Pass the Jeep

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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

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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

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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

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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

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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*

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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

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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

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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’

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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

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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

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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

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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.

Wind & Wood

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There are a lot of brick-built boats happening on Flickr for some reason. And boats are not cars. But that’s ok, we still like them, particularly when they’re pictured in a scene as lovely as this one.

Thomus Bean is the builder behind this beautiful forest lake, with the wind whipping across it to propel the regatta. Forced perspective and ingenious parts use make it worth donning your woolly hat to take a look, and you can join us on the shore being stung by the wind via the link above.

AI & 25 Million LEGO Bricks

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One LEGO’s most brilliant features is that it is almost endlessly reusable. Sure if it ends up in landfill it’ll take four thousand years to degrade (and even then only into microplastics), but if it’s passed on, it could be played with for four thousand years too.

That reuse-ability means that old LEGO has value, which is probably why The LEGO Company continually proliferate the number of piece types, so there’s always more LEGO to buy.

It also means it’s worth sorting a few hundred old unused LEGO bricks, because its reuse is worth something. But what if you have 25 million pieces?

Well in an old mill in Lancashire, England, WeBuyBricks and their ‘Wallace and Gromit’-esque ‘Brick-O-Matic’ have so far sorted 25 million LEGO bricks (plus all the other crap that inevitably gets mixed in with them) for reuse.

Using cameras and AI, the company’s ‘Brick-O-Matic’ can identify two LEGO pieces a second, using jets of air to sort them by category and even reconstitute them into sets for sale.

WeBuyBricks currently have over 10 tons of bricks waiting to be sorted, and at the time of writing you can buy a literal ton of LEGO for £6,499. Which would take some explaining to family members.

You can check out WeBuyBricks’ inventory or sell your own unused pieces via the link above, whilst we award them 1,000 TLCB Points for not only enabling the reuse of an astonishing amount of LEGO (and an old mill), but also for finding something genuinely useful for AI to do.

Now where’s our box of old jumbled Space and Pirates?….

Flat Earther

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What’s blue and white and flat? Well according to a particularly niche group of society, the observably spherical planet which we call home. Because conspiracy, ice-walls, domes etc. Well TLCB is jumping on the flat bandwagon today because we’re got this lovely early-’70s blue and white Ford F-250 flatbed. Built by Flickr’s Sseven Bricks it’s both assembled and presented beautifully, and you can head across the flat disc to see more via the link above. Just don’t get too near the edge or NASA will disappear you.