Tag Archives: Vehicles

LEGO planes, trains, and automobiles! Well, maybe not trains, since they don’t like to play with the other LEGO themes, but here you’ll find all our favorite cars, buses, boats, ships, helicopters, and anything else with an engine (and some without).

TRON: this racer oozes NPU

Yup, that’s an acronym inside an acronym. And I’m pretty sure TRON isn’t an acronym, but I know a song* that makes it an acronym. This slick cyberpunk bike by expert sci-fi builder Oscar Cederwall looks like a TRON Light Cycle, but without the light show. Instead, it’s packed with LEGO parts and techniques so futuristic that boggles our stone-age minds. The more I look at it, the more things I notice, and I become more and more impressed.

Starting with the front wheel, Oscar has developed a hubless design using all the handcuffs LEGO City has to offer. They fit snugly inside the large motorcycle wheel, surprising me with how two pieces I never thought would go well together actually go well together. Oscar also turned a train canopy upside down, continuing the shape of a futuristic motorbike. Around the seat, large Technic panels continue the curved shapes that are common on modern vehicles, and I’m especially impressed with a Slizers visor covering those pesky pin holes. Oscar continued the unconventional parts usage with leg armour from the Star Wars buildable figures. I never would have thought that part would make an excellent saddle. Lastly, a Duplo train track action insert holds the rear wheel, which is covered with a X-pod lid.

Oscar outdid himself to the point where either you can’t tell which parts are used, or if it’s even LEGO. Check out more of his creations here!

*The song in question is They.Resurrect.Over.New. by Lupe Fiasco, for those who are interested

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Surfer bike pays homage to a pioneer in LEGO racing

As a 90’s kid, I have an unironic love for early 2000’s LEGO products. The classic trendsetters, Star Wars and Harry Potter are well-liked. Others, like Bionicle, may be questionable by some but have their niche following. And then there are Galidor and Jack Stone, which most of the LEGO community looks down on. I love it all since it shaped my childhood and adulthood, and I’m thankful that builders like Djokson feel the same way. His latest creation, Smog Ocean Surfer, looks like just an ordinary, colourful sci-fi bike and rider. It doesn’t have anything to do with the themes I mentioned, right? Maybe a reimagining of Roboriders? Or maybe it’s more obscure…

I hope I wasn’t the only one who recognised the blue and yellow colour scheme with the grey, monster-like, and cute rider. I’m surprised I remembered the long-forgotten Xalax racers… This build is a reimagining of 4567 Surfer, a set from the first wave of LEGO Racers back in 2001. These small Xalax racers were LEGO’s answer to Hotwheels and similar McDonald’s Happy Meal toys with their outlandish nature. With their element and weapon-themed colour schemes, They felt like a non-Technic successor to Roboriders. The pilots were small, goofy chibi monsters were head and shoulders, and the cars had a slammer system to launch them.

This car was meant to be built

There are not that many iconic cars that look great in LEGO bright light yellow color. Obviously, Fiat 500 is one of them, but can you think of another? Firas Abu-Jaber knows one, and it’s the legendary Shelby Cobra. And guess what? This one in the picture below is built with just pieces available in the Creator Expert Fiat 500 set!

This is definitely one of the sweetest alternative builds I’ve ever seen. Not only does the shape looks great and recognizable, but it also looks like Firas didn’t have to compromise when working on the exterior. Sure, a couple of points would look better with a different choice of pieces, but the proportions are spot-on.

Because flying fish are the best kind of fish

True story; one of the best days of my life involved flying fish. I was in the Navy and got reassigned to gyro school while we were deployed out in the Gulf of Mexico. Instead of waiting until we pulled into port, they hired a small craft to meet our ship. I was (carefully) hoisted over the side, and onto the craft. Usually, the captain gets a series of bells to announce his or her arrival and departure. Little enlisted schlubs like me didn’t get the same treatment except during our final departure from the ship. So they rang me off with bells and headed for shore. Here’s where the flying fish came in, jumping over the craft in droves as we sped through the water. I felt like freakin’ James Bond on a special mission! Once on shore at Panama City, Florida, I was reverted back to common schlub transportation but for an hour or so, I felt pretty special. Thanks for the memories, James Zhan! It would have been extra-cool to depart on a piloted flying fish like this.

A vintage racer from automobile history

Back in the 1920s and ’30s, when Ferdinand Porsche and Enzo Ferrari were not heads of exotic sports car companies but mere racecar drivers, Mercedes-Benz pushed the limits of racing using supercharger technology developed from airplane engines. One sports car that utilized this enhancement was the Mercedes-Benz SSKL of 1931, which LEGO Technic and Model Team expert Pawel Kmieć (Sariel) faithfully replicated. This old roadster jumps out from black and white photographs with a clean white livery, custom-chromed parts and the laurel wreath of champions.

Pawel is a master of building accurate vehicles that are also packed with functions. He includes everything an essential large-scale LEGO vehicle needs: suspension and steering. In addition, he often crams the body of these vehicles full of LEGO electric motors, allowing remote control. This display model becomes a real-life racer, pushing a top speed of 5mph. Watch Pawel’s in-depth video of the build process, and the speedy drive outdoors.

Check out more builds depicting LEGO Mercedes-Benz vehicles!

Functional Febrovery

Febrovery – the annual event where people build space rovers from LEGO. I (Mansur “Waffles” Soeleman) couldn’t say no to building a wheeled space vehicle this month. However, I decided to take a different approach: make it move, make it work, and make it Technical. The result is the Horizon Chariot – a massive, greebly shuttle transporter in a LEGO Classic Space livery. On the outside, it looks like a jumble of layers and pipes, but it’s merely a shell for a complex Technic frame with a working four-wheel drive with a double V8 piston engine, working steering, and soft pendular suspension. My favourite feature turned out to be a working tipping flatbed which launches the small LL-64 Arcade Hopper.

The spaceship belonging to the Horizon Chariot was more of a distraction than an afterthought. I wanted to incorporate a NinjaGo arcade pod into the build as the blue airtight section of Classic Space vehicles. I found it was too small for a big vehicle so why not make a smaller vehicle as part of it? That’s how the aptly named LL-64 Arcade Hopper was born. I just couldn’t stop myself from building a spaceship! With swing-down wings and a smooth underside, it’s really a step away from my usually greebly builds, but it turned out to be a beautiful two-seater shuttle.

Check out the Flickr album to see more photos of the rover and the spaceship!

That’s a big cat, in small form

Building great-looking LEGO cars at minifigure scale is always a challenge, but it’s made at least a little easier by choosing a vehicle with fairly straight lines. Of course, that doesn’t mean that builder Jonathan Elliott has been slacking off with this 1968 Mercury Cougar, as there are tons of great details here. One of the best is the side mirrors, made with grey lever bases stuck onto 1×2 panels. Plus we can’t overlook the fact that Jonathan attempted the whole thing in teal, which, while it’s seeing a recent resurgance in official sets, is still a very limiting color.

Neither snow nor rain nor heat nor gloom of night stays this courier

OK, so I know that title is the motto for the USPS, and I suspect this mail truck is meant to be from another service, but I can’t help but be reminded of the ceaseless work that mail carriers do wherever they are. This beautiful LEGO truck by Łukasz Libuszewski is just about perfect, from the little door handle made with a roller skate, to the brick-built MAIL lettering on the side. The color scheme of black, brown, and dark orange really sums it out for me, though, and gives the postal truck a vintage look beyond its stylings.

The choice of the Me Generation

The ’70s were known for plunging necklines and one hell of a fuel crisis. At least one of those things was responsible for making the two best-selling cars in America the Ford Pinto and Plymouth Valiant. However, the Lamborghini Countach snubbed its rather pointed nose at all that and looked and performed like nothing else on Earth at the time. A builder by the name of RGB900 has given the favorite car of 80’s teenagers and strip club owners the LEGO treatment. At only six studs wide this is a truly impressive model. It just goes to show you don’t need a pinky ring and a lifetime membership at Spearmint Rhino to enjoy this ride. With LEGO and skill, you can build this pivotal sportscar on a box wine budget.

The little roadster that could

Anyone even remotely familiar with hot rodding knows that the quintessential dream project is the ’32 Ford roadster. They’re always a favorite at car shows and Ian Ying pretty much reached hot rodding nirvana with this LEGO version. I can assure you, they didn’t look like this off the assembly line but with a bit of imagination and elbow grease, customizers back in the day would turn their Grandpa’s jalopies into these hot little roadsters. The classic black with red trim, whitewalls and flames is the pinnacle of perfection. Copious chrome and gold doesn’t hurt matters, either. Ian is proving to be an automotive LEGO-building legend with a penchant for shiny bling. Click in the blue link there to see what I mean.

LEGO Creator Expert 10295 Porsche 911 Turbo & 911 Targa: German engineering meets Danish [Review]

As with LEGO’s Modular Buildings Collection, it’s become a yearly tradition for LEGO to add a new large-scale vehicle to the Creator Expert theme. The vehicles have ranged across a variety of car market segments, but one thing they all have in common is that they’re extremely iconic. And so it’s no surprise that this year’s entry is one of the most iconic sports cars of all time, instantly recognizable no matter your level of car knowledge. 10295 Porsche 911 Turbo & 911 Targa was revealed just two weeks ago and brings us not one but two versions of the classic sports car. With 1,458 pieces, it contains the parts to build either the performance Turbo version or the suave Targa with removable top. It will retail for US $149.99 | CAN $199.99 | UK £119.99 and will be first available to LEGO VIP members starting Feb. 16, with regular retail availability starting March 1.

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.

Click to read the full review

Breaking ground and building models

Of course on Instagram and Flickr or wherever else LEGO collections and cities are shown off, one can find plenty of completed modulars and cars, maybe even some small construction vehicles, but Fuku Saku presents us with a highly detailed model of a construction site complete with a skeleton frame of a building and some great vehicles.

Saku’s vehicles are pretty detailed and are comprised of both large and small parts; an interesting part used in his dump truck would be the battle droid arm utilized on the truck’s backend. Overall both trucks make use of bricks and wheels in addition to a lot of slopes and tiles to achieve a smooth and completed look. The building frame behind the vehicles is notably comprised of many different types of plates but also includes bricks and tiling. In any case Saku’s model is a break from the usual completed buildings.