The vicuna, the smallest species of camel, stands no taller than a metre and weighs less than 50kg. That’s your random fact of the day and you’re welcome.
Cue today’s post, which is – we think – the smallest camel (Trophy) creation we’ve featured, standing only four studs wide and weighing, er… we don’t know. Not a lot.
It comes from Jan Woznika, instructions are available, and there’s more of the build to see at his ‘Land Rover Defender Camel Trophy’ album by clicking here.
The camel – our favourite humped, even-toed ungulate – did not start out as a large desert-dwelling domesticated animal. The camel’s beginnings, around 50 million years ago, are more rabbity. Later it had grown to around the size of a goat before, c5 million years ago, evolving into a nine-foot tall arctic-living creature, whose hump may have existing to help it survive the cold.
The Camel is an animal that’s gone through a bit of change, and so too has newcomer Fabiomaster‘s Land Rover Defender in Camel Trophy spec. Which is as seamless a link between two barely related things as you’re likely to find.
Beginning as an off-road chassis by TLCB Master MOCer Sheepo, the design evolved into a Land Rover Defender Camel Trophy in the hands of RM8, whose Sheepo-based creation appeared here four years ago.
Fast-forward to 2020 and the design has subtly evolved again, with Fabiomaster updating the Defender with the latest parts and unique off-road accessories, presenting it beautifully as you can see here. So it’s not really Fabiomaster’s creation, but rather the work of three builders over the course of several years, and it looks properly good as a result.
There’s more to see of Fabiomaster’s Land Rover Defender Camel Trophy on Eurobricks via the link above, and you can follow the evolutionary tree back through RM8’s version to Sheepo’s original chassis via the links in the blog text.
Nothing says adventure like lung cancer and breathing difficulties! At least that what was thought back when cigarette brand Camel sponsored the amazing Land Rover rally named after them from 1980 to 2000. Still, with Red Bull and Monster energy drinks sponsoring pretty much every extreme sport these days perhaps we’ve not moved on as much as we’d like to think…
This phenomenal Land Rover Defender 110 in stunning Camel Trophy spec is the work of Manuel Nascimento of Flickr, and it is very probably the finest 4×4 that The Lego Car Blog has featured this year. The iconic off-roader’s exterior has been recreated to perfection, including all the adventuring paraphernalia that accompanied these vehicles through jungles, mountain and deserts, and with accurate branding – including the infamous cigarette advertising – courtesy of superb custom decals.
Underneath the incredible exterior the engineering excellent continues, with working lights operated via a third-party SBrick, Power Functions remotely controlled steering, winch, and four-wheel-drive, working suspension, and a four-speed gearbox. Opening doors, a beautifully detailed interior and a roof-mounted tent also feature, plus Manuel has constructed a lovely desert base to accompany his model.
There’s loads more of this spectacularly built and presented creation to see at Manuel’s Land Rover Defender 110 Flickr album, where you can also find a link to a video demonstrating the model’s features. Light up a cigarette via the link above (no, don’t – but do click the link!).
Land Rover may be most famous for the Defender, but it’s this car that ensured the brand’s survival. Launched in 1989 in three and five door body styles, and with 4-cylinder petrol, 4-cylinder diesel, and a V8 engine options, the Discovery took the fight to the Japanese brands dominating the mid-size SUV market. It worked too, and the design stayed in production for almost a decade.
This 6-wide recreation of the Series 1 Discovery comes from TLCB favourite Pixel Fox, and he’s done a magnificent job replicating the early-’90s off-roader in Camel Trophy spec. The lions appear to like the look of it too, or could that be the delicious mini-figures they’re more interested in? Head over to Pixel’s photostream to find out, and you can hear the today’s title track by clicking here (and don’t pretend you don’t like it…)
This incredible replica of Land Rover’s iconic Defender 90, in full Camel Trophy specification, comes from previous bloggee and TLCB legend Sariel, and it’s a very special bit of kit.
Other than the custom decals, all-terrain RC tyres and a suite of LEGO-compatible SBrick bluetooth controllers Sariel’s creation is all LEGO, and it’s one of the most thoroughly engineered and capable machines that we’ve ever come across.
Beneath the wonderfully accurate bodywork is a full remote control drivetrain, with two XL motors powering all four wheels and Servo controlling the steering. Of course 4-wheel-drive doesn’t necessarily mean ‘good off-road’, as for that you need locking differentials. Sariel’s model has three.
He’s also equipped his Defender with a remotely operated 4-speed gearbox, a front mounted winch (geared to match the gearbox’s lowest ratio), live axle suspension, and working lights.
To really appreciate this beautiful build you need to see it in action. Luckily Sariel’s got that covered as he’s produced an excellent video to accompany the superb photography. Watch it below, and you can see the Defender’s full gallery of images via Flickr, MOCpages and Brickshelf, plus you can read all the details of how this model was created at Sariel’s own website here.
We rarely feature modifications of other peoples’ creations here at TLCB, but when a builder as accomplished as RM8 decides to use a design by Master MOCer Sheepo as the basis for a build, we think we can let that rule slide a bit…
This is RM8 (real name Egor Karshiev)’s brilliant Technic Land Rover Defender 90 in full Camel Trophy specification. Based on the original Defender design by Sheepo, Egor has extensively updated the hardware using his own significant Lego off-roading experience.
Power Functions motors control the drive and steering whilst tough all-wheel-drive and suspension systems allow this little Lego Defender to go anywhere the real car can (if it were really small).
Egor’s presentation is top notch stuff too, with both studio and on-location shots taken superbly, and he’s created several excellent videos showing how the Land Rover was built and what it can do outside in the rough stuff.
There’s lots more to see at the Eurobricks discussion forum, Egor’s MOCpages account, and via the YouTube video below, plus you can see more of Egor’s rival in-house designed Technic off-roader (which coincidentally was the real Land Rover’s key rival too) by clicking here.
We don’t often post two vehicles from the same builder in one week, but after discovering Paliason‘s recent uploads to Brickshelf we decided to make an exception for his superb Camel Trophy spec Land Rover Defender from the early 1990s.
The Camel Trophy was a worldwide exploration challenge that visited the world’s most inhospitable places, running 20 years from 1980 to 2000. Named after the cigarette-making sponsor company (because nothing says outdoor adventure like lung cancer) the challenge used Land Rover vehicles throughout its 20 year history, which were all painted Camel’s iconic sand yellow colour. Following the demise of the Trophy in 2000 Land Rover restarted the event under its own sponsorship, renaming it the Land Rover G4 challenge and switching the famous cigarette-yellow paintwork for bright orange.
Sadly the global economic crisis in 2008/9 put an end to the G4, but you can still sometimes see ex-Camel and ex-G4 Land Rovers on the roads as they were sold after the completing the event. One careful owner, never used off-road…
This brilliant looking Land Rover Defender is the work of Yang Nam on MOCpages. Not only is it equipped with all the lights, bars and winches required for serious off-roading on the outside, underneath Yang has fitted working all round suspension and steering. Check it out at the link.