Ford and Chevy people seem – as is so often the way – so be very separate communities. Which is a shame, because without the unnecessary tribalism, both products can be appreciated together.
Cue TLCB Master MOCer Firas Abu-Jaber, who has constructed this excellent Ford Mustang Shleby GT500 from only the parts found within the official LEGO 10304 Chevrolet Camaro Z28 set. Plus a set of more appropriate wheels in the image above.
Converting a Camaro into a Mustang may be considered sacrilege by certain quarters of the Chevrolet community, but fear not, Firas turned the 10265 Ford Mustang set into a Dodge Charger in the past too. See, there’s no bias here!
There’s more to see of Firas’ Camaro-based-Mustang B-Model at his ‘10304 Shelby GT500’ album on Flickr, and you can check out his previously-blogged Mustang-turned-Charger via the link in the text above if you’d rather see a Mustang taken apart than put together.
It’s that time of year again! Yup, this year’s select group of Eleven ‘volunteers’ – fired over The LEGO Company’s perimeter wall by way of the office catapult – have started to return, and today we can share with you the first batch of their finds!
So here they are, the brand new for 2022 LEGO Technic sets (Part 1)…
42132 Chopper
We start at the smaller end of the Technic range with this, the rather lovely looking 42123 Chopper. Aimed at ages 7+ and with just 163 pieces, 42123 should make for an excellent pocket-money set, and we think it’s absolutely perfect.
In recent times many smaller Technic sets have been woefully lacking any Technicness whatsoever, but not 42123, which features steering, chain drive, and a miniature piston engine. It also looks great and there’s a B-Model too. Perhaps one of the best Technic starter sets in years.
42134 Monster Jam Megalodon
Aaaand cue the Pull-Backs, which have historically been utter garbage. However last years’ sets brought two Monster Jam licensed monster trucks to bedroom floors, and we thought they were rather good. They still had zero Technic functionality, but if you’re going to jump a Technic set over a book-based ramp it might as well be a monster truck.
Continuing the success of the 2021 Pull-Backs, LEGO are bringing another pair of Monster Jam trucks to the Technic line-up for 2022, the first being 42134 Megalodon. A good representation of the real truck, 42134 resembles a giant shark with wheels, and what’s not to like about that? 260 pieces, colourful stickers, a reasonable B-Model, and a pocket-money friendly price are all expected.
42135 El Toro Loco
El Toro Loco (the crazy bull) is 2022’s second Pull-Back, and whilst perhaps not quite as accurate to the real Monster Jam Truck as 42134, it still looks pretty good. And it’ll no doubt jump over a line of toy cars beautifully.
247 pieces, lots of stickerage, and a B-Model too make the continuing Monster Jam line of Pull-Backs the best of the genre by some margin. They may not be particularly Technicy, but you can’t fire any of the other LEGO sets into a group of unsuspecting Elves in quite the same way, and for that alone there’s merit.
42137 Formula E Porsche 99X Electric
Ah, this is awkward. After praising the Monster Jam monster trucks as the best Pull-Back sets, here’s er… another, better, Pull-Back set. Or is it?
The 42137 Formula E Porsche 99X is certainly a bigger, more complex set. With 422 pieces and aimed at ages 9+, the building experience will be more in-keeping with proper Technic sets, and it does looks fairly accurate – no doubt helped by the real-world racing sponsorship decals.
But should a 422-piece Technic set do nothing beyond being a Pull-Back? OK, there is a mechanism to release said motor once it’s been wound, but that’s it. No steering, no suspension, and – albeit realistically as this is a Formula E racer – no engine either.
What 42137 does offer is LEGO’s first attempt at augmented reality, in which the model can appear to be somewhere it’s not courtesy of an app.
Said app might be really cool in practice, but if the set using it has no other features, is it a Technic set at all? It’s a thumbs down from us.
42138 Ford Mustang Shelby GT500
Wait, what? Another one? LEGO must be really pleased with their new augmented reality feature…
The final set in Part 1 of our 2022 Technic preview is yet another Pull-Back, and another Ford Mustang, following the Speed Champions and Creator sets from past years.
This time it’s the latest Shelby GT500 variant that gets reborn in LEGO form, and it does look rather epic, particularly in lime green with racing stripes (although the sticker rear lights are rather lazy).
What’s considerably less epic is the feature-count, which – like the 42137 Formula E Porsche 99X – is limited to one; a pull-back motor with a mechanical release.
The augmented reality app may well be awesome, but a near 550-piece Technic set with just one working feature seems very weak to us. Perhaps we’re just getting old.
So there you have it, Part 1 of the 2022 LEGO Technic line-up, a new augmented reality app, and all but one set being a Pull-Back. We’ll take that little chopper motorcycle…
Nope, we haven’t finally relented and decided to jump on the Black Friday bandwagon, but nevertheless if you’re an owner of the excellent looking 10265 Creator Ford Mustang set then you could own this 2020 Mustang GT500 for free (just not at the same time).
TLCB Master MOCer Firas Abu-Jaber has created this superb looking GT500 from the parts only found within the 10265 set, and what’s more he’s working on instructions so that you can build it for yourself too.
In the meantime you can check out all of the images of Firas’ 10265 B-Model on Flickr via the link above, you can learn how Firas creates amazing models such as this one via his Master MOCers interview at TLCB, and you can find out why Mustang owners need at least one other back-up car by clicking here…
If there’s a car more likely to go sideways through a bus stop, we’re yet to find it. The morons that drive Ford Mustangs aren’t exactly the fault of the car though, so let’s enjoy it for what it is; an over-powered, under-suspended bargain of power per dollar. This Model Team Mustang GT500 comes from Flickr’s Captain Chinchilla, formally Senator Chinchilla but now part of the witness protection programme or something, and is a rather nice homage to the most crashed car in the history of car meets. Head to Flickr via the link above before someone drives it through a crowd.
Ford’s Mustang is one the best examples of model rediscovering its mojo in the car industry. After the woeful Mustang II, and not much better Mustang III, Ford got it right from 2004 and more so since then, even adding independent suspension to the current generation (only 95 years behind Europe, but still…).
The latest Mustang is now sold in Europe too, with modern EcoBoost turbo engines and steering which actually, you know… works. But it wouldn’t be a Mustang without an enormously over-powered version that will inevitably do something like this. Or this. Or this.
Cue the 2020 GT500*, which – with over 700bhp from its 5 litre V8 – has more than enough power to crash through an entire carpark. This glorious homage to Ford’s silliest muscle car is the work of TLCB Master MOCer Firas Abu-Jaber, who has captured the new GT500 beautifully.
There’s opening doors, trunk lid and hood, under which sits a brick-built recreation of the GT500’s enormously unnecessary power-plant. Head over to Firas’ photostream for the complete gallery of images, before someone drives it off the desk in a manner similar to this.
*a) How do American cars time-travel, and b) Why is it not the GT700? Answers in the comments.
Ah Nicolas Cage, the man who literally can’t turn down any film role, no matter how terrible it may be. Ghost Rider, Left Behind, Drive Angry, The Wicker Man, Ghost Rider 2…
But there was a time when Nic made decent movies. This movie car is not from that time, but we suppose it sits somewhere in the middle. Cage’s remake of the car theft action film ‘Gone in 60 Seconds’ was enjoyable enough, and it gave a starring role to a modified 1967 Mustang GT500 named Eleanor, which can only be a good thing.
This is Ralph Savelsberg‘s remake of his own original version of Eleanor from a few years ago, and there’s more to see of his brilliant GT500 build (plus a brick-built Nic Cage) at his photostream via the link above.
Now that we’ve collected some traffic from the seedier corners of the internet, on with the blog! This stunning pair of 6-wide classic Ford Mustangs comes previous bloggee ER0L of Flickr. On the left in a beautiful white & red colour combination is his lovely mid-’60s convertible, whilst on the right in grey & black is a car made famous by the Gone in Sixty Seconds remake – the custom Shelby GT500 ‘Eleanor’. Both cars are superbly built and you can see more of each at ER0L’s photostream via the link above.
It’s a Town kinda day here at TLCB. Well apart from this obviously. This lovely Ford Mustang GT500 is the work of previous bloggee -derjoe-, who has evolved his previous 2014 Mustang design into a stripy Shelby GT500 version. And our Elves love a racing stripe. There’s more to see at the link.
Peteris Sprogis shows us that a tow car doesn’t have to be a boring saloon or SUV with a caravan behind it. His horses get pulled by one of their own, a superbly striped 1967 Ford Mustang GT500. Easy on the gas pedal Peteris…
It’s a supercar double today here at The Lego Car Blog. And this one is really super. Built by Technic legend Sheepo, this Ford Shelby Mustang GT500 is the pinnacle of what can be achieved from LEGO bricks technically. The well-known Lego blogs are often not interested in the technical realism of Lego models. Here though, whilst we may not feature an expertly landscaped castle, we do love to see what Lego can be used to do technically. With Sheepo’s talent and engineering prowess it can be used to do a lot.
This astonishing Shelby Mustang GT500 features the usual Technic supercar requirements (steering, suspension, engine and gearbox) and adds remote control drive via LEGO’s versatile Power Functions system. But Sheepo doesn’t stop there. Not only does his Mustang drive and steer remotely, it features a remotely operated sequential 5+R gearbox with an automatically triggered clutch, and remotely operated disc brakes that can also be engaged from a working pedal in the cabin. If it was any more realistic this car would be for sale in a Ford dealership.
See all of the photos and join in the discussion on Eurobricks, and you can check out the full technical specifications and builder commentary of the GT500 on Sheepo’s website here.
A retired car thief and his crew are required to steal 50 cars in one night to pay a debt. A thin plot for sure, but within it are some very good car chases, lots of mad Nic Cage acting, Angelina Jolie, and this; the Mustang GT500 ‘Eleanor’. Ralph Savelsberg rebuilds the movie legend, complete with Memphis Raines figure, on Flickr, which the Elves successfully ‘boosted’ and brought to TLCB office for us to share. Check it out at Ralph’s photostream while they lay low.
According to his Flickr comments raphy said that this looked better in his mind than it turned out in bricks. We don’t know what Raphy, clearly one of the best TFOL Lego car builders around, had in his mind when building this Mustang, but we think the result is superb. It even convinced The Lego Car Blog Towers that he should earn our ‘Featured TFOL’ accolade.
If there’s a more American car in existence we’re yet to find it. Named after a wild horse, a poisonous snake, the number of horsepower it originally had, and a man, the Ford Mustang Shelby GT500 Super Snake is a bit of a mouthful. But a damn tasty mouthful. Senator Chincilla is the chef behind it.
