If your haven’t travelled to Italy this Summer, Luca Di Lazzaro is bringing a piece of Italy to you. This stunning diorama is full of Mediterranean sun thanks to a brilliant choice of colours — tan, dark orange, reddish brown, and some touches of dark green and sand green. However, the unique irregular shaping of this tiny street is what makes the build look totally Italian. No wonder why that tourist minifigure looks so lost and delighted!
It doesn’t matter how unique and powerful your weapon is, you armour must always shine bright. And there is no colour brighter than gold. Japanese builder Moko continues experimenting with LEGO pieces of chrome colours. Just like the last time, he skilfully decorates his new mech with shiny chrome-gold rings — along with a ton of chrome-gold tiles. What is especially remarkable is brilliant implication of old chrome pieces like Sun Disks and Dragon Heads.
What does September mean to you? Perhaps it signals the end of summer, when the days are noticeable shorter and leaves start to change colour. For a significant number of LEGO builders, September is SHIPtember when the aim is to build a large spaceship of at least 100 studs in length. Marcin Grabowski completed this huge dropship on 10 Sept after 29 days of building. His DragonFLY class dropship is certainly eye-catching with its lime and yellow hull. I love those central wings with the ball of complex machinery, wiring and ducts at the connection point.
Sometimes is is hard to get a sense of scale with this type of large model. I am happy to report that Marcin did exactly what any self-respecting LEGO SHIP builder should do…he swooshed it!
Continuing with his circle motif, Sergeant Chipmunk has brought us another slice of LEGO adventure. This time, we’re given a glimpse into the old wild west. While the covered wagon, rockwork, and dusty landscape are beautiful, it’s the little details that truly bring this scene to life, like the horses’ reins and bedrolls. Not to mention, the sleeping cowboy on the ridge, with his hat cocked down to block the sun.
The prolific teenaged builder William Navarre is no stranger to realistic historical Japanese themes, but this latest creation of a company of samurai ambushing a camp of the emperor’s ashigaru is one of his best addditions to the series.
There is much to see in this full LEGO scene, from the minifig action that seems to express motion much better than one would expect of the somewhat motorically limited minifig, to the flags and the realistic ground texture. The background deserves discussion too; while the opinions on the trees’ textures may be variable, the textures do work for what they are supposed to. More importantly, you should not miss the most subtle, but also the most ingeniously simple part of the build: the angled black background with dark blue rays of light penetrating the treetops.
Ten years after the first version hit shelves, the new and improved 75192 Star Wars UCS Millennium Falcon is now available to order from the LEGO Shop online. The largest LEGO set ever released includes 7,541 pieces, 10 minifigs, and is priced at $799.99 USD. In some locales, the set may not be available until 7:30 AM, instead of midnight.
The set will be available more broadly starting on October 1st, but is currently available only to LEGO VIP Program members. Of course, you can just sign up for a VIP membership for free, so that means the set is available to everyone now, assuming you’re ready and able to cough up the rent payment eight hundred bucks for it.
Additionally, the newest holiday set, 10259 Winter Village Station, is also available to VIP club members for $79.99. The set pairs perfectly with last year’s 10254 Winter Holiday Train and has 902 pieces (or just under an eighth of the size of the UCS Millennium Falcon for one-tenth of the price!).
These sets, along with all LEGO 2017 Advent Calendars and newer sets like the Old Fishing Store, are now available to order from the LEGO Shop online.
Tonight the LEGO Store in London’s Leicester Square hosted the midnight launch event for the stunning new 75192 Ultimate Collectors Series Millennium Falcon – the largest LEGO set ever made. Fans queued outside for hours to be amongst the first to purchase the new set, and the atmosphere as the doors opened was something akin to the air of hysteria which might accompany an iPhone launch. The patient fans were welcomed inside at midnight by a pair of Imperial Stormtroopers and the unforgettable opening fanfare of John Williams’ score.
Those first in line were greeted in-store with rounds of applause from the gathered LEGO staff, and a wall of brown cardboard boxes – perhaps visually uninspiring, but a reassuring signal regarding stock availability for those further back in the queue.
Happy purchasers saw their sets signed by designers from the LEGO Star Wars team. Even those who had waited longest in line said they’d had a good time, genuinely delighted as they wheeled their massive sets off into the darkness. The entire event was a testament to the continued power of Star Wars, and the enduring appeal of a really, really big box of bricks.
Director of Lego Star Wars Design Jens Kronvold Frederiksen, left, and Design Manager of Lego Star Wars Michael Lee Stockwell
Prior to the midnight opening, the Brothers Brick joined other members of the press to meet with the lead designers for LEGO Star Wars – Jens Kronvold Frederiksen and Micheal Lee Stockwell. They shared some of the challenges of building such a large model, and their thoughts behind some of its features…
Click to read the interview with the set designers
We’ve seen excellent LEGO versions of the Blade Runner Police Spinner in the past, but as soon as I saw the title of the new movie I’ve been waiting for an 1849 steampunk remix. Jonas Kramm is happy to oblige with this clanky update (back-date?) of the classic sci-fi vehicle. The black piping makes for a pleasant change from the grey or gold steampunk builders tend to use for greebly details, and those brown whips uncurled against the dark blue panelling look excellent. The lanterns are a nice touch too.
Now to properly combine cyber and steam, what this really needs is a massive Neo-Victorian Neo-Tokyo diorama setting. Come on Jonas, what’s stopping you?
Walking amongst the old residential buildings in certain parts of Hong Kong, one looks up to see hanging laundry, treasured rooftop garden space, and air-conditioning units attached to dusty windows. Chiukeung Tsang has captured the scene perfectly in LEGO, with loads of character packed into one model. The curved corner is typical of the architectural style, as are the rows of windows, and the commercial nature of the ground floor with residential housing above. I particularly like the use of colour on the right, it lifts the entire build and adds visual interest without looking too garish.
The view from the other side shows the typical ground floor shop, complete with awning, and the obligatory tourist posing for a selfie.
As a LEGO weapon builder myself, I know how difficult it is to construct a gun model that fires projectiles and manages to look the part. However, YouTuber Snyzer_Tech makes it look easy with his functional Desert Eagle replica. Though it looks a bit flashy in custom-painted gold, his magazine-fed, brick-shooting handgun is impressive in both form and function. Watch Snyzer light up some brick-built targets in this slick two-minute video.
You may have been in for a surprise if you logged into Flickr a few days ago and found several of the most talented Bionicle builders out there had posted their own, reimagined versions of the Rahkshi – the Bionicle bad guys from a while back. I’m not entirely sure why or how this happened, but I am glad to see it because each of these builds are so unique will still be recognisable and true to the general design of the original sets.
See more of these Bionicle Rahkshi
Rather than telling the tale of the “Curse of the Black Pearl,” we have a new swashbuckling adventure to share: the “Attack of the Dark Bluish Grey Pearl”. The titular ship has been beautifully sculpted in LEGO by Simon NH with some painstakingly intricate techniques for the hull. Simon used minifigure hands to hold 1×2 tiles together, which permits a great deal of shaping — check out that bow to see what can be achieved with this method. The sails are also fantastic, with plenty of movement and texture achieved with bricks.
Simon’s favourite part of the ship is its stern, so it is worthwhile taking a closer peek from the rear. There, sand green decorative fence and semi-circular windows fit in perfectly. I also love the use of the telephone handsets and Unikitty’s tail in dark bluish grey.
