Tag Archives: Volvo

Aerial Platform

This is a Volvo FM Angloco Aerial Platform, or ‘massive fire truck’ to most of us. Based on the real aerial platforms in service in the UK, this terrific Technic example comes from MCD of Eurobricks, who has not only recreated the exterior and British livery beautifully, his model works too, thanks to a motorised main boom, mechanical support legs, working steering, and a suite of Game of Bricks LED lights.

There’s more to see at the Eurobricks forum, where MCD has published his Volvo Aerial Platform alongside a more conventional Scania P280 fire truck also outfitted by Angloco, and you can call the fire brigade via the link above.

Ford + Volvo =

Back in the ’00s the answer to that question would probably have been a Jaguar, but Ford’s ‘Premier Automotive Group’ is long since dead, with the brands held within it now mercifully free from its yolk.

So whilst a Ford crossed with a Volvo did often equal a Jaguar, today we have something far more unique.

Constructed from the parts found within both the 42213 Ford Bronco and 42209 Volvo Electric Wheel-Loader sets, this terrific Technic tractor deploys two sets’ worth of pieces to pack in the functionality.

There’s a working engine, functional steering, opening doors and hood, a self-levelling front-loader, a two-speed power-take-off with neutral, and a three-point elevating rear hitch.

It’s all the work of mirrorbricks, who will release building instructions for this B-Model shortly, and there’s more of this excellent alternate to see at the Eurobricks forum in the meantime. Merge your Bronco with a Volvo via the link in the text above.

YouTube Video

LEGO Technic H2 2025 | Set Previews

The days are getting longer, skirts are getting shorter, and The Lego Car Blog Elves have returned from their ‘volunteering’ trip over the perimeter wall of LEGO’s HQ. Yes it’s time for us to reveal the brand new LEGO Technic sets for summer 2025, and there are twice as many as last year!

LEGO Technic 42208 Aston Martin Valkyrie

The first of the eight new sets for summer 2025 is this, the 42208 Aston Martin Valykrie. Constructed from 707 pieces, many of which are debuting in dark turquoise, 42208 features a working miniaturised V12 engine, opening doors, working steering, and a tie-up with the ‘Asphalt Legends Unite’ video game. For, um… reasons.

The usual stickerage is deployed for the headlights, lime green pin-striping, and badging, whilst a brand new three-hole-with-cross-axle lift-arm appears for the first time. Aimed at ages 9+ 42208 will cost around £55 / €60 / $65 when it reaches stores this summer.

LEGO Technic 42209 Volvo L120 Electric Loader

Also aimed at ages 9+, but with around 250 more pieces, is the brand new 42209 Volvo L120 Electric Loader. And it looks brilliant.

An all-mechanical set (hurrah!), 42209 features three linear actuators – turned by hand via cogs mounted at the rear – to raise and tip the new bucket piece. Articulated steering is also controlled via a cog, whilst the ‘engine’ cover lifts to reveal, um… some spinning cylinder thingies. It’s an electric loader after all.

Well-placed decals enhance the visual realism, whilst we expect 42209 might be the pick of the range when it comes to mechanical engineering. Expect it to cost around £90 / €100 / $120 when it arrives later this year.

LEGO Technic 42210 2 Fast 2 Furious Nissan Skyline GT-R (R34) Car

Ten-year-olds rejoice! Because the Nissan Skyline GT-R (R34) from ‘2 Fast 2 Furious’ is sliding into the LEGO Technic range! Yes, this is the brand new 42210 2 Fast 2 Furious Nissan Skyline GT-R R34 Car.

We’re not sure why LEGO felt the need to add ‘car’ to the title, but no matter; Nissan’s iconic R34-generation Skyline GT-R is finally available in bricks. Over 1,400 of them in fact, which means that the aforementioned ten-year-olds are eight years below the advised age on the box.

We wouldn’t worry about that though; LEGO’s black box and ’18+’ age stamp are purely to make it more acceptable for dads to buy one, and they’ll get a suite of functionality when they do.

A working inline-6 engine lives under the opening hood (which might be driven by all four newly-hub-capped wheels), there’s steering and all-wheel-suspension, opening doors, an adjustable wing, and, um… some balls drop from underneath.

We’d better explain that. Like the 42111 Dom’s Dodge Charger set, 42210 includes a play feature that allows the model to replicate scenes from the movie in which it was featured. In this case a pair of balls can be lowed to raise the rear wheels off the ground, allowing the model to drift. Which whether you’re ten or a dad, is sure to make it more fun to drive on the kitchen floor.

Large stickers recreate the movie car’s livery (which is rather necessary here), but most of the other details are brick-built, and you’ll be able to get your hands on 42210 for around £130 / $140 when it drifts into stores this summer.

LEGO Technic 42211 Lunar Outpost Moon Rover Space Vehicle

We think this set might be based in space. The new 42211 Lunar Outpost Moon Rover Space Vehicle is so spacey LEGO gave it three different space references in the name alone.

Following on from the Technic Space range that surprised all of us last year, 42211 looks… incoherent. A strange robotic crane of sorts, 42211 nevertheless includes some interesting Technic engineering, including oscillating suspension, all-wheel-steering, a rotating and extending crane, and two smaller lunar rovers, one of which appears to munch up rocks and – joy of joys – crystals. LEGO just can’t let them go.

The crane and two smaller rovers all fold neatly into the main rover, and 42211 does feature some unconventional parts, including rubberised tracks not seen for a few years and new wheel covers.

Aimed at ages 10+, the new 1,082-piece set will cost around £90 / €100 / $100 when it lands in stores this summer. Let’s get back to cars…

LEGO Technic 42212 Ferrari FXX K

…and one that looks really rather good. This is the new 42212 Ferrari FXX K, a 900-piece recreation of Ferrari’s track-only V12 hypercar. Featuring working steering, an opening engine cover and butterfly doors, a V12 piston engine with differential, and another tie-up with the ‘Asphalt Legends Unite’ video game, 42212 is rather formulaic, but it’s a good formula.

Several pieces make their debut in red, and we’re getting used the heavy reliance on stickers. Aimed at ages 10+, expect 42112 to cost £55 / $65 when it reaches stores later this year.

LEGO Technic 42213 Ford Bronco SUV

With a few more pieces, but a slightly lower target age, the new 42213 Ford Bronco SUV brings Ford’s iconic off-roader to the Technic range for the first time.

We think it looks great too, with opening doors, working steering (via the spare wheel), front and live-axle rear suspension, a V6 engine under the raising hood, plus new fender parts and tyres.

Expected to cost £55 / $65, 42213 looks to be quite good value (these things are relative), and is perhaps our pick of the cars for H2 2025.

LEGO Technic 42214 Lamborghini Revuelto

The seventh new set for H2 2025 continues another longstanding brand partnership, as Lamborghini’s new supercar joins the Technic line-up in the form of the 42214 Lamborghini Revuelto.

Lamborghini claim the Revuelto is “The first HPEV (High Performance Electrified Vehicle) hybrid super sports car”, which conveniently ignores all the other high performance hybrid supercars that have proceeded it.

Still, let’s not get bogged down in marketing, because LEGO’s Lamborghini Revuelto is electrified too, with motorised steering, drive, head and tail lights, all controlled remotely via the Control+ app.

Aimed at ages 10+, 42214 will charge into stores later this year, with 1,135 pieces, ‘Asphalt Legend Unite’ness, and an £160/ $180 price-tag.

LEGO Technic 42215 Volvo EC500 Hybrid Excavator

And finally, the eighth model to join the H2 2025 Technic line-up is the new flagship; this is the 42215 Volvo EC500 Hybrid Excavator.

Weighing in at over 2,300 pieces, 42215 is a fully motorised – but not remote control – recreation of Volvo’s fifty ton excavator, deploying a mechanically operated gearbox to switch between various functions.

These include the boom, arm and bucket/drill attachments, whilst the superstructure and tracks can rotate manually. That enormous boom is raised and lowered by LEGO’s XL linear actuators, which appear in black for the first time, with a single motor providing the power.

Motorised functions via a mechanical gearbox is a combination we like, as evidenced here, here, and here, so we’re rather excited about the big Volvo. We’re less excited about the price however, as despite that single motor 42115 is expected to cost £350 / $430, meaning it’ll excavate your wallet before it excavates anything else.

Aimed at 18+ (perhaps legitimately this time), 42215 will be available to buy later this year, if you’re diggin’ it.

There you have it, eight new Technic sets, seven officially-licensed real world vehicles across six different manufacturers, one vehicle from space, and one that’s got balls. Here at The Lego Car Blog at least, we think it’s a rather good line up.

Digging Dirt

The Elves here at TLCB Towers eat all sorts of things. These include actual meals, awarded to them for finding a blog-worthy creation such as this one, but also glue sticks, dog treats, erasers, and anything else they deem edible.

This means that everyone’s least favourite job is cleaning out the Elves’ cage room, but today this TLCB Writer doesn’t have to get close to the little turds’, um… turds, because he can clean remotely thanks to this spectacular fully motorised Volvo EC300E excavator!

Built by Nura of Eurobricks, this incredible creation blends the best of Technic and third-party suppliers, with three SBricks delivering Bluetooth control to eight Power Functions motors, a suite of Bricktec LED lights, and two custom pneumatic units, with the result being that the 3D-printed bucket can move just like the real thing.

The tracks, rotating superstructure, two-stage boom, bucket, and twin pneumatic compressors are all operable remotely, with the electronics hidden inside a superbly realistic and authentically liveried exterior.

It’s a masterpiece of Lego engineering, and you can see more of Nura’s amazing creation at the Eurobricks forum, and via the video below. Take a look via the links whilst we put this Volvo to work.

Dalsey, Hillblom & Lynn

The chances are that the item on which you are sitting, reading these words, or wearing travelled at some point in the back of a truck like this.

Founded in San Francisco in 1969 (with its name being an initialism of the founders), DHL is now a subsidiary of German state-owned Deutsche Post AG, and forms part of the largest logistics company in the world. Billions of items are delivered every year, with DHL trucks such as this Volvo FH 750 and Schmitz Cargobull trailer common sights on the roads across Europe.

This excellent brick-built recreation of what keeps the world moving comes from Keko007, who has captured the truck, trailer, and iconic DHL font brilliantly. There’s more to see at Keko’s ‘Volvo FH 750 & Schmitz Cargobull Trailer’ album on Flickr, and you can click the link above to be delivered there.

Volvo²

No this time we’re not making classic Volvo jokes. Because today’s post is a Volvo atop another Volvo, for some kind of Volvo².

This phenomenal Volvo Aero truck is the work of MCD, and it might be – visually at least – the most life-like Technic truck our Elves have found to date. Constructed in 1:21 scale, the Technic panels MCD has used fit the model so perfectly it looks like they were purpose made for it, as do the genuine stickers from the LEGO Technic 42175 Volvo FMX set which work a treat here.

A five-axle Nooteboom trailer in tow carries another beautifully recreated Volvo hauler, with MCD’s classic Volvo F89 every bit as good as the modern Aero transporting it.

There’s more to see of both creations at the Eurobricks discussion forum, and you can click the link above to get to the square root of Volvo trucks.

Tow Plow

Summer is waining here in the northern hemisphere, which means for many readers, and perhaps TLCB Team, we’re on the path to winter snow. Fortunately previous bloggee M_longer is ready, having converted his LEGO Technic 42175 Volvo FMX Truck & EC230 Electric Excavator set into this spectacular Volvo VHD snow plow, complete with a gritter and secondary plow trailer in tow. A ‘tow plow’ if you will.

Utilising around 2,100 pieces from the 42175 set’s 2,274, M_longer’s alternate features working steering, a piston engine under the opening bonnet, a disengageable salt spreader / gritter, a pneumatically elevating front blade and – very cleverly – a pneumatically elevating trailer blade too, driven by the truck’s pneumatics.

Building instructions are available and you can find a link to them, full build details, and a reference image of the real ‘tow plow’ truck that inspired this build at the Eurobricks discussion forum, there are over forty high resolution images at M_longer’s ‘Tow-Plow’ Bricksafe gallery, plus you can check out this fantastic alternate in action via the video below.

YouTube Video

LEGO Technic 42175 Volvo FMX Truck & EC230 Electric Excavator | Set Preview

Following our preview earlier this month of the brand new H2 2024 LEGO Technic sets you may have been wondering where the promised fourth real-world vehicle was. Well today can we reveal all, starting – as the more eagle-eyed reader will have spotted – with the new 42175 Volvo FMX Truck & EC230 Electric Excavator not being one real-world vehicle at all, but two.

Following a long tradition of truck-with-trailer-and-vehicular-load Technic sets, 42175 ushers Volvo’s off-road FMX truck and electric EC230 tracked excavator into the Technic line-up, bringing pneumatics back in the process.

Aimed at ages 10+ and constructed from 2,274 pieces, 42175 features working steering, a tilting cab, and a six-cylinder engine on the truck, fold-down ramps on the trailer, and a 360° slewing superstructure and a two-stage pneumatically-operated bucket arm on the excavator.

There’s also a ‘charging station’ that can be lifted off the trailer by the excavator for when it needs some more electricity, which we can only assume in real-life would be a giant battery or – more ironically – a diesel generator. Either way it looks a bit pointless within the set, doing precisely nothing whatsoever.

The three other components (truck, trailer, excavator) look sufficiently playable however, if a little under-endowed aesthetically for the £170 / $200 asking price. This is particularly true for the excavator’s bucket arm, which uses two small buckets to create one of the correct size. If this approach isn’t to support a B-Model, it’s a bit of a corner cut.

Still, 42175 could be a worthwhile addition to the 2024 Technic line up, and you’ll be able to get your hands on it when it reaches stores in August of this year.

Bubbly Chocolate

Volvo’s newly announced FH Aero truck has got this TLCB Writer thinking about bubbly chocolate. Because he’s very distractible. And he likes Aeros. But do the bubbles mean there’s less actual chocolate?

Whatever, back on task, this splendid brick-built replica of the new Volvo FH Aero 62 comes from Stefan Eeckman, who had some insider knowledge in order to create his model so swiftly after the actual truck’s reveal.

A tilting cab, Powered-Up remote control drive and steering, and some really very tricksy building techniques are available to view on both Flickr and Eurobricks, and you can take a look via the links above whilst this Writer hunts down some bubbly chocolate.

B-Hoe


LEGO’s 42081 Volvo Autonomous Loader set thoroughly perplexed us when it was revealed a few years ago. It still does really, but tungpham of Eurobricks saw greater potential in the Technic oddity than we did, turning his 42081 set into this fantastic backhoe loader.

Looking considerably better than the set on which it’s based, tungpham’s 42081 B-Model includes a raising and tilting front bucket, in-cab steering and rear arm skewing control, stabilising legs, and a rotating driver’s seat.

It also features some of the finest presentation we’ve ever seen on a LEGO model, mimicking LEGO’s own box, catalogue and digital imagery with superb photography and editing.

Building instructions are available and there’s more to see of tungpham’s incredible alternate at the Eurobricks forum – click the link above for a B-Side that’s better than the Single.

Scania & Stepframe

From a truck-based flight of whimsy to a hauler altogether more real-world. Ralph Savelsberg’s Scania T730 with stepframe trailer is an exact miniaturisation of one of the trucks in use by Hodge’s of Scotland, pictured here with a Volvo excavator in tow. A replica livery adds to the realism and there’s more of the models to see at Ralph’s album by clicking here.

Black Box

A few months ago the coolest car we’ve ever published appeared on this page. A mildly modified Volvo 242 Coupe, it was everything we could want in a 1980s Volvo. Except of course, to be a proper 1980s Volvo, it should’ve been an estate…

Now its maker Stephan Jonsson has constructed a station wagon counterpart, in the form of this fabulous Volvo 245, also lightly modified and fitted with a brick-built T6 Turbo engine. There’s even a tow-bar. Don’t be fooled by that rear ‘spoiler’; it’s a wind deflector for a caravan.

We’ve never wanted a car more, and there’s more to see of Stephan’s wonderful Volvo 245 T6 Turbo at his album of the same name. Click the link above to make the jump.

Carry the Wind

Wind turbines are massive, able to service a whole community, and difficult to move. Just like your Mom. But they are also vital for a de-carbonised future, which means we need a lot more of them harnessing the power of the the earth’s atmospheric currents and turning it into electricity if our species is not to die a hot and miserable death.

Cue Ralph Savelsberg‘s enormous Volvo FH16 heavy haulage transport, as operated by Dutch transport company Van der Vlist, which is depicted here carrying the huge nacelle of a wind turbine.

Despite being only 1:43 scale Ralph’s model measures almost a metre long, and includes the split trailer and hydraulic rams (in this case brick-built) that support and raise the massive turbine nacelle on the real truck.

Over twenty images are available to view and you whirl your way there via the link above, plus you can check out the transport’s accompanying escort that appeared here earlier via this bonus link.

Cooler Box

We don’t care what anyone says, this is the coolest car we’ve ever posted. Yes, this magnificent slab of Swede, a Volvo 242, is so deeply cool that The Brothers Brick can’t look at it directly. We on the other hand, being connoisseurs of cool, can’t get enough of Stephan Jonsson’s glorious grey box. Even more so as it’s the ‘Coupe’ variant.

Of course being an ’80s Volvo the 242 is the single squarest coupe ever devised, and – unlike every other Volvo of the time – your Ikea boxes have to go on the roof rather than in the boot, but that just makes it cooler.

A beautifully detailed engine, opening doors, hood and boot, a spectacularly orange interior, and accessories like a roof rack and tow bar add to our delight, and there’s more to see of the coolest car we’ve ever posted at Stephan’s ‘Volvo 242 Group H’ album on Flickr. We like really like old Volvos.

Tank Top

Or rather, top tanker, because this is perhaps the cleanest tanker truck build we’ve seen yet. The aesthetics of MCD‘s Volvo FMX 8×2 are even more impressive when you consider this is a Technic creation, not a Model Team one, and is entirely LEGO, even down to the rubber bands holding the pipes. There’s more of MCD’s model to see at the Eurobricks forum, and you can tank on over via the link above.