While Tyler and Bruce’s Guardians of the Galaxy builds were pretty great, I think I would be remiss not to share this great take of Peter Quill by Micah Berkoff (Arkov):
Doubly impressive is the seamless integration of Bionoicle pieces and regular LEGO blocks.
Now I think I should go see the movie and see what all the fuss is about.
Grant Davis gives us an interesting view in the life of monkeys in this delightful vignette:
We’re left up to our own imagination to explain what’s going on. And while we’re thinking up our story you start to realize all the wonderful details that Grant has put into the backdrop: the effective floor tiling, rockwork, complex walls, and even the doorway arch… there’s so much I love about this silly build.
Nick Jensen (Nick Brick) has long been the master of life-sized LEGO built guns, and his latest is from the game Titanfall. While I haven’t managed to play my copy of Titanfall yet, I know enough to say this is an amazingly good looking and functional build.
Check out the full set of images for more angles and a complete breakdown of this incredibly detailed model. And don’t miss all the other great stuff by Nick that we’ve featured here previously, including a life-sized sniper rifle, sticky detonator and battle rifle from Halo.
In this little scene, Christian Benito (chbenito) takes inspiration for a minifig scale golem, and turns it into something gigantic. The little figure suddenly becomes a massive Titan, looming above the (adorable) trees.
Tim Inman (rabidnovaracer) is a fairly prolific builder of hot rod models. It therefore comes as no surprise that he’d also take stab at the iconic Rat Fink. This sculpture captures the essence of the character nicely. I love the inclusion of flies buzzing about his head.
Hot on the heels of that fantastic Rocket portrait by Chris McVeigh, here are two more of the Guardians: Groot, by Tyler Clites (Legohaulic) and Star-Lord by Bruce Lowell. Now we just need someone to build Gamora and Drax to have the full crew.
Ah, the Mos Eisley Cantina, that wretched hive of scum and villainy. At least they’ve got a catchy tune, though. Disco86 brings new quality to this familiar scene with his latest diorama, where he makes terrific use of lighting to give the scene an electric vibe.
It should come as no surprise at all to long-time readers that the new LEGO Ideas Research Institute has been on my list since the day it was confirmed as a set, if not before. I’m all for more gender-equality in my minifig world, and love seeing sets with female figs.
I picked up this set as well as the 21109 Exo Suit while I was on vacation, and admittedly I’ve been waiting to get a chance to break in and build it. Great way to spend the first day back from vacation, I wager.
So let’s get on with the review.
Hard to believe it’s only been a year since Chris McVeigh began his charming series of Brick Sketches, which depict various characters from comic books, cartoons and movies with ‘brush strokes’ carved from LEGO. And I think his latest one – Rocket Raccoon from the wildly popular Guardians of the Galaxy – might just be my favorite so far.
And if you like that, you’re sure to enjoy the 25+ other sketches that Chris has accumulated over the past 12 months. No doubt, everyone will have their own particular favorite! No pugs yet, though ;-)
This micro-scale Classic Space ship hits all the right notes in both shape and detail. The builder, Rancorbait, makes excellent use of a few parts. The one that really drew my eye was the repeated box shape near the front. Then I realized it was Thor’s hammer. It looks fantastic, and totally makes me feel justified in requesting this part in a LUGBulk order.
This caught my eye and I just had to share. Isaac S. has built this lovely little wall section, complete with tower. The lines on the corner are just lovely and I like the combination of different brick types to give a nice “wall” feeling and avoid a plain grey wall.
Just as impressive is the apothecary behind the wall:
As a child, I was a big fan of LEGO’s Model Team sets of highly detailed and realistic-looking vehicles. It will be no surprise then that I also liked the Classic Beetle LEGO released more than six years ago and that I also bought the Volkswagen Camper van. To my delight, LEGO has now introduced another classic car: the MINI Cooper.
The Mini started life as a humble economy car, but with a lasting legacy. To maximise passenger space within its short body, its engine was transversally mounted and drove the front wheels, which is a configuration copied in pretty much every small family hatchback built since. Sporty versions, called the Cooper and Cooper S, became successful rally racers and celebrities such as Steve McQueen, Paul McCartney, Prince Charles and even Enzo Ferrari owned Minis. From its humble origins, the Mini grew into a cult car, with a particularly British kind of cool.
The vehicle
The set represents a late-model Mini Cooper (produced in late 1997/ early 1998, judging from the license plate) in dark green, with white stripes on the bonnet (hood), white wing mirrors and a white roof. The dark green colour is a close match for traditional British racing green and the colour scheme just screams Mini. The front of the car is spot-on, with the shape of the radiator grille, front-mounted fog lights and the silver bumper pieces. The curved elements used below the windows have neatly-printed thin white lines on them, that run the length of the car. Small details such as the fuel filler cap and indicator lights are nicely represented. Remarkably, for a LEGO set, the finished model is almost completely studless, which suggests that LEGO also hopes to cater to fans of the Mini who may not necessarily be into LEGO.
The model is not without faults, however. Especially when seen from behind, it does not look quite round enough. Having built my own models of Minis, I know that both the front and rear windows ought to be curved, but on the model they are built using large flat window panels. I also don’t particularly like the way the pillars supporting the corners of the roof are built, using 75-degree slopes covered with stickers marked with a black triangle. The stickers are intended to make the pillars look narrower, but I don’t think it really works. In fairness, though, alternative solutions would either require completely new part shapes or would add greatly to the complexity, parts count and cost of the set. Despite the compromises, it definitely looks like a Mini.
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