Except this really isn’t any old Jeep. This is Jeep’s little-known ‘Mighty FC Concept’, which we assume stands for ‘Forward Control’, and it’s been superbly recreated in remote control Technic form by vehicle-building legend Madoca 1977.

Packed inside Madoca’s brilliant creation are six LEGO Power Functions motors, three sets of LEDs, and two third-party SBrick bluetooth receivers. The first two motors are XLs, which take care of the Jeep’s all-wheel-drive via portal axles, whilst a Servo motor controls the steering. Three Medium motors drive the winch, activate the locking rear differential, and control a two-speed gearbox, all of which is powered by an on-board rechargeable battery.

The Elves, who seem to have infiltrated Jeep’s vehicle-naming department, love the Mighty FC, even though it’s much too slow to cause any carnage in TLCB office. It can carry quite a few of them at once though, which appears to be what is currently happening, so whilst we let them get on with that you can discover the build’s full details by visiting the Eurobricks forum, and you can watch Madoca’s Jeep in action via the excellent video below.

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This magnificent slice of brown brilliance is the latest work of one of our very favourite builders, published author and TLCB Master MOCer Dennis Glaasker aka Bricksonwheels.

It’s a 1:13 scale Peterbilt 379 truck, beautifully chromed, and pulling a matching Polar tank trailer, and as has come to be expected from Dennis, it is quite simply one of the most exquisitely detailed Lego models that you will ever see.

Dennis has gone one step further this time though, and has teamed his incredible building skills with third-party Lego light specialists Brickstuff, who have wired in hundreds of LEDs to bring the truck and trailer to life.

The whole project has taken 5 months to reach completion and is powered by a hidden battery whilst the lighting sequences are controlled by a custom multi-channel remote control.

There’s a whole lot more to see at Dennis’ superb photo gallery, including – of course – several stunning images showing what a few hundred expertly-integrated LEDs can do. Click this link to make the jump to see all the photos Flickr.

TLCB staff don’t often get out to LEGO shows. Partly because our mysterious identities may be revealed, but mostly because the Elves have a habit of sneaking into our luggage, and our insurance is nowhere near that comprehensive.

Luckily our readers can be more mobile than us, and one such reader contacted us with an offer to cover a LEGO event. Over to today’s Guest Blogger, Jan Mueller…

On the 18th and 19th of March 2017 the exhibition “Floating Bricks – The maritime World of LEGO Bricks“ was held in Hamburg. It took place, appropriately, at a retired ferry terminal in the Altona district of the city.

Up to 1863, Altona was a harbour town which belonged to Denmark, and the Danish influence is partly still present until today. That weekend there were a lot of ships in town, made of Danish LEGO elements.

The fair was organized by the city event guide Hamburg-Führer and powered by the North-German RLUG Stein Hanse (recognized LEGO User Group). The Stein Hanse has organised several well-received exhibitions before and this was their first one in Hamburg. Members of the Stein Hanse had built a detailed oil platform, part of the Hamburg Airport, the Hamburg tube (which mostly goes overground) and many other models, which were put on display for the two-day event.

The RLUG, founded by Martin and Lutz in 2013 has more than 150 LEGO fans as members. One of the invited exhibitors was Brynjar Karl with his 6.5m model of the Titanic to Hamburg. The LEGO Titanic was on its way to New York, but was damaged on the way. Not kidding! Now the Titanic was undergoing some dock-time for repairs in Altona and Brynjar Karl was on-site for live building, supported by some of the other builders present at the show.

Two further additional LEGO artists were also invited: Arjen Oude Kotte (aka Konajra) and Edwin Korstanje from the Netherlands, who are both specialised in large highly detailed ship models.

The location of the exhibition, the old ferry terminal, offered a wonderful view of the Hamburg harbour with its container vessels and cruise ships and made it the perfect place to present maritime LEGO models. There was a fine collection of food trucks present to cater for the 6,000+ visitors, and the attendees also had the chance to build a huge mosaic of Hamburg’s newest landmark: the Elbphilharmonie, a new concert house on the river Elbe.

Many thanks to Jan for joining us here at TLCB with his summary of the Floating Bricks exhibition in Hamburg! If you’d like to report on a LEGO event as Jan has then we’d love to hear from you – simply get in touch via the usual channels and your words and pictures could appear here too.

We are never ever going to read the cancer on literature that is 50 Shades of Grey. However, we do quite like grey LEGO bricks, and over the years LEGO have probably released 50 shades of the stuff. This can make it tempting to use multiple shades in creations, however, unless you’re building a castle wall it can look a bit messy.

Not so here, where previous bloggee Jonathan Elliott has kept it simple with just a single shade, and his ’29 Ford Pick-Up hot rod looks wonderfully clean as a result. Photographed beautifully in his Red Room of Pain, Jon’s build features opening doors, a dropping tailgate, and a fully detailed engine and interior, and there’s more to see at his photostream via the link above.

…and a dropship containing an M577 armoured personnel carrier. The Weyland-Yutani Corporation’s APC was one of the earliest casualties in the 1986 sci-fi horror Aliens, destroying its transaxle to escape alien attack. Still, everyone else got out OK didn’t they?…

This stunning recreation of the M577 APC from the Aliens movie comes from Technic legend, previous bloggee, and ‘Become a Pro‘ interviewee Pawel ‘Sariel’ Kmiec.

Sariel’s incredible creation packs in all the firepower of the original movie vehicle, with a 360° rotating, fully retractable sliding rear turret, twin roof-mounted opening missile pods, a rotating and elevating front turret, an electrically sliding cabin door, all-wheel-drive and all-wheel-steering with pendular suspension, and full LED lighting.

All of that can be controlled remotely thanks to a third-party SBrick bluetooth system, allowing the half-a-metre long APC to be operated via a smartphone.

To truly see what Sariel’s spectacular creation can do we highly recommend taking a look at the brilliant video below, plus you can see all the images of the M577 APC via both Flickr and MOCpages.

And whilst you’re checking out the video and those links, we’re going to take the APC’s controls and put the fear of God into our Elven workforce…

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We have a sneaking suspicion that a few of TLCB Elves may have worked for Oldsmobile in a previous life, as this is so their kind of car.

Built to showcase the durability of the company’s new FWD transaxle, two Hurst ‘Hairy’ Oldsmobile Cutlasses were created in 1967, each fitted with two 1,200bhp supercharged V8s, with one engine powering the front wheels and the second powering the rears.

The result was a car capable of all-wheel-drive burnouts and eleven second quarter miles, but also one with prodigious torque-steer and minimal visibility, which led to one of the two Hairy Hursts being destroyed in a demonstration run.

This glorious recreation of the monstrous drag-racer comes from Flickr’s Tim Inman, who – due to LEGO’s limited range of golden pieces – has had to use hundreds of studded tiles to create the Oldsmobile’s bodywork.

There’s more to see at Tim’s photostream – click the link in the text above to make the jump.

Lego Technic is 40 years old this year! Launched in 1977 the Technic range took LEGO into a new world of technical detail, providing advanced construction for older children and adults alike, and bringing with it probably the largest range of new parts in the brand’s history.

It all kicked off with a simple car chassis, a ‘New Technical Set’, 853. The single most viewed page here at TLCB, 853 introduced rack and pinion steering, a working piston engine and an operable transmission to LEGO fans. Its success allowed LEGO to develop the theme and three years later the second generation car chassis was released, this time with LEGO’s first attempt at working suspension, 8860.

Despite being LEGO’s second Technic car chassis, 8860 is often thought of as the daddy of all Technic sets, paving the way for the series of Technic Supercars that followed (of which you can read more in the Set Review Library).

With the Technic theme turning 40 years old this year LEGO have decided to pay homage to one of their greatest products, giving builders the chance to recreate the iconic 1980 set using modern parts found in the 2017 Technic  range. Three sets, the superb-looking 42063 BMW R 1200 GS Adventure motorbike, the 42061 Telehandler and the 42057 Ultralight Helicopter provide the pieces required, and building instructions are now available* for free online.

Such is the way with the advancement of technology, LEGO’s modern take on the classic 8860 set packs all the functions of the original into a more compact package, and features working steering, a 4-cylinder boxer engine, an operable transmission (which may well be the first since the 1980s not to use purpose-built gearbox parts) and functioning rear suspension. The design uses straight-forward pieces too, so many builders may be able to build it from parts found within their existing collection.

You can read our previews of the three sets that supply the full parts list to build the 40th Anniversary 8860 set via the links above, our review of the original set here, and you can create your very own 40th Anniversary set by clicking the link to the building instructions below.

Download building instructions here!

*Thanks to a reader for the tip!

It’s been a slow (read ‘hungry’) week for The Lego Car Blog Elves. However, with their empty stomachs ‘motivating’ them it was only a matter of time before we’d have a creation to share with you.

The hungry Elf responsible for today’s find was duly awarded a meal token and Smartie, upon which something remarkable happened… the Elf ate about half of its Smartie, and it then proceeded to break the rest into pieces. Were we about to witness the first ever moment of Elven compassion and sharing? Were we balls.

The aforementioned Elf scattered the Smartie pieces opposite a curtain in the office and then scurried off. Soon several of its colleagues had sniffed out the unguarded confectionary and landed on the abandoned loot like seagulls on an open bin.

But unguarded the confectionary wasn’t, and the curtains suddenly parted as a huge white truck powered through them. The nearest Elf had just enough time to point and scream before being squashed forcefully into the office carpet, before its scavenging colleagues met the same fate.

A jubilant Elf then re-emerged, scooped up the Smartie remnants, and ran off cackling madly. Sigh. We thought they were getting bored of this.

Still, kudos the Elf in question, which had deployed some remarkable inventiveness to overcome its find’s lack of speed – which normally would have left it unable meet out any smushings.

The vehicular weapon, whilst slow, is a mighty impressive bit of kit though. Based on a Volvo FMX truck, the build features five Power Functions motors that power the four-wheel-drive system, generate air pressure for pneumatically locking differentials, and drive the centrally-pivoted steering, whilst pendular suspension with simply ludicrous articulation and oversize tyres from the 42054 Claas Xerion tractor set take care of truck’s impressive rock-crawling ability.

The build is the work of TLCB debutant dgustafsson1317 and there’s an enormous gallery of high quality images available to view on Flickr. Click the link above to see all of the Volvo FMX Crawler photos, whilst we scrape some very flat Elves out of the office carpet.

We have a bit of a soft spot for the Dodge Viper here at TLCB. Yes, it’s a poorly built, pointlessly-engined, wayward-handling super ‘sports car’ from the country that doesn’t know what a corner is, but – well – it just looks so cool! This top-notch recreation of the SRT10 ACR Viper, a special edition that aimed to sort out the car’s cornering deficiencies, is the work of previous bloggee Alexander Paschoaletto, and it looks easily as cool as the real thing. See more at Alexander’s Flickr photostream by clicking here.

LEGO’s new partnership with BMW Motorrad has already produced a brilliant looking Technic set in the form of the 42063 R 1200 GS Adventure motorbike. Joining it in a matching scale is this superb F700 GS Rallye built by Flickr’s ianying616, who has recreated BMW’s mid-spec tourer wonderfully in the latest Technic style, adding some neat Model Team detail touches whilst retaining Technic functionality. Steering, shaft drive, and a two-cylinder boxer engine all feature, and there’s more to see at ianying’s photostream.

Another day, another find, another Elven catastrophe to tidy up. Following this week’s earlier Elf squashing our workforce has been in a cautious but nevertheless vengeful mood.

And so one of the week’s earlier victims found itself at the controls of a vehicle capable of exacting a hit-and-run based revenge. With the Elves it doesn’t really matter if the perpetrator of a previous act is actually present when the revenge is served, just as long as someone gets squished. And squished they were.

The vehicle in question is this absolutely wonderful ZiL 130 MMZ 555 tipper truck, in perfectly-suited Porsche 911 GT3 orange, as built by previous bloggee Samolot. In a convenient metaphor for the communist economy that spawned it, the Zil was the ideal tool for crushing the people, or in this case, Elves.

Remote control drive with a remotely controlled four speed gearbox, and a novel linear actuator based steering system give this ZiL 130 a surprising turn of speed, certainly enough to catch out a few slower Elves, whilst all-wheel suspension allowed the truck to roll over them with ease. Unrelated to the smushing, but a cool feature nonetheless, Samolot’s Zil 130 also includes a remotely controlled dumping mechanism powered by a Medium Motor, taking the total motor-count to four.

Opening doors, a working steering wheel, and an opening hood all feature too, and Samolot has included a level of detail that’s now becoming typical with many Technic builds that moves the theme ever closer to Model Team in terms of aesthetics.

There’s a whole lot more to see of Samolot’s superb ZiL 130 dump truck via Brickshelf, MOCpages and the Eurobricks forum, plus you watch all the working features in action courtesy of the excellent video below.

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This is a GMC c4500 Kodiak Topkick, a vehicle which normally serves as medium-duty truck, but which was also available in the mid 2000s in an enormous, ridiculous, and scarcely believable pick-up truck configuration.

Powered by a 300bhp V8, featuring an 8ft load bed, and appearing in the Transformers movie franchise as Autobot ‘Ironside’, the pick-up Kodiak is the perfect vehicle for gun-toting, climate change denying, Muslim-fearing neanderthals, and we absolutely hate it.

However, this patriotically-pictured Lego version of one of the world’s most pointless vehicles is a rather nice build, and it features an opening hood, four opening doors, plus a detailed interior and chassis. It’s the work of Flickr’s VR Workshop and you can check out all of the images via the link, whilst we try to find a Lego Nissan Leaf or Toyota Prius to balance things out.

When the Zombie Apocalypse arrives which – according to that guy stashing canned food in his shed – it will, you’re gonna want a vehicle like this. With a roof-mounted machine gun, a spiky bumper, and – of course – a garbage compacter to dispose of those annoying zombie corpses, this fortified garbage truck by Flickr’s Guy Smiley looks just the ticket for post-apoc survival. Take out the trash via the link above.

We don’t think we can ever recall seeing a cherry picker actually picking cherries. Fixing light bulbs, telephone wires and cutting trees, yes. Picking cherries, not so much.

Still, whatever the inaccuracies of the name, this remote control Technic cherry picker from Anto of Eurobricks is a very accomplished build. Remotely operable functions include the drive, motorised outriggers, a rotating turntable and an elevating crane boom, whilst mechanics take care of the steering and boom extension.

There’s lots more to see of Anto’s creation at the Eurobricks forum via the link above, plus you watch the cherry picker in action via the video below.

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It’s review time here at The Lego Car Blog, as the first of 2017’s Technic sets is placed under the microscope. Reader and previous bloggee Nils O has got his hands on the new 42064 Ocean Explorer set, and he joins us here at TLCB Towers to let you know whether you should get your hands on it too. Over to Nils…

Worth a second look?

OK, this isn’t a car, but it’s Lego Technic and it’s a vehicle. So, who cares…? When I saw TLCB’s preview for the first 2017 Technic sets I was a little disappointed by the picture of the 42064 Ocean Explorer. It was already written in the blogpost that the model looked more like a City set than like a Technic model, and there weren’t many Technic functions visible on the photos.

Despite this, I really liked the look of the ship, so I thought that I’d give it a second look when the set became available in stores. When I finally saw the set I was pleasantly surprised; it really had enough functions to wear that Technic logo on the box. So I made a wish for my birthday and now I’ve got it!

Ok, so what do we get? We get quite a big ship with a clean, studless, almost LEGO City like look. We also get a small submarine and a small helicopter. Each of the three models has one or more Technic functions. The scale is more or less in line with LEGO City, so if you like you can use a crew of mini-figures with it.

First of all there is the ship, a big explorer vessel of the type you would expect to search for a sunken ship or to explore the deep sea fauna. There are three ‘hidden’ functions operated by ‘HOG’ gears on top of of the ship’s bridge. The first function is the steering of the ship. The model has four little wheels for smooth movement on the floor. The rear wheels have a steering function operated by the bigger gear mounted in the centre of the bridge. The steering is also connected to two steering rudders on the rear end of the vessel. The second and third function are for the operation of the crane. The crane can be rotated and lifted by turning the two smaller gears on the left and right side of the bridge. It works perfectly to drop the submarine into the ‘water’ and get it back on board.

The second model is a little deep sea submarine. It’s quite small, but it has two Technic functions built inside. One gear is connected to the rear propellers, so when you turn it, they turn too, whilst the second gear is connected to a mechanism that opens and closes the pair of robot arms like a pair of pliers. With a little practice you can grab ‘specimens’ and bring them back to the vessel.

The third model is a small helicopter. Even though it’s smaller in size than most LEGO City helicopters it has the typical Technic helicopter function of both rotors being connected to an ‘operation gear’ outside the model, allowing them to spin simultaneously. Both smaller models – the submarine and the helicopter – have a canopy big enough to carry a mini-figure, and by adding one or more ‘half pins with a stud’ you can even fix the figures inside.

So, after all, the 42064 Ocean Explorer is really worth a second look, and for me it really was worth buying it. My son loves it, too. For him it’s like his LEGO City models, just better. I think it could also be cool to see all the functions of the vessel motorised with Power Functions elements (hmm, I think I see a new project appearing on the horizon…).

Thanks to Nils O for joining us as a Guest Reviewer to add another set to the Set Review Library. If you’d like to write a set review as Nils has you can; simply get in touch with us via the usual channels.

This unusual-looking chap has got himself one hell of a ride. According to the brochure, “The Chrysler 300XH is the next great luxury hover car for the discerning driver. Featuring a powerful 614 cubic inch wedge combustion engine driving two Sirius Cyberdine Industries 4982HL magnetrons, the 300XH gives a decadently smooth ride with ample power available at a touch of the accelerator.” Well we’re sold. Where do we sign Tim Henderson?

This lovely Ford Model-A V8-engined hot rod comes from OutBricks of Flickr aka Kevin Heitke of MOCpages, and if you like his creation as much as we do then you can build your own, as he’s made a video tutorial of the instructions! You can check out all the images and find a link to the aforementioned build steps via the links above.

What’s better off-road than a four-wheel-drive vehicle? A six-wheel-drive vehicle of course. In fact by TLCB arithmetic it’s a whole two better.

Eurobricks’ KevinMoo also clearly favours the ‘more is more’ approach and has built his latest creation – loosely based on Mercedes-Benz’s nuts 6×6 G-Wagon – accordingly. With twin L motor drive going to all six wheels and all-round multi-link live axle suspension Kevin has constructed quite a capable machine, and – as a by-product of trying to reduce the stress on LEGO’s famously weak U-Joint pieces – a reasonably quick one too, as there’s little gearing-down at work in the drivetrain.

Remote control coupled with reasonable speed does of course mean a few of our Elves have been squished in the making of this blog post, but hey – blogging’s not without the odd sacrifice. It also meant that, once the Elf at the controls was found, fed, and then ejected from the building, we could take a good look at the internal workings of Kevin’s build.

As you can see from the image above, the 6×6 fully suspended drivetrain is a remarkably compact piece of engineering, and unlike the real 6×6 G-Wagon it’s made possible by the unusual step of not constructing a separate chassis, but rather a monocoque or ‘unibody’ whereby the body and chassis are designed as one unit.

In addition to the clever drivetrain Kevin’s build also features LED lights front and rear, Servo steering, and opening doors, hood and tailgate. There’s lots more to see at the Eurobricks forum, plus you watch the 6×6 in action via the video below.

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That’s how long it took builder Dirk Klijn to design, engineer and construct this utterly spellbinding Sarens-liveried Liebherr LTM 1090 4.1 crane, in full road configuration with boom extension and 14 tons of counterweight.

Seventeen working motorised functions are controlled by no less than five third-party SBrick devices, making the Liebherr one of the most advanced Lego models that this site had ever featured, and if that wasn’t enough the model also features all-wheel suspension, a manually folding boom jib and two highly detailed accessible cabins.

Dirk’s model is also one of the most visually realistic creations we’ve ever found too, with a wealth of superb detailing further enhanced by custom decals produced by previous bloggee JaapTechnic, and full LED lighting.

A suitably large gallery of stunning imagery is available to view now at Dirk’s Flickr photostream – click this link to jump to Liebherr LTM 1090 4.1’s full album – we’ll see you there.

This slab of cream and brown magnificence is a MAN A95 double decker bus, resplendent in Hong Kong’s KMB livery, and it’s been built be Hong Kong resident and previous bloggee ShineYu.

With eight Power Functions motors hidden inside the huge body, ShineYu’s incredible A95 double decker bus not only looks superb but it functions wonderfully too. Two XL motors drive the MAN, whilst two Servos turn the two steering axles. A further four Medium motors power the automatic doors, all of which are controlled remotely.

There’s lots more to see of this seriously impressive build at the Eurobricks discussion forum, and you can see ShineYu’s KMB MAN A95 in action via the video below.

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