My Other Car’s a Camaro

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LEGO’s 10304 Icons Chevrolet Camaro Z28 set has proven a hugely popular source of alternative builds. Half-a-dozen have already reside in our archives, including a Porsche 911, Pontiac Firebird, and even a Golf GTI.

Today we’re adding another, as TLCB Master MOCer Firas Abu-Jaber has turned the ’70s American 2-door coupe into, well… a Japanese one.

Launching two years after the Camaro, the Datsun 240Z ‘Fairlady’ took the US by storm, offering good performance, reliability, and relative efficiency, all for just $200 more than an MGB.

This brilliant 1:13 replica of Japan’s most successful ’70s sports car recreates the 240Z solely from the parts found within the 10304 Chevrolet Camaro set, and includes a detailed engine under the raising hood, a realistic interior behind opening doors, an opening tailgate, and working steering too.

There’s lots more of this 10304 alternate to see at Firas’ ‘Fairlady 240Z’ album on Flickr, where full details (including a link to instructions) can be found. Switch your Camaro for a 240Z via the link above, plus you can read the builder’s interview here at The Lego Car Blog via the Master MOCers third link in this post’s text.

My Other Piece of Construction Equipment…

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LEGO’s brand new 60420 Construction Excavator set is undoubtedly their best City-themed excavator to date. Launched today and aimed at ages 8+, the set features over 600 pieces, with a huge posable boom arm, 360° slowing superstructure, and a pair of brick-built Technic tracks. It also wears Technic price-tag though, costing a very un-City-like $55 / £50.

Fortunately however, previous bloggee Marek Markiewicz (aka M_longer) has doubled 60420’s value-for-money by turning it into a 2-in-1 set, having somehow designed and published a superb bulldozer alternate complete with building instructions on the day of the set’s release.

There’s a working blade and rear ripper, plus a removable cab, and you can find all the images as well as the link the building instructions for Marek’s brilliant bulldozer B-Model via both Flickr and Bricksafe. Take a look via the links above to double your 60420’s potential.

Barrelling Along

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Flickr’s David Roberts has appeared here numerous times over the years with his strangely-shaped spaceships, including those based upon a giant block of cheese, a chess board, and a cat’s anus amongst others.

Today he’s taken inspiration (probably) from the barreleye deep-sea fish, whose eyes look upwards through the transparent dome of its own head, to create this barrel-shaped primary-coloured interceptor.

Neither he nor us know what it’s intercepting, but you just got to look at properly weird fish, so you’re welcome. Head to David’s photostream by clicking here to cast your eye over it.

Achtung Baby

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This is a Mercedes-Benz Unimog U20, one of hundreds of Unimog variants, but unusual in being the only ‘forward control’ version, and – by TLCB maths – exactly ten times better than a long-standing Irish soft rock band.

It comes from previous bloggee and Master MOCer Thirdwigg, who has packed it not just with working Technic functions, but also an array of attachments and tools in much the same way as the real thing would be.

Working steering, pendular suspension, a piston engine, and a tipping cab all feature, with a folding crane, three-way tipping bed, street sweeper, and snow plough all attachable via the adjustable hitches and mounting points.

There’s much more of Thirdwigg’s excellent Technic Unimog U20 to see at both his Flickr album of the same name and at the Eurobricks forum, where full imagery and yes – building instructions are available too!

8-Stud Huayra

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LEGO are yet to release a Speed Champions Pagani Huayra, but if they do it’ll have to be quite a set to beat this one.

Constructed by Flickr’s Fabrice Larcheveque, this 8-wide homage to the wild Italian hypercar captures the real car brilliantly, including a detailed engine and interior, and with building instructions available you can recreate it for yourself too.

Head to Fabrice’s Flickr album to take a look.

(Neo-Classic) Spaceship!

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Skibidi Toilet, The Brothers Brick secret handshake, the evangelical christian movement’s support of Donald Trump, and sci-fi are just some of the many things that TLCB Team don’t understand.

We do understand the skill required for building techniques as clever as those in evidence here though, with ingenious angles, a hybrid of Technic and System, and a beautifully retro colour palette. There’s more to see of previous bloggee Rubblemaker‘s neo-classic spaceship at his photostream via the link above, or alternatively you can Google ‘Skibidi Toilet’ to see if you can understand it…

Fall in the Forest

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It’s nearly summer here in TLCB’s home nation, but somewhere in the world it’s autumn, which is all the excuse we need to publish this gorgeous autumnal scene from regular bloggee 1saac W.

1saac’s beautiful Volkswagen ‘T2’ split-screen is pictured camping in a fantastic fall forest, complete with trees as wonderfully crafted as the bus beneath them. Join the tranquility at 1saac’s photostream via the link above.

When Two Worlds Bolide

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Say what you like about the Transformers movie franchise – that the plot is nonsense, that everything blows up, that any female protagonists are over-sexualised to the point of absurdity, that there’s constant unchecked military glorification – but they do know how to pick their cars. Well, General Motors do, seeing as they paid millions for their products to be so blatantly featured.

Still, rather than a shiny new GM offering, Bumblebee instead transformed out of the decaying hulk of a ’77 Camaro in the 2007 blockbuster. He was even more attainable in the G1 cartoons, being hidden inside a Volkswagen Beetle. And we like that. A giant alien robot that’s, well… down to earth.

Not so today though, as the mute Autobot has decided to transform from a W16-engined, track-only hypercar costing $4 million. Flickr’s Dyen’s Creations is his maker, repurposing the pieces from his 42151 Bugatti Bolide set to create his Bumblebee B-Model.

There’s more of the Autobot alternate to see at Dyen’s ‘LEGO 42151 – BUMBLEBEE TRANSFORMER’ album, and you can take a look at the least accessible giant alien robot via the link above.

Bug(gy) Squash

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…Aaaand normal service is resumed. After today’s earlier post expecting “a monster truck or something” would follow next, TLCB Elves duly obliged, and – what with it being remote controlled – one of them immediately proceeded to flatten the others with it. Sigh.

It’s a good bit of kit though, coming from previous bloggee JLiu15, and featuring motorised steering and propulsion, a rear-mounted piston engine, LED lights, super bouncy suspension, and – handily for the Elf at the controls – a chunky bull-bar on the front.

There’s lots more of the model to see at JLiu15’s ‘LEGO Technic Race Buggy’ album, and you can make the jump to all the images via the link in the text above.

Definitely Not a Supercar

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The Lego Car Blog isn’t just about hypercars and monster trucks. Nope, we also deal in crummy ’70s French hatchbacks!

This one is a Peugeot 104, first released in 1972 and surviving until 1988, by which point over one-and-a-half-million had been produced.

Fewer than a dozen survive on the roads in TLCB’s home market though, so we doubt we’ll ever see one. Fortunately(?) however, today we can revisit cheap French motoring (that isn’t a Citroen 2CV or Renault 4) courtesy of previous bloggee Levihathan, who has recreated the Peugeot 104 in Technic form.

Working steering, a 4-cylinder piston engine, rear-wheel-drive, front and rear suspension, plus opening doors, hood and hatchback all feature, which ironically classifies the build as a Technic ‘Supercar’, which we love!

You can check out Levihathan’s Technic recreation of France’s peak small car of the ’70s at their ‘Peugeot 104z’ album on Flickr, and we’ll probably be back with a monster truck or something soon.

Incredibile

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It’s been twenty years since Disney Pixar’s best ever movie premiered in cinemas. Pre-dating the Marvel Cinematic Universe, all but the first Spiderman film, and about 76 other subsequent superhero movies because Hollywood was too unimaginative to make anything else, ‘The Incredibles’ perfectly captured the zeitgeist.

Depicting a forgotten genre of superheroes, forced into hiding, and waiting for the world to need them once more, Pixar’s beautiful retro aesthetic paid homage to the comics books of the past, whilst simultaneously pushing the boundaries of digital animation.

Recreating Mr. Incredible’s ‘Incredibile’ from Pixar’s movie masterpiece, Flickr’s SFH_Bricks has reproduced the movie’s iconic car superbly in brick form, and you can create it for yourself as he’s also produced building instructions.

There’s more to see at SFH’s ‘Incredibile’ album, and you can jump back to the greatest heroes of the 2000’s via the link above.

Sloop John B

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We come on the sloop John BMy grandfather and meAround Nassau town we did roamDrinking all nightGot into a fightWell, I feel so broke upI want to go home

So hoist up the John B’s sailSee how the main sail setsCall for the captain ashoreLet me go homeLet me go homeI wanna go home, yeah, yeahWell, I feel so broke upI wanna go home

The Beach boys putting it a hundred times better than we ever could. This fantastic pirate sloop comes from Sebeus I, deploying LEGO’s vintage pre-fab hull pieces alongside some beautiful sails and rigging. See more of it here.

Put the Sausage in the Hole

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Yes, we’re trying to mess with search engines again. This is a Mercedes-Benz LK ‘Rundhauber’ (round bonnet) box truck, and its creator 1saac W. began the build by inserting a LEGO sausage into a 1×1 round-with-bar-attachment piece. His words.

Crude beginnings aside, the result is rather excellent, and there’s more to see of 1saac’s sausage-insertion construction at his photostream. Click the link above to put it in.

Activision Blizzard

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We like simple mechanical models here at The Lego Car Blog. LEGO’s 1988 Town set 6524 ‘Blizzard Blazer’ (or simply ‘Snow Plough’ in TLCB’s home nation) was a small, fairly ugly tractor, featuring Technic tyres, a posable plough, and a smiling mini-figure. It’s also the inspiration behind previous bloggee Thirdwigg’s upscaled Technic version, which – whilst somewhat larger and considerably more complicated – still flies the flag for mechanical simplicity.

Equipped with a posable plough, a rear-mounted rotating thresher thingy, or a neat drawbar trailer, Thirdwigg’s creation is nicely adaptable too. A working power-take off, adjustable hitches, and ‘HOG’ steering add to the playability, and you can see more – including a link to free building instructions – at Thirdwigg’s ‘Blizzard Blazer’ album, plus you can read his interview in TLCB Master MOCers series via this bonus link.

Space Swordfish

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Uh oh, Sci-fi. This TLCB Writer genuinely knows more about oceanic fish than he does science fiction. Helpfully however, this splendid spacecraft by Flickr’s Red Spacecat is apparently a ‘Swordfish’ class frigate…. wait, that doesn’t help at all.

Still, it is really rather fantastically constructed, with details including a landing-pad for micro-scale ships, an array of cannons, and the coolest brick-built stripe we’ve seen in ages. Head out to sea space via the link above.