Tag Archives: Defender

The Best 4×4+1

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LEGO’s 40650 Land Rover Classic Defender is a rather nice little 150-piece pocket-money set. But add just a single extra stud to the dimensions (and a few more advanced building techniques) and it can become something altogether more authentic. Cue SvenJ.‘s excellent 7-wide Land Rover Defender 90, which adds the Defender’s famous ‘barrel side’, triple-rear-window, posable steering, and a whole heap more interior and exterior detail. Building instructions are available and you can upgrade your own 40650 set via the link above.

Honey I Shrunk the 10317

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LEGO’s brilliant new 10317 Icons Land Rover Defender 90 set is one of the coolest looking Technic sets in ages. However, it’s also $240, which is some way outside of pocket-money attainability.

Fortunately LEGO’s upcoming 150-piece Creator 40650 Land Rover Classic Defender set will allow their Land Rover partnership to feature on far more bedroom floors, and it’s this lovely little set that has formed the basis for Thomas Gion’s own heritage green Land Rover Defender 90.

Taking the un-accessorised yellow Defender from 40650, Thomas has rebuilt the 6-wide Creator set replicating the best bits of its much bigger Technic brother, equipping his Land Rover with a snorkel, bonnet-mounted spare, and a packed roof cage, whilst adding a does of extra visual accuracy via clever SNOT building techniques.

There’s more to see at Thomas’ ‘Land Rover Defender 90’ album, plus you can check out the two official LEGO sets that inspired it via the links in the text above.

LEGO Creator 40650 Land Rover Classic Defender | Set Preview

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LEGO’s Land Rover partnership continues apace! This is the brand new 40650 Land Rover Classic Defender.

Interestingly branded ‘Creator’ rather than ‘Speed Champions’ despite being the correct scale for the latter, 40650 brings the Land Rover Defender, featured twice in Technic form, into a far more attainable price bracket.

Aimed at ages 8+, 40650 features 150 pieces including a mini-figure, and includes some decent SNOT building techniques plus be-stickered headlights and front grill.

The new 40650 Land Rover Classic Defender set will reach stores later this year, and looks to be a very welcome officially-licensed product within reach of pocket-money-funder LEGO fans. Great job LEGO.

Icons 10317 Land Rover Classic Defender 90 | Set Preview

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Land Rover may have released a new Defender, as have LEGO with the officially-licensed 42110 Technic version, but this is the Defender we want! Yes, LEGO have finally created a ‘classic’ Land Rover Defender set, and doesn’t it look good? This is the brand new 10317 Icons Land Rover Classic Defender 90.

Of course the real car isn’t called ‘classic’ anywhere in its title, but we suppose both LEGO and Land Rover are keen to remind us that there is indeed another Defender on the market. Replicating the short wheel-base ’90’ hardtop, 10317 does wear Land Rover’s marvellous heritage green colour (as re-used on the final run of ‘classic’ Defenders) superbly though, with a good proportion of the set’s colossal 2,336 pieces in the hue, including the wheels and the new wheel-arch parts similar to those that first debuted on the ‘other’ Defender set some four years ago.

Working steering and suspension, opening doors and hood, and a really beautifully detailed engine account for some of that chunky parts count, as does a degree of customisability, because – as per the recent 10304 Chevrolet Camaro, 10300 ‘Back to the Future’ Time Machine, and 10265 Ford Mustang sets – 10317 can be built in a number of configurations.

Two different engines and three different hoods can be constructed, but the bulk of those extra parts are there should you wish to build your Defender to look like every single one in London; with a huge array of totally unused off-road accessories. These include an uprated front bumper with a working winch, side rails, jerrycans, a toolbox and jack, a shovel, pickaxe, hammer and axe, fire extinguisher, roof cage, snorkel and traction plates.

Of course any real Land Rover Defender driver wouldn’t be within 100 miles of those items – with their vehicle instead carrying a flask of tea, a roll of duct-tape, and a sheep – but you can always build these at home for true Defender authenticity.

The new LEGO Icons 10317 Land Rover ‘Classic’ Defender 90 will reach stores in April of this year, is expected to cost around $240 / €240 / £210, and we’re in the queue. We’re already working on our brick-built sheep.

Vicuna

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The vicuna, the smallest species of camel, stands no taller than a metre and weighs less than 50kg. That’s your random fact of the day and you’re welcome.

Cue today’s post, which is – we think – the smallest camel (Trophy) creation we’ve featured, standing only four studs wide and weighing, er… we don’t know. Not a lot.

It comes from Jan Woznika, instructions are available, and there’s more of the build to see at his ‘Land Rover Defender Camel Trophy’ album by clicking here.

Camp Fire

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We love repurposed vehicles (or anything else for that matter) here at The Lego Car Blog. Taking something and transforming for a different purpose is not only far less environmentally damaging than making something new, the results are often way cooler. As evidenced by Beat Felber‘s wonderful 1984 Land Rover 110.

Beat’s real-world Land Rover served as an off-road fire engine for about twenty-five years, before it was retired and converted into the superb off-road camper it is today, and Beat has now recreated it in Lego form, capturing his real-life vehicle beautifully.

Underneath the brilliantly life-like exterior – complete with opening doors and hood – is a remotely controlled 4×4 drivetrain powered by an SBrick, with L-Motors driving both axles (each of which is suspended), a Servo the steering, and an M-Motor the high/low gearbox.

It’s a delightful build made all the better by its real-world counterpart, and there’s more to see of both Beat’s Lego Land Rover 110 and the real fire-engine-turned-camper that inspired it via the link above.

The Best 5-wide 4x4xFar

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This most excellent Land Rover Defender was discovered by one of our Elves on Flickr today, and it might be the best 5-wide recreation of the iconic 4×4 that we’ve seen yet. Newcomer Jan Woznica is the builder and he’s equipped his model with a winch, roof cage, and snorkel for added off-road prowess. Check out the best 5-wide 4x4xFar via the link.

Land Rover Defender | Picture Special

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We love it when builders gets in contact with us here at TLCB. Firstly it means a few people actually read the ‘inane blather’ (to quote a comment by a reader) that streams from the hovel that is TLCB Towers, and secondly because it sometimes unearths incredible creations.

Case in point is Zeta Racing, who recently messaged us on Facebook. We recommended Flickr as a tool for sharing his creations and bam! – We now have no less than five unbelievable builds to blog.

This is the third, Zeta’s magnificent fully RC Land Rover Defender, and it – like the two builds already featured here – is a work of engineering brilliance.

Based on an earlier design by TLCB Master MOCer Sheepo, Zeta has captured the aesthetic of a moderately modified Defender 110 brilliantly, with a lift kit, snorkel, roof cage, tow bar, and more all represented in Lego form. The doors, hood and tailgate all open, and there’s a superbly detailed interior inside too.

It’s what’s underneath that’s most impressive though, with Zeta’s model equipped with a complete Technic Supercar drivetrain (engine, gearbox, suspension, and steering), and full remotely controlled motorisation.

Power Functions motors drive the four-wheel-drive system (which also turns the accurate inline 4-cylinder engine under the hood) and control the working steering, with superbly accurate suspension allowing the power to be used both on and off-road.

Four IR receivers are hidden in the cabin, allowing control of the aforementioned drive and steering, and also – by our guess – a motorised gearbox and front-mounted winch too.

It’s a stunning build, immediately jumping into the Technic off-roader All-Time Greats list, and there’s a whole lot more of the build to see at Zeta Racing’s Flickr photostream by clicking here. And there are still two further incredible creations to come…

Evolution of the Camel

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The camel – our favourite humped, even-toed ungulate – did not start out as a large desert-dwelling domesticated animal. The camel’s beginnings, around 50 million years ago, are more rabbity. Later it had grown to around the size of a goat before, c5 million years ago, evolving into a nine-foot tall arctic-living creature, whose hump may have existing to help it survive the cold.

The Camel is an animal that’s gone through a bit of change, and so too has newcomer Fabiomaster‘s Land Rover Defender in Camel Trophy spec. Which is as seamless a link between two barely related things as you’re likely to find.

Beginning as an off-road chassis by TLCB Master MOCer Sheepo, the design evolved into a Land Rover Defender Camel Trophy in the hands of RM8, whose Sheepo-based creation appeared here four years ago.

Fast-forward to 2020 and the design has subtly evolved again, with Fabiomaster updating the Defender with the latest parts and unique off-road accessories, presenting it beautifully as you can see here. So it’s not really Fabiomaster’s creation, but rather the work of three builders over the course of several years, and it looks properly good as a result.

There’s more to see of Fabiomaster’s Land Rover Defender Camel Trophy on Eurobricks via the link above, and you can follow the evolutionary tree back through RM8’s version to Sheepo’s original chassis via the links in the blog text.

BAE EAP & LR

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Today’s acronym is the British Aerospace Experimental Aircraft Programme (or EAP for short), the prototype air-superiority fighter that would eventually, via a cross-European collaboration, become the amazing Eurofighter Typhoon. Recreated here in its natty testing livery, Ralph Savelsberg has captured the aircraft brilliantly in mini-figure scale. A 5-wide RAF Land Rover Defender is on hand to assist with the testing programme and there’s more to see of both at Ralph’s photostream via the link.

Indefensible

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The more we see the new Land Rover Defender (which comes in officially licensed LEGO form too), the more we wish Land Rover had taken the approach of Suzuki, Mercedes-Benz, and now Ford, with their new Bronco, and found a way to update a classic rather than throw the design cues in the bin.

Still, the fact we’re starting to see the new Defender everywhere means our opinion counts for nought, and the heavily-financed Evoques parked outside every $150/month health club will soon be switched for heavily-financed Defenders. Although that may cause a different problem for Land Rover…

We’d choose to leave the health club behind and exercise outdoors, using a proper Land Rover Defender to take us there. This fantastic fully remote controlled Technic Defender comes from previous bloggee ArsMan064, and it captures the spirit of the original Land Rover far better than Land Rover have managed to with their new one.

A third-party SBrick gives ArsMan’s Defender bluetooth control, with two L Motors driving all four wheels and a Medium motor powering the steering, whilst all-wheel suspension, LED lights, opening doors, hood and tailgate, and a beautifully detailed engine bay and interior also feature.

There’s loads more to see of ArsMan064’s Technic Land Rover Defender 90 at the Eurobricks discussion forum, including close-up imagery and a video of the model in action off-road, which you can also find below. Click the link above to leave the health club behind…

YouTube Video

A Real Defender

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As has been mentioned before, we’re not sold on Land Rover’s new Defender. Which means it’ll likely sell phenomenally well… We are sold on this though, John O’Shea’s perfect digital recreation of the classic Land Rover 2A 109 that first appeared here last year.

John has since rendered the best version of his design yet, because this is what a Defender should look like. OK, not in America where Defenders are fetching astronomical sums of money, or in the UK’s cities where they’re all black with tinted windows and LED lights, and have never gone up so much as a curb, but out in rural Britain where Defenders work for living.

The British countryside is full of Defenders that look like this one; battered, seized exposed screw heads, roofs green with mould, and patches over patches on the chassis. Somehow we’re not sure the new version will look like these in 30 years. Mostly because it probably won’t last that long.

John’s beautifully rendered 2A 109 van manages to capture all of the shediness of the thousands of Defenders carrying equipment, sheep, and farmers across the British Isles brilliantly, and there’s more to see of his stunning render at his photostream. Click here to take a closer look.

My Other Car’s a Land Rover

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LEGO’s cool-looking 42110 Technic Land Rover Defender set – revealed here last year – has been on sale a while now, and we think it looks pretty good. However we’re less sure about real Defender which is yet to go on sale, and seeing a prototype on the roads of the UK hasn’t helped the cause. We couldn’t afford one anyway though – despite the vast fame and riches we have accrued through this website* – so we guess it’s not aimed at us.

For those in our camp of not really knowing who the new land Rover Defender is aimed at, and maybe preferring something a little more authentic, Flickr’s Milan aka grohl might have the answer.

This marvellous looking ‘stadium truck’ complete with working suspension, four-wheel-drive, a three-speed sequential gearbox, steering, and a V8 engine has been built solely from the parts found within the 42110 Technic Land Rover Defender set, allowing you to make something with a little more off-road pedigree should the new Defender turn out to be just another posh SUV for well-healed city-dwellers.

Milan has produced video instructions for his 42110 ‘B-Model’ too, so if you own the Technic Land Rover Defender set and the real car turns out to be more ‘organic vanilla latte please’ than ‘dude, let’s abseil down this mountain’, you can turn your Defender into a stadium truck yourself.

There’s more to see of Milan’s 42110 B-Model on Flickr, where full details and the all-important link to instructions can also be found. Click the link above to take a look.

*Which you can learn about here.

Ice Breaker

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Well this looks considerably more perilous than the tedious opening questions at a corporate team building away day. It’s the work of ExeSandbox of Flickr, who has created this marvellous ice breaking ship and Land Rover Defender scene which looks sure to end in the Defender’s occupants being very wet, very cold, and then very dead. Good thing it’s digital only. Pack your thermals and head out onto the ice via the link above to see all of the wonderful imagery.

Minor Mechanics

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Children, like TLCB Elves, are just smaller stupider humanoids. However they can be very useful, what with their little arms being able to access parts of a Land Rover Defender that Dad’s are too large for.

Seriously though, is there anything cooler than a parent teaching their kids about mechanics by letting them work on an actual car? This awesome father figure scene comes from SP Design of Flickr, who has not only built a magnificent Land Rover Defender for Dad and his two kids to work on, but a range of superbly recognisable equipment too.

Head to Dad’s garage via the link above to lend a hand. If yours are small enough of course.