Batman gets to ride/drive/fly some pretty awesome stuff. But when he’s not at work fighting the seedy underbelly of Gotham, Bruce Wayne might still want access to some cool machinery. Cue 1980SomethingSpaceGuy, who has repurposed the parts from the 42155 The Batman – Batcycle set into this stealthy cafe racer. A V4 engine, steering and suspension all feature, and there’s more to see of 1980’s 42155 B-Model at the Eurobricks forum via the link above.
LEGO’s extensive catalogue of officially-licensed vehicle sets has brought many amazing real-world racers to bedroom floors, including the 42141 McLaren Formula 1 Car, 42125 Ferrari 488 GTE AF Corse, and the 42096 Porsche 911 RSR.
Today we can reveal that LEGO are not only bringing another real-world racer to the Technic range, but a whole new manufacturer too! This is the brand new 1:10 scale, 1,775-piece 42156 Peugeot 9X8 24H Le Mans Hybrid Hypercar.
Yes, we finally have a top-tier Le Mans Hypercar in brick form, although with LEGO also having licenses with rival teams Toyota, Ferrari, BMW, Porsche, and Ferrari, hopefully we could see the whole Le Mans grid in time.
The Peugeot 9X8 entered the championship this year, looking to challenge the dominance of Toyota at the front of the field, and combines a V6 engine with a Hybrid KER system and four-wheel drive.
The new LEGO 42156 set aims to recreate the functions of the real Peugeot 9X8, with working steering and suspension, a V6 piston engine, 7-speed transmission, and – mysteriously – replicating ‘the low emission hybrid powertrain system’, although we’re not sure what that means.
The set also features glow-in-the-dark headlights and a myriad of authentic decals, and is expected to cost around £170 / $200 when it reaches stores in time for the 2023 24 Heures du Mans race this summer, in which Peugeot Sport might get a little extra support from LEGO fans…
Ferrari may have built a surprisingly large number of F40s, but even with our big-time Lego Blogging Money, owning one is considerably out of reach. However this stunning Technic version is rather more attainable, and it features a working V8 engine, 5+R gearbox, independent suspension, opening clamshells, and pop-up headlights just like the real thing.
Eurobricks’ sebulba56 is the designer, and they’ve made building instructions available so you can create your own brick-built replica of Ferrari’s legendary 40th-birthday-present-to-itself too.
Full details can be found at the Eurobricks forum via the link above, where images of mechanical break-downs, a complete description, and a link to building instructions can all be found.
Ever since LEGO released the incredible 8110 Mercedes-Benz Unimog U400 set over a decade ago, the internet has been awash with home-made ‘mogs. Dozens of the best have appeared here over the years, countless Elves have been run-over by the remote control ones, and the online Lego Community is showing no sign of slowing up on the ‘mog-making. Which we’re totally OK with, because Unimogs are cool.
They’re also interesting from an engineering perspective, and offer plenty of scope for the recreation of real-world mechanics in brick form. Cue the latest Mercedes-Benz Unimog to appear here, this excellent flat-bed U5000 built by Teo LEGO Technic.
With a third-party BuWizz bluetooth battery remotely controlling the twin Power Functions XL Motor four-wheel-drive, M Motor steering, pneumatic differential locks, and a high/low gearbox, plus some serious suspension, Teo’s U5000 looks to be as good off-road as the real deal.
There’s more to see, including a video of the model in action, at the Eurobricks forum, plus a complete image gallery with mechanical break-downs can be found at Bricksafe. Click the links to take a look, and you can see all the many ‘mogs that have appeared here over the last eleven years via the search function in the sidebar or footer.
…is something the content of this website is routinely called in the comments. Which is mostly correct of course. Today’s creation can handle it though, being this brilliant Technic garbage truck (or ‘bin lorry’ where this writer is from).
Constructed by previous bloggee Thirdwigg (aka Wigboldy), the model is absolutely packed with working functions, the first of which has nothing to do with its garbage processing ability at all.
Thirdwigg has created a ‘Hybrid’ drivetrain for the truck, with the wheels turning either a traditional piston engine under the tilting cab, a brick-built ‘electric’ motor, or a combination of both, with a switchable differential doing the job of the power-control-unit that features on real-world Hybrid powertrains.
It’s a superb replication of the system used by many new vehicles, heavy trucks and buses included, and one we think could appear in all sorts of Technic models going forward, particularly as Thirdwigg has made building instructions for his design available.
Away from the trick powertrain and a wealth of Technic functionality continues, with four-wheel steering, a working bin lifting mechanism, a two stage cycle for garbage extraction, a linear actuator driven extractor plate, and an opening rear hopper, all of which are controlled via hand-powered mechanisms thanks to conveniently placed knob-gears though-out the model.
Over a dozen top quality images are available to view at Thirdwigg’s ‘Hybrid Garbage Truck’ album on Flickr, where a link to the aforementioned building instructions can also be found, plus you can watch all of the model’s working features in action via an excellent YouTube video.
Click the links above to take out the garbage, whilst we get back to writing it.
One hundred and twenty years ago, the Wright brothers took to the skies (briefly) to complete the world’s first powered heavier-than-air flight. Made of spruce, ash, and canvas, their ‘Wright Flyer’ propelled itself through the air for 260 metres / 850 feet, and into the record books.
Just six years later and aircraft development was so rapid that planes could stay airborne for hours at a time, with this, the Blériot XI, the first to cross the English Channel. A competition run by an English newspaper, Louis Charles Joseph Blériot took the £1,000 prize, and with it over a hundred orders for his new monoplane.
This incredible recreation of that pioneering aircraft is the work of Nikolaus Löwe, and includes functioning control surfaces via the cockpit stick, a foot-pedal operated rudder, suspended landing-gear, and a working semi-radial engine.
There’s more to see at Nikolaus’ photostream and you can head to the skies over the English Channel in 1909 via the link above.
It’s not all supercars and hot rods here at The Lego Car Blog. Mostly this is because we’re pretty rubbish at sticking to our brief, but it’s also because we rather like trucks, diggers, tractors, and other workhorse-like machinery. This example was discovered by one of our Elves on Bricksafe, it’s a Claas Axion tractor by mpj, features working steering and rear hitch mechanisms, and there’s more to see via the link. Plus if you’re as into green farm machinery as we are (frankly it’s a miracle we have partners…) you can check out LEGO’s own officially-licensed and throughly brilliant Claas tractor set by clicking here, and its smaller brother here, back from the earliest days of this website. We’ve clearly been nerding out over tractors for some time…
Or so people in their 40s like to say. For Ferrari however, it’s very probably true, as – despite their amazing pre-1980s back-catalogue – the Maranello marque’s all-time high water mark came in 1987 with its fortieth birthday present to itself, the astonishing F40.
Pioneering twin-turbochargers, a kevlar and carbon-fibre body, and semi-flat under-tray, the F40 was the fastest, most powerful, and most expensive Ferrari yet, and the last to be personally approved by Enzo Ferrari himself before his death in 1988.
All of which means F40s are now worth around $1.5million, even though they are not – at least in supercar terms – rare cars, with over 1,300 produced during the model’s five year production run.
Unfortunately the result of such iconic status is that even TLCB’s executive team can’t afford one, despite the immense riches that blogging about Lego brings, but no matter because today we have the next best thing; Lachlan Cameron’s brilliant Technic Ferrari F40 replica.
Utilising the latest parts from the official LEGO Technic 42143 Ferrari Dayton SP3 set, Lachlan has faithfully recreated the definitive Ferrari in brick form, complete with a v8 engine and 5-speed gearbox, working steering and suspension, opening clamshells and doors, a highly detailed interior and engine bay, and pop-up headlights.
Accurate decals, chromed pieces, and printed tyres maximise the realism, and there’s lots more to see of this incredible creation at Lachlan’s ‘Ferrari F40’ album on Flickr and at the Eurobricks forum.
Join Ferrari’s fortieth birthday celebrations via the links in the text above, plus you can find out Lachlan builds amazing models like this via his interview here at The Lego car Blog; click these words to read more.
We love simple mechanical models here at The Lego Car Blog, particularly if they’re recreating simple mechanical vehicles. Cue regular bloggee Thirdwigg, and his thoroughly excellent Mercedes-Benz 917 AK truck.
Featuring no electric motors, zero app-based controls, and completely devoid of bluetooth, Thirdwigg’s truck is an old-school homage to vintage Technic sets, with a range of mechanical hand-powered functions in place of the software-based wizardry now commonplace in Technic construction.
Working ‘Hand of God’ steering, a piston engine connected to the pendular-suspended rear wheels, a high/low gearbox, tilting cab, and a three-way (snigger) tipper with dropsides pack the model with mechanical functions, and there’s more to see – including free building instructions – at Thirdwigg’s ‘Mercedes 917’ Flickr album, Rebrickable page, and Eurobricks discussion topic.
Click the links to tip it old skool.
Retro-inspired off-roaders are all the rage right now, with many buyers swapping their sleek modern-looking SUVs for vehicles with a more rough-and-ready pastiche. They’re still only used to drive to Walmart of course, but at least the parking lot looks more interesting.
Cue previous bloggee gyenesvi, who has recreated Ford’s newest/oldest model, the rather excellent looking Bronco, trading in an F-150 Raptor. And a Mercedes-Benz Zetros truck.
Yup, this superb fully remote controlled 2022 Bronco, complete with four-wheel-drive, steering, live-axle suspension, opening doors, hood and trunk, plus an ‘expedition kit’ for those particularly arduous trips to Walmart, is constructed only from the parts found within the official LEGO Technic 42126 Ford F-150 Raptor and 42129 Mercedes-Benz Zetros Trial Truck sets.
The bright orange body panels of 42126 and the Control+ remote control hardware (and wheels and tyres) from 42129 provide the perfect combination, with the model further enhanced by some excellent custom decals to recreate the Bronco’s distinctive front-end.
Building instructions for gyenesvi’s double B-Model Bronco are available and there’s lots more to see at both the Eurobricks forum and an extensive Bricksafe gallery. Click the links above to take a look, you can watch the model in action via the video below, plus you can click here to see gyenesvi’s previous alternate for 42129.
YouTube Video
Nothing makes our smelly little workers happier than flattening one another with a remote control find. Cue much excitement from the Elf that found this enormous fully remote controlled Komatsu WD900-3 wheel dozer as it entered TLCB Towers, high on the expectation that it could smush any number of its colleagues into the office carpet.
Fortunately for us, that number was zero, seeing as Beat Felber‘s 1:28.5 scale replica of the 100-ton dozer is much too slow to catch any of them. But whilst it is indeed slow, it’s also incredible, with remotely operable all-wheel-drive, articulated linear-actuator controlled steering, a fully adjustable blade positionable via three pneumatic cylinders, each equipped with their own Servo-actuated valve, and an on-board pneumatic compressor.
That enormous blade can lift, lower, pitch fore and aft, and tilt left to right courtesy of the compressor, valves and pneumatic cylinders, all of which can be controlled remotely via bluetooth thanks to two third-party SBricks and an on-board rechargeable Power functions battery.
A work of engineering brilliance, there’s lots more to see of Beat’s Komatsu WD900-3 replica at his album of the same name, where twenty stunning images can be found along with further build details and a link to a video of the model in action.
Click the first link in the text above to make the jump, whilst we cheer up a despondent TLCB Elf with a well-deserved yellow Smartie.
First appearing here in December with a suitably rubbish Christmas pun, Thirdwigg’s Mercedes-Benz Unimog U423, complete with working steering, suspension, piston engine, power take-offs and free building instructions, is just the sort of creation we like.
Of course to be a proper miniature Unimog, an array of attachments and implements should also be available, to which Thirdwigg had duly obliged, with a snow plow and gritter, three-way tipping bed, and knuckle-boom crane all able to be mounted to the truck.
One combination that was missing however, was the set-up from the spectacular and considerably larger official 8110 Mercedes-Benz Unimog set, where a tipper is combined with a rear-mounted triple-boom crane and stabiliser legs.
If you missed the chance to get hold of an 8110 set when it was available, Thirdwigg may have added just what you need, creating a small-scale version of the 8110 configuration for his 1:20 scale Unimog U423.
As with the previous iterations, free building instructions are available so you can create your very own miniature 8110 at home, and you can see more of Thirdwigg’s excellent model on Flickr by clicking these words.
What’s better off-road than a 4×4? Two 4x4s. Bolted together. This is a Tatra T813 8×8 off-road truck, as recreated in Technic form by previous bloggee Horcik Designs for a Lego Truck Trial Championship.
Two LEGO Buggy Motors power all eight fully-suspended wheels, the front two axles steer, plus there’s a removable body and cab (re-used from Horcik’s previous Truck Trial entry).
Full details and further imagery can be found at Horcik’s Bricksafe album, in the video below, and at the Eurobricks forum, where video footage of the Tatra and its rivals competing in the Truck Trial Championship can be viewed too.
YouTube Video
This is a Foremost Delta, a 6×6, articulated, multi-terrain, terra-tired transport, and the best thing to come out of Canada since maple syrup and Elisha Cuthbert.
This incredible fully remote controlled Technic recreation of the amazing Canadian machine comes from TLCB master MOCer Nico71, who has replicated the Delta’s 6×6 drivetrain, articulated steering, and improbably suspension in Lego form.
A suite of Control+ components deliver power to the all-wheel-drive system and linear-actuator driven articulation, whilst the model also includes opening doors, a removable bed and cab, and can be equipped with front and rear winches.
Building instructions are available and there’s more to see of Nico’s superbly-engineered Foremost Delta on Brickshelf and via the excellent video below, plus you can read Nico’s Master MOCers interview here at TLCB by clicking these words. Take a look whilst this TLCB Writer returns to thinking about maple syrup and Elisha Cuthbert. Or somehow combining the two.
YouTube Video
Or rather, top tanker, because this is perhaps the cleanest tanker truck build we’ve seen yet. The aesthetics of MCD‘s Volvo FMX 8×2 are even more impressive when you consider this is a Technic creation, not a Model Team one, and is entirely LEGO, even down to the rubber bands holding the pipes. There’s more of MCD’s model to see at the Eurobricks forum, and you can tank on over via the link above.