Yearly Archives: 2015

The Houses of Parliament debut at BRICK 2015 in London

The Palace of Westminster, known to most as the Houses of Parliament, has been built in 1:650 scale by Rocco Buttliere. The model is making its debut at BRICK 2015, which takes place at the London Excel, December 11th-13th.

Rocco Buttliere is a fourth-year student in the College of Architecture at Illinois Institute of Technology and his amazing 1:650 scale builds, depicting famous skyscrapers and landmarks, have been the main focus of attention. His collection includes models from eleven global cities including Chicago, New York City, Dubai, Paris, Los Angeles, Toronto, Shanghai, Dallas and of course, London.

Following a successful Kickstarter campaign all 43 of Rocco’s models are making their way to London and will be on display at BRICK 2015. You can find out more about Rocco and his models, including digital downloads of his work, on MOCpages.

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Snake cuboids

Tom Remy designed a series of simple and elegant cubes made from a continuous line built out of bricks. I’m sure they would look great either on an office desk or in the middle of a Lego city diorama as a modern art sculpture. Check out the gallery on MOCpages to see the other ones cubes.

Make a list and build it twice

This Santa’s workshop by Boise Bro is where the real magic happens. In addition to the ornately adorned exterior, there is a fully detailed interior that you can see by visiting the gallery on MOCpages.

A chip off the old block

Being a plastic toy, LEGO doesn’t really lend itself to recreating metallic objects – unless you have the skills to do so. Two builders with more than enough to pull it off are Jimmy Fortel and Legonardo Davidy, both of which have created something that – if you don’t look too closely – could easily be mistaken for anything but LEGO.

First up is this soldering scene by Jimmy Fortel. There’s a little bit of cheating here as the green baseplate forming the PCB is faced down, so nothing is actually connected to it. But when it looks this convincing, who cares?

In contrast, this microchip by Legonardo Davidy is a little more “legal” but just as good.

2015 LEGO Star Wars & LEGO Friends Advent Calendars (Day 7)

We continue TBB’s virtual LEGO Advent Calendar on Day 7 with more mini-kits from LEGO Star Wars and LEGO Friends.

We’ll be unveiling the mini-kits or minifigs from each Advent Calendar around this time every day, and we won’t ruin the surprise — you’ll need to click through to reveal the LEGO behind the tiny doors.

Click to see the Day 7 mini-kits!

The Doctor, the Alien, and the Crossover

For myself, the wonder of being a licensed theme builder is the fact that everything I create is not only something new, but never before possible. With the release of the LEGO Doctor Who set we finally have official minifigures of our favorite Doctors, and it’s now possible to build our own adventures for the famous time traveler.

Not only that, but with LEGO we can create cranium-exploding crossovers. So while the epic sight of the 11th Doctor marveling over the appearance of a Xenomorph may never happen on TV, it can surely happen in LEGO. And we’re all the better for it – well, until the Alien starts attacking that is.

Deck the halls with builds of holly

While LEGO always offers a great selection of seasonal goodies (such as the Star Wars advent calendar and Winter toy shop) there are some choice holiday items to be had from other sources too, such as Chris McVeigh‘s extensive line of holiday ornament kits. New in Chris’s line-up for this Hanukwanzmas are these super-cute miniaturized versions of his popular arcade machines:

In addition to ornaments that we’ve featured here in previous years, Chris has also introduced some other new items for 2015, including a gingerbread tree (completing his gingerbread trio) and the new and improved Trident XL, shown below. As always, Chris offers online building guides for all of his products, in case you prefer to roll your own.

Think with your feet...and run!

TBB has encountered a new species of alien thanks to Jake RF and they seem to come well equipped with breathing apparatuses, radios, weapons and leg pouches filled with…well, let’s just say that I don’t think it’s snacks and a can of soda…

Jake has maximised poseability by using Mixel ‘ball and socket’ components for the main body joints (shoulder, elbow, hip, knee). The Aliens’ feet are created using Star Wars Battle Droid heads and torsos. Their hands use the Battle Droid torso and arms while their head also utilise the droid’s head and torso. The side view shows the strange functionality of using droid heads to form feet — I bet they can scale walls better than Spiderman! I love the added breathing apparatus attached to the “mouth” area: it is clear that these aliens are not from our World.

Maybe they come in peace…

Venetian architecture in a patchwork style

Root Canal by Lab Synth is a marvelous and thorough design down to the last detail. One can find such an architectural experiment chaotic, but I’d call it extravagant. In the description of his work Lab shared that he had started with that massive golden window, and I can clearly imagine how the whole diorama was growing section by section until such a bizzare interpretation of a Venetian canal was born.

2015 LEGO Star Wars & LEGO Friends Advent Calendars (Day 6)

Didn’t manage to get yourself a copy of this year’s LEGO Advent Calendars? We’ve got you covered with our virtual LEGO Advent Calendar series. Today’s installment, Day 6, brings us more new mini-kits from LEGO Star Wars and LEGO Friends.

Click to see the Day 6 mini-kits!

41066 Anna & Kristoff’s Sleigh Adventure [Review]

I recently picked up a copy of 41066 Anna & Kristoff’s Sleigh Adventure. This new entry into the Disney Princess theme costs $29.99 for 174 pieces. The set features Anna, Kristoff, and Sven the reindeer.

This is the second Frozen set to feature Anna in her mountain-cold gear, and the only set currently with Kristoff and Sven. I have a conflicted relationship with this set. The parts-cost ratio is off (17 cents per part, well above the 10 cent average). My initial reaction was that the magenta on the sleigh was out of place and jarring. That said, the set grew on me as I built it. Also, I’m a big fan of Sven. The box comes with parts divided into two numbered bags. The first bag includes Oaken’s Trading Post and the hay bale/tree, along with Anna. Bag two includes the sleigh and Kristoff. The sled rails, in Dark Blue for the first time, are free-floating in the box along with Sven in his bag.

Read the full review after the jump!

Monstrously good space dinosaurs

Following on from Clinton’s recent post on the Mecha-Dinosaur, here’s some more Classic Space Dinosaur goodness in the form of David Alexander Smith‘s latest creation. The SpaceOSaurus-REX nails the nostalgic look with its spot-on color scheme and detailing. I’m loving the trans-yellow canopy and the radar antenna tail in particular.

This impressive beastie is just the latest in David’s series of space dinosaurs. I’d recommend you check out this excellent TrispaceOTops, along with a rather fetching SpaceODactyl.

It’s great when one of the classic LEGO themes is treated like this – inspiration rather than a slavish ruleset to follow. I really enjoy seeing the immediately identifiable and evocative Classic Space colors applied to imaginative creations beyond spaceships and moonbases. I cannot wait to see these models “in the brick” at BRICK2015 in London later this week.