Tag Archives: 1990s

Insert Low Level Drug Dealer

Leave a reply

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

1 Reply

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

Leave a reply

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

Leave a reply

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

Leave a reply

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

Leave a reply

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

Leave a reply

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

Leave a reply

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.

Peak Mitsubishi

Leave a reply

It’s hard to believe today, but back in the 1990s Mitsubishi where one of the most advanced, dynamic and sought-after brands on the planet.

Dakar-winning 4x4s, World Rally Championship-winning sedans, and iconic street-racer favourites all came from Mitsubishi Motors, as did this – the wonderful 3000GT.

Available with a twin turbo-charged 24 valve V6, all-wheel drive, all-wheel steering, and even active aerodynamics, the 3000GT was a technical tour-de-force, becoming both a mainstay of ’90s racing games as well as proving to be quicker than much more exotic and expensive rivals on real roads.

Cue this fantastic recreation of Mitsubishi’s high water mark from Mihail Rakovskiy of Flickr. Opening doors, hood and tailgate, a highly detailed engine and interior, a brick-built drivetrain, and even accurate badging all feature, and you can check out more of Mihail’s stunning replica of the Mitsubishi 3000GT at his album of the same name via the link above.

And what of Mitsubishi Motors in 2025? Well their badge is now stuck, rather unconvincingly, on a Renault compact crossover… We’ll stick to the ’90s.

A Noun & A Verb

Leave a reply

Ram (noun); a male sheep.
Ram (verb); to forcefully push something.

Although the latter may well be derive from the former (see here. And here. And definitely here). Anyway, today we have both forms of the word, thanks to Teo LEGO Technic‘s RAM 1500 pick-up, and – more irritatingly – the Elf that found it.

Powered by a BuWizz and two Buggy Motors, Teo’s Technic pick-up features four-wheel-drive, all-wheel suspension (independent up front and live-axle at the rear), and a high/low gearbox, which – when combined – make a for a model that is really very fast indeed.

Of course it didn’t take the Elf at the controls long to take advantage of that, using Teo’s Ram to, well… ram into anything it could. Mostly its co-workers. In high gear on the flat of the office corridor our Elves were no match for the RAM’s speed, meaning we now have some tidying up to do and some Elven first-aid to administer.

Whilst we get on with that you can check out more of Teo’s excellent RAM 1500 at the Eurobricks forum via the link above, where full build details and a video are available, plus you can check out the model’s complete image gallery on Bricksafe by clicking here.

Jurassic Jeep

Leave a reply

The Lego Car Blog Elves are currently stomping around the office making ‘Rhaaagh!’ noises, which definitely isn’t annoying.

Flickr’s Jerry Builds Bricks is the cause of our migraine, thanks to his (excellent) Jurassic Park Jeep Wrangler, complete with the movie’s iconic red-and-grey-camo, spotlights, a winch for not-being-eaten-by-velociraptors, and one of those weird looped aerials.

There’s more to see at Jerry’s photostream and you can… uh… find a way… via the link above.

The Antidote

Leave a reply

TLCB Towers is surrounded by brand new Land Rover Defenders. Which is a good thing for the viability of JLR, if not the likability of Land Rover. Because every single one is vanity-plated black-on-black with extra black driven by a sleeve-tattooed-holiday-in-Dubai-park-on-yellow-lines-whist-getting-a-weekly-skin-fade-douchebag. And we hate them.

We need a new Defender antidote, and it comes in the form of… the old Defender. Everything the new one isn’t, we’ve never yet seen a spotless original Defender parked illegally outside the Turkish barbers, because they’re still driving around the countryside, often with a sheep in the back. And we love them.

This splendid brick-built Land Rover Defender 90 captures the original 4×4 beautifully in classic Model Team form, and there’s more to see courtesy of brittle.lime.joint / CaptainSirMig on Flickr and Eurobricks respectively. Join us taking the antidote to the modern Defender via the links above.

The Hook

Leave a reply

We like a good hook here at TLCB, and they don’t come much gooder or hookier than this huge DAF FAD 95.400 ATI 8×4 hook-lift truck by Flickr’s Arian Janssens.

Able to hoist an enormous container onto itself, as well as tow another behind on a draw-bar trailer, Arian’s DAF is a testament to large scale model-making, and there’s loads more to see at his ‘DAF FAD 95.400 ATI 8×4’ album. Take a look via the link above if it’s got you hooked…

*Today’s (wonderful) title song. Of course.

2JZ Inside

Leave a reply

It wasn’t just Supras that had the 2JZ under the hood. In fact several Toyota and Lexus products were powered by the internet’s favourite engine, including really weird stuff. Which means if you want 2JZ kudos without having to spend ridiculous Supra money, you could get one of these; the excellent Toyota Mark II / Chaser.

Launched in 1992, the seventh generation ‘X90’ Mark II was a mid-size sedan that lasted until 1996, and was available with a variety of engines, including a diesel, a twin-turbo, and the 2JZ.

This splendid Model Team example comes from recent bloggee Mihail Rakovskiy, who is making a name for himself here at TLCB with his excellent ’90s Japanese cars. His ‘X90’ Mark II is as wonderfully life-like as his other creations, with opening doors, hood and trunk, a detailed engine bay, a realistic interior, and even an accurate drivetrain visible underneath.

Superb presentation tops a brilliant build, and there’s lots more of the Toyota to see at Mihail’s ‘Lego Toyota Mark II’ Flickr album. Click the link above for the thinking man’s 2JZ.

Foxy Horse

Leave a reply

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.