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 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.
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.
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!
The Lego Car Blog Towers is surrounded by Mercedes-Benz G-Wagens. And none of them look like this. This is the brand new 42177 Technic Mercedes-Benz G 500 PROFESSIONAL Line!
Available from today, LEGO’s latest 18+ set brings one of the world’s most iconic, and douchiest, 4x4s to the Technic range.
Constructed from 2,891 pieces, 42177 is one of the largest officially-licensed car sets yet, and is packed with working functions. These include a six-cylinder engine, all-wheel suspension, all-wheel-drive with two working diff-locks, functioning steering, a D-N-R gearbox with high/low transfer, opening doors, tailgate and hood, new off-road tyres, and a host of off-roady accessories.
It also looks properly accurate, no doubt helped by the G-Class’s breeze-block proportions, with some subtle stickerage to enhance the realism.
So why doesn’t it look like any of the actual G-Wagens that surround our office? Because it isn’t a matt-black private-plated AMG G 63. And for that alone, we love it.
The new LEGO Technic 42177 Mercedes-Benz G 500 PROFESSIONAL Line is available now, and you can get your hands on the only six-cylinder not-black G-Class we’ve ever seen for £220/$250.
This is a Mercedes-Benz Unimog U20, one of hundreds of Unimog variants, but unusual in being the only ‘forward control’ version, and – by TLCB maths – exactly ten times better than a long-standing Irish soft rock band.
It comes from previous bloggee and Master MOCer Thirdwigg, who has packed it not just with working Technic functions, but also an array of attachments and tools in much the same way as the real thing would be.
Working steering, pendular suspension, a piston engine, and a tipping cab all feature, with a folding crane, three-way tipping bed, street sweeper, and snow plough all attachable via the adjustable hitches and mounting points.
There’s much more of Thirdwigg’s excellent Technic Unimog U20 to see at both his Flickr album of the same name and at the Eurobricks forum, where full imagery and yes – building instructions are available too!
Yes, we’re trying to mess with search engines again. This is a Mercedes-Benz LK ‘Rundhauber’ (round bonnet) box truck, and its creator 1saac W. began the build by inserting a LEGO sausage into a 1×1 round-with-bar-attachment piece. His words.
Crude beginnings aside, the result is rather excellent, and there’s more to see of 1saac’s sausage-insertion construction at his photostream. Click the link above to put it in.
TLCB Master MOCer Thirdwigg continues to expand his Mercedes-Benz Unimog catalogue. This one is a U5000 short cab tipper, meaning there’s more room to put stuff to tip. A three-way (snigger) tipping bed, working steering, high/low gearbox, rear suspension, piston engine, plus front and rear winches all feature, and you can see more – including a link to building instructions if you’d like to create it yourself – by clicking here.
There are almost as many variants of Mercedes-Benz’s Unimog as there are tasks for them to do. Which is probably the point. Endlessly adaptable, the Unimog is also the perfect choice for Technic builders, as proven by Flickr’s Thirdwigg, who’s back here with another fully-functioning brick-built replica of the heavy-duty tractor.
This one is a U530, complete with a three-way* tipping bed, working steering, a piston engine, under the tilting cab, pendular suspension, plus front, centre and rear selectable PTOs.
There’s a rear pneumatic outlet too, which mean’s Thirdwigg’s model can be fitted with nearly as many pieces of additional equipment as the real thing, with a folding crane, trailer, and snow-plow some of those included in his extensive Flickr gallery.
Building instructions are available (and they’re free!), with much more to see at Thirdwigg’s ‘Unimog U530′ album. Click the link above for even more mogin’.
*Snigger
As revealed when we recently interviewed, er… ourselves, the single worst thing about running a world famous moderately well-known Lego website is having to remove endless spam comments.
Crypto currency, luxury goods that are absolutely definitely genuine, pills to make things bigger, pills to make things smaller, and – of course – escorts.
Thus today’s post is for the aforementioned escort commenters (most likely ‘bots from East Asia), as we have not one, not two, but four escorts appearing on the site today.
All come from previous bloggee Ralph Savelsberg, and represent (from left to right) two Mercedes-Benz Sprinters, a Volkswagen Transporter, and a Volkswagen Caddy, each perfectly capturing its real-world counterpart in mini-figure scale, with more to see on Flickr.
Book your escort via the link in the text above, whilst we delete another dozen comments advertising dubious services.
#TeamLH #Blessed #Vegan #JoiningFerrarifortheMoney
Shock Formula 1 news this week, as the most successful driver of all time is due to depart the team with whom he has won six World Championships to join Scuderia Ferrari at the end of the 2024 season.
Lewis Hamilton is looking for his eighth title, to take him clear of sharing the championship record with Michael Schumacher, and thinks Ferrari might be the team to do it (despite their long-time strategy of buying past champions, and promptly consigning their winning streak to history). There may also be some money involved.
Cue #TeamLH, surely at the bottom of even the filthy cesspit that is ‘X’, losing their collective minds, and 2024’s Mercedes-AMG F1 W15 being the team’s last to be driven by Lewis.
But back to 2023 – when Hamilton was definitely never ever leaving Mercedes-AMG – and two new LEGO Technic sets that add the season’s second best car to the 2024 Technic line-up; These are the brand new Technic 42165 Mercedes-AMG F1 W14 E Performance Pull-Back and Technic 42171 Mercedes-AMG F1 W14 E Performance.
Constructed from 240 pieces and aimed at ages 7+, the Technic 42165 Mercedes-AMG F1 W14 E Performance Pull-Back, which we won’t be referring to by its full title again, brings Hamilton’s 2023 Formula 1 racer to bedroom floors for a pocket-money price.
With accurate shaping and livery, plus authentic sponsorship decals, 42165 looks fantastic (even if it doesn’t have slick tyres…. again), making it perhaps the best Pull-Back Technic set LEGO have ever created.
But it’s also $27/£21, which is about twice the price that Technic Pull-Backs used to be. Thus despite being the best ever Pull-Back Technic set, it might simultaneously be the worst $27/£21 one, with no technical features whatsoever.
For #TeamLH* we suspect that won’t matter though, and if you’re among them you can get your hands on the new 42165 Pull-Back when it goes on sale later this year.
At six times the pieces and nine times the price, this is 42165’s (much) bigger brother; the brand new LEGO Technic 42171 Mercedes-AMG F1 W14 E Performance.
Aimed at ages 18+, 42171 recreates Lewis Hamilton’s 2023 Formula 1 car at a huge 1:8 scale and, unlike the recent non-specific 42141 Technic McLaren Formula 1 Race Car set, is a true replica of its real-world counterpart.
With accurate sponsorship decals and awesome new slick tyres (hurrah!!), 42171 certainly looks the part, but is perhaps a bit light on the technical bits. There’s working steering, a V6 engine and rear differential, an opening rear wing mimicking DRS, and… that’s it. Which is about as much a set costing a quarter of the price. And that price is $220/£190.
Thus despite its 1,520 pieces, 42171 is going to be a rather exclusive set. Which is suitably Formula 1. Expect to see those ace new tyres opening up a world of new creations though…
*If #TeamLH discover that LEGO included an Ayrton Senna mini-figure in the Icons 10330 McLaren MP4/4 set, but that neither of these Mercedes-AMG F1 sets include a miniature Lewis Hamilton, Twitter’s going to explode.
Following Master MOCer Thirdwigg’s recent appearance here with his superb Mercedes-Benz Unimog U4000, he recently uploaded a few other variants, which is fitting as the Unimog is available in a bewildering choice of applications, each of which can be equipped with an even wider array of attachments, tools and machinery.
This one is a U5000 off-road fire truck, constructed via an excellent combination of Model Team and Technic techniques, and features a tilting cab, piston engine, working steering and suspension, and a fully equipped four door cabin with fire-fighting equipment behind.
Building instructions are available and there’s much more to see at Thirdwigg’s photostream, plus you can find out how he builds his amazing models such as this one at his Master MOCers page via the link above.
We love the Mercedes-Benz Unimog here at The Lego Car Blog. Designed as a multi-purpose tractor for both civilian industry and the military, the Unimog is simple, highly adaptable, and incredibly capable off-road. Which means it’s only a matter of time before AMG create a black-on-black luxury version for the terminally-insecure to enhance their Instagram clout.
Until then though, we’ll continue to enjoy the Unimog as the workhorse it’s meant to be, with this example being a most-workhorsey U4000 tipper.
Constructed by our latest Master MOCer Thirdwigg, this excellent Technic U4000 is a fully mechanical miniaturisation of the Mercedes-Benz multi-purpose tractor, and includes a working piston engine under the tilting cab, a multi-way tipper that cleverly raises via spinning the fuel tanks, a high/low gearbox, functional suspension, steering, front and rear winches, plus opening doors and hood.
It’s all beautifully engineered and there’s lots more of it to see on Flickr, where a link to building instructions can also be found, plus you can find more variants of this U4000 at Thirdwigg’s Bricksafe page, where – as per any good Unimog – the model can be adapted to suit a number of jobs, including pulling a trailer, being outfitted as a camper, and even equipped as a fire truck.
Take a look via the links above, plus you can find out how Thirdwigg creates his models such as this one via his Master MOCers page, which is available alongside the other talented builders that have proceeded him by clicking here.
You thought we’d forgotten about the Master MOCers Series hadn’t you? Well, um… we had. But no longer! Because a builder who has appeared here so frequently over the years he’s got his own section in our Archives has become the latest builder to join the Master MOCers Series 2 Hall of Fame!
Kyle Wigboldy, better known as Thirdwigg, creates some of the best all-mechanical Technic models anywhere in the world right now, and they’re being built all around the world too, as he also produces top quality building instructions to accompany them. Best of all, many of these are downloadable for free (a hundred TLCB points to Thirdwigg!).
From supercars to off-road trucks, and everything in-between, Thirdwigg’s enormous back-catalogue is filled with superb mechanically-driven creations, and you can find out what makes him tick in our 9th Master MOCers interview of Series 2.
You can read Thirwigg’s LEGO-building story via the link below, where you might find a few models that you’d like to build for yourself at home!
This dinky 1950s Mercedes-Benz Unimog ‘Gasolin’ tanker probably isn’t going fill many gas tanks, but it’s going to look properly cute filling what it can. Christoph Ellermann‘s is the builder behind this wonderful classic off-road tractor, and you can fill your tank in the ’50s, as long as too many people haven’t filled theirs first, via the link in the text above.