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

Nostalgic little mushroom home

This LEGO creation by Jonas Kramm really reminds me of the Smurf toys I used to have as a kid. It is simply amazing. Jonas was inspired by the Forest Elf minifigure and I can totally understand why. It is by far one of the cutest minifigures ever produced by LEGO and it goes along with this creation wonderfully. This model features a big mushroom which is used as the elf’s home. The vibrant blue color used for the door and the windows is a nice contrast to the red mushroom cap. It even comes with white scales.

Next to the mushroom home there is a smaller mushroom growing. (Maybe it’ll be someone’s home in the near future.) This little mushroom features the plate with crown leaf as the skirt of the mushroom. Jonas’ eye for detail is truly remarkable. I do have to admit that we featured the snail build before, but it goes along great with this creation and I understand why it was included as it is still a wonderful build. Using the foot plate in trans clear is a smart way to mimic snail slime. I want at least half a dozen of these, preferably with different hood colours and little blue minifigures.

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This rabbit looks like he is late for a very important date

I might have a soft spot for Disney characters built with LEGO. This white rabbit from Alice in Wonderland by Versteinert. He serves as the Queen of Hearts’ royal herald, an obligation to which he is often late. To help him with his busy schedule he carries around a big pocket watch to keep track of time. In this creation, there are a lot of food parts involved. The ears of the rabbit are made using white bananas. For the hairy cheeks, croissants were used and the trousers incorporate two dark tan pumpkins.

I tried zooming in on the face to get a more clear picture of how it is constructed but unfortunately, I just can’t figure out whether it is construction, friction, or gravity. Maybe it is a combination of all of the above. For the pocket watch, Versteintert stayed in the food theme. The base of the watch is a big Fabuland pot. Which to me is quite humorous as Fabuland was also filled with cute anthropomorphic animals.

Flamingos on the terrace

This creation by Noah really makes me want to go on a holiday. It reminds me of previous vacations to Spain, France, and Italy. Vacations where you would wake up by the sounds of the birds combined with the rays of the sun peaking through the curtains. Having breakfast on the terras while still having no plans for the rest of the day. That to me describes a perfect vacation day.

Noah’s latest creation exudes that same vibe. They also display some creative part usage when it comes to the terras chairs and the balcony railing. I love how the floor beneath the terras has an angled wall and the way Noah managed to incorporate the curved window into that same angled wall. Also, have you spotted the insect curtain on the door?

Quite the creeper, this grim reaper

An amazing LEGO creation doesn’t always need to be a big one. This is proven by Moko. They created a grim reaper and it is the best one in LEGO minifigure scale that I’ve ever seen. The base of the grim reaper is a regular all black minifigure with the modified skull head. For the hood of the cloaked figure the black technic helmet including black visor have been used. It sure is nice to see a classic part like this resurface every now and then. The classic minifigure hood has been used to represent the sleeves of this grim reaper. And last but not least the Hidden Side ghost pedestal makes this figure tower over other minifigures when it comes to its height. This all combined makes one scary grim reaper.

Gossipus Norvegicus

Apparently I have this thing for LEGO birds. Sometimes they tend to be really realistic, other times they look more cartoonized. These two little cuties by Lars Barstad are more on the cartoonized side of the spectrum They apparently are called Gossip Birds and they tend to come in pairs. Unlike turtle doves, these birds do not symbolise love and affection. These two represent the tittle-tattle, the rumors and the whispers. They are dishing the dirt, spilling the tea. Whatever you might call it, they are game for it! My guess is they are currently telling all the latest scandals about who used the Dr Strange cape as flower petals first.

Swallow kite in black and white

I tend to build in minifigure scale. Therefore I am mostly drawn to other builders’ creations built on the same scale too. However this beautiful Chinese kite creation by Dicken Liu caught my eye. Limiting themselves to using only black and white for the kite, and brown for the kite rod. I am by no means an expert when it comes to Chinese culture, but a quick google leads me to believe this creation is inspired by a traditional swallow kite. I love the use of bats and curved plant stems for decoration. But what I like most is how the decoration on the wings reminds me of the plant plate piece. Also have you spotted the Mickey brick used as a blob of paint?

The Witcher and the anything-but-the-kitchen-sink-tree

The Witcher has been the subject of quite a lot of LEGO creations lately. When you take a closer look at this creation by Peter Revan, you can surely understand why. Peter took inspiration from the Witcher books rather than from the game or the series. That’s why Geralt might look a little bit different than what you are used to.

For the base of this creation Peteru used ball joint connections which help with all of the odd angles. I like how he used the flower stalks to keep the leaf plates in their places without actually connecting them to a stud. The tree in this creation is truly something else. Peter calls this technique Just-take-and-use-everything-you-have-under-your-hand. And it sure looks like that is exactly what he did. We can see wings, wigs, droid arms, flex tubing, steering wheels, technic parts, skeleton legs, and plenty more odd parts used in the tree trunk. If LEGO would have produced the kitchen sink in grey, it might even have been incorporated. Peter hopes to create more Witcher-themed creations in the future and so do we.

Some bugs are just annoying jerks

What is better than a big, brick-build LEGO bug? A big, brick-build LEGO bug with a monocle, of course! This little critter by Martin Gebert looks cute as a bug. He looks quite dapper, sporting a top hat, poofy socks, a monocle and a really big coat — which also might be the bug’s wing covers. I can totally picture this guy going to a fancy party hosted by the Mad Hatter in Wonderland. But apparently this little guy is quite the nuisance. He’s so literate and sophisticated in his entire doing that it makes him quite unlikable.

Frogs with sausage toes on their feet

Have you ever seen a march of different races of cold-blooded LEGO creatures from the jungles of the land of Lustria? Well, thanks to Michal, now you have. The highlight of this creation has to be the priest sitting on its throne. Have you seen those cute chubby cheeks and that extruding belly button! That isn’t the only creatively used LEGO piece in this creation. It is nice to see the old fashioned dragon arms used even though it is quite old. For the feet hot dogs were used to represent the long frog toes. The foot folk uses a nice combination of Ninjago and Chima figures with grass for used as the tail. If you look closely enough at the chopped-down tree you’ll notice that Jaskier went through the trouble to give the centre of the stomp a different colour than the bark of the tree.

Vintage Deltron spice wine

If there were ever two themes that do not go together it has to be Belville and Star Wars. Both are worlds apart from each other. Still Eyrezer managed to use a part that is quintessential for the Belville theme. It is the wall corner and it is used to build a wine rack in a wine cellar. I love the creative use of this part. The thing that stands out the most to me is how this big brightly coloured part blends in with the background of the creation. When thinking about Star Wars sets, I mostly think of white, grey, black and tan bricks. It is nice to see that there is even a place for big brightly coloured parts in this universe.

Fridge magnet extravaganza

I’ve been remodeling my home and thus have been living without a functioning kitchen for a couple of months now. Hence I am drawn to anything that closely resembles a functional kitchen. This LEGO kitchen by Scott Wilhelm features an amazing fridge that has functioning drawers in the freezer compartment and the vegetable drawers.

Scott even added a light feature for your late-night snacking. There is a lot to love about this creation. From the ornate wooden doors on the kitchen cabinets to the black cast iron handles. On the windowsill, we can spot a frog soap. I like the use of actual fabric to represent the curtains. However, I am glad that Scott did decide to go for a brick-built approach when it comes to the carpet on the floor. There are tons of lovely details to discover in this build but the one thing that makes it almost lifelike has to be the insane amount of fridge magnets sticking to the beautiful fridge. Oh and have you spotted the scouring pad?

Want to see more LEGO kitchens? Click here!

The miraculous and magical Casita Madrigal

Can’t seem to get enough of Disney’s Encanto? Neither can we! The official LEGO Encanto set is lovely but it is just not big enough to satisfy my Encanto cravings. This is where Martin Harris comes in. Martin is no stranger when it comes to building big. A lot of his creations are on quite a large scale. Same goes for the Casita Madrigal. It took Martin 4.5 weeks of building, which considering the size, sounds like quite a lot of work. Martin didn’t spend any of that time counting pieces. Considering that each roof shingle is a bread loaf tile, the piece count has to be quite high.

Casita Madrigal is covered in lovely detail. From the lush foliage to the vibrant colours. Martin even designed a different window frame for each of the sub parts of the house. That’s what I call dedication. This build really deserves to be zoomed in on. There are loads of lovely details that you would miss otherwise. There is a flock of toucans nesting on a balcony. An amazing brick built door complete with door knocker. Waving shutters and cracks in the walls. Martin even managed to incorporate a light-up brick to make sure the miracle candle in the window is burning at all times.

Want to read more about the creations by Martin Harris we featured? Just click here.