This is, obviously, not a car. But for much of the world, it really is. And unlike a clapped-out hatchback, when it’s too old perform reliably it can become a delicious dinner. Flickr’s Andreas Lenander is the builder behind this fantastic rural transportation scene, and you can join the road to the market via the link above.
The eagerly awaited final season of ‘Stranger Things’ is just a few days away, when we – along with millions of others – will return to 1980s Hawkins Indiana for one last time.
Hawkins’ news outlets are likely to be very busy, with ‘94.5 The Squawk’s news van ready to cover the mysterious disasters courtesy of Alex Jones (aka Orion Pax), who has recreated it and its ‘Upside-down’ counterpart brilliantly in brick.
Opening doors, a fully-fitted interior, a removable roof, and an accurate ‘94.5 WSQK’ livery all feature, and you can join us in Hawkins at Alex’s photostream via the link above.
Yes we’re a car blog. When we’re not making Your Mom jokes or referencing Putin’s tiny todger. But we’re a train blog today, courtesy of this fantastic K-Class steam locomotive crossing a truss bridge at the Brickvention 2025 show. Photographed (and built as part of a collaboration) by Flickr’s narrow_gauge, there’s more to see via the link above.
And what’s better than one enormous train-based diorama? That’s right – two! Which is the nerdiest sentence we’ve ever written. But no matter, because TLCB Master MOCer mahjqa joins the railway shenanigans here at TLCB with one of the most brilliantly engineered creations we’ve seen yet.
Also constructed for a Lego event, mahjqa’s Friends railway (the LEGO theme, not the TV show) includes a remote control crane so gloriously playable we could watch it all day. And fortunately mahjqa filmed a whole day’s worth of it in operation, so we can do just that.
Join us watching it load and unload in delightful smoothness on loop via the video below, plus you can check out the discussion thread on Eurobricks here.
We’re beginning the week here at The Lego Car Blog with a whole lot of apples. This is p.vanderloo’s fabulous ‘Holland Fruit’ diorama; a stunningly detailed (and photographed) homage to the apple industry, complete with two absolutely beautiful classic DAF trucks.
The larger of the two – a 1960’s DAF 1800 DS300 – has appeared here before, and is now joined by an equally lovely DAF D50 curtain-sided flatbed, as well as a Nissan forklift.
All three models are spectacularly detailed, with their jaw-dropping realism enhanced by superb period-correct decals, and you can see much more of each at p.vanderloo’s ‘Holland Fruit’ album on Flickr. Take a look via the link.
Here at The Lego Car Blog we love enormous, many-motored machines. Because we’re six. But there’s joy to be found in the small things too, as proven today by Nathan Hake and this wonderful micro-scale MAZ-537. Constructed crossing an autumnal bridge, Nathan’s miniature MAZ is a tiny tribute to his own enormous, many-motored version built for a Lego show that appeared here a few months ago. There’s more of Nathan’s mini-MAZ to see via the link above, you can find the huge show-stopping version from which this diorama is derived here, and if you’d like to see more of the many MAZs to appear at TLCB to date you can click this bonus link to find them all.
If the Super Soaker commercials and the crab from ‘The Little Mermaid’ are to be believed, it’s better when it’s wetter.
We’re not sure the teams at Le Mans would agree though, what with there being a direct correlation between precipitation and risk, but for fans (at least watching at home in the dry on TV), rain can add a huge dose of unpredictable excitement.
This year’s 24 Heures du Mans delivered on that promise, as the heavens opened mid-way through the race and brought on a four hour safety car period followed by treacherous racing. After the twenty four hours had elapsed the winning Ferrari finished just fourteen seconds ahead of the second place Toyota, with a record nine cars all on the same final lap.
Cue recent bloggee SFH_Bricks, who has recreated that incredibly tight margin, and the rain that enabled it, in this stunning Le Mans 2024 diorama. Featuring the Ferrari 499P, Toyota GR010, and a huge dose of spray, SFH has captured the rain-soaked Circuit de la Sarthe spectacularly; we can practically feel the wetness from here.
Click the link above to take a look through the spray, and this bonus link to see the vast collection of Le Mans creations in our Archives.
Here at The Lego Car Blog we don’t get out much. Partly this is because we work secretively in the shadows, but mostly it’s because TLCB Elves are banned from many public spaces.
However if you lead more exciting lives than we do, you can get out to the subject of today’s post, the huge LegoWorld 2024 show in Utrecht in the Netherlands.
Over two decades old, LegoWorld is the largest LEGO show on earth, and this year Flickr’s Tamás de Groot is making his exhibitor debut, leading the collaboration behind this epic (and enormous) railway layout.
Beautifully landscaped with trees, embankments, fields and bridges, there are multiple lines, locomotives, and a range of rolling stock travelling though the display, and you can see the whole thing (plus much more besides) at the LegoWorld 2024 show for the remainder of this month.
If like us you’re unable to make it to LegoWorld 2024 in person, head to Tamás de Groot’s Flickr album of the same name to see his fantastic display, or click here to take a look at a round-up from 2023.
Russia, or the Soviet Union before it, are the world’s most prolific maker of military helicopters. Tens of thousands of MiL helicopters have been built since the first design way back in the late 1940s, and are operated by dozens of nations the world over. Including a few you might not expect.
Cue Flickr’s Francis Bibeau, here making their TLCB debut, and these two incredible brick-built replicas of Russia’s finest rotary-wing aircraft.
The first (above) is a Mil Mi-17V-5, as leased by the Canadian military for extraction duties in Afghanistan, whilst the second (below) is a Polish Air Force Mil Mi-8T, the world’s most numerous military helicopter, depicted here on a fast-roping training exercise.
Wonderfully realistic, Francis’ models display forensic attention to detail, clever construction, and deploy custom mini-figures to great effect to bring the scenes to life.
There’s much more to see of each MIL helicopter diorama at Francis’ ‘Bird’ album, and you can hover under rotating Russian wings via the link above.
Sally, you’re a real swell gal [combs hair]. I don’t got no money for a ring yet, but I’m gonna [combs hair].
Every ’50s date seemed to take place in a diner like this. Which is a whole lot better than whatever the 2020’s equivalent is (swiping right and Netflix probably).
Previous bloggee SFH_Bricks takes us back to the era of slicked hair, poodle skirts and jukeboxes, with this fabulous ’50s diner diorama. An array of classic American metal is on display in the parking lot (many of which have appeared on these pages), and you can join Sally, her date, and a host of other old-timey mini-figures at the diner via the link to Flickr above.
Today’s diorama above is an all-too-familiar scene from current news. A helicopter hovers above, a self-propelled gun lurks below, a rocket-launcher fires from behind a tank-defence, whilst power lines, crops, and a humble home remind us of the daily life upended by the arrival of war. Yet this scene isn’t borne of a maniacal Russian President intent on restoring the Soviet Union, but rather a glimpse into a possible near future, wherein Russia has divided and is fighting itself. Flickr’s PelLego has published this fictional conflict in collaboration with several other builders, and you can take a look into their world-that-might-be via the link above.
Slightly less Russian military hardware will be unleashed on Ukraine of late, what with the latter’s decision to bring the conflict of Russia’s warmongering president to his own soil.
At least two Russian bridges, used to transport weaponry amongst other things, have been destroyed by Ukraine in recent weeks, making the scene above a little less common than it was a fortnight ago.
Said scene comes from previous bloggee Nathan Hake, whose MAZ-537 and gorgeous bridge-based diorama was built for a recent Lego show.
Fantastic attention to detail, presentation, and construction techniques are evident in abundance, with the MAZ packed with working functionality too, featuring remote control all-wheel-drive, steering, and trailer hitch lock, whilst the trailer also includes motorised legs and ramps.
There’s more to see at Nathan’s photostream and you can head to a bridge somewhere in Eastern Europe via the link above.
Bats in water aren’t at the top of many menus. This is because a) how many other meats do you have to reject before ending up at bat?, and b) the aforementioned dish may have paralysed the world for two years. Thanks China.
Anyway, today we do have a bat in water, courtesy of ABrickDreamer‘s diorama depicting the moment The Dark Knight launched the Tumbler through a waterfall in 2005’s ‘Batman Begins’.
There’s more of Brick’s Batmobile to see on Flickr; click the link above to take a look and maybe start a global pandemic.
This TLCB Writer can think of little more terrifying in the Second World War than being part of an Atlantic Convoy, traversing the frigid waters all the while knowing that death lurked beneath at any moment. Little more that is, other than being on the aforementioned submerged death itself.
Nazi Germany built around 1,100 U-Boats during World War 2, of which almost 800 – or 2/3 of the fleet – were sunk.
This superb diorama of one of those 1,100 ships, depicted here breaking the waves of a choppy Atlantic, is the work of Ralph Savelsberg, who has captured not just the U-Boat but also the ocean in which it operates in spectacular realism.
Built as part of a display for the Brickfair Virginia show, there’s more to see of Ralph’s beautifully presented model at his ‘U-Boot Diorama’ album, and you can head out onto the waters of World War 2 via the link above.
The year is 1999, ‘The Matrix’ is an international phenomenon, Y2K is terrifying the computer illiterate, ‘Star Wars’ has been rebooted (for the first time), and Santana’s ‘Smooth‘ is doing its best to counteract ‘I’m Blue (Da ba Dee)‘ and ‘Flat Beat‘. It was also the year that LEGO – terrified that children only wanted to play computer games rather than with bricks – launched… a computer game.
Available on Playstation, N64, PC, and Gameboy, ‘LEGO Racers’ took the much-loved kart-racing formula pioneered by Mario Kart, and Legofied it. Weapons crates became floating bricks, karts could be rebuilt and customised, and tracks ventured throughout the LEGO universe, visiting such themes as Pirates, Ice Planet, and Adventurers.
It’s the latter we have here today, courtesy of TLCB debutant Liwnik, and his fabulous ‘Desert Adventure Dragway’ diorama. An enormous build, Liwnik’s recreation of the Racers track includes floating brick power-ups, tunnels, weapons, and of course the appropriately rubbish Racers Karts (it was the late ’90s).
A huge gallery of imagery is available to view via Bricksafe, plus you can also check out Liwnik’s photostream on Flickr. Head back to 1999 to fire a cannon ball at an island chief via the links above, and you can click here to either relive your childhood, or experience someone else’s!
It’s been a while without any cars here at The Lego ‘Car’ Blog, so today we’re on to trains. But we like trains. Particularly when they’re as beautifully built and presented as this one.
This huge diorama of a tiny train was constructed by builder Evancelt for the ‘2024 Rocky Mountain Train Show’ in Denver, and a more apt creation it’s hard to think of.
Travelling between two mountain tunnels by way of some cunningly concealed magnets that move under the tracks, Evancelt’s little steam train is a wonderful example of shrinking the scale to expand the detail.
From the micro-scale pick-up truck, fences and trees, to the galleon hidden in the cloud, there’s so much to see, and you can do just that at both Flickr and Eurobricks, where you can also find a video of the train in motion.
Click on the links above to take the tiniest little train journey.