MOC: Sixteen New Minifig-sized Vehicles

[L@go]

V-LV-67D to V-LV-69E, V-LC-20E & V-LC-20F

Hi again, my fellow Eurobrickers!

It's a bit unusual for me to start three topics in such a short time, but then again it's also a bit unusual for me to build as much as I've done in the past couple of months. In addition to my two entries in the Modular Madness contest, I've also been working on another batch of city vehicles, to accompany the ones I've posted earlier: Here (four cars), here (eight), here (five), here (eight), and here (fifteen). Like last time, I've built a mixture of cars and a few trucks, some looking a bit like the official models Lego is offering these days, some more hot rod-like; and I'm really, really pleased with a few of them. When I look at what I've built, I think I can see progress in my building, which is nice.

I've snapped pictures of all my latest sixteen vehicles, edited them and gradually uploaded them to my Flickr, but I wanted to present them to my community here as well. So here they are - incidentally just in time for my birthday - one by one :)

And before you ask: All stickers are from official Lego sets - I may have cut some of them, but they're all Lego!

1) The 4x4 Pickup.

Starting off with six cars built on the regular 4x12 vehicle base - this first one is a small 4x4 pickup truck:

Nothing special, really, but it ended up looking distinctly American, with that big square nose.

It's the first time I've combined those balloon tires with that base, and after testing it in MLCad, I thought there would be enough clearance between the wheels and the brackets that hold the head- and taillights. I was wrong, so I decided (sacrilege!) to sand down the edges of the brackets to make room. And that wasn't the last time I modified a brick during these builds...

2) Turbo Tiger.

This is a sporty convertible with a very striking colour scheme:

If I'm not very much mistaken, the owner's name is Luke, and he's from somewhere far away...

The rear spoiler is built using one of the new 1x2 - 1x2 brackets, which I've found to be really useful for a number of different purposes.

3) Zebra R.

Another sleek, low-slung, sporty convertible, this time with a driver sporting what I think is my favourite hairpiece from the Friends sets:

The main novelty feature on this one is the use of the front spoiler piece upside-down as a rear spoiler. This required a bit of fiddling around with different solutions, but I came up with one that's quite sturdy and leaves just enough room for the rear wheels to turn freely:

4) The 4x4 Coupé.

An attempt to build something vaguely BMW X6-esque, a sporty SUV - which I added a spare wheel to just because I thought it looked cool:

The spare tire is mounted on a minifig head - it's a perfect fit, topped off with a 1x1 round tile. I like how the colour scheme turned out on this one, regular and lime green go surprisingly well together.

5) World Rally Car II.

This car and the next one were built to go with my modern interpretation of set number 6634 - this is the modern equivalent of set number 1496:

It uses the #2 tile that was also found in the original set. I'm particularly happy with the front lamp arrangement on this one.

6) World Rally Car III.

Another rally car - this time an updated version of the car from set number 1497:

I've tried to make the three rally cars so similar that they could clearly have been built according to the same homologation rules, but still so different that it's obvious that they are from three different manufacturers. The rear wing design is one example of that - it's different on all three cars. Here they are all together:

7) The Lorry.

This one is a bit different - I built it to go with my earlier Streamliner, which I based heavily on snaillad's design.

It belongs to a sheep farmer, who bought his sheep from the biggest sheep dealer there is: BrickForge. I'm quite happy with the way the fence pieces blend in with the rest of the wooden cargo bed. Also, the white stripe along the middle was a neat bi-effect of me wanting to use that castle window as a grille (with an official sticker from an old idea book) - because it only comes in a few colours, and blue is not one of them :)

8) The Modern 6653.

This is a pet project of mine - I've updated a few other vans from classic sets, and this time I picked the highway emergency van, set number 6653:

I managed to get hold of an unused sticker sheet for the original 1982 set (it's 30 years old!) in amazing condition on BrickLink. Admittedly, it did cost me a bit of money, but it's really what I needed to make this look the way I wanted. The worker's got plenty of tools in his cargo compartment, although this is what he's normally up to when he thinks nobody's looking:

9) The 3 Wheeler.

This one was inspired by Morgan's new interpretation of their own classic three-wheeled sports car, which I was lucky enough to get to sit in at the Geneva motor show in March last year.

I knew that it needed to be dark green, or British Racing Green, to be exact, and I'm particularly satisfied with the rear end - that flag piece and the taillight cluster is held together by a 1x2 plate with handle (type 1) and a single 1x1 plate with horizontal clip.

10) Sinister Surfer.

There's a certain Hot Wheels quality to this next one - it's a surfer's hot rod:

The jewel pieces work well as taillights. I actually thought the CMF surfer girl had dark purple highlights in her hair, but it turned out to be dark pink instead - the colours still work well toghether, though, so I'm happy with how it all turned out, especially the rounded rear end. This one tilts quite heavily to the front, which gives it an aggressive stance, and I finally found a place to use those chrome silver lamp holders.

11) Gone Overboard.

A hot rod with a maritime theme - red and yellow are the colours of the signal flag for "man overboard":

I also thought I overdid this one a bit, so the name was quite appropriate. The owner doesn't seem to be particularly mainstream, either. The observant viewer might have noticed how I've modified the windscreen on this one - I took to the saw because the glazed-in look that the original windscreen gave the car just didn't look right - especially not with suicide-style doors. I'm sorry if I offend anyone with my parts-butchering :)

12) The Tine Tanker.

I bought an extra sticker sheet for set number 1029, the Tine truck, and had been thinking about doing a tank truck for a while. This is what I ended up with:

There's a rear hatch for access to the controls for the tank.

Just like when I built my modernised Tine Truck earlier, I based the cab design on Thomas Selander's trucks, but I also used a picture of a real Tine tank truck for reference - and I'm very happy with this one. The chromed cylinder pieces are from set 4654, and they're yellow underneath that chrome coat, so I had to hide the ends, which was easier than I thought. I added quite a bit of extra chrome, to make it look realistic - the BL seller Chrome Block City came in very handy for that.

Here are my two Tine trucks side by side:

13) Afterlife Express.

There really was no serious idea behind the next one. It's an evolution of the design of my Ace of Spades hot rod pickup, and I asked for opinions on the front end design here on EB, but at the time I didn't know what to do with the rear end. And then I got a ridiculous idea...

The owners of VIP Funeral Service take good care of you after you've passed away, and make sure to whisk you on to the afterlife at express speed. Hence the name of the hot rod hearse. The bonnet (hood) opens to reveal a six-cylinder engine, and there's a coffin in the back. Obviously, with a ride as spooky as this one, something like this was bound to happen:

14) The Boattail Speedster.

Another evolution of my Ace of Spades design, this one is a sleek vintage boattail-style speedster that, in my opinion anyway, suits its dark blue colour scheme very well:

What could be better than a little picnic when the sun is shining and you've been driving around all day for no other reason than that you can?

15) Blue Eagle.

A compact, low-slung, sporty vintage coupé with a spare wheel mounted on the baggage rack:

This is one of my personal favourites among my builds thus far - the dimensions are just the way I wanted them, the colour is nice, and there's just the right amount of details in it, while it still remains pretty simple. I hope you'll agree :)

The roof is removable, for a bit of good old-fashioned open-top motoring:

16) Ruby Roadster.

And finally, a low, sleek, elegant vintage roadster with a certain Jaguar-ish vibe to it:

This started out as a hot rod, but turned into something altogether more classy during the design process. I think those angled metallic silver clips work quite well as a front bumper, and to give the car an extra finish I added a bit of chrome. And yes, I have cut a 2x4 mudguard in half - and it does make the car look much better :)

The gentleman who owns it certainly seems satisfied with having been able to acquire such a fine motorcar:

So there you have it, sixteen new vehicles for my shelf. And, as it would be shelfish to keep them all to myshelf, I will, most likely, bring them to the Lego Fan Weekend in Skærbæk in September, so if you like them (or, for that matter, if you don't like them at all), you can see them up close and personal there.

This will probably be the last from me for a while - I've been building a lot over the past few months, and that's quite expensive, so now I'll just turn my attention to the Town Hall that waits patiently in its box. But thanks for looking - some constructive criticism (or all-out praise) will be appreciated!

More pictures, as mentioned, in my two Flickr folders: Cars and Trucks and vans.

Edited August 22, 2012 by Phred

[Vindicare]

Wow, more amazing builds! 11 & 12 are awesome! 7 & 15 are great, as well.

[Ferrik]

Excellent MOCs. All the designs are sleek and detailed, so great job.

[The Blue Brick]

These are all great. They are so different from just the regular city vehicles that I so often see.

I also love how there are so many colors and different interpretations of older sets as they bring back good memories, but in a new way.

[CMP]

Amazing models. Each one is so unique, and the figs are a simple, but nice touch to add to them. There are so many nice piece usages and techniques that I won't even try to count them. The color choices are excellent, and I love the sparing, but effective use of chrome. My favorites would have to be the 3 Wheeler, the Surfer, and the last 3 listed, I'm a sucker for the retro and hot rod stuff.

[PsyKater]

Great builts! I really liked your previous MOCs but you are right: you are even getting better ;) There are a lot of cool details and nice building techniques (like the snot rear). I really like how you interprete classic sets in a modern way like the rally cars and the highway emergency. And I love the Tine Tanker!

Brick on!

[soccerkid6]

Beautifully done! 4 and 5 are my favorites Though I like 7, 9, and 14 a lot too, they are are all excellent designs

[L@go]

Thanks, guys - so far, you've mentioned the lorry, Gone Overboard, the Tine Tanker, Blue Eagle, the 3 Wheeler, Sinister Surfer, the boattail speedster, Ruby Roadster, the two rally cars, the modern 6653, and the 4x4 coupé as favourites - which means I've built something for several different tastes. That is what always amuses me most when I post a new batch of vehicles: The different favourites people pick.

Amazing models. Each one is so unique, and the figs are a simple, but nice touch to add to them. There are so many nice piece usages and techniques that I won't even try to count them. The color choices are excellent, and I love the sparing, but effective use of chrome. My favorites would have to be the 3 Wheeler, the Surfer, and the last 3 listed, I'm a sucker for the retro and hot rod stuff.

Thank you for your nice words! I also like that retro and hot rod stoff more and more :)

[lightningtiger]

AWESOME vehicles again from you 'L@go'......number 8 is fantastic and of course number 2.....what else but a tiger !

Man, I would want to make a six wide of that car.

Keep them 'L@go' and Brick On Drive On !

[Wedge09]

Fantastic MOC, I love all of this

Good job.

[greg3]

Great looking vehicles!! I especially like the 3 wheeler and the Blue Eagle!! (the blue repair truck brings back happy memories of the original - it was always one of my favourites as a kid!!)

Nice work!!

[Roger Rabbit]

Wow - these are seriously impressive, there's not one that doesn't stand as brilliant. Well done mate.

[antp]

Nice work

[vynsane]

Fantastic collection, but 'Sinister Surfer' is by far my fave.

[LEGO Guy Bri]

Love the new set of cars L@go! Tops are the rally cars, boat-tails, lorry, and 3-Wheeler

[Pencil_42]

There are some nice vehicles and great ideas in here - thank you very much for sharing!!

Curtis

[L@go]

Thanks again, guys - it's very inspiring to hear your kind words about these.

AWESOME vehicles again from you 'L@go'......number 8 is fantastic and of course number 2.....what else but a tiger !

Why am I not surprised? :)

Fantastic collection, but 'Sinister Surfer' is by far my fave.

Thanks! It's one of my favourites, too, it turned out really well.

[Cecilie]

These are really awesome, you really know your way around cars .

[Legogal]

Wow! Some lovely designs, colors and uses of parts!

Your drivers are pretty cool, too! They make the cars seem so human and their stories flow easier.

The wide variety of styles makes it hard to compare and choose a favorite, but surfer girl and the hearse are right up there.

Thanks for showing all of these wonderful builds!

[L@go]

Woohoo! Thanks a lot :)

Your drivers are pretty cool, too! They make the cars seem so human and their stories flow easier.

Thank you very much - I think of finding the right driver as one of the key elements to making a good vehicle. It all needs to fit together!

[Vincent Kessels]

Another great set of cars!

My favorites are the last three classic cars.

[SearchFunction]

Although I build in a 6w scale, I just find the originality and detail in these builds amazing.

[Selander]

Another great set of cars!

My favorites are the last three classic cars.

I fully agree with Vincent.

I think your previuos Tine truck is more "elegant", than the new tanker.

[LegofreakKO345]

Like always, your cars are simply awesome ''L@go'' ! I like your rally cars but the Turbo Tiger is definitely my favourite! (I'm a Lego freak, but I'm an orange freak too ) Keep going with these spectacular cars!

[Minoton]

Awesome cars!!! specially the "old" looking cars :) ( one noob question, what tire and wheel are thats, in the 3 wheeler, for explample... ty :))