Tag Archives: Off-Road

Horse for a Cow

Leave a reply

We’re alternately off-roading at TLCB today, thanks to Master MOCer Thirdwigg and this neat Steyr-Puch Pinzgauer, an immensely capable military truck named after an Austrian cattle breed and built until the mid-‘00s.

Constructed from 755 parts of LEGO’s 42213 Technic Ford Bronco set, Thirdwigg’s recreation of the unusual Austrian off-road truck includes working suspension, steering, a mid-mounted piston engine, an opening hood, and – most importantly – a lunchbox.

Building instructions are available and you can click here to swap your American horse for an Austrian cow.

Seeing Red

Leave a reply

It’s been some time since one of our Elves ran over its colleagues with a remote control creation. And that doesn’t change today, as despite being epically remote controlled, this magnificent Tatra trial truck is too slow to run down any Elves at all. Which enraged the Elf that found it. Still, a Red Smartie will perk it up, and we can take a look at this astonishing creation without having to clean the floors first.

It comes from TLCB Master MOCer Sariel, and it’s a Tatra 813 8×8 designed specifically for going very slowly over almost anything.

Eight-wheel-drive, four-wheel-steering, high/low gearbox, incredible suspension, and a working piston engine all feature, and you can see more of this mighty machine on Flickr and via the video below, where Sariel pulls some very heavy things (very slowly) across his floor.

YouTube Video

Cor-Off-Roada

Leave a reply

As the world’s best selling car, the Toyota Corolla has been many things, but not often a 4×4 desert racer. Cue Randy Wilmenta, who has built his 1989 Corolla GT-S into an awesome all-wheel-drive off-roader, which Eurobricks’ 2GodBDGlory has faithfully recreated in Technic form.

With working all-wheel drive courtesy of two Power Functions L Motors (hooked up to both a transverse inline-4 piston engine and a remotely-operable 6+R gearbox), remote control steering, an electronic hand-brake, motorised clutch, pop-up headlights and differential lock, plus suspension, and opening doors, hood and trunk, 2God’s recreation of the unique Toyota packs in as much as its real-world counterpart.

3D-printed wheels and an excellent classic Toyota livery complete a superb build, and you can find out more about the model and the real off-road Corolla it replicates via the Eurobricks forum. Take a look via the link, where you can also watch a video of 2God’s brilliant build in action.

LEGO Technic 42238 Ducati Desmo450 MX Factory | Set Preview

Leave a reply

It’s been so long since a group of our Elves were dispatched to The LEGO Company’s HQ to find the H2 2026 Technic sets we assumed any that hadn’t returned had been eaten by the guard dogs. But no! We have one more survivor, who arrived at TLCB Towers last night with this; the brand new LEGO Technic 42238 Ducati Desmo450 MX Factory!

A return to off-road motorcycles, 42238 brings Ducati’s first ever motocross bike to the 2026 Technic line-up, with 457 pieces, working steering, suspension, and a single-cylinder engine.

It looks great too, neatly replicating the Ducati’s red-and-gold colour scheme and including some good-looking be-stickered fairings.

Aimed at ages 10+, 42238 will be on sale from August for an expected $50 / £45 / €50 and looks to be a decent addition to LEGO’s officially-licensed bike catalogue.

Al-tow-native

Leave a reply

With over four-thousand pieces, the LEGO Technic 42082 Rough Terrain Crane is one of the largest sets ever released. Which means there are plenty of parts with which to create something new. Cue TLCB Master MOCer Nico71, who has constructed a number of alternates from the vast set, with his latest being this; a fantastic Mercedes-Benz Unimog tow-truck.

Utilising around 3,500 of 42082’s pieces, Nico’s phenomenal B-Model features no less than five motorised functions, plus four-wheel-drive, an inline-6 piston engine under a tilting cab, working steering and suspension, and opening doors, toolboxes and compartments.

Like the donor set, a single motor provides motion to a huge array of functions via a sophisticated gearbox, with Nico’s B-Model cleverly including reverse switches so the battery box can be switched on and left.

Working stabiliser legs, an articulated towing-platform, an elevating and extending crane boom, and a winch (which is ingenuously synchronised with the boom to maintain its hook level) are all operable through a series of levers, allowing Nico’s Unimog to function exactly like the real thing.

It’s an astonishing alternate and perhaps the very best B-Model build that this site has ever published, with full details, engineering diagrams, and a link to building instructions available at the Eurobricks forum. Find all of the above and convert your own 42082 Rough Terrain Crane set into this amazing alternate via the link, plus you can watch the model in action via the video below.

YouTube Video

Czech Meight

Leave a reply

It’s been a while since we had a trial truck here at TLCB Towers, but we’re making up for it today. This is Madoca 1977’s Tatra T813 8×8 Kolos, and it’s one of the most capable we’ve seen yet.

Controlled via a Smart Hub, two L Motors drive all eight fully-suspended wheels via planetary reduction, a M Motor drives the steering, whilst another M Motor operates the high/low gearbox.

Madoca’s model also includes a V12 engine, a removable cab, plus opening doors and hatches, with lots more to see at the Eurobricks forum. Click the link above for a closer look.

B is for BuWizz

Leave a reply


TLCB Elves are running for their lives today, because this tremendous Technic remote control Group B rally car is roaring up and down the office corridor. TLCB staff may or may not be at the controls…

Constructed by TLCB Master MOCer Nico71, entered into last year’s BuWizz Gathering, and inspired by a number of ‘80s rally machines, it shows the best of what can be achieved with LEGO Technic and compatible third-party electronics.


Twin LEGO Buggy Motors, Servo steering, all-wheel double-wishbone suspension, a mid-mounted V6 engine, opening doors, hood and tailgate, and BuWizz 2.0 Bluetooth control all feature, as do building instructions so you can create Nico’s model for yourself to terrorise the animals in your own house.

There’s loads more to see at the Eurobricks forum and you can make a beeline there via the link above, plus you can watch Nico’s creation in action via the video below.

YouTube Video

LEGO 77984 Jurassic Park Jeep Wrangler | Set Preview

Leave a reply

An adventure 2,000 bricks in the making… this is the brand new LEGO 77984 Jurassic Park Jeep Wrangler!

Crashing through cinema screens back in 1993, the square-headlamped Jeep Wrangler instantly became an icon of film, despite being quite literally in the shadow of pursuing dinosaurs.

Part of an expansive new LEGO ‘Jurassic World’ line-up that includes dinosaur skeletons, Duplo, and mini-figure scale sets, 77984 brings one of the most recognisable movie cars of all time to the 18+ Icons range.

Constructed from 1,924 pieces, including a trick new canvas roof, 77984 allows for any one of four different variants of the Jurassic Park Jeep to be created. All feature working steering via the spare wheel, a lovely engine under an opening hood, opening doors, a variety of accessories from the movie, plus an info plaque and a Dennis Nedry mini-figure ready to meet a gruesome end.

Expected to cost £179.99 / $199.99 / €199.99, you’ll be able to get your claws on the LEGO 77984 Jurassic Park Jeep Wrangler set from May 2026.

Double Head

Leave a reply

This bizarre machine is a 1984 DAF ‘Double-Head’, built to compete in the Paris-Dakar rally by Dutch driver Jan de Rooy, who wanted more power than one DAF truck could provide. So he used two.

Joining two 11.6 litre DAF 3300s back-to-back behind the cabs, Jan created a twin-engined all-wheel-drive 13-ton behemoth, and one of the strangest Dakar competitors to ever enter.

Sadly the DAF ‘Double-Head’ failed to finish, but it set the template for Jan de Rooy to refine the idea and return with a vehicle that would go on to become a Dakar legend…

But we’ll stay in 1984 for now, courtesy of this spectacular recreation of the DAF ‘Double-Head’ by Flickr’s p.vanderloo, who has replicated not just the truck’s mad exterior but its drivetrain too.

A beautifully replicated livery and full LED lights complete the build, and you can head to the desert in 1984 – twice – via the link above.

Not in Iran

Leave a reply

If you’ve been vaguely aware of the news over the past few weeks it’s been getting a bit bomby in the Middle East.

That’s because President Trump knew that Iran were going to start a war with America, a war that they in fact started 47 years ago, and so he started a war himself, that’s not a war, that Iran started. Ok it might be a war, but it’s not about regime change. It’s about Iran’s imminent use of the nuclear weapons that America “completely and totally obliterated” only last year. Although the regime has also changed.

Anyway, the not-a-war will only last a few weeks, in fact it’s already been won. Although it might go on forever. And NATO need to grow a pair a get involved. Not that Trump needs them.

And if all that sounds like the ravings of an unfiltered toddler making the words up literally as they leave their mouth, that’s because it is.

Thus here’s NATO’s actual front line – the one designed to keep America safe from the Soviet Union behind the buffer of Europe, which isn’t in the Middle East at all – a tremendous Czech Tatra 815-7 8×8 Starkom electronics jammer.

Constructed by Samuel Nerpas (aka Tatrovak), this incredible creation features all-wheel-drive and all-wheel-steering via eight Power Functions XL Motors and two Servos, working all-wheel suspension with adjustable ride height via two M Motors, and pneumatically driven stabilisers via another M Motor. Two CaDa micromotors power the roof-mounted weapons system, with all fifteen operable remotely via a pair of BuWizz Bluetooth bricks, plus there’s a tilting cab complete with a fully detailed interior, opening doors and hatches.

It’s a hugely impressive build, and you can take a closer look at what is still the front line of NATO, which is not in Iran, via both Eurobricks and Flickr.

Lime Crush

1 Reply


It’s been a quiet week here at TLCB Towers. Elves have returned, creations have been published, and no-one’s been squashed at all. Until today.

This enormous lime green machine is a 1980s Terex 33-11C, actually one of Terex’s smaller mining trucks, and one that was used extensively in Britain’s open cast mines.

It comes from Flickr’s Beat Felber who has not only expertly recreated the 33-11C’s exterior, he’s fitted his spectacular creation with remote control drive, steering, and tipping, courtesy of an SBrick programmable Bluetooth controller and a suite of Power Functions motors.

Being a mining truck of course, Beat’s Terex is much too slow to run over any TLCB Elves, but the Elf that found it took great care loading it up with gravel from the pot plant in the corridor, reversed slowly up to some of its unsuspecting colleagues, and promptly tipped the load on top of them. And then ran them over. Sigh.

Points for Elven ingenuity we suppose. Anyway, whilst we tidy that up you can check out more of Beat’s superb Terex 33-11C at his Flickr album of the same name. Click the link above to take a look.

Magnificent Mog

Leave a reply

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.

Steyr Master

Leave a reply

Things to come out of Austria; Arnold Schwarzenegger, Swarovski crystal, Red Bull, and, um… Adolf Hitler. And this! The Steyr tractor.

Constructed by previous bloggee Keko007 it’s a 6300 CVT, and it’s equipped with a rather dangerous-looking Rata Mounted Maxitill.

Working steering and a rear hitch feature, and you can drink a Red Bull on your way to becoming Governor of California via the link above.

Roving Mad

Leave a reply

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.

Black to the Future

Leave a reply


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.