Tag Archives: Toyota

The Best 4x4xFar…

…isn’t a Land Rover. When Toyota launched the Land Cruiser into the Australian market, Land Rover’s dominant 90% market share dropped to 5% almost overnight. Toyota is the worldwide 4×4 king because of one vitally important reason: Reliability. Land Cruisers never, ever break. Ever.

This unrivalled quality means that the Land Cruiser is the vehicle of choice for the UN, for NGOs based in the most inhospitable of places, and – unfortunately – for the world’s terrorist scumbags (we’re looking at you ISIS).

Toyota have continually updated the Land Cruiser design, but they also still make many of the previous generations for certain markets. This car pictured here is the 40 Series, and it’s the one that really put the model on the map.

Suggested to us by a reader, Matthew Inman’s exquisite Model Team recreation of the 4×4 icon is currently on the LEGO Ideas creation-sharing platform, with almost 6,000 votes registered – another 4,000 and LEGO will consider this model for an official limited production run.

The model has been featured on Toyota’s own blog as well as variety of car sites from around the world, and Matthew has recently added another variant, designing the pick-up version too.

If you’d like to help Matthew’s Land Cruiser 40 Series model to become an official LEGO set you can do so by voting for it on LEGO Ideas – click here to see more and add your vote!

Stanced Celica Supra

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Why, Senator Chinchilla, why? This excellent Model Team recreation of Toyota’s Celica Supra (from back when the two models were one) features his own neat 3D printed wheels on the front, and – alas – ‘stanced’ wheels on the back. Meaning that the ride and handling – honed by a very clever Japanese bloke over the course of many months, maybe even years – has been totally ruined. Still, the Elves like it. But then they are idiots. Anyway, there’s more to see of the Senator’s top-notch* creation on Flickr at the link above.

*Apart from ‘dat stance tho…’

Post-Apocalyota

Hoonivan

1 Reply

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.

Twin Turbocharged Toyota T-Top

Mr. Plow

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This beautiful Technic Toyota FJ45 Land Cruiser pick-up was discovered by one of our Elves on MOCpages. It’s the work of Egor Karshiev aka RM8, who has continued to develop his original FJ40 Land Cruiser design that we featured here on this site a few months ago.

His updated Land Cruiser is now fitted with a brilliant snow-plough attachment controlled by LEGO’s Power Functions motors and the new SBrick that’s starting to make waves in the Lego Community. Egor’s classic Toyota has also got RC all-wheel drive and servo-motor controlled steering, a two-speed gearbox and live axle suspension. There’s lots more to see of the FJ45 on MOCpages – you can visit Egor’s page via the link above.

Christmas Cruiser

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If Santa used a car to deliver his presents rather than his magical sleigh, this would probably be it.

Toyota’s Land Cruiser is one of the most successful off-road vehicles on the planet. Upon it’s arrival in Australia, Land Rover’s market share dropped from 90% to 2% within just a couple of years, because it’s all very well having a car that can get you into the middle of the bush, but if it breaks out there it’ll be the last trip you make. And in Santa’s case that’d be bad news for all of us.

MOCpages’ Egor Karshiev (aka RM8) has faithfully recreated the legendary 4×4 – complete with Santa’s paint scheme – from Lego Technic, and he’s packed it with engineering goodness. His FJ40 Land Cruiser is driven by a Power Functions XL motor, with a servo motor taking care of the steering and an M motor powering the winch. There’s live axel suspension, a removable hard top, opening doors, hood and tailgate and – of course – all-wheel-drive. You can read all the specs over on MOCpages via the link above, plus you can check out the FJ40 in action via the video below.

YouTube Video:

Invincible

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As proven by BBC’s Top Gear, the Toyota Hilux is the toughest vehicle ever made. Favoured by emergency relief agencies, the SAS, and er… al-Qaeda, the Hilux is in use in probably every war zone on the planet. It was also the car of choice of Back to the Future’s Marty McFly, and it’s this version that previous bloggee Paul Kim has chosen to recreate from our favourite plastic blocks. You can see more of Paul’s brilliant 1980s Hilux on both Flickr and MOCpages.

Seventies Celica

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Classic Japanese cars have become very cool lately. Probably because most have oxidised beyond the point of no return, and thus they are now quite rare beasts.

This one is a 1974 Toyota Celica, from way back when Toyota made quite a few interesting – and sometimes even beautiful – cars (why has it all gone Toyota?). Rhys’ Pieces is the builder, and although he says this model is unfinished it still looks good enough to us to be published here.

You can see more of his modified classic Celica TA22 on Flickr at the link above.

Sideways is Better

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Slower, but better. There’s a lot to be said about slidey rear-wheel-drive cars like the Toyota GT86 / Subaru’s BRZ twins, and here at TLCB Towers – as you’d expect for a car blog – we absolutely love cars like this.

TLCB regular Senator Chinchilla has recreated the Japanese icon beautifully in white bricks, and fantastically complicated it is too – such swoopy bodywork is fiendishly difficult to replicate from the straight angles of Lego pieces.

You can see how the Senator has done it by visiting Flickr via the link above, although we still think he’s some sort of wizard.

Built Ford Tough (Probably)

1 Reply

This spectacular Technic pick-up truck is the work of previous bloggee Madoca1977, and unusually for a TLCB post we can’t tell you much about it. That’s because Madoca has so far released only a single teaser image without accompanying details, but his latest creation looks so damn cool we couldn’t wait to post it.

Madoca will release details and further images of the Ford-esque pick-up truck (or is it a Toyota HiLux?) in due course, but until then you can see more of the image above by visiting his Google Plus account here. There might only be one picture, but it’s our favourite truck of the year!

Desert Wanderer

They See Me Corollin’…

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The world’s best selling car, the Toyota Corolla, sometimes gets a bit of stick from car enthusiasts. You don’t sell something in the tens of millions unless it’s kinda inoffensive and a bit… boring. But that doesn’t mean Toyota’s most popular model can’t be special. Senator Chinchilla shows that even a humble Japanese box can look very very cool with the addition of a few choice modifications. See more of his superb modified Corolla KE70 on Flickr at the link above.

FJ Cruiser

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This is, without doubt, the coolest thing that Toyota makes. And yes, we know about the Lexus LFA. The Toyota FJ Cruiser appeared as a concept car back in 2003 to show what a modern take on the old FJ-series Land Cruiser could be. The positive reaction that followed resulted in the car reaching production in 2005, and now 9 years later that production run is about to end, with the final cars rolling out of the Hamura factory later this year.

This near-perfect replica of the FJ Cruiser was designed and built by Peteris Sprogis, known here at TLCB for his delightfully strange concept vehicles. Peteris’ has now stepped into the world of realistic replicas, and his work is so good it looks as if LEGO themselves created it for Legoland theme park. You can see all the photos of this superb build by visiting Peteris’ photostream here.

Takushi! タクシー

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We don’t often post normal cars here at The Lego Car Blog. Partly because TLCB Elves get far more excited by big engines and racing stripes, but mostly it’s because Lego builders tend to think the same way.

Dohoon Kim however, has decided that something far more every-day deserves to be immortalised in plastic; the humble Toyota Crown Comfort taxi.

Launched in 1995 (and already looking dated!) the Comfort quickly became Japan’s favourite cab, through its astonishing reliability, space inside, and of course, its comfort. Powered by either diesel or LPG and featuring amazing self-opening rear doors, if you hail a taxi in Japan, Hong Kong or Singapore you’ll almost certainly be making your journey in one of these. The Crown Comfort is still in production too, looking at least 20 years out of date, but still the king of Asian cabs.

See more of Dohoon’s excellent Model Team recreation of the famous Toyota on either MOCpages or Flickr.

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Tag Archives: Toyota

The Best 4x4xFar…

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Stanced Celica Supra

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Post-Apocalyota

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Hoonivan

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Twin Turbocharged Toyota T-Top

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Mr. Plow

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Christmas Cruiser

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Invincible

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Seventies Celica

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Sideways is Better

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Built Ford Tough (Probably)

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Desert Wanderer

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They See Me Corollin’…

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FJ Cruiser

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Takushi! タクシー

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