“Lummy! It’s the rozzers! We’ve been rumbled.” Or at least that’s the 60s-era British vernacular that springs to mind when you take a look at Calin‘s retro police car. This is a fabulous little model, perfectly-styled for the British Copper collectable minifig — the front grille, those rear-view mirrors, that blue light perched on the top: all spot-on. I can just imagine this vehicle screeching around the corner in a seedy part of London’s Soho, its old-school siren wailing.
Sometimes the visions of the future put forth by LEGO builders can be a little grim — bleak technologically-dystopian vistas, often rendered in shades of dark grey. Here’s an altogether brighter view of the future from Tammo S. — one where we’ll be zipping around the skies in pastel-coloured hovercars. The shaping on this thing is great — all retro curves and smoothness. But it’s the colour scheme which really makes it pop — the white and light blue is distinctive and striking, and the isolated golden highlights add a touch of class.
The orange and blue colour scheme of the Ford GT40 Gulf represents the corporate colours of Gulf Oil. The original race car took part in Daytona and Sebring in 1967 as an independent entry by Gulf Oil executive vice president Grady Davis. Joachim Klang has managed to accurately build a LEGO version of this famous car using both brick and sticker solutions to pick out the orange highlights. The shaping of the chassis is fantastic at this scale, the sloped hood and front bumper are particularly well constructed.
It is worth noting that everything in the image is brick-built, from the paint brushes and paint pots, to the scalpel used to cut the stickers. No detail has been missed, including the unfinished driver still on the sprue.
You may occasionally still see the unmistakable Citroën 2CV gliding along the lanes of rustic French towns, some 70 years after its first introduction. Builder Nico71 pays homage to the iconic economy car with this 1/15 scale model.
The model features independent front suspension and rear suspension, opening front and rear doors, wheel-operated steering, and an opening trunk compartment (with a surprise hidden feature inside!). It also sports many brick-built stylistic touches, from the engine under the hood to the exhaust pipe in the back.
Rather than using Technic panels, each door consists of multiple Technic beams stacked pin holes-up to form a single, solid surface. Likewise, the roof, A-, B-, and C-pillars of the 2CV combine multiple beams to create the silhouette of the vehicle. The wheel wells and mudguards, however, show the curved building technique that strings Technic 1 x 3 beam pieces along a soft axle hose, creating an elegant arch. It’s a similar technique to one the that impressed us in the recent Shanghai LEGO Architecture set, where it was used to construct the twisting Shanghai Tower.
You can read more about the design and functionality of this model from Nico71’s website.
Ralph Savelsberg, whose collection of brick-built vehicles includes dozens of retro and contemporary exhibits, never stops perfecting his masterpieces. Even the new Beetle by Volkswagen, which Ralph had originally built 10 years ago, has recently got a makeover.
Thanks to the new curved LEGO slopes and tiles, the new Beetle has become a lot curvier. And the new 1×1 round tile with a VW logo print borrowed right from 10252 Volkswagen Beetle (VW Beetle) set sits just perfectly on the models bonnet. Here’s what the car looked like 10 years ago:
Inspired by Australia’s new icebreaker and armed with plans and blueprints of the actual ship, Ryan McNaught assembled a team of builders who brought this monstrosity to life in a month of hard work.
Learn more about this massive LEGO icebreaker ship
Building vehicles in minifigure scale is not always an easy task. Minifigures themselves are an odd shape – short and wide. In the LEGO world, adaptations have to be made, especially when it comes to vehicles that need minifigures to side side-by-side. This truck by Calin solves the problem by giving the impression of the correct height but only fitting one minifigure in the front seat. Frank seems content to drive his old tan truck on his own, he prefers it that way.
Calin says he was inspired in some ways by de-marco’s collection of vehicles. We highlighted a few, and their instructions if you take a peek on our free instructions for custom models area, just select de-marco under the builder tab.
Just as the Lamborghini Centenario pays homage to the vision of Ferrucio Lamborghini, this LEGO Centenario built by Lachlan Cameron gives tribute to the already iconic supercar. Clad in black with red highlights, this model features illuminated headlights and taillights, elegant scissor doors, chromed tailpipes, and even a personalized California license plate! The wheels from the Porsche 911 GT3 RS complement the overall impression of this model.
Click to see more views of this supercar
In its own rights, the 42054 CLAAS XERION 5000 TRAC VC tractor amazes with its sturdy yet functional design. That said, the essence of the tractor is actually doing things, performing work, getting business done. In this spirit, Brick Wall used the CLAAS Xerion tractor model as a platform for some fantastic—and practical—attachments.
Need your lawn mowed? Take a look at this functional, real lawn mower attachment, each blade powered by two motors working in parallel. (In all seriousness, don’t try this at home: those are real razor blades.)
CLick here to see a trench digger and hay baler in action
Paul Hetherington thinks that the average farm animal would want to cruise around the country roads, partying in a dilapidated, old, rotten Model T salvaged from the barn. Initially Paul set out to only construct the splendid animal heads and started with the googly eyed horse’s head. In the end, Party Animals took Paul five weeks to build. Once he had an idea of the animals’ size, this set the scale for the vehicle. Creating the Model T using a combination of lovely dark greens and rustic colours, Paul has even thought to include bird droppings.
Look out chickens!
Browsing through our archive of LEGO vehicles you’re sure to see a lot of sports cars, super bikes and hotrods, not to mention the science fiction stuff. It’s what you’d expect to see people recreate with bricks. What I didn’t expect to see in LEGO, however, is this foldable electric bike created by Paul Lee.
Take a look at some promotional pictures of the URB-E to see how well this build imitates it. Good use is made of Technic liftarms to imitate the drilled metal, and it even folds up like the real thing.
Definitely there are not many reasons to visit Tatooine, but watching a beautiful podracer like this one by Inthert in action is totally worth booking a seat at Mos Espa Grand Arena. My favorite piece of the pod’s design would be multiple use of yellow minifig snowshoes, which are used to create front winglets. And, of course, a very simple piece of Tatooine’s landscape beneath the pod is an amazing way to make a still model look very dynamic.
