The Scuzz And The Fuzz Roundup

This month's roundup has to do with the Scuzz and the Fuzz...its the law breakers vs the law enforcers...creepy criminal cars and the police vehicles sworn to hunt them down. We were sure to get a nice mix of vehicles for this challenge and boy did we not disappoint! Lets see how we all did, shall we?

Dylan Denton is off to a strong start with this pair of prototype Japanese police vehicles...one a sporty coupe with gullwing doors and the other a massive supervan to haul off unruly criminals. Both have that futuristic concept movie vehicle feel that the Japanese adore so much...and be sure not to miss the video illustrating the vehicle's features including flashing lights!



Dohoon Kim brings in the fuzz in classic black and white with this Saleen S281 Extreme police vehicle. He also tells us this could technically be considered the scuzz as Barricade was a bad cop car from Transformers. Who could forget the tag line it said on the car..."to punish and enslave". I'm thinking of getting that put on the side of my dad's rusted out Aries K wagon. Ah, its been sooo long since I pulled an Aries K joke!



Here is something Ralph Savelsberg would have seen a lot of in his rear view mirror...if he had a rear view mirror. Or a car. Still, this Dutch police bike must be familiar territory for our Dutch born Mad Physicist. I'm particularly liking the accurately portrayed slumped shoulders of the rider and the rear mounted blue light.



Ralph is probably glad he doesn't have a car to speed by this stealthy unmarked vehicle. He tells us that American unmarked police cars are fairly easily identifiable...what with their marked license plates and specialty antennas, lights and other doodads...but Dutch unmarked cars are truly unmarked. Who could suspect this unassuming dark blue VW Passat as being an unmarked speed trap? They come in both sedan and estate wagon flavors!



With all this fuzz hanging around you'd think the scuzz wouldn't rear its ugly head. But sometimes the scuzz isn't too bright as evidenced by the ugliest of all scuzz...a trailer park built by my bug-builder buddy Doctor Mobius. His first ever LUGNuts entry features the requisite broken down car in the front yard as well as other not to be missed scuzzy details. Mobius has lived in Alabama so he knows all about the lowdown scuzz. Makes you wanna wash your hands, doesn't it?



Lego Junkie loads in s'more scuzz to keep the trailer park company...this time in the form of a heavily modified Ford F-100 pickup. With menacing exhaust pipes sticking out of the engine cavity and a boat window, this design borrows heavily from Nathan's post-apocalyptic pickup, but Lego junkie also included a 50 cal machine gun and a cooler to keep those scuzzy Coors Lites as cold as the Rockies!



Tommy N keeps law and order with this little Fuzzati Veyron. I'm not a gamer, but the trailer that Tommy included for Need For Speed: Hot Pursuit looks awesome! Among the fuzz's ranks is the million dollar Veyron police conversion that inspired Tommy's build. With fuzz that powerful, I'd think twice about outstepping the law, heck, I'd even consider never bringing in my library books late ever again!



Jason Son shows the scuzz some love with this lowdown '55 Chevy Bel Air complete with red and yellow flames and a 50's era greaser. It was these kinds of cars with their suped-up engines that started illegal street drag racing. In spite of all the police efforts to restore order, many a hot rodder was killed during these illegal races...which in turn spawned the sport of legal drag racing on safer, more controlled drag strips.



J0n4th4n D3rk53n chimes in with this too wild to believe polizia concept vehicle designed to chase down speeders. The strange flattened design seems to flow well with the shiny chrome rims courtesy of Bricksonwheels and with its raked up back end and sick exhaust pipes, I wouldn't want this concept vehicle in hot pursuit in my rearview mirror!



From the fuzz to the scuzz, Jonathan gives equal billing to the...um...criminally insane. You'd have to be if you chose this bright yellow and red low down '50 Merc as your getaway car. Nothing says "hey, look at me!" like a custom Merc in flashy Ronald McDonald colors.



Speaking of flashy colors, Jake conjures up a trio of tiny English Police cars with their bright lights and blue and yellow stripes. One is the Mitsubishi Evo X, another is a Lambo Gallardo and the last is the Vauxhall Astra. Gosh even the English sirens sound polite and dignified. Neener Neener Neener Neener!



Aaron F1...not to be confused with our other Aaron...presents the Vegan Police vehicle from Scott Pilgrim vs. The World. I didn't see the movie but the Vegan police are probably as weird and obnoxious as vegans in real life. Those folks don't eat any animal products...like not even cheese or eggs. I've done a lot of reading up on animal conservation and I've come to the sound conclusion that there is plenty of room for all of God's creatures...right next to the mashed potatoes. Hah! I love that joke!



NK DeSign-er declares the quadbike to be the perfect scuzz getaway vehicle...and why not? They're small, agile and can get on and off the road with equal ease and speed off through the forest or rough terrains where most police vehicles dare not tread. This quad is an alternate model to the official Lego Creator 5867 Super Speedster set. It seems alternate models are NK's specialty.



Sometimes the fuzz is not at all from the official police force. Sometimes they're just suave and debonaire heroes. Take this James Bond Blower Bently Convertible 1930 Coupe for example built by none other than Peter Blackert. While the movie version of Bond chases bad guys and beautiful women in an Aston Martin, the literary version does the same in a Bentley in pure English elegance and style. Just look at that white tux. Classy!



Some more lego911 fuzz for your viewing pleasure is this Ford Mondeo Mk III UK Police Cruiser in striking blue and lime green stripes. Its what all the modern Bobbies are driving! They still call them Bobbies, right?



Finally on the Lego 911 slab, we go from ultra-modern to ultra-oldschool with this Ford Model A 1928 Tudor Sedan Police Vehicle. Peter has this body style down pat, as evidenced by his several recent appearances on The Brothers Brick. Man, I still can't get over how perfect those rubber tires stretched over spoked wagon wheels are!



New guy Parda Technic somehow lives up to his name with this futuristic Police Cabrio...chock full of gear trains, moving pistons and other technic doodads and doohickeys. He tells us this creation is half old...half new...then he laughs menacingly. The technic scale driver sits all the way in the back and rides this beast like a chariot. Neat!



Firas Abu-Jaber is all about the fuzz this month with this 1991 Bugatti EB110 SS. With this sleek car patrolling the beat, I wouldn't even consider stealing a pen from the bank!...which would be hard considering they're always attached to them little ball-in-socket chains...which can make it hard to fill out a deposit slip.



Legogil lives in Brazil (hey, that rhymes!) so he knows all about the Chevy Opala. Its a little unclear if he's supposed to be representing the scuzz or the fuzz with this ride (maybe a little of both) but he tells us the Opala used to the used as police cars and taxi cabs. This particular Opala looks like it was refurbished for more...um...scuzz related activity like maybe street racing.



Sir Nadroj tells us all to respect his authoritah! And who wouldn't with this very respectable classic 1979 Dodge Monaco police cruiser? This is just the kind of police vehicle you'd see running down baddys in American car chase movies of yore. Ah, whatever happened to the classic American car chase? Nowadays car chases are done very slowly in a white Ford Bronco.



Orion Pax also has classic 70's police chases on the brain with this sleek tan and black highway patrol vehicle. Pax busts the legs off an ultra-rare chrome stormtrooper to form that front bumber...and check out the wheel wells. Long before anyone else can get their greasy mitts on them, Pax somehow sports the tan cheese slopes!



Is it any surprise that self proclaimed badboy Lino Martins goes with the scuzz on this one? With a screaming blue on blue on blue 60’s era panels paint job, this custom '59 Ford Ranch wagon has wracked up three speeding tickets, four parking violations, three counts of disturbing the peace, two counts of illegal street racing and even one count of “riding a little too low for this jurisdiction”...and that was all just this Friday alone!



A guy with Asian characters for a name (a.k.a. "Brad") is a man of few words. Actually, only one word..."old". Whether he's telling us this an an old MOC or a MOC of an old car, you don't need many words to tell us this is the classic iconic '74 Ford Gran Turino from the old Starsky and Hutch show of yore...putting this law enforcing MOC squarely in the fuzz category.



A man of many more words...and more entries is Sangi13. First he chimes in heavily with a trio of entries spanning both the scuzz and the fuzz. First a '70 Ford Mustang for the law-biding fuzz, second a '32 roadster also for the fuzz and a '32 roadster 5-window for the scuzz...which somehow surprisingly looks more like a hummer. Hmmmm.



Looking much more like what its supposed to be is this little 1982 Mustang convertible built for the scuzz to outrun the police. Two fuzz and two fuzz from Sangi13. He seems to like balance and order.



According to Tim Inman, there is nothing scuzzier than Japanese underground street racing gangs...and nothing outruns the law like Han's Veilside Mazda RX-7 from "The Fast And The Furious III: Tokyo Drift". Tim tells us he built this sweet ride primarily for "Big in Japan" the Brothers Brick BrickCon layout. Had he waited six days, he could have also built this for "Big In Japan" the LUGNUts challenge. Awwww nuts!



GoRiLLaWeR tells us if you're gonna run from the cops, you may as well do it in early 90's style in this Lamborghini Diablo. He also says the idea came from the E-Team movie (?) M. A. Barrracus drove one. Wait, is this some sort of twisted alternate reality dimension? I thought his name was B. A. Barracus, he drove a black van and he was part of the A-team! Eh whatever.



Know why this slick Noble M12 is so scuzzy? Rolic tells us its because cops only see its tail lights...oh, and also because it has no license plate, so take that, stupid coppers! That puts this badboy ride clearly in the scuzz category and a stunning sophomore effort for Rolic. Yep, I said sophomore. It means 2nd...not just in high school terms. Look it up, kids!



Ah, finally the power of suggestion worked! I suggested someone should build the A-Team van in the challenge write up and sure enough Raphy answers the call of duty with this badass B. A. Barracus-mobile. Not bad for a kid whose never seen even one episode of A-Team. Come to think of it, its been a long time since I've seen A-Team and I only remember Mr. T always "pitying the fool!" I didn't check out the new movie either.



You know what's Big In Japan besides Godzilla and used panty vending machines? Akira bikes. Aaron smiley face (not to be confused with Aaron F1) builds a whole slew of them in preps for BrickCon 2010. Who's all gonna be there? I know I will. Aaron will. He's a cool dude...kind of a hip-hop guy with lots of tats. You should introduce yourselves to him, when you see him. Ask him about Mary Jane. ;)





Speaking of Big In Japan...and BrickCon...that brings us to next month's build challenge called...um...Big In Japan. Once again I've created a Brothers Brick challenge tie-in right before BrickCon. I mean really, what else would you have expected considering last year's zombie killing challenge? Who could forget the mean and nasty Sgt. Rex Malone? I'm still hearing that line in my head about electric cattle prods to the nutsack. Anyway, register for BrickCon 2010 if you haven't already and come back soon to see how we all do with the new Big In Japan challenge. Until next time, peace out and "domo arigato, Mr. Roboto!"

Ah, Styx...they were so ahead of their time!

Size Matters Round Up.

Welcome to the Size Matters round up. The title of this challenge makes about 90% of us feel just a little uneasy, while the other 10% smile knowingly for some reason. Beats me as to what thats about. So what happens when we give everyone free rein as to what vehicles they can build...but insist upon multiple scales? Building smaller or larger than your usual is not as easy as you'd think. Lets see how we all did, shall we?

Steve "kwycstix" Walker shows us right off the bat that size (big or small) is nothing to be feared with this massive flatbed hauler designed to haul off Steve's now wrecked Eleanor's Sister. No Eleanor's Sister is not some giant relative wrecked on booze...its a car. You see, there was this movie and Eleanor was this car...and now we have Eleanor's Sister and here are the big and little haulers built to haul it away. Somehow this makes Steve Eleanor's Sister's father...aww never mind! I'm confused already.



Jonathan proves he's no slouch when building multiple versions of an industrious Mobile Crane. The little' un has just as much detail and functionality as the bigg'un. Be sure to check out the video showing the power functions of the bigger crane.



Guess who else isn't a slouch? Peter Blackert shows us some size magic with this sleek set of Bugatti Veyrons. Peter does the unusual thing and actually upscales his normal with a stunning 1:15 scale (or Lino scale) model. Then he presents his familiar 1:20 scale, followed by a smaller 1:28 and if that ain't enough, he lays on a tiny 1:43 scale about the size of a Matchbox car.



Not to be outdone by his own self, Lego911 also presents a more classic Bugatti, this time a Type 35B in lovely dark blue. He repeats the same four scale pattern with this set so we have the old and new Bugattis in four distinct scales. Neat!



Toward the end of the challenge Lego911 still had some steam left so he whipped up this foursome of classic "Bowler Bentleys". While James Bond chased after secret spies and hot women in an Aston Martin in the movies, Peter tells us the Bowler Bentleys were the suave agent's vehicle of choice in the original Ian Fleming novels. And now you know!



Dylan Denton shows us the Ford Escort can be cool again with this fiery pair of 1978 Escort Mk2 Rally Racers complete with fog lamps and racing number. The bigger model contains detailed roll cage, fuel cell and even firefighting equipment inspired by yours truly. Word on the street is this might be some of Dylan's best work yet. What do you think?



Well if you're undecided, Dylan brings back his classic Ford Bronco from the LUGNuts calendar and conjures up a smaller, cuter version of the same. The litte'un is just a tough as its bigger brother and just as iconic. Dylan says he bent the rules a little but as he is well aware, once you get at least one solid entry down, bending the rules becomes so much more forgivable. Plus its such a neat little Bronco and good to see the old classic again.





July and some of August has been all about Iron Builder for Lino Martins. Holy crap, was it ever! I spent just about every waking moment in July building something or another in a desperate attempt to outdo my friend V&A Steamworks. Because I love LUGNuts so much, I figured out a way to build a legitimate Iron Builder entry (by using the requisite white curved arch secret ingredient) with this Mountain Pearl custom pickup. The littler version of itself satisfies this challenge. I hope to win, but as of writing this, judging is still pending. Wish me luck!



Sangi13 submits this big and little pair of red dump trucks. They're surely dump...truck...ish. And red. Time for a snack. I'm having Brie cheese with honey. Brie is sort of a soft, melty cheese like no other kind of cheese I've seen. You all should give it a try. If you eat it on a cracker with your pinky out you can look and feel classy. That's important.



A guy named oldeconoline builds...what else? An old Econoline! He already had the littler version from before but this time presents us with a larger, more detailed version with a large racing engine in the back. Speaking of cheese, he tried to find a gray cheese wedge for the smaller engine so it more closely matched its larger counterpart but his daughter was hogging all the lego pieces for her Oregon State Fair LEGO competition. Awwww cute, I hope she wins!



Aaron F1...not to be confused with LUGNutter Aaron (colon parentheses smiley face) Dayman...whips up a pair of Audi S1 Rally cars for his first ever LUGNuts entry. I'm digging the red and yellow paint scheme and the logo up front is distinctly Audi.



Dohoon Kim makes use of a whole slew of black pieces and some oldschool style with this pair of 1935 hot rodded pickups. Some cool techniques were used for the mirrors and check out that wicked tilt on the larger engine!



Proving he's not down for the count yet, Dohoon Kim comes up with a second entry pair, this time a couple of tractor trailer trucks. Hey, they remind me of the official LEGO creator set number 4955...only these are its smaller siblings. Am I right? They totally look similar.



If anyone knows that size does indeed matter its The Big Rafalski. I mean he's got "big" right in his name! And Rafalski. That also implies big...somehow. Put them together and you've got The Big Rafalski. Probably "The Huge Rafalski" and "The Giant Rafalski" was already taken by other members of his family. Anyway, here's a neat pair of old Ford hot rods.



So what does the undisputed king of Tiny Turbos do when faced with a Size Matters challenge? Does he go bigger with a real life sized gargantuan Volvo like whatshisname built? No, Raphy goes even smaller! The 4-wide '87 Buick GNX looks like a monster next to its 3-wide, 2-wide, and 1-wide little siblings.



Next (actually first but I flipped it around for continuity purposes) Raphy builds us a tiny Dodge Challenger SRT10. 'Sup, dudes, Raphy tells us. He sounded kinda cocky about it. But where is its bigger counterpart, you may ask? The rules specifically states you must provide multiple scale entries so what gives? Yeah, I'd be cocky about it too...



Raphy recruited the help of none other than his bigger, more...um...Middle Eastern-er brother Firas Abu-Jaber to provide the larger version of the same Dodge! No slouch when it comes to highly detailed muscle cars, this BMOC (Big Man On Campus) of the LUGNuts scene tells us this was one of the most difficult cars he's ever built. Firas and Raphy should be most proud for pulling off this epic pair!



Not to be outdone in a challenge chock full of great team work, the odd couple Ricecracker and our own Mad Physicist pulls off another stunning team venture...this time a stunning pair of Scania R500 Wrecker trucks. Both trucks feature a working winch, boom and outriggers...Ralph's larger version is powered by Power Functions. They only went by photos and neither has seen each other's MOCs until their debut. It takes lots of communication, team work, and almost an eerie sixth sense to pull off a buddy pair this well. Good work, guys!





Well, I can't think of a better way to end this great challenge. There wasn't much participation this time around but with what few entries we have there were a lot of great surprises...and some phenomenal buddy teamwork. Stay tuned to see how we all do with this month's newest challenge called The Scuzz And The Fuzz...all about law breaking and/or law biding vehicles...the criminal scuzz and the heroic fuzz sworn to chase them down. Thanks for reading! Let us know you've been here and we'll keep cranking out the round ups.