Tag Archives: volkswagen

Quality Escorts

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Running a world-famous Lego blog has its upsides. Probably.

We however, are running a crumbling ruin in the corner of the internet, and whilst we receive precisely none of the fame and riches of the proper Lego sites, we do receive all the spam, marketing messages, ‘guest post’ requests, and doubtless-deserved complaints that go with it.

These take many forms, but are usually centred around medicines of a dubious nature, ‘Gucci’ handbags, and women of an also dubious nature. Cue today’s title, because we already receive a torrent of spam on the subject, how much worse can it get?

These two mini-figure scale escort vans are not the European Ford variety (nor ladies of negotiable affection), but the sort used to prevent inattentive drivers from crashing into the back of a slow-moving house, boat, or house-boat.

Built by regular bloggee Ralph Savelsberg they are a Mercedes-Benz Sprinter and Volkswagen Transporter respectively, both feature some neat decal-based liveries, and there’s more of each van to see at Ralph’s photostream. Click the link above to be escorted there.

Just a Small Slice

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From yesterday’s vertically-adjusted vehicle to one that’s been altered rather more horizontally. Built for the Tillamook Creamery, several of these drastically shortened cheese-coloured Volkswagen Transporter ‘Yum Buses’ were (and are) used to promote Tillamook’s dairy-based deliciousness. This mightily complicated miniature version comes from regular bloggee 1saac W., who has captured the promotional vehicle beautifully, with a myriad of ‘cheese wedge’ bricks rather appropriately deployed to form the bus’s rounded shape. There’s more to see on Flickr and you can grab yourself a slice via the link above.

Beet This

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If you’re a rad So-Cal surfer dude, there is literally nothing cooler than a slammed Volkswagen Beetle with a roof-rack. This TLCB Writer is definitely not a rad So-Cal surfer dude, but despite his doughy Northern European composition, he still thinks this slammed Volkswagen Beetle with a roof-rack is pretty cool. Flickr’s RGB900 is the rad So-Cal surfer dude* behind it and there’s more to see via the link.

*Radical surfness not guaranteed.

Tail-less Cat

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The Meyers Manx beach buggy, named after the tail-less breed of cat to match its truncated rear end, is surely one of the coolest vehicles on the planet. Being based on the Volkswagen Beetle made the Manx cheap, easy to work on, and surprisingly good off road. But it was also based on the Volkswagen Beetle.

Rejoice then, that the rebooted Meyers company has developed a new Manx beach buggy that does away with the noisy Beetle underpinnings, instead ushering in a new era of electric propulsion. And there is probably no vehicle better suited to being an EV than a beach buggy. Provided it can wet of course…

Anyway, this is the noisy, rattly, polluting, slow, and deeply cool Beetle-based original, as built by regular bloggee Jonathan Elliott. Head to the beach via the link above, whilst we dream of owning the electric version…

EuroVan

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This is the Volkswagen EuroVan, or the T4 Transporter to most of the world, produced from the early-’90s to the early-’00s, and available as a van, passenger vehicle, kombi, chassis-cab, pick-up and camper.

This one, being called a ‘EuroVan’, is the North American version, where the T4 Transporter was sold from 1992 and 2003, almost exclusively with VR6-power. In Europe we could get a 1.9 naturally-aspirated diesel with 60bhp, so really we think the ‘states should’ve got that one…

Anyway, this EuroVan comes from previous bloggee Danifill, who has recreated the ’90s Volkswagen brilliantly in Technic form. There’s remote control drive and steering via a BuWizz bluetooth brick, independent front and live axle rear suspension, working head and tail lights, and brick built VR6 engine under the opening hood.

There’s more to see at the Eurobricks discussion forum – make the jump to all the details, imagery, and a video of the van in action via the link in the text above.

Build-a-Buggy

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The Volkswagen Beetle-based Meyers Manx beach buggy is one of this TLCB Writer’s very favourite vehicles. Designed by Californian boat-builder and surfer Bruce F. Meyers in 1964 for desert racing, around 6,000 Beetles were converted, with the design becoming a symbol of ’60s Cali Surf Culture. This lovely Model Team version of Meyers’ brilliant design comes from Flickr’s Johnni D, who has made instructions available so you can build one for yourself. Head to the California in the mid ’60s via the link above. Dude.

Daily Delivery

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We’re into the last week of BrickNerd and TLCB’s Festival of Mundanity competition. There have been over fifty entries so far, with two today bringing the hum-drum world of daily deliveries to the brick.

First up (above) is ABrickDreamer‘s Piaggio Ape, which might seem interesting to our American readers, but in rural Italy (or India) these scooter-based pick-up trucks are everywhere, hauling improbable loads with as little as 50cc.

In production since 1948, the latest Apes can be fitted with 200cc petrol or 400cc diesel engines (although 50cc versions are still on sale!), and continue to be a common sight performing the most mundane of tasks, usually with a wearing-looking moustachioed driver on board perpetually wishing he had an extra 200cc.

A common sight in much of the world too is today’s second contest entry, the Volkswagen Transporter. An no, it’s not a camper.

Still in use by the thousand in South America, most Volkswagen T2s are not cool campers, surf buses or hippy time machines, they’re just… vans. And outdated noisy ones at that.

This splendid brick-built Transporter is transporting eggs, and comes from PalBenglat, who has captured its unpretentious simplicity beautifully.

There’s more to see of Pal’s Volkswagen Transporter van and BrickDreamer’s Piaggio Ape at their respective photostreams via the links, and there’s still time to get your Festival of Mundanity entry in, and be in with a chance of winning an awesome BuWizz Pro bluetooth battery (which we’ll be reviewing here very soon) along with some other fantastic prizes!

Topless Curves

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1saac W.‘s superb classic Volkswagen Beetle has appeared here before, but – unlike this TLCB Writer – it looks even better topless. 1saac’s 1950 Hebmüller Cabriolet also allows for a title that’s sure to snare a few newcomers expecting to see something entirely different. There’s more to see on Flickr via the link above!

Beetlejuice

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The Lego Car Blog Elves are rewarded with a meal token and maybe a Smartie when they return to TLCB Towers with a blog-worthy creation. The Elf that found this beautifully presented red Volkswagen Beetle by Flickr’s 1saac W earned itself a red Smartie of course, which – with delightful circularity – are coloured using crushed beetles. Every day’s a school day! There’s more to see of 1saac’s wonderful ’59 Beetle at his photostream, or click here if you’re grossed out by crushed beetles in your candy…

To the Bat Bus!

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What’s this? Is Batman giving up on vigilante crime-fighting in favour of all-natural-ethnically-sustainable-like-and-subscribe-#vanlife? Thankfully a ginormous gas-turbine-rocket-engine-propulsion-thingumy mounted in the bed of his ’60s Volkswagen Transporter suggests not.

Our hope is the Dark Knight is off to infiltrate the #vanlife community before beating the living crap out them. Not for being criminals, just for being douchbags. Whilst we luxuriate in that thought you can check out more of Batman’s new ride courtesy of 1saac W. of Flickr.

Batman’s going to give them not the beating that they deserve, but the one they need.

Honey, I Shrunk the 10220

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LEGO’s fab 10220 Creator Volkswagen Camper set has – after eight years on sale – finally been replaced. One of the earliest officially-licensed Creator sets, 10220 will likely become one of LEGO’s all time greats, and Flickr’s 1saac W. has channeled the Lego icon into his own astonishing miniaturised Volkswagen T1 Westfalia, some two years in the making.

1saac’s model looks every bit as detailed as its giant inspiration, with techniques used within it that seem to defy physics. Yet it’s all Lego, and the genius of its assembly is matched only by the perfection of the presentation.

We genuinely can’t figure out how it’s all been done, and if you’d like to try to work out how 1ssac has seemingly shrunk 10220 head to his photostream via the link above.

The Transporter 3

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With LEGO revealing their new (and really rather excellent looking) 10279 Volkswagen T2 Transporter set, we’re wondering if they will gradually work their way through all the Transporters as if they’re binging on Jason Statham action movies.

Getting there first though, is regular bloggee Jonathan Elliott, whose superb 6-wide recreation of the T3 Transporter looks considerably more realistic than anything that occurred in the third instalment of the movie franchise.

Click the link above to make the jump.

Playing Golf

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In the opinion of this TLCB Writer, walking (or riding) around a park in silly trousers is not a sport. Still, when Volkswagen’s naming department decided to choose sports as the theme for their new cars in the 1970s, golf was one of the games they selected, alongside ‘Derby’ and ‘Polo’.

Eight generations later and the Golf is still going strong, and previous bloggee SP_LINEUP has built no less than four of them, all recreated beautifully in small-scale brick form.

There’s more to see of each, including a tasty-looking Mk1 and a 2000s-era R32, at SP’s photostream. Grab your clubs and head to the green via the link above.

Topless Summer

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It’s summer here at TLCB and it’s HOT. Elves are scattered everywhere panting, and the office ‘air conditioner’ (a fan gaffa-taped to a window ledge) is just moving hot air about like the one in the back of an oven, ensuring everything is equally cooked.

Those of you reading this in sunnier climes than the UK (that’s all of you) will be wondering what all the fuss is about, but this TLCB Writer is well-travelled and no-where gets hot like the UK. Thank the high humidity, limited air conditioning, and buildings designed to keep in, not out, for that.

It also might explain why the British buy more convertibles than the French, Germans, Italians, and Spanish. Put together. Thus we have two here today, and they’re both… um, a bit crap.

The Dodge Viper was basically a truck engine shoved in a kids’ plastic toy, and was predictably rubbish as a result. But on the other hand, it was a truck engine shoved in a kids’ plastic toy, and it was therefore excellent. This superb Speed Champions scale Dodge Viper convertible was suggested by a reader, and it comes from previous bloggee RGB900 who has nailed the 1990s American icon in 6-wide form.

Equally iconic (and rubbish) was the modern Volkswagen Beetle convertible; a bubble-shaped Golf with a pram roof stuck on the back that predictably became the must-have accessory for people that knew nothing about cars.

Fashion is fickle though, and without any substance whatsoever the modern Beetle is now dead, and its customers have all moved on to Mini convertibles. SP_LINEUP hasn’t forgotten it though, creating this excellent brick-built version that was also suggested by a reader.

There’s more to see of each convertible on Flickr via the links, and if you’re wondering why we haven’t featured good drop-tops instead of a kids’ toy and VW pram, just be thankful we didn’t find one of these to post. See, the British do stupid things when it gets hot.

LEGO Creator 10279 Volkswagen T2 Camper | Set Preview

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The crack team of Elven ‘volunteers’ fired over The LEGO Company’s HQ permitter wall tasked with uncovering this summer’s new sets had – we thought – all returned/been eaten by guard dogs, but no! Today one last bedraggled Elf returned home to TLCB Towers with a final new-for-2021 LEGO set, at it’s a great one…

This is the brand new Creator Expert 10279 Volkswagen T2 Camper Van, LEGO’s officially licensed successor to the wonderful 10220 Volkswagen T1 Camper Van that has been on sale for almost a decade (making it one of the longest serving LEGO sets ever).

Improving on the 10220 set is no mean feat – it achieved a full 10/10 review here at TLCB – and LEGO have certainly gone all-out, nearly doubling the parts count to a whopping 2,207 pieces.

Many of these are tiles too, as a new building technique deploys outward facing ‘SNOT’ to construct the bodywork in place of the original set’s traditional stacked bricks.

A fully detailed interior complete with a canvas pop-top, opening cabinets, a fridge, a stove (with all important tea pot), and a sink is included, whilst a brick-built surfboard (first seen on the 10252 Volkswagen Beetle set) along with two folding deck chairs ensure the T2 is suitably beachy.

Working steering, a sliding door, a brand new windscreen piece, and an opening engine cover add to the realism, whilst period-correct (and hippy default) ‘Peace’ and ‘Love’ decals ensure the model reflects the late ’60s – early ’70s era that still defines the T2 today.

Expect the new LEGO Creator Expert 10279 Volkswagen T2 Camper Van to cost around $180/£150 when it hits stores later this year, and LEGO’s successful Volkswagen Camper story to continue for some time yet. A T3 set in 10 years’ time? We wouldn’t bet against it!