Tag Archives: 6-wide

We’re All Like, People of the World Man

It was the Eurovision Song Contest last night, and if any non-European readers tuned in during the vote reveal, they may have thought they’d accidentally arrived at a 1970s Vietnam War opposition rally.

Almost every country’s host took the opportunity to remind us that the competition’s songs were not in fact banal Euro-pop as we thought, but the source of love and world peace. Urgh. It’s enough to make us want to start a fight.

It was more straightforward back in actual 1970s, when world peace was dispensed not by pseudo-intellectual television hosts, but by Volkswagen-van-driving-hippies with names like Waterfall and Crystal, via beads, tie-dye, and foreign narcotics.

Cue previous bloggee 1saac W., whose Volkswagen T2 bus is so peaceful it has itself been tie-dyed. A kaleidoscope of coloured plates, afforded by LEGO’s ever expanding colour-pallet, make up the VW’s groovy exterior, and you can collect your beads and foreign narcotics from Waterfall and Crystal at 1saac’s photostream via the link above.

You’ll be contributing to world peace about as much as this does anyway

On Green… I’m Going for It

The immortal words of Dominic Toretto, back in 2001 when he was a common street-racing thief and not an international spy or whatever the hell he’s supposed to be now he’s ten movies in.

Of course things didn’t end well for Dom after the lights did turn green (there’s a lesson there kids; real racers keep it at the track. And they don’t just race in a straight line), but fortunately Brian O’Conner was on hand to resupply the overgrown baby with another ‘ten second car’.

And fortunately for fans of the franchise (or those of you simply wanting to smash into a Dodge Charger with a freight train) previous bloggee IBrickedItUp has created both of the star cars from ‘The Fast and the Furious”s final scene in 6-wide Speed Champions form.

Building instructions are available so you can recreate the aforementioned scene at home, and you can live your life a-quarter-mile-at-a-time via the link above.

Fifty Shades of Grey

The Lego Car Blog Elves, who are effectively mythical toddlers, like eye-searing colours. Yellow. Orange. Pink. A combination of all of them. If they could choose a car’s colour scheme it would probably look like this.

TLCB staff however, prefer far more muted hues. As do 95% human adults, judging the almost universally monochrome cars on the roads of our home nation. If a car isn’t black, silver, grey or white, it’s because the owner must be an obnoxious show-off.

Previous bloggee K P certainly shares this school of thought, creating this rather beautiful Jaguar-ish / Bentley-esque classic car from three monochrome colours, which are neatly reflected in the driver’s attire too.

The dog remains light brown though. The obnoxious show-off.

Inventive parts usage and excellent building techniques abound, and there’s more to see of K P’s lovely classic luxury car on Flickr. Click the link above to take a closer look, whilst we ponder why colour adventurism fades as we age, and consider if we should paint the office Rover 200 orange. And pink.

Little Haulers

After a few car-less days we have a trio of vehicular creations to showcase today. None are cars mind…

Still, they are excellent, hence their appearance here, and each proves you don’t need a million pieces or to know The Brothers Brick secret handshake to see your creation blogged.

First up is a vehicle from way back at the very beginning of the ‘Fast & Furious’ franchise, Brian’s Ford F-150 Lightning, complete with ‘The Racers Edge’ decals and a bed full of rather easily stolen car parts. Previous bloggee IBrickItUp is the builder and you can drive to Toretto’s to order a ‘tuna on white with no crust‘ via the link above.

Today’s second small-scale vehicle comes from Justus M., whose classic RV is quite magnificently beige. It also features some simply ingenious suspension, deploying your Mom’s recently blogged ‘golden handcuff’ pieces to brilliant effect. You can see how Justus has done it via the link to his photostream above, where you can also find a video of the springy ‘cuffs in action.

Today’s third and final creation is two really, with Thomas Gion‘s ace 1969 Dodge A100 van and BBQ smoker trailer in tow. As Thomas also goes by the moniker ‘HotDogSandwiches’ it’s a rather appropriate pairing, and you can grab a bun and tuck in to a perfectly smoked sausage via the link in the text above.

And it was all Yellow*

Look at this van
It’s not one shade nor hue
Quite a thing to do
Built in mostly yellow

1saac W
Decided old not new
Patina’s right on cue
Varied types of yellow

So click the link above
To show this build some love
‘Cos it’s kinda yellow

*Sorry Coldplay. Here’s the link to how it should go…

Greener Beemer

The seventies has some wild colours. And brown. Mostly brown in fact, but no matter, because this super-slammed ’70s BMW 2002 tii is gloriously green.

PleaseYesPlease is the builder and you can see more of his greener Beemer on Flickr via the link.

Diggie Smalls

We like humble workhorses here at TLCB, and they don’t come much humbler or more workhorsey than a mini excavator. This one is a Yanmar Vio17, pictured here within the flatbed of an equally workhorsey Isuzu truck. Both are the work of Y Akimeshi of Flickr, who has recreated the real-world construction site staples brilliantly in mini-figure scale, and there’s more of each to see at his photostream. Click the link above to start digging.

Honey I Shrunk the 10317

LEGO’s brilliant new 10317 Icons Land Rover Defender 90 set is one of the coolest looking Technic sets in ages. However, it’s also $240, which is some way outside of pocket-money attainability.

Fortunately LEGO’s upcoming 150-piece Creator 40650 Land Rover Classic Defender set will allow their Land Rover partnership to feature on far more bedroom floors, and it’s this lovely little set that has formed the basis for Thomas Gion’s own heritage green Land Rover Defender 90.

Taking the un-accessorised yellow Defender from 40650, Thomas has rebuilt the 6-wide Creator set replicating the best bits of its much bigger Technic brother, equipping his Land Rover with a snorkel, bonnet-mounted spare, and a packed roof cage, whilst adding a does of extra visual accuracy via clever SNOT building techniques.

There’s more to see at Thomas’ ‘Land Rover Defender 90’ album, plus you can check out the two official LEGO sets that inspired it via the links in the text above.

Want to Get into My Van?

As if that old Dodge van parked down the street wasn’t creepy enough, Flickr’s 1saac W. has made it hover. Still don’t get into it kids. See more (from a distance) at 1saac’s photostream.

Sun & Moon

The seventies were weird. Inflation trebled, gas prices skyrocketed, everyone was on strike, and vans were adorned with murals for some reason.

The first three items on the list are making an inglorious resurgence in 2022, so we’re expecting the return of mural-adorned vans is imminent too. Flickr’s 1saac W. is one step ahead with this pair of wonderfully ’70s Dodge Street vans, each adorned with a celestial mural.

Head back to the 1970s via the link above, or just stick around for a bit, as the decade appears to returning for all of us.

Back in Black*

It’s been a while since we featured a small scale car, but proof that we do like creations with less than a billion pieces – when they’re constructed and presented as beautifully as this – comes from previous bloggee RGB900, who returns to TLCB with this superb ‘6-wide black sports car.’ Not the catchiest title, but it is a brilliant build, and shows how good a creation can be even when it’s small. See more at RGB900’s photostream via the link.

*Today’s title song. Obviously.

Seventies Cycling

Peugeot, like many car manufacturers, didn’t begin by making cars. The company’s earliest products were saw blades and coffee and pepper grinders, but it was the bicycles that followed that made the business famous.

A decline in cycling interest post-war forced the company to refocus on automobile production, but a resurgence in the 1960s, as the bicycle transitioned from a transportation method to a leisure activity, created a new market for Peugeot’s pedal-powered products.

The company capitalised on this, producing road and race bikes that became world famous, and demonstrated their leadership in the world’s toughest (and Frenchiest) cycle race; the Tour de France, winning the event in ’75 and ’77.

This lovely 6-wide recreation of Peugeot’s 1970s Tour de France support car, complete with boot-mounted bicycles, comes from previous bloggee PalBenglat, who has captured both the ’70s Peugeot 504 and the vintage building style of LEGO at the time wonderfully.

Clever techniques and excellent presentation are evident throughout the build, and there’s more of the classic Peugeot to see at Pal’s photostream. Click the link above to put on your jersey and head into the French mountains c1975.

Caprice Classic

TLCB’s home nation didn’t get to the enjoy the delights of ’90s full-size American sedans. And by ‘delights’, we mean oversize bodywork, fantastically lazy engines, and the plastics quality of a Kinder Egg toy. This is one such car, the Chevrolet Caprice Classic.

Launched in ’91, the fourth generation of Chevy’s full-size sedan wore new aerodynamic but unpopular bodywork, carried over V8 engines from the previous generation, and rode on a chassis from 1977. Which unbelievably was enough to earn it Motor Trend’s ‘Domestic Car of the Year’, showing just how rubbish American cars were in 1991.

This excellent 6-wide homage to the early-’90s American barge comes from aaref1ev of Flickr, who has captured the Caprice Classic brilliantly, also rendering the design in NYPD and Taxi Cab flavours. Head to aaref1ev’s photostream to jump back to the early-’90s, and be thankful that automotive era is long over…

Bukhanka

Grey, ugly, and slightly depressing. Most Soviet items, whether architecture or vehicular, seemed to follow these designs rules, but at least the UAZ-452 got a good nickname.

‘Bukhanka’ means ‘bread loaf’*, and became attached to the UAZ-452 thanks to its slightly loaf-like aesthetic.

The 452 has maintained said shape since its launch in 1965, and it’s still being sold virtually unchanged today, even taking until 2011 to gain seatbelts and anti-lock brakes.

Used as a van, ambulance, pick-up truck, military vehicle, minibus, and countless other applications, the ‘Bukhanka’ is common sight across Eastern Europe, and has been recreated brilliantly in brick-form by previous bloggee PalBenglat.

Pal’s 6-wide ‘Bukhanka’ captures the design of the original wonderfully and there’s more to see at his ‘UAZ-452 Bukhanka’ album on Flickr. Click the link above to loaf on over.

*And not, as it turns out, when several gu… nevermind. Google carefully kids…

Daily Delivery

We’re into the last week of BrickNerd and TLCB’s Festival of Mundanity competition. There have been over fifty entries so far, with two today bringing the hum-drum world of daily deliveries to the brick.

First up (above) is ABrickDreamer‘s Piaggio Ape, which might seem interesting to our American readers, but in rural Italy (or India) these scooter-based pick-up trucks are everywhere, hauling improbable loads with as little as 50cc.

In production since 1948, the latest Apes can be fitted with 200cc petrol or 400cc diesel engines (although 50cc versions are still on sale!), and continue to be a common sight performing the most mundane of tasks, usually with a wearing-looking moustachioed driver on board perpetually wishing he had an extra 200cc.

A common sight in much of the world too is today’s second contest entry, the Volkswagen Transporter. An no, it’s not a camper.

Still in use by the thousand in South America, most Volkswagen T2s are not cool campers, surf buses or hippy time machines, they’re just… vans. And outdated noisy ones at that.

This splendid brick-built Transporter is transporting eggs, and comes from PalBenglat, who has captured its unpretentious simplicity beautifully.

There’s more to see of Pal’s Volkswagen Transporter van and BrickDreamer’s Piaggio Ape at their respective photostreams via the links, and there’s still time to get your Festival of Mundanity entry in, and be in with a chance of winning an awesome BuWizz Pro bluetooth battery (which we’ll be reviewing here very soon) along with some other fantastic prizes!