If the Michael Bay ‘Transformers’ movies were directed by the people that make ‘Bob the Builder’, the result might look a little something like this.
Replacing angry alien robots with, er… cute alien robots, Angus MacLane has optimised the adorability of the leader of the Autobots, and there’s more to see of his charming ‘Sub-Optimus Prime’ transforming truck on Flickr.
Click the link above for the cutest robot in disguise you’ll see today.
This is the ‘Kookie T’, one of the all-time seminal hot rods, and the inspiration for very probably a thousand hot rods that have followed. Built by hot rodder and actor Norm Grabowski, the Kookie-T exploded into magazines during the mid-’50s, creating such a stir that the car was chosen to make a starring appearance in the ’50s TV show ’77 Sunset Strip’.
Norm’s custom car prowess led to further TV and movie contracts, and eventually allowed him to appear in several productions himself, acting in films including ‘The Monkees’, ‘Batman’, ‘The Towering Inferno’, ‘The Cannonball Run’ and… er, ‘Sex Kittens Go to College’, amongst others.
This fantastic replica of the iconic hot rod comes from previous bloggee Andre Pinto, who has recreated the Kookie-T brilliantly in brick form. Stunning presentation matches the excellent brickwork, and there’s more to see at Andre’s ‘Norm Grabowski’s Kookie Car’ Flickr album. Click the link to take a look, unless you’re already Googling that last film title. You are aren’t you…
Taking advantage of the new year sales is not something this TLCB Writer is inclined to do. Mr. Bean on the other hand, was very excited at the prospect of grabbing himself a bargain. Cue one of the most brilliant vehicular capers in TV history, wherein an ingenious Bean attempts to transport rather more than he should home via his British Leyland Mini. Flickr’s Tomáš Novák is the latest builder to create a brick-built Bean atop a bright green Mini, and there’s more to see of his homage to TV gold at his photostream. Click the link above to push the mop onto the accelerator!
This steam locomotive might look familiar to you… Built by Rogers Locomotive and Machine works in the 1890s, locomotive ‘No.3’ was a coal and later oil-fired steam locomotive used for various steam locomotive things; hauling freight, transporting passengers, and constructing various railroads across California during the early 20th century.
After three decades of service Locomotive No.3’s owners, the Sierra Railway Company, went bankrupt during the Great Depression, and it was laid up for fifteen years in a siding. The locomotive somehow dodged being melted down for the war effort, and after the Second World War ended it was acquired for film use, whereupon ‘No.3’ began a career that saw it star in around forty movies and TV shows, including ‘High Noon’, TLCB favourite ‘The Great Race’, and – perhaps most famously – ‘Back to the Future, Part III‘.
Restored in the 2010s, Locomotive No.3 is still running today, and thus may yet add even more stardust to an already incredible legacy. This wonderful recreation by firefabric of Eurobricks captures probably the world’s most seen steam train beautifully, and it includes a LEGO Powered-Up motor and LED lights hidden inside.
There’s much to more of the model to see, including full build details, at the Eurobricks discussion forum, and you can step into one of almost forty movie sets via the link in the text above.
If 2020 had a word (aside from ‘dumpsterfire’), it would be ‘mask’. Enacted to protect the vulnerable and elderly from an unknown and deadly disease, laws requiring the wearing of masks were widely adopted across the world, much to the anger of a small but very vocal minority of morons.
It’s also rather ironic that the ideology displaying said anger about being asked to wear a mask for protection seemed to have no qualms with carrying a gun… for protection. Sigh.
Anyway, with winter approaching and COVID on the rise again, we may have to get used to another round of mask wearing, which leads us neatly-and-in-no-way-tenuously on to these rather good creations by nickgreat.
Suggested by a reader, Nick’s models recreate the vehicles from the mid-’80s cartoon TV show ‘M.A.S.K’, in which the ‘Mobile Armoured Strike Kommand’ (because ‘M.A.S.C’ wasn’t as cool) fought ‘V.E.N.O.M’, the Vicious Evil Network of Mayhem, whilst wearing super-powered helmets (or masks. Ah… it all makes sense).
And if that isn’t the ideal marketing recipe for a range of plastic toys we don’t know what is.
With vehicles such as the ‘Rhino’, ‘Switchblade’, ‘Thunderhawk’ and ‘Jackhammer’ – that could transform into fighter jets, gun turrets, and hydroplanes – plus a protagonist named ‘Matt Trakker’, you’d be forgiven for thinking M.A.S.K might be the most American thing since excessive patriotism, but it was in fact French, and animated in Japan.
Nick has created seven of the transforming vehicles from the ’80s TV show superbly in mini-figure scale, three of which are pictured here, and you find the full array of ‘M.A.S.K’ models at his album on Bricksafe.
Put on your mask and take a look via the link above, or alternatively shout angrily about masks being part of a global conspiracy or something, depending upon your IQ.
…is the sound a helicopter makes. Also Batman.
This is the ‘Batcopter’ from the Batman TV series, which was a little more, er… ‘festive’ than the dark and secretive Batman we know from the 2010s. Still, if every time you fought crime giant bubble writing appeared shouting ‘KAPOW!’, there was probably little point being stealthy.
Andre Pinto’s ‘Batcopter’ captures the camp flamboyance of the ’60s caped crusader brilliantly, and there’s more to see at his ‘Batcopter TV’ album on Flickr. Dananananana…
In this TLCB Writer’s opinion, it’s only a matter of time before the dead rise up to feast on the squishy bits of the living.
What we’d want in those inevitably approaching times is a shotgun and an RV, so we could a) shoot at reanimated corpses from the safety of the roof, and b) take a crap in comfort.
Dale in ‘The Walking Dead’ had the right idea, well – until he went for a walk in a field and his squishy bits were pulled out, but had he stayed atop his classic Winnebago he’d have been fine.
Jonas Kramm has recreated Dale and his RV pre-zombie dinner, and a dead-good job he’s done too! All details are present and correct including the roll-out awning, radio arial, roof-mounted parasol and deck-chair arrangement, and a mini-figure Dale with shotgun.
Best of all, Jonas has made instructions available so you can recreate it too, meaning at least a mini-figure or two in your collection will be safe from the certain zombie apocalypse that’s coming.
Perhaps Mr. Bean’s greatest moment, driving a Mini via string and a mop from a chair mounted on the roof, has featured a here few times in Lego from. None have used this many bricks though!
Certified LEGO Professional Ryan McNaught has used over five thousand pieces to recreate the iconic TV scene, with Bean’s Mini, new armchair, and the man himself all wonderfully captured in brick.
Ryan’s build is part of ‘Brickvention 22’, and a host of other models from the Lego Show – built by a variety of talented creators – join Mr. Bean’s Mini in Ryan’s ‘Brickvention 2022’ album.
Click the link above to take a look at the Mini and the other Brickvention builds, and we’ll be featuring another of our favourites from the show here shortly!
If there’s something strange
In the neighbourhood
Putin’s gonna call…
Ghostbusters!
If there’s someone gay
Or gender misunderstood
Putin’s gonna call…
Ghostbusters!
He ain’t ‘fraid of no ghost
He ain’t ‘fraid of no ghost
But he’s hearing things
That should not be said
Putin’s gonna call…
Ghostbusters!
A political threat?
Then you’ll end up dead!
Ow, Putin’s gonna call…
Ghostbusters!
Have we butchered the classic Ghostbusters theme song by Ray Parker Jr. just to tenuously link to Vladimir Putin’s human rights record? Yup! But to be fair it’s been ages since we received a good death threat.
Plus, of course, this rather wonderful creation is a VAZ/Lada 2104 estate that has been brilliantly converted into a Soviet Ecto-1, which makes re-writing that song almost mandatory.
We also happen to think it might just be cooler than the original Ghostbusters’ Cadillac ambulance. OK, no it isn’t, but it is a Lada converted into an Ecto-1, which does probably make it the coolest Lada ever.
Flickr’s Tony Bovkoon is the builder who has brought Ghostbusting to Russia, and there’s more to see of his fantastic Lada Ecto-1 on Flickr.
Click the link to call…
Ghostbusters!
We often get asked to feature more digital builds, but, well… we just prefer the real thing. So too did Ray Davies, who – in his 1970 hit with The Kinks – rejected the advances of Lola, despite later addressing the controversy around his lyrics by stating “It really doesn’t matter what sex Lola is, I think she’s alright”.
Cue a seamless link to ‘LOLA’ from Marvel’s ‘Agents of Shield’, a 1962 Chevrolet Corvette that hides some rather trick abilities, as recreated here in this marvellous image by Flickr’s Vaionaut.
Like Ray’s admirer in that Soho club, Vaionaut’s ‘LOLA’ doesn’t feature the real pieces you’d expect, but it looks so good we can’t help but think it’s alright too. It’s also capable of doing a few things that a brick-built creation can’t, being rendered in flight in a way that’s very probably more realistic than if it had been constructed from real bricks.
Somewhere in all that there’s a metaphor for accepting someone for who they are, and you can see more of Vaionaut’s digital Chevrolet Corvette ‘LOLA’ via the link above, whilst we ponder it.
We’ve got the Horn. Well, it is the morning.
Get your minds out of the gutter, this is the Rhino ‘High Occupancy Reconnaissance Nexus’, or ‘H.O.R.N’ for short. And because the cartoon TV show from which it came really liked acronyms.
An anonymous tanker truck on the outside, the H.O.R.N was packing a lot more underneath than first appeared.
This awesome Lego recreation of the H.O.R.N by Flickr’s Flashback Bricks replicates the ability of the Hasbro toy from the TV series brilliantly, expanding to reveal M.A.S.K’s mobile command base and the sonic tank hidden inside, which enabled M.A.S.K operatives to keep it up without outside support for up to two weeks.
There’s more to see of Flashback’s H.O.R.N at his photostream via the link above, and if you fancy another appendage-filled post try this one for size!
We’re not sure why robots in the eighties were uptight nerds, but KITT was the wheeled equivalent of C-3PO.
However unlike Star Wars’ anxious golden bi-ped, KITT had flame throwers, lasers, a tear gas launcher, a giant taser, and ultramagnesium charges at his disposal. And we don’t even know what that last one means.
Equipped with none of that, but looking rather cool nonetheless, is Jerry Builds Bricks‘ 8-wide Speed Champions version of the Knight Industries Two Thousand, which captures the TV star car beautifully.
There’s more of KITT to see at Jerry’s photostream, and you can head there to deploy some ultramagnesium charges via the link above.
“Hello, who are travelling with today?” “My brother.” “Did you pack the car yourself?” “Yes sir.” “Carrying anything back there? Live animals, fruit, explosives, weapons?” “Er…”.
This is a 1967 Chevrolet Impala, from back when large American cars were really cool. It was also the vehicle chosen as the star car for the TV show ‘Supernatural’, in which it’s used to hunt down various other-worldly monsters that are running amok.
This means a trunk full of paranormal paraphernalia, which previous bloggee Tony Bovkoon has duly recreated in Lego form to complete this superb Model Team replica of the Supernatural Impala.
There’s lots more of Tony’s creation to see (including the occult contents of the Chevy’s trunk) at his ‘Impala ’67 Supernatural’ album on Flickr – Click the link above to have an interesting conversation with the border guard…
Gosh today’s title is tenuous, even for us. You see a mud pack is often a volcanic mask… Anyway, this is Orion Pax‘s ‘M.A.S.K Volcano’, a near perfect brick built replica of the mid-’80s Hasbro toy that accompanied the M.A.S.K cartoon TV show.
The show, designed mostly to sell toys, pitched the ‘Mobile Armoured Strike Kommand’ (spelt wrong because it’s cooler that way) against the ‘Vicious Evil Network Of Mayhem’ (VENOM), who seemingly took a very literal and non-secretive approach to their naming.
Beyond that, we’re not really sure what the show was about, but it did lead to toys that split down the middle to reveal a giant rotating cannon (as in the case of the Volcano here), that has got the Elves very excited.
Orion’s model transforms beautifully as per the original toy and there’s more to see at his photostream. Apply your mud pack via the link!
Superman and Lex Luther. Batman and Joker. Road Runner and Wile E. Coyote. Peter Griffin and the Giant Chicken. There are some very famous nemesis, but – in this writer’s opinion – none more so than Mr. Bean and the mystery driver a blue Reliant Regal van. We don’t know why the aforementioned anonymous van-driver enraged our hero so, but we’re willing to go with it for scenes like this one.
Recreating Bean’s arch-rival, along with his own Mini from probably the most famous Mr. Bean scene of them all, is Rob of Flickr – who has encapsulated both cars brilliantly in brick form. The Mini probably deserves to give a nod of thanks (or several) to designs by previous bloggees _Tyler and Lasse Deleuran, but it’s still worth your click. Take a look via the link above!