Tag Archives: TLCB

The Hidden Pages of The Lego Car Blog

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Here at the world’s thirty-sixth-best source for LEGO news, reviews and fan creations, we’re continually amazed by the propensity of people to, well… actually turn up to read the nonsense that we publish. That your views generate advertising revenue to fund the Executive Washroom and Sauna that we give to those that need it more than us, is more amazing still.

Whether you’ve been with us since the start, found us by accident, or seen one of your own creations featured here, you may not know that there’s more to The Lego Car Blog than the homepage feed. Not much more admittedly, but just enough to warrant this post!

So if you fancy stepping beyond the homepage into the murky backwaters of this site, here are a few of the lesser-known pages hidden behind a wall of incomplete menus and incoherent website mapping;

Interviews
Some of the world’s best vehicle builders have been coerced – occasionally via an Elf armed with a sharpened pencil or some incriminating Photoshopping – to reveal the secrets to their success here at The Lego Car Blog. There are two seasons of ‘Master MOCers’ available, plus our ‘Become a Lego Professional’ series, and you can jump to each via the links below.

Master MOCers Series 1 | Master MOCers Series 2 | Become a Professional

Frequently Asked Questions
Do you want to find out who the shadowy figures that work here really are, how to get your creation featured, whether you can get building instructions for a model you’ve seen, or if we’ll publicise your website, product or LEGO Ideas submission? If so click the links below!

FAQs | Submission Guidelines

Archives
The Archives here at TLCB Towers are a dark and foreboding place. A decade of Lego news, creations, and Your Mom jokes are stacked high upon towering shelves, the narrow corridors between which are rumoured to be inhabited by a band of long lost and terrifyingly feral Elves.

Fortunately you don’t need to go in there, as you can find pretty much anything via the handy Search box that appears on every page; type your query into it to see what it brings back. Plus we’ve been rather more organised with our reviews, with over a hundred available in the Review Library. Additionally, all our posts include a variety of Tags that appear in the post footer. If you’re intrigued by one give it a click, and any previous uses of that Tag will appear.

Review Library | Example Search | Example Tag

Directory
Lastly, if you’ve had enough of The Lego Car Blog (and we can’t blame you), you can check out a whole host of other sites via the Directory, including considerably more professional Lego Blogs, Lego resources and creation-sharing platforms, third-party products, and even a few more general vehicle-related sites.

Directory

Happy clicking, and if there’s anything you’d like to see here at The Lego Car Blog (or stop seeing…) then you can let us know! You can contact us via a handy form, and – if it’s not one of the two hundred pieces of spam we receive every day – we will read it : )

Contact Us

Ad Trial Update

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Back in March, after being approached by an advertising publishing platform, we began a trial that promised greater advertising revenue, more granularity, and the freedom to restrict ads that perhaps are less in-keeping with our morals than we’d like. So, two months on, how has it gone?

Er… well, none of the above promises actually materialised. The opposite in fact. Visitor numbers halved, advertising revenue dropped by more than that, and some boring yet quite invasive websitey stuff had to be handed over too.

So here endeth the trial, and we’re pleased to say that reverting back to our previous platform has restored our advertising revenue immediately (which we continue to give away to those who need it more than we do), and visits are on the way back up too. Phew.

So we’re back to where we started, which isn’t a bad place to be after all, but do let us know if anything negatively affects your user experience (and thank you to those that did get in touch with feedback during the trial).

The lesson here is perhaps to be happy with what you’ve got, and that sometimes (ironically!) marketing isn’t always entirely truthful. That said, if you could click on an ad or two…

TLCB Team

Uh Oh – Ads!

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On TV, at the cinema, in magazines, on radio, on billboards, in social media, on buses… advertisements are everywhere. Including this decaying back-alley in the corner of the internet.

Following this site’s one-and-only upgrade in a decade of operation two years ago, a greater degree of advertising has been permitted at The Lego Car Blog, with colourful boxes trying to sell you stuff appearing in the side bar, in-between posts, and between paragraphs.

As we don’t ask our readers for money nor receive any kind of endorsement or sponsorship from LEGO (and rightly so – they’re a reputable organisation), these ads are what keep the lights on at TLCB Towers, and they do a little good in providing revenue that we can give away too.

Amazingly, The Lego Car Blog’s success has meant we’ve appeared on the radar of an award-winning publishing platform, who have somehow not noticed our gross incompetence and instead focussed on the number of eyeballs (like yours) that this site receives.

Therefore we’re currently undergoing a trial with said publisher to explore additional advertising revenue, more tailored to our readers, and with far greater granularity. This will allow us to exclude advertising themes we’re not happy with (gambling, sexualised content, get-rich-quick schemes and so forth), although of course the ads that you see here at TLCB (like any site) are mostly based on what your search history reveals about you.

For a while this means you might see an increase in the number of adverts as the publisher optimises where and how they should appear. Please bear with us through this stage, and if you have any comments on your user experience here at The Lego Car Blog, do please let us know so we can feed this back.

If it all goes wrong we can revert back our previous (and more-than-adequate) advertising solution, whilst if it works you should see more targeted advertising that also generates us a greater revenue stream that we can do some good with : )

Thanks for visiting us

TLCB Team

2022 | Year in Review

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It’s 2023! Well, nearly. So let’s look back on the year that was 2022…

A (corrupt) World Cup, the death of a queen, three British Prime Ministers, Heard vs. Depp, Musk vs. Twitter, record inflation, rightful protests in Iran, a Russian invasion, and COVID still lingers, although somewhat less potently than when it first arrived on a bat from China or something. It hasn’t been a vintage year has it?

But there was some good news too, including the toughening of various environmental and climate laws worldwide, the hopeful end of the Ethiopian Civil War, and break-throughs in both cancer and Alzheimer’s treatment. But what about The Lego Car Blog?

Stats

Well it wasn’t a vintage year for TLCB either, with our Facebook page disappearing following a post supporting Ukraine, threats from Russia, and a fall in readers from the last two years’  return to the magic million.

We wondered if we were getting boring, and – whilst don’t doubt our inane gibberish probably is – a look at our numbers revealed we published 17% fewer posts in 2022 than in 2021. Ah. TLCB laziness…

Still, 380 posts isn’t to be sniffed at and – whilst we haven’t published every day – the best vehicular creations and LEGO news stories from around the world have appeared here every week, bringing visitors from very nearly every country on earth.

The United States of America once again topped our visitor list, with Germany, the UK, Netherlands and France completing the top five. At the other end of the scale are various countries with just one visitor, most of which are lovely exotic islands. There was also one visitor from Iran; if it’s you, a very special welcome to this humble site of brick-based nonsense.

202 publishable comments were written by readers during 2022 (only some of which were from angry Russians…), countless messages entered our inbox (only some of which were marketing spam), and the site received tens of thousands of referrals from social media (which considering we’re not on it, rather shows its power), with the top pages continuing to be our Review Library and The Rise and Fall of MOCpages, alongside the homepage of course.

Advertisements

All of that has led to an increase in the revenue we see from the adverts that appear on this site. None of our staff (nor TLCB Elves, what with them being mythical) are paid, thus we can give away what this site earns to those who need it more than we do; thank you for taking the time to visit us – it really does make a difference.

What’s Next?

More inane gibberish on the subject of Lego vehicles most probably…

After a wonderful competition with our friends at BrickNerd during 2022, 380 posts published, and a site that spans Interviews, Reviews, and the publication of thousands of fan-made models, we’re happy to keep things a little more ‘underground’ in 2023. This means we won’t be chasing the magic million (achieved previously by posting more content), nor rejoining social media, such are its ills. Rather, if you still like what we do, we’ll keep doing that. Several posts a week, showcasing the best Lego vehicles from around the world, plus occasional LEGO news, reviews and interviews will keep us happy. We hope it keeps you happy too : )

Thank you for visiting us, please do let us know what you think of what we do via the comments or the Contact Form, and we’ll see you in 2023.

TLCB Team

Only Two More Sleeps!

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There are only two more sleeps ’til Christmas! Which means we’re locking the doors to TLCB Towers, frantically buying presents we forgot about, and readying ourselves for drunken family arguments.

We’ll be back in a few days, but if you need to get your Lego fix in the meantime, you can find a few places that are open all-year-round below!

  • All our past posts are available in the Archives, where you can search for pretty much anything and something will probably turn up.
  • Our Review Library contains over one-hundred LEGO set, book, and third-party product reviews.
  • The world’s best Lego vehicle builders have been interviewed right here at TLCB! (Incriminating pictures work wonders for motivation.) Find them all by clicking here!
  • Proper Lego blogs, and a lot more besides, can be found in the Directory.

We’d recommend switching off from the internet for the festive period though. The important things will be much closer to home : )

Have a very Merry Christmas

TLCB Team

P.S. The amusing image used above comes courtesy of previous bloggee Sylon_tw, who has captured Santa a very long way from home (that, or the penguins are). Fingers crossed he can get his sleigh going again before tomorrow night!

The Worst Day of the Year

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Black Friday

The annual day of ‘discounts’ (in actuality only mass marketing) is once again here to inflict greed, violence and wasteful consumerism on the soulless masses.

As is customary, here at The Lego Car Blog we will not be taking part in the day of materialist misery (which now stretches to a week or more) that leaves one in four Americans in debt, whilst surpassing the annual GDP of around half the world’s countries (and that’s just the spend within the U.S and our home nation).

Therefore you won’t find a round-up of the best Black Friday brick-based ‘discounts’ here, but we do have some alternatives that will help you to preserve your soul, and perhaps add something back to counter a day that is built around taking.

Creations for Charity – Buy an amazing one-of-a-kind Lego creation, with all proceeds used to buy LEGO sets for children in need. If you’ve ever commented “Is this for Sale?” on a post here at The Lego Car Blog, maybe it is!

Unicef Market – The United Nations Childrens Fund, providing developmental and humanitarian aid to children worldwide. Buying your Christmas gifts here will help to save and transform some of the youngest lives in the world’s poorest nations.

Red Cross, Tearfund, Christian Aid – Fantastic charities working every day to alleviate poverty, suffering, and injustice.

Finally, the revenue generated via the advertisements that appear on this site (even the Black Friday ones) is also used to help those who need it more than we do. If you like the look of an ad, give it a click, and if you like what we do here at TLCB, then please consider sharing us. The more eyeballs the ads get, the more we can give : )

Thank you

We’re 11 Today!

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It’s The Lego Car Blog’s eleventh birthday, and we’re celebrating the only way we know how! By forgetting the actual date and then publishing a post with a numbered LEGO brick image stolen from the internet a few days late.

Since our first post way back in November of 2011 we’ve grown to become one of the internet’s favourite LEGO sites. Well, not one of its favourites, but certainly popular. OK, perhaps not popular either, but we’re known.

In fact nearly 8 million mostly-lost visitors have come to know us since that first post, with the Review Library, The Rise and Fall of MOCpages, and our Directory attracting the most eyeballs beyond the homepage.

Since our last also-forgotten birthday we’ve added hundreds more of your creations to the Archives, held an immensely mundane competition with BrickNerd, and added Russian ‘patriots’ to the list of those we receive hate mail from, alongside the American ones we’ve been receiving messages from for ages.

So as we march towards our teenage years we’d like to say a massive thank you to each and every one of you reading this brick-based nonsense. Without you this site would be nothing at all.

If you’re new here and you’d like to see what we’re up to, some good places to start can be found below;

  • Review Library: Over one hundred reviews of LEGO sets, books and third-party products.
  • Directory: The place to find links to other (usually much better) LEGO-related websites.
  • Interviews: A TLCB Elf armed with a sharpened pencil can get even the most famous builders to talk…
  • Feedback and Submission Suggestions: Let us know what you think. No, really.

Thank you for taking the time to visit us

TLCB Team

It’s Quiet. Too Quiet…

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Lego Set Review Library

The Lego Car Blog has been quieter than a Date Night at The Brothers Brick of late. We could blame the TLCB Elves of course (we normally do), but to be fair to them they do have a strict criteria to adhere to, particularly egregious failures of which are enforced by way of ejection from the building by the office catapult.

So whilst we wait for a blogworthy creation, there are a few places you can head to here at TLCB for your Lego car fix. And that continue to bring us advertising revenue to keep the Executive Washroom and Sauna operational…

The Review Library contains every LEGO set, movie, book, and third-party compatible product that we have ever reviewed.

There are over one hundred reviews in all, from classic Technic sets to the latest officially-licensed Creator products, and you can find them all via the link below.

Visit the Review Library here

Lego Microphone

The online Lego Community is a wonderfully varied place, where builders of all nationalities, ethnicities, and specialisms can create and share their brick-based talents. Here at The Lego Car Blog we love to showcase the very best vehicular models the community has to offer.

Occasionally this extends to the builders behind them too, so that you (and we) can learn from the masters.

TLCB Interviews Page contains dozens of interviews with the best Lego builders in the world, including those that have seen their models turned into official LEGO sets, become published authors, and even paid professional model-makers. Find out how they’ve done it via the link below.

Visit the Interviews Page here

Finally, if you’d like to find a particular LEGO set, vehicle brand or model, you can do just that via the ‘Looking for Something’ search function that is available on every page. Wondering if a Citroen Mehari, Trabant 601, Pontiac Aztek, or other automotive oddity has appeared here, then use the search function to navigate TLCB Archives! Cool cars are available too of course…

So there you have it, some stuff to do whilst we wait for a blogworthy build. Of course if you’d like to help us out you can suggestion a creation our Elves have missed via the Feedback or Contact Us pages. Make sure you take a look at the Submission Guidelines first to check eligibility, and drop us a note!

Suggest a Creation here

Festival of Mundanity | The Winners!

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It’s Winners time in BrickNerd and TLCB’s Festival of Mundanity!

Over the past two months we’ve been looking for the delightfully dull, brilliantly bland and monumentally mundane; no supercars, monster trucks or powerboats this time!

Across both the Object and Vehicle categories almost one hundred entries were submitted, with BrickNerd looking after your boring Objects and The Lego Car Blog your soporific vehicles.

You can check out the fantastic winning entries within the Object category via BrickNerd’s Winners Announcement, whilst here at TLCB we’re delighted to announce the Vehicle category winners!

Four key criteria were considered by the judges:

  1. Mundanity – Does the MOC represent something you wouldn’t really think about in real life?

  2. Concept – Does the topic matter show creativity in its idea and overall execution?

  3. Quality – Is the MOC built well, feature any NPU (nice parts usage), and make you look twice?

  4. Presentation – Is the MOC photographed/presented and composed in a way that compliments the subject matter?

Honourable Mentions

It was really close, with vehicles or all types, sizes and functionality entered. Three entries scoop the prizes, but lots caught our eye, so before we move on to the winners here are few honourable mentions!

Caleb Flutur‘s ‘3x Upscale 6654’ recreated both a mundane vehicle and object in one go, whilst iBrickedItUp spanned both categories too with his Cozy Coupe parked by the bins on a grey Tuesday, which came seriously close to a prize spot! IBrickedItUp also entered a slew of boring vehicles, with the ‘Hurtz’ Rental car lot making us chuckle the most. Thomas Gion captured the height of dreary ’90s econo-SUVs, whilst Zsolt Nagy and Saberwing007 impressed with excellent technical functionality packaged with vehicles of utmost tedium.

There are plenty of other entries that scored highly too; from lawn-mowers to removal vans we can’t mention them all, but a big boring thank you to everyone who entered!

Winners!

1st Place | Toyota Corolla Sedan (1saac W.)

Scoring highly in every category, it’s the most default, boring, and unimaginative vehicle in existence, looking for a parking spot and finding only a loading zone. 1saac W. is the, um… lucky owner of a mid-’00s Toyota Corolla Sedan in real life, and has captured one of life’s most mundane tasks in brick-form. Keep looking 1ssac, there’ll be a space around the corner. Probably.

1saac W. wins a Golden Nerdly Trophy & BrickNerd Swag Box, a $50 LEGO Gift Card (or local equivalent) from BrickNerd, an awesome BuWizz 3.0 or 2.0 Bluetooth Brick, an iDisplayIt case/stand bundle for LEGO models, and a Game of Bricks lighting kit of their choice!

2nd Place | Hyundai Venue (Tim Inman)

In second place is what will undoubtedly overtake the Corolla Sedan as the most dreary vehicle on the roads; the Korean crossover. Bought to give an impression of adventure and dynamism, crossover SUVs instead portray nothing more than an imagination deficit created by the force-feeding of endless marketing drivel. Tim Inman‘s Model Team Hyundai Venue captures the segment brilliantly, being about as interesting as your Aunt’s Facebook feed. We’re bored just thinking about it.

Tim Inman wins a $25 LEGO Gift Card (or local equivalent) from BrickNerd, and a Game of Bricks lighting kit of their choice!

3rd Place | Er… Shopping Cart (Nikolaus Lowe)

Yes it is a vehicle. We’ve all driven one, they’re all crap, and if you do try to extract fun from one it immediately veers towards the watermelons and your parents / security / other shoppers shout at you. There is nothing more disappointing than a shopping trolley. They even make you put a coin in to gain access to the trundling misery. Nikolaus Lowe takes third spot (and very nearly earned a podium over at BrickNerd too) with his inspired homage to modern-day mundanity.

Nikolaus Lowe wins a Game of Bricks lighting kit of their choice!

And so concludes The Festival of Mundanity. Thank you to our amazing prize sponsors, BrickNerd for choosing to partner with us idiots here at TLCB, and to all of you who participated! Winners; we’ll be in touch via your online channels to discuss your prizes!

The Festival of Mundanity is Closed!

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Like all the best mundane things, like heading to the shop for milk and finding it shut, BrickNerd and TLCB’s Festival of Mundanity is now closed!

Around one hundred creations have been entered across the two categories (Objects and Vehicles, with a few cunningly spanning both!), many of which can be viewed at the Flickr Group of Mundanity here.

We’ll be rounding up some of the recent vehicular entries shortly, before judging begins (and some really rather excellent prizes are handed out).

Until then, thank you to each and every brilliantly boring, delightfully dull, and magnificently mundane entry, and best of luck!

One Week of Mundanity!

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There’s just one week to go in BrickNerd and TLCB’s Festival of Mundanity!

We’re looking for your builds of boring vehicles. No Lamborghinis, Ferraris or Porsches here! There have been over forty competition entries so far, including a white Toyota Corolla, a Geo Tracker, a Hertz rental car lot, and a (rather inspired) shopping trolley.

There are some awesome prizes on offer for the winners including Game of Bricks lighting kits, iDisplayIt display stands, and a BuWizz Pro programmable bluetooth control!

To be in with a chance of scooping the swag get your mundane entry uploaded before the end of March 2022!

Where’s Our Facebook Page Gone?

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For those of you who follow us on Facebook, The Lego Car Blog is no longer visible on the platform. It looks like we’ve been ‘unpublished’ due to our stance on the war in Ukraine.

Hopefully this is an error, as Facebook battle to remove disinformation surrounding the conflict (a good thing). It would be very odd if not, as we’ve mocked Trump regularly and that’s been fine. Maybe Putin’s more powerful than we thought!

Hopefully we’ll reappear soon, but if not thanks for following us there. If we have been unpublished for raising Russia’s invasion of Ukraine (and the threats we have received when we’ve criticised the Russian Premiership), we’ll stand by it, and with Ukraine.

TLCB Team

Build in Blue & Yellow

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We published a post last year in which some famous lyrics were mildly amended to highlight a certain murderous rat-faced tyrant. In it we wrote, but then left out, a verse about his intent to invade Ukraine. It was too provocative and an unnecessary addition we thought. We thought…

Perhaps we should build only in yellow and blue this week.

How to Make (and Sell) Building Instructions!

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The single most common comment we receive here at the Lego Car Blog (besides “Buy cheap Cialis here”) is “Can I have building instructions?’

In some cases it’s a yes, but most of the time the answer is no. They’re tricky, and it can be seen as a bit of a dark art. However the very talented SaperPL is here to explain how you can do it!

Yes, we’ve finally got round to the fifth instalment of the ‘Become a Lego Professional’ series, in which previous bloggee and prolific building instruction creator SaperPL provides the top ten tips for writing your very own LEGO building instructions.

Fame, glory, and maybe even a few $ could await! Read how you can get started in the building instructions game via the link below.

Become a Lego Professional – Part 5;

SaperPL – How to Make (and Sell) Building Instructions

Festival of Mundanity | Building Competition!

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LEGO contests bring out the best in builders. You see entries with amazing castles, sleek cars, gorgeous flora, and fantastical locales. Well, this contest is different. This contest, from one of the best Lego blogs around (and The Lego Car Blog) is here to celebrate the mundane.

Welcome to the Festival of Mundanity!

You heard right! This time we don’t want to see Bugattis, monster trucks, racing stripes, or models combining all three. We want to see the vehicles that have been too boring to be built out of LEGO until now. We’re looking for the most ordinary, mundane, and uninspiring transportation methods you can think of.

Mundanity at Its Finest

There are two boring categories: objects and vehicles. Here at The Lego Car Blog we’ll be dealing in the latter, whilst our pals at BrickNerd will be looking for tedious objects. And if you’re cleverer than us you might be able to think of way to combine the two!

For vehicles that means 265,000 mile Toyota Corollas. In white. That faded red Rover 45 you saw on holiday in the UK and forgot about immediately. That Chevrolet Express van parked opposite your house for the last few days…

But be careful! There is a difference between ‘mundane’ and ‘bad’. Mundane doesn’t mean rubbish. It means common and uninteresting. So no Reliant Robins, no AMC Gremlins, and no concepts, invented vehicles, or indeed anything that in real-life would make you look twice.

However we do want you to make us look twice when it is built out of LEGO! Mundane doesn’t mean presented poorly;  your creations should still be built well, of course (NPU is still NPU!)

Entries will be judged on mundane concept, build quality, overall presentation, photo composition, and how uninspiring each is.

So get building! You have until the end of March!

Prizes!

In contrast to the boring nature of this contest, we have some flashy prizes for the top three creations in each category. These prizes may change (or be added to) at any time so keep an eye out for periodic updates, and we owe a big thank you to our prize sponsors for donating some really awesome stuff to the prize pool (more on them soon)!

Vehicle Category Prizes

1st Place

  • Golden Nerdly Trophy & BrickNerd Swag Box

  • $50 LEGO Gift Card (or local equivalent) from BrickNerd

  • BuWizz 3.0 or 2.0 Bluetooth Brick

  • iDisplayIt case/stand bundle for LEGO models

  • Game of Bricks lighting kit of your choice

2nd Place

  • $25 LEGO Gift Card (or local equivalent) from BrickNerd

  • Game of Bricks lighting kit of your choice

3rd Place

Object Category Prizes

Check out the equally awesome prizes that can be won in the Object Category at BrickNerd here, and remember that if you can build something boring that spans both categories, you qualify for both too!

Festival of Mundanity Rules

  • All entries must be new creations. Entries may be updated as long as the contest is still open.

  • Entries can be posted either on Flickr or Instagram. A link to your entry should be posted in the Festival of Mundanity Flickr group using the hashtags #FestivalofMundanity, #BrickNerd and #TheLEGOCarBlog. If you do not have a Flickr account, you can use the hashtags and tag BrickNerd on Instagram, who will post a link to your entry for you.

  • Please only add one photo/submission of each entry to the group (extras will be removed), but you may enter as many times as you want with unique creations.

  • Entries must be either a vehicle or an object (settings are welcome too). If you can figure out how to combine the two and still make it uninteresting, you could win prizes in both categories.

  • Digital renders are allowed, though the creation must be structurally sound and all the pieces must be available physically. Custom or modified parts are not allowed this time around though unique prints/stickers are acceptable.

  • These rules or the prizes may be modified at any point.

  • The contest ends on March 31st, 2021 at 11:59 pm PT (7:59 am GMT on March 31st for the Europeans). Winners will be announced a few weeks after.

  • The contest will be judged by both BrickNerd and The Lego Car Blog contributors who will evaluate entries based on mundanity concept, quality, presentation, composition, and how uninspiring the build is.

Get Building, Be Boring, and Good Luck!