Cars, Cars

This week's post is more peaceful than the last couple of ones. Peter Blackert alias lego911 is probably the most productive car builder on the net, or at least in LUGNuts, the best car builder community.

A while ago he started to build the friends of Lightning McQueen. Although the LEGO Company has an official product line around the movie Cars, I like these ones built from real bricks a lot more. Take a look at Flo:

These are not real photos, but they look good nevertheless. The realistic lighting and the POV-Ray treatment makes them quite professional in my opinion. David Hobbscapp is a Jaguar E-Type, built from bricks:

And this is Finn McMissile in action:

At last, one of the most recognized characters, the Sheriff:

It is worth taking a look at lego911's other photos as well, there are many good ones from Cars and unrelated too.

Super Car history from Eric Albrecht

We have covered the history of Technic cars a long time ago (see part I, part II and part III).

Now Eric Albrecht (also known as Blakbird, author of Technicopedia) did the same on the in the guest post of the official LEGO Technic blog:

The history of LEGO "Super Cars" is even longer than the Technic line itself, beginning in 1977 and running right up to the present day. There is no official definition of Super Car and therefore different fans might include different models on their own list. Most fans consider a Super Car to be one of the large scale automotive models which attempt to maximize realistic function as much as possible. Over the years, the models got more and more functionally realistic, and the complexity peaked in about 1994. Since then, subsequent supercars have become more realistically styled without adding a lot of complexity.

Read more...

2012

There is nothing to be proud of: 2011 was not particularly fruitful in the life of the blog. Yes, we have new design and I have also fixed the old links and even more, we got a new MiG-15. But I did not provide a lot of new content.

It is not because I don't have anything to write about. I don't promise daily updates in 2012 either, but I will go after some of the hotness.

Some hints of what will follow:

• It's not a secret that I am a big fan of cars from Mad Physicist. The Lead Sled replica is on my shelf for a long time, but now it sits next to a Ferrari Testarossa. More details will follow soon.
• The last piece from the big Technic cars, the 8860 is also on my shelf for some time now. It's time to share more details about it.
• I got several new Lego sets. For example a 5867 Creator car. I am very excited about this because Nathanael Kuipers built about 15 more variations, so now I can build those as well.

Gran Turismo from Nathaniel Kuipers-től. Now I have all bricks to build it :)

• I also got a 21011 Brandenburg Gate. I have always liked the Architecture series, I am happy that I own the only European building so far. It is so nice that I started thinking about other buildings I could build in a similar style. Born in Hungary, I have started building the Parliament of Hungary. We will see soon how far I get.
• I have found a serious problem with my Trabant. On its own it looks quite alright, but next to its friends it is obvious that it is not tall enough. It is just taller than the Ferrari Testarossa which does not look good. I hope to find somt time to fix that. It may need a substantial redesign though. At the moment I don't even dare to think about more cars.

I wish everyone a Happy New Year Rich in Lego!

Lead Sled

The Lead Sled got as ready as it could ever be (ok, I did not realize the missing piece on the front bumper when I took the photos). There is a longer story in Hungarian on lego.blog.hu. And there are new photos too.

Review: 854 Go-kart

When I read RÁJEN's blog post (in Hungarian) about his 854 Technic gokart I became nostalgic. Just like him it was my first ever Technic set and unlike I him I still have the majority of the parts. So I have decided to put it together.

I. Data sheet

Neve: Go-kart
Number: 854, also known as 948 (they are the same set)
Theme: originally Expert Builder, later Technic
Year: 1978
Number of pieces: 206
Price: about 20 USD originally, now about the same on Bricklink
B-Models: Tire balancer, Trike

II. History


When the Expert Builder series was started in 1977 it introduced four new sets that were joined by two others in 1978. The top of the range was the 853 Big Car and the smaller set (by number of bricks) was this gokart - this was the entry set of Technic. I got mine approximately in 1985 from my parents, they have bought it in Turkey as getting Legos in the Eastern Block was somewhat difficult.

I think I did not put it together in the last 15 years or so. When I built it I tried to use the oldest parts available (especially with blue bricks the shade difference is obvious). I did not use the Technic connectors though as almost all of them broke or cracked during playing with them, and the same happened with the universal joint. To my surprise I managed to buy brand new connectors during one of my Legoland tours, now I have used those.

III. Instructions


I was not a particularly caring kid when dealing with Legos. It is a smaller miracle that I still have the original instructions. When I found it I was a bit surprised to see that it has a crane on its cover that I have not seen since as a set. The actual building instructions for the gokart start around the middle, the rest has generic tips and some unrelated building guides. My theory is that the Lego company emphasized that from Technic sets one can build anything.

IV. What is in the box?

Classic Technic parts from the same era as the 853, but here blue is the dominant color. There are two Technic bricks of length 16, some of size 8, 4 and 2. There are many plates, amongst them 6 rotating plates for the steering. There are also some black parts (seat, engine) as well as some yellow and white ones. There is three 24-tooth gear and two 8-tooth. The axles are kept in position by classic bushes and connectors, it also has a universal joint. There is a sticker and two flexible tubes that are in surprisingly good condition considering they are 25 years old. Oh, and there is the steering wheel.

V. Functions

As this is an entry-level set the list of functions is not very long. Steering works as one could expect and in the back we find a single-cylinder piston engine that is connected to the left rear wheel. The designers probably thought that connecting it to both wheels would cause too much tension for the gears - I also agree that this seems more durable than the joint on the 853.

VI. Design

The design is not overemphasized, functions are more important. Despite this it looks pretty gokart-like. It has a number plate (that looks quite ok even without the sticker) and two tubes connected to the engine. It also has a seat that can be tilted a bit.

One minor nit is that real gokarts tend to have the engine on the side rather than in the back, just like on the later 8842 gokart.

VII. Score

As a final score it gets 9/10, probably heavily influenced by personal memories. I think this was a really good starter set in its era and contains largely generic parts that can be used to build almost anything. When comparing it to the 2010 entry model Telehandler the gokart is quite a bit larger. It also contains almost twice as many parts (its price tag is also steeper). To summarize, a good starter set with universally usable parts.

See also:

• Photos in the album
• Technicopedia
• Brickset page
• Inventory on Peeron
• Instructions on Peeron
• Sets for sale on Bricklink
• Expert Builder ad from 1979

Off road

Nice weather is coming, builders feel inspired to build something for outside - it is tempting to build new truck trial vehicles.

The first truck for today is the "TT10" from Nagy Abonyi Attila. He took a Kraz 255 as sample for his newest creation. It got so famous that even TechnicBRICKs has covered it. It uses 3 XL motors as well as working suspension and military camouflage. More images in the Brickshelf gallery of Attila and this video:

The second creation comes from Sariel who has built a double cab all wheel-drive Tatra T815 with one medium and two XL motors. As usual he has included a detailed description.

As the image shows there is a big emphasis to make the suspension like the original. More images on Brickshelf.

Lego wheel and tire chart

I keep on building my cars and I ran into this wonderful chart. It has all the wheels and tires ever made by the Lego Company and also which tire fits which wheel. As an extra it has links to Bricklink and the Peeron parts catalog.

http://isodomos.com/Visual-Parts-Helper/Lego-Wheel.html

Lichtblau Cobra in the cyberspace

We already mentioned the Cobra from _lichtblau_ on the blog and since he also did wonderful building instructions, everyone can build his own. As long as he has enough orange and light blue bricks :) I think an average Lego builder usually does not have, even in other colors. So I thought I improve the situation a bit.

Voila, the virtual Cobra, built in Lego Digital Designer:

http://depot.bricksngears.com/ldd/Lichtblau_Cobra.lxf

It is not exactly like the original (wheels, body lines, etc.). But it can be loaded into LDD with a click and ordered immediately (approx. $37.47 in the US, EUR 28.14 in Germany). It has 137 pieces. Or you can pimp it on your computer :)

I plan to upload other LDD models too.

Shelby Cobra with instructions

I like mini cars like this Cobra very much. It is ingenious how every brick fits into its place and even though it is quite small, it perfectly reflects the lines of the original.

Now the builder, lichtblau posted instructions as well.

Updated: Almost Lead Sled

The Lead Sled project has made progress but I am not entirely happy with the results so far. The packets ordered on Bricklink have arrived one by one each day. The final order was UK, France, the Netherlands and New Zealand - I have ordered them all with a few minutes difference.

The first obvious problem is that some parts arrived in the wrong color. Unfortunately both of them are at visible places, one is the hinge of the doors and the other is part of the rear seat. One of the merchants was very kind to send the piece in the right color in a follow-up mail.

There are other problems too. The most obvious one is that the very front of the car gets detached from the rest very very easily as it is held in place by two studs only. I did not realize this when I designed it in LDD - it will need a redesign and it is far from trivial. The rest of the front is not very strong either but I have managed to get it up to an almost acceptable level by adding more stiffeners.

One more issue is that when opening the hood there is an obvious tension between the hood and the chassis. As I could judge from the photos this is exactly the same on the original model built by Mad Physicist, so I am not sure if that one is any better.

The studs at the upside down pieces near the front wheels make contact with the wheels. This can be only realized once I start pushing the model. I have also not figured out how to attach the chrome parts to the wheel either.

All in all it does not feel as a total success yet, but on the photos it looks good.

Updated: seeing my enthusiasm Mad Physicist has provided me more details about the internal structure of his car here and here. Looking at the photos I quickly started to wonder why I was not able to figure it out by myself :) Anyway the tips should be enough to make the front a bit more rigid, have a proper cover on the wheels and avoid the contact between the front wheels and the body.

The Old Lady is ready

I have finally completed it! Not only I have managed to assemble my Christmas present completely, I also have taken photos so there is nothing that stops me blogging about it.

So what is it? The most aged member of the Big Car series, the "Auto Chassis" from 1977. It was missing some parts but the seller was so kind that he sent all of them to me. By the way I am very happy with it. It feels like new, I did not find any broken or yellowish parts. My old Technic playing sets from the 80s are in a much worse shape by now.

After putting it all together I found comparison against the other Big Cars natural. Some numbers to start with:

• this is the oldest of all, sold from 1979
• this has the fewest pieces, 610

This is also the one to contain the fewest special parts. For example the front suspension is made of bricks and rotating plates. There are no springs but there are nonetheless interesting details. For example the suspension has a hole in the middle to accommodate the power train from above. The gear rack moves only sideways, not back and forth with steering. Unlike most other Technic models from the age it has an intermediate arm that makes this possible. Another interesting property of the steering is that it is impossible to fit the gears together such a way that the steering wheel is completely horizontal when the wheels are parallel to the chassis.

The power train makes a very massive impression, the four big cylinders after each other would be enough to drive a boat. The gearbox has two gears, in first gear the pistons literally "fly" - I am not sure that this lasts long under heavy playing. In the rear there is no differential. Instead, there is an universal joint keeping the two sides together. I think this can be really easily broken by the torque of the large wheels.

Besides the relatively simple basics there are a couple of interesting details. The first seats can be adjusted forward or rearward with a rack mechanism. The middle part of the rear seat can act as an arm support or can be hidden.

Until I saw it from photos only I did not realize that the engine is shifted one stud right from the centerline - I believe this gave more room to the exhaust and the gearbox. The proportions of the car are also somewhat surprising, it is not wide but very long, probably longer than any of the sportier subsequent models.

One more thing: the assembly instructions come on both sides of a single foldable sheet in 10 main and 27 secondary steps. For comparison, the instructions for the 8448 have more than 150 steps (and pages).



Now if only I would get an 8860... More photos in the album as usual.

Analyzing a masterpiece

Now that I have built the Lead Sled myself I discovered many tricks. This post is about some of them.

The original car is riding very low, the oversized body is as close to the road as possible. To achieve this all the wheels should sit as deeply embedded in the body as possible. This is not simple with Lego bricks. For the front wheels Mad Physicist has used a panel with an L cross-section – built in upside down. There is no hanging version of the piece, only a standing one. The image below shows that this piece with all the other pieces upside down fit perfectly into the contour of the bodywork.

The width of the car is 11 studs without mirrors but it gets narrower towards the rear of the car. The even-width parts (rear bodywork) fit seamlessly with the odd-width parts (front, roof).

One example how to mix even-width with odd-width is the trunk: the cover is 8 studs wide but its holder has an odd width. The closeup below shows the three small plates with a clip that connect to an even-width plate with a handle.

One more detail that I have only recognized while building: the upper row of slope bricks in the rear windshield are half a plate higher than all the other plates in the car. Having these slope bricks  halfway between other plates results in a smooth roof line. The small step at the bottom of the curved bricks above disappears as well as the other small step in the sloped bricks.

Yet another tricky part is the windshield. It looks good but I kept thinking about what keeps it in place. Finally the creator himself let me know that at the bottom of the transparent bricks there is a plate with a clip, attached to a tap that is completely hidden inside the bodywork.

The car is made of approximately 700 bricks. This is a lot for its size. For comparison the similarly sized Lego 5867 car has only 278 pieces! The Lead Sled contains only a few classic Lego bricks, most of the pieces are plates or special parts.

Because I travel a lot during Christmas I did not order the parts yet but it will not be long before I do so. Until then, Merry Christmas to everyone!

Lead Sled reverse engineer

I am a big fan of miniscale cars like the ones built by Mad Physicist or the Arvo brothers. The challenge is entirely different compared to building large cars: instead of simply putting bricks on top of each other they require a lot of attention to the details to put everything in place. A special piece or a tricky solution has great impact to the model but it may need a lot of experimentation.

I considered building a replica for myself several times, for example one of the cars made by the Mad Physicist or the Porsche from the Arvos. Our friend the reverse engineer who helps to build the whole thing by looking at the end result only. From Lego bricks, of course.

So far I never got past a couple of thought experiments because apart from obvious details I had no clue how to continue building. But now I have decided to go on with the matter. Mad Physicist has built his '51 Mercury Lead Sled. On one hand looks very desirable, on the other hand it has several detailed photos so that I can have some hope. On top of this Ralph is very helpful and did not object and even gave some clues when I had questions about the details.

I started with Lego Digital Designer. Some bricks are unavailable and even more so some colors, but at least I have infinite supplies. Compared to other virtual building tools it is an important advantage that it models the physics of the bricks and does not let me build stupid things. This is how far I got (click on the album):

The colors are not quite right and some other details like the wheels are different too. But it looks promising. I am truly uncertain about some invisible areas but the external feels right.

When I am done with all details the next step will be Bricklink in the New Year.

Youngtimer from Santa

Car fans call a car "youngtimer" if it passes the check for veteran cars but it is not old enough to be a real oldtimer. I think "Car Chassis" no. 853 from the beginning of the Big Technic Car history fits this description since it was first sold in 1977.

As I have blogged before, I have set myself as a long term goal to get all the cars from the Big Car series. (Well, the first five at least.) It looks like Santa listens to my wishes well since the postman has brought me this set yesterday. At the first glance it is in an excellent shape as a real youngtimer should. Of course I will not build it until Christmas.

Now if only I could get a 8860 - well, I need some goals for the New Year too :)

'51 Mercury Lead Sled

This time out favorite Mad Physicist created a classic hot-rod from bricks. I think it looks great.

8872 and co.

I wanted to write this post a long time ago. It was before the summer when I decided to take some risks to buy the latest piece of my "Big Car" series, the 8865. Already before the purchase it was clear that the pile contains a lot of extra parts. Luckily I found everything for the big car in a good condition. This is where the riddle started, I wanted to find out the rest. I started from here:

First question: what are all these wheels? There are eight small ones, then six more of the same with larger tires, then the one in which the axle rotates, and then I did not speak about the larger off road ones yet. They seem to come from different sets, but still... Which set contains so many wheels?

After a short search I have found the first suspect, the 8872 Forklift Transporter from 1993:

It was clear in the beginning that I do not have all the parts for the forklift: the chain was missing and many other parts too. But I though the truck could be there:

Still many pieces left, let's try the trailer:

Well, that is something. I abandoned the forklift, six small and six larger wheels are crossed out. But what about the other wheels? This wing piece helped to solve part of the puzzle quickly. It was included in two Lego sets ever in yellow, only one of them Technic: the 8840 Desert Racer from 1991:

Of course the driver is nowhere, pistons neither, so this list has many missing items too. Maybe once I will try to fill the parts from my other sets, until then there is this photo. The four large offroad wheels are also crossed out, but I still have eight small ones. This part was the key to the last missing set:

So I got a 8808 Mini F1 Racer for free, year 1994. I have found almost all pieces for this one:

As a conclusion, for the already good price of the 8865 I got two thrids of an 8872, an 8808, a lot of yellow spare parts and an interesting riddle:

Finally the link to the album and a video - if there is no forklift then let us transport a racer:

Arvo Ford GT Le Mans

The Arvo brothers have created a new cult car, the Ford GT Le Mans. The result speaks for it self. Looking at the pictures I have the impression that it is in fact created with glue and and there is modelling clay inside. In short, it looks good.

8865 video

I have managed to upload the video about the 8865:

8865 Test Car

The risky purchase project has finished successfully. I admit that this was my biggest gamble evere, I only hoped that it has all the pieces. Although the set has many fragile parts all of them are in excellent shape: nothing is broken or sunburnt, they have not even been covered in dust. From the traces I suspect that the previous owner has built it together once or twice and then all the pieces ended up in a bag, for my luck. This is the oldest set I have bought so far and the one in the best condition - I will make a comparison of all my purchases sometime.


Like its age suggest, the car is built almost entirely from bricks and only a few special parts. The chassis and the bodywork is made of bricks and so is the rear suspension (excluding the springs and some links). Only the front suspension makes heavy use of special parts.


Interestingly, this car is almost a perfect representation of the developments that have happened in the car industry in the last 20 years. This car feels much more raw than its predecessors. It only has 4 pistons but they are brutally large - the block itself is bigger than a later V10. It runs very smoothly though. The gearbox has 3 gears and no synchronization at all. It happens frequently that it does not take a gear because the cogs are not in position. It also happens that the gearbox drops out of a previously selected gear. It is not very sophisticated and makes the owner feel the technology behind it unlike its successors. (Ok, the 8880 is at least hard to push forward but the 8448 is really very soft.)

I am very happy that I have bought it, it was well worth the 47 Euros it cost (about $85). Even more so if we count the remaining pieces (I will write about it later).

Let the images tell the rest of the story. And here comes the video:

Quick report

I report that the 8865 set that was purchased the risky way got in my physical proximity during the summer vacation. The bricks are in surprisingly good condition, nothing broken, not even dusty, which is not bad from a set that was first marketed in 1988. What I have found:

• there are four large wheels, promsing
  
• I have found all the parts so far, even more promising
  
• there are many parts from other sets, I did not find out yet which ones

I do not promise to make a video like the one about the 8448, but something is definitely coming.