Tag Archives: mini-figure

Yavin’ a Rebellion

TLCB Staff are leaving the comfort of their garages today and heading to the jungle moon Yavin 4, where the Rebel Alliance are planning an audacious attack on the Galactic Empire.

Hidden inside an ancient temple, a multitude of mini-figure Rebels, their X-Wing and Y-Wing fighters, and a handful of helpful droids are readying themselves for the momentous mission.

Constructed by Flickr’s Viktor Fäldt, this enormous brick-built recreation of the Rebel Alliance headquarters features an array of exceptional details from ‘Star Wars: A New Hope’, plus the aforementioned starfighters, hover trollies, and the encroaching jungle outside.

There’s a whole lot more to see of Viktor’s exceptional Star Wars diorama at this photostream, and you can head to Yavin 4 too via the link above.

Magnificent Mog

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.

Neeeaaaw Whudhudhuhdua…

Pew pew, neeeaaaw, whudhudhudhudua, ploouuuumph, glaaaark! As has been documented on this pages, TLCB are not Star Wars fans. Which is probably why we like ‘Episode 1; The Phantom Menace’, because real Star Wars fans seem to dislike it greatly, and there’s a race in the middle of it with a cacophony of noises most likely made from various household appliances and some audio nicked from Formula 1.

Cue this exquisite recreation of Anakin Skywalker’s podracer (which deployed the aforementioned F1 soundtrack), flying through the desert of wherever it was they were racing being chased by the one that went ‘whudhudhuhdua’. Flickr’s Thomas Jenkins is its maker and you can join the smorgasbord of sounds at his photostream via the link above. Neeeeaaaaw! Kahsmuuush!!

Roving Mad

There’s under a week to go of this year’s Febrovery, with dozens of lunar rovers of all shapes and sizes created so far. Which means dozens of creations about which TLCB Writers – whose comfort zone really doesn’t extend much beyond ‘double-overhead cam’ – know nothing. Still, we like spacey things, so here are three of our favourites so far…

Here in TLCB’s home nation we’re pretty sure that some of the vehicles on our roads are helmed by plant-life, so non-reactive are they to any stimulus around them. Here it’s invariably an ageing small hatchback (most often a Peugeot) with a pink ‘Powered by Fairydust’ sticker on the tailgate, but Austin Vail‘s botanically-driven lunar rover is something far more retro-futuristic! Inspired by the bubble-canopied concept cars of the 1950s and ’60s, Austin’s design is ideal transportation for the flowers within, and there’s more to see of his ‘FloraTron Mooncruiser’ on Flickr.

Like, space dudes, we’re totally surfing the Mercury Nebula! There’s a Duplo van in the centre of the Scott Wilhem‘s ‘S.U.R.F for Extra Terrestrial Intelligence’ rover, and a whole lot of ‘greebling’ on the outside. The smiling classic spaceman looks pretty stoked by his ride, and you can catch a cosmic wave at Scott’s photostream via the link above.

And lastly… Blacktron aren’t just about thieving things from the other ‘trons – they need downtime too. And thus here they are tending to some crystal snails. Flickr’s Frost (aka TFDesigns!) is the maker of the ‘Blacktron Surveyor’ and you can join the mini-figures of Blacktron chilling out with some galactic gastropods via the link.

Back to the Studio

Unlikely as it may sound today, in the 2010s the biggest television programme in the world came from an old airfield hangar just outside of Guildford, in which three middle-aged men talked about cars.

The newly rebooted BBC ‘Top Gear’ grew from its producer having to pay audience members from his own pocket to stick around to the end of filming, to the most-watched television event on the planet. Over twenty seasons, dozens of cross-country adventures, and countless celebrity laps in reasonably-priced cars are now embedded in the memory of an entire generation, and Flickr’s NV Carmocs takes us right back to the height of mid-2010’s television with his fabulous homage to the place where it was all made.

With mini-figure versions of Top Gear’s three most famous hosts, a studio audience, and some of the most iconic vehicles and sets from the show, NV Carmocs has captured a hundred Top Gear memories in one spectacular diorama.

The studio set includes ‘The Cool Wall’, a V8 coffee table, the ‘Power Board’, and the plinth for perhaps Top Gear’s most famous ever vehicle, the near-destroyed late-’80s Toyota Hilux, also faithfully recreated in brick form.

There’s a huge amount more to see of NV Carmocs’ incredible mini-figure BBC Top Gear Studio diorama at their Flickr photostream, where over a dozen high quality images are available to view, plus even more of the starring Top Gear vehicles themselves.

Click the link above to go back to studio, and to take yourself back to when Sunday night TV couldn’t get any better…

Taco Tuesday


This TLCB Writer likes to think he’s impervious to product placement, advertisements, and online marketing.

But ALL he wants right now is tacos. Dwelve’s Chevy Step-Van food truck is the cause, and you can join this writer in the queue via the link.

Black to the Future


This TLCB Writer is over new cars. Unending app updates, simulated ‘manual’ transmissions, three sub-menus to turn on the heater, and constant bonging to tell you to sit up straight, that you’re 1mph over the speed limit of the road next to you, and that the width to the central white line is narrower than the car itself. Bleugh.

We’d go back to analog cars any day, and it seems the villains of Blacktron have done just that, deploying a unique combustion-powered buggy to avoid leaving a digital footprint for the Space Police to follow.

That they’ve also made it look like every ‘70s concept car is even better, and you can see more retro-futurism Blacktron style courtesy of Flickr’s Kristof and his Febrovery entry via the link.

The Human Centipede

It’s Febrovery! That time of year when members of the Lego Community get into line, following closely behind one-another to build rovers all shapes and sizes. None seem to be the wares of the defunct British car company which shares the name, to this site’s continual disappointment, but there are some marvellous contraptions nonetheless. This one, a sort of centipede of mini-figures, comes from Nikolaus Lowe, and you can join the back of it on Flickr via the link above.

The Lego Boxcar Blog

We’re switching asphalt for rails today, thanks to Pieter Post and these utterly beautiful turn-of-the-century boxcars. Almost 50,000 G10 boxcars such as these were in use across Germany before the First World War, when they transported pretty much everything across the country. The two wonderfully created examples shown here join a host of others, and you can see more of Pieter’s exquisite brick-built freight cars on Flickr. Click the link above to take a look.

Knuckledragger

No we’re not talking about ‘Immigration and Customs Enforcement’ officers again, but rather this utterly splendid Volvo FH 8×4 truck, complete with a rear-mounted Fassi knuckleboom crane. Constructed by TLCB Master MOCer and regular bloggee Ralph Savelsberg, the model recreates a truck in use by British heavy haulage firm ‘Rawcliffe and Sons’, with accurate decals replicating the livery of its real-world counterpart. Brick-built outriggers and posable four-wheel steering also feature, and you can drag your knuckles over to Ralph’s photostream for more superb imagery via the link above.

Special Weapons And Tactics

When America’s government need highly trained police officers to go into the most dangerous situations, they call for S.W.A.T, or ‘Special Weapons And Tactics’.

And when they need ill-trained thugs to shoot an unarmed nurse outnumbered 8:1 ten times, they call for ICE.

We’ll stick with the former today, firstly because we have this awesome Chevy P30 S.W.A.T van straight outta Gotham City, and secondly because if S.W.A.T are here we’re less likely to get shot by Immigration & Customs Enforcement.

This splendid brick-built version of the police units trained to do things properly comes from previous bloggee Sam Andreas, and you can join them on the streets of Gotham via the link above. Which has got to be safer than being on the actual streets of America when ICE are around…

Anonymous Adventure

Communism seemed to ban, amongst others things, inventive vehicle names, which all seemed to be a collection of numbers and letters. Which makes titling a post about one of them rather tricky, but no matter because the model is rather lovely.

It’s a UAZ 469B as built by PigletCiamek, and it’s also got a spicy back-story too, involving explorers and a rocket-launcher. Join the anonymously-named off-roader on an adventure in the desert via the link above.

Slingshot

It’s not just Dennis the Menace and old-timey scallies in the park who were armed with catapults. Because this is an Arado Ar 196, a Second World War German reconnaissance floatplane, powered by a 1,000bhp BMW radial engine, and stationed on every German capital ship during the war – from which it was launched by catapult.

This splendid recreation of the Ar 196 – and the ship-mounted catapult from which they were propelled – is the work of Flickr’s Veynom, who has captured the floatplane brilliantly in brick form. Catapult yourself over to Veynom’s photostream to take a closer look via the link in the text above.

A Snail’s Space

If Terry Pratchett can have a giant space turtle then we guess Tim Goddard can have a snail. This is – according to its aforementioned maker – a ‘Lunt Snail’ from the Cerulean Nebula, grown from the size of a fist and trained to haul loads across the galaxy via copious food-based encouragement. And who are we to argue with that? Oh yeah, a car blog. Ok, we’ll get back to cars shortly, but until then you can take a look in Tim’s shell via the link above.

Whisking Through Space

The Lego Car Blog Elves are still in deep space for some reason, and thus we’re following the last spacey build with another. An explosion of grey bricks bursting forth from a blue shell, Flickr’s Scott Wilhelm has deployed binoculars, ice-picks, Technic conrods, and even a whisk in the creation of his Neo-Classic Spaceship. Attempt to find them all – plus a lot more besides – at his photostream via the link above.