We love receiving comments here at TLCB. It means people actually read this stuff. Well, when we say we love receiving them, it does depend a little upon what we receive.
Automated spam for various exciting sounding drugs, offers of ‘help’ to ‘grow our audience’ and ‘give me instruktions’ comments arrive in their hundreds, but in-between all of that nonsense we do get some gems. Such as this one.
Suggested by a reader this is Firas Abu-Jaber’s AC Cobra, built solely from the parts found in the official 10271 Fiat 500 set. So excellent does it look that we wouldn’t have guessed that it has been constructed from the pieces of a single LEGO set, with opening doors, hood and trunk, a detailed interior, and even a realistic engine bay.
There’s loads more to see of Firas’s fantastic 10271 AC Cobra B-Model at his Flickr album by clicking these words, and if you’d like to suggest a creation or leave feedback about anything else (preferably not exciting sounding drugs or offers to ‘help’ to ‘grow our audience’ though), you can get in touch via the Contact page here.
Capturing the look of the ’60s Anglo-American sports car brilliantly, Nathanael’s alternate includes opening doors, hood and trunk, a wonderfully lifelike interior, and a detailed engine too. The Elves are also happy because it two giant racing stripes down the middle of it.
Not only that, Nathanael has made instructions available should you wish to build his Cobra for yourself, earning him extra TLCB points. You can see more of Nathanael’s brilliant 10265 B-Model at his photostream by clicking here, plus you can read a round-up of some of the other alternative builds that the 10265 Ford Mustang set has generated (including a few other designs by Nathanael), by clicking these words.
Despite a politically strained relationship at present, the United Kingdom and the United States of America can achieve great things when they work together. Here are two of the greatest, the magnificent Ford GT40 and AC Cobra.
Both cars were designed in the UK, but powered (and funded by) Ford USA, and both dominated racing in the 1960s. These two brilliant Speed Champions style models of the Gulf Racing GT40 and Cobra 289 are the work of previous bloggee Jonathan Elliott who has captured each car beautifully.
There’s more to see of each build at Jonathan’s photostream – click the links above to take a look at the complete image galleries for both cars.
Featured here just yesterday with his amazing 2020 Ford Mustang GT500, Firas Abu-Jaber today reminds us that killing yourself and everyone waiting at the bus stop you’ve plowed sideways through has been a Mustang achievement for some time.
This is a Mustang Mach 1 Cobra Jet, which surely counts amongst the most ridiculously overly-masculine car names in vehicular history. Powered by a 335bhp 7litre V8, but still with shocking steering, brakes and suspension, the Cobra Jet was all about straight-line speed, setting multiple Bonneville speed records in the hands of Mickey Thompson in 1969.
This gloriously orange homage to Ford’s mighty late-’60s muscle car looks every bit as good as the real thing, but is considerably less dangerous, with a top speed of whatever you can push it to. The handling and brakes are probably on par with the actual car though.
Built by Firas Abu-Jaber alongside his previously-featured 2020 GT500, there’s much more to see of this stunningly presented creation at his Ford Mustang Mach 1 Cobra Jet Flickr album, and if you’d like to get your hands on your very own classic Mustang you can read our preview of LEGO’s own superb-looking 10265 Creator Ford Mustang set by clicking here.
There’s one question we get here at The Lego Car Blog more than any other; ‘Can I have instructions?’. Mattia Zamboni, author of the previously reviewed ‘Tiny LEGO Wonders‘ and previous bloggee ZetoVince have decided to respond to the call, and recently sent us their latest book that claims to provide the answers…
Thunderbay Press’s ‘How to Build Dream Cars with LEGO Bricks‘ aims “to deliver accurate car models of epic cars”, and it really does feature some epic cars. From legendary American classics like the Ford GT40, Dodge Charger and Corvette Stingray, through European supercars such as the Lamborghini Countach and Porsche 911, to modern-day exotic hypercars like the Pagani Zonda.
Epicocity achieved then, but how about accuracy? Well Mattia is so confident in the realism of the builds within ‘How to Build Dream Cars’ that the contents page doesn’t name them, or even feature colour, instead showing simply black and white renders of each of the models featured. It works too, creating a beautifully clean look that is maintained throughout the book.
The models are indeed instantly recognisable, at least for car fans which we suspect you’ll be if you’re reading this. LEGO’s own Speed Champions sets are too of course, and we’ve loved seeing each new release in this line-up as LEGO create more partnerships with real-world car manufacturers. However there are many brands that LEGO have not yet partnered with (and may never), and often the sets can be quite sticker-heavy, making recreation from spare parts at home impossible.
‘How to Build Dream Cars’ manages to accurately recreate some of the world’s best known cars without a single sticker, whilst using more advanced techniques to achieve greater realism than LEGO’s Speed Champions sets. Let’s take a look at how!
Each model starts with a description and image of the real car, including the all-important fact sheet that all car fans require. The instructions continue the black and white theme and add colour simply via the bricks used in the build. Like Mattia’s ‘Tiny LEGO Wonders’ book, these are slightly more complicated than those found in an official LEGO set, both because the techniques themselves are, and because LEGO have simplified their own steps, sometimes to the point of adding just one piece at a time.
‘How to Build Dream Cars’ feels more like LEGO instructions did a decade or so ago, being noticeably more advanced, and using more monochrome piece colours. This means that there are few contrasting-colour pieces in hidden places (as LEGO now use to make them easier to find/identify), which is appropriate given most builders will be creating these models from their own parts and black/grey is a safe bet.
Ingeniously the book also contains a complete parts list (which can be dropped straight into Bricklink should you need to buy them) and video instructions for each model, accessible via the QR Codes printed inside. This makes creating the models in ‘How to Build Dream Cars with LEGO Bricks’ a properly interactive experience should you wish it to be, and makes us wonder why LEGO haven’t done this themselves.
Graphics are excellent, and whilst black-on-black isn’t quite as easy to follow as LEGO’s white-pages the instructions are well laid out, clear, and printed in high quality, with good visuals for sub-assemblies and piece positioning. Most importantly the results are superb, successfully mixing System and Technic parts to recreate the iconic shapes of some of the world’s most famous dream cars, such as the AC Cobra pictured below.
LEGO are a roll right now with their ever-expanding line-up of officially licensed vehicles. However there are many more amazing cars out there not yet licensed to become official LEGO sets.
If you’d like to expand your own car collection by building some stunning real-world replicas that LEGO haven’t yet created themselves (and that are more detailed and more advanced to build to boot), ‘How to Build Dream Cars with LEGO Bricks’ fulfils the brief brilliantly. From vintage classics to modern supercars, Mattia and Vince have created an excellent instructional guide to building your own dream cars at home, with enough technical specs and vehicle history to keep car fans happy too.
That the book also contains complete parts lists, video instructions, and looks beautiful is the icing on the cake. Highly recommended.
The second best Anglo-American collaboration (after Fleetwood Mac of course), the AC Cobra has become a car of legendary status. Based on the pretty but humble AC Ace, American racer-turned-tuner Carroll Shelby brokered a deal with Ford to supply their new Windsor V8 engine to the small British company. A giant killer was born, and today the AC Cobra is one of the most sought-after road-racers ever produced. This beautifully replicated Lego version is the work of TLCB regular Ralph Savelberg and there’s more to see of his miniature Cobra on Flickr – click here to make the jump.
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.
This gorgeous classic sports car is the work of Senator Chinchilla on MOCpages. It’s a Sunbeam Tiger which, much like the far more famous AC Cobra, is a light British sports car with a huge American Ford V8 squeezed under the hood.
Unlike the AC Ace, on which the Cobra was based, the beautiful Sunbeam Alpine base-car was a success in it’s own right – far more so than the V8 Tiger version. Sadly Roots, Sunbeam’s parent company, were bought by Chrysler in 1967, who couldn’t allow a Ford V8-engined car to continue in the range, and thus killed it off (before killing the whole company off too…).
The Senator’s Model Team version features opening doors, hood and trunk, and has the most important Tiger feature of all; a working V8. See more at the link above.
*For those that don’t understand the title reference, click here.**
The iconic Shelby Cobra is certainly not the easiest car to be brickbuilt – surely one of the curviest vehicles ever. Building it in minifig scale is a nightmare – something only highly talented builders can think of: lichtblau – or ZetoVince.
Look at Zeto’s beefy Cobra – it must have been a big struggle to get it like this! The late Carroll Shelby (January 11, 1923 – May 10, 2012) to whom Zeto dedicates this MOC would have loved it.
Like Christmas leftovers; lots of different styles but delicious
The accepted norm in the MOC-ing world is to pick a technique and stick with it. MortalSwordman has decided to buck this trend with his Fiat Bartoletti Type II race transporter, with stunning results. He uses traditional studs-up, smooth SNOT, full-stud and Technic techniques all in one model. Our favourite area is perhaps the letters – squint and ‘Cobra Ford’ will miraculously appear! There’s a group on MOCpages where several of these classic transporters have been built. Check out Mortal’s MOCpage via the link above for details.
