Tag Archives: Japan

From London to Tokyo

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In the 2010’s the Japanese Government issued a tender for a new ‘universal design’ taxi for the 2020s. Replacing the disability-unfriendly sedans, the new taxi had to be lower emission, higher accessibility, and meet strict exterior dimension rules. It also had to “evoke the same sense of recognition as the iconic London black cab“.

The winning design came from Toyota, who paired their 1.5 litre hybrid system to a design that looked… almost exactly like a London black cab. Imitation… flattery… and all that.

This excellent recreation of the Toyota JPN Taxi comes from previous bloggee and TLCB Master MOCer Ralph Savelsberg, who has replicated the cab now plying the streets of Japanese cities superbly in Miniland scale. Three conventionally hinged doors, one sliding door, an opening hood, and an opening tailgate all feature, and you can click here to catch a ride across Tokyo at Ralph’s photostream.

GRRRRREAT!

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It might sound like an abbreviation of Tony the Tiger’s catchphrase, but we’re so excited about the ‘Toyota’ GR GT. A front-mid-engined, twin-turbo-charged V8 built to go GT3 racing, it’s the antidote to whatever 1,500bhp three-ton Chinese electric monstrosity has been launched this week.

It’s also no longer a Toyota, with the GR (Gazoo Racing) brand now its own entity alongside Toyota, Lexus, and Daihatsu. Which also explains why Toyota’s Le Mans Hypercars curiously didn’t wear ‘GR’ liveries when they took victory at this year’s Le Mans 24 Hours, because soon both Toyota and GR will be at Le Mans.

GR GT sales are planned from next year, but until then we have this spectacular brick-built replica to keep us happy. It’s the work of previous bloggee Mihail Rakovskiy who has captured the real car brilliantly. There are opening doors, hood and trunk, a highly detailed twin-turbo V8 engine, a beautifully recreated interior, and even a lifelike chassis and running gear underneath.

It’s a superb homage to probably the most exciting car of 2027, and you can take a closer look via Mihail’s ‘Toyota GT GR’ album on Flickr. Click the link above to go ‘Grrr!’.

Special-K

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Kei trucks are not renowned for their performance. Smallness yes. Speed no. But what if you fitted a twin-turbo engine in the entirety of the bed?… Well Flickr’s Sergio Batista has answered that question with his mad kei truck, which imagines what a Suzuki Carry would look like if it were built for Time Attack. With choice parts and the livery from the LEGO 77258 F1 Academy Car set it certainly looks the business, and you can drift through the narrow streets of Tokyo via the link above.

Going Vegan

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Today The Lego Car Blog is going vegan! Yes we’re swapping pork for tofu, thanks to TLCB Master MOCer Firas Abu-Jaber and this tremendous Toyota AE86 Sprinter Trueno, built only from the parts of the official LEGO 10295 Porsche 911 set.

Capturing the icon from ‘Initial D’ driven by tofu delivery driver Takumi Fujiwara, Firas’ 10295 alternate includes an opening hood, hatch and doors, working steering, pop-up headlights, plus a beautifully detailed engine and interior.

Firas has also added some custom replica ‘Initial D’ decals – the only part not coming from the donor Porsche, and so good is the result you’d be hard pushed to know it’s not meat. Er, we mean an alternate.

Superbly photographed and presented, there’s lots more of the model to see at Firas’ ‘Toyota AE86’ album on Flickr; take a look via the link above and perhaps swap pork for tofu yourself.

We’re off to go and eat some ribs.

Just the Tip

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The Mazda RX-8 was a triumph when new. With an astonishing buttery-smooth rotary engine displacing just 1.3 litres yet making 240bhp, bizarre rear suicide doors, seating for four, and styling – to quote one famous Top Gear host – “busier than the Pope’s hat”, there was nothing else like it.

And then they got old, and that amazing engine… failed. A lot. Even well maintained RX-8s suffered from terrifying oil consumption and rotor tip wear leading to engine failure, but the poorly maintained ones (as older sports cars often are) died alarmingly quickly.

Values tanked, and now one of the most interesting cars of the ‘00s is worth absolutely nothing at all.

But we like weird, flawed, unreliable cars here at TLCB, and so we love today’s model; this fantastic Model Team Mazda RX-8 from previous bloggee Mihail Rakovskiy. Featuring a highly detailed interior, realistic drivetrain, a remarkably replicated exterior, and a working rotary engine, Mihail has captured Mazda’s mad ‘00s creation beautifully in Lego form.

Excellent presentation matches the build, and there’s lots more of the model to see at Mihail’s ‘Mazda RX-8’ album on Flickr. Take a tip from us and check it out via the link above.

Special K

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TLCB is the sort of place where we like an improbably large engine attached to something wildly inappropriate. And there’s few vehicles more inappropriate for massive power than a Japanese Kei truck.

Limited to 3.4m in length and engines no larger than 660cc, Kei trucks are really very small indeed. But that hasn’t stopped newcomer Fukku Guen from fitting his with an enormous bed-mounted engine plus a pair of nitrous tanks.

We expect the handling – not to mention the carrying capacity – may be slightly compromised, but it more than makes up for that with fantastic silliness.

There’s more of Fukku’s modified Kei truck to see on Flickr, and you can take a look at his photostream via the link!

GT Four

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Rumor has it that Toyota is in the final development phase of a new Celica, over two decades after the nameplate was last used. Seven generations of Celica were produced before the model’s demise, with our favourite being this one; the fabulous early-‘90s fifth gen.

Fitted with pop-up headlights and available with a turbocharged all-wheel-drive powertrain, the fifth gen Celica brought Toyota’s championship-winning World Rally Car to the road, and there was little cooler than that.

This brilliant brick-built replica of the Celica GT-Four was discovered by one of our Elves on Flickr, and comes from previous bloggee SP_LINEUP. With phenomenal attention to detail, ingenious building techniques, and accurate 3D-printed wheels, SP’s Celica is fantastically life-like, and you can even create it for yourself. Find out more at SP’s photostream via the link.

Pink Missile

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‘Pink Missile’ can refer to recent Iranian military propaganda, what this TLCB Writer calls his, um… nevermind, or – in this case – a battered twin-turbocharged Nissan 240SX drift pig.

Built by Sergio Batista, this Speed Champions scale drift weapon includes pop-up lights, a roll-cage and bucket seats, mis-matched body panels, and a highly detailed twin-turbo engine that definitely wouldn’t fit under the missing hood.

There’s more to see at both Flickr and Eurobricks and you slide in the pink via the links!

Cyberpunk Skyline

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Things TLCB doesn’t understand; Star Trek. Pugs. Melon as a starter. Trap music. Marvel. Cyberpunk.

Which means we’re rather out of our depth here with these two cyberpunk Nissan Skylines of different vintages, and thus our only commentary is ‘don’t they look cool!’.

Flickr’s Sergio Batista owns the cyberpunk pairing and you can take a closer look at each neon Nissan at his photostream via the link above. And seriously, how is melon as a starter acceptable?

A V10 Tip

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TLCB top tip; want a rear-wheel-drive Japanese V10-engined icon but can’t afford a Lexus LFA? Get yourself a 1970s Isuzu truck!

Yes the Isuzu V10ss had a V10 engine under the curvy cab, providing the power for all sorts of heavy duty applications across Asia.


This spectacular replica of the classic Japanese truck comes from previous bloggee TsungNing Lee, who has recreated the V10ss beautifully.

There’s working steering, a functional tipper, a tilting cab, and of course a brick-built V10 engine. Take our tip and visit Tsung’s ‘Isuzu V10ss Truck’ album for more stunning imagery.

Z Tune

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This might look that Nissan Skyline GT-R (R34), but it’s actually way more special.

Fitted with a carbon fibre bodywork and a 500bhp engine by Nissan’s own NISMO motorsport arm to celebrate their 20th anniversary in 2005, just 19 NISMO Z Tune GT-Rs were built, all in silver. Which is why we have a blue one…

Still, it does look tremendous, coming from previous bloggee SP_LINEUP, who has recreated the rarest of all the R34 GT-Rs brilliantly in brick.

You can take a closer look at SP’s photostream, where the GT-R NISMO Z Tune and many more models besides are available to view via the link above.

Peak Nineties Nissan

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Japanese performance cars, and Nissan in particular, used to be on top of the world. With all-wheel-drive, all-wheel-steering, and a twin-turbocharged inline-6 engine, the ‘R32’ generation Nissan GT-R dominated early-’90s Class A racing.

Around 50,000 road-going examples were produced alongside the racing counterparts, with the GT-R quickly becoming one of the cars of Japan’s golden performance era.

This phenomenal brick-built replica comes from Eurobricks’ NoEXIST, who has not only replicated the R32 GT-R’s exterior wonderfully via a blend of Technic and System parts, he’s included the car’s defining all-wheel-drive, all-wheel-steering, and twin-turbocharged inline-6 engine, plus all-wheel independent suspension, working steering, and opening doors, hood and trunk.

Building instructions and a remote controlled version are both available, and there’s more of this amazing Nissan GT-R recreation to see at the Eurobricks forum, where full build details, links, and a video of the RC version can also be found, with the complete image gallery available at Bricksafe. Click the links above and jump back to peak ’90s Nissan.

Ridge Racers

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These days car manufacturers are delighted to work with video games makers. What you drive virtually as a kid may one day influence what you decide to drive for real. But back in the ’90s video game licensing was still rather hit-and-miss, which meant there was a glorious variety of eccentrically-named vehicles available that were inspired by – or downright copies of – real world cars.

Namco’s ‘Ridge Racer’ was one such title that eschewed licensing in favour of some tremendous own-brewed vehicles, including the ‘Assoluto Bisonte’, ‘Terrazi Troop’, ‘Age Solo Dirigient’, and – our favourite – the ‘Lizard Detector’.

Flickr’s Studworks takes us straight back to racing circa-1998 with his brilliant Speed Champions homage to the cars of ‘Ridge Racer Type 4’, complete with superb replica liveries printed by Brickstickershop.

Building instructions and access to the stickers are available, and you can fire up your PS1 to take the ‘Lizard Detector’ up ‘Wonderhill’ via Studworks’ ‘Ridge Racer Type 4 Cars’ album here!

Enter the Dragon

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Is Godzilla a lizard? Probably. We’re not up to speed on Japanese myths. But we do know that a lizard with wings is a dragon. Unless it’s a wyvern. Which actually Godzilla would be if it did have wings. And then the title wouldn’t work. We digress, this is a Nissan GT-R (R35) – a car nicknamed ‘Godzilla’ – and this one has wings.

They’re fitted – along with some marvellous 3D-printed Advan wheels – by builtbydavedesigns, who’s taken inspiration from Nismo’s wild GT-R GT3 racers. Opening doors, a detailed interior, and a superbly replicated engine bay also feature, and you can take a closer look at Dave’s beautifully presented dragon at his Flickr album via the link above.

My Other Car’s a Bronco

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By American standards Ford’s new Bronco isn’t particularly large. But as this writer is not American, it still looks pretty massive. Which means this is much more to his liking, Suzuki’s diminutive Samurai.

Constructed only from the parts found within the LEGO Technic 42213 Ford Bronco set, damjan97PL / damianPLE shrinks the fat Ford into a rather smaller off-road alternative, complete with opening doors and hood, working steering and suspension, and a three-cylinder engine.

There’s more to see at both Eurobricks and Bricksafe, and you can put your Bronco on a B-Model diet via the links above.