What do you get what you cross a burger truck and a monster truck? Well, there’s no mystery and that’s not a trick question: you’d get a Burger Monster Truck. Today we get hands-on with the 499-piece 31104 Burger Monster Truck and share our thoughts. The set will be available starting in January, comes with 499 pieces, 2 minifigures and will retail for US $49.99 | CAN $69.99 | UK £44.99
When Tesla and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk unveiled the Cybertruck recently the world let out a collective sigh of…what the hell were you thinking? Elon himself even uttered an unpublishable expletive when a shatter-proof test didn’t go as well as planned. While the electric pickup indeed boasts some rather impressive stats, (like winning a tug-of-war with a Ford F-150, ranging 250-500 miles without charging and doing 0-60 mph in 2.9 seconds) the overall angular design resembles something out of a bad 80’s movie. Quickly the jokes and memes flourished with a common theme being a kid could have drawn it. I’m pretty sure ten year old me made quite a few concept drawings that were similar to it. No stranger to dreaming up concept automotive designs both in childhood and adulthood is Ford engineer and prolific LEGO car builder Peter Blackert. While he is also aware of the jokes, Peter is an opportunistic builder who sees the positive in a lot of things, even this Cybertruck.
As odd as it may be, Peter captures the shape very nicely as evidenced by this particular digital render.
Just for fun, Peter has also rendered a Classic Space version!
Admittedly, the Cybertruck is like nothing else Tesla has to offer. Elon and his companies specialize in shaping the future and, according to him anyway, the shape of the future is a throwback from the 80’s. After getting over the initial shock, some, including Peter, have warmed up to the design. Should we trust his instincts and follow suit? As an automotive engineer and a passionate, prolific LEGO car builder Peter surely knows a thing or two about automotive design and what the future may hold.
If you are like me, building cars and trucks that look like the real thing in LEGO is challenging. I can handle castles and spaceships, but real-world stuff is hard. Fortunately for me, and for you if you are like me, Norton74 is here to help us out, generously sharing instructions and parts for a sweet looking set of wheels. It ain’t sexy, and it ain’t fast, but it looks just right – like it just pulled a trailer full of hay bales down the back roads of Iowa. All it is missing is some rust, but you could add that with some custom stickers or dark orange bits placed in just the right spots.
Have you heard the urban legend about the JATO rocket car? If you’re unfamiliar, it’s the story of a man who straps a rocket engine to his Chevy and ends up embedded in the side of a cliff. As cautionary tales go, it’s a pretty straightforward one: Don’t strap a jet engine to your vehicle. Pasq67 thinks otherwise, at least when it comes to the world of LEGO. Benny and Lenny are going for the ride of their lives in a 1970 Chevrolet C10 Pickup with a serious need for speed. The base vehicle has all the clasic lines you’d expect, and the rocket is a well constructed nightmare of high speed bad decisions waiting to happen.
The multiple air intakes fit well with the mix of Technic and system parts, and the trans-orange discs make for an excellent hit of explosive force just starting to push the car forward. Lenny had better hold on to that pretzel…
Earlier this month we had featured a remembrance for Ingmar Spijkhoven, a LEGO truck builder who recently succumbed to ALS. The LEGO world, and particularly a small group of close-knit Dutch scale modelers, lost a good friend and a passionate builder. Dennis Glaasker built a fitting tribute to Ingmar in a way he would have loved. He took Igmar’s own “TR11” chemical tank trailer design and decked it out in shiny custom chrome bricks and then fitted it with a Peterbilt 389 tractor. The tractor is equipped with two Power functions XL engines for drive, and one servo for steering. It is controlled by an SBrick and powered by a 9.6 Volt battery pack which is located in the sleeper unit. The truck (and trailer) have custom stickers, and a fully modeled engine bay and interior.
This wasn’t so much an achievement for Dennis alone, but rather a culmination of the group of friends who wanted to pay tribute to Ingmar. Ingmar saw some work in progress photos and was honored and delighted by the idea but had unfortunately passed a week before completion of this model. A rear shot features the photographer reflected in the gleaming chrome tank trailer but also a clear view of the special custom license plate that adorns both the front and rear of the model. I think Ingmar would approve.
What’s a city layout without the staple vehicles: police, fire, ambulance, bus, delivery, mail, garbage? You gotta have them all! LEGO has released a few generic garbage/recycling trucks, but none of them are this cool. At first glance this build by Scott Hasse looks a bit like an average set. But up close it’s pretty nifty. Rather than the typical manual dump action displayed in the City line, you get a truck that works much more like the ones you see on the street in real life.
A simple turn of the knobs not only grabs and dumps the bins, but also compacts the refuse into the dump collection in the back. The whole thing is really smooth and works like a charm! An if you had a fleet, you could put tiles on the sides to indicate garbage vs. recycling or compost. Would anyone else besides me get hours of entertainment from playing with this thing? My next step would be to motorize it!
This could become a real set one day, you never know. But in the meantime, you can use some simple instructions to build your own little garbage truck.
If you’re going to build a large-scale truck out of LEGO and give it a tanker trailer, it’s only logical that it will be an Octan tanker. That’s the thought process behind this beautiful rig by Ricardo P. The truck is a replica of the Dutch brand DAF’s CF85 truck, looking great here in red.
The cab lifts for engine access just like the real deal, and there’s plenty of details to go around. It may be simple, but I love the way the exhaust snakes around the back of the cab. LEGO’s Creator Expert line may be churning out excellent car models like the Ford Mustang, but this really makes me wish Model Team and its big rigs would make a comeback.
If you find yourself stressed out about a big move, why not procrastinate in the best way possible and build a LEGO moving truck? Robson M’s “U-Pull” truck looks delightful with its rear doors open, perfect for loading all your minifigure belongings. The design and name of the truck are clearly inspired by those iconic U-Haul trucks often seen while driving along North American highways. The U-Haul company is famous for the region-specific artwork gracing the back sides of its trucks, and Robson M’s “U-Pull” follows suit with an African-themed Duplo motif.
Robson’s vehicle looks great from both angles and fits nicely in front of Assembly Square.
It turns out building too much with LEGO has its cons. Look at Dennis Bosman, who cut his teeth on building some of the most jaw-dropping copies of heavy rigs and trucks! With his enormous experience, building yet another popular European truck might become repetitive. This is also when finding inspiration for the next build might prove challenging, but Dennis is full of surprises. How about an orange Swedish Scania LK141 roaming the roads of Latin America? Dennis wouldn’t be himself if he didn’t manage to deliver another brick-built masterpiece.
Removing the cab reveals a fully-finished chassis, and it’s so easy to fall in love with all the tiny mechanical details. Individually, each of them (gas tanks, tubes, mudguards, etc.) look rather clean and simple. When blended together, the results look outstanding.
This fanciful LEGO creation by Martin Redfern was inspired by the concept art of Ian McQue. I like how the front hook seems to be holding the truck aloft (although the delightful greebles in the back are more likely culprits for the vehicle’s propulsion system). The grays and browns give this build a lived-in vibe, but they are nicely balanced by the vibrant red.
Originally built in 2016, this model was one of the inaugural models displayed in the Masterpiece Gallery of the LEGO House. We’re glad to see it back together again after a rough return flight.
When it comes to fan-built Back to the Future models, there are a plethora of DeLorean time machines out there. Heck, there was even an official LEGO set! While I love the DeLorean as much as the next person, who can forget the 1985 Toyota SR5 pickup truck (also known as the Hilux outside of the U.S.)? This was the truck Marty McFly pined over with his girlfriend, became a reality when he returned home to a transformed 1985, and nearly ruined his life when Needles called him “chicken” for refusing to race. Fortunately, Nikolay Gamurar remembered Marty’s truck and built a fantastic rendition of the vehicle in Technic form. While the Toyota from the movie was a two-door model, Nikolay modified his truck to have four-door extended cab. Outside of this mod, the sculpting of the rest of the body feels faithful to the original truck. As a Technic build, it looks stunning in black.
Nikolay’s truck is packed with a lot of detail, right down to the Chassis. This photograph also gives at glimpse at some of the Toyota’s key mechanical functions.
It also features a nice and roomy interior, perfect for a comfortable drive to the lake.
This little monster truck by Ianying616 is ready to crush cars! Perfectly detailed with some choice chrome parts, And a working suspension using classic technic shock absorbers. And considering how difficult it can be to photograph black models, the details are well captured as well.
One of the most impressive things about this build is how it captures the sense of car crushing power on a proportional scale.
