Tyler Clites has built a fabulously eerie LEGO spaceship made up unusual organic curves and built in a cold alien color palette. The light blue works brilliantly with the gray and black, but it’s the splash of orange provided by the dome up top which really grabs the attention.
To top off this wonderful model, sections of it are motorised. Check out the video below to see the ship in motion in all its cold alien glory…
red brings us a beautiful of a 1930s racing car. This is one of those creations you have to look at twice to be sure it really is LEGO. Everywhere you look you’re rewarded with brilliant building or nice parts usage — from the gorgeous shaping, through to the touches of detail like the brown rims on the wheels (built with chain links) and the excellent tiara-based hood ornament.
A view from the rear highlights more of the fabulous detail in this model. Just look at the wonderful dashboard and all the mechanical gubbins around the gearstick and rear axle.
The car also has a detailed engine lurking beneath its bonnet. All-in-all this is an excellent model, one I’d happily put in a display case and stare at for hours.
Polish builder Maciej Drwięga has spent more than 3 years meticulously planning and building this mind-blowing railway diorama. This is one of those LEGO masterpieces which, once noticed, will make you fill a cup with your favorite drink, lean forward, and spend a good half-hour eyeing every little detail.
The highlight of the scene for me is an unremarkable but appealing model of an ST43 locomotive. I love that Maciej has put no logos or symbols on it. The result is a nifty train, featuring a winning combination of sand green, dark green, and yellow.
However, it’s not just the trains and track that make the diorama, but also the surroundings. A couple of platforms, the train station building, goods storage with ramp, diesel fueling facility, a workshop, an engine shed — you name it, it’s there. Some stunning retro trucks? Here you go!
Truly magical things happen when night falls on the town. The longer you look at these pictures, the more clearly you can hear night shift staff servicing locomotives in the engine shed.
And, of course, go and check the builder’s full album featuring more than a hundred pictures!
Have you ever wondered what the helicopters of the future will look like? Wonder no more, as mini gray is here to show us one. You may think “Hey, I’ve seen this one among the World City sets in 2003!”. Close, but not exactly. This orange beast features many cooler building ideas, including an awesome application of Technic panels and a brilliant choice of the cockpit windshield. I bet there must be a military modification with a couple of massive guns on both sides, but let us dream about a peaceful future tonight.
This weekend sees The Great Western Brick Show take place in the UK at the STEAM Railway Museum in Swindon. Some of the displays this year will mark the fact that it’s 175 years since Isembard Kingdom Brunel opened his maintenance facility, whose surviving buildings house the museum. Jimmy Clinch has chosen to celebrate the occasion with a brilliant mosaic of the big man himself…
Brunel is something of a hero of mine: the most audacious engineer of the 19th century — a designer of tunnels, bridges, railway lines and enormous steamships. He’s a pinup-boy for any self-respecting steampunk fan and I would love to hang this mosaic on my wall.
I had a crack at building my own tribute to him a few years ago, recreating the famous image taken in front of the SS Great Eastern…
If you get the chance to make it to the show this weekend, show your respect with a doff of the top hat to Jimmy’s mosaic. I’m sure Isembard would appreciate it.
As I am not a StarCraft player, I had to look up a Protoss Carrier as it appears in game to judge the accuracy of Tim Schwalfenberg’s LEGO scale replica. I’m looking at this carrier, and I’m thinking, “There’s no way this could be built with LEGO.” But it was built, and built beautifully. Brilliant use of brick bending techniques brings the alien curves to life. Tim adds that his Protoss Carrier was built to 100 LEGO studs in length (just over 31 inches) in only six days, making his build that much more impressive.
This Tokyo skyline by Cecilie Fritzvold is simply stunning. I love the juxtaposition of old and new buildings. Her build is littered with clean lines, pops of color, and wonderfully diverse textures. And to top it all off, the subtle composition of this photograph is excellent. Cecilie’s LEGO skyline includes, from left to right: Meiji Jingu, Tokyo Tower, the Imperial palace, Tokyo Skytree, and Senso-ji.
You don’t always have to increase a LEGO model’s scale to create more detail — some creations show off how we can be tricked into thinking pieces are something they’re not. Take this ’67 Mustang Fastback by George Panteleon for example…
The lights are actually empty Technic pin holes, the side mirrors are old trailer hitch pieces, and the exhausts are one piece – the classic 1X2 plate with handles on each side. How many more clever parts usages can you find?
After bringing us an almost perfect rendition of Samus Aran, Finnish builder Eero Okkonen returns with a beast that looks like a dragon, but isn’t. Called “Guechex” this monster makes good use of printed Bionicle armour pieces as well as a solid red and black colour scheme to tell us that this is a fiery being. Check out the builder’s personal blog for additional pictures.
More than ten years ago, we featured a LEGO model inspired by the Pejite gunship from Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind. Well, here’s another one. Proving once again that inspiration is a close cousin of creative innovation, Nate Rehm-Daly takes us even further from the original source material. Now, instead of being dark red, it’s a combination of blue and neutral tones. And the sleek anime space style has been replaced by something more akin to dieselpulp. But the result stands on its own. That canopy combination is outstanding, and the poseable blue parts are sweet play features. I’d love to see a swarm of these dive down from the clouds.
Jonathan Walker has the art of SHIP-building down to a science. His innovative organic designs and advanced building techniques are evident in his latest work called the Dreadful Angel. The curved engine core and the dual prongs are distinct features that come together nicely in one fluid model.
Despite being in my 20’s, I will always enjoy the cleverness and humor of SpongeBob Squarepants, and still drop quotes from the show in conversation. Block Head has created a cute SpongeBob, complete with Krusty Krab hat and spatula, with another thing I haven’t outgrown from my childhood: LEGO bricks. Just don’t eat too many LEGO Krabby Patties. They’ll go right to your thighs, and then you blow up.
