Tag Archives: Concept

Debonair Redux

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This is the ‘Hartford Debonair’, and it is – as you can see here – rather lovely. It’s also a little familiar, having been published at TLCB in an earlier iteration last year. Like the model, the builder behind it has been reborn, as the latest victim of the Flickr Photo Snafu.

Prolific builder Senator Chinchilla, who has appeared here numerous times over the years, will see many of his images deleted by Flickr’s new scumbag owners and their newly enforced photo limit. This means that you may come across a link here at TLCB that no longer works, and also that the Senator has had to change rank. Captain Chinchilla is his new persona, and he begins his Flickr re-set with a revisit of his beautiful fictional ’50s classic.

Spectacular (and really rather clever) building techniques are evident in abundance and there’s more to see of Senator Chinchilla, er… we mean Captain Chinchilla’s brilliant build at his new photostream by clicking here.

Mobquet M-68

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This is a Mobquet M-68 landspeeder (of course), and it comes from newcomer barneius industries of Flickr. With our expert knowledge of all things sci-fi we could detail the M-68’s history and technical capabilities but we wouldn’t want to embarrass the other blogs, so instead we’ll simply stick to how deeply, awesomely cool it looks.

Featuring Ford Thunderbird style jet-thruster rear lights, a wing reminiscent of the Plymouth Roadrunner, and an excellent side-stripe, the Mobquet  channels a whole host of classic American metal into its design, with glorious results. Head to barneius industries’ M-68 Flickr album via the link above to see the complete gallery of images and see how many ’60s muscle car references you can spot!

Mantis

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Lego Technic RC Mantis Supercar

The mantis is surely one of Nature’s weirdest creations. Only not terrifying because they’re pretty small, if you saw a picture of one with no concept of scale you’d undoubtedly flee to the hills convinced mankind was about to be enslaved by a superior alien race.

Car makers love naming their vehicles after odd animals though, and the mantis is no exception, being used on Marcos’s early-’70s sports car that looked every bit as horrific as the insect which gave its name.

Fortunately their mid-’90s sequel was – if still not brilliant – far more palatable, but neither were as good to look at as this concept supercar from Flickr’s R. Skittle. Suggested to us by a reader, Skittle’s ‘Koncept Mantis’ is an interesting looking thing, with a full remote control drivetrain hidden under the unusual bodywork.

A pair of Power Functions motors drive the rear wheels whilst another controls the steering, there’s clever pushrod suspension, and an even cleverer automatically deploying airbrake that raises when the car ‘brakes’.

There’s much more to see of R. Skittle’s ‘Mantis’ Technic supercar on Flickr – click here to see the complete gallery and a video of the car in action.

Lego Technic RC Mantis Supercar

Space Truckin’

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Lego Space Truck

Today’s creation is huge, very well travelled, and is a frequent visitor of truck-stops. Just like your Mom.

Built by Robert Heim it’s called ‘Space Truck 2’, and unlike your Mom it looks seriously cool. Join the convoy in space via the link to Flickr above.

Obscurimus Prime

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Lego Concept Racer

No, we’re not sure what this is either, but we like primary colours! Clever building techniques have been used in abundance to create whatever this is, and you can place your guesses at Tammo S.’s photostream by clicking here.

Volvos in Space

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Lego Technic Volvo ConceptYou wait all day for an autonomous Volvo concept loader, and then two come along at once. Or so the saying goes. Following the 42081 Volvo Concept set, LEGO and Volvo have teamed up to run a competition to design the Volvo construction vehicle of the future.

Here are two entries, each packed with Power Functions motors and remote control functionality, and each looking quietly terrifying to boot.

First up (above) is R. Skittle‘s ‘Volvo Proteus’, a fully autonomous self-loading hauler. Many many motors power the loader’s drive, all-wheel-steering, the huge swivelling bucket arm, and the sliding and tipping bucket, and there’s much more to see at Skittle’s photostream. Click the link above to view the full gallery of this superbly engineered creation.

Today’s second concept (below) sends Volvo into space, with this enormous ‘Mars Mission’ loader/dozer/tunneller/excavator, all the things required for some Mars-based construction. Built by Desert Eagle (aka Desert752) of Eurobricks this metre-long monster is powered by sixteen motors, with all-track drive, crab steering, a self-levelling superstructure via linear actuators, 360 degree excavator boom rotation with elevation, extension and a synchronised counterweight, 360 degree tunneller boom rotation and elevation, and a drill head that looks like something from your Mom’s Ann Summers chest.

There’s a whole lot more to see of both of today’s Volvo concepts via the links above, and you can enter the competition yourself via LEGO Ideas by clicking here.

Lego Technic Volvo Concept

Blackfish

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Lego Nautilus Car

Today’s post features a car that is the exact opposite of everything in the staff car park. Extravagant, opulent, unnecessary even… Redfern1950s’ latest creation has more common with TLCB Executive Washroom and Sauna than with anything we’re driving.

It comes of course from the movie The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen which was, frankly, not very good. Not so the car, which was built for real in all of its twenty-two foot glory from the remnants of a Ford Cargo truck. It was so real in fact that it really drives, it’s road legal(ish), and a replica recently came up for auction on eBay, although our budget wouldn’t stretch to it.

Lego Nautilus Car

Redfern’s incredible Model Team recreation of Captain Nemo’s ‘Nautilus’ swaps the original white for black (looking a million times more sinister as a result!) and features opening doors and hood, under which is a suitably enormous V12 engine.

There’s a whole lot more to see of this amazing build at Redfern’s photostream – take a look via the link, plus you can see how the original UK-made movie car was built by clicking here and view the recently sold American replica by clicking here.

Lego Nautilus Car

Future Tanks

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Lego Concept Tank

War. Sadly it will probably never ever go away. Man always seems to think there are others of his kind not as valuable as himself. Still, the future of warfare does look, well… rather cool, at least if this ‘HT-122 Golem’ tank and opposing ‘Pollaxe’ anti-tank by Flickr’s Sunder_59 are anything to go buy. There’s more to see more of each of Sunder’s military concepts via the links above.

Lego Concept Tank

Come Fly With Me

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Lego Hover Cars

It’s a bumper haul today at The Lego Car Blog, thanks to Tim Henderson and his wonderful collection of retro-futuristic hover cars. Loosely based on all manner of classic American machinery, Tim’s hover car concepts update their historic counterparts with a whole lot more vertical ability.

Lego Hover Car Station Wagon

Models include a Buick Skymaster (apt name!) station wagon (pictured above), a pair of Pontiac Grand Prix (pictured below) and Mercury Meteors (more apt naming!) (top), and a very cool Blacktron-esque Dodge Charger and Chevrolet Caprice (bottom).

Lego Hover Cars

There’s more to see of each build, all of which contain a mini-figure and some delightful detailing, plus many more besides, at Tim’s ‘Hover Car’ Flickr album. Click on the link and leave gravity behind!

Lego Hover Cars

*Today’s title song, which has instantly made this blog 37% classier.

Bananarama*

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Lego Desert Clipper

LEGO produce all manor of weird and wonderful pieces these days. Take the humble banana for example. Usually a neat accessory for a Town market or a man in a gorilla suit, LegoGallifrey of Flickr has deployed the tropical fruit in use as mudguards for this rather wonderful looking ‘Desert Clipper’ concept. There’s more cunning parts use elsewhere in the build too – check it out at LegoGallifrey’s photostream here.

*Today’s musical link. Click at your own risk.

Lean on Me

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Lego RC Trike

Weird electric city vehicles seem to pop up all the time in concept form tasked with easing urban congestion and cutting pollution. And then no-one ever builds one because, frankly, consumers would rather sit traffic breathing polluted air in a giant SUV.

Still, one day maybe these things will take off, but until then we’ll make do with previous bloggee Nico71‘s BuWizz-powered leaning tricycle. Similar to Toyota’s limited production i-Road concept, or those weird three-wheeled Piaggio scooter thingies, Nico’s concept can actively lean into corners to keep it stable, and with up to eight times the power of LEGO’s own Power Functions system from the BuWizz bluetooth brick, it probably needs that function.

It’s not our usual fodder here at The Lego Car Blog, but it’s a rather cleverly engineered build and one that we’ll probably all be driving in real life at some point. See more on Brickshelf via the link above.

Lego RC Trike

Debonair Doppelgänger

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Lego 1957 Hartford Classic Car

This beautiful machine is a 1957 Hartford Debonair coupe, powered by a small block V8 and built to rival cars such as the Buick LaSabre.

Except that the Hartford Debonair doesn’t (and never did) exist, being a figment purely of Senator Chinchilla‘s imagination. But what an imagination! It sure beats yet another 270mph V-a-million-engined monstrosity that much of the online Lego community churns out with tiresome regularity.

There’s much more to see of Senator Chinchilla’s gorgeous creation at his photostream. Click the link above to take a look, and if you’re thinking of concocting a car, this is the way to do it!

Lego 1957 Hartford Classic Car

Group of the ‘Month’ – Lego Speeder Bikes

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Lego Speeder Bikes

Yes we know, the ‘month’ bit of this post’s title is ridiculous. We can’t even remember the last time we did one of these and we really don’t fancy stepping into the dark and foreboding Archives Hall to find out. There’s a long-lost band of Elves in there who have turned quite ferrel.

Anyway, today we are featuring a group from the online Lego Community because it’s a rather cool one. Flickr’s Lego Speeder Bikes (LSB) have been showcasing small sci-fi builds since 2009 and now number over 1,000 members. They’re currently running neat contest too, inviting you to design and build a speeder bike for the fictitious ‘District 18’, with four categories to choose from.

Prizes include the very cool-looking Dredd-inspired ‘Vice Hoverbike’ from _zenn above, as well as some official LEGO sets too. The closing date for entries is March 4th, and if you’ve never thought about entering a Lego competition before this could the perfect way to start – as piece count comes very much second to creativity.

Take a look at the Lego Speeder Bikes group on Flickr by clicking here, where you can also find all the details of the District 18 competition, and we may return at the end of the contest with a round-up of the best entries.

Lego Speeder Bikes

Electric Dreams

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Lego Tesla Roadster

Tesla have a come a very long way since their first Roadster. Little more than an electrified Lotus Elise, Tesla’s first product wasn’t very good, but it was very expensive. It did not do well.

How things have changed. Not only are Tesla’s current Model S, Model 3 and Model X cars genuinely good alternatives to the established combustion engine incumbents from BMW, Mercedes-Benz, Cadillac and the like, they are almost spectacularly revolutionary.

We have high hopes for this then, the new Tesla Roadster 2.0 revealed in concept form last year. With the potential for a sub 2-second 0-60mph time (even a Bugatti can’t match that) and a possible 600 mile range (although probably not at the same time), Tesla’s latest car could be everything their first wasn’t.

There’s some time before the Roadster 2.0 will reach production, so until then we have this top quality Lego version from Avanish Shrestha to keep us interested. Cunning techniques are in abundance and there’s more of the model to see at both Flickr and the Eurobricks forum.

We’re Tramming, and I Hope You Like Tramming Too*

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Lego Sci-Fi Tram

This huge odd-looking device is a Suburban Tram, and it can give a ride to most of the town.** It comes from the mind of Flickr’s Vince Toulouse, who has deployed all manner of unusual pieces from several decades of LEGO themes to create it.

There’s lots more to see at the tram’s album on Flickr – click the link above to hop on-board, although we have no idea where it’s going.

Lego Sci-Fi Tram

*Today’s (slightly butchered) title song can be found here.

**Just like your Mom.