Monthly Archives: June 2016

WW2 B-25J Mitchell gunship of the Air Apaches

Along with the Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress, the B-25 Mitchell with its iconic twin tail fins is one of my favorite World War II aircraft. As more and more LEGO elements have become available in dark green, nelsoma84 and Florida Shooter have been collaborating on a design for the venerable bomber.

Here’s nelsoma84’s Mitchell in its Pacific Theater gunship role with the “Air Apaches” of the 345th Bombardment Wing.

The builder says that the eagle-head nose — here with its ferocious complement of .50 caliber machine guns (there were 18 total on the airplane!) — is modular, and can be swapped out for a clear nose.

And here’s his collaborator’s version, the blue-nosed 499th Bomber Squadron version.

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LEGO Overwatch characters Tracer and Zenyatta

It seems I can’t go a single day without either seeing an Overwatch commercial or hearing a friend gush about how it’s the only game I should be playing right now. So it shouldn’t be surprising that LEGO builds inspired by this first-person shooter are popping up like crazy. In addition to the massively, massive Rocket Hammer and D.Va’s hot pink Mech we’ve already highlighted, here are some fantastic LEGO Overwatch characters.

First up, Tim Schwalfenberg pieced together a LEGO Tracer, the female character who, according to the internet, can control the speed of her own passage through time. Pretty handy, that. I recognized Tim’s build right away as the English-accented character who says “The cavalry’s here” in those too-often shown Overwatch commercials.

Next up, Dead Frog inc. built a LEGO Zenyatta, the floating character with the power to heal others. While I didn’t recognize this character (Seriously, I promise to play the game at some point), I did appreciate this character’s clean lines and cross-legged pose. Both builders captured the game’s style and built highly-poseable figs resulting in two LEGO models that look like they were built as part of one set. I’m excited to see which other characters pop up online in the future.

Quick! Hide your chrome LEGO pieces from this curious magpie!

Birds have already become an independent genre of brick-built sculptures. And whether they’re redoubtable birds of prey or it’s a sly magpie — as built by Felix Jaensch here — they all look fascinating and wonderfully realistic.

The title picture of the model barely reveals its main peculiarity. Besides an astonishing, instantly recognizable shape for the bird, its color scheme is much more interesting than one may think. Dark green and dark blue pieces, which are clearly visible from another angle, create the same play of colors as real feathers.

Do seraphim come from heaven or from space?

Space mechs are always a sight to behold. I mean, what is the purpose of legs in space? You know what their purpose is? To look cool—and the MA-01C Powered Seraphim I by Caleb proves it.

This build certainly catches your eye with its incredible silhouette and the bold use of orange as highlights for the armor. The spacemen backing it up just serve to show a proper scale, especially considering it fits a minifig inside. It also comes in a flight-ready version sans armor plating.

Now it looks like it can cause some deep space damage.

Justice will be done with this 4,500-piece LEGO Overwatch Rocket Hammer [Video]

Gaming weaponsmith ZaziNombies takes a swing at the most massive weapon in the popular multiplayer shooter Overwatch. His latest build, Reinhardt’s Rocket Hammer, is quite an impressive feat in LEGO engineering. It can be lifted, swung around, and hit against light objects without snapping in half or having any noticeable bend in the handle. Watch ZaziNombies swing his replica Rocket Hammer around and show a few of his construction techniques in the video, and then check out this awesome LEGO version of D.Va’s mech we featured last week.

Lifesize LEGO bonsai tree

A seed of plastic
that Emil patiently pruned
One beautiful tree

Incredible 11-foot-long LEGO Spaceship is fully outfitted to explore the unknown

A pillar of the classic LEGO Space community, Mark Neumann has emerged from myth and legend to bring us Universal Explorer LL2016. This 11-foot-6-inch behemoth of a ship is complete with giant guns, a science module, a motorized ring, interior lights, a huge cargo bay big enough to fit most official LEGO sets, and over a dozen smaller vehicles stored on board. We’ve sat down with Mark to learn a bit more about this incredible creation and Mark’s journey to build it.

Click to read our interview with Mark!

Awesome Oficina MRS Kawasaki Vulcan bike

With awesomely aggressive styling, this Kawasaki Vulcan bike by André Pinto was inspired by the work of custom motorcycle shop Oficina MRS. The bright green tank and panels give this bike a jolt of energy, and the custom chrome pieces kick that up even more.

Announcing “WW2 1949” at BrickCon 2016 in Seattle [News]

It’s just four months to BrickCon 2016 in Seattle, and TBB is gearing up for our hometown LEGO convention. For our annual collaboration this year, we’re going to be putting together a dieselpunk display called World War II 1949. With the aircraft, vehicles, and buildings you contribute, you’ll help answer the question, “What if WW2 had not ended in 1945, and technology had continued evolving rapidly through the end of the decade?”

As these fantastic creations by master LEGO dieselpunk builders Jon Hall, Fredo Houben, and Jeff Churill demonstrate, there’s a huge variety in the theme.

Click through to learn more about WW2 1949 at BrickCon 2016

LEGO Shop sales & deals for June 2016 [News]

The LEGO Shop is also making room for the summer sets by discounting a number of great sets, with some cool promotions this month. VIP program members get free shipping on all orders over only $35 rather than the usual $75, with a cool LEGO City fountain on orders over $75

Lots of sets are on sale, though the highlight for many of our readers is probably the LEGO Ideas set The Big Bang Theory (in case you didn’t pick it up after our review last year).

If you haven’t joined the VIP program yet, you can earn an extra 100 points toward a future discount. Click the banner below to see all the details about this month’s promos.

The Horned King

Considering the fact that Disney has been producing great films for decades, it’s easy to forget some of their lesser praised work. The Black Cauldron was not a successful film, commercially or critically, but it does hold the distinction of including one of Disney’s scariest villains: the Horned King. Jordan Schwartz has revived the Horned King with this fabulous bust, complete with glowing eyes and official LEGO fur in the form of a Duplo bearskin rug.

Seeking to conquer the world with the aid of the magical cauldron, this no-joke monster was exceptionally terrifying from his first to his last scenes (his *spoiler* death in the film is one of Disney’s most gruesome). This is one king you don’t want to mess with!

It’s always a good time for Pizza

Pizza is the prime example of comfort food (even brick-built pizza), and there’s no better place to spend time with friends than a Pizza place, and Gzu Bricks just recreated such a place in LEGO.

It is always fun to watch a creative scene, and this feels like a place where minifigs go after a long day of play to share a pizza. Meta Fact of the Day: they play with smaller LEGO sets. Check out the small boxes near the cake.

P.S. Is Obi-Wan waiting for Anakin? Just curious…