Tag Archives: Buggy

Gatorade

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We love simple basic vehicles here at The Lego Car Blog, perhaps because we’re rather simple and basic ourselves.

Cue the John Deere Gator, an all-terrain utility vehicle powered by a 340cc lawn-mower engine, or a tiny diesel, fitted with a CVT, optional four-wheel-drive, and used for everything from estate maintenance to military supply and evacuation.

This splendid little Technic version of the Gator comes from regular bloggee Thirdwigg, who has captured it wonderfully in small-scale Technic, complete with working steering, suspension, and as tipping bed.

Building instructions are available and there’s more to see at Thirdwigg’s ‘John Deere Gator’ album on Flickr. Click the link above to take a look.

Sand Green

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Winter is coming here in TLCB’s home nation. The trees are red and yellow, the ground is thick with the shells of various nuts, and a good proportion of the country is under water.

So to cheer us up for the coming weeks when it’ll be dark at 4pm and we’ll be permanently cold, here’s a beach buggy for sunnier climes. Built by Eurobricks’ Jurss it features all-wheel-suspension, working steering, a rear-mounted flat-4 piston engine, plus a removable (and very green) body.

There’s more to see at the Eurobricks forum, and you can pretend you’re somewhere warm and sandy via the link in the text above. Unless you are actually somewhere warm and sandy, in which case can you invite us over?

My Other Car is also an Off-Road Buggy

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LEGO’s Technic 42160 Audi RS Q e-Tron revealed here earlier in the year has brought a rather intriguing – if ultimately unsuccessful – prototype racing buggy to bedroom floors in brick form.

Powered by a 2.0 turbo-charged petrol engine, but driven by four electric motors, the real RS Q e-Tron is a hybrid of sorts, using the aforementioned internal combustion engine to generate electricity for those motors. It all sounds very clever, which it is, however Toyota’s traditional twin-turbo V6 petrol-powered Hilux T1s thumped it in the 2023 Dakar Rally.

Still, we like unusual vehicles here at TLCB, and thus we like the 42160 Audi RS Q e-Tron. But we like this even more.

Built only from the parts from the 42160 set, this superb Polaris RZR B-Model is the work of gyenesvi, and it captures the all-terrain side-by-side buggy beautifully in Technic form.

It also redeploys the LEGO Control+ remote control system from the 42160 set, with all-wheel-drive, all-wheel-suspension, and servo steering, which we’ve absolutely made the most of terrorising the Elves here at TLCB Towers.

Building instructions are available if you fancy turning your own e-Tron into a RZR, and you can find out more about the build at both Eurobricks and gyenesvi’s Bricksafe album. Click the links to make the jump, probably over a giant sand dune.

Off-Ferraroad

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Taking a Ferrari off-road doesn’t end well. That said, a Ferrari is also perfectly capable of catching fire on smooth asphalt, but off-road is certainly outside of the prancing horse’s design brief.

Except that it’s 2023, which of course means that today you can buy a Ferrari off-roader, because all anyone wants is an SUV. We’d rather take this though, Slick_Brick’s ‘Off-Road Ferrari’ buggy, which is a million times cooler than the Purosangue abomination disgracing the Ferrari name.

Cunning use of the ubiquitous Speed Champions canopy, exposed brick-built suspension, and an equipment rack above the rear-mounted engine add to the off-roady look, and there’s more of the ‘Off-Road Ferrari’ to see at Slick’s photostream by clicking here. We’d probably add a fire extinguisher to that rack though…

Golden Gun

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We’re not sure if this is cunning photoshop or liberal use of spray paint, but either way if we hadn’t posted this gloriously golden post-apocalyptic buggy by Flickr’s ianying616, the Elves would have started a riot. Both shiny and with a giant gun mounted on the back, it’s very much their bag, and if it’s yours too you can see dozens more images at ianying’s photostream via the link above.

My Other Car’s a Land Rover

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Few vehicles are better off-road than a Land Rover Defender. This is perhaps one of them – well, on sand at any rate – a sand rail buggy.

Built using only the parts from the official LEGO Icons 10317 Land Rover Defender 90 set, this excellent 10317 alternate is the work of Brian Michal, and includes suspension, steering, a detailed engine, a tricksy-looking roll cage, and a fatboy motorcycle.

Yup, Brian had enough parts left over after completing his minimalist sand rail that he could throw in a motorbike too! Building instructions are available and there’s more to see of both B-Models at Brian’s ‘10317 Sand Rail and Fatboy’ album.

Bug Squash

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The last remotely controlled Lego creation found by our Elves produced no squashings of any kind. That can not be said today.

This is Horcik Designs’ ‘EXP. Buggy’, an all-wheel-drive Power Functions equipped off-roader, built for a Lego Trophy event, and used – by the Elf that found it – to squash a number of its colleagues.

Twin L Motors deliver the power and you can both watch the model in action and create it for yourself courtesy of the video and building instructions Horcik has produced along with it.

There’s more to see at both Eurobricks and Bricksafe, and you can take a look via the links above.

The Last Dragon

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We end the week with something rather special. Martin Vala has appeared here a few times with his incredible Dakar racers. This is apparently his final one, ‘The Last Dragon’, a phenomenal buggy concept deploying some of the finest Lego building techniques we have seen yet.

The spectacular exterior combines intricate Model Team and Technic, with butterfly doors opening to reveal an equally brilliant interior. The breathtaking detail continues to the brick-built V6 engine, accessible under a lifting engine cover, whilst underneath is a hybrid brick-built and functional Technic chassis and drivetrain, including working steering and suspension.

Martin has presented his build beautifully too, with fantastic lighting and editing making for some stunning imagery.

There’s loads more of Martin’s ‘Last Dragon’ to see at his Flickr album by clicking here, plus you can check out the other amazing Dakar racers that preceded it – both real-world and concept – along with the V6 engine in the middle of this one, at their individual Flickr albums via this link.

Sharknado

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Sharks are definitely not cut out for life on land. No-one told the makers of Sharknado though, who managed to extract such cinematic brilliance from the premise that a further five films have followed. If they keep going surely eventually one’s going to win an Oscar.

Anyway, enough on the tragic state of film-making – here’s another fictional land-based shark – but unlike the aforementioned cinematic disgraces, this one is most excellent.

Previous bloggee Martin Vala is the builder behind this ‘Shark’ Dakar concept, and fictional though it may be it looks so real we had to look it up to check it didn’t actually exist. Like a Sharknado Oscar though, it definitely doesn’t, which makes it all the more impressive that the design originated from the inside of Martin’s head.

There’s much more of the build to see at Martin’s ‘Shark T1+’ album on Flickr, and you can swim over via the link in the text above.

Mighty Mini

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This is the Mini JCW Dakar Buggy, and it has about as much in common with a Mini you can actually buy as a fish does with the international space station. But it is throughly awesome!

Powered by an I6 turbo-diesel, the RWD-only John Cooper Works buggy won the Dakar Rally in 2020 and 2021, and has been recreated in stunning detail by Flickr’s Martin Vala.

Removable bodywork, an internal space-frame, a complete brick-built drivetrain, and some superb photography and presentation make Martin’s build an excellent way to kick-off 2022.

Head to Martin’s ‘Mini JCW Buggy’ album via the link above for over forty stunning images.

BRX(mas)

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Desert travel before the steam or combustion engine was a slow and sometimes dangerous business. The wise men may have taken a very long time to reach the baby Jesus, with no thanks to meeting a megalomaniacal king on route.

Today desert crossing could even be considered easy, thanks to vehicles like this; the Prodrive BRX Hunter. A purpose built Dakar rally buggy, the BRX is designed specifically to cross the desert as quickly and easily as possible, thanks to carbon-fibre construction and a mid-mounted V6 engine.

Inspired by the BRX is Martin Vala’s ‘BX T1+’, a stunning desert-crossing buggy complete with gull-wing doors, a gold roll cage, and the best brick-built chassis we have ever seen.

Due to our Christmas break, The Brothers Brick beat us to posting this (it’s a Christmas miracle!), but the Elves are now back on their travels once again, so normal service should be resumed. And their search shouldn’t be delayed by any megalomaniacal kings.

There’s more to see of Martin’s incredible Prodrive BRX-inspired ‘BX T1+’ on Flickr by clicking here, and we’ll be back soon with more tenuous Lego-based links to Christmas!

I Feel the Need…

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The sad state of cinema at the moment means that the only films that currently get made are sequels, prequels, re-boots, or all three, as part of some ‘cinematic universe’ bollocks (we’re looking at you Marvel).

Cue next year’s ‘Top Gun: Maverick’ release, an unnecessary sequel arriving some three decades after the (magnificent) ’80s original. Still, at least it provides the opportunity for a repeat homo-erotic beach volleyball scene to an astoundingly suggestive soundtrack.

More interesting to TLCB than yet another movie reboot is this Maverick; the Can-Am Maverick RS, a wild off-road buggy built to take on the Dakar Rally.

Well, this one hasn’t been built to take on the Dakar Rally, being rather smaller. And constructed from Lego. But it is still more interesting.

Martin Vala is the builder behind it, and he’s recreated the Can-Am Maverick RS in wonderful detail, right down to the steering and suspension, which are brick-built from System pieces.

Authentic decals and stunning presentation complete the build, and there’s lots more to see of Martin’s Maverick at his ‘Maverick RS’ album on Flickr. Click the link above to feel the need for speed.

Dude, We Could Totally Jump That Lake!

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You might think that a Ford Mustang and a golf cart have nothing at all in common.

One’s a loud, (usually) V8-powered muscle car designed for bros who think that wheel-spin is the single greatest achievement in motoring, whilst the other is a slow, (usually) electric-powered mobility scooter designed for Donald Trump-types to avoid doing any exercise whatsoever during their ‘sport’.

But they’re actually much more alike than they first appear…

That’s because they are both driven by absolute morons. As evidenced here. And here. And here. And here. Oh, and here.

See, they’re exactly the same. Which makes the humble golf cart the perfect vehicle to recreate from the pieces found within the official LEGO 10265 Ford Mustang set, as demonstrated today by Jakub Marcisz who has done just that.

There’s more to see of Jakub’s alternate at his ‘10265 B-Model Golf Cart’ album on Flickr, where it’s only a matter of time before someone jumps it over an ornamental flower bed.

Bug(gy) Squash

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The Lego Car Blog Elves, as regular readers of this crumbling ruin of the internet will know, are not a peaceful bunch.

If they find a vehicle that is capable of running over their colleagues, they will do it. It’s as certain as Russian athletic doping, Fox News bias, or your Mom putting out.

And so, with absolute inevitability, this (rather excellent) RC buggy was today used to squash dozens of our smelly little workers.

They didn’t stand much of chance in today’s mass smushing event, as this model by A_C of Eurobricks is one of the fastest, nimblest, and most agile remote control creations that we’ve ever seen.

At less than 400 parts LEGO’s enormously powerful Buggy Motor has an easy time of it, and – when hooked up to a third party BuWizz bluetooth battery delivering up to eight times the power of LEGO’s own – you can see why even the fastest Elf couldn’t escape it.

All-wheel-suspension and Servo steering also feature, and there’s more to see of A_C’s brilliant ‘RC Buggy’ at the Eurobricks forum, where a link to building instructions can also be found.

Check it out via the link above, and watch it in action in an empty tennis court below!

YouTube Video

Alt’s Alright

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‘Alternative’ can mean many things. It’s a category of music that’s really rather mainstream (but pretends otherwise because it’s cooler that way), it’s the self-awarded title of a group of far-right nationalist scumbags, and it’s used to describe girls who look slightly different yet somehow all look exactly the same.

We’re a Lego blog though, so here it means none of the above, instead being used to identify a creation built only from the parts found within an official LEGO set.

Somehow we’ve posted three such creations today, making this alternative Baja Bug – like alternative music and alternative girls – the opposite of its literal meaning. Nevertheless it fits within the brief, being constructed only from the pieces found within the 42122 Technic Jeep Wrangler Rubicon.

Builder “grohl” has not only managed to turn that resolutely square set into something rather more curvy, he’s equipped his model with both front and rear suspension, a 4-cylinder engine driven by the rear wheels, a working winch, functioning steering, plus opening doors, bonnet and engine cover.

This means this alternate somehow features more technical functions than the set that donated its parts, and there’s more to see – including a link to building instructions – at “grohl”‘s photostream. Click the link to go alternative.