Tag Archives: Technic

Dananananana Bateman!

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This is a Bateman Assault Bridge Carrier, an experimental tank-bridge-laying-combo based on the excellently-named ‘Medium Dragon’ Mk.1 artillery tractor that was trialled by the British Royal Engineers in 1926.

It’s one of the more obscure vehicles to appear here then, and it’s been recreated brilliantly by Tarix819 of Eurobricks in a colossal 1:8 scale.

Weighing almost 10kgs, Tarix’s creation features two coil-sprung tracks, each with its own mechanical tensioner and independently powered by an SBrick and three XL motors.

A working V8 engine lives within the armour, and a functioning searchlight is able to light up the obstacle ahead in need of crossing.

And cross an obstacle the Bateman can, as Tarix’s model can deploy the huge bridge mounted on the top of machine. The real Assault Bridge Carrier relied on hand-powered winches (which are also recreated here), but Tarix’s build utilises a Power Functions Medium Motor to complete the model’s suite of remote control functionality.

It’s a monumentally impressive piece of Lego engineering and you can see how Tarix has done it at the Eurobricks discussion form here, and via the brilliant video below.

YouTube Video

Brick Built Bucket

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LEGO’s new Technic 42131 App-Controlled CAT D11 Bulldozer set revealed here earlier in the week is a spectacular (and spectacularly expensive) way to push LEGO pieces around your floor.

Of course the online Lego Community has been building super-sized RC bulldozers for some time, and this magnificent Liebherr PR 776 by Flickr’s Dawid Szmandra is one of the best we’ve seen yet.

With four motors, a Mindstorms EV3 for control, and perhaps the best brick-built bucket we’ve ever seen, Dawid’s creation gives LEGO’s 42131 set a run for its (considerable amount of) money, and it’s a creation you can build for yourself as he’s made building instructions available too.

There’s more of the build to see at Dawid’s ‘Liebherr PR 776’ album on Flickr, where a links to building instructions and even to the custom decals can also be found.

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Half-Size Supercar

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This is an Autozam AZ-1, and it’s awesome! Produced from 1992 to ’94, fewer than 5,000 units were built across all three brands that marketed it (Mazda, Mazda’s kei car brand Autozam, and Suzuki, who supplied the engine), with sales hampered by a high list price, collapsing economy, and it being weird even by the standards of the Japanese kei-class.

Effectively a 1:2 scale mid-engined gull-winged supercar, the AZ-1 we have here is even smaller, at 1:11, but it’s as packed with interestingness as the real thing. Built by syclone of Eurobricks, this brilliant Technic recreation of the coolest kei-car of them all features remote control drive, steering and headlights, a working steering wheel inside a detailed cabin, independent front and rear suspension, a working piston engine (in there somewhere!), and – of course – opening gull-wing doors.

Building instructions are available and there’s much more to see of syclone’s brilliant Autozam AZ-1, including a video of it in action, at the Eurobricks discussion forum. Take a look at this fantastic 1:11 recreation of a 1:2 supercar via the link above!

Technic 42131 App-Controlled CAT D11 Bulldozer | Set Preview

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Household pets and TLCB Elves don’t usually get on. From October 2021 however, we expect they might share a common nemesis; this is the brand new LEGO Technic 42131 App-Controlled CAT D11 Bulldozer. All 3,854 pieces of it.

Measuring 57cm in length and 37cm wide, 42131 brings the Caterpillar brand into LEGO’s burgeoning array of official partnerships – alongside equipment manufacturers such as Volvo, Claas, and Liebherr.

Four ‘Powered UP’ motors and a Control+ hub enable the set to be controlled via your mobile phone, with the huge yellow tracks, blade elevation and tilt, and ripper height all powered and remotely operable.

Those yellow tracks are new for 2021 too, making their debut on 42131, and featuring a tightening/loosening mechanism that we expect will make them highly sought after for builders’ own tracked creations.

A working piston engine complete with details such as brick built turbo-chargers, realistic (and – we must admit – rather excellent looking) decals, and a high level of visual exterior detailing including rails, ladders, exhausts, and lights, make for very impressive looking set, and one we expect will become mighty popular.

Aimed at ages 18+, the new LEGO Technic 42131 App-Controlled CAT D11 Bulldozer is expected to cost around £420, which – much to the relief of our Elves – is comfortably outside TLCB’s budget. If it’s within yours you can get your hands on all 3,854 pieces from October 2021, and your cat will never be able to relax again.

BriksMax Light Kit (42111 Dom’s Dodge Charger)

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The LEGO Technic 42111 Fast & Furious Dom’s Dodge Charger set received a rather good review here at TLCB when we got our hands on it. Certainly a better one than movies did. But, like those awful awful movies, could there be sequel; one that’s even faster and furiouser?

Well no, neither of those adjectives. But we do have a 42111 sequel that’s more sparkly.

That’s because we’ve outfitted our 42111 Dom’s Dodge Charger set with an array of LED lights courtesy of suppliers Lightailing, who have a huge range of LEGO compatible light kits available for sets including Creator, Modular Buildings, Star Wars, Harry Potter, City, and – as here – Technic.

Our 42111-compatible kit is produced by BriksMax, and it came in a neat box containing an instructions booklet, a 1 Year warranty card, a remote control, a battery box, and an alarming number of resealable bags.

Said bags were numbered and described, corresponding to the relevant point in the instructions denoting when to open each one. Inside each was a well-coiled set of wires, tiny circuit boards, sticky pads, or a combination of these.

So is adding the BriksMax light kit to your 42111 Dom’s Dodge Charger set fun? Absolutely not. Fiddly – yes. Fun – no.

Despite the instructions being reasonable, the installation process is effectively threading needle around two hundred times. It makes us wonder if these LED lighting kit companies could design a little attachment that clips into Technic holes and holds the wire, removing the need to endlessly thread LEDs through Technic beams and making the instructions simpler to boot (you can have that recommendation for free Lighting People!)

The process is made harder by the wires being black and in this case the model being black too, although the BriksMax kit does sometimes differentiate between wire types via coloured band, plus each LED has the bag no. printed on its reverse, which is a thoughtful touch.

Only a few parts of the set need to be disassembled to install the LEDs, and only two pieces are replaced (the front indicator bricks switching from tiles to studs to give more room for the LED inside).

Overall though, the installation process is not fun one bit. However, the end result is, well… fantastic. Continue reading →

Phlattening Phoenix

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It was a peaceful morning here at TLCB Towers. Some Elves were quietly watching cartoons, some TLCB Writers were… er, quietly watching cartoons, and all was well with the world.

And then a BuWizz-powered truck ran a load of them over. Elves you understand, not Writers.

Built by Eurobricks’ blaz62, this monstrous Tatra Phoenix trial truck made easy work smushing our smelly little workers, thanks to twin motors, fully independent suspension, and six-wheel-drive.

The Elf at the controls was clearly enjoying itself, but fortunately we were on hand to promptly pick up the creation in question and end the violence, much to its annoyance.

A closer inspection of the model revealed modular construction, opening doors, and – for a Technic creation at least – a kinda detailed interior, but with a trial truck it’s really all about how the model drives.

Whilst we conduct some arduous ‘testing’ to determine this, you can see more of blaz62’s excellent all-wheel-drive Phoenix at the Eurobricks discussion via the link above, plus you can check out the creation in action via the video below.

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Blank Face

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Things with blank, expressionless faces are terrifying. How do you know what they’re thinking? That’s why car styling always sort of resembles a face, even if that face is an increasingly angry one these days.

Oshkosk didn’t get that memo though, and – in creating their HMETT 8×8 off-road truck – gave it a face of such horrifying blankness it could belong to a Cyberman.

Still, vacant serial-killer stare aside, the HMETT is a mega bit of kit, and so too is Thesuperkoala‘s Technic recreation, which includes eight-wheel-drive, four-wheel-steering, lockable differentials, a high/low gearbox, all-wheel springless suspension, a removable load bed, and BuWizz bluetooth remote control.

Which means it could drive around the house seemingly of its own free-will, which gives this writer shivers.

There’s more to see of Thesuperkoala’s excellent Technic Oshkosh HMETT 8×8 truck at both Flickr and via the video below; click the links to take a look, whilst this TLCB Writer draws smiley faces on anything vaguely resembling a head in TLCB office and tries to think happy thoughts…

YouTube Video

Devil Dog

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We love Technic Supercars here at TLCB. There’s no need for motors, and the car doesn’t have to actually be a ‘super car’, it just needs steering, suspension, a gearbox, and a piston engine. Perhaps it should be out next competition?

Anyway until then, here’s a Technic Supercar from one of the very best. Suggested by a reader, TLCB Master MOCer Crowkillers’ latest creation fits the Technic Supercar brief perfectly, with steering, all-wheel suspension, a 4+R gearbox (with a gear indicator on the dashboard too), and a V8 engine up front.

The doors, hood and trunk also open, and there’s more to see of Crowkillers’ ‘Cerberus’ Technic Supercar via Bricksafe, where two-dozen high quality images are available, and via the YouTube video below with a suitably devil dogish soundtrack.

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The Best LEGO Sets Reviewed by TLCB

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The Lego Car Blog has many interesting pages away from the main page. Ok, that’s not true. The Lego Car Blog has some interesting pages away from the main page. One of them is the Review Library, which – according to the wizards over at Brick Insights – now contains 108 reviews. Some of which are even written by you guys.

Nearly three quarters of the reviews in the Review Library are scored (we probably forgot the rest), with the average score being 7.8/10, which probably makes sense as LEGO sets are usually rather good and we tend to review sets we like (although not always). Technic is the most popular theme, with sixty-six sets reviewed so far, and fifteen sets have received a score above 9/10 (or 5 stars) so far, versus sixteen sets with a score of below 6.

So, with over a hundred reviews now published, which LEGO sets have earned a much coveted perfect score here at The Lego Car Blog? Read on to find out! Continue reading →

Go-Kart Redux

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Constructed for a Eurobricks contest, this is dazzz99‘s homage to the vintage 8842 Technic Go-Kart set, re-engineered using modern studless pieces, and with some rather lovely details too, including a radiator, oil filler cap, and air-filter attached to the working single-cylinder piston engine.

It’s an engine that’s far more appropriate than that found on original set too, which pre-dated LEGO’s purpose-built cylinder and piston parts and instead used an enormous brick-built mechanism that would’ve been larger than the driver. And probably killed them.

There’s more to see of dazzz’s lovely 8842 redux on Flickr via the link above, plus you can check out the contest in which it’s entered, the original 1980s Technic set that inspired it, and our review of a multitude of LEGO Technic Go-Kart sets via the respective links in the text.

B-Grade

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So often Technic’s B-Model, road graders like this Volvo G990 are the vehicles that give almost everything else we post a place to exist in the first place. So here to shine a light on their significance is Eric Trax, and this brilliant, er… 42114 B-Model…

OK, a B-Model this Volvo G990 may be, but it doesn’t feel compromised for it. Utilising around 90% of the parts from the 42114 6×6 Volvo Articulated Hauler set, Eric’s alternate redeploys the Control+ motors, control unit and app to give his grader remote control drive, steering, a three-speed automatic gearbox, and to power the main blade’s elevation.

The model features a few mechanical functions too, including a working piston engine, manually controlled ripper, and a seven-position blade angle. Best of all, Eric has released instructions for his road grader so you can build it for yourself if you own the 42114 set, and there’s more of Eric’s Volvo G990 B-Model to see on both Flickr and at the Eurobricks forum. Click the links above to earn yourself a B Grade.

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Build-a-Fiat

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LEGO’s 10271 Creator Fiat 500 set is a fine addition to their officially licensed line up. Even if we don’t understand why it comes with an easel.

However being a Creator set, 10271 isn’t particularly technical. Cue TLCB Master MOCer Nico71, who has constructed a similarly-sized sixties Fiat 500 in Technic form with a whole heap more functionality. Although no easel.

Nico’s Fiat looks the part, with a combination of axles, lift arms and flex tubes recreating the 500’s famous shape, under which is a working rear-mounted two cylinder engine driven by the rear wheels, functioning steering, front and rear suspension, plus opening doors, front trunk and engine cover.

It’s a lovely build (that would make an excellent set too), and one that you can recreate for yourself at home as Nico has made building instructions available.

There’s more to see on Eurobricks, and at Nico’s excellent website, plus you can read his interview in the Master MOCers series here at The Lego Car Blog via the link in the next above.

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Smaller than Expected*

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This may look like a normal cab-over light duty truck, but it is in fact a kei car, Japan’s microcar class in which vehicles can measure no longer than 3.4m, no wider than 1.48m, and have an engine size no greater than 660cc.

It is, therefore, absolutely tiny. Plus, obviously, it’s a Lego model, so it’s even smaller than that…

This superb Technic kei-class truck is a Daihatsu Hijet S110P, and it comes from syclone of Eurobricks who has packed it with an unfathomably large amount of features.

Under the really rather good exterior is a full remote control drivetrain, complete with all-wheel-suspension, all-wheel-drive, servo steering (linked to the steering wheel too), opening and locking doors, dropping bed side walls, and even working headlights.

There’s loads more of syclone’s Daihatsu Hijet to see at the Eurobricks forum, including a video of the kei truck in action. Take a look via the link above!

*That’s what she said.

Printed Discs

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3D printing has changed the way things are made forever. Prototypes, one-offs, and recreations of long-lost parts can now be produced at a fraction of their previous cost thanks to computer-aided-design and little plastic granules.

Inevitably we’re now seeing 3D printed pieces appear in Lego creations too, including this one by regular bloggee Horcik Designs. Horcik’s cafe racer motorcycle uses a (very cool looking ) 3D printed front brake disc, which fits perfectly to the front wheel.

Steering, suspension, a piston engine, and a foot-peg operated two-speed transmission also feature, with these all built from standard LEGO pieces.

With LEGO themselves regularly creating new and bespoke pieces for official sets, we’re taking the stance that a model using a custom part doesn’t preclude it from appearing here.

You can see more of Horcik’s cafe racer at both Bricksafe and Eurobricks, the latter of which shows another of his creations that’s has gone (quite a long way) further down the 3D printing route…

8 Out of 10 Nazis…

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It might sound like European cat food, but the Kettenkrad was altogether weirder than that. Half motorcycle, half tank, the Sd.Kfz 2 Kettenkrad was designed by NSU, powered by Opel, weighed 1.5 tons, and could climb slopes of over 24°, even in sand.

A unique drive system delivered power to both tracks simultaneously on hard ground, or – when the driver selected – operated via a subtractor to skid-steer on soft ground, and it was used throughout the Second World War to lay cables, transport troops, tow aircraft, oh – and to invade Russia.

This amazing motorised Model Team recreation of the Sd.Kfz 2 Kettenkrad comes from previous bloggee Samolot, and not only does it feature the most terrifying LEGO figure we’ve ever seen, it also includes a fully working remote controlled version of the real bike/tank’s ingenious steering system.

Exactly how it works is beyond the collective minds housed here at TLCB Towers, so the best way to see if you can figure it out is via the video below. There are also more images of both Samolot’s model and the real 1940s contraption at Bricksafe, and you can read the full build description and join the discussion via the Eurobricks forum here.

YouTube Video