Yearly Archives: 2017

Welcome to itty-bitty Springfield

Teeny-tiny, and yet immediately recognisable — that’s Primoz Mlakar‘s microscale LEGO version of the Springfield skyline. The Kwik-E-Mart stands out as a cracking re-creation, but all the buildings are excellent microscale versions of the originals. If it works with landmarks from The Simpsons, I reckon this could work for other fictional cityscapes. Hey LEGO, if you’re listening, I would literally give you all my money for a Skylines series of sets including Gotham, Metropolis, and maybe Mega City One!

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BrickCon 2017 happens in Seattle this weekend! [News]

This weekend Seattle Center Exhibition Hall will be swarming with some of the best LEGO builders from all four corners of the globe as BrickCon 2017 welcomes guests for its 16th time!

CLICK HERE TO BUY TICKETS for the public exhibition, if you haven’t That way you won’t have to stay in line as long when you get there. And when you’re done enjoying all the creations and have blown your wad at the vendor stalls, remember that the Seattle Center is at your disposal for fun and frolicking.

The public exhibition runs from 10-4 Saturday, 10-3 Sunday. BrickCon is the home convention of the Brothers Brick, so most of us will there for the festivities (we’re the dweebs in the green shirts!). Will the lemur be there too? Who can say ;-)

Elegant guardian robot

This super-sleek LEGO robot figure looks like it could have stepped straight out of some Destiny concept art. Red mixes up regular System bricks, Technic connectors, and “Constraction-figure” pieces to great effect. The tan and dark grey colour scheme is nice and simple, and allows that splash of red in the robot’s face to really stand out. I love the shaping of the shoulders and that round boss on the chest, they give this creation an individual style.

Against all probability, a sperm whale is called into existence above the surface of an alien planet

SHIPtember may be over, but there’s still plenty more spacecraft measuring over 100 studs in length left in the sea. Feast your eyes on Christian Benito‘s fin-tastic, Spelljammer-inspired SHIP. In addition to a snazzy design, this beast has an articulated tail, exposed “rivet-style” studs, crystallization along the head, and a heavy-duty turret gun. What else could a space whale SHIP ask for?

For more photos of Benito’s creation (including several interior and work-in-progress shots) check out his Flickr page.

This is your captain speaking and we’re about to take off

There are dozens of reasons to love both old and modern LEGO City sets, but still not all adult fans are happy with huge molded pieces that aircraft models are built of. Jussi Koskinen presents a very elegant alternative to bulky fuselages. No surprise it took him about three months to finish this brilliant ATR 72-500, which features a very smartly designed body.

Skilfully designed and executed interior holds 28 passengers, 2 pilots and even a flight attendant — enough room for all your City travellers!

LEGO collaboration is sweet and super-cool

At first glance, these LEGO popsicles look totally sweet. A collaborative creation by Carl Merriam, Niek, and Milan CMadge, the twin models perfectly capture the shapes of an ice-cream sandwich and a half-munched orange popsicle (or “ice lolly” as it’s known where I come from).

However, regardless of how nice the models are, you might wonder why it took 3 builders collaborating to create them. Well, it all comes down to the sheer scale of the endeavour. Perhaps the image below will make everything clear? It’s only when the massive size of these models becomes apparent that you can truly appreciate the effort and skill which went into their creation. Genuinely amazing stuff gents — well played.

Now THIS is podracing

What if intergalactic bounty hunter 4-LOM participated in the very fast, very dangerous competition of podracing? Tom Vanhaelen presents his idea of the rogue protocol droid’s podracer. The use of metallic colors on the turbines, as well as circular arrays of bars and robot arms, really nail the aesthetic of the heavily-customized podracer.

The use of a rubber piece as the safety harness inside the pod is a clever detail…

BSL Marcus Garvey is orange for launch

October has started, but we still have much to cover from SHIPtember — the month-long celebration of building massive LEGO spaceships. This particular addition, BSL Marcus Garvey by the OG LEGO builder Keith Goldman is actually a recreation of a concept art by another builder.

With dozens of top quality large spaceships built in the community each year, it is hard to be original, but Keith’s ship excels at being true to the concept art, nailing a color scheme, following complex angles and textures, and leaving no boring spots whatsoever.

LEGO camera is a huge success

A year on from building a remarkably accurate LEGO version of a vintage camera, Milan CMadge does it again with this excellent rendition of a Leica III. The model features brilliant shaping around the top with all those buttons and dials, and nice intricate bits of detail, particularly around the lens.

What might not be immediately apparent from the first photo is the scale of this creation — it’s absolutely enormous! The large-scale allows for the use of black quarter-circle tiles in the creation of the realistic texturing around the camera’s body. To give you a clear idea of quite how big this thing is, check out this fun image…

Creations for Charity now accepting donations for the 2017 fundraiser

Creations for Charity is now accepting donations of custom Lego builds for its 9th annual fundraiser. From now until mid-November, you can donate a creation to sell and raise money to buy Lego sets for children in need. Take a look at their donations from last year and find out how you can make a donation. This year, the nonprofit organization is planning to expand their donation locations to areas that were affected by the recent natural disasters in North America. Visit creationsforcharity.org for more info.

Sci-fi city is more than the sum of its parts

This isn’t “LEGO building” as much as “LEGO arranging”, but it’s nice work by McLegoboy! all the same. A well-judged selection of textured parts, coupled with good macro photography, creates a striking composition which wouldn’t look out of place in the universes of Judge Dredd or Mad Max. Not bad for a total of eight pieces!

She may not look like much, but she’s got it where it counts

You drove here in that? You’re braver than I thought. Lino Martins provides a LEGO reimagining of Star Wars as a 70’s buddy movie featuring a likable scoundrel named Stan Solo, his girlfriend Laura, and their big biker friend Chad Bacca. The car is the real star though — a beat-up 1977 Ford Falcon, so heavily patched it’s nicknamed the Aluminium Falcon.

This is a cracking model — it’s inspiration immediately apparent whilst being a decent build of a completely different style of vehicle. There’s an impressive depth of texture crammed into a relatively small footprint, with lots of lovely greebles nestled amongst the bodged repair work. As you’d expect, Lino brings his customary attention to detail to bear on the interior…

And don’t miss the group of miniland-scale reprobates created to go with the vehicle. It’s Stan Solo himself, along with the rest of the gang. I laughed out loud at Lino’s take on Artoo and Threepio…