It’s as orange as your Mom and just as capable of getting dirty. The model in question comes from TLCB regular Horcik Designs and is based on the classic Tatra T148 all-wheel-drive truck.
Underneath the minimalist Technic bodywork is a full truck trial remote control drivetrain, with working suspension on all wheels, steering courtesy of a Power Functions Medium motor, and six-wheel-drive which – as any seasoned Technic builder will know – is a really tricky thing to do.
There’s more to see of Horcik’s excellent Technic Tatra on Flickr – click the link above to grab an orange slice.
This is a Tatra T-813 8×8 Kolos, and it’s (probably) the best off-road truck in the world. Well this isn’t obviously, it’s much too small, but it is (probably) the best Lego recreation of the best off-road truck in the world.
Built by Technic engineering legend Sariel, this Model Team-on-the-outside, Technic-on-the-inside marvel squeezes all of Tatra’s real-world off-roading cleverness into the smallest possible package, plus full remote control drive and steering, LED lights, and a V12 piston engine which seems to be mounted where the driver should be.
All of the eight wheels is independently suspended all are driven by two Power Functions XL Motors geared down 3:1, with the front to axles providing remote control steering. It’s an amazing thing to watch in action and you can do just that via the video below, plus you can see the full image gallery (including some wonderful outdoor shots) on Flickr here and you can join the discussion at the Eurobricks forum by clicking here.
This utterly wonderful Technic Tatra 603 appeared here at The Lego Car Blog just over a year ago. Its maker, Horcik Designs, recently uploaded some superb new high-quality imagery courtesy of a fellow Flickr user, bringing this amazing model of an amazing car back into the limelight. To find out more about one of the most brilliant cars ever built (even more so when you consider it was borne under the yoke of Communism) click here to read the original post, and to see more of Horcik’s fantastic newly-photographed Lego recreation take a look via the link above.
We don’t see this type of vehicle in TLCB’s home nation, and we’re not really sure why. A hybrid of truck and excavator it seems like quite a useful design, being fast enough to drive on roads without annoying everyone and diggery enough to do some digging when it reaches its destination.
This pneumatically-powered Technic version is based on a Tatra 815 with a UDS excavator mounted to the rear. It’s been built by newcomer Ivan MOC and it features working steering, a V4 piston engine, suspension on all axles, pneumatic stabilisers and boom elevation, manual boom extension and 360° excavator rotation.
There’s more of Ivan’s build to see at Eurobricks and Flickr – click the links if you dig it.
Cars from behind the Iron Curtain were almost universally crap. Cars like this, this, this, and this for instance.
But there was one exception. A glorious, wonderful, magnificent oasis hidden in the vast automotive wastelands of Communist Europe. Tatra.
Now famed for their indestructible off-road trucks, Tatra used to produce cars too, and what cars they were. This is their incredible 603, powered by a 100bhp air-cooled V8 mounted in the rear, and with an amazing aerodynamic body that was extensively wind-tunnel tested way back in the 1950s.
This stunning Lego replica of the 603 is the work of Horcik Designs of Flickr, and it faithfully recreates the T2 version of Tatra’s masterpiece. Working steering, suspension, V8 engine, opening doors, hood and engine cover, and a six-seat interior are all included, but Horcik’s real party-piece is surely that spectacular bodywork.
You don’t need ten thousand bricks to appear here at The Lego Car Blog. Around sixty will do. At least that’s all Flickr’s František Hajdekr needed to build this lovely Tatra fire truck. See more via the link above.
Well, Buenos Aires to be truthful. The Lego Car Blog Elves love visiting Sariel’s Lego workshop at www.sariel.pl It’s the home of great Technic builds and there’s often hamster food lying around for our workers to steal to supplement their rations.
Sariel’s latest creation is this bright and brilliant Dakar Truck, based on a Tatra T815 4×4. It uses Lego’s bright, lime green, of which Sariel is apparently a big fan, plus loads of custom stickers. Twin Lego RC motors power the truck to 12kph, giving occasional cornering problems, as you can see in the video below.
How many The Lego Car Blog Elves can you fit in the back of remote controlled Model Team Tatra 815 tipper truck?
As it turns out, lots. Which makes it all the more amusing when said truck is driven to the TLCB Towers door, its tilting load bed is deployed, and the Elven cargo is dumped outside.
We should get some peace in the office for a bit now, and you can check out this most excellent Tatra 815 tipper truck at Jarda‘s Brickshelf account.
Newcomer Touchobut* makes his TLCB debut today with this massive Dakar-spec Tatra t-813 8×8, featuring all-wheel-suspension, remotely controlled all-wheel-drive, and four-wheel-steering. There’s more to see at the Eurobricks discussion forum, including a video of the truck in action, at the link above.
*This amused the Elves greatly, which has unfortunately led to a few personal space issues today. The office staff are being very wary at the moment…
It’s been a truck-heavy day at TLCB today, but no matter – we like trucks. This is one of our favourites, Tatra’s ridiculously capable Kolos 8×8. Horcik Designs of Flickr has built this one, complete with the legendary 8×8 drivetrain, in this case propelled by LEGO’s superb Power Functions motors. There’s more to see, including a video of the Tatra in action, at the link above.
HorcikDesigns‘ likes to get his Lego dirty. Truck Trial is his chosen method, and the Tatra T148 is his chosen vehicle. Featuring two Lego Buggy Motors for drive, a Power Functions M Motor for steering, and fully independent half-axel suspension Horcik’s recreation of the famous off-road truck is perfectly equipped to tackle the rough stuff. You can see more of the T148 on Flickr at the link above.
We’ve got a lot of red Smarties to give out today…
The Elves, upon the recent discovery that red Smarties are made from crushed beetles, have gone on a bonanza of frenzied online treasure-hunting not seen since those pictures of Jennifer Lawrence were leaked. As a result we have no less than five(!) red creations to show you, from five disgusting and delighted Elves.
At No.5 is this stupendous remote control Technic Tatra 813 trial truck by Eurobricks’ Madoca 1977. It features 8-wheel-drive via two Power Functions XL motors, RC steering, LED lights, a V12 piston engine, and the obligatory-for-truck-trial awesome suspension. You can see more details of this incredible machine at the Eurobricks forum linked above.
At the other end of the scale, and our red No.4, is this classically-built 1977 Ford LTD. Newcomer FirstInfantry is the builder, and you can see more of his 6-wide classic, and his other beautifully simple vehicles, on Flickr.
In at No.3 we have this lovely little Pilatus PC-7 plane created by one of our favourite aircraft builders; Flickr’s Dornbi. Bedecked in pretty Swiss colours Dornbi’s Pilatus has one of the nicest brick-built canopies we’ve seen. See more of his work via the link above.
For No.2 we head into space. And also into the weird world of SHIPtember. And GARC. And probably some other Lego memes we know little-to-nothing about. Anyway, despite our sci-fi ineptitude, this one-hundred-and-fifteen-stud-long behemoth still looks pretty cool to us. The red giant is entitled ‘Sphyraena’ (we’re glad we’ve just had to type that rather than pronouncing it) and it can be found on F@bz Flickr photostream here.
And finally at No.1 we have this; Lucio Switch aka Ivan Manarin‘s beautiful pneumatic and remote controlled Technic truck. One of the most superbly photographed models of the year, Ivan’s masterclass in Technic features four XL motors for drive, a servo for steering, a M motor for the air suspension pump, another for the fifth wheel, two sets of IR receivers and three Power Functions battery packs. Oh, and eight(!) pneumatic cylinders, plus three valves and two pumps. Have a guess how many shock absorbers each front wheel needs to deal with that lot. Now triple it. It’s the Technic truck of the year.
So there you have it; five happy Elves and five stunning red creations. You can check each model out via the links in the accompanying text – which is your favourite?
Much of what we feature here at The Lego Car Blog is the work of AFOLs (Adult Fans Of Lego). This usually means an impeccably photographed, spotlessly clean and brilliant creation, which will forever be placed within a glass cabinet away from light, air, and fingers.
But that’s not what Lego is about. Lego is designed for kids, it’s tough, and it likes to get dirty. Above all else, Lego is for playing with.
Thankfully some AFOLs do retain the childish desire to drive a Lego creation through a big pile of mud, something we whole heartedly approve of here in TLCB office. Truck Trial is their chosen means, and it involves building a remote control replica truck to drive as fast and far as possible through an obstacle course before crashing or breaking something. And that sounds awesome to us!
This trial truck was discovered on the Lego picture-sharing site Brickshelf. It’s a Tatra 6×6 by Atrx, powered by two Power Functions XL motors and controlled via a Mindstorms NXT brain. And it’s delightfully dirty!
You can see all the photos via the link, including chassis engineering shots and more of the Tatra in action at the muddy LUGpol Truck Trial event shown in our featured image above.
As the icy finger of winter draws ever nearer to The Lego Car Blog Towers we’re beginning to post a little less often. Whilst the Elves, being elves, are used to Christmas working, most of the staff here will be drunk on a variety of festive beverages for the next few weeks and thus quality (never our strongpoint) is likely to take a turn for the worse.
It seems appropriate then to round off the last full week of (mostly) sobriety with a wintery model; something red, something good at ploughing through the snow, and something that’s able to carry a lot of presents in the back. No, not Santa’s sleigh, but a monster 8-wheel-drive Tatra T813 Kolos trial truck.
Built by gkurkowski, the T813 Kolos features all the usual Technic Truck Trial toys, and there’s a whole gallery to peruse on Brickshelf. Check it out at the link above.
What with it being Hump Day (Wednesday is the ‘hump’ of the week) we thought we’d find a tenuous link to vehicles good over humps, and nothing is better than a rally car when things get humpy.
Both today’s rally cars use LEGO’s excellent RC components to give them drive and steering, both are legends in their own right, but they come from very different rallying eras.
First up (above) is a breathtakingly brilliant Lancia Delta Integrale by Tiago C on Brickshelf. The Delta won an astonishing 46 World Rallies, taking Lancia to six consecutive World Championships and a record which remains to this day.
Next we have one of the new stars of the World Rally and Rally-Cross Championships, Ford’s monster Fiesta, in -as it happens- Monster energy drink livery. The work of Piterx, you can see more photos and join the discussion on Eurobricks.
And finally, the only thing that gets close to a rally car over the rough stuff is a trial truck. They may be slow, but the humps they can clear are truly enormous. So as a Hump Day bonus here’s Jorge Garcia‘s Tatra Kolos 8×8, also featuring remote control, clearing two humps. You can see the full gallery of the 8×8 in action on MOCpages.