Tag Archives: rover

Sci-Fi Sunday

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OK, we’re not always strictly a car blog here at The Lego… er, Car Blog, but today’s sci-fi creations do have wheels! Well, two of them do, and enough to average 4.67 wheels per model in today’s post, which is good enough for us!

First up is Capt. Dad‘s Neo-Classic Space ‘Mobile Research’, because there’s nothing the mini-figures of Classic Space (or indeed, Neo-Classic Space) like more than researching stuff. Much greebling, many opening compartments, and a brilliant interior all feature, and you join in the research via the link above.

Next up is a creation from Neo-M-Tron, a sub-theme which we’ve just invented. This is the ‘Gigatron Flux Inductor’, a giganormous 6×6 cross between the mole thingy from Thunderbirds, a steam train, and a petrol tanker. Created digitally in Bricklink Studio plus copious editing programmes, Ghalad‘s creation is apparently the latter, and you can fill up your stranded lunar rover via the link in the text above.

Today’s third and final sci-fi build features no wheels at all, but it does use two LEGO transparent ball pieces for, um… reasons. Sylvain Daunais‘ ‘Universe Explorer’ looks superb however, and there’s more to see of his excellent Neo-Classic Spaceship on Flickr. Click the link above to take a look, whilst we find some things that have definitely got wheels…

They Think It’s Febr-Over…

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…It is now!

Yes the annual festival of all things other-worldly is over for another year, with a smorgasbord of wonderful roving contraptions entered, about which we know exactly nothing. We’re not sure what our strong suit is, or even if we have one at all, but we certainly know it isn’t sci-fi.

But before TLCB staff can breathe a collective sigh of relief and return to writing about the engine capacities of 1960s British sedans, here are two final Febrovery rovers, as entered by Julius Kanand and Nathan Hake of Flickr, and about which – as is customary – we know exactly nothing.

Both look great though, with Julius’ final Febrovery ’23 rover (above) available to view at his photostream (where an array of other rovers can also be found), and Nathan’s fully remote controlled entry (below), complete with articulated steering, 8×8 drive, and an ingenious LEGO Spikes Colour Sensor front light, available to view at his.

Take a look via the links above, and you can check out all the Febrovery madness from this year by clicking here.

It’s Not Size That Matters…

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…but what you do with it. And least that’s what this TLCB Writer tells himself. It’s a self-support mechanism that’s never been truer than with today’s post too, as we have two enormous-looking FebRovery rovers that are actually really rather small indeed.

The first deceptively-scaled creation comes from Oscar Cedarwall of Flickr, whose ‘Multi-Purpose Terrain Rover’ has gained an apparent massiveness thanks to a cleverly constructed landscape and the use of LEGO’s tiny one-stud figures. Top notch presentation and appropriately wide-angle photography maximise the illusion, and there’s more to see of Oscar’s optical trickery at his photostream.

Our second not-very-big-at-all creation is really very small indeed, utilising a body just one stud square and LEGO’s chain components, more commonly found on Technic motorcycles, for the tracks beneath it. Created by TLCB favourite David Roberts, the ‘Planetary Explorer’ is one of the tiniest FebRovery entries yet, and there’s more to see (although not that much more) at David’s photostream.

Click the links above to see how it really is ‘what you do with it’ that counts.

Industrial Roving

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It’s FebRovery, and this is an ‘NTERRA B400 MEGA HAULER’, the latest in industrial grade multi-directional rovers from the [ S E /\ Z Y ] corporation.

Able to service an entire moderately-sized colony*, the NTERRA B400 can take a gigantic load*, thanks to an enormous tilting deck with a 300 ton payload capacity and its ‘revolving mecanum wheels’.

Rendered in Bricklink Studio 2.0 with considerable post-production enhancement, [ S E /\ Z Y ]’s gargantuan design shows what’s possible when taking digital building to the extreme, and there’s more to see of his moon-based monster-mover on Flickr via the link above.

Alternatively, if enormous digital creations aren’t your thing, here’s a brick-built FebRovery entry of a similar aesthetic that’s altogether smaller…

*Just like your Mom.

R is For…

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It’s February, and that means the month-long annual rover-based building bandwagon of FebRovery has begun!

Not aimed at creating brick-built versions of the products produced by the defunct British car brand (although some members of TLCB Team wish it was), FebRovery entrants are instead tasked to create machines of a sci-fi complexion, capable of roving other worldly environments. Which means of course, that this site will comprehensively struggle to write anything about them whatsoever.

Anyway, this one comes from Flickr’s Frost, who is a fan-favourite during the contest each year, and there’s more to see of his FebRovery, er… rover at his photostream. Click the link above to start roving.

Bat Effect

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We like a good mash-up here at The Lego Car Blog, even if we don’t really understand one or more of the things being mashed. Cue previous bloggee Slick_Brick, who has successfully merged Christopher Nolan era Batman (aka the best Batman) with the Mass Effect video game, of which we know nothing. We assume it has some lovely flowers in it though. Anyway, the results are excellent, with a neat Tumbler-esque rover driving through a wonderfully constructed alien landscape, and there’s more to see of Slick’s Bat Effect mash-up via the link above.

UniRover

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No, us neither. All we can say is that a brick-built dust-cloud behind a single Technic 42054 Claas Xerion tyre looks so cool we could’t not post this, even though we have absolutely no idea what’s going on. Ask Julius Kanand via Flickr.

Ukrovery

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The news from Ukraine is heartbreaking. Almost eight decades of peace in Europe has ended, and the human cost is going to be enormous.

We’ve pilloried Putin before (and received threats as a result), but the mask is off now, and what lies beneath it is monstrous.

As such we hope blue and yellow vehicles might feature here a bit more prominently for a while following our recent call, which Flickr’s Frost has answered, rounding off Febrovery with his final lunar rover looking wonderful in Ukrainian colours.

So that’s it for Febrovery 2022, but sadly not Putin’s ‘Special Military Operation’, which – thanks to the heroism of those defending Ukraine – looks far from being over. If you’re one of the 5,000 TLCB readers from Ukraine, or indeed one of the 17,000 from Russia and are as dismayed as the rest of us, a special welcome to these pages to you.

If you’re looking to help the situation in Ukraine but don’t know how, check out the Red Cross Ukraine Crisis Appeal and the UN Refugee Agency Appeal where donations are now open.

Under the Mask

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Most LEGO pieces can be used in almost infinite ways. It’s the very purpose of LEGO. However there are a few parts that seem to be defiantly single-use. The Primo ride-on elephant. Anything from the awful Galidor range. And the wearable Bionicle mask.

Designed so that kids could pretend to be defending Mata-Nui or something, the mid-00’s were clearly a difficult time for LEGO. And yet out of adversity comes triumph, in the form of Scott Wilhelm‘s magnificent ‘Mobile Reactor Transport’.

Wearing the life-size Toa face like a tortoise wears its shell, the until-now-pointless-part looks purpose-made for Scott’s half-track rover. Delightful greebling is visible through the mask’s orifices and there’s more to see of the build, including the epically inventive parts usage, at Scott’s photostream.

Click the link above to see what’s under the mask.

Clearly Roving

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2022’s Febrovery is drawing to a close, in which Lego builders from around the world have united in their creation of other-worldly transports. Today we round out the roverest of months with four intriguing space-based builds, each of which has deployed a few of LEGO’s more unusual pieces in the pursuit of roving brilliance.

First up is Robert Heim‘s ‘Spaceport Fire Rover’, which features so many LEGO pieces of which we know nothing it’s making us doubt we can do this job. The wheels look like cupcake cases and the rotating cockpit appears as if it’s made from a kid’s sand bucket. We have absolutely no idea what sets they’re all from, but you can find out more at Robert’s photostream via the link.

Next we have martin.with.bricks‘ impressive eight-wheeled rover, which actually looks rather like something we could well see in our lifetime. A determined-looking mini-figure sits at the controls inside the same clear buckety-brick cockpit, whilst a minimalist brick-built lunar surface passes beneath the tyres. Centre articulation and an opening rear hatch add to the fun and you can see more of Martin’s rover on Flickr at the link above.

No longer used as the cockpit, but still featuring prominently in the design, Frost‘s colourful ‘Biotron Corp Spaceplant Relocation Rover’ utilises the same transparent buckets, this time for some sort of lunar re-wilding project. A trans-lime half-dome continues the funky cockpitting however, and there’s more to see of Frost’s space-based conservation via the link above.

Today’s final Febrovery creation takes a rather more utilitarian approach, and is very possibly the reason that Frost’s ‘Spaceplant Relocation Rover’ above is required. Andreas Lenander‘s ‘Dome-rover’ is smoothing its way across a lovely brick-built moon-scape, thanks to some genius tracks and a wonderfully pink classic spaceman sealed within a transparent orb. Andreas has used said orb in other cunning ways during Febrovery ’22 too, and there’s more to see of this and his other Febrovery builds at his photostream via the link above.

And that completes our Febrovery 2022 round-up, which took on quite a transparent theme this year. Febrovery will be back in 2023, but until then there is still a whole month to go in TLCB and Bricknerd’s ‘Festival of Mundanity’ competition, in which we’re looking for vehicles that are rather more earth-bound. What better way to move on from other-wordly oddness than a white Toyota Corolla looking for a parking space…

Moon Muscle

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Flickr’s Febrovery build-a-thon is drawing to a close. There have been some wonderful entries so far which we have… er, missed completely, seeing as a) we don’t understand sci-fi and b) we’re interested in things far more mundane at the moment…

Had we not blogged this one though, TLCB Elves would’ve started a riot, as it’s really not mundane at all. Frost (aka TFDesigns) owns the mind behind this glorious rover-based muscle car homage, which is fitted with some of the most splendid wheels we’ve ever seen.

Racing stripes and a giant wing complete the Elven excitement, and there’s more to see of his marvellous moon-based muscle car at his photostream. Take a look via the link above, and we’ll be back with some things far more mundane tomorrow…

Fifty Shades of Bley

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Ok, one shade (this isn’t the 42115 Lamborghini Sian set), but certainly fifty types of bley.

Blueish-grey (hence ‘bley’) replaced LEGO’s ‘light grey’ colour in around 2005 for reasons we don’t understand, and The Brick Artisan has embraced the hue wholly with his ‘Classic Space Compact Transport Rover’, which looks a bit like a spacey airport luggage tractor.

Said rover not only contains a whole lot of bley, it features a delightfully elaborate and possibly radioactive load too, as this Classic Spaceman apparently heads to the Classic Space recycling centre. Our Earth-based equivalent of this trip is only to transport TLCB’s broken electrical devices and old pieces of wood (although we do also use a Rover), so this trip looks far more exciting!

There’s more to see of The Brick Artisan’s ‘Classic Space Compact Transport Rover’ on Flickr, where – if you have sufficient bley – you can recreate it for yourself as building instructions are available. Click the link above to make the jump!

Giant Balls (of Gas)

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It’s some time in the future, and the Earth is completely depleted of helium. Clearly such a situation has massive ramifications, and the balloon-animal industry, vital to so many, have apparently take matters into their own highly-skilled balloon-bending hands.

Sending equipment to the Jupiter’s moon Europa, the inflatable contortionists are mining the satellite for its precious precious helium, returning the gas to Earth via transport ships, and – before that – these enormous gas-rovers.

With twelve-wheel-drive, a crew of five, and eight huge gas-filled balls, the gas-rovers are impressive machines, at least in the minds of Jon & Catherine Stead, whose backstory we have completely butchered for the purpose of this silliness.

We could have gone with either a testicle or enhanced-boobs theme though, so count yourself lucky Steads!

Anyway, their Europa gas-rover is a properly good build, with LED lighting, incredible brick-built wheels, and an ace five-person cockpit, where – presumably – the crew all talk in squeaky voices.

Head over to Jon and Catherine’s excellent ‘Helium Transporter’ album on Flickr to see more, and request a balloon giraffe.

Febrovery Finale

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It’s the last day of Febrovery, meaning our Elves will cease bringing back sci-fi nonsense and we can re-start blogging cars! Before then though, we have three (excellent) Febrovery creations to share, about each of which we know absolutely nothing. We’re counting the hours until it’s cars again…

First up is a Febrovery entrant that is at least relatable to our humdrum transport here on Earth, being a space school bus by Flickr’s Tyler (aka Legohaulic). A diverse list of alien children are present for the trip to space school and there’s more to see at Tyler’s photostream via the link.

The second creation in our Febrovery Finale come from regular bloggee Horcik Designs, whose space tanker merges Neo-Classic Space and Octan to brilliant effect. Twenty four wheels make it exactly six times better than anything in TLCB office car park and there’s more to see on Flickr. Click the link above to make the jump to Neo-Classic Space.

Ah ‘Ice Planet 2002′, when years starting with a ’20’ seemed super futuristic. This funky looking rover by Carter pays tribute to the oft-forgotten vintage theme, and includes the coolest wheels seen since your Mum fitted spinners to her mobility scooter. There’s more of Carter’s ‘Ice Scout’ to see on Flickr – click the link above to check it out.

Roving Large

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We like large off-road trucks here at TLCB, so imagine how cool we think a large off-road truck is that lives in space! That’s right; less cool – but as sci-fi is all the Elves will bring back at the moment for some reason, here’s a large off-road truck that lives in space. However, it is – as you can see here – rather awesome…

Built by Flickr’s martin.with.bricks, this enormous 10×10 Neo-Classic Space carrier measures almost 60cm long, features two space containers (which are like regular containers, only in space), and includes a wonderfully detailed cabin. Part of the ‘Febrovery’ monthly bandwagon, there’s more of Martin’s brilliant creation to see at his ‘Space Rover’ album – click the link above to take a look.