It seems the ironic that those extolling the virtues of ‘alternative living’ all do it in exactly the same way. But you don’t have to be an all-natural-vegan-top-knot-wearing-bearded-Volkswagen-bus-driving-douchebag to live the ’60s bus life. You could do it in a Transit. And the Transit is better.
Faster, more comfortable, more reliable, less polluting, quieter, and easier to drive, the Mark 1 Ford Transit makes for a much better bus than the noisy, slow, absurdly expensive default.
This lovely recreation of the first generation Transit comes from Flickr’s OutBricks, who has captured the classic van wonderfully in 7-wide. There’s more to see of the build at Out’s photostream, and you can can explore his alternative to the alternative lifestyle vehicle of choice via the link above.
British police vehicles don’t wear the myriad of different liveries that feature across the United States. All feature the ‘battenberg’ chequered design, named after the famous Victorian cake that shares the same pattern, and it does look quite cool. Even on an embarrassingly unthreatening 1.6L Astra or Focus.
However until recently The Metropolitan Police (who look after the thirty-two London boroughs, counter-terrorism, and the Royal family) did have a distinct colour scheme, wearing a livery based upon a simple lunchtime snack rather than an English cake. We’re not sure why British police forces design their vehicles after party food, but we’re all for it.
Anyway, this previous-generation Metropolitan Police Ford Transit does wear the now-replaced Met Police ‘jam sandwich’ livery, which has been recreated rather wonderfully by regular bloggee Ralph Savelsberg aka Mad Physicist, complete with a British police officer (aka ‘Bobby’). Said officer is a little out of date now as British police don’t wear their ‘custodian helmets’ when driving, but they do still put them on to beat you with their baton, what with that being a special occasion.
There’s more to see of Ralph’s Metropolitan Police ‘jam sandwich’ Ford Transit on Flickr, and you can take a bite via the link above!
Almost every car manufacturer makes vans these days, however in Europe there was a time when there was pretty much just one; the Ford Transit.
So ubiquitous was Ford of Europe’s product that for decades the words ‘van’ and ‘Transit’ were interchangeable, like ‘vacuum cleaner’ and ‘Hoover’, or ‘hot tub’ and ‘Jacuzzi’.
Those days are long gone with the Transit now one of many, but Flickr’s Jonathan Elliott remembers a time when the Blue Oval had van market domination with his wonderfully pretty 6-wide Mk1 Transit.
Jonathan has captured the original Transit beautifully and there’s more to see at his photostream here.
In these times of social distancing, escaping to a campsite seems pretty tempting. Except it would likely be full of vloggers in Volkswagen Campers eating all-natural-ethnically-sourced-peace-crisps and claiming positive energy can cure Coronavirus whilst never being further than five feet from wifi.
Real wanderers forgo Instagram-friendly VW’s and #vanlife for far more practical vehicles, like this magnificent Ford Transit Mk2 camper, something this TLCB writer hasn’t seen in years but recognised immediately from this brilliant mini-figure recreation by Flickr’s November Juliett.
Hardly any Mk2 Transits have survived, because they were used hard, were never on trend, and were therefore pretty much worthless after a few years. Which makes them infinitely cooler than another $25,000 Volkswagen inhabited by people claiming they’ve given up materialism.
Head into the wilderness for some proper social distancing courtesy of November’s superb Ford Transit Camper via the link above.
The Elves are feeling spacey today, and thus we have two weird and wacky sci-fi builds to share with you. The first (above) comes from Shannon Sproule and is apparently an ‘American Zero-Length X-11 Launcher’ designed in The Battle for the Moon. In the words of its creator; “A space tank carrying a rocket… it looks so cool!”
Today’s second build (below) comes from TLCB favourite David Roberts, the ‘Green 23’. “Regarded as the Ford Transit van of space” it performed a variety of jobs across the galactic disc, probably with scant regard for space transportation laws, a library of tabloid newspapers on the dashboard, and a tailgating policy matched only by Audi drivers.
This wonderful little Ford Transit Mk1 camper van was discovered by one of our Elves on Flickr today. Being old, slow, and without a single racing stripe or gun anywhere to be seen we don’t think the Elf in question really appreciated it, but nevertheless they thought it would earn them a meal token and thus they returned it to TLCB Towers. Which was a good thing, because we do appreciate vehicles like this, especially when they’ve been recreated in miniature as perfectly as this one has. It’s the work of previous bloggee ER0L and you can see more of his lovely 7-wide classic Transit at photostream via the link.
Dutch builder Johnni D’s Photostream is home to some great, small Lego cars. Recently it’s been filling up with comic style, 4-wide hot rods of all sorts of shapes. There are over 120 at the time of writing. They range from rat-rods (above) to custom Transit vans (below), via hatchbacks, campers and pick-ups. It’s well worth clicking this link to enjoy the variety of these builds.
Like, totally. Dude. Right, enough non-sensical surf-talk, these neat Town-scale creations come from Flickr’s Johnni, and you can see more of his brilliant board-laden Mark 1 Ford Transit and classic VW Manx beach buggy at his photostream via the link above.
The Lego Car Blog, despite its charitable nature, is actually a pretty dark and shadowy organisation. The location of TLCB office is a closely guarded secret, TLCB staff forgo fame and fortune, preferring to shroud themselves in anonymity’s thick cloak, and the Elves… well, no-one really wants to get close to them so their mythical status is assured for some time yet.
Previous bloggee Thomas Graafland has theory though, and has boldly stated that TLCB operates from the back of a re-commissioned ex-Royal Mail Ford Transit, which he’s built in Lego form.
We can’t confirm or deny this hypothesis, but what we can say is that we absolutely love the van. Firstly it looks wonderfully realistic – our European readers will immediately recognise the ubiquitous Mk.4 Transit silhouette. Secondly, Thomas has crammed in all the features that we like to see in Lego creations; including working suspension, opening bonnet and doors, and working lights – plus there’s a comfy chair and giant screen in the back for blogging, bench seating for the Elves and racing seats up front for the staff.
Thirdly, Thomas has given the Elves a bit of a treat too. You might have noticed the quad exhausts in the image above… this Transit doesn’t have Ford’s usual diesel lump up front. Nope, this one is fitted with a mid-mounted V8, as per the ‘Supervans’ that Ford constructed in the 70s and 80s, and it’s remote control, meaning there’s much potential for an Elf to smush its unsuspecting colleagues.
Built for TLCB Summer Building Competition, Thomas’ entry scores almost full marks – only missing out on the points available for racing stripes and representing an Elf or two (something that could be surely be added?).
You can see all the details and watch a video of the V8 Transit in action via either Flickr or MOCpages, and if you think you can do better (and win some awesome prizes to boot) you can read how to enter your own creation in TLCB Summer Building Competition by clicking here. There’s just a few weeks to go!
