Whilst this crumbling ruin in the corner of the internet is (mostly) a Lego Car Blog, we do like a Good Train. Which is probably the nerdiest sentence written outside of The Brothers Brick. Still, this is a very Good Train indeed, and it comes from previous bloggee Nikolaus Lowe.
A replica of a 1908 German steam locomotive ‘PtL 2/2 Glaskasten’, Nikolaus’ creation includes gorgeous detailing, some wonderful brick-built valve gear, remote control drive, and custom LED lighting front and rear.
Built for a competition there’s more of Nikolaus’ lovely locomotive to see on Flickr, and you can jump back to Germany in 1908 via the link in the text above.
The coolest remote control car of the 1990s was, by far, the TYCO Rebound. Just take a look at the commercial, which is very probably the most ’90s thing ever filmed.
It sure worked on this TLCB Writer, but – alas – not his parents, who never did oblige. Now, decades later, Daniel Church has reawakened this writer’s unfulfilled longing with this stupendous brick-built replica of the indestructible two-sided RC car.
With a suite of Powered-Up components hidden inside, you can even drive Daniel’s creation off a small cliff just like the real thing. Probably.
There’s more of the model to see (including images showing it alongside the ’90s original) at Daniel’s ‘TYCO Rebound 4×4’ album on Flickr, and you can make the jump whilst asking your parents repeatedly for something they could never afford via the link in the text above.
This fantastic creation is a first generation Kodiak C70, a 1980s medium-duty truck marketed across both Chevrolet and GMC for a variety of applications.
Built by TLCB Master MOCer Nico71, this outstanding Technic recreation of the American workhorse captures the Kodiak’s no-nonsense exterior beautifully, but it’s what’s underneath that is most impressive.
Featuring a remote control drivetrain linked to a V8 piston engine under the opening hood, Nico’s model includes all-wheel-drive, servo steering, suspended axles, a locking fifth wheel, opening doors, and either bluetooth control via the LEGO Powered-Up app or IR Control via LEGO Power Functions.
There’s more of the truck to see at Nico’s Brickshelf gallery, where a link to building instructions can also be found, you can watch the model in action via the video below, and you can read Nico’s Master MOCers interview here at The Lego Car Blog to learn how he builds models like this one via the first link in the text above.
It was all going so well at TLCB Towers this morning, until this arrived…
This astonishing creation is a 2,600-piece fully remote-controlled Doosan DL 420-7 wheel loader, driven by four Power Functions motors and powered by a BuWizz bluetooth battery.
It’s the work of the amazing Michał Skorupka, better known as Eric Trax (a TLCB Master MOCer no less), who has replicated the South Korean wheel loader in simply incredible detail.
Working four-wheel-drive, articulated steering, pendular suspension, plus a motorised lifting and tipping bucket arm all feature, and all of which the Elf at the controls used to launch an assault on today’s other four-motor remote control creation.
A brick-based ‘Battle Bots’ inevitably ensued, with the Elves happily riding upon the other combatant machine being squashed in a variety of ways.
Anyway, we have control of both now, so whilst we commence some important ‘testing’ (which may or not be a similar remote control construction machine battle…) you can check out more of Eric Trax’s stunning Doosan DL 420-7 wheel loader via Flickr, Eurobricks, and Brickshelf.
The Lego Car Blog Elves are having a great time this morning. Too slow to run them over but fast enough for them to ride upon, Bricksley’s four-motor Liebherr LR 636 G8 tracked skid-steer loader is providing much amusement to our little workers.
Those four motors are the LEGO Powered-Up variety (meaning they can be controlled via bluetooth), and they power each track, the arm, and the bucket, with two Powered-Up Hubs delivering the control.
The Liebherr’s exterior realism matches the excellent engineering within it too, with outstanding attention to detail, beautifully accurate decals, and perfect presentation making it a specularly life-like creation. Except in the TLCB Office that is, where half-a-dozen mythical creatures are joyfully riding upon it.
It’s all fun and games until one of them falls under the tracks, but until then we’ll continue to enjoy Bricksley’s brilliant build, and you can check it out too to via Eurobricks, or their ‘Liebherr LR 636 G8′ album on Flickr, where over twenty top quality images are available to view.
Longstanding readers of the stupidest Lego site on the internet may be wondering if our mythical little workers, TLCB Elves, have abandoned their famed violence and adopted a more peaceful outlook towards one-another.
Nope.
Today TLCB Staff were back to prising squashed Elves from the floor and glueing Elf-bits back on thanks to Horcik Designs, and this rather excellent looking remotely controlled off-roader.
Powered by twin L Motors, one for each axle, with Servo steering, and suspension achieved through engineered-in chassis-flex, Horcik’s creation is simultaneously simple yet remarkably effective. Rather like a spatula used to separate a smushed Elf from the office carpet.
With limited specialist parts used, Horcik’s 4×4 is easily buildable at home too, and building instructions are available so you can do just that. Head to Eurobricks to find out more, or visit Bricksafe for the complete image gallery and further links.
Here at The Lego Car Blog we are fairly useless when it comes to science fiction builds. Still, they do feature from time to time, despite TLCB Team understanding literally nothing whatsoever about the source material.
With such elaborate fictional spacey contraptions it can be easy to forget that space travel exists today, and is not simply reserved for science fiction. In fact from 1981, it was almost routine.
Such normality was the result of this; the NASA Space Shuttle, a reusable low-orbital air/spacecraft able to deliver people and things to and from space. Five shuttles were constructed and operated 135 missions between them, before the three surviving units were retired in 2011.
This fantastic Technic recreation of the Shuttle pays homage to the design that normalised space travel, and comes from previous bloggee Jeroen Ottens who has packed his model with a suite of Power Functions motors to bring it to life.
The landing gear, cargo-bay doors, robotic arm lift and rotation, satellite solar cell unfolding, and aircraft pitch/roll surfaces can all be controlled remotely, thanks to some very clever packaging and a gearbox to multiply functions, with more to see at both Flickr and the Eurobricks forum.
Many Marvely-type superheros have flown across New York. Or run. Or swung on spiderwebs. Or been propelled by their supersuit/hammer/insertmagicspaceitemhere.
The real heroes of New York however, take the bus.
Nurses, firefighters, police officers, teachers… the people that keep NYC’s engine running, whilst simultaneously not being able to afford to live in it.
Cue the Metropolitan Transportation Authority’s New Flyer XD40 buses, transporting hundreds of unsung heroes across New York City every day.
This superb brick-built recreation of true hero transport comes from previous bloggee JLui15, who has not only captured the New Flyer and its MTA livery beautifully, he’s packed it with working functions, including motorised drive, steering, and opening doors controlled via an SBrick.
There’s much more of the New Flyer XD40 to see at Flickr, Eurobricks, and in the video below, and you can join the everyday heroes transiting New York on board via the links in the text above.
The future of BMW M-cars is electric. And automatic. The current M2 is already confirmed to be the final manual M-car, and – if the horrendous new BMW XM is any indication – the future of BMW’s M-division looks fat, almost comically ostentatious, and immensely, unfathomably, ludicrously ugly. Make your own ‘Your Mom’ joke.
Which is probably why the original 1980s BMW ‘E30’ M3, weighing under 1,200kgs and powered by a four-cylinder engine that made less than 200bhp, is being seen as something of an antidote to the overblown ridiculousness of today’s M-cars.
This lovely Technic recreation of BMW’s M-car high water mark was found on Eurobricks, and comes from previous bloggee apachaiapachai. There’s remote control drive and steering courtesy of LEGO’s Control+ motors and app, opening doors, and that’s it. Which makes it every bit as wonderfully simple as the real E30 M3.
There’s more to see at the Eurobricks forum, and you can take a look via the link above.
One of the coolest liveries in motorsport has got to be Toyota’s diagonal sunset-coloured TRD striping. Seemingly unchanged since the ’80s, said livery has appeared on everything from NASCARs to Baja trucks, and it’s the latter we have here today.
Built by SpaceHopper, this superb Toyota T100 Baja off-road truck features Control+ remote control drive and steering, working suspension, a fully-caged interior, stunning attention to detail, and – most importantly – a simply brilliant recreation of Toyota’s famous TRD livery.
There’s more of Space’s Toyota T100 Baja model to see at both Flickr and Eurobricks, and you make the jump somewhere in the desert via the links above.
This magnificent model is a Ural-4320 6×6 truck, a Soviet-era general purpose military truck first built in 1977, and still in production today.
Powered by a naturally-aspirated V8 diesel or a V6 turbodiesel, the Ural-4320 is very slow, but able to carry a variety of loads, from troops to rocket launchers, over almost any terrain. Well, unless the Russian Army recruits behind the wheel abandon them and run.
Which is what has occurred in Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, with over six-hundred Ural-4320s destroyed or abandoned, and around fifty captured a repurposed by the Ukrainian military, according to Dutch open-source intelligence group Oryx. Which is marvellous.
This phenomenal fully remote controlled Model Team recreation of the Ural-4320 comes from Russian builder and previous bloggee Michael217, who has brilliantly captured not just the aesthetics of the real truck, but also much of the driveline too.
A LEGO Buggy motor powers all six wheels, each of which is suspended and fitted with a portal axle, there’s Servo steering (that turns the steering wheel too), a high/low gearbox, opening doors and hood, a detailed engine, and an open load area ready to be fitted with a variety of Russian (or Ukrainian…) equipment.
There’s much more of Michael’s amazing model to see at the Eurobricks discussion forum, you can find the full image gallery at Bricksafe here, and you can watch the truck in action via the video below.
It’s been a while since the last Elven smushing, but fear not Fans of Elven Violence, because today’s creation squished several of our little workers before we could get to the controls. The work of previous bloggee apachaiapachai, this neat Technic pick-up features remotely controlled twin L-Motor all-wheel-drive, steering, suspension, and BuWizz bluetooth power, with plenty of ground clearance to make the most its off-road drivetrain. Free building instructions available (one hundred TLCB points to apachai) and you can find out more about the build at the Eurobricks forum or via Rebrickable. Click the links to take a look, whilst we try to remember the best combination of cleaning products for removing Elven bodily fluids from the office carpet.
Thanks to the combination of a worldwide pandemic, the scumbaggery of Putin, and the greed of energy companies, petrol prices peaked in the TLCB’s home nation at over £2 per litre. For those in the States, that’s around $6 per gallon. Which made TLCB staff very much ponder hijacking a petrol tanker.
Cue today’s creation, which is a Scania P-Series tanker truck, as constructed by previous bloggee damjan97PL. Unfortunately for the impoverished staff here at The Lego Car Blog, there is no liquid gold inside, but the model is packed with other goodness, including remote control drive and steering, a six-cylinder piston engine under the tilting cab, and a lifting third axle.
Building instructions and a video of the model in action are available, and you can see more of damjan’s Scania tanker at the Eurobricks forum with the complete image gallery hosted via Bricksafe.
This astonishing creation is a fully-working 1:10 scale pick-up based tow truck, inspired by the bespoke Isuzus in use by Slovenia’s Automobile Association. Designed and constructed by Zerobricks – one of the team behind the 5-star rated BuWizz bluetooth brick – no fewer than eleven motors accurately recreate the functions of Slovenia’s real roadside recovery vehicles.
Two BuWizz 3.0 bricks power and control those eleven motors, which drive all four wheels, a high/low gearbox, working steering, three differential locks, a winch, and – of course – the brilliantly engineered rear lift, which can raise/lower, extend, and lock/grab the wheels of the vehicle to be towed, all of which can be controlled remotely via bluetooth.
A suite of manual functions compliment the electronic wizardry, including all-wheel suspension, a V8 engine, LED lights, opening doors, hood and tool compartments, and 3D-printed brake discs, whilst accurate decals and brick-built accessories such traffic cones and fuel cans further enhance the model’s likeness to the full-size AMZS trucks.
It’s a spectacular creation that beautifully demonstrates the combined power of LEGO Technic and the BuWizz bluetooth battery and control system, and there’s a lot more to see at the Eurobricks forum, including full specifications, digital renders of the internal mechanisms, and further imagery, plus you can watch the model in action alongside its real-life counterpart via the excellent video below.
Click the links to take a closer look, or here to visit the BuWizz store if you’re interested in how their amazing bluetooth brick could add superpower to your creations.
Here at The Lego Car Blog we spend a lot of time mocking other countries’ cars, mostly because you don’t know who we are or where we live. However our home nation isn’t immune from making a vehicular anomaly or two, so today we’re very much looking in the mirror and sheepishly recognising the plastic three-wheeled catastrophe peering back at us. Yup, it’s the Reliant Robin.
Britain produced a huge variety of tiny three-wheeled cars in the post-war years, a time when materials were rationed, many people were poor, and many more didn’t have driving licenses. Three-wheelers were one solution, requiring fewer parts (a 25% reduction in wheels alone) and only a motorcycle license to operate.
By far the most successful of these was the Reliant Robin, which was so numerous it remains the second best-selling fibreglass car of all time. This success led to it sticking around far longer than it should have done however, when Reliant – once Britains second-largest car maker by volume – really should’ve invested in other things. Production (and the Reliant company) finally ended in the early-2000s, and another British car manufacturer disappeared forever.
Today we’re paying homage to the humble slightly-rubbish British icon thanks to EvilEnderman and this heroically unstable BuWizz-powered Technic recreation, which is equipped with far more power than its three-wheeled chassis can handle. Cue a great degree of crashing, which you can watch at the Eurobricks forum here, plus you can find more images of the remote control Reliant at Bricksafe.
