Tag Archives: modified

Red Removal

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LEGO’s fictional energy company has been supplying fuel to planes, cars and boats, as well as sponsoring pretty much every vehicle in LEGO City with a number, since ’92. Cue TLCB Master MOCer Dennis Glaasker (aka bricksonwheels), who has taken Octan’s iconic white, red and green colour scheme and flipped it to create this huge custom Peterbilt 389 and Polar tanker combo.

Constructed for the Legoworld Show in the Netherlands, Dennis’ spectacular 1:15 tanker features unique decals, custom chrome, and a livery so cool we don’t miss the red absent from Octan’s usual colour-scheme at all.

There’s more of Dennis’ stunning creation to see at his ‘Peterbilt Octan Tanker Combo’ Flickr album, plus you can find out how he creates amazing models like this one via his interview here at TLCB via the first link in the text above.

Ampere Romeo

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Ripping the piston-engined heart out of a classic Alfa Romeo to replace it with batteries and an electric motor is either a brilliant modernisation or an abominable travesty, depending on your school of thought. Now we’ve started that fight, here’s an example of a car that’s done just that (at least, a stunning Lego Technic replica of one); this is Zeta Racing‘s fantastic Totem Automobili Alfa Romeo Giulia GT Electric.

Replicating their jaw-dropping resto-mod of Alfa Romeo’s classic sports saloon, Zeta has recreated every curve of Totem’s wonderfully restyled Giulia GT brilliantly in Technic form, with working steering, suspension, and a superbly detailed interior too.

The hood raises (although of course there’s no engine underneath it), and the doors and trunk open too. In fact Zeta has photographed his incredible creation in the front trunk of the real Totem Giulia GT Electric (where its engine once lived), making us wonder if he could build a smaller version of his own model to place under its hood…

Travesty or brilliance, Totem’s electric Alfa Romeo is certainly exquisitely engineered, and you can see more of the real car plus this equally spectacular Technic replica at Zeta Racing’s photostream. Click the link above to go electric.

Custom Camping

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This unusual looking vehicle is a classic Chevrolet C30 pick-up, outfitted with a camper top, a dually rear axle (with LEGO’s weirdest wheels), suicide rear doors, and dropped to a completely impractical height. There’s also complete cabin and camper interior, an inline-6 Cummins engine, and an enormous amount of openings, including cabin doors, camper rear door, hood, and even fridge. Flickr’s Tim Inman owns the mind behind it and you can head to Camp Custom via the link above.

Honour in Tokyo

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We can’t really remember what happens in ‘The Fast and the Furious; Tokyo Drift’, except that one of the characters inexplicably comes back from the dead several movies later, and the Yakuza somehow agree to a street race to decide honour or something.

Anyway, it did have some cool cars, including this modified Nissan Fairlady / 350Z VeilSide, which drifted around a multi-storey car park to decide honour or something.

This excellent Technic recreation of that car comes from previous bloggee ArtemyZotov, who has captured the wide-body exterior and art-car paint from the movie, with the model also featuring a working V6 engine, steering, and opening doors, hood and trunk.

There’s more of Artemy’s ‘Tokyo Drift’ Nissan Fairlady Z to see at the Eurobricks forum, including a link to building instructions so you can race it around at home. For honour or something. Drift over to Tokyo via the link above.

It’s Got a Crate V8, Mate

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Chevrolet’s third-generation Camaro was not just a huge visual departure from its ’70s predecessor, it had fuel injection, a hatchback, and was over 200kgs lighter than the second generation. All of which added up to a car that was faster, more agile, and more economical.

Except that first bit. Because even the 5.0 V8-engined Camaros made…. 145bhp. Chevrolet upped that with a new V8 engine a few years after the third-generation Camaro launched, but it still didn’t trouble 200bhp.

Which is rather different from what Chevrolet offers today, as in 2025 you can buy, brand new, a 1,000bhp crate engine. And put it in anything.

The guys at Hoonigan have done just that, dropping said 1,000bhp Chevrolet crate engine straight into a third-generation Camaro. And the resultant car is rather more lively than it was back in the early-’80s.

Cue previous bloggee and TLCB Master MOCer Firas Abu-Jaber, who has recreated Hoonigan’s wild third-generation Camaro in brick form, complete with that outrageous engine, working steering, opening doors and rear hatch, a detailed interior, and authentically replicated decals.

There’s much more of the model to see at Firas’ ‘Hoonigan Camaro’ album on Flickr, you can find instructions for Firas’ builds at his excellent ‘Bricks Garage’ website, and you can read his interview here at The Lego Car Blog via the first link in this post.

Take a look via the links above, whilst we try to figure out if a 1,000bhp Chevrolet crate motor will fit in the engine bay of the office Rover 200…

What Bike?

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Sometimes the transporter is cooler than thing it transports. Cue RGB900‘s wildly modified Ford Econoline pick-up, designed to transport a racing motorbike. But we’re not looking at the bike when the truck is so deeply cool. Take a closer look at RGB’s photostream, whilst we trawl Bring-a-Trailer for old Ford Econolines…

Nice Wheels

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Almost exactly one year ago, builtbydave_’s wide-body ‘Magic’ Mazda RX-7 appeared on these pages. It drew much admiration from TLCB Team, who secretly wish they were part of Japan’s underground car modifying scene, instead of secretly writing for a janky car website held together by sticky tape and hope.

Dave’s evolution of his RX-7 is doing nothing to dull those dreams, as he’s now equipped his creation with a set of superb 3D-printed Rays TE37 wheels, which are icons in car culture.

First learning Fusion 360, Dave designed his TE37s from scratch, before 3D-printing them at his local library (what a cool library!). The results are – as you can see – fantastic, and add even more authenticity to his already top-drawer build.

There’s more to see at Dave’s ‘TCP Magic Rx7’ album on Flickr, and further details on the tools and training he used to design and produce his very own wheels can be found there too.

Not a Bad Way to Spend $10,000

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The infamous words of Dominic Toretto, after lifting the hood of Brian O’Conner’s modified Mitsubishi Eclipse, and listing several things you wouldn’t be able to see by lifting the hood.

A ludicrous street race and the Mitsubishi’s demise at the hands of a Japanese motorcycle gang would follow, as would ten mostly terrible movies, and a whole load more modified cars.

But back to Brian’s first ride in the franchise, and previous bloggee ArtemyZotov, who has remembered the short-lived Eclipse from ‘The Fast and the Furious’ by recreating it in Technic form, complete with custom rims, opening doors, hood and trunk, working steering, and the option of remote control drive.

There’s more to see at both Eurobricks and Bricksafe, and building instructions are available so you can recreate your own ‘Fast & Furious’ street race at home. Click on the links above to race for pinks, and here to see the Eclipse’s rather more famous replacement.

Hondari

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Inspired or sacrilege? Mike “Stanceworks” Burroughs’ Honda-powered Ferrari 308 is definitely not for the purist, but we’re firmly in the former camp, and think it’s spectacular.

Cue Stephan Jonsson’s fantastic 8-wide Speed Champions homage to Mike’s real-world build, complete with 3D-printed wheels and one of the most impressive brick-built liveries we’ve ever seen (see LEGO, you don’t need a hundred stickers).

There’s lots more of Stephan’s Ferrari ‘244 GTK’ to see on Flickr, and you can check out the real car that inspired it here.

Magic Mazda

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Modifications are an integral part of the automotive scene. Mostly for the worse of course, as Brad in his garage is not going to better the five years and $billions in development completed by the world’s best engineers before each model to hits the market*.

Sometimes though, modifications do work – particularly when the aforementioned engineers embrace this likelihood – and no-one does that better than Japan.

Cue the wild Mazda RX-7 we have here today, which is not only depicting modifications to the real car, it’s also a model modifying another… well, model.

Constructed by builtbydave_, this ‘TCP Magic’ RX-7 is loosely based on a design by fellow bloggee 3D supercarBricks, and features significant aero enhancements, opening doors, and a beautifully detailed 20B 3-rotor engine underneath the raising hood.

There are more superb images of builtbydave_’s modified Mazda to see at his ‘TCP Magic Rx7’ album on Flickr, and you can magic your way there via the link above.

*Not including anything American from the 1990s of course. Or Fiat.

Toyota-ish

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When is a Toyota not a Toyota? When it’s a BMW or a Subaru… At least if the JDM-fanatics of the internet’s comments section are correct.

They’re not correct of course, because a) the fanatics of any brand are morons, and b) because globalisation is the way the car industry operates, and has done for decades.

There are Toyotas that are Mazdas and vice-versa, Toyotas that are Subarus and vice-versa, Toyotas that are Suzukis and vice-versa… and the list goes on and on, including Peugeots, Citroens, Opels, Fiats, Volkswagens, Daihatsus, Chevrolets…

“But what about the Supra?”, the internet cries! Well that does use BMW bits, but they were arranged by Toyota. And put together by neither company. Plus – whisper it – there are BMWs with Toyota parts too…

Thus we’d happily have a Toyota Supra, or a GT86, each of which shares more than a little with cars from other manufacturers.

Cue newcomer builtbydave_’s awesome modified versions of the Toyota Supra and GR86, er… we mean Subaru BRZ, each wearing a wide-arch body kit that makes them even less Toyotary than when they left the factory.

Photographed brilliantly and featuring some clever building techniques, each ‘Toyota’ is well worth a closer look, and you can do just that at builtbydave_’s ‘Subaru BRZ’ and ‘Streethunter Toyota Supra’ albums respectively. Just don’t look too closely or you might find a BMW logo…

Pimp My Duplo

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The genius of LEGO is that every part can work with every other, across themes, times and even sub-brands. Cue regular bloggee Jonathan Elliott, who has demonstrated this compatibility by combining a LEGO Duplo car shell with far more intricate System pieces. The result is one heck of a rad’ toddler ride, and you can see more of his inspired Duplo/System mash-up on Flickr via the link above.

Black Box

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A few months ago the coolest car we’ve ever published appeared on this page. A mildly modified Volvo 242 Coupe, it was everything we could want in a 1980s Volvo. Except of course, to be a proper 1980s Volvo, it should’ve been an estate…

Now its maker Stephan Jonsson has constructed a station wagon counterpart, in the form of this fabulous Volvo 245, also lightly modified and fitted with a brick-built T6 Turbo engine. There’s even a tow-bar. Don’t be fooled by that rear ‘spoiler’; it’s a wind deflector for a caravan.

We’ve never wanted a car more, and there’s more to see of Stephan’s wonderful Volvo 245 T6 Turbo at his album of the same name. Click the link above to make the jump.

Greener Beemer

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The seventies has some wild colours. And brown. Mostly brown in fact, but no matter, because this super-slammed ’70s BMW 2002 tii is gloriously green.

PleaseYesPlease is the builder and you can see more of his greener Beemer on Flickr via the link.

The Ultimate Driving Machine

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BMW’s ‘E30’ generation 3-Series has become a cult car. Small, light, rear-wheel-drive, and without an over-complicated twin-scroll turbo in sight, the E30 is the antidote to whatever horror BMW is making these days.

Cue TLCB favourite Thirdwigg, who has recreated the late-’80s BMW 3-Series brilliantly in Technic form. Built in both sedan and estate forms, Thirdwigg’s E30s are subtly modified with lowered suspension, a modest body-kit, and – in the case of the sedan – a V8 engine swap.

We’d rather take the estate’s Inline-6 though, and with free building instructions for both (a hundred TLCB Points Thirdwigg!), presumably you can switch out the sedan’s V8 engine with ease. There’s also working steering, opening everything, and much more to see at both Flickr and Eurobricks. Jump back to a time when BMW’s marketing tagline actually meant something via the links above.