The Dakar is a cross-country off-road rally race which is held annually in South America (but named after its former finish line in Africa). It requires a specially designed car which can endure tough terrain and unpredictable weather. If you’re interested, why not take a Ferrari? The F40 may be best known for its smooth lines and road handling, but with the right modifications, it might be the car to beat off the beaten path. This modification of an official LEGO set by LegoMarat has enough suspension, steering, lights, and rollbars to rival any sport-utility vehicle. I can only imagine what the paint job will look like afterwards.
Category Archives: Models
Chugging through the starry skies
LEGO Vic Vipers tend toward the sharp and angular, with sleek lines and sharp corners. Each design must meet strict requirements epitomized by the late Nate “nnenn” Nielsen. Not so with this bulbous affair by Tyler Clites. Tyler’s Vic Viper has enormous, rounded engines — with frying pans as intake vanes, no less — and stubby little wings, with bright, childish colors. But it’s no less a legitimate Vic Viper than Nick Trotta’s Serrated Night.
2016 LEGO Advent Calendars: Day 5
Welcome to Day 5 of your digital LEGO Advent Calendar! Each day, we’re revealing the day’s calendar model for the LEGO Friends, City, and Star Wars Advent Calendars. We know some of you want to be spoiler free, so you’ll need to “open” the day’s post to see the models by clicking below!
And if you want to build your own LEGO Advent Calendar, you can win big prizes by building tiny creations in TBB’s Create a Calendar Contest.
LEGO Technic Koenigsegg One:1
The Swedish car company Koenigsegg may have an unpronounceable name, but they’re world-renowned for their incredible supercars. The Koenigsegg One:1 takes its name from the one-to-one power to weight ratio, and only six vehicles were built. VKTechnic has created this amazing vehicle in Technic, complete with aggressive red and black racing stripes.
The Technic Koenigsegg One:1 has a number of working features, including opening doors and engine cover. I’d love to see this LEGO car powered by Power Functions, attempting to get from 0 to 100 kph in just 2.8 seconds…
Classic LEGO nutcracker brings holiday cheer
German builder Robert Heim has recreated the classic king nutcracker in LEGO, complete with gold crown, upturned mustache, and a mouth that opens with a lever on his back. But my favorite detail in Robert’s creation is the trio of pieces lying next to the tall nutcracker — perfect use of a LEGO globe and brown minifig head.
Protected under the branches of the Observer Tree
Ben Andrews describes this large LEGO diorama as a labor of love, and it certainly is lovely. An enormous tree stands atop a hill, full of treehouses, its trunk surrounded by winding staircases. Across a pool into which drains a broad waterfall sits a beautiful red-roofed watermill.
Full of stunning details and interesting little scenes, you don’t want to miss a single picture of Ben’s Observer Tree. At the top of the tree, there’s a small structure with a telescope, which is presumably where the tree gets its name.
See more of this excellent LEGO creation
2016 LEGO Advent Calendars: Day 4
Welcome to Day 4 of your digital LEGO Advent Calendar! Each day, we’re revealing the day’s calendar model for the LEGO Friends, City, and Star Wars Advent Calendars. We know some of you want to be spoiler free, so you’ll need to “open” the day’s post to see the models by clicking below!
And if you want to build your own LEGO Advent Calendar, you can win big prizes by building tiny creations in TBB’s Create a Calendar Contest.
Bossk seeks his prey aboard the Hound’s Tooth
Since it was never seen on-screen, the Trandoshan bounty hunter Bossk’s ship the Hound’s Tooth has now been consigned to the status of “Legends” in the Star Wars canon. Nevertheless, it’s an interesting vessel — a converted YV-666 light freighter — that Canadian builder Josh Derksen has faithfully constructed in LEGO, down to the weathered and battered patterns on the hull.
The rear of the ship with its engine systems and maneuvering fins is most interesting, but the bow with the bridge is no less well-built. The whole thing is over a hundred studs long with a fifty-stud wingspan.
Cutting through the jagged night
Master of spacetastic angles Nick Trotta has outdone himself with his latest LEGO spaceraft, dubbed the Serrated Night. Indeed, this ship looks like it would cut through the dark night of outer space with stunning precision. Nick says that he took inspiration for this Vic Viper from the anime Yukikaze and the F-117 stealth fighter.
Black is a notorious color to build with and successfully photograph, but Nick uses lines of blue along the wings’ edges and presents the ship against a planetary atmosphere to offset the black. Nick also says that this is his largest ship to date, which has enabled him to incorporate lots of fantastic details, from judicious use of LEGO ingots to peeping yellow studs.
Fountain Place in Dallas, Texas, in LEGO microscale
Just in time for BrickUniverse in Dallas, Texas this weekend, Rocco Buttliere presents a microscale replica of Fountain Place near the convention. The building is a refreshing sight among surrounding rectangular structures with its interesting angles all around, and Rocco nails it with LEGO bricks.
See more shots of Rocco’s detailed model on Flickr.
Go the way of the dinosaur
LEGO dragon builder extraordinaire Aaron Newman recently took a break from his normal fantasy fayre to create this neat minifig scale Stegosaurus. Taken on as a commissioned project, it has 19 separate points of articulation, to provide its owner with hours of fig-smashing reptilian fun!
Have a prawn or a prayer with these Chinese-style builds
Indonesian builder Anton Budiono‘s latest two builds are both Chinese-style creations in the shape of a seafood restaurant and temple, presumably for quiet postprandial contemplation. Both builds utilise the addition of the same bridge over to a smaller shrine that rests upon wooden decking. There are many details to admire in these builds but the roofs with their decorative ridges and fascia are a particular favourite of mine. There are so many nice little touches to be discovered, such as the telephone handsets forming the beams within the large red front doors or the Mixel ball joints used as structural decorations across the façade.
The seafood restaurant cleverly uses the dark red octopus as decoration in one corner of the building, but Anton’s brick built lobster on the first floor corner is even better and worth a closer look!
While the temple is a little more demure in colour, it also benefits from lots of nice details such as the cascading water feature on the left-hand side or the use of black palm tree tops as the lanterns at the front. There’s more to see around the back on Anton’s Flickr album.