Tag Archives: Lego Ideas

Power(ed-Up) is Nothing Without Control(+)

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Yes, we have nerdily butchered the marketing tagline for tyres for today’s title.

Because these are the ‘Universal Vehicle Controls’; part mechanical, part electronic twin joysticks with four degrees of movement, twin triggers, and a dashboard with a working needle, that allow Control+ LEGO sets and creations to be, er… controlled, with real feedback, all built solely from off-the-shelf LEGO pieces. It’s like the Control+ app, BuWizz, or SBrick we’re familiar with on our phone screen, but made physical.

Tobi WanKenobi owns the brain behind this rather interesting idea, and if you think it’s interesting too you can find out more on LEGO Ideas, at the Eurobricks forum here, or take a look at the ‘Universal Vehicle Controls’ in action via the video below.

YouTube Video

Be One of the Good Guys

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It’s Classic Space which – out of all of the space themes – is remembered most fondly by subsequent generations. Perennially smiling, the mini-figures of Classic Space held no weapons, and placed science and knowledge above fear and power.

In contrast, the bullying Spyrius militants – who used violence and weaponry in an attempt to steal what they wanted – were no more than a flash in the pan, fading away as quickly as they arrived and proceeded to smash everything up.

In completely unrelated news there’s a Presidential Inauguration today, which is going ahead despite the arrival of a bunch of bullying militants – who used violence and weaponry in an attempt to steal what they wanted – and proceeded to smash everything up.

We believe in the power of voting for the good guys, and you can do just that at LEGO Ideas, where LEGO are holding a ballot to celebrate their 90th Anniversary, in which you can vote to bring back one of many beloved popular classic themes. And Time Cruisers for some reason.

TLCB’s vote will always go to the good guys, themes of which include Imperial Soldiers, M-Tron, Forestmen, Space Police, and – of course – Classic Space. You can vote for the return of your favourite theme via LEGO Ideas, and you can see more of the excellent Classic Space ‘Exo-Planet Surveyor’ by Flickr’s Pascal that’s featured in this post by clicking here.

Design an Iconic Ferrari Poster! | Competition

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One of LEGO’s greatest strengths is their box art, which often depicts the set inside in a beautiful artistic recreation of a real-world setting (take a look at the boxes above to see what we mean). However LEGO chose to use minimalistic all-black packaging for their new 42125 Technic Ferrari 488 GTE set, eschewing the usual artwork for a classy, more adult-focussed design.

However, that’s not to say 42125 wouldn’t look great in front of a more dynamic background, and that’s where you can help!

LEGO Ideas are running a competition to design a poster for the new 42125 Ferrari 488 GTE AF CORSE set, with some awesome prizes (including a copy of the new set) up for grabs!

Winner’s Prizes

    • 42125 Technic Ferrari
    • 76895 Speed Champions Ferrari
    • 75890 Speed Champions Ferrari
    • 42124 Buggy Control
    • 2 x Prints of your poster (1 signed and one plain)
    • A Ferrari Goodie Bag

The assets required to create your poster are available for download at the LEGO Ideas website, where full competition details and entry requirements can also be found. Upload your poster design by 14th December to enter!

Click here to enter the Ferrari Poster Competition at LEGO Ideas!

Plan B

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Lego Peugeot 205 Turbo 16

We rarely feature digital creations here at TLCB. Today though we’re going to break our own rule, because this virtual Peugeot 205 Turbo 16 Group B rally car is an absolute delight.

Built in the mid-1980s to race in the World Rally Championship, Peugeot’s monster mid-engined all-wheel-drive 205s won the final two Group B World Championships in ’85 and ’86, before the formula was banned.

This wonderful recreation of one of the most fearsome WRC cars ever is the work of newcomer Fabrice Larcheveque, who has replicated Peugeot Sport’s famous 1980s livery brilliantly in digital form, and has absolutely nailed the car that wears it too.

Fabrice has built several other iconic cars in LEGO’s Speed Champions style and you can see more of these, plus the Peugeot 205 Turbo 16 featured here, via MOCpages, plus you can also vote for the Peugeot to become the next officially-licensed car in the Speed Champions range via LEGO Ideas.

Lego Peugeot 205 Turbo 16

Digital Delight

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Lego Ferrari 512 Longtail 1970 Le Mans

We receive loads of requests to blog digital creations here at TLCB, and our answer is almost always ‘no’. However this time we’ve bent our usual rule, because this, readers, is how to build a digital creation.

Designed by Alan Guerzoni it’s a Speed Champions scale Ferrari 512 Long-Tail as raced by Ecurie Francorchamps at the 1970 Le Mans 24 Hours.

Not only is Alan’s design brilliantly executed he’s also maximised his use of the digital medium, by adding Ecurie Francorchamps period-correct decals and a printed canopy (as LEGO do themselves) to recreate the 1970 512 as accurately as possible.

If you like Allan’s historic Ferrari as much as we do you can vote for it to become an official LEGO set via the LEGO Ideas platform – click this link to make the jump and add your vote.

Lego Ferrari 512 Longtail 1970 Le Mans

21103 – Back to the Future DeLorean Time Machine – Review

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Lego 21103 Back to the Future DeLorean Time Machine

The Lego Car Blog Review My Set Competition is drawing to a close, so there’s just enough time to fit in one more fan review! Today’s reviewer is a previous bloggee himself, and today he’s on the other side of the screen after joining us here at TLCB to pen the final reader review of the competition. Over to Nils O to pick up the story…

A Dream (Almost) Come True…

The LEGO Ideas set of the Back to the Future (BTTF) time machine could have been one of the best LEGO sets ever. For me the project on LEGO Ideas (then still called CUUSOO) is still one of the best on the platform. The pictures of the car / time machine are so cool that as a BTTF and LEGO fan you just want one thing: To own that model!

The set that hit the shelves was another thing entirely. If you want to be nice you could call the look weird, but let’s be honest; it’s ugly. I think most BTTF fans still want the set, but they also want to do something more; modify it to make it look better.

But first things first. 21103 comes in a high quality black box featuring a cool BTTF design. There’s a book with instructions for the time machine from all three parts of the movie franchise, including a hover function and 1950s’ wheels and ‘electronic components’, and the parts are included for all three versions of the car. There are also unique mini-figs of Marty and Doc which are instantly recognisable, and additionally you get a skateboard, but no – no Hover Board.

Lego 21103 DeLorean Box

But what you do get is a handful of excellent printed parts (yes, printed parts, no stickers) (Hurrah! Ed.): License plates for 1985 (‘OUTATIME’) and 2015 (bar code), a time computer and, of course, a Flux Capacitor. The only part I’m not a 100% happy with is the Flux Capacitor. I just don’t like the 1x2x2 panel, for me a 1x2x2 printed brick or a 2×2 printed tile would have been a better choice.

After building the set (I built the version from Back to the Future Part II) the second thing you notice (after realising how ugly it really is) is the untypical fragility of the set. You can’t really touch it without something falling off. I had to modify the thing, especially the 4-wide roof which didn’t look right. Surprisingly I could build a 6-wide roof and matching A-pillars and doors just using parts from the set. So, why didn’t the LEGO designers do something similar? We will never know. Continue reading →

21307 Caterham Seven 620R Review

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Lego 21307 Caterham Seven Review

The Lego Car Blog Review My Set Competition is nearly at an end, but we’ve just got time to squeeze a few more of your Set Reviews in before the competition closes in December. MOCpages’ Marco. qm joins us today with the set that everyone’s talking about, fresh from the LEGO Ideas platform and designed by TLCB Master MOCer Carl Greatrix, it’s the magnificent Caterham 7 620R…

The LEGO Company are known for making strong and resistant sets. Lego Fans are experts in making good-looking cars. When they get together, great things can happen. Things like a LEGO Ideas project that achieved the magical number of 10,000 supporters to gain approval to become an official LEGO set, which in in this case is the Caterham Seven 620R by Carl Greatrix.

Two years ago, on December 2014, Carl’s Seven started its journey on LEGO Ideas, by May 2015 it reached 10,000 votes and finally in March of this year Carl’s design was approved for production as an official LEGO set.

Now let’s talk about the product, the $79.00 brick-built Caterham, or as the builder called it ‘the kit of a kit car’. Although officially licensed by Caterham, 21307 is not a particularly expensive set; it’s $20 cheaper than LEGO’s previous Creator Expert sets and it comes in a nice black box with wider cardboard usual, something that I think is a nice detail.

Upon opening it, you’ll find one instructions book and seven bags of bricks, with the typical larger 1, 2 and 3 numbered bags, plus some smaller bags with the same numbers on them.

Lego 21307 Caterham 7 Review

The moment you start building it you notice how cleverly designed the 21307 set is, with a very rigid chassis and a nicely detailed exterior, it’s a builder’s dream. Upon finishing the first part of the build you’ll already have a strong chassis and the rear fenders completed.

Next you open the bags labeled with a 2 and build the second stage of the car, in which you construct the engine, the seats, the front wheel arches (which by the way are very well designed!) and the exhaust. Basically all you’re missing after this is the nose cone, the hood, the trunk and the wheels. Continue reading →

From Flickr to Stores…

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Lego Caterham Seven Set

Master MOCers is back!… And Episode 2 is blurring the lines between itself and the Become a Pro series more than ever before. Today’s interviewee could well fit into either category, but as recipients of the Master MOCers award are rumoured to receive a priceless trophy, he thought this series best.

Carl Greatrix has appeared here several times over the years, most recently with the evolution of his stunning Caterham Seven model. Thanks to the LEGO Ideas platform that model has now become a real LEGO set, officially licensed by Caterham themselves, and is available to buy today! From the pages of Flickr to the shelves of stores, Carl has made his Lego dream happen. Find out how via the link below…

Master MOCers, Series 2, Episode 2

Carl Greatrix

Hello TLCB Readers! My name is Carl Greatrix, I’m a member of the Brickish Association (U.K. LUG), I’m also the Senior LEGO Model Designer for TT Games / Warner Bros (for the official LEGO video games), and I now have my own LEGO Ideas set produced, the Caterham Seven 620R – 21307. Continue reading…

Lego Caterham Seven Set

Not a Car

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Lego Classic Space Set

TLCB Office had a few too many Jägerbombs last night and thus are feeling a little fragile today. Fortunately the awesome Firas Abu Jaber, a TLCB Master MOCer no less, has stepped in as Guest Blogger to keep the Legoey goodness coming. Over to Firas…

When you see a non-car creation featured on The Lego Car Blog it’s a good sign that it’s something exceptional, and this is certainly the case with billyburg‘s latest creation, the “Lunar Exploration Geological Outpost”. Billy proves to us that a nice MOC with great photography and presentation makes a compelling combination for a high quality Lego creation.

A lot of adults from the eighties and the earlier nineties, including myself, were raised on the love of LEGO space sets, and it’s considered one of the most loved themes of the time. Personally I was a big M-Tron and Space Police fan, so these kind of quality space creations bring back a fond memories of the good old days, especially as this MOC looks big fun to build and even greater fun to play with.

Lucky for us Billy has decided to suggest this MOC as a project on the LEGO Ideas website, so if you’d love to have this as an official set someday make sure to head to the project page here and give it your vote – it’ll need to get 10,000 supporters before LEGO consider making this as an official set.

If you’d like to see more of Billy’s Classic Space masterpieces you can jump to his Flickr photostream by clicking here.

Lego Classic Space

Support-a-Porsche

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Lego Porsche 911 GT3

With LEGO recently announcing the success of Carl Greatrix’s Caterham Seven Ideas project we’re feeling confident about the prospect of Malte Dorowski’s Porsche 911 GT3 RS reaching the 10,000 supporter mark that enables an official LEGO review. Malte recently released an updated version of his beautiful 911 replica and you can see more of the build – and vote for it to become an official LEGO set – by visiting his Flickr photostream here.

Kit Car

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Lego Caterham 7 Set

Carl Greatrix’s incredible replicas of the Caterham Super Seven have featured here at TLCB several times in the last year (here, here, here and here), as we’ve supported the LEGO Ideas campaign to turn his model into an official LEGO set.

Well Carl’s hard work has paid off, as over 10,000 of you got behind the project to take it to the next stage of the review process, and LEGO have just announced that the Caterham Super Seven will become the next official LEGO set created via the Ideas platform.

Lego Ideas

We’re super excited about getting our hands on a Super Seven, and this also means that LEGO can add Caterham to their ever expanding list of official manufacturer sets, alongside Ferrari, McLaren, Porsche, Mercedes-Benz, Volkswagen and Volvo.

You can read LEGO’s press release announcing the new Caterham Super Seven set via LEGO Ideas here,  or via the video below, and a super congratulations to Carl from all of us here at TLCB!

YouTube Video:

Formula 3

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Lego F1 Kit

This neat idea comes from TLCB regular Angka Utama, who has designed a racing car set with interchangeable nose-cone, rear wing and side-pod bodywork.

Lego Racing Cars

There are three colours and styles to choose from (above) and these can be mixed and matched too (below). You can see more at either Flickr or MOCpages, where you will also find a link where you can vote for Angka’s idea to become an official LEGO set via the LEGO Ideas platform.

Lego Racing Car Kit

Featured Blogs – The “Concept” Group

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Concept Collage

So you’ve 29,243 Lego pieces, perfectly stored in a wall of plastic draws, plus a custom building table and lightbox waiting for your finished creation. The only problem is what to build? How can you deploy that new gearbox or SNOT technique that you’ve invented? Where can you get some inspiration for a new style of Technic supercar or whatever this month’s sci-fi theme happens to be?

Fortunately Igor Tkac has come up with a family of blogs that feature the best of concept art from around the internet. The first blog, Concept Ships, was launched in August 2007 and was included in Wired.com’s list of best art websites that year. This blog was followed by ones for vehicles, robots, tanks, guns and aliens. The pages can be a bit slow to download but it’s worth the wait as the art is displayed at full resolution, so you can zoom in to the details.

We’ve only spotted one Lego post on any of the blogs (Jon Hall’s aeroplanes, below), so it’s still worth visiting The Lego Car Blog to see what the Elves have found on the web. If you’ve some spare time at home, or an idle moment at your desk, click the links in the paragraph above and be prepared to be inspired.

Jon Hall Aircraft