In space no-one can hear you sing carols. Miro Dudas has created a different kind of LEGO Christmas tree. Instead of any leaves or wood, thirty spaceman minifigures form the familiar shape. They’re apparently pulling off this feat of agility thanks to a network of sand blue sausages each minifigures is clinging to. Speaking of LEGO sausages, a regular red one was also used to form the familiar Classic Space symbol as the tree topper.
While LEGO itself has taken a crack at making a buildable version of K-2SO with set 75120, some people prefer to do it themselves. Josephine Monterosso has made of version of the droid using only 75 pieces, forgoing the CCBS and specialised pieces all together. A lot of clever (and illegal) connections went into this to correctly capture the shaping. Make sure you zoom in to see them all – my favourites are in the torso where a single piece gives much of the round look, and some black floatation rings are used on the shoulders.
There’s two things LEGO Castle fans love to build: Trees and walls. Showing us interesting ways to do both is this microscale hideout by Dr. Zarkow. The wooden walls around the main structures are simple enough — just brown bars inserted into the hollow studs of flower pieces with some rubber bands for effect. The custom tree builds are the standout, providing a great reason why we need gears in every colour, and the two buildings are great little medieval builds. The base and the subtle twist of the chimney on the one building are nice touches too.
The Metal Slug series of games has some stand out features, and the small vehicles in them have always been a favourite. While we’ve seen some previous attempts at recreating these vehicles, especially the titular Metal Slug tank, we have never seen them crafted on such a small scale. wing hong chan has created four instantly recognisable builds from the games.
The central mech actually fits a full minifigure, and there’s an impressive side build with the “IN” instruction and red arrow. Aside from the three above, there’s also the jet which, like the mech, fits a minifigure.
While many lament the fact that LEGO no longer holds the SpongeBob SquarePants licence, it does open the door for builders to make up the difference. George Panteleon has done just that with a rather unusual build. Not only has the tiny character of Plankton been blown up into a much larger build, but there’s something strange going on if you zoom in.
Yes this Plankton is made up of 143 smaller Planktons, those being the official printed 1X1 cylinder bricks. There’s also good use of the Yavin 4 pieces from the Star Wars planet set.
Vince_Toulouse is a master at creating LEGO vehicles that combine an old-timey look with a futuristic style. The builder’s newest creation, the “Meteor 3x”, has a couple of great quirks. It’s inspired by an imaginary vehicle, the “Sonic Yellow,” and it makes use of a large Duplo part for the end of the smoke coming out of the pipes. Aside from that, the shaping of the main body is brilliantly smooth and the two-tone colour scheme really makes it stand out.
GKR: Heavy Hitters is an upcoming board game by Weta Studios, the folks who develop physical props for big movies like Ghost in the Shell and Power Rangers. As is the LEGO way, talented builders are already reproducing the eponymous Giant Killer Robots. This model recreates the “Thunderhappy Pharmaceuticals” mech. It’s a fantastic lookalike, especially at this scale. The only real part that’s missing is all the decals, but then perhaps builder Grantmasters is a purist like me?
We’ll be getting an official LEGO Voltron set soon thanks to LEGO Ideas, but the designs of the individual lions may not be quite as detailed as you’d like — presumably to save on part-count and/or to allow them to fuse together. The creator of the original Ideas submission, Leandro Tayag offers this fantastically-detailed Black Lion in mitigation.
The shaping around the chest and head are my favourite parts of this near-perfect creation. There’s a lot of little details that deserve attention too, though. The claws, for example, are made with only two pieces, but still manage to look just perfect.
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
Amazing fan-made BrickHeadz keep popping up, covering every conceivable screen franchise. And now Adam Dodge adds the comic pair of Deadpool and Cable to the fray. While both of these are great, the Cable is outstanding. Aside from the clever parts usage on the shoulder pads, the use of official printed pieces is a masterstroke; that’s a pair of printed piston pieces which form a belt and the use of the X-Men “X” symbol from one of the Mighty Micro sets.
Builder nobu_tary delves deeply into the blocky nature of LEGO bricks with this pair of Stark hardsuits. This building style is very distinctive and I love the exaggerated effect. There’s a ton of small details to look for such as the shades of old grey vs new grey pieces in War Machine, the use of an official Iron Man print, and a very clever slit technique for the “eyes”. All topped off with that signature mecha pose; let’s puff out those chests, boys!
Microscale builds are great for fantasy castles and sprawling sci-fi cities done on the cheap, but it’s also a great tool for recreating real buildings with a reasonably small number of pieces. Brazilian builder Gilcelio chagas has done that with the Penha Convent, which is located in the Vila Velha region of Brazil. Compare the build to pictures of the site and you’ll see the effort that has gone into making this look authentic at such a small scale. Make sure you also spot the clever used of an army helmet as the top of rounded tree and an alternate view that offers a better look at the build of the mountain that the convent sits on.
