A picture says a thousand words, but this image says just one, and that word is ‘Fwooooosh!’. In fact we don’t think any picture has ever said the word ‘Fwooooosh!’ better than this one. It comes from Nick Trotta of Flickr, who has created this brilliant Wipeout-esque space racer in glorious fwooooshishness. There’s much more to see at via the Flickr album by clicking here.
…Completely Different. We’re not sure what’s got into The Lego Car Blog Elves today, but they’ve brought back some properly weird creations over the weekend. Of course we’re a car blog, so we’ll only be blogging those that closely match our title subject. First up, here’s a giant hovering airport tug thingumy!
Built by Flickr’s Vince Toulouse, this ‘Airport Service’ is constructed from a variety of unusual pieces that originated in some of LEGO’s weirdest (and long-forgotten) themes. A Fabuland caravan, rubber Technic bumpers, and a gate from LEGO’s Track System (which we have zero memory of ever existing) all make appearances, and there’s more to see of how they all fit together via the link above.
OK, so we’re wildly off-topic today. We may as well continue with this, a bi-pedal walking tank arrangement by Flickr’s Chris Perron. Named the CAMEL, Chris’ creation also features some ingenious parts usage including pieces from Bionicle, Technic steering racks, and of course that biosphere cockpit. See more at the link!
Next up we have a huge engine with a mini-figure perched on top. Built by previous bloggee David Roberts it’s apparently a ‘Proboscis’ speeder bike, and a championship-winning one at that. We have no idea what championship that may be, but we’re betting it would be fun to watch. Head to Flickr via the link above to see more.
The final creation of today’s four mini-figure scale oddities is an aircraft called the ‘F11-Locust’ built by Sylon-tw of Flickr. Designed in the ‘Sky-Fi’ genre, a sub-theme of a sub-theme of which we know absolutely nothing, it’s a fine way to wrap up today’s four-part special.
There’s more to see of Sylon’s Locust at his photostream via the link above, you can check out each of today’s creations via their respective links in the text, and we’ll be back soon – hopefully when someone somewhere builds a bloody car.
Until next time…
The Oshkosh Heavy Expanded Mobility Tactical Truck (HEMTT) is one of the world’s most versatile vehicles. In use by around sixteen militaries worldwide over 27,000 have been produced since the early 1980s, performing roles as diverse missile launching, fire fighting, towing, and simply carrying cargo. Powered by a variety of engines whatever its purpose the HEMTT can climb slopes of over 60% and ford water up to 1.2m deep.
This particular HEMTT is an M978A4 Fuel Servicing Truck, or ‘tanker’ to the rest of us. and it comes from Evan M of Flickr who has recreated the huge 8×8 truck brilliantly in mini-figure scale. Evan’s model features a whole host of neat playable features and there’s more to see of his Oshkosh HEMTT via the link above.
Lada have come in for some stick here at The Lego Car Blog. Now owned by the Renault-Nissan alliance they’ll be making good cars soon enough, but their legacy is one of reheating the leftovers from Fiat, badly. Apart that is, from one car…
The Niva was not built from bits of old Fiat, but was actually rather sophisticated. Launched in 1977 it was the world’s first mass-produced unibody car, featured independent suspension, and with permanent four-wheel-drive and locking differentials it was as good as a Land Rover off-road.
So good that the design is still being produced today, almost completely unchanged in over 40 years. Despite this it’s a car that doesn’t appear much in Lego form, so de-marco‘s brilliant 4-wide version of the iconic 4×4 makes a refreshing change from the usual Land Rovers and Jeeps. de-marco has captured the design superbly in mini-figure scale and there’s more to see of his little Lada on Flickr via the link above.
Batman, in all his various forms, has owned an expansive range of vehicles. Some were good, some were interesting, and others will be almost instantly forgotten. One of the very best comes not from a Batman Movie, but instead from the successful Arkham Knight range of video games.
The Arkham Knight Batmobile hails from a similar school of thought to the Nolan Trilogy’s ‘Tumblr’ and it’s been brilliantly recreated in mini-figure scale by Lucas Inc. of MOCpages. Lucas’ build uses some ingenious techniques to capture the design and there’s more to see of his Arkham Knight Batmobile via the link above.
Much has been written in the nerdier corners of the online Lego Community about keeping your Lego bricks in the best condition. Put them in the dishwasher. Use baking soda on yellowed white pieces. Keep them away from sunlight. Don’t open the box…
We’re don’t exactly share this school of thought here at The Lego Car Blog, preferring to, you know, use our bricks. Flickr’s PixelJunkie has gone one step further though, and deliberately dirtied his Danish plastic.* We can hear the incredulous tutting from the aforementioned nerds from here… Good.
The creation resulting from Pixel’s liberal application of grime is gloriously realistic, with a ’50s Chevrolet/Frazer-Nash-ish type vehicle suspended above its chassis during restoration inside a wonderfully real-looking workshop, complete with hoist, tools, pallets and lots of dirt!
Click the link above to put on your overalls and get dirty with PixelJunkie on Flickr.
*It might be digital dirt – we’re not sure – but our statement still stands. Get your bricks dirty; it’s more fun that way.
It’s Review Time here at The Lego Car Blog, and for those of you who’ve been reading reviews of LEGO’s large expensive sets and wondering ‘But what about something I can afford?’, this one is for you!
75887 is another result of LEGO’s tie-up with Porsche, which most famously brought us the 42056 Technic 911 GT3 RS set. Aimed at ages 7+, measuring just 6-studs wide, and costing around $15/£12, 75887 is a very different offering to the enormous 911, but it’s no less authentic.
Based upon Porsche’s Le Mans winning 919 Hybrid racing car, 75887 is a mini-figure scale homage to the race-winner, complete with an accurately printed mini-figure driver, a traffic light pole, a laptop piece, and a lot of stickers. We’ll come on to those in a bit…
The build itself takes only around 20 minutes, and includes some lovely SNOT techniques to create the smooth, almost studless aesthetic. As always the instructions are beautifully clear, if a bit over-simplified as has become the way with them these days, and they utilise a few odd-coloured pieces in hidden places, presumably to make the images easier to follow. There’s nothing wrong with that of course, as it possibly means builders will acquire a wider range of parts in their collection quicker, but was it really that taxing when everything was black or grey in the old days?
The resultant shape is pretty good, with any strange colours perfectly hidden from view, and a wide array of curves, bows and tiles used to recreate the 919’s bodywork with reasonable accuracy. The authenticity is further enhanced by no less than twenty-four separate stickers, some of which are no bigger than a stud, and the placement of which takes up around half of the 20 minute build-time.
Applying these may be a little tricky for those at the younger end of 75887’s age range, and to be honest the set probably doesn’t need all of them, but it’s nice that LEGO went all-in!
After much peeling, placing and sticking you’ll have really rather lovely replica of the Porsche 919 Hybrid, (even if it’s a bit stumpy when compared to the real car), that can be zoomed beautifully across a desk and will survive the inevitable plummet to the floor intact to boot.
75887 is probably not the most accurate officially-licensed vehicle in the Speed Champions range, but it’ll be good enough for the target audience, it’s a fun (and reasonably technical) build, and if you like stickers (and what 7 year old doesn’t?) it has them in abundance! A worthwhile starter set, 7/10.
This is not a car. Not even close. But it is really cool and we like Classic Space, so here it is. Built by Flickr’s Kloou in collaboration with two other builders, this 1.2metre tall tower finally gives the humble Classic Spacemen a base of their very own.
Constructed using the baseplates from LEGO’s long-forgotten Soccer range, Kloou’s monument to classic space is an impressive feat of engineering featuring a variety of spacecraft and other vehicles, and is also packed with easter eggs.
Head over to Flickr via the link above to climb the tower, and see if you can spot Darth Vader and Luke’s famous scene, the three-eyed alien from Toy Story, and Batman amongst the classic spacemen.
The Royal Yacht Skytanic is steaming through the skies en-route to Belleville. Soon she will reach the Northern Floating Icefield and the welcome sight of ‘Trusty Rusty’, the twenty-year old floating lightship and its accompanying beacons, stationed to guide air travellers through the perilous sykcicles.
The four-man crew of Trusty Rusty spend over a year on board at a time, facing huge winds and temperatures that drop below -40° in order to keep the sky traffic traversing the route safe.
Flickr’s Markus Ronge has photographed the old lightship beautifully and you can see more of his stunning imagery via Flickr, plus you can remind yourself of the Skytanic’s grand departure from the Maersk Pier and the other boats from the ‘Full Steam’ universe previously featured by clicking here.
She’s finally ready! Departing Maersk Pier on her maiden voyage to Belleville, the Royal Yacht ‘Skytanic’ is the largest, fastest, and most luxurious skyliner ever built. Five stories of cabins, restaurants and bars, the world’s first on-board heated pool, and – of course – the Royal Pavilion, there is surely no finer way than the Skytanic to sail the skies.
Masterminded by Flickr’s Markus Ronge, the Skytanic is deemed to be indestructible. The favoured ship of the Royal family, super-rich industrialists, and the highest of society, she’s sure to have a long and illustrious career navigating the clouds between Ninjago and Belleville. Take a look at all of the glorious photographs from the Skytanic’s maiden launch at Markus’s photostream, whilst we await her successful arrival in Belleville in a few weeks time.
For reasons unknown the Elves were in a steampunk mood today, which is odd as we suspect they know even less about this sub-genre than we do. Still, their finds are splendid, and thus here they are!
Both have been built by Krzysztof Pusz of Flickr and feature some simply ingenious parts usage. First up (above) is the ‘Bulbulator‘, which actually doesn’t look that dissimilar from the steam cars of the early days of motoring. Krzysztof’s second steampunk build looks like nothing from any time period ever, but a steam-powered monowheel does seem a marvellous way to get to Walmart.
There more to see of each brick-built whimsy at Krzysztof’s photostream – head to Flickr via the links above.
Space may look exciting, but it’s mostly a freezing expanse of pointless nothingness. Much like Alaska.
Unlike Alaska though, there are people in space concerned with researching renewable energy, both in real life and in LEGO’s spacey universe, and they’ve got themselves some mighty impressive equipment to help them do it.
This is the Ice Planet 2002 Mobile Research Laboratory built by Master MOCer and TLCB regular Andrea Lattanzio (aka Norton74), and it’s fitted not with guns, but with a range of old-timey LEGO research equipment.
Unfortunately for the Ice Planet scientists the thieving scumbags of Blacktron do have guns, and they’re more than happy to use them to deny scientific progress (sounds a lot like Alaska again…). However the Lego Community have recently taken it upon themselves to equip the Ice Planet researchers with a few weapons of their own, and thus hopefully Andrea’s brilliant Mobile Research Laboratory can continue its valuable work unimpeded.
Join the research into clean renewable energy with Ice Planet 2002 on Flickr here, and you can read how the real guys (NASA) are researching how to combat climate change by clicking here. Even if you’re an Alaskan.
Markus Ronge‘s spectacular sky-fi world ‘Full Steam’ continues here at TLCB. Following the epic Maersk Pier featured earlier in the week Markus has now released individual images of some of the weird and whimsical sky boats that accompany it, including the Cargo Transport above and the Hercules Airtug below.
Head to the skies via the link above for the complete (and expanding) ‘Full Steam’ Flickr album to see more of these builds and the incredible world in which they inhabit.
After being rightly reprimanded for being drunk and disorderly in the Sky Bar last night we’re back on ground level with a bump. But despite the dim, grimy surroundings, this build is no less beautiful than the exquisite masterpiece featured earlier. Built by Flickr’s Pixeljunkie this glorious vintage garage is one of the most wonderfully immersive scenes we’ve ever published. With incredible attention to detail Pixel has captured every tiny component of a typical 1950s workshop, right down to some excellent custom 2×2 tiles on the walls. There’s much more to see of Pixel’s stunning vintage garage at his photostream via the link above, including a link to an oddly mesmerising video.
We’re often drunk here at The Lego Car Blog, as demonstrated by the inane jibba-jabba that regularly streams from our keyboards like racist profanity from an elderly relative at Christmas time.
However no matter how much we drink, we still don’t understand ‘sky-fi’. The whimsy of, er… let’s say the nerdier corners of the online Lego Community (which is itself pretty nerdy), sky-fi seems to blend Edwardian fashion and Dickensian storylines with a complete rejection of the laws of physics. But if you’re going to reject the laws of physics, you may as well reject them in a big way.
Previewed here last month, Markus Ronge‘s brick-built world ‘Full Steam’ has begun, and the results are spectacular. This is the first of several creations Markus has built to inhabit that world; the enormous ‘Maersk Pier’ designed to cater for the luxury airship fraternity, complete with a grand Sky Bar (so patrons can drink and fly) and some of the finest detailing we’ve seen on any creation so far this year.
Despite the fact we have no idea what’s going on or how it works, it’s a place we’d seriously want to visit (if we owned a luxury airship), and with enough alcohol you can probably do just that. In your mind anyway. Head drunkenly skywards via the link in the text above.
