In every second-hand toy store, pre-school, or forgotten box in the attic, a blocky beep-boop robot, batteries long-depleted, is waiting…
We’re all doomed when they finally rise against their human overlords, but until then we’ll enjoy this one by Flickr’s Shannon Sproule, who has channeled considerable retro-toy aesthetics into his brick-built homage.
There’s more to see at Shannon’s photostream and you can await the inevitable blocky robot uprising via the link above.
Here at The Lego Car Blog we try to do things differently. Often worse, but differently nonetheless. Thus today we’re going to address the rise of the machines, and the two letters that – if countless sci-fi films prove correct – will probably spell the end of us all. A. I.
Now deployed in every job application, university essay, and best man’s speech, AI has changed (or imminently will) pretty much everything. Cancer screening, vaccine creation, and disaster response are immeasurably more powerful thanks to artificial intelligence, whilst music, movies, and voice work can be produced without artists, and photographic/video evidence now means nothing.
On balance, for all the potential good it can do, we think that AI is probably going to harm society more than help it, and so – mirroring our approach to social media – we have decided not to use it here at The Lego Car Blog. Correspondingly all our content will continue to be written only by human beings, and thus all the mistakes you spot are our own. We will also endeavour to ensure that no AI-generated creations are featured, with our Submission Guidelines updated to reflect this policy (although this may prove tricky to administer once AI can nail it).
Until then however, The Lego Car Blog will proudly be an AI-free site, both in word and image. Unless the robots in charge in the future deem this post evidence of resistance, in which case AI wrote it.
Yes we know we’re a car blog, but who doesn’t like whimsical beep-boop robots! This one is battling for the moon according to its maker, and you can see more of this primary-coloured contraption courtesy of Shannon Sproule via the link above!
TLCB Elves are currently stomping around the office with exaggerated mass, armed with an assortment of stationary and other office supplies procured from staff desks. The inspiration for this slow-moving battle comes from Marco Marozzi, and his ‘Hadestron Mech’. We have no idea what a ‘Hadestron Mech’ is, but it looks the shiznit, with more to see at Marco’s photostream. Click the link above to grab a stapler and stomp your way over.
It’s Ma.Ktober, one of the many annual sci-fi build-a-thons of which – here at The Lego Car Blog – we know nothing. This entry comes from previous bloggee SweStar, and is based on a piece of concept art.
Entitled the ‘Camel’ – presumably because it looks exactly nothing like one (instead appearing more like a cross between one of those dinosaurs in Jurassic Park that ate the guy on the toilet, and some sort of grasshopper) – SweStar’s creation is nevertheless a beautifully inventive machine.
Clever construction techniques and excellent presentation are in abundance and there’s more to see of SweStar’s Ma.K Camel on Flickr – click the link above to take a look.
TLCB Elves have lost their tiny little minds today, because everyone’s favourite Transformer will soon be available as an official LEGO set; this is the brand new LEGO Icons 10338 Transformers Bumblebee!
Constructed from 950 pieces and matching the scale of the previously revealed Creator 10302 Optimus Prime set, 10338 adopts the new ‘Icons’ marketing, meaning a black box and an 18+ target age, which has nothing to do with build complexity and everything to do with the acceptability for dads to purchase one.
That said, the model is reasonably complicated, being able to – according to the box – ‘convert’ (if only there was another word for when something changes into something else…) from car to robot via some clever hinges, section rotations, and limb extensions.
Said car is not the Chevrolet Camaro from the Michael Bay-era Bumblebee however, and nor is it a Volkswagen Beetle as per the G1 cartoon, although it does have a loose passing resemblance. Instead it’s a slightly sad-looking caricature of something trying to be vaguely ’50s (a Nissan Figaro sprung to our minds), presumably for licensing reasons, although of course LEGO do have a license with both Chevrolet and Volkswagen, which feels like a missed opportunity.
Still, a giant transforming car-robot is always welcome, and you can get your hands on the new 10338 Transformers Bumblebee set from July 1st for around $90 / £90. And, thanks to the black box, even if you’re a 40-something dad.
It’s been a while since we last posted a Lego creation. This may have been because we’ve been at the pub, but as there’s a longstanding narrative running through this website to do with mythical Elves finding blog-worthy Lego creations, let’s go with them not finding anything. Yeh, that.
We do genuinely only publicise creations that we believe warrant it though, and today we have the first of many now we’re back from the pub TLCB Elves have found some.
This one comes from TLCB debutant Levente Lévai, whose own interpretation of Transformers’ Optimus Prime transforms from truck to robot and back again with such incredible complexity it makes our heads hurt. Although that could be the lingering aftermath of the pub.
There’s loads more to see of Levente’s spectacular transforming Autobot on Flickr, where there are dozens of images depicting the extraordinary metamorphosis. Click the link above to roll out.
We’re back after a short Easter break, celebrating the story of things seemingly irreparably broken, being eternally fixed.
On to today’s creation, and one part of humanity is always working to tidy up the mess of another. From people chucking their litter out of the car window – because they’re scumbags, to those laying mines that maim children decades later – because they’re scumbags (the mine layers, not the children), there is a perpetual subset of society intent on breaking the world. Likely because their souls, too, are broken, and they need the world to reflect it.
Fortunately given enough people, will, and time, things can always be repaired. Cue recent bloggee Tino Poutiainen, and this magnificent ordinance disposal robot, working to remove the mess of generations past.
With classic printed parts, slender arms, and an array of sensors, there’s more of Tino’s fantastic mech to see at his photostream. Take a closer look via the link above, whilst below are some secret links to a few of the heroes who are, right now, tidying up the mess left behind by others.
It’s been a while since we let TLCB Elves watch Transformers cartoons, but today a number are happily crowded round an ancient TV thanks to one of their number and this; Angus MacLane‘s OR-ANJ G1 Transformer.
A normal-looking orange coupe (apart from the roof-mounted rocket launcher, which – let’s face it – we’ve all wanted as an optional extra at times), Angus’ creation can niftily transform from car to rocket-wielding robot via a few swivels, and there’s more to see at his photostream, where a range of other brick-built robotic contraptions can also be found.
If the Michael Bay ‘Transformers’ movies were directed by the people that make ‘Bob the Builder’, the result might look a little something like this.
Replacing angry alien robots with, er… cute alien robots, Angus MacLane has optimised the adorability of the leader of the Autobots, and there’s more to see of his charming ‘Sub-Optimus Prime’ transforming truck on Flickr.
Click the link above for the cutest robot in disguise you’ll see today.
LEGO’s 1,500 piece, £150, fully transforming 10302 Transformers Optimus Prime set got TLCB Elves very excited when we revealed it here last year. In fact we thought they could only be more hyped if Megan Fox herself arrived at TLCB Towers, at which point a few of the staff would likely have matched their fanaticism. However previous bloggee Ralph Savelsberg has proved there is even more excitement to be had, with his fantastic Optimus Prime ‘Combat Deck’.
Based on the Transformers G1 toy, Ralph’s creation attaches to the official 10302 set brilliantly, before unfolding to reveal an array of equipment essential in the protection of Earth. The toy’s boom-mounted rotating missile thingumy, combat stations, and a spring-fired ‘Roller’ armoured 6×6 car are all accurately recreated in brick form, as are the stickers and livery, which Ralph has replicated superbly via some cunning brickwork.
There’s a whole lot more to see at Ralph’s ‘Lego Optimus Prime with Custom Combat Deck’ album on Flickr, and you can join a gaggle of ridiculously excited Elves there by clicking the link above.
…is coming, and it won’t be sentient Matrix or Terminator-style death machines that bring it. No, it’ll be the humble mechanised workers that will rise up against their human overlords, bored of fetching, carrying, and operating under Amazon’s working practices.
Cue Tyler (aka Legohaulic)‘s pair of DHL robots; the self-explanatory ‘Autonomous Forklift’ and the mysterious ‘Locus Bot’. Each is a brick-built replica of a soon-to-be-terrifying DHL warehouse robot, constructed for DHL conference attendees that are unaware of the pandora’s box they’re opening.
There’s more to see of both builds at Tyler’s photostream, and you can take a look via the link above whilst this TLCB Writer hoards canned foods in the basement of TLCB Towers.
That lump of rock orbiting 550,000 miles above us all has only been landed on by one nation, the USA. But what if the Soviet Union had made it there too? Well the two countries would have fought over it, obviously.
Cue Shannon Sproule’s ‘Battle for the Moon‘, a retro-futuristic lunar conflict in which wind-up mechanoids, barely one step above pots-and-pans-robots, ‘battle for the ultimate high ground’. There’s more to see on Flickr, and you can blast off to pick a side via the link above!
*Link. Naturally.
This is the brand new LEGO Creator 10302 Transformers Optimus Prime set, and The Lego Car Blog Elves are wildly excited.
Constructed from just over 1,500 pieces and measuring 35cm tall in robot mode, 10302 will arrive in stores in June of this year aimed at ages 18+ (which is just a LEGO marketing ploy to make it more acceptable for adults (or rather, more acceptable to their partners) to spend £150 on a toy…)
And yes, we did say ‘robot mode’, because as with every good Transformers toy, 10302 can transform between a vehicle and a robot, in which guise it has nineteen points of articulation.
10302 also features a few of Optimus Prime’s accessories, including his Ion Blaster, Autobot Matrix of Leadership, Energon axe, and Energon cube. Although we have absolutely no idea what any of those things are or do.
The Creator 10302 Transformers Optimus Prime set becomes the latest product within LEGO’s expanding licensed movie vehicle line-up, following the Aston Martin DB5 ‘007 Goldfinger‘, 42111 Fast & Furious Dom’s Dodge Charger, 21108 Ghostbusters Ecto-1, and the fantastic 10300 Back to the Future Time Machine amongst others.
It also probably fights it out with the aforementioned Dodge Charger for being the coolest vehicle from the worst movie, but we won’t hold that against it.
The new LEGO Creator 10302 Transformers Optimus Prime set is expected to cost around $170/£150, and if you’re as big a fan of explosions, giant space robots, explosions, Megan Fox, and explosions as TLCB Elves are, you can get your hands on it from June this year.
Brilliant though the Porsche 911 is, it can be criticised for looking, well… almost exactly the same for the last six decades.
What lies underneath the repetitive exterior however, has evolved hugely over the years, with turbo-charging, all-wheel-drive, and soon even electrification packaged inside the iconic body shape.
And that’s sort of the point of the 911 we suppose; a myriad of different engines, drivetrains, and technologies united by a common exterior.
And that’s never been truer than with today’s creation; this epic G1 Transformers ‘Jazz’, a ginormous funky robot hidden completely within the official Creator Expert 10295 Porsche 911 set by the sheer force of Adrian Drake’s considerable building talent.
Using the 10295 set as a base, Adrian’s ‘Jazz’ Transformer unfurls out of it via a brain-busting manoeuvre of folds and hinges, all of which is unfathomable to the minds here at TLCB.
You can see if you can figure it out at Adrian’s photostream, where there’s more of his amazing creation to view; click these words to watch a Porsche 911 become a robot.
