Ferrari’s Testarossa is possibly the car that defined 80’s excess, and as fashion moves in circles it’s starting to look very cool once more. This neat recreation of the famous Fezza has been built by Sariel, who is – as many of you will know – one of the very best Technic builders in the world right now.

So what’s this admittedly pretty, but simple static model doing coming from him? Well, almost unbelievably, this little Ferrari features a complete Power Functions remote control system inside along with working lights front and rear. To fit it all in Sariel has designed one of the cleverest steering systems we’ve seen, which allows the front wheels to pivot inside their arches.

You can see how’s he’s done it via MOCpages, where there’s also an excellent (and nostalgic) video showing the Testarossa in action, and you can read his interview with us here at TLCB by clicking this link to the Become a Pro series.

MOCpages’ Ingmar Spijkhoven, a veteran of The Lego Car Blog, is back, with not one but three incredible remote controlled KrAZ 255B trucks. In fact there are nine models, once all the possible combinations of tractor and payload are included.

Powered by an XL motor each, with 6×6 drive, a working V8 engine, servo steering and solid axle suspension on all wheels, Ingmar’s KrAZ trucks are an engineering triumph.

Ingmar has designed three versions of the KrAZ 255B; flatbed, truck-trial (above) and logging (below). All are available to view on MOCpages, where full technical details can also be found, along with an extensive gallery of the features of each truck and payload combination. Click the link above to make the jump.

Sigh… Another day, another RC find, and another hour spent picking squashed Elves out of the office carpet. This has got to stop.

The cause of the carnage goes some way to brightening the mood here at TLCB Towers as it’s an absolutely first-class build. Eurobricks’ Madoca has constructed one of the best Technic off-road vehicles of the year with this incredible Baja trophy truck.

Underneath the bodywork is a Technic axle frame that houses five Power Functions motors (four for drive through the rear wheels plus one servo motor for steering) all controlled by a third-party SBrick system, a working V8 engine, LED lights, and brilliantly engineered independent front and trailing arm rear suspension, making Madoca’s trophy truck one of the most competent off-road vehicles built from Lego that we’ve seen.

You can read all the technical details and see the full gallery of images via the link in the text above, and you can watch the truck in action via the excellent video below.

YouTube Video:

We were still hoovering up the left over Elf body parts (we think they grow back… probably) from today’s earlier mass smashing when this came barrelling down the corridor in pursuit of a group of fleeing Elves.

Fortunately what is a terrifying Monster Truck of Death to the Elves is a Smallish Remote Control Toy to us, so it was duly picked up and the piloting Elf found and ejected from the office.

A Smallish Remote Control Toy it may be, but we can confirm that paave‘s buggy-motor powered, all-wheel-steered and all-wheel-drive ‘Hulk’ monster truck is riot to drive. So much so that it was sorely tempting to go on smushing rampage of our own.

You can see more of the Hulk on both MOCpages and Eurobricks – click the links to make the jump.

It’s time for another TLCB Set Review! But this time it’s one of our readers – the winner of TLCB Summer Building Competition – Thomas Graafland, who has picked up the Reviewer’s Pen. Thomas has got his hands on LEGO’s 2015 Technic flagship set, the 42043 Mercedes-Benz Arocs, and he’s joined us to explain all…

Browsing on Flickr a while ago I noticed this neat looking Mercedes truck displayed at a Lego fair.
Thinking at first that this was a MOC I was quite shocked that this was actually an official set. The second big shock was the €170 price tag. Normally there would be no chance of me spending that much on a single set, but being a fan of both trucks and LEGO, I knew this was THE set for me.

The box is as per usual with big Technic sets: large and decorated showing the model and the systems used; in this case both Power Functions and Pneumatics V2, and the cover folds open to reveal the model’s functions and some specifications of the real truck.

The box feels heavy, which is always a good sign. Inside are lots of plastic bags, each numbered from 1 to 6, except the one containing the pneumatic parts. The battery box is not in a bag and just slides around in the box between the plastic bags. Instructions are in a single book of 470 pages and the instructions booklet is packed in plastic too, so no folded pages.

The building process is lots of fun. You start off with the chassis, working from the front to the rear. Then comes the cabin, next the crane, and you finish with the bed. The building is very straight-forward, until you reach the crane, which requires some intensive studying of the instructions to get the tubing through the turntable right. It’s not like the instructions give you no clues on how to do it, but it does require a bit of extra attention. The finished truck is not huge, being similar to the 8285/8258 in terms of size. It is heavier, though!

The trucks cabin looks very neat and it definitely looks just like the real deal. The overall shape of the cabin is very smooth, and the cab doesn’t lack detail either. All mirrors, lights, horns and whatnot are present, showing that LEGO went quite some attention to getting the cabin right. I personally really am a fan of the way they did the front grill. I do think it would’ve looked better if the middle part of the grill would’ve been angled too, though, because it just looks a little odd to have only angled the lowest part. The doors open up, to reveal a very, very basic interior. The white colour of the cab looks very clean, but it doesn’t really stand out, which is quite a shame – it doesn’t do justice to that good looking cabin. The ever-boring dark bluish grey doesn’t help making it exciting either.

Steering is done with the two orange beacons on top of the cabin. The steering system works very well, but you have exactly zero grip on those slippery round beacons. There is some slack with the gears too, which only makes steering more difficult. The two front axles steer and turning feels very smooth thanks to the different steering locks on the two axles.

The truck features live-axle suspension all-around. The suspension is a bit on the hard side, but it works very well apart from that. One big downside of the suspension is that the truck sits really high on its wheels. This would’ve been no problem if the suspension travel was as big the gap between the wheels and fenders, but unfortunately it isn’t. Even when fully compressed, there is still about 2 studs room above the wheels and I feel that lowering the truck would actually have been quite possible. However, the suspension will be a very good base to re-use for Model Team MOCs.

The drivetrain is simple and smooth. The two rear axles drive the engine, which is hidden underneath the cabin. The inline six turns at reasonable speed and especially at higher speeds it makes that nice rattling sound. It’s bit of a pity that it can’t be seen from outside while driving it around, because it is completely hidden by the cab. The cabin folds forward neatly, but even then you can only see the first four cylinders. With some effort you can see the fifth one under the battery box, but the sixth cylinder is completely invisible underneath the crane.

The battery box is hidden very neatly in the rear part of the cabin and is easily replaced. The Power Functions L-motor that drives all the functions resides somewhere in the middle of the chassis and has no trouble driving any of the functions. The gearbox that is driven by the L-motor uses the new driving rings and gears and it drives four functions in total;

First are the outriggers. These use two new parts that seem to be specially designed to just be used as outriggers. They extend by 7-8 studs and need to be lowered by hand. They won’t lift your whole truck off the ground but they do provide the required stability and their red colour adds a bit of visual interest to the whole truck.

The second function is crane rotation. The crane rotates at what I think to be the right speed, where it doesn’t spin so slow that it gets boring, yet it can still be easily positioned precisely. It is a shame that the crane is limited to 180° rotation, though. Due to the pneumatic tubing going through the turntable, it has been limited to just a half circle turning. I’m not asking for 360° reach, but just a tad more would not have been unwelcome.

The pneumatic pump is the third function to be driven. All the crane’s functions except rotating work with pneumatics. The raising, lowering and extending of the crane all work seamlessly and especially in terms of height I’m impressed with its reach. Overall I find the crane to be really good. A small downside is the bucket. It seems to have a bit of trouble opening sometimes and although it can technically swing in all directions, it doesn’t do so, because of the stiffness of the pneumatic tubes. I would’ve personally also liked if it would have been able to turn, but I do understand that the pneumatics prevented the designers from doing so.

Don’t think the it isn’t well engineered though; overall the crane is really the most fun thing to play with on the truck and apart from the bucket I have no complaints about its performance. The pump has no trouble manoeuvring the crane and the tubing along the crane creates a more realistic feeling than using linear actuators would have done. The tubing does make the crane look bigger than it already is, though, and that while the crane already is about 10 studs higher than the cab roof. When looking at it from birds eye view this doesn’t matter, but from ground level it looks a bit off.

The crane uses what the box calls ‘Pneumatics V2’. The only differences I could see from the V1 components are the slightly different mounting points for the pneumatic tubes and the length. Performance-wise there is no difference, so they’ll seamlessly blend in with your regular pneumatics.

The last Power Functions driven function is the tipping of the bed, done by a single large linear actuator. The rear hatch can be locked with a handle on the side of the bed. The carbo-bay has practically no holes, so you can actually cram it with bricks without losing half the load during transport. Unloading works without problems there is nothing to complain about on this part of the truck.

Overall 42043 is lots of fun. All the functions work well and are easy to control, making it a very playable set. The cabin looks very convincing and is done neatly when you look past the dull white colour. The crane is a bit high when collapsed, but the smooth way it works makes up for that. 42043 does cost a lot of money, but it’s worth it. 9/10

Thanks to Thomas for joining us here at TLCB to review LEGO’s 2015 Technic Mercedes-Benz Arocs set. You can read all TLCB’s set reviews by visiting the Set Review Library – click this link to see the dozens available!

Hong Kong’s public transport system is awesome. The taxis have self-opening doors, the ferries are wonderfully historic (and ridiculously cheap), and the trams are as beautiful as this. Thank the British Empire for much of that, which is all the more annoying that in actual Britain public transport costs around fifty times as much and is worse in every way.

Back to Hong Kong and this brilliant electric tram comes from Shineyu Yu. Built to Technic figure scale it includes remote control drive, working LED lights, rotating destination board and some beautifully engineered opening doors. Hop on board at either MOCpages or Eurobricks.

It’s been a while since the last Elf smushing, but today – thanks to Technic legend Sheepo – vehicular violence returned to the halls of TLCB Towers.

Sheepo’s latest build is everything the Elves love in a vehicle, being orange, remote controlled and cartoonishly proportioned. It can also drive down a flight of stairs (literally! – watch the video below), so it had no trouble in running down (and then over) our smelly workforce.

Featuring all-wheel-drive courtesy of four XL motors, servo steering and two third-party SBricks for control Sheepo’s RC buggy is a formidable off-road machine. You can see further details of the build on Eurobricks by clicking here, where you’ll also find a link to free LDD instructions, because Sheepo is awesome.

You can also read more about Sheepo himself in our Interviews section and visit his own website via the Really Useful Links Directory.

YouTube Video:

It was quiet in TLCB Towers over the past few days. The Elves were out foraging for creations, thus allowing TLCB Staff to get whatever it is they do done, away from any Elf-related shenanigans. That productivity ended today.

Three creations were found, and – as is almost always the case – this started an Elf fight. This time though, one Elf had a distinct weaponry advantage…

Usually our smelly little workers employ the use of stationary, kitchen utensils and other office supplies to tip the odds in their favour. Unfortunately for the two Elves equipped as per the above, one of today’s combatants brought along an enormous remote control combine harvester…

It’s safe to say that a hand whisk is no match for several kilograms of remotely controlled whirling plastic.

The machine in question – a Bizon ZO56 – was found on Brickshelf, and whilst it is responsible for quite a lot of Elf blood on the office carpet, it’s also a damn good build. Trawson21 is the builder behind it, and there’s lots more to see, including a link to a video of the harvester in action, on Brickshelf at the link above.

This superb remote control Scania R730 truck was discovered on MOCpages today. It’s been built by previous bloggee Shineyu Yu, who has matched his latest build to scale with LEGO’s own Mercedes-Benz Arocs truck. Underneath the Technic bodywork is a set of Power Functions motors and LED lights, and there’s lots more to see on either MOCpages or Eurobricks – click the links to make the jump.

Nope, not your Mom’s promiscuous photos again – newcomer Chade is making his TLCB debut with his neat remote controlled convertible sports car. Like your Mom though, Chade can fit a lot in; underneath the compact bodywork are a Power Functions rechargeable battery, L-Motor, Servo Motor and IR receiver. There’s more to see on Eurobricks – click the link above for all the photos.

It’s an RC kinda day here at TLCB. LEGO’s beautifully versatile Power Functions motors can be used to enhance almost any model, and one of the more unusual we’ve found recently is this Sikorsky CH-54 Skycrane helicopter. Eurobricks’ juGSI16V is the builder and you can see more of his brilliant remote control Technic helicopter at the link above.

Mercedes’ G-Wagon has become a bit of tragic of late, being largely bought by rappers, business men of dubious morality, and rich housewives, fitted with 22″ chrome rims, and driven to the mall every other Tuesday. Never has a vehicle so capable been used so far beneath its ability.

We very much like this one though; Pat-Ard‘s basic short-wheelbase hard top, with plastic coloured wheel-arches, no body-kit, skinny tyres, and much more street-cred than anything in Beverly Hills.

Pat’s model is fitted with working suspension, opening doors, dropping tail-gate with swing-away spare wheel, and with Power Functions RC steering and drive too – check it out in Eurobricks at the link above.

The last four creations posted here have been remotely controlled, thanks to LEGO’s excellent Power Functions motor system, and today’s find makes it five-in-a-row. TLCB debutant Karol Czerwonka’s Mercedes-Benz Arocs recovery truck mixes LEGO’s electric motors and pneumatics systems to create a fully working under-lift and a brilliant tilting and sliding recovery bed.

There’s also functioning steering, a tilting cab with opening doors, and a working piston engine. In fact the only way Karol’s truck could be more realistic is if it included a Fiat on the back. You can see more of the Mercedes on both Brickshelf and Flickr – click the links for the full gallery of images.

LEGO’s latest flagship, the Technic 42043 Mercedes-Benz Arocs set, is currently generating a bit of a buzz in the online Lego Community, and Polish Lego group LUGpol has tasked its members with diversifying the official set by building a new vehicle from the original cab.

We featured a superb remotely controlled Arocs flatbed rescue truck here earlier, which we thought would be tough to beat, but Brickshelf’s GIJack might have taken the lead with his excellent 3-vehicle car transporter. Yes, you can fit not one, but three broken Fiats on-board. Or some nice shiny new cars of course.

There’s a full gallery of high quality images available on Brickshelf via the link above, plus you can read our Review of the official 42043 Mercedes-Benz Arocs set by clicking here.

Home-designed variants of LEGO’s own official 42043 Mercedes-Benz Arocs truck set are popping up all over the place at the moment, and this absolutely enormous 4-axle concrete pump is easily the biggest, the most complicated, and probably the most amazing variant we’ve seen so far.

Built by Brickshelf’s waler, this remarkable Technic model faithfully replicates the huge truck-mounted concrete pumps that regularly service the needs of entire construction sites*.

Featuring remotely controlled Power Functions drive and 4-wheel steering, LED lights, a tilting cab, a V6 piston engine, motorised out-riggers, rotating pump arm, and pneumatic compressor for the pneumatically raising and extending boom, Waler’s Mercdes-Benz Arocs is one of the most technically advanced builds of the year.

There’s an extensive gallery of over 40 superb images available to view on Brickshelf – join us there in amazement by clicking the link in the text above.

*Just like your Mom.

LEGO’s Technic Mercedes-Benz Arocs set is currently generating a huge response from the online community; we’ve publicised four home-built variants in the last week alone! This one, suggested to us by a reader, comes from previous bloggee Krzysztof Cytacki, and it’s so far the most similar build to the official set. But don’t let that fool you – it’s far from a minor modification.

Krzysztof’s Arocs truck loses the official set’s 4-axle configuration in place of a 3-axel with rear-steer set up. It also features a grab arm, pneumatically operated stabilisers, and a hook-lift roll-off container, which is also powered by LEGO’s neat pneumatic system.

There’s lots more too see at Krzysztof’s Flickr photostream via the link above, and if you’d like to read more about the official Technic set that started the current trend you can do so via TLCB Set Review Library – click here to make the jump.

We’ve been quite pleased with TLCB Elves recently. Not only have they found lots of tasty Lego creations for us to feature, they’ve beaten the proper blogs to a few of them by days. We’re not always as rubbish as we think we are here!

Sadly the Elves, being violent little turds, can consistently be relied upon to balance out any of their good deeds with something awful.

In today’s awful event, two Elves were found pinned against the office cactus by a (brilliant) remote controlled Technic fork lift, its wheels still spinning furiously as the Elf at the controls tried to drive its colleagues deeper into their spiny green hell.

Upon discovery the demented driving Elf abandoned its find and escaped cackling into the night, leaving us to extract the assaulted Elves and – borrowing an office intern’s eyebrow tweezers – spend an evening removing cactus spines from various Elven body parts. Sometimes we hate working at The Lego Car Blog.

Back to the creation, and it’s almost worth all of tonight’s fuss. Built by Eurobricks’ Kevin Moo it features five Power Functions motors for a variety of functions, and you can see more at the Eurobricks forum via the link above.

This is, quite simply, the most effective Elf-smushing vehicle that has ever graced the halls of TLCB Towers.

It’s Sariel‘s incredible newest creation, taken from the equally incredible Mad Max – Fury Road movie, and it’s one of our favourite cars of the year so far.

Underneath the ruined muscle car bodywork, and above the brilliant suspended track system, sit a pair of LEGO batteries connected to twin LEGO RC buggy motors, each controlled by the superb SBrick third-party bluetooth system.

And that makes the Peacemaker one of the fastest, most agile and most highly manoeuvrable Lego vehicles that this site has ever published. And none of this was good news for our Elves.

You can see more of Sariel’s awesome creation on MOCpages by clicking here, you can read more about the builder through our interviews page here, and you can witness the Peacemaker in action via the epic YouTube video below.

YouTube Video:

LEGO’s hot-air-ballon pieces might seem a bit single-use to some, but not to Flickr’s František Hajdekr, who has incorporated them brilliantly into his swooping Technic chopper. Float over to Flickr on link above.

The Mercedes-Benz Arocs creations keep on coming! The latest to grace these pages comes from Eurobrick’s Samolot, and it’s one of the most impressive developments of LEGO’s 42043 set that we’ve seen thus far.

Featuring remote control drive and steering, suspension and pneumatic outriggers, Samolot’s Arocs truck includes as many functions as the official set, and that’s before you get to there junk in the trunk…

Mounted over the rear wheels is a platform suspended by six pneumatic cylinders (controlled via a Power Functions electric compressor), which can raise, lower, pitch, and yaw. Insert some patrons into said platform along with a large TV screen and this Mercedes-Benz Arocs becomes a flight simulator ride!

Samolot’s creation is one of the engineering highlights of the year so far, and includes five Power Functions motors, three Power Functions switches, ten pneumatic cylinders and six meters of pneumatic hosing.

You can see all the details on Eurobricks by clicking here, alongside a full description and, best of all, a video of the flight simulator in action!