Tag Archives: rescue

Towing Technic

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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.

YouTube Video

Horse Truck

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Surprisingly we don’t think we’ve ever blogged a horse truck here at TLCB (and we’re reluctant to go into the Archives to check properly as there are rumours of a feral band of TLCB Elves inhabiting them).

Today doesn’t change that though, despite the title, as this lovely Dodge M-37 truck is not a horse truck per say, rather it’s here as ground support for [Maks] previously blogged UH-34D Seahorse U.S Navy helicopter.

That means no attractive horsey girls called Arabella, but still an ace scene that would have been commonplace in the 1960s U.S Navy. There’s more to see of [Maks] Dodge M-37 truck and superb Sikorsky Seahorse on Flickr – click the link above to take a look.

Swiss Stork

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This is a Fieseler Fi-156 Storch, a short take-off and landing aircraft designed in Germany in the late 1930s. Oddly, despite Germany being a bit of a bad neighbour at the time, it was also built in the Soviet Union (before the German invasion) and France (during and after the German invasion).

One country not invaded was neutral Switzerland, which is where this Fi-156 Storch (or Stork in English) hails from, being used in the Alps for search and rescue.

Built by Flickr’s daviddstone, this brick-built recreation of the Swiss Stork captures the design brilliantly, including wing and landing-gear struts, skis for snow landings, and a lovely Swiss Cross tail-fin.

There’s more to see of daviddstone’s creation at his photostream – click the link above to fly over the Alps in the 1940s.

Hippocampus Helicopter

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The seahorse is a funny little animal. Delicate looking but with bony armour, they swim upright, have no scales, and the female gives birth to eggs which the male then carries before giving birth live young. That’s shared parenthood right there. It’s also not like a horse in any way, but most things in the sea seem to be named after things on land that they aren’t really like.

Cue the Sikorsky UH-34D Seahorse, which isn’t really like either the sea or land based versions of it’s namesake either. But it is quite a cool device, being one of the last piston-engined helicopters in use in the U.S Navy, operating from the mid-’50s to the 1970s. This one, built by [Maks] of Flickr, is in a rather fetching (and highly visible) orange due to its use in the arctic, and has been quite wonderfully recreated.

Finding the orange parts needed to construct this model must have been tricky as it’s a rather rare colour, and you can see the excellent fruits of [Maks]’s efforts at his photostream. Swim over to Flickr in an upright fashion via the link above.

Ladder 4

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This neat FDNY fire truck was found by one of our Elves on Flickr today. It comes from previous bloggee sponki25, and features rather excellent detailing and numbering made from duct tape! Head to Flickr to see more of Ladder 4, duct tape and all.

Wood You Believe It!

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We’re pretty sure that for some of you reading this your very first car was made out of wood, and looked like this. This marvellous ‘wooden’ fire engine is not wooden at all, and comes from Jens Ohrndorf who has recreated the iconic classic toy beautifully from LEGO pieces. Head out to rescue Mr. Duck, Giraffe, big sister’s Barbie, and whatever other toys are in peril via the link above!

MAZter Firefighter

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TLCB Elves are all making ‘NEE-NAW’ noises today, which isn’t annoying at all. The cause is this, ilya_laushkin‘s incredible MAZ-7313-AA60 8×8 airport fire truck. Catchily-named it isn’t, but masterfully-engineered it is, with eight-wheel-drive, four-wheel-steering, fully independent suspension (via twenty-six shock absorbers!), LED lighting, and bluetooth remote control courtesy of two SBricks. There’s much more of ilya’s amazing MAZ-7313 to see on Flickr, including some shots alongside the real thing. Click the link above to make the jump.

Fighting Fires in the Forest

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Australia is under siege from tragedy right now, with 100,000sq/km burned or burning, thousands of homes destroyed, and millions (yes millions) of animals cooked. Australians love a barbecue, but not like this.

The cause is a prolonged drought, with the fires worsened by high winds. Whether or not the fires are specifically down to climate change, Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison’s dismissal of it (and the fact Australia’s CO2 emissions have been rising every year, not falling) is spectacularly out of line with literally every climate scientist on earth. Apart from a few American ones obviously.

In TLCB’s home nation we have wild fires too, with 2019 seeing the most on record, again due to drought. Although the fires were tiny compared to Australia’s, the UK is tiny by comparison, so the propensity for damage is just as high. Inspired by the Mercedes-Benz Unimog fire truck used by his local fire station in the Ashdown Forest, previous bloggee Jonathan Elliott has constructed this lovely classic Unimog 406, and he’s filled it with details, with the roller shutters and chassis two of our favourites.

Head into the woods to save a koala via Jonathan’s photostream (OK, probably not a koala in England); click the link above to make the jump.

Holiday Heroes

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We’re back! After a few days of being shut in their cages, TLCB Elves have been released back onto the internet to hunt down the best Lego vehicles that the community has to offer. It hasn’t taken long for the first of our smelly little workers to return, motivated by the promise of a meal token and the possibility of a Smartie.

Our first post-Christmas creation is this, a rather wonderful H145M Swiss Air-Rescue helicopter built as a commission by Jonah Padberg aka Plane Bricks, and it’s a fabulous reminder that whilst we were off for Christmas the heroes of the emergency services were still at work, putting out fires, calming board-game related domestic arguments, and – in this case – saving lives.

Jonah’s spectacular H145M is a joy to look at, bursting with brilliant building techniques and including a sliding side-opening door, an opening barn-door tail exit, and folding rotor blades. There’s much more to see at Jonah’s photostream on Flickr – click the link above to make the jump and remember those that were hard at work doing the most amazing jobs that anyone can do whilst we were eating turkey.

To the Rescue

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Everyone likes a vehicle that goes ‘NEE NAW!’. Here are two, a fire truck and ambulance each built beautifully by Flickr’s Koala Yummies and packed with neat details, from brick-built stripes and pump controls to a fully fitted emergency bay. Head to Koala’s photostream via the link above for all the pics.

Wildfire

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Wildfire is usually a completely natural phenomenon, and actually quite a useful one, allowing trees to spread their seeds and clearing land for regrowth. California’s latest (and tragic) wildfires are not. Sparked – literally – by crappy electrical equipment positioned over tinder-dry forest, thanks to hotter and drier summers, they have spread with ferocious verocity, claiming the lives of Californian citizens, destroying livelihoods, and wiping entire communities off the map. And in response the President is casting stones on Twitter. Yay.

Thankfully there is one constant source of goodness in these tragedies; the amazing California Fire Department, who have risked literally everything to save whomever they are able. This is one of the tools they have available to assist them, the HME Type 3 4×4 Wildland fire engine. This superb Lego recreation of one of CalFire’s wildfire response vehicles comes from previous bloggee sponki25 and it is well worth a closer look. Head into the forest with the heroes of CalFire via the link above.

*Today’s excellent title song.

Summer of ’69*

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We were going to make reference to your Mom in this title but we’re better than that. This the New York Fire Department’s Engine 69, and it’s been built beautifully right down to the decals by sponki25/Sven. Sponki’s brilliant replica of the real-world fire truck includes some amazing attention to detail and there’s more to see at both Flickr and MOCpages via the link.

*Today’s (massively over-played) title song. If you end every night with this go and have a good long think about your life choices.

Fighting Fires in Flight

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Lego Sky-Fi Firefly Ship

The Skytanic has floundered. After departing the Maersk Pier some weeks ago the great skyliner reached the treacherous Northern Floating Icefield and the welcoming navigation lights of Trusty Rusty. Only Trusty Rusty’s lights weren’t showing.

Unable to see the floating icebergs the Skytanic stood little chance, and the huge ship – now engulfed in flames – is doomed. With the evacuation underway the passengers and crew are hoping for a miracle, a miracle which which may arrive in the shape of the FRSS ‘Firefly’.

Lego Sky-Fi Airship

A mighty ‘Dipteria Class’ airship, the Firefly can stay airborne for a month at a time, travelling at up to 60 knots thanks to two massive ‘Brickerton’ engines powering a pair of enormous platinum-coated six-blade rotors. With a capacity of 400,000 litres of water, plus nine water cannons, sucking moisture-rich air out of the clouds and firing it up to 250 metres, the Firefly is the Skytanic’s only hope.

Only Markus Ronge knows if the Firefly will arrive in time. Until then you can check out his amazing Sky-Fi airship by clicking here, and you can catch up on the complete ‘Netbrix’ original story ‘Full Steam’ at Markus’ Flickr photostream here.

The Coolest Fire Truck

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Lego Technic Tatra T815 Fire Truck

All fire trucks are cool. OK, maybe not this one, but pretty much everything else. The coolest of the lot could well be this, the awesome Tatra T815-CAS32. With six-wheel-drive and a 360-degree rotating turret-mounted water canon, there’s nothing we’d rather put out a fire with.

This fantastic Technic replica of the Tatra fire truck comes from previous bloggee Horcik Designs of Flickr, and not only has he nailed the exterior of his T815, he’s engineered a fully-working miniaturisation of the Tatra’s drivetrain, suspension and fire-fighting apparatus underneath too.

Horcik’s model features six-wheel-drive courtesy of LEGO’s Power Functions Motors, with remote control steering, powered hose-reel winches, an on-board compressor, and a motorised elevating and rotating turret.

There’s more to see of Horcik’s superb creation at his photostream, including a money-shot of how all of that lot has been squeezed in. Head to Flickr via the link above to dial 911.

I’ll Be There

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Lego Dodge Ram Baywatch

We’re not sure what was going on in the ’90s, but TV theme tunes seemed to focus on simply turning up, Friends and Baywatch being prime examples. This writer was much too young to appreciate Baywatch at the time and thought it was actually serious rescue drama, rather than light pornography for Dads, but nevertheless they did occasionally save people from the dangers of two feet of salt water.

One of the tools at their disposal to accomplish this was a fleet of bright yellow pick-up trucks, such as this Dodge Ram by Flickr’s ER0L. ER0L has recreated the ageing Dodge brilliantly in 7-wide Speed Champions style, and he’s thrown in a plethora of rescue apparatus for when the Baywatch lifeguards do finally actually rescue someone. See more of the classic Ram at ER0L’s photostream by clicking here.