Tag Archives: Bell

Military Monday

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War is once again raging in Europe. However despite the shock of one country invading another in 2022, Europe has been involved in conflict almost constantly. From fear of nuclear annihilation during the Cold War (which this TLCB Writer fears may be about to return) to involvement in far-away combat, war is sadly never distant.

Today’s models remind us of this past, with the first (above) the undoubtedly beautiful but rather sinister Handley-Page Victor nuclear bomber.

Built as part of the UK’s nuclear defence in the late 1950s, the Victor was part of a long line of V-Bombers (that also included the incredible Avro Vulcan), before it was repurposed for high altitude reconnaissance and later air-to-air refuelling.

This wonderful recreation of the Victor comes from previous bloggee Henrik Jensen, who has recreated its amazing shape beautifully in brick form. A full description of the build and further imagery can be found at Henrik’s photostream, and you can bomb on over via the link above.

Today’s second military creation (below) recreates a scene from countless Vietnam War movies, with a Bell ‘Huey’ helicopter in front of a (superbly built) shell-damaged building. The Bell and background come from Nicholas Goodman, who – like Henrik above – has deployed a few custom pieces to enhance authenticity.

There’s more to see of Nicholas’ ‘Battle of Hue, February 1968’ on Flickr. Click the link above to fight a pointless war that ends in failure and retreat. In that respect we hope that history is about to repeat itself.

Rainbow Rescue

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This year literally everything become rainbow coloured for a bit. Utah’s Bell 407 search and rescue helicopter was ahead of the curve though, already sporting a fantastic rainbow colour scheme that might just be the most difficult paint job to recreate in Lego bricks ever devised.

That didn’t stop Eurobricks’ droomangroup though, who has replicated the Utah Bell medevac helicopter in Model Team form, somehow managing to recreate the rainbow livery in bricks with such precision it’s made our heads hurt.

There’s more to see of drooman’s monumentally clever model at the Eurobricks forum, where you can also find an image of the real Utah Bell 407 search and rescue unit for comparison. Click the link above to follow the rainbow.

Fortunate Son

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If there are two things associated with America’s involvement in the Vietnam War more than any others, it’s the incessant use of Creedence Clearwater Revival’s ‘Fortunate Son’, and the Bell UH-1N ‘Huey’ helicopter.

Fortunately we like Fortunate Son, and we like the Bell UH-1N Huey too, at least in brick form from Flickr’s [Maks].

[Maks]’s USAF Twin Huey captures the real military helicopter brilliantly, with flex hose skids, brick-built camo, and accurate decals.

There are more superb images of [Maks]’s build to see at his ‘UH-1N Twin Huey’ album – click the link above and start humming Fortunate Son on loop.

The Osprey is Dead

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Like the Dodo, and those pointy-beaked flappy dinosaurs that killed everyone in Jurassic World, the Osprey is dead. At least LEGO’s version is. Following a petition by the German Peace Society, the new 1,636 piece set due for release in 2020 has been cancelled, on the grounds of it being a military vehicle (which we suppose it is), a category that LEGO have steadfastly tried to avoid in the past.

LEGO’s statement on the cancellation reads;

The LEGO Technic Bell Boeing V-22 Osprey was designed to highlight the important role the aircraft plays in search and rescue efforts. While the set clearly depicts how a rescue version of the plane might look, the aircraft is only used by the military.  We have a long-standing policy not to create sets which feature real military vehicles, so it has been decided not to proceed with the launch of this product.

We appreciate that some fans who were looking forward to this set may be disappointed, but we believe it’s important to ensure that we uphold our brand values. 

Which probably means if you managed to get hold of a LEGO Technic 42113 Bell Boeing V-22 Osprey set before the cancellation it’ll soon be worth at least $1 billion to those nerdy collectors who never take the bricks out of the box.

We’re not sure what we think about this one. We were rather surprised that LEGO released a military aircraft as a set (even one with no weapons), but we’re more surprised that they’ve now cancelled it, given the huge amount of work (and money) that will have gone into developing it for sale.

We guess we’ll stick to firing the machine guns on the 10262 Aston Martin DB5 007 set or the cannons on a LEGO pirate ship to get our LEGO violence fix instead.

Smile, and the World Smiles with You

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The Bell Huey UH-1 was used for all sorts of things during the Vietnam War. Other wars too (in fact the UH-1 is still in widespread service today), but it’s the pointless Vietnam conflict for which it is most famous. From medical evacuation – the role the aircraft was originally designed for – to troop carrying, reconnaissance, search and rescue, and an attack gunship, the ‘Huey’ proved to be an incredibly versatile design, and it’s the latter variant that has the Elves most excited today.

Modified with the addition of machine guns, plus rocket and grenade launchers, the UH-1 made for a fairly terrifying gunship, especially when a giant pointy-toothed smiling shark mouth was painted on the front. A smile we don’t think the Vietnamese locals would’ve returned…

This superb recreation of the Bell Huey UH-1 in U.S Army gunship configuration is the work of Robson M (aka Brick Designers) who has replicated the real aircraft beautifully in brick form. With top-quality custom decals, a highly detailed interior, opening doors, and super-accurate brick-built weaponry, Robson’s Huey is well worth a closer look. Head to Flickr via the link above to see all the photos and give it your best smile.

Whirl ‘n Wheel Again

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As 2019 draws to a close might have found our favourite model of the year so far! The 5590 ‘Wheel ‘n Whirl Super Truck’, thankfully called something far less silly in our home nation, was one of the three sets that launched the Model Team range almost thirty years ago.

Three models in one, 5590 included a cab-over truck, trailer, and helicopter, all of which were detailed beyond any other LEGO sets of the time. Things have moved on a bit since then though, and Flickr’s Havoc has brought the classic Model Team set bang up to date with his incredible reimagining of the original.

Built at a considerably larger scale, Havoc’s 5590 Redux packs in even more detail, becoming a Freightliner cab-over with a working V8 mounted under the tilting cab, a TV screen inside the sleeper area (playing the movie ‘Convoy’!), and even a to-scale box containing 5590 set sitting on the bench, whilst the helicopter also gets taken up a notch, now replicating a real life Bell 206 Jetranger.

Havoc’s stunning redux of one of LEGO’s most important sets is available to view in more detail at his photostream via the link above, where several high-quality images of each part of the build can be found. You can also check out our review of the brilliant original 5590 set that inspired Havoc’s build by visiting TLCB’s Review Library, where it and over a hundred other reviews can be found!

You Don’t Know Man… You Weren’t There

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Lego Bell AH-1G Cobra Helicopter

We weren’t there, or even born, but we do know that the outside contributors to the Vietnam War (China, the Soviet Union, Australia, South Korea, Thailand and, of course, the United States) were embroiling themselves completely pointlessly.

The Vietnam War raged for twenty years from 1955 to 1975, with heavy U.S involvement from the early ’60s until ’73, yet the conflict should have simply been an internal civil war between North and South Vietnam. However, when one side was Communist and the other Capitalist, the world’s superpowers decided that they could use the unrest to further their own ideology, split as they were along the same lines. Yay imperialism.

This dramatic escalation meant that up to 4 million people died in the conflict, the majority of whom were Vietnamese civilians, and the U.S pulled out having needlessly lost nearly 60,000 personnel. Still, lessons were learned and the superpowers never again involved themselves in foreign wars to further their own agenda. Wait, that’s not right…

Oh yeah, the model! This superb mini-figure scale Bell AH-1G Cobra helicopter in U.S Military Vietnam specification is the work of previous bloggee Daniel Siskind and you can check it out via his excellent photostream by clicking here.