Tag Archives: Cars

A beautiful brace of Beetles

What’s better than a cool LEGO VW Beetle? Two cool LEGO VW Beetles! That’s just what Flickr user RGB900 has served us up with. Although being largely the same in terms of construction, it’s a good example of how different colour combinations can convery different characters in builds. I get the feeling the white one is driven by your typical surfer dude or dudette – Beach Boys on the stereo, laidback driving style, not that fussed if they’re actually any good at surfing. The black one on the other hand is definitely driven by someone who wants to be the best surfer around. Probably playing heavy metal to drown out what is no doubt a very loud exhaust. And wishing they had a black surfboard to match their ride, no doubt. Lime green doesn’t strike me as a very cool colour, but then I wouldn’t know much about being cool…

bb055

A glimpse of the future in the palm of your hand

Hyundai’s N Vision 74 concept car caused a real stir when it was unveiled earlier this year, with petrolheads immediately falling in love. The G Brix has allowed us to fall head over heels all over again with this superb LEGO rendition of the car. Just like the real thing, it absolutely looks the business! The concept’s awesome styling was inspired by another Hyundai concept from 1974, itself used as a basis for the DMC Delorean. And while it can’t time-travel, this is still a pretty futuristic car. It’s powered by electric motors and a hydrogen fuel cell, details which G Brix has included. The angular bodywork is expertly recreated around it, while the grille tiles are a great idea to represent the headlights.

Hyundai N Vision 74 Speed Champions MOC

Not too windy for you back there, is it?

Way back in the day, automobiles offered some additional capacity by adding a folding seat into the rear of the car. These were called “Rumble seats”…or, perhaps more descriptively, “Mother-in-law Seats”. K P showcases the downsides of outdoor seating with a brick-built wonder straight from the 1930’s. There are great building touches like the sleek hard top roof and ample headlights, but it’s their use of a minifigure “action stand” to show the effects of too much wind in the hair that really makes this one stand out to me. Good thing that umbrella is still closed, or we’d be in for a real Mary Poppins moment.

Mother-in-law seat 4

If this moment from the past appeals to you, check out our archives for more antique roadster goodness.

Wicked Wizard Anglia

Why a Wizard needed a car, let alone one that could fly and go invisible, is beyond me. Molly Weasley was surely perplexed when her husband revealed the blue Ford Anglia to her. Though this LEGO model by Builder Greg K doesn’t disappear at the push of a button, it does have plenty of room for two second-year rascals and their luggage in its floating chassis. Built at the scale of the Mini Cooper and the Volkswagen bus, this model features smooth detailing and brick-built ornaments. Since the car floats above the stand thanks to some clear brick supports, there’s room for some scale-accurate trunks and two cages for a rat and an owl.

HP Ford Anglia

Continue reading →

“You wouldn’t steal a car...” (so just build one instead)

With car builds, I’m always most impressed when a builder can use their LEGO bricks to recreate the most immediately recognisable cars. For instance, take this BMW E36 Coupe by Fuku Saku. He has perfectly captured the iconic front grille that adorned such Bimmers in the 90s. The overall shape has been neatly captured as well, with subtly angled headlights to reflect the real thing’s curves. I’m not sure the front splitter and the massive rear wing were stock though, even on the M3. This has clearly been modified… But by whoM?

BMW E36 COUPE SPORT

It’s none other than a Jack Stone figure! In fact this one is a bank robber, and E36s aren’t cheap these days, so perhaps this motor is an ill-gotten gain. These figures were featured in Juniors and Jack Stone sets in the early noughties. These are some of the earliest LEGO figures I had, incidentally. It’s fairly unusual to see them used in fan creations, so it’s nice to see a whole car scaled (and, judging by the red paintwork, styled) around one!

BMW E36 COUPE SPORT

Putting the creative into “Créative Technologie”

Although Finland is often called the home of rallying, in recent years you’d be forgiven for thinking it was France. Since 2003, every year bar one has seen a Frenchman (two Frenchmen, in fact, both called Sébastien) crowned World Drivers’ Champion. From 2004 to 2012, Citroën extended this dominance to the Manufacturers’ championship, although Reddish Blue MOCs‘s depiction is from their leaner, more recent years. Nonetheless, it’s a superb model! It’s built to the same scale as LEGO’s Speed Champions line and would look right at home among them.

The C3 WRC, as it’s called, is packed full of detail, making it very faithful to real rally cars. A spare wheel sits in the trunk, and it can accommodate bonnet lights for night stages. By far the coolest detail is the ability to swap between a tarmac setup and a gravel or snow one. This isn’t done by just swapping out some pieces (although the custom stickers are swapped from Monte Carlo to Finland, which is a nice touch) – there’s a tool in the back to do it on the fly. How cool is that! This car may not have won many rallies in its three years in the WRC, but it’s certainly won our hearts.

You can have it in any colour you want, as long as it’s brown

Nothing says 1970’s automobile like a brown paint job, does it? Legostalgie has added to their growing collection of Eastern bloc runabouts with this Wartburg 353 Tourist, in authentically drab reddish brown. The Tourist is the estate version of the East German Wartburg 353, a model which has featured in Legostalgie’s collection before. The functionality that is typical of their models is present here: bonnet, tailgate and the doors all open, and the roof comes off to access the interior as well. The boxy shape is well represented and there are some neat parts uses here in the design! The hood ornament is a boomerang, but my favourite is the headlight panel. This uses wheel axle pieces to add some detail to the front grille. Not only does it look great, since these parts typically come in small car sets, there’s something a bit meta about them being used on a larger-scale car. If you ask me, that’s the best kind of clever parts use.

Wartburg 353 Tourist

LEGO Ninjago 71773: Kai’s Golden Dragon Raider – Wacky Racers have nothing on this one [Review]

We return to our in-depth look at the Summer 2022 Ninjago Crystalized theme with Ninjago 71773 Kai’s Golden Dragon Raider. This 624 piece set is available now in the UK, and August 1st worldwide, for US $89.99 | CAN $119.99 | UK £74.99.  Featuring seven minifigures and a highly unusual vehicle, this set takes the Ninjago in some exciting directions. Hop in as we take this set for an early test drive!

The LEGO Group provided The Brothers Brick with an early copy of this set for review. Providing TBB with products for review guarantees neither coverage nor positive reviews.

Vroom Vroooooooom

Not ‘alf bad for an Alfa

It can be a challenge to recreate the curvaceous, flowing lines of modern cars in LEGO’s angular format. The G Brix clearly enjoys a challenge, and if that wasn’t enough he’s chosen one of the prettiest cars to come out in recent years. No pressure, then! Luckily for us, they are a very talented builder, as evidenced by this Alfa Romeo Giulia GTAm. The car is built to the same 8-wide standard as current Speed Champions sets, although with slightly more detail than might be expected from the official LEGO kits. Before we get to that, though… Let’s appreciate just how gorgeous this car is:

Alfa Romeo Giulia Quadrifoglio and GTAm Update

Lovely, isn’t it? Let’s take a look under the bonnet…

The origin story of Czech motoring

LEGO’s Speed Champions line has done a pretty good job of covering cars from a diverse range of eras, but they’re yet to represent the really early days of the automobile. In truth it’s unlikely they ever will, but thankfully we have builders like Pixeljunkie to scratch that particular itch! Pixeljunkie is no stranger to vintage automotive builds, and his latest creation is a doozy all the way from 1905. The car in question is the Laurin & Klement (L&K) company’s first motor car, the Voiturette A, which is where the firm now known as Skoda can trace its origins to. The company originally made bicycles, which makes the use of bicycle wheels for the car’s spindly wheels rather appropriate! Nougat and .dark red pieces are good approximations of the wooden body. The lamp on the right hand side of the car is worthy of further inspection, as well. It’s very simple: two gold chrome pieces, including the One Ring, on a headlight brick. The fact this headlight brick is transparent, though, makes the gold pieces stand out, and makes the lamp seem smaller and daintier than if a solid colour had been used. Finally, take note of the umbrella used as detailing on the footplate… There’s no roof on this puppy, so if it rains, you may need it!

1905 Skoda L&K Voiturette

Italian craftsmanship, German engineering, and Danish bricks

When thinking of the early development of the supercar in the 1980s, most people will probably think of the Lamborghini Countach or the Ferrari Testarossa as the poster boys of that era. One that sometimes gets overlooked — unfairly, if you ask me — is the BMW M1. It mixes the craziness of the Italian-born wedge-shape with some classic German refinement and engineering. LEGO builder Leo 1 has perfectly captured the first German supercar (I count the original Porsche 911 as a grand tourer, before you ask!) in all its orange glory. A pair of headlight bricks are the perfect choice for the BMW snout nose, as are the circular tiles for the rims.

BMW M1

The exquisite shaping continues around the rear of the car. Slopes and tiles at subtle angles abound to capture the sharp shape of this Bimmer, which is not easy in bright orange as the parts palette is still fairly limited. The little details, like the interior or wing mirrors, are the cherry on the cake. And we can all agree that twin-pipe exhausts just make a car look cooler, can’t we…?

BMW M1

If you can’t beat ’em... Re-build ’em

As much as I like LEGO’s current crop of Creator 3-in-1 sets, I have fond memories as a child of building Creator and Designer sets that sometimes had instructions for 8 or 9 different builds. I wonder if Firas Abu-Jaber has the same longing… Not content with re-shaping 10295 Creator Expert Porsche 911 into a Corvette Stingray, Lamborghini Countach and a Porsche 911 Turbo S, his latest iteration of the set has turned out a gorgeous Ford GT40 MkI.

LEGO Ford GT40 MK1 10295

The GT40 is famous for winning the prestigious 24 Hours of Le Mans race four times on the bounce, and the model depicted here is the Mark I which achieved the feat in ’68 and ’69. Confusingly, those came after the MkII and MkIV victories, while the poor MkIII never got a look in as a road car! The MkI wins were closely fought with Porsche, who would go on to dominate endurance racing, so there’s a hint of irony that this Ford is repurposed from the German marque. Not that you would know it from looking at it – I did a double-take when I read the description. I mean, it’s even got a fully-fledged interior and engine!

LEGO Ford GT40 MK1 10295

So counting the 911 Targa, I make that a 6-in-1 set so far… Here’s hoping we get to see more re-imaginings from Firas soon!