Tag Archives: Lino M

Make Like a Banana…

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And split.

It’s 1969, Man has landed on the moon, the Jumbo Jet makes its debut, and Woodstock hosts 350,000 spectators at the greatest musical festival the world has ever known. Things couldn’t get any cooler. And indeed they didn’t, as the era of free love ended almost as precisely as the decade did, the oil crisis hit, the world went on strike, and everything became a shade of beige or brown.

Hot Wheels ended the decade on a high too though, with their spectacular concept ‘Splittin’ Image’, recreated here in beautiful accuracy by TLCB favourite Lino Martins, complete with oversize engine and twin canopies.

A little over fifty years later and history seems to be repeating itself, with the world spiralling towards some kind of bleak apocalypse, factories shut, hospitals full, and even brown making a comeback on cars. It seems a perfect time to revisit Splittin’ Image then, not just because it hinged on the pivot between two very different times (as we suspect we are too right now), but also because with two separate cockpits it’s perfect for social distancing!

Head to Lino’s photostream via the link above, isolate yourself in one of the cockpits, and hope things aren’t about to go all 1970s on us.

Bazinga!

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Lego Zinger Van

Apologies for using a well known catch-phrase from the laughter vacuum that is The Big Bang Theory in the title, but it fitted with today’s creation…

This is a ‘Zinger’, a ’70s phenomenon that we’re too young to understand, but apparently it involved shrinking your vehicle to an improbably small size, but leaving the engine and wheels as they were. Oh, and sticking a girl on the roof.

This brick-built example of the trend comes from Flickr’s Lino Martins, and there’s more to see of his rather neat Zinger Van at his photostream – click the link above to make the jump.

Coming Up Trumps

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Lego Murica-Mobile Truck

Flickr’s vehicle-building society LUNuts are very on-topic right now, with their current monthly building contest taking in all things dystopian.

Previous bloggee Lino Martins’ entry pays homage the bleak dystopian masterpiece ‘1984’, which contains absolutely no similarities with the current state of U.S politics.

Coincidentally, we’ll hand over to Lino to explain some of the features of his ‘Murica-mobile’; “The roof mounted loud speakers are so that the driver may broadcast alternate facts, and many people are saying that the gun rack and truck nuts are a classy touch. Many people. Believe me. And no one knows classy better than I do. Let’s make America great again. Bigly”.

No similarities whatsoever… See more courtesy of Lino’s photostream.

Lego Murica-Mobile Truck

Red Menace

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Lego Mercury Comet Cyclone

Car names were better in the old days. This is a Mercury Comet Cyclone, built by Flickr’s Lino Martins, and if there’s more a ridiculously brilliant name for a car we’ve yet to hear it. You can see more of Lino’s magnificent ’65 Comet at the link above.

Bread Sled

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Lego International Harvester Metro Van

The Lino Martins‘ bakery knows how to deliver in style. This is a 1940s International Harvester Metro van… with one or two subtle modifications. Pick up a loaf at Lino’s photostream via the link above.

Beer Baron

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Lego Beer Wagon Hot Rod Tom Daniels

Legendary hot rod creator and Hot Wheels design consultant Tom Daniel built some amazing vehicles during his illustrious career. This superb Lego recreation of his iconic hot rod the ‘Beer Wagon’ comes from legendary Lego car creator and LUGNuts curator Lino Martins, and it’s his second entry into TLCB Summer Building Competition.

Lego Elven Vomit

Featuring a slew of chromed pieces, bright yellow paint and a monster engine Lino’s Beer Wagon has scored a barrel-load of points in the competition. He earned himself a few bonus points too – having read a potted history of Elven illness, Lino captured the moment a few of our Elves discovered the beer in the back of the truck. Things did not end well, and we have a feeling that the office airhorn may be even more effective than usual today.

You can see more of the Lino’s Beer Wagon and its effect on TLCB Elves by clicking here, and you can read the full competition details, prizes up for grabs and scoring criteria by clicking this link to TLCB Summer Building Competition page.

TLCB Summer Building Competition

Smokin’ a Dub

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Lego Volksrod Diesel

The diesel car market is a curious thing. It’s been around for ages, was relentlessly mocked by Top Gear and their like until a decade ago, yet now in Europe over half of all cars sold are fuelled from the black pump (and almost every luxury car, SUV or rep-mobile saloon is diesel powered). Even Top Gear now approves.

Currently though, diesel is rapidly falling out of favour for being nowhere near as clean in the real world as the official EU tests suggest, and it’s petrol-hybrid that is seen as the immediate solution to our urban air quality problems. But as hybrid technology is relatively new it’s being relentlessly mocked by Top Gear and their like… Hmm, where have we seen this before?

Anyway, because America is automotively about a decade behind Europe car manufacturers are now shifting their diesel wares stateside – probably in anticipation of the bottom falling out of the EU market at anytime soon. This new wave of diesels is being largely marketed as ‘Clean Diesel’ (because that way no-one will ask any searching questions), and Lino Martins has put this magic new fuel to good use in his wonderful diesel-powered Volksrod rat rod. It looks clean to us!

You can see more of Lino’s diesel monster on Flickr – click the link above to make the trip.

Vanbulance

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Lego Vanbulance Hot Rod

Uh oh. Our previous post today didn’t end well. Luckily Lego-vehicle-building legend Lino M has recreated real-vehicle-building legend Tom Daniels’ 1974 show rod ‘Vanbulance’, enabling us to patch up the Elves. OK, that’s a lie – the Vanbulance is completely useless for anything medical, but it looks cool and has a huge engine so the Elves are a little less grumpy now. See more on Flickr.

Popcorn Wagon

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Lego Hot Rod Popcorn Waggon

It’s hot here at TLCB Towers and we’re feeling a bit lazy. However, the good news for us is that this find comes with a description already written! So, over to the model’s creator, Lino M, to explain all:

“A strange phenomenon existed in the ’60s and ’70s called the show rod. Basically these were outrageously themed hot rods that could start with anything from a bathtub to a set of bunk beds and, from there, pushed the limits to what a car can be. While guys like George Barris and Ed “Big Daddy” Roth were on the forefront of this movement, one of the most famous show rods was the Popcorn Wagon designed by the lesser known Carl Casper. Was it practical? No. Was it over-the-top? Most definitely. Does it look like it was designed by a 10 year old boy with an overactive imagination? Heck yes! But that was the point of the show rod. While kids and adults enjoyed building the outrageous model kits at home, true to all Carl Casper creations, the original car has never been sold to anyone. Can it go fast? No one knows. His creations have never even seen a drop of fuel or oil.

This LEGO replica roughly resembles the original (with some minor changes) and was built for the LUGNuts Summer Of ’69 challenge all about 60’s era cars.”

And there you have it; our laziest post ever. Thanks Lino! Check out his Popcorn Wagon on Flickr via the handy link.

Blockbuster – 4th July Special

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Lego Independence DayWelcome dear Lego Car Blog reader, to our 4th July Blockbuster Special!

In celebration of the independence of the United States of America this 4th July we thought we’d bring you a selection of models linked (one a little tenuously) to some of the biggest American blockbuster films of recent times. So grab some popcorn and enjoy the ride…

No Independence Day list would be complete without the 1996 film epic of the same name. There were no real star cars in the movie, that role was very much fulfilled by the alien spaceships, so instead we have Lino M‘s superb 4th July themed Divco van. Lino is one of the car-building heroes of the Lego Community, and you can check out both him and his van on Flickr.

Lego Jurassic ParkNext up come two of the star vehicles from one of the biggest films of the nineties, Steven Spielberg’s incredible 1993 tale of the world’s most dangerous theme park. Legohaulic‘s two SUVs played a pivotal role in the story, one suffering a painful trip through a tree, whilst the driver of the other came to unfortunate end via the teeth of some prehistoric lizards. See more of Legohaulic’s creations on Flickr via the link above.

Lego Duel TruckThird in our Independence Day Special is both a builder and movie that have appeared on these pages before, but when a model’s this good we don’t mind. Duel was one of Spielberg’s earlier works and was deliciously simple in its format; a sales rep being chased by an aggrieved trucker across the desert. TLCB favourite Karwik recreates the famous Peterbilt tanker from the 1971 classic in fantastic detail. See more at his page via the link.

We hope you’ve enjoyed our 4th July Special. As always, let us know your thoughts, suggestions and abuse via the Feedback page, and we’ll see you tomorrow. That’s all folks!

Bonus:

Well, apart from this. Suggested to us by a reader, it’s not really TLCB fodder, but a cowboy firing two pistols in the air is about as American as you can get, so it fits beautifully in today’s Special. We do also feature the occasional weapon of mass destruction here at TLCB, and Nick Barrett’s Yosemite S.A.M is more than just a cartoon character… Find out why on MOCpages.

Lego Yosemite Sam

Triple Filtered

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Lego Ural Motorbike

Communistical Transport

We’re not sure what’s got into the Elves recently. Until this week we’d probably only posted three Russian MOCs in our whole existence, yet in the last few days alone we’ve posted another three. Anyway, while we investigate the Elves’ obsession with Soviet-era transportation, you can view this rather brilliant Ural motorbike from Lino M on Flickr.

Cut & Shut

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1950 Mercury

Suicide King. Presumably coronations are regular

Back to Flickr, where Lino M has built this wonderfully racially diverse 1950’s modded Mercury. Flick through the full gallery here.

Holy Guacamole Batman!

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Batmobile 2025

Remove Robin for twice the awesome

Over to Flickr now, where master car builder Lino M has designed Batman’s ride for 2025. It looks like we’re heading for a bit of a time-loop as it’s seriously retro in appearance, but that’s definitely a good thing. What’s not so good is it seems as though Robin, the Scrappy-Doo of the franchise, is making a comeback.