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.
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).
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
The Statue of Liberty is perhaps the most recognizable American icon and has been rendered in LEGO bricks many times. From a massive version towering over the original LEGOLAND Billund to a much-sought-after collectible minifigure variant, Lady Liberty is a longstanding favorite of LEGO designers. The newest addition to the LEGO Architecture line 21042 Statue of Liberty is arguably the most complex, accurate and satisfying renditions, containing 1,685 pieces and available now for $119.99 USD.
Click to read our complete review of 21042 Statue of Liberty
Although Sad Brick’s War of the Worlds diorama occupies a tiny base plate, it still packs in some serious detail and a sense of scale completely at odds with its diminutive size. It’s one of the perpetual ironies of LEGO building, that working small creates some of the best representations of physically huge vistas.
A few rotated and misaligned transparent cheese slopes become a broiling ocean, unbelievably hot dog sausages are reimagined as the suspension arches on the Golden Gate Bridge – a design adapted from builder Li Li’s brick-topper badge for Bricks by the Bay 2017 – and a minidoll syringe doubles as a submarine periscope Alcatraz Island’s watchtower. Setting the scene for one of the littlest, and best, brick-built aliens I’ve seen, to cause havoc in.
I’ve always wondered why we don’t paint our military jets with blue camouflage so they blend in with the blue sky. Well, after a quick Google search, it appears that the Russians thought the same thing, because the wonderful camoflauge pattern on this Sukhoi SU-34 by ModernBrix is indeed accurate to the real-life jet. It’s an excellent choice, because we rarely see this type of camouflage pattern recreated in LEGO.
Camouflage aside, the shaping is outstanding, especially on the cockpit and fuselage. The builder has also managed to fit side-by-side seating for two pilots in the cockpit — an uncommon feature the Sukhoi is known for — which eliminates the need for duplicate instruments required in the front and back of tandem seat fighter jets.
The single most recognized feature of the BTL-A4 starfighter, a.k.a. the Rebel Alliance Y-Wing, is the long tube-shaped engines or nacelles that give the starfighter its nickname. But an equally distinct design detail would have to be the greebling, or random non-specific technical looking details, that fill the rest of the ship behind the wedge-shaped cockpit. This microscale model by Tim Goddard has absolutely nailed both of these details in a very challenging scale for a model this complex.
The recent introduction of a number of tiles with rounded edges like the 1×1 quarter tile, the 1×1 incisor tile, as well as the 2×2 curved and angled tiles, provide a lot of detail both on the ship’s fuselage, and in the stand, which contains a slice of the Death Star surface. Another MVP with this model is the 1×2 silver ingot. The signature elements all come together perfectly.
Tim’s Y-wing joins his growing wing of Rebel starfighters at this scale, including a U-wing from Rogue One and classic X-wing.
For every successful product or project from LEGO, there are probably many others that you’ve never heard of. The lifespan of these were short and less memorable and they were obviously unsuccessful ventures. However, nothing is ever lost in the pursuit of innovation. Lessons learnt are just as valuable or even more so in the evolution and execution of future ideation. Good ideas that failed or didn’t go so well can be the stepping stones toward future success. In a new series of articles, we’re taking a look at some of the LEGO failures or projects that were simply weird and never really took off.
In this first installment of LEGO Ventures that Vanished, we’re looking back at LEGO CL!CK, a somewhat obscure launch into the social media scene, back when every company tried to get their feet wet with “social media engagement.”
An inkling of what was to come with LEGO CLICK was first felt during the end of December 2009 with a tweet, soon followed by a press release. But by July 2010, it had all started to taper off, which gave it a rough lifespan of 7 months from what we can trace over time, looking back today.
