Jake Hansen’s LEGO dinosaur reminds me of the rubber dino toys I used to own as a kid. They were bright in colour and most of them looked quite friendly. Except for the meat-eaters. They looked really serious but that was mostly due to the sharp teeth. Then Jurassic Park came along and all of a sudden most dinosaurs were earth-toned. They also made the velociraptors quite a lot bigger but that’s a story for another day. This Stegosaurus by Jake is colorful and really friendly looking. For the spine fins Jake used the crane grab jaw which looks splendid from this angle. I am curious how it looks from the front. The half round tiles have been used as toenails which works perfectly. Last but not least there is a quite Jurassic part used in the foliage that is dinosaur-related. It is the dragon arms, which later were used by LEGO on dinosaurs as well.
Posts by Bart Willen
Life in the Fractured Kingdoms: City of Atrocity
A pop of colour does wonders for every LEGO creation. And some colour combinations work better than others. Armon Russ shows us how good medium blue, lime green and medium lavender go together. In this creation they are a true feast for the eyes. I have absolutely no idea how the blue window frames were made, but they look absolutely amazing. My guess is it has something to do with brackets or are they just tiles? This build is a prime example of how well put together minifigures can enhance the beauty of a creation. Elsa’s skirt looks great on Anna’s top. And Eggheads tuxedo looks wonderful on a female fig. Last but definitely not least I would like you to zoom in on the ground. It is made by connecting round 2×2 plates with round 2×2 and 3×3 tiles. The effect is marvelous.
The village life for me
I am not a fan of big LEGO pieces. Not at all! But Thomas van Urk proves me wrong with this latest creation. Around the first story of this build are not one, not two, but three light grey 1x8x6 door frames with stone pattern and clips. I normally really dislike this piece because of the stone pattern, since LEGO never made ‘regular’ bricks to continue that particular pattern. The only part you can use to continue the stone pattern is this piece itself. So to me, they always stick out in a build. That is until now.
In this creation, the big doorframe works wonderfully, and to be honest it took me a while to notice they were even included. The big doorway is nearly the only part used to get the overall piece count of this build down, because otherwise it looks very part intensive. (The other one is the Brick 1 x 6 x 5 with Stone Wall Pattern which makes up the cobblestone walkway.) The roof of the building is stunning. I love all the bay windows sticking out, and the tower with the metal tip makes the roof look really intricate. And the tree next to the village house is a stunning beauty itself. At the base there are round axle connector blocks. After a while these transition into 2×2 round bricks and the occasional 2×2 round bricks with pin holes. Eventually those transition into round pin connectors. I am not sure how Thomas managed to connect the 2×2 round bricks to the pin connectors. Perhaps flower stems? What do you think?
Who could say no to a face like that!
Would you just look at this super cute LEGO sloth byChi Hsin Wei. I mean, do you see that precious little face? It is oozing happiness. The use of the wedge for eyes is perfect. Did you know that a sloths’ eyes don’t function all that well? They completely lack cone cells in their eyes and because of this all sloths are colour-blind. They can only see poorly in dim light and are completely blind in bright daylight.
However, the best thing about this LEGO sloth is not their cute squinted eyes, nor their claws which look just like the real deal. It is that sweet smile across that little face. This expression of pure bliss would have been a lot harder to achieve were it not for the perfect use of the sausage as mouth.
First rule of being an adventurer: remember where you parked your off-roader
If you take a look at 1saac W. photostream, you’ll notice a lot of brick build cars. They specialize in building brick vehicles. Building LEGO vehicles is something you either hate or love to do. I am not a big fan of cars; therefore, I do not navigate towards building cars out of LEGO. However, I can really appreciate it when someone else manages to do it so well as 1saac W. does. They made a Toyota FJ40, and it looks just like the real deal. There are a lot of small parts incorporated in this build to get the level of detail just right. As far as I can tell, there have to be at least 7 minifigure hands used in the car. The actual number may, however, be higher. To display the lovely FJ40 1saac W. made a jungle-themed base. They even added a driver, and it is no one other than Johnny Thunder. And although we are used to seeing Johnny in vintage cars, The FJ40 suits him very well.
Stag in a birch forest
It might be just me but this LEGO creation by John Snyder is giving me serious ‘Shadow and Bone’ vibes. Okay, I confess I just binged the series yesterday and this might actually have nothing in common with the show except for the white stag. John limited himself to using only 101 parts for this build, which sounds like an enormous challenge. Even though the stag is white it blends in perfectly with the white birch trees. The trees use a similar building technique as we’ve seen in the Birch Books modular. This is quite a small creation but using a reflective surface as base gives it the illusion of being quite a lot bigger.
Black Monarch’s Ghost remodeled
As you might or might not know, I have a soft spot for updating old LEGO sets—especially if I have nostalgic feelings towards the specific set because I played with it as a child. Michał Kozłowski’s creation is inspired by the Black Monarch’s Ghost from 1990. What I love first about the build is the brick-built irregular base. The use of the olive green colour always looks good for grass and moss, and the pentagonal tile makes lovely roof shingles. The trunk of the tree looks nice and organic thanks to a selection of curved slopes, and the lovely fence work is made with stretcher holders. Plus, it is nice to see the new Black Falcon minifigures from the Medieval Blacksmith pop up in LEGO fan creations.
Western Air Temples
If there is ever a license I hope LEGO revisits, it is LEGO Avatar. In 2006 there was a wave of Avatar sets counting no more than two sets. To be honest, the Fire Nation Ship might be the worst thing that ever happend to the Avatar franchise, and I am counting the live action remake of the show. The current super hero sets contain a lot of energie effects that would work perfectly for bending. And we simply need an Appa made of LEGO. Someone who might agree with me on this is Jonas Kramm. His latest creation is the Western Air Temple and it is just stunning. The big ugly rock pieces are hardly noticeable and the temples are constructed quite elegantly by attaching book covers to rounded windows. The star of this creation however has to be that brick build Appa using boomerangs for legs.
Tigger’s treehouse
I love it when an official LEGO set or theme inspires fans to build their own creation within the theme. But sometimes the inspiration is not a theme or a set but just a single minifigure. According to Kristel, it was the Tigger minifigure from 21326 Winnie the Pooh that inspired her to build this creation. She set her mind to making the minifigure bounce, just like the character does in the movies. In order to make this happen, she built Tigger’s treehouse to hide the jumping mechanism.
This build is awesome for a couple of reasons. Although I love Winnie the Pooh, it has been quite some time since I watched a Pooh movie, so my memories about the show have faded a bit. I had to look Tigger’s treehouse up, and I have to say this is an almost exact match for the source material. Secondly, it blends in perfectly with the official LEGO set because Kristel used the same technique on the roof and a similar technique on the foliage. And last but not least, this creation actually allows Tigger to move and jump.
Curious for more Winnie the Pooh articles? Check them out here!
Colorful Medieval Market
Yet again, Brickleas draws inspiration from the blue large figure shield holder. This time the result is a lovely medieval market. There are a lot of LEGO parts used in interesting ways in this creation, including many used as decorative woodwork — the wand, bucket handle and the ninja helmet horn elaborate to name a few. Over the years LEGO has released quite a few ‘wooden’ containers. Brickleas uses quite a few of them in their market stalls. We can spot the crate, box, half, small and large barrel and the flowerpot. Their uses aren’t notably creative — they are, after all, containers used as containers — but the diversity helps to create a disheveled atmosphere I associate with markets. The best thing about this creation has to be the depth the picture has due to the framing, thanks to the tunnel/gate walls on the left and right of the picture. The buildings overlap, and the addition of a microscale castle in the background adds further depth. The flooring deserves a quick mention, and you can tell this is a rich city/town thanks to the abundance of goats.
The elephant and the mouse
Brick building animals in minifigure scale can be quite a challenge, but Isaac Snyder has risen to the occasion with a brick built elephant to go along with the official LEGO mouse. These cuties are called Olli and Rolli, with Olli being the elephant. There are loads of tales and fables about elephants and mice. In some they are enemies, in others they are friends, I even read one where the mouse kills the elephant because it keeps stepping on its nest. These two however seem to be best friends. Although Olli’s legs aren’t poseable he looks like he is going places. The best part about Olli has to be his feet. The truncated cone actually looks like it was designed to be an elephants foot. With the stud holes functioning as the nails. Olli’s ears and trunk are poseable which allows for a lot of great expressions to be made. And the eyes could be switched with LEGO’s ever-expanding collection of eyes printed on 1×1 round plates.
Al’Tamasuk Mansion
I do not know why, but somehow I get drawn to LEGO desert builds. I guess it has something to do with the architecture of the buildings. Where I live, there is nothing quite like it, so it almost feels like taking a small vacation to a faraway place. So I would like to thank Marcel V for my most recent trip to the desert of Jazira, where I got to meet the Al’Tamasuk.
This creation offers a lot of great little details which really make it special. I will highlight a few, but if you zoom in I’m sure you’ll find many more. The best thing has to be the black lamps near the entrance of the building. These are black wands used to create a decorative cast iron lamp. Those wands are held (if I am not mistaken) only by friction and sheer willpower, so constructing that had to be quite the nuisance! Then there are wheel covers used as round windows, and somehow a baseball bat works perfectly fine as an architectural detail (see if you can spot them). There are snakes used as plant vines and have you seen that cute little wooden shed?