Tag Archives: mercedes-benz

Benz ‘n Ballast

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Much like when your Mom sits at one end of a picnic bench and someone else has to quickly sit at the other so it doesn’t cartwheel across the park, cranes need a counterweight. Cue this excellent Mercedes-Benz Actros MP4 truck, pulling a huge Nooteboom OVB-95-07 trailer.

Those big boxes on the Nooteboom are crane ballast, and they are very heavy indeed. As they need to be, because the crane boom’s length multiplies the effect of the load it’s lifting.

This ballast transport comes from Keko007 of Flickr, accompanying his recently recently featured Liebherr crane, and there’s much more to see at his ‘Mercedes Actros MP4 6×8 & Nooteboom OVB-95-07 Ballast Trailer’ album on Flickr. Head there now via the link above – just make sure someone else sits down on the picnic bench before you get up…

Magnificent Mog

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We’ve featured a lot of Unimogs over the years here at The Lego Car Blog. Some of which are very big, very detailed, and packed with working features. Today’s is very small, very detailed, and packed with working features.

Built by Flickr’s Reddish Blue, this Unimog U5023 isn’t reddish-blue at all, being rather yellow, and has got as much going on as models ten times its size. There’s working steering and suspension, three drop-sides, working stabiliser legs, and an incredible posable Palfinger crane complete with a functional winch.

An astonishing amount of visual detail joins this wealth of functionality, and is all the more impressive given the model is barely 8-studs wide.

Exquisitely presented, there’s a huge amount more of Reddish Blue’s phenomenally rendered creation to see at his ‘Mercedes-Benz Unimog U 5023’ album, where links to building instructions can also be found. Take a look via the link above at the best small-scale ‘mog you’re likely to see this year.

All My Circuits

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LEGO’s Power Functions and Control+ components are excellent for bringing vehicles to life. Third-party BuWizz and SBrick go even further, with more power and programmable control, and hundreds of creations have appeared here over the years powered by their components. But the drawback with all of the above is, as with your Mom, size.

Too big for many models, it means remote control is reserved for only larger creations. But not today, because this dinky 7-wide Mercedes-Benz Actros 6×4 truck is fully remote controlled!

Powered by a Circuit Cube Hub hidden in the cab, there’s a tiny drive motor – just three studs long – and a servo to steer. What’s more, it’s maker Ts_ has included drive to all four wheels, as per the real truck.

Able to pull a sizeable three-axle trailer, there’s more of Ts_’s remote control Actros to see at the Eurobricks forum, including an image of how the third-party electronics fit within it. Click the link above to peek inside.

Get Your Uniknicks

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We love weird old vehicles here at The Lego Car Blog. Whilst other automotive sites are enthralled by the latest Lamborghini, we’re more interested in obscure British saloons, communist-era economy cars, and Japanese boxes. Or this.

‘This’ is a Werner Uniknick UK52/60, a 1970s German forestry tractor based on the already awesome Mercedes-Benz Unimog, but cut in half and then re-attached with an articulated pivot in the middle.

This tremendous Technic recreation of our new favourite thing comes from previous bloggee and TLCB Master MOCer Nico71, who constructed it for the recent BuWizz Gathering 2025 in Slovenia.

Powered by a BuWizz bluetooth battery and four Power Functions motors, Nico’s Uniknick features remote control four-wheel-drive via portal hubs, articulated steering via twin linear actuators linked to the steering wheel, and a motorised winch, plus centrally-oscillating suspension, a working and removable four-cylinder engine, and opening doors and hood.

It’s a build as impressive as the real-world vehicle it replicates, and you can recreate it for yourself as Nico has produced building instructions too. There’s much more to see at the Eurobricks forum (including links to instructions) and you can articulate your way there via the link above.

YouTube Video

A Good Tipper

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Anyone that’s worked in the restaurant industry likes a good tipper. Particularly in America, where in many states the minimum wage can be set below the legal amount so that tips make up the difference. Which means that they aren’t tips at all, but rather subsiding corporate greed. Sigh. Sometimes America sucks.

Still, in Europe tips are tips, paid on top of a minimum wage, and thus today we have a good European tipper; a Mercedes-Benz Arocs 4143 8×4. Constructed by regular bloggee Keko007, the Arocs is very detailed indeed considering the small scale, and it can really tip too.

There’s more to see Keko’s ‘Mercedes Arocs 4143 8×4’ Flickr album, and you can make the waitress’s day / subsidise their wages because your tip in fact goes to the owner via the link above.

Jack of All Trades

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The Mercedes-Benz Unimog is not, technically, a truck. It is in fact a universal tractor, with literally dozens of different applications. Which probably explains why dozens of different Unimogs have appeared here to date. Today we can add one more, a 1980s Unimog U1400 Agrar courtesy of Sseven Bricks of Flickr. A front PTO allows any number of tools to be added in front of the cab, whilst a big cage behind it means any number can be added at the back too. There’s more of Sseven’s model to see on Flickr and you can take a closer look via the link above.

Picking Cherries

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Cherry pickers seem to rarely pick actual cherries. Fixing telephone wires, street lamps, and lopping trees sure, but cherries no.

Cue Ralph Savelsberg and this excellent mini-figure scale Mercedes-Benz Unimog, complete with a rear mounted hoist able to elevate and rotate to pick the juiciest cherries. Or fix a rural community’s broadband after a storm. But whatever.

There’s more to see at Ralph’s Flickr album and you can take a look via the link above whilst this TLCB Writer heads to the fridge in search of fruit…

Trailer Park

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This TLCB Writer is from age of the VHS tape, when you had to hold down the fast-forward button to skip half-an-hour of trailers before you could watch the Disney movie your grandparents had actually bought you.

But there’ll be no trailer-skipping today, because we have two of them, each loaded with items which are – of course – the reason the trucks pulling them exist in the first place.

Cue regular bloggee Arian Janssens, and this excellent (and very orange) classic DAF FT2800 and Asser Oplegger trailer (we think… our Dutch isn’t up to much), loaded with… um, things. It’s a beautifully detailed creation and if the trailer’s enticed you in you can take a closer look on Flickr via the link above.

Rather smaller, but no less excellent, is Keko007‘s Mercedes-Benz Actros and Faymonville Max510 trailer, hauling his previously-blogged Claas Jaguar self-propelled forage harvester. Some very clever techniques indeed ensure Keko’s model is mightily accurate despite its small size, and there’s more to see of truck and trailer on Flickr via the link above.

Bowser’s Castle

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On to another ’80s German automotive icon through the medium of vintage cartoon characters, and this – a Mercedes-Benz Unimog U1700L ex-military truck turned into an off-road camper by a man named ‘Bowser’.

We suspect he’s not the fire-breathing arch-nemesis of an Italian plumber, but he still sounds pretty cool, what with this awesome ’80s Unimog as his home. Sseven Bricks is the creator of this brick-built replica of Bowser’s truck, and you can find it on Flickr via the link above.

Unimog For You

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LEGO’s fantastic Technic 8110 Mercedes-Benz Unimog set earned a near perfect score when it was reviewed on these pages nearly a decade-and-a-half ago. Which means that today it’s rather expensive. And it’s also rather large.

But fear not readers, because you can get your hands on your own Technic Unimog courtesy of prolific ‘mog maker (and Master MOCer) Thirdwigg, which is rather more affordable, and takes up rather less space.

His latest recreation of the Mercedes-Benz multi-purpose tractor comes in at 1:21 scale, and features working steering, an inline-4 engine, a tipping bed, and opening doors. Building instructions are available so you can create it for yourself, and you can find a link to them plus all the imagery at Thridwigg’s ‘Unimog U406’ album here.

Honey, I Shrunk the Arocs!

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The Technic 42043 Mercedes-Benz Arocs is one of the highest rated LEGO sets of all time. Now a decade old (where did that time go?), the 2015 flagship united Power Functions and pneumatics into one of the most technically advanced sets ever released.

Today’s creation pays homage to LEGO’s original masterpiece, only rather smaller. Constructed in 1:35 scale (vs. 42043’s 1:17), TechnicMOCer‘s half-size tribute features twin-axle steering, three-axle pendular suspension, a working piston engine, tipping bed, and mechanically-operated crane and outriggers.

Building instructions are available, to which you can find a link, as well as further imagery, at the Eurobricks discussion forum. Click the link above to shrink your Arocs.

Allelys’ Arocs

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We regularly feature ginormous trucks here at The Lego Car Blog. Because we’re five. But today’s is rather smaller, being just seven studs in width, yet packing in as much detail as models several times its size. Built by regular bloggee Ralph Savelsberg, this Mercedes-Benz Arocs replicates the real world trucks run by British heavy haulage firm Allelys, and you can see more of it, the trailer it pulls, and a few of Ralph’s other superb small-scale haulers via the link above.

The Weird One

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The Mercedes-Benz section of our A-Z of Lego Trucks is about 85% Unimog. A licensed LEGO set, alternates built from other LEGO sets, fire trucks, snow plows, tippers, cranes… there are nearly as many brick-built variants of Mercedes-Benz’s famous off-road tractor as there are variations of the real thing.

Cue TLCB Master MOCer, and builder behind many of the Unimogs already in the Archive, Kyle Wigboldly (aka Thirdwigg), who adds another to his already expansive back-catalogue. And this time it’s the weird one.

Thirdwigg’s Technic 1:21 recreation of the Unimog U90 captures its strange asymmetrical form brilliantly and is packed with working functionality. An inline 5-cylinder engine under an opening hood is turned by the wheels, there’s working ‘HOG’ steering, a rear portal axle, rear hitch, tipping load bed, and a variety of attachments than can mount both fore and aft, including a winch, street-sweeper, and snow plow.

Building instructions are available and you can find a link to them plus all of the excellent imagery at Thirdwigg’s ‘Unimog U90 1:21’ album on Flickr. Take a look at the weirdest Unimog of the lot via the final link in this post, plus you can discover how Thirdwigg creates models like this one via his interview here at TLCB by clicking on the third.

My Other Other Vehicle is Also a Mercedes

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It seems like only a week ago that that LEGO’s brand new 42177 Technic Mercedes-Benz G 500 set was wonderfully converted into Mercedes’ most extreme off-road vehicle. Because it was.

But as per gloves, bookends, and TV cops, 42177 Unimog alternates come in pairs, because today we have another.

Like Eric Trax’s previously-blogged U423, M_longer’s U437 uses only parts from the official 42177 set, and is packed with brilliant working functionality.

Featuring suspended portal axles, all-wheel-drive with differential lock, a 4-cylinder piston engine, HOG steering, high/low transfer case, opening and locking doors, a tipping bed, and an elevating snow plough attachment, M_longer’s 42177 B-Model includes very nearly as much functionality as LEGO’s own 8110 Mercedes-Benz Unimog set, all constructed from the parts of a G-Wagen.

A huge gallery of top quality imagery is available to view at Bricksafe, full details (including a link to building instructions) can be found on Eurobricks, and you can check out more of M_longer’s incredible 42177 B-Model Unimog via the links above.

My Other Vehicle is Also a Mercedes-Benz

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In the moronic SUV arms-race that rages around TLCB Towers it’s only a matter of time before someone swaps their G-Wagen for an even larger 4×4 from the Mercedes-Benz portfolio.

Of course you can’t get much larger than a G-Class, and thus any prospective winner of the SUV one-upmanship will have to step away from Mercedes-Benz’s cars and into their truck line. Which is exactly what TLCB Master MOCer Eric Trax has done with his Technic 42177 Mercedes-Benz G 500 Professional Line set.

Constructed from 87% of the donor set, Eric’s Unimog U423 B-Model is so good it doesn’t feel like an alternate at all, featuring four-wheel-drive, HOG steering, all-wheel-suspension, two diff-locks, front and rear two-speed PTOs, a six-cylinder engine under a tilting cab, an adjustable front hitch, and a two-way tipper.

It’s surely one of the best alternate builds we’ve ever published, and there’s loads more to see – including a link to building instructions – on Flickr and Eurobricks, plus you can watch Eric’s phenomenal 42177 B-Model in action below.

Click on the links above to trade in your Mercedes-Benz G 500 for a Unimog, and put your neighbours in their place!