When Buddha inspires your LEGO builds...

Why not make a Buddha out of LEGO? Actually, while we’re at it, why not make a posable Buddha mech? That’s what inspired Moko to build this odd-but-beautiful creation, and the posable figure is actually quite intriguing. The body shape is nice, and the face, as well as the hair made with exposed studs on the head, are expertly crafted.

Buddha robot

Moko is also quite good at taking photos that really bring his characters to life. If you can read Japanese (or roughly approximate it with an in-browser translator), you can learn more about Moko and his build on his blog. Actually, even if you can’t, his plethora of pictures are quite interesting! Yes, a minifigure can indeed fit in the compartment behind that muscular chest, so we guess that makes this technically a mech.

Buddha robot

A beautifully run-down cottage in the woods

A cottage in the woods is a very pastoral setting, but this cottage by Pavel Angelov Marinov looks a bit sad and neglected. Could be the perfect hiding spot for an evil sorcerer, or a fugitive framed for the murder of his wife by a mysterious one-armed man, or even a beautiful princess troubled by a curse. Between the overgrown landscape, the dilapidated stone walls, and the roof with a tree growing out of it, this cottage could use some love. Maybe some industrious little dwarves with funny names would be up to the task.

LEGO Cottage

One of my favorite features of this model is the roof. Using ball joints first introduce by LEGO in 2014 in the Mixels theme provides the perfect organic curve to build the crooked thatched look. Also, Pavel’s choice of olive green stems mixed in with the traditional green ones provides a nice contrast with the green flowers.

A skyline that fits seemlessly with your collection

There are lots of people making their own versions of the LEGO Architecture city skylines. This is especially the case with a new contest on LEGO Rebrick. One hopeful builder, Felix (saabfan2013), could certainly be a top contender with his recreation of San Francisco.

San Francisco Skyline

In addition to the iconic Golden Gate Bridge, Felix included several other important landmarks. They are the Palace of Fine Arts, Salesforce Tower, Coit Tower, and Transamerica Pyramid. He also built an adorable row of houses with a tiny trolley car.

TBB Weekly Brick Report: LEGO news roundup for July 22, 2018 [News]

In addition to the amazing LEGO models created by builders all over the world, The Brothers Brick brings you the best of LEGO news and reviews. This is our weekly Brick Report for the fourth week of July 2018.

TBB NEWS, REVIEWS AND FEATURES: When it rains, it pours! This week was packed with LEGO news, featuring reviews, trips back in time, and even some decent deals.

TBB ASTON MARTIN NEWS AND REVIEW: The top secret reveal of the week was the brand new James Bond Aston Martin DB5, and we have all the coverage you need right here.


TBB SDCC NEWS AND REVEALS: San Diego Comic-Con wraps up this weekend, but we are still getting new sets revealed as well as some instructions for those fantastic exclusives. Hooray!

OTHER NEWS: There were quite a few other interesting LEGO news articles from around the web this week. Here are the best of the rest:

Check out the other LEGO news of the week

A trifecta of tiny travelers

When it comes to minifigure-scale cars, Jonathan Elliott has proven to be the master of his craft. Jonathan is back on the road with three great cars, two of which might look a little bit familiar if you happened to be following us back in November 2017. He is back with two sweet mods, as well as something completely different! Get ready to start your engines for the Porsche 911 Turbo, which first hit the scene back in 1975.

Porsche 911 (930) Turbo

Jonathan’s modifications bring the 260 hp turbocharged legend to life, complete with the famed “whale tail” spoiler. The iconic Porsche curves are also here, right down to the subtle slant of the rear windshield and feels proportioned just right. (If you will recall our review of Speed Champions set 75888, one of our laments was that the 911 was just a stud too long.) An added bonus is the car’s vibrant orange exterior color, which is reminiscent of the Porsche 911 set available through LEGO Shop at Home.

See more of Jonathan’s fantastic LEGO cars

Pingu! Pingu!

Anyone who has ever watched an episode of Pingu! will instantly recognize this lovable penguin with a big heart and an even bigger knack for getting into trouble. CHUNG-HENG CHENG has captured his likeness, along with his adorable baby sister Pinga perfectly. Be sure to take a closer look, as the scale might easily fool you.

Pingu

This island marketplace has everything you want; from LEGO bricks to... LEGO bricks.

Builder John Snyder calls this creation “The Island of El Harraz,” and while I believe that this could be a part of an island, it is probably not the whole deal, considering where the camel and ostrich would go, why the denizens would have a market and what the structural integrity of medieval buildings would be on such a small sandy island. That aside, the creation is just sweet. Until a few years ago, Middle Eastern-inspired builds were rare, but lately, we’re seeing more of this established style of architecture (that is at least as deserving of attention as the classic European utilitarian military forts).

The Island of El Harraz

There is a nice composition to the whole scene, with buildings set up rising higher the further they are from the front. The colours used are simply perfect, and anyone who’s lived in or visited the areas that inspired John inspired would recognize them. This is all topped off by vivid minifigure action staged throughout the diorama, such as the ostrich looking on from the side with a surprising amount of character.

Captain Kidd’s baby galleon

The latest in Kai NRG’s vignette series starring the LEGO baby minifigure puts its infant captain out to sea, skipper of his very own miniature galleon. Kai notes that despite its size, his cute ship was researched to match the accurate proportions of a real galleon; and it shows in not only its smart part choices, like the row of open stud plate cannons, but also in the consistently scaled relationship between elements. Retaining his quirky approach, Kai leaves Captain Kidd the only off-scale component of the creation, happily sailing his stylish ship across the seven seas.

Tiny Trailblazers: Captain

The Dragon King reigns supreme: this amazing LEGO model of Final Fantasy X’s Bahamut uses over 10,000 pieces

Marius Herrmann used over 10,000 LEGO elements to create this massive model of Bahamut from Final Fantasy X. The so-called dragon king has a wingspan of almost a meter. But most impressively, this stunning creation makes great use of underrepresented colors in the LEGO palette.

Bahamut (from "Final Fantasy X")

Click to see more of Bahamut

LEGO releases instructions for the San Diego Comic-Con 2018 exclusive sets [News]

Fans will be pleased to know that LEGO has released instructions for all 3 of the San Diego Comic-Con 2018 exclusive sets. Many of the sets in previous exclusives have had unique printed pieces or parts that make them hard for fans to build without paying the hefty secondary-market price. This year LEGO has taken the additional effort to show that they’re listening. While you still won’t get the exclusive packaging with comic book-style box, the rest of the parts should be available in other sets, or maybe already in your collection, and that’s a fair compromise.

Click on the images below to download the PDF instructions.

A shocking Bionicle gremlin

I do realize that a blue-haired gremlin is less of a shock in LEGO than in real life, but imagine being shocked by Eddy the Electrical Gremlin, both literally and figuratively. The feeling would probably be as funny as this little blue guy we are looking at here. The closest a person has gotten to being shocked by Eddy is Logey Bear, his builder, so if you are curious about it, direct your questions to Logey.

Eddy the Electrical Gremlin

The build is oozing with character, which is very well established as a mischievous little monster by his psychotic yellow eyes. There is a lot of unique parts usage as well, such as the Hero Factory head piece as hair, Galidor limbs and troll arms for legs and a Scala purse used for its intended purpose. The figure’s posing is very expressive too, Eddy looks just like he might vandalize something right now.

The dragon becomes me!

LEGO and gaming go together hand in hand, but with all the videogame-themed creations being shared around the web, Overwatch seems to be the most frequent inspiration these days. This Japanese-style sci-fi sword by Sean Mayo takes loose inspiration from Genji’s weapon in Overwatch, but still brings a bit of its own style to the table.

Green Dragon Blade

The blade is built to be as sturdy as possible — one of our contributors swung it around at a LEGO convention recently — and yet it sacrifices nothing in terms of aesthetics. The blade uses different shades of green to achieve a subtle glowing effect, though what we see in this photo is either digital editing or a photography trick. The hilt is beautiful, using inverted and squeezed tyres to give it a wrapped look. One of my favourite parts is the round guard, cleverly using some slopes’ undersides so the shape flows smoothly into the blade.