Tag Archives: camper

Back to the Studio

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Unlikely as it may sound today, in the 2010s the biggest television programme in the world came from an old airfield hangar just outside of Guildford, in which three middle-aged men talked about cars.

The newly rebooted BBC ‘Top Gear’ grew from its producer having to pay audience members from his own pocket to stick around to the end of filming, to the most-watched television event on the planet. Over twenty seasons, dozens of cross-country adventures, and countless celebrity laps in reasonably-priced cars are now embedded in the memory of an entire generation, and Flickr’s NV Carmocs takes us right back to the height of mid-2010’s television with his fabulous homage to the place where it was all made.

With mini-figure versions of Top Gear’s three most famous hosts, a studio audience, and some of the most iconic vehicles and sets from the show, NV Carmocs has captured a hundred Top Gear memories in one spectacular diorama.

The studio set includes ‘The Cool Wall’, a V8 coffee table, the ‘Power Board’, and the plinth for perhaps Top Gear’s most famous ever vehicle, the near-destroyed late-’80s Toyota Hilux, also faithfully recreated in brick form.

There’s a huge amount more to see of NV Carmocs’ incredible mini-figure BBC Top Gear Studio diorama at their Flickr photostream, where over a dozen high quality images are available to view, plus even more of the starring Top Gear vehicles themselves.

Click the link above to go back to studio, and to take yourself back to when Sunday night TV couldn’t get any better…

Insert Hippy

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We maintain that the scariest vehicle – other than a government-registered SUV in Minneapolis of course – is the Volkswagen Transporter camper, what with them being almost exclusively driven by top-knot wearing, ethnic peace crisp eating, alternative lifestyle evangelists. And now that we’ve successfully antagonised both the hard-right and hard-left in one sentence (there’s no bias here!), on to the model!

This neat Volkswagen ‘T3’ camper comes from Flickr’s HCKP13, who’s captured the ’80s bus brilliantly in brick form. There’s more of the model to see at HCKP13’s photostream, and you can head to a parking lot outside Starbucks to steal the free WiFi whilst bemoaning capitalism via the link above!

Technically Camping

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After pondering the deliciousness of animals in today’s other post we promised a vehicle for vegans, and they don’t get more vegany than a Volkswagen Camper!

This tremendous Technic example comes from Flickr’s Darren Thew, who has not only recreated the ‘60s exterior beautifully, there’s a fully fitted interior inside the opening doors complete with furniture, a folding bed, and a kitchen for making, um… lentils? We’re not sure what vegans cook, but whatever it is they can do it here!

There’s lots more of Darren’s split-screen VW to see at his photostream, and you can enjoy eat a delicious healthy van-based meal via the link above.

Dodgy Camping

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Yoga-practicing, vegan-dieting, top-knot-wearing bus / camper life douchebags are everywhere. Well, as long as everywhere has good WiFi, so they can upload their latest ‘adventure’ to their followers. Urgh.

We try to avoid such content of course, but so too would we steer clear of the owner of this battered ’70s Dodge B100 van and Shasta trailer. Decidedly un-Instagram friendly, we suspect its inhabitant’s diet would be more road-kill than ethnic-peace-crisps, and healing crystals would be swapped for actual, um… actual crystal.

Which leads neatly on to today’s second dodgy camper, a Dodge-based ’77 Winnebago that’s almost guaranteed to be a meth lab. An update to his previously blogged ‘Minnie Winnie’, 1saac W. is the builder of both recreational vehicles, and you can head to the abandoned parking lot on the edge of town to check them out via the link above.

Custom Camping

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This unusual looking vehicle is a classic Chevrolet C30 pick-up, outfitted with a camper top, a dually rear axle (with LEGO’s weirdest wheels), suicide rear doors, and dropped to a completely impractical height. There’s also complete cabin and camper interior, an inline-6 Cummins engine, and an enormous amount of openings, including cabin doors, camper rear door, hood, and even fridge. Flickr’s Tim Inman owns the mind behind it and you can head to Camp Custom via the link above.

Bowser’s Castle

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On to another ’80s German automotive icon through the medium of vintage cartoon characters, and this – a Mercedes-Benz Unimog U1700L ex-military truck turned into an off-road camper by a man named ‘Bowser’.

We suspect he’s not the fire-breathing arch-nemesis of an Italian plumber, but he still sounds pretty cool, what with this awesome ’80s Unimog as his home. Sseven Bricks is the creator of this brick-built replica of Bowser’s truck, and you can find it on Flickr via the link above.

Transiting

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It a Transit van double here at The Lego Car Blog today, with two rather different examples of Ford’s ubiquitous workhorse.

First up (above) is Versteinert‘s wonderful 7-wide 1970s face-lifted Mk1 Transit camper, wearing some slightly mismatched wheel-arch and sill repairs, a roof-rack loaded with adventure equipment, and being a thousand times cooler than the default Volkswagen Transporter. It joins several other Mk1 Transits in Versteinert’s photostream, and you can finn them all via the link above.

Four decades later, the Mk1’s great-grandson is here in the form of this 5-wide 2010s face-lifted Mk4 Transit crew-van (below) in ‘Abnormal Load Escort’ configuration. Make your own ‘Your Mom’ joke. Regular bloggee Ralph Savelsberg is its creator and there’s more to see of his excellent Transit, and the abnormal load it’s escorting, via the link above.

Camp Beige

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The holiday season is near its end, and thus we’re already thinking about the next time we can escape this crumbling ruin of an office filled and the mythical creatures within it (the Elves, not TLCB staff).

Cue recent bloggee Nick Kleinfelder‘s recreation of his own 1980s Volkswagen T3 Westfalia, complete with a boot-rack, a pop-top, and a delightful beige hue that could have been marketed as ‘Infant’s Nappy’.

There’s more of the model to see at Nick’s photostream, and you can holiday in an ’80s VW via the link above.

Carry on Camping

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It’s nearly Black Friday, that magical time of year when consumers banish any thoughts of Thanksgiving to fight in the streets over discounted electronics, and when we want to escape to the wilderness in a camper van and stand on the top with a shot gun.

Cue previous bloggee damianPLE / damjan97PL, whose excellent fully remote controlled RV is fuelling our escapist desire.

Perfectly blending Technic and System construction, Damian’s ‘Mini Camper Van’ packs a whole heap of visual detail and Control+ drive and steering into a model under 10cm wide.

There’s lots more to see at Eurobricks (including a video of the model in action) with the complete gallery available via Bricksafe, and you can join us somewhere in the wilds via the links above.

Otto-ly Wonderful

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Sometimes a vehicle needs a name, and this wonderful Volkswagen T25 Westfalia camper, owned by friend of TLCB Nick Barrett, is one such time.

Entitled ‘Otto’, Nick’s fabulous Westfalia is christened after its previous owner, whose name was inside the manual it came with.

Working steering, suspension, opening/sliding doors, and a rear-mounted piston engine all feature, as does a glorious interior, complete with a fold down bed, table, rotating chairs, kitchen, and crapper.

There’s much more of Otto to see at Nick’s album on Flickr, and you can see what makes him tick in our Master MOCers series by clicking this bonus link.

Cosmically Cool

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Mankind’s future is in the stars. No, TLCB Team aren’t suddenly into astrology, but rather hold a belief that now that the world’s richest men are building space rockets, it’s only a matter of time before space travel becomes democratised.

Which means that space will then inevitably be conquered by influencers, requesting Likes and Subscribes to fund whatever space-based lifestyle it is they want you to think is worth following.

Cue OA KD‘s ‘Space Vanlife’, in which an invariably top-knotted douchebag and his hot-pants wearing girlfriend will evangelise about the benefits of an all-natural diet and 5am yoga via the medium of a pseudo-intellectual trope embossed on a picture of a sunset. Only in space.

Appropriately OA KD has pictured his marvellous Neo-Classic Spacevan on Mercury. Or its top-knotted owner is surfing in mercury. We’re not sure. Either way you can Like and Subscribe via the link to Space Vanlife above.

Today’s second dude-in-space creation revisits our old friend Benny from The LEGO Movie, who has equipped himself with one heck of a jetpack courtesy of Flickr’s Rubblemaker. Join him on an extreme journey through the cosmos via the link to Rubblemaker’s photostream above, and get ready for the first influencer in space any day now.

Minnie Winnie

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Fancy a very small camping trip? Prolific bloggee 1saac W. has just the thing. This beautiful Dodge-based 1977 Winnebago ‘Minnie Winnie’ measures just five studs wide (four at the cab), and yet looks every inch millimetre as immediately identifiable as models ten times the size! A clever awning, brick-built ‘W’ motif, ingenious rubber-band based detailing, and some properly clever parts orientation make this one of the best small-scale creations we’ve seen yet, and you can join us on a tiny little vacation at 1saac’s photostream via the link above.

Fall in the Forest

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It’s nearly summer here in TLCB’s home nation, but somewhere in the world it’s autumn, which is all the excuse we need to publish this gorgeous autumnal scene from regular bloggee 1saac W.

1saac’s beautiful Volkswagen ‘T2’ split-screen is pictured camping in a fantastic fall forest, complete with trees as wonderfully crafted as the bus beneath them. Join the tranquility at 1saac’s photostream via the link above.

We’re All Like, People of the World Man

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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…

Let’s Cook

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It’s been over a decade since Breaking Bad (AKA The Best Thing That’s Ever Been on TV Ever) concluded, yet the seminal show is still inspiring Lego builds. Cue Nick Kleinfelder and this wonderful recreation of the infamous 1986 Fleetwood Bounder RV methlab that starred throughout out the series.

Complete with mini-figure Walter White and Jesse Pinkman, Nick’s cooked up a model of incredible detail, using a complex formula of ingenious building techniques. You can see how Nick’s done it at his photostream, and you can jump to the New Mexico desert via the link above.