About Clinton

I'm all the way down in a little country called South Africa. There's no lions roaming the streets, unfortunately, but there is everyone's favourite plastic brick.   I don't have a lot of my own work online (yet), but I've been following The Brother Brick for around eight years, so it's bizarre that I'm going to be writing for it.   My day job is journalism covering the maker movement for htxt.africa. And yes, I do occasionally sneak stories of Lego onto the site.   Follow my ramblings, LEGO and otherwise: Twitter: @Clint_Matos | Instagram: @clinton_matos

Posts by Clinton

The Old Fishing Store... on a tiny budget

If you’re not inclined to fork over money for 21310 Old Fishing Store, Simon NH has you covered. This microscale recreation is do good that I actually thought it was the real set, albeit zoomed out, when I scrolled past it in my feed. A lot of different colours and shapes had to be crammed into this small build to give it that hobbled together look. A favourite technique here is the textured bricks which are upside down on the tower. Their anti-studs give the illusion of a platform with railings.

Micro Old Fishing Store

Pulp Fiction meets brick reality

The LEGO community’s unending crusade to turn every pop fiction character into a BrickHeadz figure continues today with both Vincent Vega and Jules Winnfield; John Stephens did an exceptional job getting these character’s traits into the blocky style. Jules’ hair, while a simple build, does so much to identify him and the cigarette, collars and earrings are more great touches which make this duo so good in this format.

Royale With Cheese

Gather up your bricks to summon Dark Souls’ Faraam

The Faraam character/armour set that was used extensively in the marketing of Dark Souls II has now found its way to LEGO thanks to this build by robbadopdop. It’s a very heavy, layered brick build that could easily pass as a stone monument piece if you switch out all the colours for grey. The fine detailing on the shield is particularly impressive, and the shaping of the cloth and fur elements should be commended too.

Stair car from Arrested DevelopmentAnother interesting point on this build is that the picture above isn’t a Photoshop of a single build. Instead, the builder made two (one as a commission and one to keep) so we get a rare double-sided view.

A new take on the old Samus Aran

There have been been many attempts to recreate Metroid’s Samus Aran in LEGO before, with each one bringing something new to the table. This version by Logey Bear forgoes System bricks for a combination of Technic and “constraction” figure pieces. The obvious standouts here are the comically oversized pauldrons built with Duplo pieces, and the striking teal arm cannon which is built up on a Robo Riders wheel piece.

Samus Aran

Birth by brick

Do you ever look at a picture and think, “If I had a band, this would be the album cover”? If you share in my very specific type of daydreaming, this build by Leonid An should be on your shortlist. Titled “Birth”, it will probably remind many of the scene from The Matrix when Neo wakes up, but I’m far more interested in the meticulous part usage that went into making this little art piece so cohesive. The sides are built up with what looks to be hundreds of Technic pieces, and even a few wheels thrown in for good measure.

Birth

The centre pod is the obvious focus, using the old Bionicle Rahkshi pieces to make the middle oval. This is surrounded by layers of tentacle pieces, and I do mean layers. What isn’t immediately noticeable from this angle is the fact that the pod is raised up from the rest of the build. It’s better seen in the picture below.

Birth

An old school game made with your favourite old school toy

Wire loop games are a common sight at carnivals. Sad Brick has combined this classic childhood staple with another, namely LEGO. Sitting on top of a very clean base is the loop itself with the hoop taking centre stage as a very clever little build. It even uses the official LEGO rope and winch as the wire. Next to that for a little added flair is a bit of circuitry, mostly for show, that makes good use of gold chrome pieces and transparent pieces.

Wire Loop Game

A luxury audio setup for a fraction of the price

Once in a while you’ll come across a LEGO build that you need to stare at for a few seconds to realise that it’s actually made out of bricks. This selection of audio gear by Quy Chau is the best example in a while. There’s so many clever uses of parts and great scaling that it’s impossible to pick a standout, but the use of various automotive pieces does it for me. Wheels are used here for speakers, dials and subwoofers, and a steering wheel piece makes the best earphone cups I have ever seen.

Moog Sub Phatty

If you’re confused by the name of this build on Flickr, “Moog Sub Phatty”, it’s the synthesizer which sits in the middle of this scene. This is, of course, also a phenomenal build. Those dials are regular Technic friction pins with grey bars through them — a really simple technique that adds a lot to the build. Finally, the keys do depress, but they don’t pop back up.

Moog Sub Phatty

An unconventional LEGO vehicle: The URB-E electric bike

Browsing through our archive of LEGO vehicles you’re sure to see a lot of sports cars, super bikes and hotrods, not to mention the science fiction stuff. It’s what you’d expect to see people recreate with bricks. What I didn’t expect to see in LEGO, however, is this foldable electric bike created by Paul Lee.

Urb-E Sport

Take a look at some promotional pictures of the URB-E to see how well this build imitates it. Good use is made of Technic liftarms to imitate the drilled metal, and it even folds up like the real thing.

Urb-E Sport

Who watches the (LEGO) Watchmen?

Timofey Tkachev has not only created a LEGO version of Rorschach from Watchmen, but he’s also done so at a large scale. Make sure you zoom in on this build to see how big it really is and how the large plates have been cleverly shaped to make the coat that forms the majority of Rorschach. The large, layered bricks used for the tree give it a lot of depth despite it being essentially flat, and the sign being has some nice lettering work.

1 Rorschach New Year

Aside from those large details, there’s a lot of clever little inclusions too. Some constructible character or “constraction” parts are used to create the texture around Rorschach’s neck, the thin clock numbers are actually cleverly positioned lever pieces, and the familiar face pattern uses dragon arm pieces in an intricate build.

A cuckoo clock so good it will drive you mad [Instructions]

If you’ve ever wanted for a masterfully crafted LEGO timepiece, Sven Franic has you covered with this immaculate cuckoo clock created for an exhibition contest. Sven will be displaying this in the LEGO House as part of the celebration of the 60th birthday of the LEGO brick. The hands point to the exact time when the patent for the LEGO brick was registered.

Cuckoo Clock

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A gingerbread house for those on a diet

If you still want to make a gingerbread house before the holiday season officially ends, Jonas Kramm has perhaps the smallest way to make one that’s still loaded with details. He’s created this minuscule candy home with some very clever parts usage. Red crowbars for candy canes, tooth pieces for the frosting piping, and just enough coloured studs to represent whatever kind of sweets you can imagine.

Happy Holidays!

Build a SHIELD Helicarrier with less than a hundred pieces [Instructions]

South African builder Wayne de Beer made the rounds a few months back with hisTallneck build from Horizon Zero Dawn that he graciously released with instructions to build your own. Now he’s doing the same with his own microscale version of the S.H.I.E.L.D. Helicarrier featured in a few of the Marvel movies. It uses less than a hundred pieces and can be made with regular pieces alone, or improved with a few printed pieces and stickers.

The S.H.I.E.L.D Helicarrier

Check out the step-by-step instructions for this tiny SHIELD Helicarrier