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).

TBB Cover Photo for October 2020: Bang Bang Goes the Spaceship

This month’s social media cover photo, from LEGO builder Isaac Snyder, is straight from SHIPtember. Isaac’s SHIP was built over the course of 2 weeks and is 105 studs long. After taking a look at this vessel, it doesn’t take long to notice the resemblance. I don’t know about you, but after I realized what the shape was, I went looking for details to confirm my suspicions, and yes indeed, this spacecraft is shaped like a giant, brightly colored sci-fi space rifle.

The aft of the ship houses a semblance of a power generator, which is fun to visualize with its ring shape. The rest of the components are just as fun to admire. The “bullets” in the “magazine” and the “scope” all stand out and make you wonder how these work in space. Thanks for getting us thinking about the real questions, Isaac.

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Not the first rodeo for this Bronco

There is a golden rule of vehicles: If it exists in real life, then it exists as someone’s LEGO creation. This medium-sized Technic off-roader by Anton Kablash is a model of a car that does not exist… yet. A recently announced next-generation Ford Bronco, set to release in 2021, is a modern take on a classic SUV. While retaining its iconic boxy shape, the new model has a futuristic take on the front grille and headlights of the original vehicle. Anton captures the design with pinpoint accuracy using mostly Technic parts with a few of the usual plates, slopes, and tiles thrown in between.

As with the real vehicle, I am drawn to the simple, minimalist design of this vehicle. The clean lines form a box that is aesthetically pleasing rather than boring. The only curves are where it matters – the wheel arches and the frame around the headlights. My favourite is the hood, which Anton constructed from tiles and curved slopes rather than Technic parts. The windows and roof in black offer a nice contrast from the white body, and I particularly like the inclusion of mounted spotlights.

Underneath a clean white livery with openable doors, hood, and trunk, there are as many functions as a large-scale supercar. The working steering connects to both a steering wheel and a “hand of god” gear on the roof. The rear wheel connects to an inline four-cylinder engine in the front, and all the wheels have high-clearance suspension. On top of it all, the chassis and exterior are separate modules.

Dearly departed...

Call me weird, but given the money and space I’d make a classic hearse as my daily driver. I already have the somber disposition down pat, and when not sweating gravy during the summer I can pull off a black suit with some semblance of charm and poise. I’m no expert on the matter but by the looks of the fins and taillights I’d say this LEGO creation by Plastic Pauper is representative of a ’58 or ’59 Cadillac. That is some automotive excellence right there! The coffin is also well-built. The neat thing about hearses is that, for some of us, it marks the first and only time we get to ride in a fancy car. What, too soon? I’ll just let myself out now.

Mars: Bringer of War...and also color coordination

I think I’m not alone in assuming, as a child, that we’d have Mars colonization by the time I was grown. Well, we haven’t even sent manned missions out there yet. But when we get there we’ll inevitably need to shoot stuff. Bob DeQuatre shows us what that could look like with this impressive LEGO Mars Corporation Ares Long-Range Artillery Platform. As you may know, Ares is the Greek god of war and Bob tells us this is Mars Corporation’s deadliest vehicle. He could have called it by its Roman mythological name but that would have been…uh…redundant.

Proving he’s no slouch, Bob also built this Hermes Mobile Command Center in the same striking red and white color scheme. Designed for long-range missions, this vehicle can hold up to six passengers as well as the driver and gunner. This makes sense considering Hermes was the ancient Greek god of trade, wealth, luck, fertility, animal husbandry, sleep, language, thieves,…and travel. Phew, that’s a lot of jobs! We can only assume all those other things are going on onboard as well.

We’re kind of really into Bob’s stuff. Here’s the proof.

Teal Mog pickin’ logs

The Unimog — the multi-purpose utility truck produced by Mercedes Benz — has always been a favourite of mine. Something about the shaping of the cab and the big tractor wheels still fascinates me to this day. Since it is big and aggressive with a high ground clearance, it is something you would see in off-road races, churning up mud and climbing rocks. Yet in most cases, they are roadside repair and agricultural vehicles, sporting orange and green. Vehicle builder Jonathan Elliott reconfigured the Unimog into a logging truck — which is not so uncommon. Sporting a realistic yet simple crane hoisting some nice textured logs built up of column bricks and printed log tiles. The best part is — it’s teal!

Swallows and Amazons

Fledgings look to expert builder Inthert and crane their necks to see what he builds next. Specialising in spaceships, he finds the right pieces to build intricate shapes that bring beauty to otherwise now-generic vehicles. He presents us with a pink-haired lady piloting a small and unique starfighter with an unusual shape. When taking a gander from different angles, we can see that this ship has the shape of a plump bird, with the elements of a fighter jet.

Bird puns aside, this well put together craft checks all the boxes that satisfy a parts- and technique-oriented coot such as myself. A bulky body with downwards sloping wings that resemble a small bird gliding on a current is perfect. Aside from unique parts like a white Slizers visor in the front and two sizes of barrels, the use of inverted slopes for small intakes is ingenious. There is minimal greebling, but it works just as well, as less is more. Last but not least: the wing and landing gear function: the landing gear swings out as the wings fold in.
That’s it.

Only Inthert can make it so simple and work so well. But my favourite part still remains the girl with the lavender coloured Elves hairpiece. Something about a pink-haired girl being the pilot makes an already perfect spaceship even cooler.

See more perfect builds by the talented Inthert here.

Build it like a rock star!

Do you feel that? That is your heart racing just a little bit at the sight of this LEGO Barracuda GT-3 built by Michael Ablinger. I get that feeling around nice cars in general and superbly build LEGO creations. Michael tells us this was constructed with nine-hundred parts. There is working steering, a fully modeled interior, and realistic aerodynamic devices. I’m a fan of an understated primary color with a flashy secondary color. Black and lime green fits the bill nicely. Custom stickers really set this GT-3 apart from your usual LEGO builds. You should settle in and check out all the other times my heart went a pitter-patter. Maybe I should cut down on the Rock Star energy drinks?

Ice road dumper

When you’re an up-and-coming builder someone along the way makes it clear that you’re supposed to say and type it as “LEGO” and not “Legos”. It was a LEGO designer who initially made it clear to me. As a seasoned builder and writer for The Brothers Brick, I’m pretty much by now contractually obligated to use the word correctly. However, in a fit of rebellion, I’ll sometimes misuse it for humor’s sake. Legos! See, it’s funny, right? That’s why it’s so refreshing to discover an up-and-coming entity (debuting a few months ago) who goes by the name of LEGOZ ;). The winky face means that he (we think his name is Sean) gets the joke too and what an amazing builder he seems to be! To be clear, this WEGENER Mining Dump Truck is a render created with Bricklink Studio 2.0, and the image was enhanced and edited in Photoshop. However existing parts were used and, as far as I can tell, can be constructed legitimately. I am just enamored with this thing!

Click to see more and to unveil an even bigger surprise!

Surfs up with the Duflo!

Here’s the scene; you get a sweet haul of used LEGO from a garage sale at a great price. Their loss, your gain, right? You race home to inventory your new acquisition only to find there’s plenty of LEGO as advertised but also some busted Matchbox cars, a few hairs you’d rather not speculate on their origin, one stinky flip-flop, and a DUPLO van body. Aw, nuts, “baby Legos”! You can let it totally harsh your mellow or you can do what Edward Lawrence did and build a custom surf van out of it. Introducing “The Duflo”, it uses System LEGO parts to construct a kickin’ sound system a knuckle-dragging stance, and a re-colored surfboard from the 10252 VW Beetle set. The exhaust pipes fit just perfectly in that cutout area. It’s like it was meant to be!

Rollin’ royalty

These days, the lap of luxury presents itself in the form of Bugattis and Lamborghinis. But back in the day, what was the best vehicle gold and jewels could buy? A tricked out carriage of course! This royal ride, courtesy of LEGO builder Jonas Kramm, screams opulence. You couldn’t cram any more pearl gold elements in there if you tried. At least, without it looking too gaudy… Okay, maybe it is just a wee bit gaudy, but it’s also awesome! Pairing with the dark brown and pink is magical. There is superb, deliberate element usage and shaping all around. Using tassels on the horse’s heads is one of my favorite parts, as well as the use of the ring to make the lattice window look round. The funkier ideas are neat too, like the Cheshire Cat’s tail for a harness and his head topping the standard, as well as the large figure shin guard for a tree trunk (and excellent idea borrowed from 70620 Ninjago City).

You can find more of Jonas’s brilliant work in our archives.

Groundbreaking hovertank seems to defy gravity

Your eyes aren’t deceiving you, this hovertank is indeed hovering! Space enthusiast Ben Smith has created a floating hovertank inspired by the fan-favourite Galaxy Patrol from the LEGO Collectible Minifigure Series 7, that not only looks awesome with a rugged colour scheme, but breaks the laws of physics. The boarding ramp is the only point of contact with the sand blue terrain, which raises the question: How is a ramp on the front of the vehicle able to actually hold it up and not collapse?

Find out more about how it floats!

Black and Yellow

Black and Yellow, you know what it is – the 1980s LEGO Space theme “Blacktron” featuring a color scheme with heavy usage of black and yellow. In Nagisa’s build aficionados can get the best of two worlds – Star Wars and Blacktron as this design is a mashup of the two themes. Fusions of LEGO space themes with pop cultural icons are pretty common among fan-builders, but they are always refreshing to see nonetheless. Here we have the landspeeder from Solo: A Star Wars Story film which was already translated well into LEGO in set 75209, revamped in the style of Blacktron. Nagisa uses vintage control panel printed tiles and a newer curved yellow trans-clear 3x6x1 windshield to accomplish the signature aesthetic of the Blacktron faction. Of course, two fully decked out Blacktron minifigures accompany the speeder as pilots.

Nagisa offers a few configurations of the speeder which utilize different elements as thrusters – each offering a slightly varied look all of which are pretty sleek. Overall Nagisa does a great job of displaying creativity and ingenuity while still retaining the original concept of the vehicle from the Star Wars film.