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.
Discovered by both a very excited TLCB Elf* and a TLCB Reader, today we’re bringing you seven models in one! TLCB favourite (and previous Master MOCer) Nick Barrett has beautifully reconstructed six cars that he’s previously owned, plus a truck on which to transport them.
The truck steers and the trailer has a realistic mechanism to allow the cars to drive on, but really it’s all about that payload. See if you can identify all six of Nick’s eclectic cars before visiting MOCpages or Flickr to find out if you’re right!
*Which did of course try to ague that 7 meal tokens and 7 smarties were an appropriate reward. It did not win its case.
These mini-figures look a bit on the small side for this monstrous roadster, but when their ride is this cool we’re sure they don’t mind. See more on Flickr below.
*Apologies Eric Teo, we know you’ve named this ‘Betsy’, but there’s isn’t a song we can use for the title, so we dropped the ‘s’!
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 check out the FJ40 in action via the video below.
YouTube Video:
This brunette mini-figure looks like she’s having a fun ride with a chunky rod*. Tommaso Garosi is the builder of this neat two seat Town-style hot rod of which you can see more on MOCpages.
It’s not a very Christmassy post today, but if you’re reading this in December have some fun with the falling snow on this page – you can blow it about with your mouse!
If you’re reading this and it’s not December and you don’t know what we’re on about – why so late?! Subscribe to The Lego Car Blog by clicking the link at the foot of this page and you’ll receive timely notifications for free!
*Something about your Mom.
It might not be a car, but Fujiia‘s bicycle is certainly one of the most beautifully elegant Lego creations published this year.
There are a lot more bikes in the world than cars too – for most of the earth’s population bicycles mean freedom, and for most of us they were our first wheels too. You can see more of Fujiia’s at the link.
This stunning B-17 Flying Fortress by Ace in a Day was discovered on MOCpages. It looks like it’s been in better nick, but what a wonderfully re-created scene this is. Visit the link above to see more of the crash – it’s well worth your click.
Mazda’s RX-8 is now a seriously cheap car. Problems with oil consumption, rotor tip wear and then, ultimately, engine death means that early examples are now worth about as much an average-size telly. It’s almost worth buying one and running it ’til it blows, then weighing it in for scrap and buying another. Although you’d have to make sure you had very good breakdown cover…
Oddly, Mazda’s predecessor to the RX-8 hasn’t seemed to suffer from the same valuation free-fall as its descendant. RX-7’s, buoyed by the modification scene, are still desirable cars, and probably even more so if they’re yellow. At least in the eyes of our Elves anyway.
This one is the work of previous Featured TFOL Alexander Paschoaletto, and he’s done a thoroughly brilliant job of recreating the Japanese icon from Danish plastic. There’s an extensive gallery of images available on MOCpages – click this link to make the jump.
LEGO’s Technic differentials are as beautifully simple and effective as the real-world versions fitted to every vehicle’s driven axel/s. But they’re rubbish off road. The solution, just like real-world off-roaders, is a diff lock. This means you can go around corners when on the road, then lock the diffs for off-road and keep all your wheels turning when things get slippery. Want to see how it works? Then check out Ryen Air‘s black 4×4 in the video below…
YouTube Video:
Being European we know nothing at all about the car in this post. It’s apparently a 1980s Buick GNX, and it looks, er… rubbish. But that might just be because every other ’80s American car is complete shite and we’re stereotyping.
Anyway, whatever the real car is like, this model by TLCB regular Senator Chinchilla is an excellent build. You can see more on Flickr via the link above.
This blogger stepped onto something soft and a little crunchy in the TLCB office today. An inspection revealed it as an Elf thoroughly smushed into the carpet. Hmm.
A glance up the corridor revealed several more flattened Elves, some in comical cartoon running-away poses, and the sound of a distant maniacal laugh.
One weary trudge later and the source was discovered; a monstrous remote control pick-up truck being controlled by a jubilant – and typically violent – Elf, that was intent on running down any of its colleagues with which it had a grievance. With our Elves, this meant all of them.
With the controls removed and placed under our… er, control, we could take a closer look at the vehicular weapon. Built by Lucio Switch, it’s quite an epic creation. Powered by two XL motors, Lucio’s Technic 4×4 Pick-Up features full RC drive, a supercharged V8 up front, fully independent suspension with three differentials, plus opening gull wing doors and hood.
There’s lots more to see on both MOCpages and Flickr, click the links to take a look at the detail whilst we get the office spatula out to prise the victims of the mass-smushing out of the carpet.
It took us a few seconds to realise why Flickr’s _Tiler has named this gorgeous Ford hot rod ‘Gone Bananas!’… Click the link above to see more.
Because classic spacemen still need calcium…
The very wonderful Classic Space Pocket Money Contest is running for a third year on MOCPages. We’re very excited by this, and not just because it gives us an excuse to build something elf-sized and fire it into space…
All you have to do is come up with a 100-piece (or less) set in any of the classic space colour schemes and build alternates using the same pieces. It’s a fun challenge and there’s even prizes! Although you’ll be going some to beat Stephan N‘s entry above, which is designed to supply to our smiling vintage friends plenty of the white stuff (no, not THAT white stuff.) Time to dust off the (old) grey and blue…
The Classic Space Pocket Money Contest is open for entries until January 13th.
Flickr’s Senator Chinchilla makes his second appearance here this week, with something very much at the other end of the style spectrum from his last creation. You can see more of his lovely 1950 Buick Special here.
That’s not a Lego car we hear you cry! You’re right, it isn’t. It is in fact a mugshot of the Technic building extraordinaire – and now published Lego author – Paul ‘Sariel’ Kmiec.
We know that many Lego builders dream of taking their love of Lego into a paid career, and the great news is that several builders just like you have done it – and we’re going to talk to them about how!
We’re delighted to announce that Sariel has joined us here at TLCB for the first story in our ‘How To Become a Lego Professional‘ series, so grab a drink, get comfortable, and read about how Sariel went from a causal builder to a published Lego author…
We’ve publicised quite a few similar Technic off-roaders this week, but it’s what you lot are making! This Suzuki Samurai-esque remote control 4×4 by Damian Plesniak was discovered on Brickshelf. You can see all the images after the jump.
You don’t have to blog an enormous, remote controlled behemoth to appear on TLCB (although it’s nice if you do!), small stuff is very welcome here too, especially if it looks as good as this. Vinny Turbo is the builder, and you can see more of his 5-wide muscle car on Flickr.
Snow is falling here at TLCB, signifying both the arrival of the Christmas holidays and the seasonal drop in our posting frequency. TLCB Elves – being Elves – are ‘happy’ to work over the festive holidays, however TLCB staff – being drunk – probably aren’t. So if you’re here wondering what to do with yourself in the absence of our usual posts, why not visit TLCB Set Review Library? Every LEGO set ever reviewed by the office anoraks is listed (plus a few things that aren’t sets), just click on an image of your choosing and you’ll be magically whisked to the relevant page!
Despite the complete debacle that is the ‘Caterham’ Formula 1 team, we still quite like the company that makes their road cars (they’ve got nothing to do with the F1 outfit anyway). Unfortunately though Caterhams are surprisingly pricey cars. Of course you can save a few quid by building one yourself, but then you’d have no friends, and you’d talk about spanners in your sleep for months.
Luckily Carl Greatrix has the answer! After refining his previously featured Caterham Super 7 design you can now vote for it to become an official LEGO set through the LEGO Ideas platform. It’s not just any 7 either, but the ridiculous 620R version.
Visit Carl’s Flickr page for details, and if he secures enough votes you might be able to build your own Caterham 7 at home, and keep your friends!
It’s the night before Christmas, the many empty bottles from the office party have been tidied away, the Elves have been caught and returned to their cages, and the office lights are about to be turned out.
We’ll be back in a few days with more of the very best Lego cars, trucks, bikes and spacecraft from around the world, but in the meantime – from all of us here at The Lego Car Blog – we hope you have a very happy Christmas.
TLCB Team
