The Lego Car Blog Elves live on a simple diet of occasional meals, even more occasional Smarties, and regular extreme Elf-on-Elf violence. Today’s lucky Elf scored a hat-trick, being rewarded – as all successful Elves are – with a meal token, and also with a bonus green Smartie. High on sugar the aforementioned Elf then completed its hat-trick by undertaking what can best be described as a rampage at the controls of its find.
The find in question is this remarkable remote control John Deere 900 Series feller-buncher built by MOCpages’ Desert752 Kirill, and it’s an incredible bit of kit. Power Functions operated skid-steering and drive give Desert’s tracked feller-buncher surprising agility, meaning many Elves were out-manouvered in the hallways of TLCB Towers and squashed as they fled.
Smarter Elves, learning from previous experience, clambered off the floor to areas of expected safety, but sadly for them the John Deere’s linear actuated felling arm – complete with grab and micro-motor powered circular saw – meant that there really was nowhere to hide.
With no more colleagues to torment the jubilant Elf driver abandoned its motorised weapon and escaped cackling into the night. One suspects its colleagues won’t be forthcoming in welcoming it back upon its next return to TLCB Towers…
Anyway, whilst we await the inevitable Elf fight you can check out what makes Desert752 Kirill’s John Deere 900 such a formidable machine – click the link above for all the details of the build on MOCpages, and watch the video below to see the feller-buncher in action.
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Toyota’s Hiace van wouldn’t be high on our list of the best vehicles to modify, but the world’s car tuners do seem to make odd choices sometimes. In Europe the Volkswagen Beetle and Transporter are perhaps the most inappropriate, whilst the Japanese modifying scene has gone a similarly daft route with ‘Bosozoku’ – the style in which builder filsawgood has created his splendidly ridiculous Toyota Hiace drift van.
Underneath the be-stickered Technic bodywork is a Technic buggy motor powering the rear wheels and a Power Functions servo motor which steers the fronts. These are linked to the previously featured third-party SBrick which enables control via a tablet or other mobile device.
For more details on the Hiace Hoonivan and to see a full gallery of images head over to Eurobricks via the link above.
This magnificent Technic tilt and slide recovery truck was discovered on Eurobricks, where builder Kevin Moo has engineered a range of stunning functionality from no less than nine(!) Power Functions motors. These include remote control drive and steering, the tilting and sliding of the recovery bed, a working winch and wheel-lift and a motorised opening bonnet. There’s also a V8 piston engine up front, working suspension on all axles and operational headlights.
You can see the full gallery of images at the Eurobricks discussion forum via the link above, plus you can see Kevin’s recovery truck in action via the video below – it looks the perfect vehicle for the inevitable rescue of some of our previously blogged cars – such as this, these, and almost any Peugeot.
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Turbocharged three-cylinder engines are all the rage at the moment, thanks to tightening emissions regulations, high fuel prices, and the advancement of forced induction technology. Ford, Volkswagen, Peugeot, BMW and many more have recently downsized by a cylinder, but it was the Japanese who first explored the idea of a small capacity turbo triple as early as the 1980s.
TLCB regular Horcik Designs has paid homage to the forced-induction pioneers with his generic small Japanese coupe. There’s a three-cylinder turbocharged engine mounted transversely up front, independent and live-axle suspension, working steering, opening and locking doors, and lots more besides. You can see all of Horcik’s photos on Flickr – click the link above to make some boost.
If you have children around or – like us – messy mythical creatures, then we’ve got just the Lego creation for you! This Hovertrack Luctor 544 tractor is a brilliant model in its own right – with a working six-cylinder piston engine, remotely controlled all-wheel-drive, gearbox and steering, trailer hitch and LED lights – but what it’s towing is even more impressive…
That big red box is apparently a Schuitemaker Rapide 8400 RS forage wagon (no, us neither) which is in essence a giant carpet cleaner. It’s used for collecting mown grass via a huge spiky rotating thresher type thingumy, which is then stored for dispatching elsewhere. It’s an impressive piece of kit, and previous bloggee 896gerard has constructed a Technic version that really, truly, and brilliantly works. It might be made from Danish plastic but this model can clean TLCB office better than our vacuum cleaner.
You can the full gallery of images via Brickshelf here, but to really appreciate how good this model is you’ve got to see it in action – click this link to visit 896gerard’s MOCpages account for the full details and a video of some incredible Lego engineering…
There’s been much excitement here at TLCB Towers today. Following our preview of the 2015 Technic line-up some time ago, the final piece of the 2015 jigsaw has been found! We’ve had a few images of the missing 42043 set sitting in the office for a while, but unfortunately they weren’t of sufficient quality for us to share here. And we forgot. But let’s go with the quality control aspect as it makes us look more professional.
Anyway, thanks to an intrepid troop of Elves we now do have images of a high enough quality to publish! So this is it – LEGO’s new 2015 Technic flagship, building further on their partnership with Mercedes-Benz, the 2,800 piece 42043 Arcos crane truck.
Based on Mercedes’ real 4-axle tractor unit 42043 surpasses even the previous standards set by the incredible 8110 Unimog set. Featuring both Power Functions electric motors and the next generation pneumatic system (containing all-new components), 42043 features a huge range of functionality.
Three new pneumatic cylinders are used to move the crane arm and grab, with a fourth employed as a pneumatic compressor. A gearbox allows the Power Functions system to perform a variety of tasks, including powering the aforementioned compressor and tipping the bucket, whilst unpowered mechanics take care of the steering, piston engine and suspension.
We expect the new 42043 flagship set to cost upwards £165 when it arrives towards the end of the summer, and if one of TLCB Team saves really hard we’ll be able to bring you a set review. In the meantime you can read our reviews of LEGO’s previous releases, including the Arocs’ predecessor – the 8110 Unimog – by clicking here.
This particular tumbler isn’t the Dark Knight’s latest set of wheels, it’s the work of Vimal “vlmn8r” Patel and Peter “Mahj” Kreuger. The “Bugroll” zooms along and then performs an acrobatic front flip. Mahj has a history of building cars that move in unusual ways and we featured his “Cadmium” lowrider earlier this year. Once you’ve watched the YouTube video below, click on this link to Mahj’s Flickr Photostream to see the details of how the car works.
After removing the controls of yesterday‘s monster truck from the Elves before there could be any smushings one of them got one over us today.
In the hands of the aforementioned employee the Baja trophy truck above managed to squash most of our smelly little workforce long before we noticed anything was amiss and – thanks to the new SBrick – controlling the chaos could be done by the Elf in hiding.
Order has now been restored and the jubilant Elf responsible ejected from TLCB Towers by way of the office catapult, giving us the chance to scrape some damaged Elves out of the carpet and – more importantly – have a go at the driving ourselves.
The beast in question is the work of Egor Karshiev (aka rm8) and it’s E.P.I.C. Underneath the trophy truck bodywork are two LEGO buggy motors powered by two LiPo batteries, plus a servo motor for steering, three sets of LEDs and the SBrick control unit. All of this sits on top of some of the bounciest Technic suspension we’ve ever seen and the result is a Technic model that’s faster than anything made from Lego has a right to be.
You can read all about Egor’s creation and see the full gallery of images on MOCpages, plus you can appreciate how half our workers were squashed so thoroughly by watching the truck in action in Egor’s awesome video here.
TLCB favourite (and ‘Become a Pro‘ interviewee) Sariel is back with another brilliant RC creation. His latest work is a replica of BJ Baldwin’s insane Monster Energy Chevrolet trophy truck, and it’s an absolute riot to drive! We managed to get it off the Elves pretty quickly and have been hooning it around the office all day. For research of course. We’ve got to be thorough…
Anyway, whilst we get back to our in-depth testing of the Chevy you can watch it in action below as well as viewing all the images over on MOCpages.
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Today’s creation wasn’t found by our workforce of smelly little Elves, but by a reader. We can’t blame our militant workers for missing it though, as Nico71’s latest build has come directly from his website, and not their usual haunts.
Nico is one of our favourite Technic builders and his Ford T-Bucket ticks all of the items on our Technic wishlist; mechanical functions, Power Functions, a V8 engine, remote control drive and steering, and – above all – it’s a hot rod.
There’s lots more to see at Nico71’s website including a video of the T-Bucket in action as well as a complete parts list and building instructions.
If you’d like to suggest a creation that we’ve missed you can do so via the Feedback and Submission Suggestions page in the main menu once you’ve read the all-important Submission Guidelines.
How did you spend your Bank Holiday Monday?
Here at The Lego Car Blog Towers, some of the Elves returned from the Flickr account of František Hajdekr, hoping to collect an orange Smartie (they’re the best sort). This MOC does feature a working, Technic, single-cylinder engine but it’s not a vehicle of any kind and so we were unable to blog it. No Smarties we awarded.
The enraged Elves then ran amok, demonstrating the Brush Cutter’s working features on their terrified colleagues. Eventually the miscreants were blasted into the Elf cage by Mr. Airhorn and disarmed. Fortunately, we discovered that you can glue Elves back together with Pritt Stick and so the editorial team spent our Bank Holiday gluing our workforce back together. Now that they’re all back in one piece*, the Elves are once more ready to scour the internet for the best vehicular Lego creations. That is until they’re eaten by a small dog or smushed by a Power Functions dumper truck…
*We had 3 right arms leftover and have put them in the filing cabinet as spares.
How extreme can Lego can be? MOCpages’ Desert752 Kirill decided to found out with a 4×4 off-road racer fitted with four Technic buggy motors. And then he took it abseiling. See how in the video below…
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Today’s incredible Lego creation comes from newcomer Chrismo72, who has built one of the most astounding Technic models of the year.
Featuring five Power Functions motors controlling the pitch, roll and rotation of the rotors, two sets of LED lights, two IR controllers and two IR receivers, Chrismo’s Air Ambulance helicopter is amongst the most advanced Lego aircraft ever built.
As well as some brilliant Technic engineering Chrismo’s helicopter also includes some neat brickwork, such as the clever tail-rotor housing shown above.
There’s also a fully detailed interior, opening doors, and working control sticks. You can see all of the photos and read more about the build by visiting the discussion topic in the Eurobricks Technic forum.
Formula 1 might be constrained by four million regulations but it does still occasionally provide good racing. The surprise of the 2015 season has been Ferrari, who after a woeful 2014 seem to have mostly sorted their latest car. Don’t underestimate the role Vettel played in fixing the prancing horse though – as his previous team Red Bull seem to be going backwards (and doing so very ungracefully too). Coincidence?
Anyway, one of the more ridiculous of the four million regulations in Formula 1 these days is the DRS (Drag Reduction System). It’s a neat engineering solution that should be able to be used whenever the driver feels like it, not just when Bernie Ecclestone’s computer deems it to be OK.
TLCB regular Sariel has created a Ferrari-ish Formula 1 car that uses this feature the way we would like – his working DRS on the rear wing is deployed automatically in top gear. His fully RC model also features pushrod suspension, return-to-centre steering and a range of other Technic functions. You can see them all on MOCpages, plus a video of the car and its DRS in action.
