LEGO’s new Brick Sketches product line featuring brick-built portraits of popular characters is now available. The first four sets in the lineup include BB-8, a First Order Stormtrooper, Batman and The Joker.
The 2D portraits are the next collectible LEGO product line following BrickHeadz and are the work of recently hired LEGO designer Chris McVeigh who created the Brick Sketch concept several years ago (read our interview with him about how Brick Sketches became an actual LEGO product).
LEGO Brick Sketches are a new collectible series of brick-built portraits of popular characters intended for display, not play. Slated to be available July 15, they will retail for US $19.99 | EU €19.99 each. We’ve already taken a look at the LEGO DC Brick Sketches characters in the first wave, and today we’ll check out the Star Wars sketches. Are 40391 Brick Sketches: First Order Stormtrooper and 40431 Brick Sketches: BB-8 worth the price point, and do they have any appeal for the larger LEGO market?
Something I’ve always wondered is if both BB-8 and R2-D2 converse in the same droid language. As it turns out, based on the Data Files from Star Wars, it seems that BB-8 speaks a 27th-generation droidspeak — I assume a newer form of communication. This means that BB-8 could be spewing out vulgarities at poor old Artoo and he’d be none the wiser. These two builds by Rui Miguel Anacleto of the two famous droids are some of the best-looking LEGO-built droids that I’ve seen at this scale.
Granted, the dome of R2-D2’s headpiece isn’t quite round, but I like how the detailing is captured by utilising printed parts from the official versions in their individual polybags.
The new trilogy’s adorable astromech has appeared in a number of official versions from LEGO, including as a minifig, as a UCS Model, and even as a polybag! However, Brick Spirou has reimagined him again as a kind of Claptrap (from Borderlands). I love the LEGO Technic shoulder pads, the unique poseable fingers, all assembled with a simple yet perfect colour scheme. Could you imagine games of the future featuring huddles of muscled, mono-wheeled, mini-bots charging around a pitch wildly chasing a leather ball? Such a wonderful idea exceptionally executed.
Perhaps this BB-8’s full designation ought to be Borderlands Buddy – 8.
May the Fourth or “Star Wars Day” is right around the corner, and LEGO has sent us an early copy of the free promotional set, 40288 BB-8. The set will be available May 4th through 6th (or until supplies run out) with LEGO Star Wars purchases over $75. We’ll bring you more details on the May the Fourth sales and deals later this week, so check back soon for more updates.
This buildable character joins the large-scale 75187 BB-8 released in 2017, and is about the same size as last year’s buildable R2-D2, so let’s dig in and see how this new droid compares.
Builder DOGOD Brick Design certainly found the droids that we were all looking for. These tiny builds of the robots that we know and love so dearly are cleverly built in a slightly 2D form. The flat designs would sit quite nicely in a frame or stuck on a magnet or even on a Christmas ornament. While the building techniques may be simple-looking, DOGOD certainly brought these characters to life with instant recognition. I wonder if we might see the rest of the characters from the Star Wars movies represented in a similar style sometime in the future.
You never know what you’re going to get when you ask the right questions. Recently, we had the chance to speak with Douglas Khoo about his work. Douglas is a talented builder who seldom showcases his builds online, but does what he does for the love of it. If the builder’s name rings a bell, that’s because he was part of the crew that was invited to create and build an exhibit for the UNESCO’s Piece of Peace exhibition that will travel the world.
Douglas created this magnificent collage of LEGO Star Wars ships with a silent tribute to the Dark Side. This montage only took Douglas about two hours to complete, and if you did not already notice, it’s inspired by a similar piece by artist Louis C. Hébert from the Bleublancrouge advertising agency from the Star Wars Identities Exhibition over at the Montreal Science Centre, back in 2012. The difference though is Douglas makes use of the negative space a lot more to give the Star Wars ships a showcase of their own and individuality. If you still don’t see Vader there, squint your eyes, take a step back and look again!
When asked about how big a fan he was, Douglas’s answer was – you’ve got to be kidding me. That’s when we were introduced to a showcase of his other masterpieces which all center around the beloved Star Wars theme. With each of these builds, Douglas adds his own twists of interpretation and re-imagination to the scene.
Continue reading to see Douglas’s re-imagined LEGO Star Wars creations
Based on looks alone, BB-8 is always a little less interesting for me than R2-D2 — a couple of sphere’s stacked on top of each other and you’re good to go. But what makes him come alive is his ability to glide across any surface gracefully while looking around and making charming bleeping sounds. Jedi brickmaster Takamichi Irie cleverly constructs a body-spinning, head-turning, light-illuminating BB-8 to bring the character to life in LEGO. All that’s missing is a lighter for recreating that memorable “thumbs up” gesture!
I think we can all agree that BB-8 is pretty darn adorable and an excellent addition to the Star Wars universe. Don’t you just want to cuddle him? Marketing ploy or not, his fiery thumbs-up made me giggle. Everybody needs a little droid in their life, and Irwan Prabowo gives us the perfect pocket-sized LEGO version.
