This two-story cottage looks as though it belongs on top of Mount Crumpit or possibly deep within Fangorn Forest. Even with minimal (and rather muddy) landscaping, this ramshackle LEGO house by Pieter Dennison is spectacular! In addition to the wonderful curved roof and cobbled walls, this creation is full of intricate details such as wrought iron lanterns, laundry drying in the breeze, and creeping thorny vines (created with green minifig hands and sprues, possibly from this piece).
Builder Jayfa is a Bionicle- and constraction-system whiz, and one of his latest technological terrors is this bone beast from the beyond. The skeleton dragon employs rows upon rows of tiny teeth for the vertebrae, and a marvelously sculpted head using largely classic System bricks perfectly incorporated into the constraction elements in the body. The aggressive pose helps bring the beast to life (or should that be undeath?), and Jayfa notes that it took a few revisions to get the creature to stand without supports, strengthening the legs and adjusting the balance.
Lovell Health House is an International Style modernist residence designed and built by Richard Neutra between 1927 and 1929. It was built for the active, health-conscious Lovell family in the hills of Los Angeles. The house’s construction is rather interesting. In addition to the steel structure integrated with tension cables, the house is actually one of the first to use gunite. Mattias Søndergaard has captured Lovell House in LEGO form with its clean lines and overlapping planes perfectly suited to LEGO construction.
Whilst the house sits nestled into the cliff surrounded by nature, Mattias has used some artistic license to give the natural flora of Los Angeles a ‘New Hampshire’ colour spectrum.
A while ago, we featured a build from Jae Won Lee of a very emotionally stressed Tinker Bell. With this updated build in the picture, it all now makes sense. A larger-than-life Captain Hook seems to have captured Tinkerbell! I must admit those eyeballs set deep within his sockets give off a frightful look.
All is not what it seems as he has built a mechanical laugh to give life to the dastardly Hook – check out the video for it in action!
Ashes of the Singularity is a real-time strategy game set in a future where the technological Singularity and advanced “Post Humans” wage war against each other for the resource Turinium. Gilcelio Chagas has built a LEGO version of the Prometheus, a Post-Human Coalition capital ship that features in the game. The shaping of this ship is fantastic with the colour blocks of red providing a perfect highlight. There’s a lot of weaponry on show with imposing turrets and guns visible throughout the ship.
I love the angled slope of the hull and the red highlights, but my favourite detail is definitely the use of the wheel rims and light blue interior along the outer edges of the ship. Are these for power? weapons? steering? No idea, but I love them.
The LEGO Elves theme has some of the most unique sets of recent years, but we rarely see any custom creations inspired by this official theme. There are exceptions, of course, and the exception we are looking at today is Sean Mayo‘s Fairy Tree House. This build was set on display in the LEGO House’s Masterpiece Gallery, which may shed some light on the choice of theme. Indeed, if I had to choose builders to showcase their work in the LEGO House, Sean Mayo would be very near the top of the list.
The focal point is obviously the tree with a quaint little house at the top, both crafted masterfully. The surrounding deserves some attention too; the overgrowth is exploding with imagination (The ferns are made out of grill tiles!) and the rocks, while simplistic in technique, work really well – it really shows how a top builder can make any technique look good. My favourite part is the little boat, though. There are so many curves all over that give it a whimsical and organic look.
Barad-dûr — or as most people will know it, that tall black scary thing that can see very far — has magical properties and scares hobbits. Created by Koen, this intricate reconstruction of the Dark Tower is about as tall as the LEGO Saturn V. The bright Eye of Sauron and glowing lava stand out instantly, but it’s not until you look close that you notice the amazingly fine details. I love how the builder has integrated the blacks and greys around the base of the tower and the hundreds of spires, ramparts and turrets adorning Lord Sauron’s base of operations.
“Then at last his gaze was held: wall upon wall, battlement upon battlement, black tower of adamant, he saw it: Barad-dûr, Fortress of Sauron. All hope left him.“
Marius Herrmann built the Pelican dropship from Halo 3 based on the design by Ben Caulkins. What takes the model to another level of novelty are the spray-painted bricks that were used to build it. Whether you condone or cringe at altered parts, it’s hard to deny that the end result looks superb and fit for a true Spartan.
After a hard day breathing fire and scaring unsuspecting villagers, even dragons need a little down time. Anthony Wilson has built one of the most distinguished, chilled-out dragons I have ever seen. In his relaxed position, this dragon is able to effortlessly enjoy a cup of tea without disturbing those fine Magenta wings and the floral decorations in his ‘hair’. I particularly love the use of the lime Gresh helmet for the dragon’s flared nostrils and Corroder Claws to form the head shape.
A closer look at the relaxed dragon shows that he likes nothing better than a Jammie Dodger to dip into his cup of tea. Milk and no sugar please, he’s looking after that fine figure. I love the cute little teapot suspended from the tip of the dragon’s tail, while the cup and saucer really look the part.
While I haven’t seen it yet, the new movie Blade Runner 2049 does look quite awesome. However, I will admit I was a bit disappointed when I saw the new spinner sans all blueness and police lights, to me there’s nothing cooler than a white and black (or blue in this case) speeding down the road lights flashing, sirens blaring. Nonetheless, Marius Herrmann has done an amazing job building the new spinner in LEGO form. I love the unusual use of cut fiber optic cable as lights on the front nacelles.
The builder also managed to take a scene from the trailer, and using Photoshop, remove the real spinner and person from the scene, replacing it with his own. The result looks fantastic and could easily be mistaken for a real life setup.
With flying cars becoming a not-too-distant reality, my hope is that they come in models like Volker Brodkorb‘s awesome underground racer. This ferocious tiger-coloured beastie brings to mind old-school 1970s American Muscle cars. With its bold front wheel arches, front grill and air intakes all helping to give it a chunky look, yet has a very Jetson’s-like vibe with it’s bubble top and the omission of rubber wheels. Wouldn’t you love to jet around in this futuristic retro cutting-edge classic.
Floating islands are a popular motive in LEGO, most often coupled with steampunk or similar themes. Andrew JN goes just a little bit back in (alternate) time with this colonial themed floating rock. The scene represents a heavily guarded prison fort and a flying ship. While the ship does not look especially like a floating one, it is unique enough that it does not look out of place in the sky. The prison actually looks so nice, it makes me want to commit some heinous acts of piracy in the skies.
