About Bart Willen

Bart Willen (badboytje88) has been a fan of LEGO for as long as he can remember. When he hit puberty and slowly but surely started losing interest in the brick, LEGO released their first line of Harry Potter sets. Keeping Bart from slipping to a Dark Age. He is a fan of a quite broad range of themes, from Star Wars to Johny Thunder and from Elves to City. But somehow he always navigates back to the magical world of Harry Potter. He attends LEGO World in the Jaarbuurs in Utrecht on a yearly basis where he enjoys meeting other fans and seeing some of their creations 'in the brick'. You can check out his own creations here.

Posts by Bart Willen

This gingerbread house looks fingerlicking good

LEGO Builder Grant Davis has been having a lot of fun lately with the 4×4 flower part. Here he’s used it to decorate the roof of this Gingerbread House. But this isn’t the only smart usage of parts in this sweet treat. A gingerbread house is typically decorated by piping icing onto the gingerbread base, and Grant used all sorts of organically shaped white parts to mimic this. Among the parts he used are the egg, the candle and a lot of round, half-round and quarter-round tiles. The use of rubber bands beneath the eaves and for the X-shaped windows deserves a quick mention too. Did you spot the different types of helmets he used for candy?

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The deeper picture

LEGO builder MorlornEmpire shows us how to add structure to a build in his LEGO temple named Deeper. There are so many parts used in an unconventional way that my eyes do not know where to look first. So let’s start from the top. The build features some palm trees made with flex tubing to give it the organic, not so static look and a ‘temple’ entrance covered in sand. The entrance is made of plates with tiles stuck between the studs to create a pattern. It’s almost as if there is a message written on the facade of the building.

Underneath the surface is the actual inside of the ‘temple’ and the walls are packed with intricate details. In the top we see cat tail elements, and the half round spoked window part filled with cheese slopes. Further down we come across the good old groove brick with a bar filling up the groove hole. To continue with 1×2 bricks filled with bucket handles. The columns have some stacked 1×2 panels to add texture and the tiled floor is made of inlaid cheese slopes.

I wonder how much of this creation is staying in place thanks to friction and gravity.

A solution for yellowed LEGO bricks

White LEGO bricks turning yellow, it’s a builders’ worst nightmare. Some builders would discard the yellowed bricks but not Ayrlego. The yellowed white bricks were used in combination with white, light grey, and tan masonry bricks to create a weathered look for the Port Woodhouse Cavalry Stables. Mixing 1×1 round bricks in different colours for the roof further adds to the weathered look of the building.

This build features a lot of classic LEGO elements and their newer/replacement counterparts. The window pane lattice diamond and the window shutter, the new pane lattice with the old window and the old shutters, the old horses in the stable next to the newer more articulated ones and even the use of old and new redcoat torso’s for the minifigures.

It’s time for your Daily Fable

If you are from Europe and between 30 to 50 years old then this LEGO creation must be instantly recognisable for you. I am talking about Rickard Stensby’s Mr. Owl from the Daily Fable (Fabeltjeskrant in the original Dutch). Every day the wise owl would read from his local newspaper while perched up in his tree. He would tell the kids wonderful stories about the events taking place in Fableland, and especially the mishaps, quarrels, experiences and emotions of its furry and feathered animal inhabitants.

Fablernas managed to capture the essence of Mr. Owl perfectly with his wise but gentle facial expression and his noble composure. The plumage is especially well done and resembles the source material perfectly. The original puppets were made from fabric.

Also check out another LEGO owl we featured yesterday, though of the more wild variety.

Sophie’s study is not just another brick in the wall

Sophie welcomes you to her LEGO study where you can not only find all sorts of books but also all sorts of parts being used in a very unusual and inspiring manner. Eli Willsea uses all kinds of bricks, plates, and tiles in dark grey to add texture to the castle walls. At first I was drawn to the creation because of it’s brilliant use of book covers and windows for the staircase. Both parts have a very distinctive purpose but are used for something completely different in a really creative way.

It took me a little while to notice that the book covers and windows weren’t the only parts used in a very original manner. The bookcase was made by using a boat. Adding some small bricks and bars made it blend in so nicely with the rest of the creation that you would almost not notice it at all.