Tag Archives: 4×4

Virtual Yuk

The recent assassination of Charlie Kirk – ironically during a speech where he was criticising gun control – continues the descent of America (and many other nations, our own included) into a tribalist, binary, them and us, anyone-who-doesn’t-think-like-me-is-the-enemy hellscape.

Thus today we’re showing some BBC-esque impartiality and featuring a model of a car we dislike immensely will write about objectively.

Digitally created by Peter Blackert (aka lego911), this is an early-’00s GMC Yukon; a full-size SUV based on the Chevrolet Tahoe and powered by an enormous 5.7 V8 that made just 250bhp, similar to the vastly superior Toyota 4Runner’s much smaller V6 some 250bhp. The Yukon/Tahoe also featured side airbags, four-wheel disc brakes, and automatic headlight control, plus many other, um… facts.

Alright, we’re not very good as this factual stuff. But it doesn’t matter if we think that the GMC Yukon is two-tons of early-’00s American automotive malaise and you think it’s the best vehicle ever made. It’s OK to disagree. Even if someone’s opinions are bit unusual. We quite like the Fiat Multipla after all.

You can take a look at Peter’s excellent virtual Yukon at his photostream via the link above, whether you love the real thing, hate it, or have no opinion whatsoever.

Just a Jeep

It’s been a day of decidedly weird vehicles here at The Lego Car Blog, so we’ll round off with something resolutely normal. Splendidly built with Technic gears for wheels, a miniaturised roll cage, and a dismembered mini-figure hand for a winch, 1saac W.‘s Jeep TJ is as good as small scale building gets. Take a look via the link.

Splat!

It’s been remarkably peaceful of late here at TLCB Towers. Elves have been finding creations, earning meal tokens, and barely inflicting extreme violence on one another at all. Which of course had to end at some point.

Cue this mighty Technic dune buggy by gyenesvi, which thundered into the office today, a jubilant Elf at the controls, and immediately flattened as many of our mythical workers as it could. Which with planetary hubs, remote control all-wheel drive courtesy of four third-party BuWizz motors, and monster suspension, was quite a lot.

Fortunately gyensvi’s buggy also has flaw in that after a particularly hard landing the steering can pop-out, which meant proceedings were halted when the Elf at the controls did indeed lose the ability to steer and crashed it forcefully into a potted plant before running away cackling maniacally.

There is still considerable cleaning up to do though, so whilst we administer some elven first-aid/disposal you can check out gyenesvi’s buggy at the Eurobricks forum (where a video and full details – including its steering shortcoming – can be found) plus you can find the complete image gallery on Bricksafe here.

The Toyota War

Fought in 1986-’87, the ‘Toyota War’ was the last phase of the nine-year-long Chadian-Libyan War, which ended in defeat for Libya and Colonel Gaddafi (who started it by invading Chad) and the return of Chad’s seized territory.

It’s also possibly the only war named after the make of the pick-up trucks that primary fought it, with Toyota’s Land Cruiser 70-Series used prolifically on both sides, and – in Chadian hands – fitted with their French ally’s anti-tank missile launchers.

Of course countless wars since have been fought from the back of Toyotas, with the company’s trucks being the first choice of militias, terrorist groups, and legitimate armies, plus the UN and NGOs who try to piece broken communities back together again afterwards. In fact Toyota take this depressing usage so seriously in some markets they removed the ‘TOYOTA’ lettering from the back of their pick-ups to avoid the link with the conflicts in which they were so heavily used.

These two excellent 70-Series Land Cruisers from any one of the wars in which they so often feature come from TLCB debutant ORRANGE., who has photographed his models against a suitably deserty backdrop which we’re so familiar with seeing on the news.

A closer look is available at ORRANGE.’s photostream and you can head to a sad and usually pointless conflict somewhere in Africa or the Middle East via the link in the text above.

Tokyo Drift

When the ‘Fast & Furious’ franchise headed for Japan for its third instalment, abandoning its main characters in the process, drifting was the new street racing. And the obvious car for drifting is an all-wheel-drive saloon famed for its grip…

Still, a lot more of the plot made a lot less sense than the inexplicable choice of a Mitsubishi Evo IX, so we’re willing to look the other way. Particular as it’s led to a creation as brilliant as this.

Recreating Sean’s modified Mitsubishi Evo IX from the movie, previous bloggee ArtemyZotov has constructed a superb homage to the Japanese super-saloon, with working steering and suspension, a highly detailed transverse 4-cylinder engine, opening doors, hood and trunk, and movie-accurate decals.

Building instructions are available and you can try to get sideways in Tokyo in a deeply inappropriate car at the Eurobricks forum via the link above.

Jack of All Trades

The Mercedes-Benz Unimog is not, technically, a truck. It is in fact a universal tractor, with literally dozens of different applications. Which probably explains why dozens of different Unimogs have appeared here to date. Today we can add one more, a 1980s Unimog U1400 Agrar courtesy of Sseven Bricks of Flickr. A front PTO allows any number of tools to be added in front of the cab, whilst a big cage behind it means any number can be added at the back too. There’s more of Sseven’s model to see on Flickr and you can take a closer look via the link above.

Picking Cherries

Cherry pickers seem to rarely pick actual cherries. Fixing telephone wires, street lamps, and lopping trees sure, but cherries no.

Cue Ralph Savelsberg and this excellent mini-figure scale Mercedes-Benz Unimog, complete with a rear mounted hoist able to elevate and rotate to pick the juiciest cherries. Or fix a rural community’s broadband after a storm. But whatever.

There’s more to see at Ralph’s Flickr album and you can take a look via the link above whilst this TLCB Writer heads to the fridge in search of fruit…

Monster Fight

This writer was busy watching the nineteen of the world’s best drivers (and Lance Stroll) trying to handle the rain at the British Grand Prix, when a commotion erupted from the Elves’ cage room. Sigh.

After traipsing in, the cause was obvious; two Elves, each with a cartoon-esque monster truck, fighting in the middle of a circle formed of their compatriots. Mr. Airhorn duly separated the pair and dispersed the onlookers, and thus their two finds could be assessed.

Each creation comes from Flickr’s ianying616 and is a cartoon-version of a real Monster Jam truck. Both are blog-worthy two (which meant the Elf fight was pointless) and you can see more of his ‘tooned’ ‘El Toro Loco’ and ‘Silverado’ at his photostream.

Take a link via the link above whilst this writer tries to get back to watching the F1…

Trail Blazin’

Here in the crumbling edifice that is TLCB Towers, surrounded by mythical Elves and perpetual piles of spam comments, sometimes we just want to escape into the wilderness…

Cue this splendid mid-’70s Chevrolet ‘K5’ Blazer constructed by damjan97PL / damianPLE. On lifted suspension and running oversize tyres, Damian’s Chevy looks the perfect tool to make a break from the office.

Which is what Damian has done himself, photographing his creation on location at a lovely looking riverbank. Working steering and opening doors accompany the functioning suspension, building instructions are available, and three’s more to see at both Eurobricks and Bricksafe.

Take a look via the links above whilst this writer tries to sneak out of the office before any of his colleagues have read this post…

A Noun & A Verb

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.

Bring a Trailer

Oh… you already did. Well if there’s a car worth bringing a trailer for, the monstrous Metro 6R4 is it.

Loosely based on the oft-derided but actually phenomenally successful Austin/Rover/MG Metro, the all-wheel-drive, mid-engined 6R4 was developed by Williams Grand Prix Engineering for Group B rallying in the mid-1980s.

The result was… wild, so wild that the engine later went into the Jaguar XJ220, the fastest production car in the world at the time, with the 6R4 becoming an icon in rallycross after the demise of Group B rallying in 1986.

This fantastic homage to the 6R4 was found by one of our Elves on Eurobricks and comes from midlife crisis, making their TLCB debut. A highly detailed engine and interior plus a superb period-correct livery and sponsorship feature, and you can take a closer look at the maddest Rover ever made at the Eurobricks forum via the link above.

Jurassic Jeep

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

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.

Cruiser of Choice

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.

Virtual Adventure

These days most adventuring is viewed digitally. TikTok, Instagram, YouTube… there are millions of videos purporting to show adventure, available to watch from the comfort and safety of wherever people consume such content on their phones. Which is everywhere. And so ironic it hurts.

Thus today we too are virtually adventuring, courtesy of newcomer CelestialCapture and this tremendous overland-equipped Toyota Land Cruiser 70-Series. Replicating the legendary off-roader brilliantly, Celestial has also fitted an exciting array of adventure items, including a snorkel, spot lights, bull-bar, and roof-rack, whilst some excellent bespoke ‘decals’ add to the adventure-based vibe.

There’s more to see of Celestial’s digital Land Cruiser 70-Series on Flickr, and you can head on your own virtual adventure via the link above. Once you’ve done that though, perhaps put your phone in your pocket and head outside. Real adventure is often just around the corner.