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.
The Lego Car Blog Elves are happy today because, whilst this isn’t Dom’s Dodge Charger, it’s close enough for us to relent and let them watch one of the terrible ‘Fast & Furious’ movies.
Szunyogh Balázs (aka gnat.bricks) is the builder behind this stunning Model Team Dodge Charger, which features opening doors, hood and trunk, a detailed interior, a life-like V8 engine, and some brilliant details of the real car’s mechanics, including brake discs and callipers, a full-length exhaust, and even a brick-built differential.
Szunyogh’s presentation is top-drawer too, and you can check out all the images on Flickr via the link above, whilst we watch Vin Diesel repeatedly mumble ‘family’ in an attempt make up for the lack of a coherent plot, dialogue, or physics.
Both phenomenally successful and awful in equal measure, the ‘Fast & Furious’ franchise shows no signs of taking its foot off the gas. Dom’s Dodge Charger from the aforementioned cinema skid-mark can even now be bought in LEGO form, in both Technic and Speed Champions flavours, the latter of which comes complete with a shiny-headed douchbag mini-figure for maximum movie authenticity.
Missing said mini-figure, but ramping up the realism in every other respect, comes gnat.bricks own Speed Champions scale ’69 Dodge Charger, which – admittedly – is a year earlier than Dom’s car from the movies. Which is probably why he’s not here.
We’ll take that as a blessing and there’s more to see of Not-Dom’s-Dodge-Charger at gnat.bricks’ Flickr album. Click the link above to make the jump.
This creation is virtual. It features a cartoonish caricature. Oh, and a big bald meathead, who may or may not have LEGO arms.
But seeing as the movies from which it’s inspired are also pretty much virtual (no, physics does not do the things it appears to in the ‘Fast & Furious’ franchise), feature cars that too are cartoonish caricatures, and that also include the aforementioned big, bald meathead, we’re going to let it pass. In the name of “Family…”, or something.
Built for the ‘Iron Builder’ contest, in which participants must use a usually-obscure LEGO piece (in this case a Spike Prime Colour Sensor), Ivan Martynov’s homage to the most profitable (and worst) movie franchise of all time includes several of the chosen part hidden throughout it, including the Dodge Charger’s supercharger, the floodlights, hidden within the cityscape, and most cunningly as a meathead torso.
There’s more to see at Ivan’s photostream, and you can ignore physics whilst muttering “Family…” for little-to-no-reason via the link in the text above!
Dun dunu dun dun, dun dun – dun dunu dun dun, dun dun… and, er… whatever the music is from the Fast & Furious franchise. An explosion with Vin Diesel breathing the word ‘Family’ over it probably. Anyway, it’s new set time, and LEGO have introduced two iconic movie cars to the Speed Champions line-up!
76911 007 Aston Martin DB5
Think the Creator 10262 Aston Martin DB5 ‘Goldfinger’ set is a bit pricey? Well LEGO have revealed its smaller brother, the new 76911 Speed Champions 007 Aston Martin DB5, complete with a Daniel Craig-esque mini-figure!
Ultimately the same car as the one used in ‘Goldfinger’, Craig redeploys the DB5 in 2012’s excellent ‘Skyfall’, which raises all sorts of questions about Bond’s chronology. Anyway, let’s not dwell on Bond’s unfathomable age, but rather rejoice in the new Speed Champions arrival, which looks rather good.
A considerable portion of 76911’s realism is due to a myriad of stickers, which – placed as they are on curved pieces – will probably peel off immediately, but nevertheless it looks nice on the box. It’s disappointing to see the trademark Aston Martin grille is a sticker though – surely a brick-built version would’ve been possible?
We’re also a little disappointed that there are no gadgets, making 76911 more of a standard Aston Martin DB5 than 007’s Q-Branch version, but that’s still cool enough, and the decent printed rear canopy piece will be sure to crop up on all sorts of MOCs in time.
The new Speed Champions 76911 007 Aston Martin DB5 will reach stores later this year, and is a welcome addition to the line-up, even if it has got more stickers than Bond has killed henchmen.
76912 Fast & Furious 1970 Dodge Charger R/T
From one infamous movie franchise to another, and also another movie car that has already appeared in LEGO form in a larger scale. We quite like the Technic 42111 Dom’s Dodge Charger set, but it is admittedly a bit out of reach for many ‘Fast & Furious’ fans, who are likely a bit young for its 10+ target age and price point.
A ‘Fast & Furious’ Speed Champions set is probably a far better match, and 76912 looks a fine way to bring the franchise to LEGO fans. LEGO have captured the modified 1970 Dodge Charger R/T rather well (and without relying on stickers), plus never has a hairless-mini-figure looked more appropriate than it does here.
The new 76912 Fast & Furious 1970 Dodge Charger R/T looks like a good effort to us, and with LEGO also now having a partnership with Toyota, perhaps – if all wish for it hard enough – that Supra could be next…
The ‘Fast & Furious’ movies are – for the most part – total garbage. With characters coming back from the dead (twice), long lost family members loosely enabling plot continuation (twice), and bad guys turning good just to keep them in the franchise (three times by our count), the plots could have been written by TLCB Elves.
But, like the internet’s most popular video category, no one is watching a Fast & Furious movie for the plot. They’re watching for the cars. And maybe Vin Diesel’s giant shiny head. In doing so making ‘Fast & Furious’ the most profitable movie franchise ever.
Thus LEGO have joined the ‘Fast & Furious’ party, and have brought one of the franchise’s star cars to life in Technic form. This is the Technic 42111 Dom’s Dodge Charger set, supplied to us here at TLCB by online shop Zavvi, and it’s time for a review…
First a shout out to our suppliers Zavvi, whose delivery was prompt, communication good, and the 42111 box was massively well protected inside, well… a bigger box. If you’re the kind of person who likes to keep the boxes for your sets (ours just go in the recycling), that’s a bonus.
LEGO have realised this too, removing the sticky circles that hold the ends shut (but that rip the artwork when opened), and fitting a cereal-box style closable tab so it can stay closed.
Inside 42111’s box are five numbered bags, bagged instructions and stickers (which helps to keep them protected too), and 1,077 parts. Many of these are weird and new, at least to this reviewer (if not the set), and continue LEGO’s approach of using every colour ever. However, like numerous ‘Fast & Furious’ characters, we’re going to do a complete 180 and say that it, well… works.
Building 42111 is fun and straight-forward, with the multitude of colours making it easy to find the parts required. The colours are thoughtfully chosen too, enabling quick identification and actually changing in some cases as the build progresses depending upon which similar pieces they shared a bag with. They’re all fairly well hidden by the end too, so there’s no ‘rainbow’ misery here.
The build can also be commended for creating a fully working rolling chassis by the mid-point, which makes it much more interesting than only adding the wheels at the end.
As has been the case for a while now though, the instructions can be very simple, at times adding just one piece per step. That said, there are a lot of orientation changes, which you have to watch out for so you don’t install something upside down. Not that this Reviewer did that. He’s a professional.
After a few hours of happy parts selection and spot-the-difference, you’ll have a nicely sized Technic recreation of the early ’70s Dodge Charger – modified ‘Fast & Furious’ style with a giant supercharger and NO2 tanks – complete with a working V8 engine, steering, all-wheel suspension, opening doors, hood and trunk, and a bizarre party trick. Continue reading →
These days the second generation Dodge Charger seems to only come in black. However we’re assured that other colours were available, and – if Tony Bovkoon‘s stunning red Dodge Charger is accurate – we’d like to see more of them.
Tony’s Charger features a detailed engine bay, interior, and trunk inside the brilliant red bodywork, which Tony has presented superbly in an extensive album on Flickr. Click the link to take a look.
Produced for just two years between 1968 and 1970, the second generation Dodge Charger was a roaring success. Almost 100,000 second-gen Chargers were built, versus a planned production run of just 35,000, with seven different engine options ranging from a 3.7 litre slant-6 to a 7.2 litre V8. The R/T (road/track) was top of the tree, and over 17,000 were built (one of which featured in probably the most famous movie car chase of all time). This excellent 8-wide Speed Champions scale Charger R/T comes from Jonathan Elliott of Flickr, who has captured the iconic Chrysler Corporation muscle car superbly in brick form. Click here to take a closer look, or the the link above to see the real thing lose more hubcaps than it has wheels on the streets of San Francisco…
Here at TLCB we’ve taken a fairly backwards approach to employee payment. As in, no one gets paid anything. But why should we have all the fun when we could not pay you guys for doing work too! Cue Francesco Frangioja, who joins us here at TLCB to review one of Game of Bricks’ new lighting kits. For free. Because he’s great. Over to Francesco!
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TLCB kindly offered me the chance to pick two Game of Bricks light kits for 2020 vehicle sets, and my first choice was the light kit for the LEGO Technic 42111 Dom’s Dodge Charger set. After a couple of weeks (due to the shipment), I finally had time to install the kit in the set for which it was intended.
The lighting kit comes in a cardboard box, black and premium quality, with only the logo of the manufacturer on it.
Inside the box I found:
Seven numbered plastic bags with tiny LEDs stripes and the thin, very thin cables
Three un-numbered plastic bags with the battery box, some “junction” cable plus the control unit and the USB connector to connect the LEDs “circuit” to the battery box
One booklet with the explanation of what each component is and its use/purpose
A remote (because I got the remote/RC version of the kit)
The actual building instructions are found on the Game of Bricks’ website; a series of “photographic” steps that show where to place the individual “light points” and how to organize (where they have to pass) the various wiring.
I’m already familiar with the installation of this kind of product (light kits from other manufacturers) and the instructions were very similar, so I was able to follow the steps for this set very easily. Installing all the front lights is pretty simple: you have to “squeeze” the various LED element between the respective/relative transparent piece and the underneath on which the transparent one is originally fixed.
After that, you have to place the “array stripes” in the position/as shown in the photo-instructions.
Because normally there is exactly zero space between a transparent piece and the stud below it, you need to push it in place carefully even with this super thin wire. In fact, compared to the kits of other manufacturers, the peculiarity of the kit from Game of Bricks is that only a few of the “light points” are glued into LEGO brick. In practice, only the bricks of set 42111 which have to be physically replaced with counterparts with the LED already wired and glued inside, have been inserted in the light kit. All other “light points” are realised by fixing the LED element between the transparent and to be illuminated LEGO element, and the stud of the underlying piece.
The rear section was just as easy to manage; once the wiring steps are completed, you need to attach the tiny connector to a “splitter piece”, also equipped with adhesive tape to fix it in the position indicated by the photographic instructions. The connectors are very thin, so the use of a modeling plier can make the job easier. The cables, although very thin, are very resistant to traction and torsion. You just have to pay attention to the “scissors effect”: if you “staple” them too hard between brick and stud, you risk that they get cut. Therefore, you must always pay a lot of attention and procedures gently and carefully.
The battery box requires 3 AA-LR6 batteries and includes a female USB connector. It’s up to you to choice to fit it into the model (i.e. into the trunk) or to keep it outside the model. Just remember that you will need to be able to access the on/off button.
Once the installation is finished and all the LEDs are connected, the final result is really great.
Keep in mind that the kit in my possession is the top version, the one with the highest number of lighting points and including remote control to manage the on/off of each group and some “lightshows”.
Unlike the light kits I have tried before previously, the solutions of modular wiring and the interlocking of the lighting elements between the transparent bricks and the stud below implemented by Game of Bricks are perhaps the two most significant plus: not having bricks with pre-glued LEDs inside, you do not have to do too many replacements of parts of the official set to be illuminated, as well as the modularity of the wiring, allow you to decide from time to time if and which lighting elements to insert and which not.
You can find the Game of Bricks lighting kit for the 42111 Dom’s Dodge Charger set, alongside a wide range of other kits designed to fit official LEGO sets, by clicking here!
We didn’t get ‘The Dukes of Hazzard’ here in TLCB’s home nation, but we wish we had. After all, what’s not to like about a Dodge Charger jumping over a river, a tractor, a train, a barn, a truck full of outhouses, a truck full of barrels… you get the idea.
Unfortunately this meant hundreds of ’69 Dodge Chargers – now incredibly valuable cars – were sacrificed in the name of entertainment, but they were a bit less valuable in the ’70s and ’80s.
Flickr’s Chris Radbone has put one back though, with his enormous Model Team recreation of the Duke Boys’ ’69 Dodge Charger ‘General Lee’, complete with working steering, a V8 engine, a 5-speed gearbox, and authentic ’01’ decals and flag-with-slightly-racist-connotations on the roof.
His near 8kg model also includes working suspension, so presumably he can jump it over various household obstacles in proper ‘Dukes of Hazzard’ fashion. Head to Chris’ photostream to join the good ‘ol boys!
If you’re ten, you gonna want to keep reading this!…
This is the brand new for 2020 Technic ‘Fast & Furious’ Dom’s Dodge Charger set, a 1,077-piece recreation of the iconic drag racer from the very first ‘Fast & Furious’ movie.
Officially licensed by both Universal’s ‘Fast & Furious’ franchise and Dodge, LEGO’s new 42111 set continues Technic’s increase in visual realism with almost Model Team levels of detail. Fear not though Technic fans, because it’s loaded with mechanical functionality too…
A working V8 engine complete with a spinning supercharger belt, functioning steering, double-wishbone suspension, plus opening hood, doors and trunk (with NO2 bottles inside) all feature, as does a wheelie stand so you can recreate the Dodge Charger R/T’s most famous movie scene.
The new 42111 set is expected to cost around $99 when it goes on sale at the end of April, around a year ahead of the release of next (and ninth) ‘Fast & Furious’ movie. Not counting the spin-offs.
Whatever we feel about that state of cinema that the ‘Fast & Furious’ movies are now the highest grossing films ever, we have to admit that they do inspire a properly cool LEGO set. And we’re not even ten.
LEGO’s awesome 10265 Ford Mustang set is generating an array of equally awesome B-Model machinery. Hot on the heels of his Mustang GT500, TLCB favourite Firas Abu-Jaber has constructed another alternative from the parts found within the Creator set, and this time it isn’t a Ford. It is another classic muscle car though, and the Mustang’s arch rival; the Dodge Charger R/T.
It’s a superb looking creation too, every bit as playable as the set that donated its parts and you’d never know it was constrained by virtue of being a B-Model. Plus, just like the original 10265 Creator set, Firas’ Dodge Charger can also be built in modified form too, with the option of a huge supercharger protruding from the hood to satisfy your inner seven year old / Elf, as shown below.
You might notice that two of the three images here show Firas’ design constructed from black parts not available in the 10265 Ford Mustang set, but fear not – it can be built in blue as a genuine B-Model. Black is the colour the Charger is most famous for though, so it’d be rude not to publish these images alongside the 10265 alternate version.
There’s much more to see of Firas’ incredible ’68 Dodge Charger R/T B-Model at his Flickr album, you can read his interview here at The Lego Car Blog as part of the Master MOCers Series by clicking these words, and you see the other alternative models built from the pieces found within the 10265 Ford Mustang set via the search box that can be found on every page.
LEGO’s new 10265 Ford Mustang set has us yearning for more officially-licensed muscle cars. There’s hope too, as this particular Detroit classic has already been released as a Speed Champions set. It is of course the stupendous ’69 Dodge Charger R/T, the wildest muscle car of the era, and one that’s become famous to whole new generation of fans thanks to the Fast and Furious movie franchise.
This brilliant recreation of Dodge’s over-powered, under-suspended icon is the work of previous bloggee Tony Bovkoon, who has built his Charger R/T to match the scale and detail of the official Ford Mustang set. Working steering, opening doors, hood, trunk, and a detailed interior all feature, and there’s more to see of this superb creation at Tony’s ’69 Dodge Charger R/T album on Flickr via the link above.
*Nope, we’re not doing a link to today’s title song, because any DJ** that ends the night by playing it needs to go have a quiet think about how they can do better.
**For our younger readers; a DJ is sort of like if your Spotify playlist were a person.
A few weeks ago a crack team of The Lego Car Blog Elves were dispatched over the perimeter wall of The LEGO Company’s HQ by way of the office catapult. Tasked with uncovering LEGO’s new-for-2019 sets, those that made it back to TLCB Towers would be revered as heroes, whilst their fallen comrades would be mourned for around 15 minutes, before we all moved on with our lives.
Today the lucky survivors able to out-run a Danish alsatian see the fruits of their courageous mission revealed to you, our readers – and what tasty fruits they are! So without any further pointless preamble, here are the brand new 2019 LEGO Speed Champions sets!
LEGO’s partnerships with real-world car manufacturers is (and we may be a bit biased given the title of this website), one of their best ever decisions. The sets resulting from the tie-ups to date have been almost universally excellent, so it’s little wonder that LEGO and other manufacturers are looking to partner. Dodge become a new addition to LEGO universe for 2019, joining the likes of Mercedes-Benz, Aston Martin, Porsche, Volkswagen, Ford, Volvo, Ferrari and others.
Their first set is 75893 Dodge Challenger SRT Demon & Dodge Charger RT, a wonderful dual car homage to Dodge’s fastest products. A brilliant classic 1970 Charger (complete with a huge drag-racing supercharger) competes against the brand’s latest 2018 SRT Demon at a drag strip, with three mini-figures and the drag racing ‘christmas tree’ lights included. Each car looks faithfully accurate – although some of that accuracy is admittedly due to stickers, and with just under 500 pieces 75893 looks to be an excellent addition to the expanding officially-licensed Speed Champions line-up.
Next we have a vehicle from one of the first manufacturers to partner with LEGO – it wouldn’t be Speed Champions without Ferrari! With 198 pieces the new 75890 Ferrari F40 Competizione set marks the entry point to the 2019 Speed Champions range, and brings one of the most famous supercars ever made back into LEGO form after its last appearance as the 1,158-piece 10248 Creator F40 set from 2015.
Although considerably smaller than its predecessor, 75890 is nevertheless a brilliantly accurate little set. This version of the F40 is the Competizione, or racing car to you and me, and thus it features a mini-figure racing driver, an all-important spanner, and switchable parts to convert the F40 from race to road. 75890 will reach stores in early 2019 and will be a roaring success.
LEGO’s third new Speed Champions set brings another previous partner back into the range; McLaren, with their mind-bending track-only Senna. With 219 pieces the 75892 McLaren Senna set is slightly more complicated than the Ferrari above, as is required by the fantastically intricate design of the real car. It’s an aesthetic that doesn’t seem to translate too well to LEGO in our opinion, and – despite what appear to be a few new pieces to help replicate the real Senna’s shape – 75892 looks to our eyes a bit of mess. Nevertheless for McLaren / supercar fans it’s sure to be a winner when it arrives alongside the other Speed Champions sets in January of next year.
Chevrolet first joined the Speed Champions range a few years ago and they return to the line-up for 2019 with the 75891 Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 Race Car set*. Another single-car set, 75891 brings Speed Champions into the world of NASCAR, although for licensing reasons you won’t find that link anywhere on the box. What you will find are 198 pieces, some of which are uniquely printed, a mini-figure complete with fuel-refill tank and the ubiquitous spanner, and a wealth of stickers to help recreate the ZL1 in LEGO form.
We’ve bemoaned the over-use of stickers rather than bricks to recreate real-world replicas in the past and the same is true here, but LEGO know their market, and also the most cost-effective way to hit the spot aesthetically. 75891 should be hit – especially amongst NASCAR fans!
*Plus an exciting new addition to the 2019 Technic range… but more on that another time!
The fifth and final Speed Champions set new for 2019 brings another old favourite back onto shelves; Mini, with a pairing of the iconic 1960s Cooper-S and a 2018 John Cooper Works Buggy. A tricky thing to make from rectangular bricks, LEGO seem have done a superb job recreating the original Mini in mini-figure scale, and whilst there are stickers present they’re not used to create the shape of the car – bravo LEGO! The classic Cooper comes in rally car spec, complete with quad spot-lights and a roof-rack, and includes a mini-figure rally driver.
The John Cooper Works Buggy isn’t quite as successful, looking not all that much like the real thing. But we’re guessing that if you’re reading this and you’re eight, that won’t matter one bit! Featuring big rubber tyres, a workshop complete with tools, and some cool stickers, if we were eight we’d absolutely love it!
75894 Mini Cooper-S Rally and MINI John Cooper Works Buggy is the largest set in the 2019 range at 481 pieces including four mini-figures and will join the rest of the line-up in stores from January.
Which set is your favourite? We’ll take the classic Dodge Charger and recreate the train-jump scene from the first Fast and the Furious movie, although we’d really need a Speed Champions Toyota Supra to do it properly. Over to you LEGO…
The Lego Car Blog Elves havealongandchequeredhistory with remote control vehicles. Regularly chased, squashed, and manhandled by one of their number at the controls of an RC creation, they only have themselves to blame. Unless we do it of course.
However if they’re going to be run over by a remotely controlled Lego model it may as well be by a vehicle they like, and we expect this brutal-looking Charger-esque supercharged muscle car is the Elves’ very favourite of all the creations that have mowed them down.
Built by previous bloggee Paave this RC masterpiece not only looks the part, it’s packed with cool functions too. Remote control drive (by two L Motors) and steering (via a Medium Motor) of course feature, plus rather cleverly the supercharger belt also spins. There’s working suspension front and rear, positive caster angle, opening and locking doors, hood and trunk, and the bodywork is completely removable from the chassis.
There’s lots more to see of Paave’s superb Technic muscle car via MOCpages, Brickshelf and Eurobricks where you can also watch a video of the model’s features in action – click the links to check it out.
