Tag Archives: Fire Truck

Aerial Platform

This is a Volvo FM Angloco Aerial Platform, or ‘massive fire truck’ to most of us. Based on the real aerial platforms in service in the UK, this terrific Technic example comes from MCD of Eurobricks, who has not only recreated the exterior and British livery beautifully, his model works too, thanks to a motorised main boom, mechanical support legs, working steering, and a suite of Game of Bricks LED lights.

There’s more to see at the Eurobricks forum, where MCD has published his Volvo Aerial Platform alongside a more conventional Scania P280 fire truck also outfitted by Angloco, and you can call the fire brigade via the link above.

Fabulous Fire Engine

This fabulous vintage fire truck was discovered by one of our Elves on Flickr today, and it cunningly uses a vintage (in LEGO terms) single-piece Fabuland chassis that is absolutely perfect for the job. A rolled hose, ‘brass’ grab rails, and a bench seat recreate the details of the time, and you can head back a hundred years courtesy of a forty-five year-old piece and 1saac W via the link above.

Survive the Fire

Ford’s Transit was an emphatic success when it launched in the 1960s. By the late ’70s almost every van on British and European roads was a Transit, with vans called ‘Transits’ regardless of their actual make and model.

But the Transit was also disposable. Built as a tool, rarely looked after, and thrown away afterwards, the attrition of the Transit was almost total. Almost.

In 1960s-70s Germany, the Transit Mk.1 was a popular fire response vehicle, carrying ladders on the roof, pumping equipment inside, and with a siren and an upturned plant-pot blue light mounted above the cab.

Unlike their invariably white workhorse brethren, Transits in the fire service were well looked after, meticulously maintained, and travelled relatively low mileage. They were also kept for decades, and thus by the time they retired they were the only surviving examples of the Mk1 left. Which means that today if you see a Ford Transit Mk1 in Germany, it’ll probably be red, and once have carried ladders on the roof.

Cue Versteinert‘s lovely 7-wide German fire service Ford Transit Mk1, constructed following his more humdrum version that appeared here last month. Beautiful attention to detail matches the presentation, and there’s more to see of his fantastic fire service Ford at his photostream.

Click the first link in the text above for one of the few Transit Mk1 survivors, or the second for one that almost certainly didn’t.

Giraffes and Rabbits

The online Lego Community is a Russian doll-like in its niche-within-a-niche disposition. One such rabbit-hole is found deep within the emergency services community (yes, there is one), where an enthusiastic band of builders create entire fictional fire departments, complete with fleets of fire-fighting apparatus.

We know this because when we looked up this ‘Evee FFLT-2 “Giraffe” fire ladder truck’ by Flickr’s Jordan Parmegiani, all we found was a company selling electric scooters.

Thus this particular fire truck is not a real one, but it is so detailed it may as well be. Opening hatches, a fully-fitted interior, a rotating and elevating ladder, deployable stabilisers, and an array of fire-fighting equipment have all been constructed in brick form, with the truck itself also beautifully life-like despite being a work of fiction.

There’s lots more of Jordan’s creation to see at his photostream, and you can head down the fire-fighting rabbit-hole to see more of a giraffe via the link above.

Get the Fire Brigade*

Here at The Lego Car Blog we can be a bit guilty of leaning towards creations with twelve motors, fifteen sets of LEDs, and six programmable bluetooth controllers. Because we are (and this will no doubt come as a surprise to readers of a niche website about Lego cars), nerds at heart. Not Brothers Brick levels of nerdiness, but still.

Creations featuring the aforementioned suite of electronics are often amazing in their operation (there’s one before this post and there’ll be another after it too), but they’re also out of reach for many Lego fans due to the cost of the components within them.

Thus today we’re replacing resources with intellect, thanks to this superb fire truck by Flickr’s Jeroen Ottens.

Featuring just a single Powered-Up motor, Jeroen’s fire truck can rotate, raise, and extend its ladder, all of which can be controlled independently, plus deploy four stabiliser legs too. An ingenious gearbox – activated mechanically by levers mounted on the sides and rear of the truck – takes the motorised power to where it’s needed, whilst the model also features mechanical steering (front and rear), as well as opening doors and hatches.

It’s a brilliant example of Technic engineering ingenuity, and you can take a look at how Jeroen has done all this with just one motor at his photostream. Click the link above to get the fire brigade.

*Today’s wonderful title song, featuring equally wonderful moustaches.

Forest Fire

Following Master MOCer Thirdwigg’s recent appearance here with his superb Mercedes-Benz Unimog U4000, he recently uploaded a few other variants, which is fitting as the Unimog is available in a bewildering choice of applications, each of which can be equipped with an even wider array of attachments, tools and machinery.

This one is a U5000 off-road fire truck, constructed via an excellent combination of Model Team and Technic techniques, and features a tilting cab, piston engine, working steering and suspension, and a fully equipped four door cabin with fire-fighting equipment behind.

Building instructions are available and there’s much more to see at Thirdwigg’s photostream, plus you can find out how he builds his amazing models such as this one at his Master MOCers page via the link above.

NEE NAW!

It’s been quiet. Too quiet…

Not because TLCB Elves were plotting anything, although that is a perennial concern, but because they hadn’t found anything blogworthy in ages. Fortunately the quiet was shattered today by a multitude of Elves all screaming ‘NEE NAW!!’ as loud as they could.

We have necomer lukarepinc, here making their TLCB debut, to thank for ending the drought, with not one, nor two, but a whole fleet of superb Model Team emergency vehicles.

Uploaded simultaneously to Flickr, these include a Slovenian Volkswagen ambulance (pictured above), a NYPD Bell 429 helicopter, ERV-1, and – in the absence of a title or description – a Giant Fire Truck (all pictured below).

Each is a fantastic brick-built recreation of its real-world counterpart and there’s more to see of all of the creations featured here, plus a lot more besides, at lukarepinc’s photostream. Switch on your siren via the link above!

Vintage Pump Rules

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.

Camp Fire

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.

Fireman Gaz

Classic British children’s TV show Fireman Sam will always have a special place in our hearts, despite the fact that we don’t remember Sam actually putting out many fires (they’re quite perilous for a show aimed at the under sixes), and the fact that fire’man’ is probably a bit old hat these days.

Still, we’re sure there are plenty of firewomen called Sam, and plenty of firefighters called other things too, such as Gaz. Although that’s a bit colloquial for the title of a kid’s show.

Anyway, it is the title of this post because this is a GAZ, although it’s short for ‘Gorkovsky Avtomobilny Zavod’ rather than ‘Garry’. Built by Danifill of Eurobricks this GAZ 3307 fire truck features working suspension, twin L Motor drive, Servo steering, BuWizz control, LED lights, and opening everything, and there’s more to see at the discussion forum via the link above.

Ladder 4

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.

The Other M3

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.

Time for Trumpton

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!

Wood You Believe It!

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!

MAZter Firefighter

TLCB Elves are all making ‘NEE-NAW’ noises today, which isn’t annoying at all. The cause is this, ilya_laushkin‘s incredible MAZ-7313-AA60 8×8 airport fire truck. Catchily-named it isn’t, but masterfully-engineered it is, with eight-wheel-drive, four-wheel-steering, fully independent suspension (via twenty-six shock absorbers!), LED lighting, and bluetooth remote control courtesy of two SBricks. There’s much more of ilya’s amazing MAZ-7313 to see on Flickr, including some shots alongside the real thing. Click the link above to make the jump.