Hong Kong. Vibrant, busy, and one of the most densely-populated territories on the world, with over seven million people squeezed into just 425 square miles.
This means the buildings are tall and the streets are packed, as captured beautifully by Yama Jason in this wonderful street scene.
Depicting Argyle Street in Kowloon – named after a British merchant ship that used to sail from the island – Yama’s diorama is bursting with life, from the fire truck and cars on the road to the dozens of mini-figures crowding the pavements.
Fantastic details and clever building techniques appear everywhere you look, and you can join the bustle of mini-figure Hong Kong at Yama’s photostream via the link above.
It’s one minute past midnight here at TLCB Towers, and this writer – for complicated home/partner-based reasons – is sleeping in the office. Or trying too.
An eerie whiring noise awoke said domestic refugee, which was followed by the unmistakable sounds of Elven rage.
Sigh. At least sorting out whatever shenanigans were going on would break the monotony of failing to sleep upright in a wheelie chair.
It turns out the shenanigans were rather unusual; an Elf, perched high up a Technic ladder, was squirting water down upon its previously-slumbering colleagues, much to their wrath.
The cause of the commotion was just as unexpected; a glorious fully remote controlled vintage fire truck, complete with a working water pump.
Flickr’s Nikolaus Löwe (aka Mr_Kleinstein) is the builder behind it, and not only does his vintage fire truck really pump water, there’s remote control drive and steering, motorised support legs, and an enormous elevating, rotating and extending ladder, which the previously mentioned Elf had deployed rather cunningly to soak its unsuspecting brethren.
Come to think of it, perhaps this TLCB writer should use a big ladder to get to the bedro… No, no… that’d probably make things worse.
You can check out more of Nikolaus’ beautiful build at his ‘Fire Ladder Truck’ album on Flickr, whilst this writer ponders his current predicament.
It’d been a peaceful week here at TLCB Towers. Sure there was an Elf fight to break up after one of them found an almost empty (but evidently still delicious) glue stick in the bin, but otherwise creations have been found, meal tokens have been awarded, and no-one has been squashed. Until today.
This is a GAZ 66 fire truck, an all-wheel-drive Soviet water tank on wheels that is still used in Russia today. Well, this one isn’t, being rather smaller, but it’s just as impressive as the real thing.
Built by Danifill of Eurobricks, this fully RC Technic recreation of the Soviet-era fire truck proved to be a throughly capably Elf-smushing machine.
Lured in by the functioning flashing blue lights and the fact that, well – it’s a fire engine, the Elf at the controls drew in a crowd of Elven admirers, before promptly squashing them thanks to the GAZ’s genuinely surprising turn of speed.
An RC Buggy Motor, Servo steering, a BuWizz bluetooth battery, live-axle suspension, and four-wheel-drive deliver equip Danifill’s creation with impressive Elf-smushing performance, whilst a tilting cab, V8 engine, opening and locking doors, and detailed fire apparatus add nothing to that, but do look most excellent.
There’s lots more of Danifill’s remote control Technic GAZ 66 Fire Truck to see at the Eurobricks discussion forum, including further imagery and a link to a video of the model in action, plus you can see one of the builder’s earlier fire engines to feature here by clicking this bonus link.
Take a look via the links above whilst we apply some Elven first aid…
This neat FDNY fire truck was found by one of our Elves on Flickr today. It comes from previous bloggee sponki25, and features rather excellent detailing and numbering made from duct tape! Head to Flickr to see more of Ladder 4, duct tape and all.
This is not a fast, irritatingly driven yet excellent German sports saloon, but it is an M3. Constructed by Spain’s awesome indigenous heavy duty truck maker Uro, the M3 is the military version of their F3 civilian truck, deployed by Spain’s ‘Military Emergencies Unit’ (UME) in disaster relief within the country and abroad. Which makes it probably the very opposite of its BMW namesake in terms of worthiness.
This superb Technic replica of the Uro M3 in complete UME specification comes from corujoxx of Eurobricks, who is using his time in coronavirus lock-down to pay tribute to his country’s frontline workers, such as those manning its Uro M3s.
A working winch and working suspension feature and there’s more to see of his excellent model at the Eurobricks forum – click the link above to take a look.
From a British thing that’s pretty scary to a British thing that’s… definitely not. Sounding like what Donald Trump might call the White House, ‘Trumpton’ was a delightful 1960s stop-motion animation set in fictional English town, whose most recognisable feature was perhaps their fire brigade, formed of Pugh, Pugh, Barney McGrew, Cuthbert, Dibble and Grub.
We’re not sure why the twins Pugh and Pugh had the same name, perhaps because they couldn’t be told apart, or why only Barney got a surname, but they were all marvellous nonetheless. This brilliant Lego recreation of Trumpton’s fire brigade is as delightful as the one found in the stop-motion TV series and it comes from Jason Briscoe of Flickr, who has managed to accurately portray the fire station, fire engine, and members of the fire brigade too.
Take a trip into Trumpton courtesy of Jason via the link above!
We’re pretty sure that for some of you reading this your very first car was made out of wood, and looked like this. This marvellous ‘wooden’ fire engine is not wooden at all, and comes from Jens Ohrndorf who has recreated the iconic classic toy beautifully from LEGO pieces. Head out to rescue Mr. Duck, Giraffe, big sister’s Barbie, and whatever other toys are in peril via the link above!
Wildfire is usually a completely natural phenomenon, and actually quite a useful one, allowing trees to spread their seeds and clearing land for regrowth. California’s latest (and tragic) wildfires are not. Sparked – literally – by crappy electrical equipment positioned over tinder-dry forest, thanks to hotter and drier summers, they have spread with ferocious verocity, claiming the lives of Californian citizens, destroying livelihoods, and wiping entire communities off the map. And in response the President is casting stones on Twitter. Yay.
Thankfully there is one constant source of goodness in these tragedies; the amazing California Fire Department, who have risked literally everything to save whomever they are able. This is one of the tools they have available to assist them, the HME Type 3 4×4 Wildland fire engine. This superb Lego recreation of one of CalFire’s wildfire response vehicles comes from previous bloggee sponki25 and it is well worth a closer look. Head into the forest with the heroes of CalFire via the link above.
We were going to make reference to your Mom in this title but we’re better than that. This the New York Fire Department’s Engine 69, and it’s been built beautifully right down to the decals by sponki25/Sven. Sponki’s brilliant replica of the real-world fire truck includes some amazing attention to detail and there’s more to see at both Flickr and MOCpages via the link.
*Today’s (massively over-played) title song. If you end every night with this go and have a good long think about your life choices.
It was getting to the point where we thought our remaining MOCpages-based Elves had starved to death or been forever trapped inside a broken server somewhere. However proving there’s still life in the crumbling ruin yet comes William Henderson, with a very apt rescue vehicle in the form of this beautiful Ford C Series fire truck.
William’s wonderfully detailed Model Team creation includes working steering and rear suspension, opening compartments and lockers, a realistic engine underneath the tilting cab, and superb attention to detail throughout a wealth of emergency equipment.
There are lots more images of William’s brilliant Ford C Series to see at his MOCpage (if MOCpages is actually working of course). Take a look via the link above whilst we reward a very hungry Elf.
Tokyo’s 14 million inhabitants live in easily one of the coolest cities in the world. But it’s not without risks; such as earthquakes, Godzilla attack, and common fire.
Tokyo’s incredible population density, congested streets, and narrow roadways mean that to combat the effects of the above American or even European-sized fire trucks would be much too large. Toyko’s fire department therefore use a range of smaller vehicles that are better able to navigate the city (with even converted kei cars deployed in some districts), such as this Isuzu pumper.
This superbly detailed recreation of a common Japanese fire truck comes from Flickr’s Ralph Savelsberg (aka Mad Physicist), and follows his excellent Toyota HiMedic ambulance that appeared here a few weeks ago.
With accurate fire fighting apparatus (including a hand-drawn cart used for Tokyo’s narrowest alleyways), opening doors and hatches, and even a pair of brick-built fire-fighters there’s plenty more to see – click here to check out all the imagery via Ralph’s photostream.
The Lego Car Blog Elves are being particularly annoying today, thanks to one of their number finding this. It’s a stunningly accurate replica of a Scania P410 Aerial Platform fire truck, and it’s beautifully detailed. Flickr’s Robson M built this Scania as a comission-piece and has used some excellent custom decals to further enhance his model’s realism.
You can see more of Robson’s Scania P410 at his photostream, where you can also see the model with the aerial platform in use and find a link to the real truck on which this creation is based. Head over via the link above, whilst we dig out Mr. Airhorn and put a stop to some considerable Elven ‘NEE-NAW’ing with warning siren of our own.
The Lego Car Blog Elves like fire trucks. An Elven discovery of this (admittedly superb) Seagrave Marauder II with Aerialscope ladder-boom by Flickr’s sponki25 means we now have every Elf in TLCB Towers running around making ‘NEE-NAW!’ noises. Thanks sponki.
It is a class build though, being a perfect mini-figure scale replica of FDNY’s actual Ladder 13 truck, complete with custom reflective stickers, some very accurate-looking mini-figure fire-fighters, and of course an enormous rotating Aerialscope boom…
…which – just like your Dad watching Desperate Housewives – extends quite a long way. Clever techniques and ingenious parts usage is in abundance throughout the build and there’s more to see over at sponki25’s photostream. Click the link above to dial 9-1-1, whilst we go and find some headache relief pills and Mr. Airhorn…
Chibiformers. Another weird internet-based trend of which we know absolutely nothing. Still, despite our ineptitude when it comes to any nerdy fad, we do rather like these two neat ‘Chibi’ Transformers from TLCB debutant Hoyin Lau. Each model cleverly transforms between truck and robot mode, and there’s more to see of each build in both modes at Hoyin’s photostream via the link in the text above.
*Yes, we’re still at the musical puns for blog post titles. This one was a bit of a stretch…
You don’t need ten thousand bricks to appear here at The Lego Car Blog. Around sixty will do. At least that’s all Flickr’s František Hajdekr needed to build this lovely Tatra fire truck. See more via the link above.