamshells, superbly authentic decals, and mechanicals as detailed as the exterior, SFH’s Citroen ZX Rallye Raid is a winner in brick form too, and there’s more to see on Flickr. Jump to the desert somewhere in North Africa (or an autoroute just south of Paris) circa-1994 via the link above.

Skyline Silhouette

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The Lego Car Blog Elves are running about making ‘Vroooom!!’ noises today, courtesy of one of their number finding this. It’s a Nissan Skyline ‘Super Silhouette’ racer, as built by Flickr’s Sergio Batista in Speed Champions form and – despite the annoying noises it has produced in our mythical workforce – it’s a brilliant example of small-scale building. Clever SNOT techniques and superb decals make Sergio’s Skyline far more realistic than its size would suggest, and there’s more to see at his photostream via the link above.

Putin It Out There

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It’s been a while since we’ve referenced Putin’s tiny todger. Well, he’s still an under-endowed despot, raining increasing numbers of drones and missiles on Ukrainian apartment blocks, shopping malls, and schools. Because NATO (which Ukraine aren’t in), or Nazis (which Ukraine isn’t ruled by), or something.

Increasing numbers of Russians are also being sent to the war, with vehicles such as this one taking them. It’s a BTR-90 armoured personnel carrier, which was actually only ever intended for use by the Russian National Guard, but with at least one captured in Ukraine, they are evidently now also on the front line.

Powered by a 510bhp turbodiesel the BTR-90 is capable of 100km/h on land, where it’s as capable off-road as a tracked vehicle, and – amazingly – 9km/h on water, as it’s also fully amphibious.

This incredible Technic recreation of the BTR-90 probably doesn’t float, but it is excellent in every other respect. A suite of Power Functions motors provide remote control eight-wheel-drive and four-wheel steering, there are opening side hatches, all-wheel suspension, and a motorised rotating gun turret.

It’s all the work of previous bloggee Samuel Nerpas who has engineered his creation superbly, and you can join the front line in the fight for whatever Putin’s trying to compensate for via the link to Flickr above.