To the Shops! Sideways…

Leave a reply

The Toyota Yaris is an excellent small car. Excellent, but not exciting. At all. Except… this one. This is the Toyota GR Yaris, and it’s probably the best hot hatchback in the world right now.

Built as a homologation special for the World Rally Championship, the GR Yaris features a unique three-door body-shell, a lowered (carbon-fibre) roof, a wider track, a four-wheel-drive system, and the most powerful three-cylinder production engine ever built.

All of which will help Mavis get to the shops in half the time. Or Elfyn Evans win the World Rally Championship, as he did last week.

This tremendous Model Team replica of the iconic homologation special comes from previous bloggee Mihail Rakovskiy, who has nailed the diminutive Toyota in 14-wide scale, complete with an opening hood (under which sits a replica engine), opening doors (inside which is a superb interior), an opening rear hatch, and even a brick built GR-FOUR drivetrain.

It’s a stunning recreation of a stunning car, and you can take a closer look via Mihail’s ‘Toyota GR Yaris’ album via the link above.

Laying Bridges

Leave a reply

The war in Ukraine continues to drag on, with Russia now targeting Ukraine’s bridges (a war crime, as these are civilian infrastructure). Of course militaries have been able to create their own bridges for centuries, and this is one of the vehicles deployed to quickly create a bridge in the modern era, the remarkable Tatra 813 AM-50 bridge layer.

Based on Tatra’s 813 Kolos 8×8 off-road truck, the AM-50 can span a gap of over 12 meters (40ft) and carry loads of 50 tons, with this amazing Technic version by Samuel Nerpas (aka Tatrovak) able to replicate the real truck courtesy of a suite of Power Functions, CaDa, and BuWizz electronic components.

A plethora of motors power the eight-wheel-drive, steering, and bulldozer blade, plus the bridge cradle, winch, unfolding, and side extensions, with the deployed bridge then strong enough to support the truck as it drives over it.

It’s an incredible feat of Technic engineering and you can see more – and watch the model in action – at both Flickr, Eurobricks, and via the video below.

YouTube Video

Hot Rod Shop

Leave a reply

We love hot rods here at The Lego Car Blog, because we are definitely not cool enough to own any. Which is why we also love this hot rod garage by Flickr’s Ricky.Silva, because we can pretend we’re cool and that we know about Deuces, Channeling, Chopping, Tudors, 5-Windows and other hot rodding terms, when actually TLCB car park is just full of ’90s rust.

So whether you know your Frenched from your Shaved, or you’re simply joining us in pretending, Ricky’s workshop is packed full of brick-built rod-based interest, with a multitude of pick-ups, coupes, and roadsters, plus all the hoists, racks, lifts and drums needed to create and maintain them.

Over twenty images of the garage reside in Ricky’s Flickr album, with another sixty showing the vehicles within it, and you can find all superb eighty-plus photos via the link to his ‘Hot Rod Garage’ above. Join us there and try to look cool.

Pass the Jeep

Leave a reply

Jeep, that most recognisable of American brands, has been passed around like a bottle of Jack at an underage beach party. From their creators Willys-Overland, the company has passed through five pair of hands before landing with current owners Stellantis, with each taking a swig on the way leaving ever less for the next person. Plus a bit of spit.

Which means we want something from Jeep’s current line-up like we want a venereal disease, but at a push we would take something from fifty years ago, like this marvellous Jeep CJ5.

It comes from Flickr’s Rick Brick making his TLCB Debut, there’s working steering and suspension, and much more to see of this superbly smooth Model Team Jeep CJ at his photostream. Click the link above to take a drink from the bottle whilst there’s still something good in it.

Grazing Bizon

Leave a reply

We’re not just about cars here at… er, The Lego Car Blog. No, we like all sorts of machinery, even weird 1970’s Polish agricultural equipment. And that’s what we have today courtesy of previous bloggee damianPLE (aka damjan97PL).

This is a Bizon Z056 combine harvester, produced from the mid-’70s to the early-’90s, during which time it held 80% of the Polish combine harvester market.

Following the collapse of communism and its sale from state ownership, the Bizon factory was bought by New Holland for their own production, but Bizon combines are still harvesting countless fields today.

This one captures the 1970s original beautifully in brick-form, and includes a fully functioning header (rotation, elevation and disconnect, and which can be also be removed and towed behind on a trailer), an inline-6 piston engine, plus working rear-wheel-steering.

Building instructions are available and there’s more of Damian’s Bizon Z056 to see at both Eurobricks and Bricksafe. Click on the links to bring in the harvest.

Top Gun

Leave a reply

Di-neeoy neeoy di-ni-ni-ni-ni-neeoy… Yes we’re reminiscing about the greatest and gayest straight movie ever made today, courtesy of JuliusZ D. and his spectacular Grumman F-14D Super Tomcat.

The variable-sweep carrier-capable fighter was a mainstay of the United States Airforce from the mid-’70s until the mid-’00s, serving in multiple conflicts across (mostly) the Middle East, and also being operated by Iran, which is perhaps a bit awkward today…

But it is of course most famous for carrying Maverick to victory over whatever undefined-vaguely-Soviet-allied-enemy the U.S were fighting in ‘Top Gun’, and ensured a generation of kids wanted to be beach-volleyball playing fighter pilots when they grew up.

Juliusz’s incredible Model Team replica of the iconic multirole fighter is one of the finest aircraft that this site has ever featured, and you can see much more of his astonishing creation at his ‘Grumman F-14D Super Tomcat’ album, where over three-dozen stunning images are available to view.

Click the link above to join us playing beach-volleyball in far-too-tight shorts before shooting down a few MiGs.

Pushing Logs

Leave a reply

The LEGO Technic 42157 John Deere 948L-II Skidder is one of the more unusual sets of recent times. Which means it can make an unusual B-Model too. Cue this delightfully odd ‘Forestry X-treme Off-Roader’ by Flickr’s Tung Pham, which redeploys the pieces from 42157 to create a unique log-pushing machine.

With a raising and slewing bulldozer, articulated steering, oscillating suspension, and a rotating pneumatically unfurling crane, Tung’s alternate is packed with technical functionality, and there are more brilliant images to see – plus a link to building instructions – at his ‘42157 – Forestry X-treme Off-Roader’ album. Click the link to push some logs.

Sauron’s Croissant

Leave a reply

As has been well-documented on these pages, TLCB Staff are not very good at sci-fi. Which means we think that this ‘Crescent 2 Jump Ship’ looks like a cross between the Eye of Sauron and a croissant. Which probably isn’t what builder DePin0 was going for. Nevertheless it is a stunning creation, and you can see more of this amazing spacecraft at DePin0’s photostream via the link, or probably one of the proper Lego blogs shortly, who’ll no doubt be able to describe it not in terms of a breakfast pastry.

Tiny Dozer in My Hand*

Leave a reply

Proving you don’t need thousands of LEGO bricks to appear here at The Lego Car Blog is Franz of Flickr, and his perfectly formed tiny dozer.

Franz’s miniature machine captures its real life counterpart brilliantly despite the diminutive scale, and you can take a closer look at his little Liebherr via the link above.

*Today’s title song. Almost.

Station Wagon Appreciation Society

Leave a reply

It wasn’t that long ago that we were mocking giant American station wagons. Now though, deep in the era of endless identical electric crossovers, we yearn for them. And this TLCB writer is literally typing this from the seat of an electric crossover whilst it charges…

Whether you know them as Estates, Tourers, or Station Wagons, they are all vastly superior to any modern SUV. Including this one, a lovely 1975 Dodge Coronet by Flickr’s Sseven Bricks.

Constructed in 6-wide, Sseven’s Dodge captures a bygone era of motoring wonderfully, and you can head to a gas station in the ‘70s via the link above, whilst this writer waits for his charge to finish.


Grey Moggy

Leave a reply

TLCB Elves and cats do not get on well. The results of cat/elf fights are usually 50/50, but whoever comes out on top TLCB Staff are definitely losers, what with the tidying up and occasional requirement to dig a hole in the yard…

Today though we have a grey moggy that is welcome in TLCB Towers, being this rather neat Speed Champions-scale Mercedes-Benz Unimog by Flickr’s Fukku Guen. Excellent detailing abounds throughout the build and you can take a closer look at Fukku’s ‘mog via the link above.

They See Me Rollin’

Leave a reply

This, as we all know, is a Fadroma WFT-1, a 10-ton Polish road roller produced from 1957 to 1970. Created by previous bloggee Karwik, this splendid brick-built version captures the strangeness of the original machine beautifully, with its molten tar plinth adding to both the realism and weirdness. There’s more to see at Karwik’s ‘Fadroma WDT-1’ album on Flickr, and you can roll a road somewhere in 1960s Poland via the link above.

Spacehog

Leave a reply

This is the Neo-Classic Space ‘Hedgehog’, so called because it looks almost exactly nothing like a hedgehog. But it is so cool. Built to “search for any form of life on an alien planet”, the ‘Hedgehog’ features “an array of antennas, radars, and sensors”, the most interesting of which is the enormous rear-mounted floppy-eared thingumy that rises to attention courtesy of inbuilt pneumatics.

That pneumatic system also allows the entire behemoth to rise on its suspension, much like a Citroen DS, enabling it to clear whatever the alien surface is littered with, before slinking back down when an elevated ride height is no longer required. A superbly detailed mini-figure cabin, some sort of mega propulsion system at the back, and knock-out detailing throughout make this one of our favourite Neo-Classic Space creations so far, and you can head to an alien planet in search of life courtesy of legomess of Flickr, where loads more images and video of the model in action can be found.

Flying Buttress

Leave a reply

The Jaguar XJS is a rare sight these days (away from the banger track at least), and as a result is looking ever more beautiful, especially from this angle. Those are ‘flying buttresses’ and – as is often the way with unique designs – they weren’t appreciated in their own time. They look awesome now though, and Stefan Eekman (aka Sebeus I) has captured them beautifully in brick form as a gift for a colleague. Fly over to Flickr or Eurobricks for more.

Land Speed(er) Champions

Leave a reply

It’s been days without a car and… um, that doesn’t change today. But today’s model is inspired by LEGO’s car-iest of themes. And it’s really good. Tim Goddard has channeled the Speed Champions line (and windshield) for his Land Speeder Champion, and you can enjoy the mash-up on Flickr via the link.