This unusual (and huge) DAF crane truck was discovered on Flickr. It’s the work of Arian Janssens and you can see the full gallery by clicking here.
Daffy Truck
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Tag Archives: crane
Cherry Picked
You could say we cherry-pick the very best Lego vehicles for publication here at TLCB, and that this is some sort of metaphor, but that would be too tenuous a link even for us. Coincidentally, here’s a Technic cherry picker. See more at Krzysztof Cytacki‘s photostream.
Tiny Trio
Our Elves tend to favour big creations, with which they can run down their colleagues and smush them into the carpet. But here in TLCB office we like small creations too, showing what skill and clever parts usage can achieve over big budgets and unlimited bricks. Here are three of the best uploaded to the interweb this week. From left to right;
- keko007‘s Town-scale Scania/Liebherr crane, featuring working outriggers and boom and suggested to us by a reader. See it in action on Brickshelf.
- Karf Oohlu‘s ‘Lil Hot Rod’. Unusual Lego pieces used in unusual ways results in one of the most original creations on the ‘net. See how he’s done it on Flickr.
- Angka Utama‘s ‘Targa’, a masterclass in 6-wide vehicle design. You can see more of Angka’s latest work on either Flickr or MOCpages.
All are proof you don’t need access to a Legoland-sized pile of pieces to build something great. If you’ve found a small creation that you think should appear here you can let us know – just drop us a comment at the Feedback page.
Rubber Trucker
This lovely Freightliner crane truck was found by one of our Elves on Flickr. Ricecracker is the builder, and he’s found a rather genius way of shaping the bonnet whilst still using genuine Lego parts. There’s a clue in the title – see if you can guess what’s been used before you check the answer on Flickr!
Oshkosh
Over to Briskshelf for something big. This monstrous Oshkosh HEMTT military truck features 8 wheel drive, 4 wheel steering, independent suspension and nine(!) Power Functions motors. It’s been built by marthart and you can see all the images via the accompanying Brickshelf gallery – just click on the link above.
Power Up
It’s the opening weekend of the 2014 Formula 1 World Championship in Melbourne, and the Elves are riotously excited. So what’s this Technic crane truck by Eurobricks’ Razor got to do with F1? Well, it’s the first race weekend under the new regulations with new engines, new hybrid systems, new cooling, new exhausts and new downforce. All of this means new reliability problems, and therefore we expect to see quite a few F1 cars being parked during the race.
The Melbourne track is largely on public roads, so crane trucks such as this one are vital in removing broken cars from the side of the track to safety. Razor’s Technic version is powered by nine(!) Power Functions motors, with three battery boxes and four sets of lights. To see it in action and join the discussion head over to the Eurobricks forum via the link above.
Back to our tenuous F1 link; you might see more of crane trucks like this than the Renault-powered cars at Melbourne this weekend… We can’t wait!
A Mammoth MOC
This enormous DAF XF truck with six-axle Noteboom trailer is the work of previous bloggee Nako Klein Paste aka nkle on Flickr. The build features an opening and tilting cab, steering axles and a realistic load of Liebherr mobile crane counter-weights. See all the photos at nkle’s photostream via the link above.
Little Big Crane
After a pair of posts featuring giant yellow machines, today we’re featuring something a bit smaller. This crane is ideally sized for removing errant Elves from our desks at The Lego Car Blog. Sylvain Ballivet’s micro-build is part of a bigger, ongoing sci-fi project. You can see more photos of the LTN-201 Mobile Crane and Sylvain’s other micro-vehicles by clicking this link to MOCpages.
From Russia With Love
This superb 1940’s Russian ZIS truck with AK31 crane attachment was suggested to us via the Feedback page, after being discovered on MOCpages by a TLCB reader. Built by Ultimate Design the ZIS features working steering, suspension, engine, gearbox and crane. And more importantly it allows us to re-use a clever title this Valentine’s Day. You can see all the photos at Ultimate Design’s MOCpage via the link above, or you can view it on Flickr here.
Massive Erection
[Maks] has got a big one. See just how huge his latest effort is at his photostream on Flickr via the link.
Alex Baldwin
Jennifer Clark’s Demag all-terrain crane was uncovered on MOCpages today, and it’s one of the best we’ve seen this year. Fully remote controlled and featuring a huge variety of functions, you can see more of this Technic masterpiece here where there’s also a link to Jennifer’s own website containing full details of all her builds.
’70s Night
Long before this Lego Car Blogger was born there was a time known as ‘The ’70s’. The ’70s were a weird and wonderful era, where Radio 1 DJs roamed the earth and everyone was forced to wear massive trousers or brown, and listen to disco-funk continuously. LEGO were just starting to hit the stratosphere during this period, and their pre-curser to Model Team was beginning to produce some excellent large-scale vehicles.
One of these was the 392 F1 car from 1975, a marvellous primary-coloured affair complete with genuine sponsorship decals. Jens M. – one half of the building duo ‘LegoExotics’ – has reimagined the original, retaining the ace look and colouring whilst bringing it up-to-date by incorporating today’s modern smooth pieces. See all the photos on Flickr at the link above.
Our second ’70s redux comes from Bobofrutx, who’s taken the 855 mobile crane set from 1978 and given it a similar facelift. His version of the ’70s classic includes the features that showed the beginnings of Technic, including working 4-wheel steering, a rotating and extending boom and a working winch.
You can see all the photos at Bobofrutx’s photostream via the link above, and you can read The Lego Car Blog’s reviews of some of the classic 1970’s sets by clicking on the ‘Reviews’ tab in the main menu.
Telehandler
This good old-fashioned Technic telehandler was discovered by the Elves on Flickr. Bobofrutx has included 4-wheel steering and of course a telescopic bucket arm for all that telehandling. See more at the link. Just don’t let the Elves follow you – we’re not rescuing any more from the bucket.
Liebherr LTM
LEGO’s Technic mobile cranes have always been firm favourites with builders (read TLCB’s reviews of the official sets here), but are less common as MOCs. When done well though, crane MOCs can be more than a match for LEGO’s own efforts. Today’s comes from TLCB veteran mbmc137 on Brickshelf. His Liebherr LTM 1090 features a huge array of remote control functions including drive, steering, boom raising/lowering, rotation and extension, winch and outriggers. Even LEGO’s own sets don’t fit all that in! See more at the link above or join in the discussion on Eurobricks.
The One We’ve All Been Waiting For
Ohhh yes…. 42009, the Mobile Crane MkII, is finally here. Was it worth the wait ? Was it worth 150 smackers ? Was it worth spending my entire day off building it ? Read on…
Well, what do you think ? I mean, look at it. Before I get down to it, a quick word about how we do our reviews around here. LEGO doesn’t send us review copies (yet; hint, hint…) so we spend our own money on sets for review, but these are sets that we’d have wanted anyway. This might explain the usually positive flavour of our musings; we’re not going to spend our hard-earned on something we know we won’t like. I haven’t reviewed the 42000 Grand Prix racer because I won’t be getting it.
We do still try to be objective.
Enough already, get on with it!
So, to business. First impressions: Wow, that box is heavy! 2,600 pieces, plus motor and battery box would explain that. It’s the largest Technic set ever, by some margin. Not the most expensive, though, which remains the 8110 Unimog at a fiver more than this; which fact rather gives the lie to the notion of LEGO inflating their prices with each successive generation. You get 550 more pieces and a fiver in exchange for the ‘mog’s pneumatics.
Fortunately, the bags are numbered to reflect the three main stages of the build. This isn’t quite the advantage it might be with the chassis forming well over half of it… Many, many bags all numbered ‘1’. Give yourself plenty of room. And time. That said, it never took me long to find a piece, and I never sort first as LEGO suggest.
There are six instruction books; 3 for the chassis, 2 for the crane part and the last one for the boom. Books 4 and 5 could have easily been combined to make it 1 for the crane part; book 5 is inexplicably slender. There were no mistakes, as we’ve come to expect, and this time not all the build steps are quite so tiny. There is nothing to confuse here as long as you concentrate and don’t forget to insert the 15 long beams alongside the stabilizers; causing you to perform major surgery part way through, or anything silly like that…
At the end of an enjoyable 6-8 hours of building, what have you got ? It’s a very robust, playable, multi-functional and impressive thing. There’s lots going on here, so I’ll break it down. Continue reading