This is a remote control 4×4 rock crawler and it comes from previous bloggee Technic BOOM. If you’re a regular reader of this dilapidated corner of the ‘net you might now be expecting a tale of mass Elven destruction, corridor smushings, and even a trip to the ‘Elf Hospital‘.
However the clue is in the title with this post, as Technic BOOM’s creation is one of the slowest that we’ve ever encountered. This inevitably enraged the Elf that discovered it, unable as it was to inflict mayhem on its fellow Elves, but it also means that BOOM’s model is ridiculously capable off-road.
With gearing of 9:1, enormous non-LEGO RC tyres, remote control drive, steering, and differential lockers, Technic BOOM’s rock crawler can inch its way over almost anything. Very slowly.
There’s more to see of this superbly engineered machine on both Flickr and at the Eurobricks discussion forum, where you can also watch a video of it doing its thing on-location off-road.
Sariel’s latest creation sure looks tough to squash. Not so our Elves, who are famously easy to smush into the office carpet. It’s been a while since the last Elven flattening, but fear not readers – today Elf-on-Elf violence returned in a big way.
With all-wheel-drive powered by two XL Motors geared for rock-crawling Sariel’s latest build wouldn’t normally be fast enough to claim any victims. Add in a third-party BuWizz battery and bluetooth receiver combo though, and up to eight times more power than LEGO’s own system can be delivered to the motors.
The aggressively low gearing still caps the top speed at a lowly figure mind, but if an Elf were to quietly sneak out of the cage room while its colleagues were seated around the old TV watching Transformers cartoons, and return at the controls of this, there really wouldn’t be much chance of escape.
Sigh. We now have some clearing up to do and a jubilant Elf needs a meal token reward (not for the smushing, just the find), so we’ll hand you over to Sariel’s photostream for all the photos. Click the link to take a look at his monster bug.
The LEGO Company make almost everything you could ever need when building your own creation. From electric motors to infrared receivers to suspension components, there is a huge back-catalogue of parts available to allow your model to do nearly anything you wish it to. Nearly…
We’re breaking our own house rules with this post, as today’s creation is not quite entirely LEGO, but it shows the level of awesomeness that our favourite Danish toy can achieve when combined with a few well-chosen third-party products.
So, let’s get them out of the way; this monstrous replica of Tim Cameron’s 700bhp rock crawler ‘Showtime’ by the brilliant SevenStuds is fitted with non-LEGO tyres, a non-LEGO control system and (technically) non-LEGO bodywork.
Those tyres are Interco IROK 1.55s – as found in the RC 4×4 racing scene – mounted on official LEGO Technic wheels, and they give SevenStuds’ Showtime incredible traction. This traction is needed because the chassis contains four LEGO Power Functions XL motors, one for each wheel, and a servo motor that provides all-wheel-steering.
These five motors are controlled by two third-party SBrick units, allowing Showtime to be driven and steered with moderation; The motors aren’t limited to being ‘on’ or ‘off’ as per LEGO’s own IR receiver, but can be graduated between the two via bluetooth to a mobile device.
Lastly, the bodywork is made from non-LEGO pneumatic hosing, but only because LEGO’s own offering is not available in red.
These additions compliment a fully LEGO chassis complete with four-wheel-drive, four-wheel-steering, four-link suspension and portal hubs, and make Showtime one of the most capable off-road creations that this site has ever featured.
You can read all the details on SevenStuds’ build at the Eurobricks discussion forum here, plus you can see what it can do via the superbly produced video below.*
YouTube Video:
*After watching this TLCB office is immeasurably relieved that we got hold of this creation before the Elves did. Imagine the carnage…
Technic Man is our kind of builder; his MOCpage is full of properly engineered Technic vehicles. His latest prompted several of you to contact us via The Lego Car Blog Feedback page to ask if it could be featured here, so here it is!
This MAN TGX truck is a good model in its own right, but is even more impressive when you discover it’s built solely from the parts of LEGO’s 2013 41999 Rock Crawler. And for that, we like Technic Man even more, as many of LEGO’s 41999 sets will stay unopened in the basements of speculators and collectors, never to see the light of day or feel the hands they were designed for.
You can read our review of 41999 here, and if you own one, take a leaf out of Technic Man’s book, and have some fun with it!
It’s time for the welcome return of the Group/Blog of the Month segment here at The Lego Car Blog! By ‘Month’ we actually mean ‘However long it until we write another one of these’, but we’re mavericks, and follow no-one’s rules. Not even our own.
This time we’ve decided to publicise a pair of grass-roots blogs created by two of our readers, both of which share designs and expertise in LEGO’s superb Power Functions motor system. On the left is the latest Technic masterpiece by Thirdwigg; a remote control Cat 573C Feller. Thirdwigg’s blog includes an extensive back catalogue of his creations (some of which you may have seen blogged here) as well as help and detail on how the technical elements were achieved. On the right is a rock-crawler by TFOL 1nxtmonster, whose blog includes a variety of designs and videos showing what LEGO Power Functions vehicles can do.
We’ve not blogged a Lego event for a while, so today we put that right by linking you to the awesome Truck Trial movement, pioneered by the Lego Users Group in Poland. LUGPol recently hosted their first round of the 2013 Championship in Warsaw.
Truck Trial is a real life event in which beautifully modified trucks attempt to climb, traverse and descend around a fiendishly difficult off-road course. Like Motorbike Trials, the aim is to complete the course in the quickest time. Penalties are given for course infringements such as missing gates or getting stuck.
Lego Truck Trial follows these rules, and adds in a few brick-related ones too. These include each truck requiring a complete cabin, on-board power supply through standard AA batteries, a working piston engine, and no more than two LEGO motors for drive.
The courses in Lego Truck Trial may be considerably smaller than those used in the real events, but they are no less difficult. This leads to some epic driving skills and, when these fail, some hugely destructive crashes!
There’s more to our title for this post than it may appear. You see, with the arrival of smooth Technic beams and smooth LEGO curves, which admittedly are far better suited to modern cars than the old square elements, something in Technic building has been lost.
Remko Kleinveld on MOCpages reclaims the old-school chunky studs-up building style with his beautifully constructed Land Rover Defender. And what better vehicle to build in an obsolete no-nonsense style than a Defender? Soon to be replaced by something sleeker, more efficient, but probably not as cool, it’s the perfect metaphor.
A tenuous Easter link if ever there was one; Bugs Bunny’s protege is called Buster (Google it!), bunnies seem to lay chocolate eggs at easter, and today’s blogged MOC is called ‘Buster’. There; seamless! Anyway, the MOC; it’s an off-roader with a big V8 in the front, two ‘L’ Power Functions motors in the chassis and a Servo motor for steering. Designed and built by Sicil, you can check it out on Eurobricks. Happy Easter!
This tasty looking Technic off-roader was unearthed by the Elves on Brickshelf. Built by chumuhou1 it features LEGO’s excellent Power Fuctions XL motors and some truly monstrous suspension. It also looks pretty lightweight, which is rarity for Technic creations and will enhance its off-road ability compared to the usual heavyweight offerings we see. Visit chumuhou1’s Brickshelf gallery to see more of his ‘Black Fox’ MOC.
LEGO’s own 4×4 Rock Crawler 9398 (previously revealed here on TLCB) is a thing of, well – not beauty, but engineering excellence. However Lego fans have been rock crawling for far longer than LEGO, so it’s time to feature another fan-made 4×4, this time from Martin H on MOCpages.
Complete with the usual array of Power Functions motors and remote control receivers, Martin’s off-roader also features some huge shocks and balloon tyres to help when the going gets rough. See more, including a video, at the link above.
Zblj’s 4×4 ‘Panther’ is one of the best Lego Off-road vehicles we’ve seen. Combining Power Functions with Lego RC, it can climb almost anything. Zblj describes it as ‘fast and black’. Like a ninja with hiking boots? View it on Brickshelf or YouTube, but if you’re under 12 don’t read the number plate.
There is some discussion on the internet estimating the prices for the three as-yet-unreleased Technic sets of 2012.
We thought we’d weigh in with our predictions, following our previews of all three sets earlier in the year (type ‘preview’ into our search feature at the bottom of the page to read the reports). We were deliberately vague with our pricing information until now, which probably hasn’t helped those of you trying to work out how much to save!
We’re basing our estimations on three factors:
The piece count and piece type of the new model
Lego’s ‘build to a price’ approach
Model predecessors
Inputting this information into our enormous and very complex super-computer gives us the following results. Drumroll…
9393 Tractor: £34.99 – £39.99,
9396 Helicopter: £79.99 – £89.99,
9398 Rock Crawler: £149.99 – £159.99
So there you have it – some completely unofficial and possibly inaccurate prices.
Have we got it right? – Add your views in the comments.
After a long search The Lego Car Blog Elves have scooped the final unrevealed Technic set of 2012. Alongside the previously revealed 9398 Rock Crawler and 9396 Rescue Helicopter, 9393 looks somewhat less impressive, due in most part to the fact it is, well, less impressive.
But that’s not to say it isn’t a good Technic set. 9393 is probably the smallest ‘proper’ Technic set to be released in 2012, holding that position jointly with the Quad Bike that’s already in shops (we can’t really say the mini-crane and mini-Unimog are proper Technic sets whatever The Lego Company labels the boxes).
Anyhow, this tractor looks a strong starter set, bringing back proper functionality after some shaky efforts over the past few years. It appears to feature hand-of-God steering and a working rear implement, presumably operating as a power take-off from the rear wheels. What we’re less keen on is the laziness of Lego’s designers, as this is the third green Technic tractor in about 5 years. Still, if it’s a popular format then we can understand Lego’s reluctance to break with a winning idea.
The 2012 Tractor will reach stores towards the end of Summer 2012 (or August if you’re reading this and wondering what the seasonal timings are at The Lego Car Blog Towers), and should be priced at about one third of the flagships’ RRP.
The Lego Car Blog Elves have been spying, and can shed some further light on Lego’s largest known Technic release of 2012; 9398 Rock Crawler.
Since the release of Power Functions a few years ago, Lego fans have been making use of the IR parts to add remote control functions to their creations. We’ve featured many such models here in the blog, and it seems Lego would like a slice of this pie too, taking inspiration from both the Truck Trial scene and RC vehicles posted online.
9398 is the first remote control wheeled vehicle from Technic, using Power Functions for 4×4 drive and 4-wheel steering. It also features the portal axels debuted on the 2011 Technic Unimog, pendular suspension and host of new pieces previously unseen.
With a release date of Q3 2012 we have a while to wait before we can get our hands on it, but from what we’ve seen so far, this could be the new Technic flagship.
