Tag Archives: Soviet

The Soviet ZIL-E167 can handle any terrain you throw at it

It’s a little cold in my LEGO room so I turned up the heat and put on a sweater. That leads me to believe that I probably don’t have what it takes to handle the real cold like what they have in Siberia and Urals. There’s a reason there are so many jokes about vodka drinking you in Russia or whatever. Tough terrain means tough people and tough vehicles. Thankfully, SarielLego has what it takes to handle any terrain as evidenced by this remote-controlled ZIL-E167. I’m loving the beefy tires, the orange color, the overall rugged shape, even the little moose decal is rather charming.

ZIL-E167

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The Soviet Kirov cruiser is ready for battle!

You don’t have to be in the Soviet navy to appreciate this LEGO Kirov battlecruiser built by Kirill Simerzin. I mean, just look at how those spanner plates resemble round portals along the hull. The red star at the bow is also a nice touch. The builder doesn’t say much about this creation other than it comes from 1941. Wikipedia states that this craft takes its namesake from the Bolshevik revolutionary Sergei Kirov and was laid down in 1935 and finally decommissioned in 1974. An array of guns and two seaplanes makes this a formidable Soviet ship indeed. In my opinion; it’s удивительный!

Cruiser Kirov (1941)

If you’ve got the time, be sure to take a deep dive into history to see more military stuff from World War II in LEGO.

Tough and mean and olive green! Hoorah!

The reason the original castle set from 1978 was yellow and not gray is that LEGO didn’t want to encourage kids to build military stuff. All that changed with the abundance of gray in the Star Wars sets. Still they had similar hesitancy with olive green. It took the Pixar Cars line in 2011 to introduce the color and military builders rejoiced. So there, the joke is on you, LEGO! (That was much funnier when I thought of it earlier today.) While this particular shade of green is now available in many sets, it’s still a difficult color to amass in large quantities. That is just one of many reasons why this rough and tumble Soviet Ural-375D by Rolands Kirpis is so impressive. Another reason is each axle and the steering functions are run by Power Functions motors. It took a year to collect all the right parts to build this model but the end result is as mighty as the Ural mountains.

URAL 375D

Remote-controlled Soviet KV-1 and KV-2 heavy tanks roll out in defense of the Motherland [Video]

Polish LEGO builder Sariel is famous for his huge LEGO models that incorporate LEGO Technic and Power Functions elements for working features without sacrificing details or the overall look of the model. His recent MAZ-535 artillery truck was no exception, and it reminded us that we had overlooked his fantastic KV-1 heavy tank and KV-2 heavy artillery tank. I’ve built LEGO KV-1 and KV-2 tanks myself, so I have an appreciation for the challenging angles of these early WW2 Soviet tanks.

Read more about Sariel’s Soviet KV-1 and KV-2 heavy tanks

The SS-20 “Saber” is a sinister Cold War relic

A little more than forty years ago, with the Cold War still in full swing, the Soviet Union introduced a new ballistic missile: the RSD-10 “Pioneer”. NATO code-named it the SS-20 “Saber”. It had a range of 500-5500 km and carried three nuclear warheads, each of which was roughly ten times as powerful as the bomb used against Hiroshima. It seemed purpose-built to threaten Western Europe. The missile’s short flight time, of roughly 15 minutes, left very little warning. Furthermore, it was mobile, which made it even harder to counter. A large six-axle MAZ-547 transporter erector launcher carried the missile, housed inside a large cannister, to dispersed launch sites.

My diorama shows the launcher at a snow-covered launch site, with the missile cannister raised upright for launch. On the model it is almost solid, so there is no actual missile inside, but you can just see the tips of the three warheads. Unlike most of my models, it is minifig-scaled (I picked 1/43) and built mostly without visible studs. I built it for a Cold War themed collaborative build for BrickFair Virginia, in the coming August.
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A pair of super Soviet tractors

The Volgograd Tractor Plant, previously known as the Stalingrad Tractor plant, produced the workhorses for the Soviet era Russian farming industry. Short, snub-nosed and chunky, the DT-75 is an exemplar of sturdy utilitarian design. Builder Jakeof has created two LEGO versions of these unique looking vehicles, a DT-75 and a DT-75M.

DT-75M

Although small, they pack in the detail, especially in the case of the neat tread design and exposed engines. Together they stand as an iconic reminder of Soviet innovation.

DT-75

Apollo–Soyuz Test Project ushers in a new era of détente

In July 1975, American Astronauts and Soviet Cosmonauts met in low Earth orbit, shook hands, exchanged gifts, and conducted joint scientific experiments as they docked their spacecraft together for over 40 hours. Luis Peña has recreated this historic spaceflight in LEGO, complete with an Astronaut conducted an EVA (Extra-Vehicular Activity). Like the designers of the wonderful LEGO Saturn V set, Luis has overcome the inherent challenges of building conical and spherical shapes in LEGO, with the Apollo Command/Service Module in gray and the Soyuz 7K-TM in iconic sand green.

Apollo-Soyuz Test Project LEGO Model 1:32 scale

Take a closer look at these amazing LEGO spacecraft