Tag Archives: mini-figure

Carry the Wind

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Wind turbines are massive, able to service a whole community, and difficult to move. Just like your Mom. But they are also vital for a de-carbonised future, which means we need a lot more of them harnessing the power of the the earth’s atmospheric currents and turning it into electricity if our species is not to die a hot and miserable death.

Cue Ralph Savelsberg‘s enormous Volvo FH16 heavy haulage transport, as operated by Dutch transport company Van der Vlist, which is depicted here carrying the huge nacelle of a wind turbine.

Despite being only 1:43 scale Ralph’s model measures almost a metre long, and includes the split trailer and hydraulic rams (in this case brick-built) that support and raise the massive turbine nacelle on the real truck.

Over twenty images are available to view and you whirl your way there via the link above, plus you can check out the transport’s accompanying escort that appeared here earlier via this bonus link.

Galactic Thievery

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If there’s one thing we pride ourselves on at The Lego Car Blog, it’s beating The Brothers Brick to publishing creations. OK, that and ‘Your Mom’ jokes. Two things*.

Cue much Elven shuffling and looking at the floor therefore, when we found these superb space-based Speed Champions racers at the aforementioned website fun-vacuum, instead of being brought to us by one of our smelly little workers.

Still, much as we hate losing a race with The Brothers Brick, we do rather like the idea of racing in space, particularly if the racers feature the repurposed decals and printed parts from LEGO’s excellent Speed Champions sets.

TLCB newcomer Eric TheSkeleton owns the hands behind them and there’s more to see of each glorious galactic racer at his photostream. Jump to the action via the link above, whilst we post something that’s not stolen from a vastly more competent Lego site…

*And Putin-has-a-tiny-penis jokes. Beating The Brothers Brick, Your Mom jokes, and mocking Putin. Three things.

The Lego Truck Blog

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We seem to be a truck blog today, what with us publicising exactly no cars, but five trucks or vans. This one was found on Flickr and comes from yelo_bricks. A suitably yellow Scania three-axle truck, there’s a folding crane behind the cab, functional (kinda) stabilisers, and some clever SNOT techniques at work, all fitted to a vehicle that’s only 6-studs wide. See more of yelo’s Town-scale Scania via the link, whilst we remind the Elves of our website title.

Quality Escorts

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Running a world-famous Lego blog has its upsides. Probably.

We however, are running a crumbling ruin in the corner of the internet, and whilst we receive precisely none of the fame and riches of the proper Lego sites, we do receive all the spam, marketing messages, ‘guest post’ requests, and doubtless-deserved complaints that go with it.

These take many forms, but are usually centred around medicines of a dubious nature, ‘Gucci’ handbags, and women of an also dubious nature. Cue today’s title, because we already receive a torrent of spam on the subject, how much worse can it get?

These two mini-figure scale escort vans are not the European Ford variety (nor ladies of negotiable affection), but the sort used to prevent inattentive drivers from crashing into the back of a slow-moving house, boat, or house-boat.

Built by regular bloggee Ralph Savelsberg they are a Mercedes-Benz Sprinter and Volkswagen Transporter respectively, both feature some neat decal-based liveries, and there’s more of each van to see at Ralph’s photostream. Click the link above to be escorted there.

Out Of Africa

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The most Germanic of German cars is – these days – African.

Nearly two million Mercedes-Benz W114 and W115s were built during the 1970s, with countless numbers registered as taxis across Germany.

Painted in mandatory primrose yellow, they covered hundreds of thousands of kilometres during their working lives, before – at the end of their service in Europe – being shipped to Africa to cover hundreds of thousands more, and where thousands of W114 and W115s are still in use today. It’s safe to assume taxi standards may not be quite as rigorous in their second countries of residence than they were in 1970s Germany.

Of course a sign on the roof is one of the many items that you don’t need in order to operate as a taxi in much of the world, thus battered W115s once owned by German businessmen in the ’70s are now also doing something far more important; keeping whole communities connected.

These two superb brick-built replicas of the car that continues to keep parts of Africa moving are the work of SvenJ. of Flickr, who has made free building instructions available so you can create his excellent Mercedes-Benz W115 too. There’s more of the model to see via at SvenJ.’s Flickr album, and you can head to 1970s Munich, or – more likely – central Africa today, via the link in the text above.

Hurricane Huracan

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No matter how fast a car is, there’ll always be someone who thinks ‘I bet I could make that faster’. Cue YouTube being awash with twin-turbocharged Lamborghini Huracans that are undoubtedly awful to drive, but that are also – admittedly – really very fast indeed.

Cue also The G Brix of Flickr, who – inspired by the aforementioned modified Lamborghinis – has outfitted his 8-wide Huracan with twin turbos too. Just like the real cars said forced induction doesn’t really fit, necessitating a rear bumper delete which is marvellous attention to detail, and there’s more to see of the turbos and the Lamborghini they’re attached to via the link above.

Now we wonder if the office Rover 216 would benefit from a similar modification…

Swoosh?

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Do sky-fi creations go swoosh? We’re not sure, and we’re insufficiently nerdy to bother finding out, but nevertheless previous bloggee Sylon_tw‘s cyperpunk-style sky-fi thing is well worth a closer look, with some ingenious building techniques and top-quality presentation on display. Click the link to swoosh on over. Probably.

Polestar

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Communist Polish manufacturer FSC – makers of vehicular magnificence such as this – also made something not terrible. FSC’s Star truck line began in the late 1940s, and despite the shackles of the Iron Curtain produced reliable, cheap and reasonably powerful heavy duty trucks for a variety of markets until it was swallowed up by MAN in the 1990s. This is one such truck, the Star 660, as created really rather wonderfully by previous bloggee [Maks]. Ingenious parts usage, clever building techniques, and a custom mini-figure are all worth a closer look, and you can follow the pole star on Flickr via the link.

Coles Express

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We’ve featured thousands of cars here at The Lego Car Blog, but very rarely do we feature the places where they fill up. Of course the days of the gas station – at least in their currents forms – are numbered, but for now they remain one of society’s few remaining meeting places.

Wealth, gender, and race matter not at the gas station, where the entire spectrum of humanity congregate by hoses full of ancient zooplankton, over-priced bags of sweets, machine-served coffee, and last-minute flowers.

This superb brick-built recreation of one of the last bastions of physical interaction comes from Kale Frost who constructed it as a commissioned piece. Click the link to join us standing at the pump pondering which over-priced bag of sweets to buy at his ‘Coles Express’ album on Flickr.

Pack-Away Peril

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If this is a glimpse into the future of urban mobility, we’re on board! A speeder bike that packs away into a handy cube, Dan Ko‘s design looks the perfect tool for the scooter subscription service of tomorrow.

Expect these to be dumped across pavements, doorways and bus stops, ridden with almost comical disregard for safety, and chucked into city canals within fifteen minutes of service commencing. Join us in definitely not doing any of the above via the link!

They Think It’s Febr-Over…

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…It is now!

Yes the annual festival of all things other-worldly is over for another year, with a smorgasbord of wonderful roving contraptions entered, about which we know exactly nothing. We’re not sure what our strong suit is, or even if we have one at all, but we certainly know it isn’t sci-fi.

But before TLCB staff can breathe a collective sigh of relief and return to writing about the engine capacities of 1960s British sedans, here are two final Febrovery rovers, as entered by Julius Kanand and Nathan Hake of Flickr, and about which – as is customary – we know exactly nothing.

Both look great though, with Julius’ final Febrovery ’23 rover (above) available to view at his photostream (where an array of other rovers can also be found), and Nathan’s fully remote controlled entry (below), complete with articulated steering, 8×8 drive, and an ingenious LEGO Spikes Colour Sensor front light, available to view at his.

Take a look via the links above, and you can check out all the Febrovery madness from this year by clicking here.

I Said a Ten Second Car

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Here it is. The car responsible for more hype, mis-understood physics, and ignorant YouTube comments than any other over the past two decades. Yup, this is Brian O’Conner’s modified Toyota Supra Mark IV from first film in the seemingly never-ending ‘The Fast and the Furious’ movie franchise.

Complete with retina-searing orange bodywork, the single worst decals ever applied to an automobile, and various unspecified modifications, the star movie car would became an icon. An icon that, despite LEGO having a license both with Universal Pictures and Toyota, is yet to become an official LEGO set.

Cue previous bloggee barneius, who has recreated that Toyota Supra from 2001’s ‘The Fast and the Furious’ brilliantly in Speed Champions scale. Retina-searing orange bodywork, the single worst decals ever applied to an automobile, and various unspecified modifications have all been faithfully replicated in brick form, and if you fancy your owning your very own ‘ten second car’ there are building instructions and purchasable stickers too.

More superbly presented images of barneus’ build are available to view at his ‘Toyota Supra MK4 The Fast and the Furious’ Flickr album, and you can live your life a quarter-mile at a time via the link in the text above, before starting a fight in the comments about how the Toyota Supra Mark IV is the best and most awesomest car ever.

Old Lady’s Bathroom

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This is a Trabant 601, accurately resplendent in the colour of an old lady’s bathroom, and made from a similar material too. Created by László Torma in Speed Champions (ironically) scale, this neat miniaturisation of the rubbish East German people’s car captures the original wonderfully, and there’s more to see – including a ‘Combi’ station wagon version – at László’s photostream. Click the link above for more Hearing-Aid-Beige communist wonders.

Industrial Roving

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It’s FebRovery, and this is an ‘NTERRA B400 MEGA HAULER’, the latest in industrial grade multi-directional rovers from the [ S E /\ Z Y ] corporation.

Able to service an entire moderately-sized colony*, the NTERRA B400 can take a gigantic load*, thanks to an enormous tilting deck with a 300 ton payload capacity and its ‘revolving mecanum wheels’.

Rendered in Bricklink Studio 2.0 with considerable post-production enhancement, [ S E /\ Z Y ]’s gargantuan design shows what’s possible when taking digital building to the extreme, and there’s more to see of his moon-based monster-mover on Flickr via the link above.

Alternatively, if enormous digital creations aren’t your thing, here’s a brick-built FebRovery entry of a similar aesthetic that’s altogether smaller…

*Just like your Mom.

Shadowy Seas

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The Lego Car Blog is not the best place to find intricate techniques for realistic castle walls, thatched roofs, or ocean waves. This is because the aforementioned items rarely appear on vehicular creations, and if they did we wouldn’t know how to talk about them. A flat-plane crank V8 or the subtleties between super and turbo-charging – yes, the finer points on lifelike rock-work – not so much.

Except today, where here at The Lego Car Blog is the most spell-bindingly beautiful – and somewhat haunting – brick-built landscape we’re sure you’ll see in brick form. Constructed from over 50,000 pieces, this is Huynh Khang and Ky Duy Phong’s ‘Kraken Shadowy’ pirate ship, and the astonishingly real ocean beneath it.

A literal sea of transparent 1×2 bricks and plates, layered over a rolling base varying in hue and elevation, Huynh Khang and Ky Duy Phong’s creation is perhaps the finest example of a brick-built ocean it’s possible to conceive. Jagged rocks stretch out of the waves like a hand from the depths, looking perilously close to the wonderful mini-figure-crewed pirate ship navigating the waters around them.

Beautifully lit, photographed and presented, there’s a whole lot more to see of the ship – and the spectacular ocean it sails upon – at Khang Huynh’s ‘Kraken Shadowy’ album. Click the link above to jump into the ocean.