Tag Archives: Technic

Iconic Evolution

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The Porsche 911 may have looked pretty much the same for the past sixty years, but due to multiple ground-up redesigns it’s a vastly different machine from what it once was. Even the car used as the basis for LEGO’s 2016 Technic 42056 Porsche 911 GT3 RS set is now a long way behind the latest 911 iteration.

This is the newest version of Porsche’s evergreen endurance racer, the 565bhp 992-based GT3 R that made its debut last year.

Built by Lachlan Cameron (aka loxlego), this astonishing Technic replica of the GT3 R features working steering, five-height adjustable suspension, a six-speed paddle-shift gearbox (plus neutral and reverse), a flat-6 piston engine, plus opening and locking doors and engine cover.

Presented beautifully, you can find the complete gallery of images and full build details via Lachlan’s ‘Porsche 911 (992) GT3 R Flickr album, the Eurobricks discussion forum, and via the video below, plus you can find out how he creates amazing models like this one via his Master MOCers page by clicking this bonus link.

YouTube Video

LEGO Technic 42175 Volvo FMX Truck & EC230 Electric Excavator | Set Preview

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Following our preview earlier this month of the brand new H2 2024 LEGO Technic sets you may have been wondering where the promised fourth real-world vehicle was. Well today can we reveal all, starting – as the more eagle-eyed reader will have spotted – with the new 42175 Volvo FMX Truck & EC230 Electric Excavator not being one real-world vehicle at all, but two.

Following a long tradition of truck-with-trailer-and-vehicular-load Technic sets, 42175 ushers Volvo’s off-road FMX truck and electric EC230 tracked excavator into the Technic line-up, bringing pneumatics back in the process.

Aimed at ages 10+ and constructed from 2,274 pieces, 42175 features working steering, a tilting cab, and a six-cylinder engine on the truck, fold-down ramps on the trailer, and a 360° slewing superstructure and a two-stage pneumatically-operated bucket arm on the excavator.

There’s also a ‘charging station’ that can be lifted off the trailer by the excavator for when it needs some more electricity, which we can only assume in real-life would be a giant battery or – more ironically – a diesel generator. Either way it looks a bit pointless within the set, doing precisely nothing whatsoever.

The three other components (truck, trailer, excavator) look sufficiently playable however, if a little under-endowed aesthetically for the £170 / $200 asking price. This is particularly true for the excavator’s bucket arm, which uses two small buckets to create one of the correct size. If this approach isn’t to support a B-Model, it’s a bit of a corner cut.

Still, 42175 could be a worthwhile addition to the 2024 Technic line up, and you’ll be able to get your hands on it when it reaches stores in August of this year.

My Other Car’s a Ford GT

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This is a Red Bull SMG Dakar Buggy, of the sort used by World Rally Champion Carlos Sainz (no not that one, his father) to compete in the world’s toughest enduro, before he switched to the works Audi RS Q e-tron that took him to the 2023 Dakar victory.

Built by previous bloggee gyenesvi, this superbly liveried creation has been constructed only from the parts found within the 42154 Technic Ford GT set, and features all-wheel suspension, a mid-mounted V6 engine, ‘HOG’ steering, and opening doors.

Building instructions and a downloadable decal sheet are available, and you can convert your own Ford supercar into a desert conquering buggy via both Eurobricks and Bricksafe.

Crossbreed

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Porsche are now an SUV maker, with a small sideline in sports cars. Lamborghini are the same. And so are Aston Martin, Bentley, and even Lotus. It was inevitable then, that Ferrari would cave too, and build a four-wheel-drive, off-road capable two-ton monstrosity for the terminally wealthy.

Of course Ferrari, like every other sports-SUV-maker, claim the Purosangue (which translates as ‘thoroughbred’*) isn’t actually an SUV at all. Which is of course nonsense. But it is fitted with a naturally-aspirated V12, so it does at least sound like a supercar.

This fantastic Technic recreation of the Ferrari Purosangue has one too, along with an 8-speed sequential gearbox, all-wheel suspension, four opening doors, hood and tailgate, and remote control drive and steering courtesy of a third-party BuWizz bluetooth battery and LEGO Buggy Motors.

New comer brictric is the creator behind it, building instructions are available, and there’s lots more to see of their incredible replica of Ferrari’s ‘not-an-SUV’ at both the Eurobricks forum and Flickr. Take a closer look via the links whilst we await a letter from Ferrari’s lawyers.

*Which is trying just a bit too hard.

Mad Maximum Squashing

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Longstanding readers of this stagnent puddle in the corner of the Internet will know that TLCB Elves – the mythical creatures whose unending and unpaid job it is to find the creations that appear here – have a penchant for extreme violence towards one-another. This usually takes the form of a hit-and-run (see here, here, here, here and here), and today normal service was resumed as one of their number found this.

‘This’, is a fully remote controlled replica of the wild ‘Big Foot’ monster truck from ‘Mad Max – Fury Road’, as built by TLCB Master MOCer Sariel, and powered by twin Control+ L Motors driving all four wheels. Said wheels are shod in huge non-LEGO RC tyres, plus there’s working suspension, a V8 piston engine, and two bed mounted guns for maximum movie authenticity.

All of which means that for the Elves that weren’t squashed, it’s probably the Best Creation Ever. And even for those that were, it was still the Best Creation Ever right up until the moment it smeared them into the office carpet. There’s more of the model to see at Sariel’s ‘Mad Max Big Foot’ album, you can watch it in action via the video below, and you can read the builder’s interview here at The Lego Car Blog by clicking these words.

YouTube Video

LEGO Technic H2 2024 | Set Previews

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Our sneaky Elves, returning from successfully sneaking, have found yet more H2 2024 sets for us to reveal. This time it’s the turn of Technic, with no less than four brand new sets to be added to the line up. Each is an officially-licensed real-world vehicle too, which means in this writer’s case he may finally be able to afford a Koenigsegg!

LEGO Technic 42173 Koenigsegg Jesko Absolut

And here it is, the 42173 Koenigsegg Jesko Absolut. Named after a bottle of vodka and theoretically capable of a top speed of well over 300mph, just 125 Jesko Absoluts will be produced, which means the real deal will be comprehensively out-numbered by its LEGO brother.

Aimed at ages 10+, the new 801-piece set includes a working V8 engine driven by the rear wheels via a differential, ‘hand of god’ steering, and the Jesko’s ‘dihedral synchro-helix door system’. Which basically means they open upwards.

Arriving in August of 2024, expect 42173 to cost around £47 / $50, and for bedroom floors everywhere to become the venue for some serious top speed testing.

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LEGO Technic 42176 Porsche GT4 e-Performance

From the world’s theoretically fastest car, to LEGO’s actual fastest, this is the brand new Control+ powered 42176 Porsche GT4 e-Performance.

Also aimed at ages 10+ and with a similar parts count, 42176 claims to be the fastest remote control LEGO set yet. Servo steering and motorised drive are powered by a new on-board rechargeable battery, operated via the Control+ app.

Said app also controls the working LED lights (via some trick new lighting pieces), and provides ‘live data feedback’, so drivers can perfect chasing the cat.

A range of real-world sponsorship decals (gone are the days of sets wearing stickers saying such things as ‘Race’, ‘En-Jin’, ‘Fuel’ and suchlike) enhance a reasonable approximation of the GT4’s shape, and you’ll be able to get your hands on the fastest LEGO set yet for £150 / $170 when it races into stores on August 1st.

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Lego Technic 42182 NASA Apollo Lunar Roving Vehicle LRV

Some of the Lego Community’s very favourite things to create are lunar rovers, with hundreds of all shapes and sizes uploaded each year. All of them can can trace their existence back to this; the Lunar Rover Vehicle, or ‘LRV’.

Packed inside the Apollo 17 mission, the lunar rover carried scientific equipment and astronauts across the moon’s surface, and now – thanks to the new 42182 NASA Apollo Lunar Roving Vehicle LRV* set – builders can reimagine this astonishing moment in human history at home.

Constructed from over 1,900 pieces, many of which are accurately coloured in gold and bronze, 42182 can be folded up just like the real thing (or, less exotically, a wheelchair), and features working steering and suspension, brand new tyres, plus tools, some ‘moon rock’, and three separate attachable equipment sets including the wonderfully named ‘Traverse Gravimeter Experiment’.

Which might not sound like much for £190 / $220, but with a black box aimed at ages 18+ and a description using phrases such as ‘a mindful project’, 42182 is targeted very much as a ‘display’ piece, despite its Technic billing. And – as a display piece at least – the 42182 NASA Apollo Lunar Roving Vehicle LRV* is out of this world.

*Yes LEGO named 42182 twice. But if it’s good enough for Ferrari and Lamborghini…

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But wait, didn’t you say ‘four brand new sets’? We sure did. We’ll be back with the fourth new addition soon, and it’s a goodie…

Super Skyline

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It’s the early-’80s, and everything is ‘turbocharged’; sunglasses, baseball caps, pens… plus, in rare cases, cars. This is one of them, the nuts Nissan Skyline KDR30 ‘Super Silhouette’.

First racing in 1982, the KDR30 was built on a tubular steel space-frame, with sort-of-Skyline sedan bodywork placed over the top, hence the moniker.

A 2.1 litre straight-4 engine was mounted upfront, attached to the mother and father of all turbos. The result was nearly 600 flame-splitting horses, powering the KDR30 to multiple race wins in Group 5 from 1982 to 1984. And many a Grand Turismo racer – as that’s how most readers will know this car – into the digital armco.

This spectacular brick-built replica of the Skyline KDR30 ‘Super Silhouette’ is the work of TLCB Master MOCer Nico71, who has recreated the formidable 1982 racer in astonishing detail.

Underneath the wonderfully accurate body – which wears the real car’s racing livery – is a fully remote controlled drivetrain, courtesy of a third-party BuWizz bluetooth battery, an L Motor powering the rear wheels, and a Servo the steering.

A detailed working replica of the 4-cylinder engine, and the massive turbo that accompanied it, can be found up front, with it – as well as the trunk and hood – easily removable.

3D-printed wheels complete the incredible realism, and the car is available to build in both remote control and manual configurations via Nico’s excellent building instructions, which he’s released alongside full details and imagery.

You can find them and the complete specifications at Nico’s website, the full gallery on Brickshelf, and you can watch both the model and the real car in action (the real one spits considerably more flame) via the video below.

YouTube Video

My Other Le Mans Car’s a Peugeot

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The Technic 42156 Peugeot 9X8 Le Mans Hybrid Hypercar is a slightly weird, but nevertheless welcome, addition to LEGO’s officially-licensed line-up. First competing in 2022, before a full World Endurance Championship assault in 2023, the 9X8 has been… underwhelming.

A single podium all season and an 8th place at Peugeot’s home event of the 24 Heures de Mans is the best the car has achieved so far, but PeugeotSport are past race winners, so the results may come yet.

Until then though, if you own a 42156 Peugeot 9X8 and fancy swapping it for an endurance racer that’s more… winning, davidragon of Eurobricks has the answer!

Making his TLCB debut, davidragon has used the pieces from the 42156 Peugeot 9X8 to recreate a car from the other end of the World Endurance Classification, but one with rather more success.

The Chevrolet Corvette C8.R is the first mid-engined Corvette racing car, and placed second in the GTE-Pro class at Le Mans in 2021, before winning GTE-Am in 2023, finishing one place ahead of the second Peugeot 9X8 Hypercar that competed some three classes above it. Oof.

Davidragon’s incredible C8.R alternate features opening doors and hood, independent suspension, working steering, and a mid-mounted piston engine, and there’s lots more to see, including a link to building instructions, at the Eurobricks forum.

Click the link above to swap your Peugeot 9X8 for a Corvette C8.R, and improve your chances of winning some silverware.

Orangler

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Here at a high-mid northern latitude, TLCB Team have been waiting for the arrival of spring. It’s getting light into the evenings, plants are waking up, and adventures are easier to find.

Cue today’s creation, this splendidly orange fully remote controlled Jeep Wrangler by previous bloggee gyenesvi. With Powered-Up four-wheel-drive and steering, live-axle suspension, and removable doors, hard-top, roll-bar, and winch, gyenesvi’s Wrangler is just the thing for springtime adventures.

It’s been duly taken on a few too, with some superb on-location shots on the mountain trails outside the city. There’s more of the model to see at the Eurobricks forum and on Bricksafe, where links to building instructions can also be found. Start your off-road adventure in an orange Wrangler via the links above.

Master MOGer

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TLCB Master MOCer Thirdwigg continues to expand his Mercedes-Benz Unimog catalogue. This one is a U5000 short cab tipper, meaning there’s more room to put stuff to tip. A three-way (snigger) tipping bed, working steering, high/low gearbox, rear suspension, piston engine, plus front and rear winches all feature, and you can see more – including a link to building instructions if you’d like to create it yourself – by clicking here.

Daffy Truck

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This ginormous green machine is a DAF XG, the brand’s 2021 replacement for the XF truck that is ubiquitous across Western Europe, and here at TLCB too.

Constructed by MCD in 1:21 scale from around 1,300 pieces, this brilliantly-built replica of the XG – shown here pulling a tipper trailer designed by fellow builder Niklas Kaemer – features working steering, opening doors, and a whole lotta lime.

Building instructions are available and you can find out more at both the Eurobricks discussion forum and MCD’s ‘2021 DAF XG 4×2’ Rebrickable page. Click the links to take a look.

Forever 21

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This splendid creation – pictured in front of some equally splendid wallpaper – is a GAZ-21 Volga, a Soviet large sedan produced from the mid-’50s until 1970.

The most luxurious car available to individual owners within the USSR, the GAZ-21 was styled to resemble ’50s American cars, and even featured a Ford-licensed column-change gearbox, despite the rather frosty relations between the two countries at the time.

Constructed by previous bloggee paave, this Technic recreation of the GAZ-21 remarkably features that column-change gearbox, along with a working 4-cylinder engine, independent front and leaf-spring rear suspension, steering, folding seats, plus opening doors, hood, trunk, and glovebox.

A full parts list and building instructions are available, and you can take a closer look at paave’s brilliant creation via both the Eurobricks forum and his Bricksafe gallery.

Insert Midlife Crisis

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This site may have, on occasion, mocked Corvette and muscle car owners. However here in Europe we’re no better, because once a man reaches a certain age – and/or his hairline passes a certain point – he’s almost legally obliged to buy a Porsche Boxster.

This writer is closer to that point than he’d like to admit, but as he has not the funds for Porsche’s entry-level sports car, this will have to do instead.

Built by TLCB Master MOCer Thirdwigg, this brilliant brick-built Boxster (or 718 as they are now called) features a flat-six engine, working steering, opening doors and front/rear trunks, and it includes a working convertible top, for that authentic wind-in-the-thinning-hair experience.

Constructed in an appropriately midlife crisis colour, building instructions are available, and you can join us wondering if buying a Boxster would make us cool again* by clicking here.

*(It won’t. Ed.)

My Other Truck’s Also in Space

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LEGO’s new for 2024 Spacey Technic range is the mash-up we never thought we needed! It also features some superb new parts, which TLCB Master MOCer Nico71 has put to wonderful use though his brilliant 42180 B-Model.

Entitled ‘Space Garbage Truck’, Nico has redeployed the pieces from the official LEGO set to create a vehicle we hope mankind will have surpassed the need for when we’re inhabiting other planets… but seeing as our brightest minds are still creating such catastrophes as the disposable vape, perhaps that hope is misplaced.

Thus should space need clearing of mankind’s crap (It will. Ed.), Nico’s 42180 alternate has the answer. With a clever mechanically operated front-mounted grab, ingenious six-wheel steering, and a winch-based rear compactor mechanism, Nico’s ‘Space Garbage Truck’ is on hand to remove all the space-based detritus that will inevitably follow humanity wherever it goes in the cosmos.

Building instructions are available and there’s much more of Nico’s 42180 B-Model to see via his Brickshelf gallery. Click here to take a closer look, the second link above to check out Nico’s Master MOCer interview here at The Lego Car Blog, and finally you can watch his latest creation in action via the video below.

YouTube Video

Steamy Erection

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A long time ago it wasn’t diesel, electricity, or gasoline that powered humanity’s vehicles, but steam. Very heavy, with minimal range and requiring regular impractical refuelling, steam-powered vehicles were nevertheless immensely powerful – far more so than those powered by other fuels – and thus they were the engines of choice for heavy duty applications, even as all other vehicle types moved on.

This is one such steam vehicle, Nikolaus Löwe‘s fabulous Fowler traction engine, here outfitted with a working crane. Connected to the tractor-part via a wonderfully complicated-looking arrangement of ratchets and gears, Nikolaus’ creation harks back to an era of coal, soot, noise, and perhaps a little magic.

Get steamy at Nikolaus’ photostream via the link above, whilst we ponder if today’s electric fuel of choice – being very heavy, with minimal range and requiring regular impractical refuelling, but nevertheless immensely powerful – really marks a century’s worth of progress from when this was trundling down the roads.