German builder Robert Heim has recreated the classic king nutcracker in LEGO, complete with gold crown, upturned mustache, and a mouth that opens with a lever on his back. But my favorite detail in Robert’s creation is the trio of pieces lying next to the tall nutcracker — perfect use of a LEGO globe and brown minifig head.
Ben Andrews describes this large LEGO diorama as a labor of love, and it certainly is lovely. An enormous tree stands atop a hill, full of treehouses, its trunk surrounded by winding staircases. Across a pool into which drains a broad waterfall sits a beautiful red-roofed watermill.
Full of stunning details and interesting little scenes, you don’t want to miss a single picture of Ben’s Observer Tree. At the top of the tree, there’s a small structure with a telescope, which is presumably where the tree gets its name.
See more of this excellent LEGO creation
Only 3 weeks until Christmas, and you still haven’t bought gifts? Well, here’s a great sale that could help you catch up on some gift giving, or maybe just sneak a little something for yourself under the tree. Amazon has moved a number of Star Wars The Force Awakens sets to deep discount territory. The highlight is the awesome The Force Awakens version of the Millennium Falcon, which sees a $54 price cut, bringing this 1329-piece set to just $95.99. Check out all the sales below.
LEGO Star Wars 75105 Millennium Falcon, $95.99 (36% off)
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Welcome to Day 4 of your digital LEGO Advent Calendar! Each day, we’re revealing the day’s calendar model for the LEGO Friends, City, and Star Wars Advent Calendars. We know some of you want to be spoiler free, so you’ll need to “open” the day’s post to see the models by clicking below!
And if you want to build your own LEGO Advent Calendar, you can win big prizes by building tiny creations in TBB’s Create a Calendar Contest.
Since it was never seen on-screen, the Trandoshan bounty hunter Bossk’s ship the Hound’s Tooth has now been consigned to the status of “Legends” in the Star Wars canon. Nevertheless, it’s an interesting vessel — a converted YV-666 light freighter — that Canadian builder Josh Derksen has faithfully constructed in LEGO, down to the weathered and battered patterns on the hull.
The rear of the ship with its engine systems and maneuvering fins is most interesting, but the bow with the bridge is no less well-built. The whole thing is over a hundred studs long with a fifty-stud wingspan.
Master of spacetastic angles Nick Trotta has outdone himself with his latest LEGO spaceraft, dubbed the Serrated Night. Indeed, this ship looks like it would cut through the dark night of outer space with stunning precision. Nick says that he took inspiration for this Vic Viper from the anime Yukikaze and the F-117 stealth fighter.
Black is a notorious color to build with and successfully photograph, but Nick uses lines of blue along the wings’ edges and presents the ship against a planetary atmosphere to offset the black. Nick also says that this is his largest ship to date, which has enabled him to incorporate lots of fantastic details, from judicious use of LEGO ingots to peeping yellow studs.
Just in time for BrickUniverse in Dallas, Texas this weekend, Rocco Buttliere presents a microscale replica of Fountain Place near the convention. The building is a refreshing sight among surrounding rectangular structures with its interesting angles all around, and Rocco nails it with LEGO bricks.
See more shots of Rocco’s detailed model on Flickr.
LEGO dragon builder extraordinaire Aaron Newman recently took a break from his normal fantasy fayre to create this neat minifig scale Stegosaurus. Taken on as a commissioned project, it has 19 separate points of articulation, to provide its owner with hours of fig-smashing reptilian fun!
Indonesian builder Anton Budiono‘s latest two builds are both Chinese-style creations in the shape of a seafood restaurant and temple, presumably for quiet postprandial contemplation. Both builds utilise the addition of the same bridge over to a smaller shrine that rests upon wooden decking. There are many details to admire in these builds but the roofs with their decorative ridges and fascia are a particular favourite of mine. There are so many nice little touches to be discovered, such as the telephone handsets forming the beams within the large red front doors or the Mixel ball joints used as structural decorations across the façade.
The seafood restaurant cleverly uses the dark red octopus as decoration in one corner of the building, but Anton’s brick built lobster on the first floor corner is even better and worth a closer look!
While the temple is a little more demure in colour, it also benefits from lots of nice details such as the cascading water feature on the left-hand side or the use of black palm tree tops as the lanterns at the front. There’s more to see around the back on Anton’s Flickr album.
Welcome to Day 3 of your digital LEGO Advent Calendar! Each day, we’re revealing the day’s calendar model for the LEGO Friends, City, and Star Wars Advent Calendars. We know some of you want to be spoiler free, so you’ll need to “open” the day’s post to see the models by clicking below!
While you wait patiently for each day’s post, check out our Create a Calendar contest, going on now!
The Fiat Mefistofele was a one-off racing car created in the 1920s to break the land speed record. It was named after a demon by its driver, apparently due to the infernal sound created by the airplane engine that had been fitted inside! Korean builder Pixel Junkie does the historic vehicle justice in this LEGO minifig scale reinterpretation.
The Mefistofele’s unusual construction might explain why the builder chose to man his version with a well-known animated pilot! I only wish the hood could be removed to reveal a LEGO version of that engine. Instead, I will have to make do with this lovely little scene of a mechanic tinkering with it the workshop.
Peter Reid, lover of all things spacey and grey in the LEGO world, has been building in black. More specifically, Peter has built a Blacktron Assault Tank in the classic Blacktron colours of black and yellow. Peter’s little tank is one of a collection of builds that showcase some black LEGO elements as part of The New Black parts festival on New Elementary. This cute little tank uses Nexo Knights shields and long skeleton legs to good effect, but the track with those lovely yellow ‘wheels‘ are a real highlight for me.
If you are experiencing some flashbacks to GI Joe then that’s because the design is loosely based on the Wolverine vehicle from the series. There are other views and further discussion over on the New Elementary blog post. I have to say that the only tank I have been in is a Challenger 2, and there were no black tassels hanging off the back.