My Custom Gudi Ice Cream Monster Truck!

Hi and thanks for visiting Bricks and Figs, my blog about my custom not Lego creations and minifigure reviews.   In this post, I will show you my latest custom build, the Ice Cream Monster Truck!

Just a bit of background, Lego recently released their Burger Monster Truck set31104 and it looked really cool.  Then, when I was checking out the latest not Lego brick sets on Aliexpress, I happened to see more Monster food trucks.

Lego Burger Monster Truck 31104

Sembo 5000 - 5003 Food Trucks

There are four different food trucks in the Sembo series: A burger or sub truck, an ice cream truck, a fried chicken truck and a coffee truck.  They all look great and I wanted to buy them all.  

I had narrowed my choice to the ice cream truck and was ready to buy it.  But at the last minute, I held off because I already have two ice cream trucks in my brick collection, the Enlighten 1112 Ice Cream truck and the Gudi 9603 Ice Cream truck.  

Then it dawned on me, that instead of spending another $30 on the Sembo monster food truck, I could simply make my own.  I already have a set of giant balloon tires and rims, and I could use and convert one of my existing ice cream trucks for it.

Gudi 9603 Ice Cream truck

For this monster truck project, I decided to use the Gudi Ice Cream truck.  As you can see it's a pretty bland truck, but has lots of windows and is easily modifiable.  The original wheels are begging to be replaced.

I pulled off the existing wheels and spindles and replaced the original 2 piece chassis with this long thicker 4x16 Megabloks part.

Next, I used 2 16 stud long technic beams and attached a couple of right angle brackets to them.  I also mounted 2 exhaust pipes to the frame. Those are real Lego balloon tires and rims.  

Here's the wheel assembly.

Here we have attached the frame to the body of the ice cream truck.

I typically don't use stickers in my builds but made an exception in this case.  Did I over do it?

One thing that I'm still missing is a ladder to get to the window.  Right now, you would have to throw your money at the ice cream lady and then catch the ice cream cone when she throws it to you, lol.
 

Rear view of the truck.

In addition to the stickers, I made some minor roof enhancements, nothing too noticeable.  I added an awning on the street-side of the truck.

More pics for your viewing pleasure.

Had those funny eye pieces, so figured I'd use them here.

Carter Baldwin's Blade Runner 2049 Spinner (with mods)

 

Hey brick fans!  Welcome back to Bricks and Figs, my blog dedicated to showing you my latest custom (MOC) creations and minifigures.   Don't forget to visit my other blog It's Not Lego to see the latest alternative Lego sets that I've added to my growing brick collection.

I'm a huge fan of the Blade Runner movie franchise, so I was really happy to see someone make a model of Officer K's spinner from the Blade Runner 2049 movie.

The instructions to create this Lego replica belong to Carter Baldwin and can be found here: https://bricksonthedollar.wordpress.com/spinner.

As you can tell from the pictures, I used a mish-mash of different Lego compatible bricks in my collection.  Who knew there were so many variations of dark gray bricks?  

Anyways, I followed Carter Baldwin's instructions and this is pretty much how it looked after completion.  I found the rear end of the model to be very fragile and it would pretty much collapse when I tried to pick it up.  Don't get me wrong, it looks great, but I move my models around a lot for picture taking and whatnot, so I don't want pieces falling off whenever I handle it.

I went through a number of rebuild iterations, and finally the latest version of my alt Lego spinner can withstand a lot of handling. 

My changes on the rear of model deviate from Carter Baldwins and the movie version of the Blade Runner 2049 spinner.  I switched to a smaller rear wheel to give me the room I needed to make the upward slope.  The movie version of the spinner has the rear lights below the black vents.  I added the red marker lights on the rear quarter panel but the movie version doesn't have them.

Carter Baldwin's door mechanism works really well, so I retained that design element.  If I had to make more changes, it would be to sub out the 1x1 trans blue piece with trans black colour.  The leading L brick, I would change from trans black to dark gray.  For some reason this picture makes the front end quite stubby looking.

Wonder if I should try elongating it by a bit?

Here's the view from the front.

Here's the side view.  The smooth triangle piece toward the underside is a from a Megablocks set if I recall correctly.  Not sure if Lego makes this piece.

Here's the spinner next to the Sembo Wandering Earth Troop Carrier for scale comparison.   The Sembo dark gray bricks are super dark compared to the regular dark gray bricks.  The spinner looks like it's made from light gray bricks instead.

Releasing the drone.

Two spinners are better than one.

Just a couple more shots before we go.

What do you think of this spinner version?  Let me know in the comments below.
Thanks for looking and see you in my next blog post, Bye!

Zhe Gao QL0935 Hill Tavern Modular Update - Third Floor Furnished!

Hello again! Welcome back to Bricks and Figs, my blog about MOCs and mods I create using not Lego bricks.  Feel free to use the Labels in this blog's sidebar to check out some of my other builds and creations.  I also post my latest not Lego set acquisitions on my other blog called Its Not Lego, so please check that out too!

This blog post is a continuation of the Zhe Gao Hill Tavern modifications, specifically it will look at the third floor that has been fully furnished.   If you just jumped in here randomly, you may want to check out my other blog posts first to get some context.   Here's my list of posts specifically about the Zhe Gao Hill Tavern evolution.

1. A look at the original set

2. Modular conversion

3. First floor furnished

4. Second floor furnished        

5. Third Floor furnished       <---- you are here

6. Bonus Pics (coming soon!)

Ok, let's continue!

I decided early on that the tavern owner would stay on premises, so his studio apartment would occupy the third floor of the modular building. Here's what the it looked like prior to renovations.  That's not the tavern owner in the pic, that's the renovation contractor BTW.   Let's take the apartment tour!

And here's tavern owner Ned in his brand new apartment.  The first room you encounter when you enter is the spacious kitchen, equipped with stove, oven, fridge and sink with lots of storage.  

Meals can be eaten at the kitchen table.  Tonight, Ned ordered a pepperoni pizza, which he will enjoy once we leave. 

If Ned wants to catch up on a football game, he can watch it on his big screen TV on his couch in the living room.

Ok, let's see where we will go next.

Right behind the couch is his workspace, where he can do the paperwork for the tavern and watch his stock portfolio on his computer.

Ned's apartment doesn't have a separate bedroom, hence it's only a studio, but that's good enough for him.

Fortunately, his studio apartment has room for a decent sized bathroom. It has a shower, toilet, sink and mirror.

Finally, here are a few more wider angle shots of Ned's apartment so you can get an idea of the layout.

Alright, I think it's time to leave and let Ned enjoy his pizza before it gets too cold.

BTW,  you can find the Zhe Gao QL0935 Hill Tavern set on Aliexpress by following the link below.

Thanks for visiting Bricks and Figs, and hope you can come back soon!  Bye!